Demetri... well we don't know his last name yet, do we? Demetri has certainly had an interesting
arc from Season 1 to Season 3. He has gone from the bullied, to learning how to stand
up for himself, and to finally dating his dream girl. Like the other major Miyagi-Do characters,
Demetri gets a lot of hate and while his character was annoying at times, he's actually more
relatable than you think. This is my character analysis, theory, and opinion on why he's a
relatable character, including his rivalry with Hawk, his loyalty to Hawk and others, and more.
Let's recap with what we know about Demetri so far. Demetri attends West Valley High School
with his longtime childhood friend Eli Moskowitz. They both befriend new student Miguel Diaz, who
is training with Cobra Kai under Johnny Lawrence. Due to he and Eli being nerdy and social outcasts,
Demetri is noted to be very neurotic and is also bullied by Kyler and his gang, who also
bully Miguel. Demetri refuses and is very unsure of joining Cobra Kai, but Eli manages to convince
him to try it out after Miguel's fight with Kyler goes viral. As Johnny is picking on Eli for his
facial deformity, Demetri stands up to him and begins oversimplifying Johnny's teachings, being
very analytical to Johnny's approach to teaching the class. Johnny responds by making an example
out of Demetri, leading him to quit. Despite no longer being a student, Demetri still maintains
his friendship with Miguel and Eli, now known as Hawk at school. Demetri is very hesitant and
almost jealous of Hawk's transformation at times, especially seen during the tournament and the
party, but also is curious about karate working for him in the same way that it does for Hawk
(which does happen in a later season). After the tournament, Demetri is seen celebrating with Hawk,
Moon, and Aisha. When Demetri reminds Hawk of the coding competition he won and their nickname,
Hawk tells him to "cool it with the nerd shit, huh?", surprising Demetri and slowly planting a
seed into their eventual rivalry. Demetri is seen attending Valley Fest and witnessing the Miyagi-Do
demonstration, but when Cobra Kai crashes the festival, Hawk asks him to take part of it by
holding a board that Hawk can break. This leads to Demetri to joining Cobra Kai and meeting Kreese.
Demetri begins to ask if he can approach Cobra Kai in a flag football type of training because
of his issues with personal space, but begins to invade Kreese's personal space, causing Kreese to
assault Demetri. When Demetri tries to explain to Hawk what happened, Hawk tells him to toughen up
and ignores it. This also leads Miguel to confront Johnny about Kreese not being who he says he is.
Demetri finds his way to Miyagi-Do and joins the dojo, quickly deducing that the chores will help
him with muscle memory but also starts to annoy Daniel because of his constant complaining.
Demetri begins to explain to Daniel his issues with his best friend and that he wants to prove
he can fight back, reminding him of a similar situation back in the 80s. Demetri is confronted
at the mall by Hawk and his gang for leaving a bad Yelp review on the Cobra Kai dojo. Demetri tries
to defend himself but due to his lack of skill and Hawk's aggressiveness, Demetri decides to escape
back to the food court where Sam and Robby were, but is cornered. However, Sam and Robby intervene
and defeat the Cobra Kai gang. Back at the LaRusso household, Daniel finally gets through to Demetri
that anyone can be the hero and begins to detail his lessons much more to help Demetri understand
karate, much like Mr. Miyagi usedchores to help teach Daniel. After Hawk and others vandalize the
dojo, Daniel confronts Johnny at the dojo the next day. Although Johnny had no idea it was Kreese who
ordered the vandalism, Daniel is able to snag some new students that show up at the dojo not
too long after, including Chris, a reluctant ally of Hawk who was at the mall. Although
tensions escalate between the former Cobra Kai members and the first 3 Miyagi-Do students,
Daniel recounts the time where he was in Cobra Kai and how Mr. Miyagi gave him a second chance.
This leads to Demetri and Chris to work together and not only patch up their differences,
but to cause them to be good friends later down the line. During Kan Geiko, Demetri learns to
finally anticipate and defend... well briefly. Before schools starts, Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai
both attend Moon's party, who wants to put a stop to all the fighting. This works to an extent, but
soon begins to backfire. Demetri tries to console Hawk with Moon moving on and they briefly bond
over Dr. Who, but Hawk pours a beer on his head in response. Fed up with Hawk's antics throughout the
summer, Demetri brutally brings the attention to the whole party about Hawk's bed wetting problems,
along with other softer qualities to the attention of the party along with other softer qualities
that were unknown to others. A huge fight is about to erupt until the cops show up, forcing
everyone to flee. Tory starts a fight with Sam due to her witnessing that she and Miguel kissed,
which soon involves both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do in an all-out war. Although Demetri tries to get
the help of a teacher at first, Mr. Palmer refuses and this leads to Hawk chasing Demetri throughout
the school. When Hawk finally catches up to him, Demetri takes a kick and a punch at first until
his muscle memory finally kicks in and he is able to defeat Hawk. Because of the school fight (and
also Miguel being injured by Robby), security increases at the school and this also leads to
a rule of no physical contact between students of any kind. Demetri's popularity rises due to him
defeating Hawk and also because the students now know about Hawk's bed wetting problems. Demetri
not only helps with Miguel's fundraiser but also visits Miguel while he is in a coma. Due to Cobra
Kai stealing the money raised and also beating up Nathaniel, Sam decides to teach class while
Daniel is in Japan. When showing off his science project to Yasmine and Moon, Hawk begins to grow
jealous of Demetri and destroys the project with his soccer ball. Before Sam and Demetri can face
off with Cobra Kai, Counselor Blatt intervenes and takes Hawk's side while issuing a warning to Sam.
Miyagi-Do begins to get payback during the soccer game by being aggressive with their physicality.
However because Cobra Kai also begins to do the same, they are all sent to the principal's office,
resulting in Miyagi-Do receiving detention; but not Cobra Kai because of Hawk's persuasiveness.
When Chris tells Sam about Cobra Kai harassing him at work, Sam comes up with the idea to ambush
them in the laser tag arena. Although this works at first, Sam is still traumatized by her last
encounter with Tory. This leads her to have a panic attack and is unable to stop Hawk from
breaking Demetri's arm. When Miguel returns to school and Demetri tells him about this,
this leads to Miguel confronting Hawk about his actions, and also causes him to witness Kyler
bullying Demetri. Demetri's cast gets amended by Yasmine, who now understands the pain of being
bullied due to her front wedgie from Season 1. This also leads to Demetri dating Yasmine,
much to the surprise of Miguel and Sam. Although Demetri is reluctant along with
the rest of Miyagi-Do to form an alliance with Johnny's students in Eagle Fang, Demetri is able
to rally the troops and starts to organize the formation of the two dojos. However, Cobra Kai
under Kreese's orders invades the house and begins a rumble at the party. Demetri is cornered by Doug
and another student, but thanks to Hawk, he is saved from another broken arm. Hawk apologizes,
to which Demetri forgives and agrees to finish the fight against Cobra Kai. With their perfect
blend of offense and defense, they begin to turn the tide. At the end, he swears to Tory that he
will make sure Hawk won't have to watch his back and goes on to train under Johnny and Daniel.
Now before we get to why Demetri is relatable, I do want to address the elephant in the room and
that is Demetri's rivalry with Hawk. Like many of the other rivalries in the show, no one side
was in the right as both sides made mistakes. I covered how Hawk was a bully but redeemed
himself in my previous video, so now we will be examining Demetri's side of the equation. I do
see others say that Demetri never cared about Hawk or that he shouldn't have reacted the way he did,
but you have to remember even before they were rivals, Demetri was the only who stood up for Eli
when Johnny was addressing him as Lip. Demetri did overstep his boundaries with Johnny who was trying
to teach, but prior to his transformation Eli didn't talk much because of his own self-esteem,
as he was a man of few words and Demetri was the mouthy one. When Demetri was assaulted by Kreese,
he only wrote the Yelp review because confiding in his best friend didn't work. This was the
wedge that drove Hawk and Demetri to become rivals, along with Demetri joining Miyagi-Do.
One of the major points about Demetri that gets brought up a lot is his speech about Hawk's
personal bed-wetting habit. Before that, Demetri tried to be civil and cordial with Hawk, but Hawk
decided to pour beer on Demetri's head for no reason unprovoked. I'm not saying what Demetri
did is justified, I will however say it is the reason that at this point Demetri is fed up with
best friend bullying him and decided to fight back in a smart way – by taking him to the barbecue.
This then leads to Hawk wanting to jump him right then and there, but has to wait until school to
do so when the cops show up. That takes us to his fight with Hawk – and despite what you may think,
Demetri didn't get lucky. He learned to actually anticipate and defend with his muscle memory,
very similar to how Daniel learned karate in the first movie. Let's break the fight
down – Hawk catches up to Demetri and gives him a kick to the face. Hawk lands a punch on the face.
The third punch, Demetri blocks out of reflex. Demetri then blocks the 3 punches that Hawk
gives him and Hawk shoves him again; it's at this point that Hawk is attacking out of blind rage and
not caring to mix it up, which works to Demetri's favor. Hawk tries to switch it up with a kick, but
this again is blocked by Demetri. Hawk telegraphs his punch and lunges forward, leading Demetri
to block it, spin Hawk around, and put him down with a kick for the count into the trophy case.
Outside of a brief run-in at the beginning of the season, Demetri and Hawk really don't
have any major interaction until Hawk decides to smash Demetri's project, who was jealous
that he had the attention of Moon and Yasmine. When Sam advises to try to get payback during
the soccer game, Demetri does a low tactic by messing with Hawk's head and sweeping him, but
again this was in retaliation for Hawk destroying his project unprovoked. Again, not justification,
just the reason. At the arcade, Hawk is the one that breaks Demetri's arm, however we can see that
Hawk is very conflicted by it and regrets it soon after, which eventually leads to his redemption.
Despite what you may think, there are qualities that Demetri possesses that make him relatable.
One key point to this is that Hawk and Demetri are two sides of the same coin – both are nerds
and social outcasts who stick to each other as far as friendship. When they both evolve through the
seasons, they are split into two aspects. Hawk represents the fantasy portion and anybody who
has ever been an outcast or a nerd knows what I mean when I say this - Hawk represents the
fantasy because he is the result of undergoing that radical transformation to become extremely
popular, and also gets one of the most popular girls in school. Hawk quickly grows in skill and
gets revenge on the people that once bullied him. He flipped the script to make things work his way;
he is everything that we want to be. Demetri on the other hand snaps us back to reality – he has
low self-esteem and self-confidence in himself, and has to use his intelligence to get by.
He wants a girl who is out of his league and is trying to do what he can to fit in, but
fails in doing so. He is everything that we are. However, Demetri DOES undergo a transformation in
Season 2 and 3, although it is more realistic and gradual. He's unable to defend himself right away,
but is inspired by his friends to do better: Miguel winning the All-Valley is the very first
time that Demetri reconsiders re-joining Cobra Kai. Cobra Kai's performance at Valley Fest
and Demetri involving himself in the show is what gets him to finally take action to rejoin the dojo
(until Kreese hits him). Sam and Robby also saving him at the mall is what eventually inspires him to
be better as well, though he is not confident in himself at first. It is through his training
that he is finally able to gain some confidence, stand up for himself, and become more assertive as
seen in Season 3. In fact after the school fight, Demetri also grows popular and even has his dream
girl Yasmine begin to not only take an interest in him, but also date him. This is a parallel of what
happened in Season 1 where Yasmine was stuck up and wanted nothing to do with anybody outside of
Moon and Sam, but it's when she is the one being picked on that she understands the pain she has
caused others. Demetri dating Yasmine and becoming popular is is the opposite of Hawk in Season 3,
as people don't take him seriously because of him not only wetting his bed but being knocked out
by Demetri. Even after all of this, in the end Demetri forgives Hawk because he knew that his
friend was being corrupted. If you think back to the party in Season 2, Demetri didn't even bring
up the mall incident at all and instead tried to bring out his friend that he once knew by talking
about Doctor Who. Demetri pointed out that because of Hawk's attitude is why Moon broke up with him,
and he advised Hawk to move on. This is key because the party happens after Daniel
recruits new Miyagi-Do students, teaching them about forgiveness and how Cobra Kai can corrupt
individuals. “It doesn't matter who anyone is before they step into this dojo, what matters now,
today... is that we re all Miyagi-Do.” This lesson allows Demetri to finally put aside his
differences with Chris, and is why he approached Hawk in a friendly manner at the party. This
lesson also carried over into Season 3, even after having his best friend break his arm,
Demetri shows compassion and the Binary Brothers are reunited. He knew all along that deep down,
Eli was still inside Hawk and was still his friend. Another part of this is that Demetri is
loyal to his friends, even if they are at odds. In Season 1 and part of Season 2, he still maintained
his friendship with Miguel and Hawk when they joined Cobra Kai. Even though Sam could've stopped
Demetri's arm from being broken, he still doesn't hold it against her and he remains loyal to her.
Chris also becomes loyal to Demetri, standing up to Hawk at the party alongside Robby when
they threaten to jump him. The story hits home because I was once Demetri. I was an outcast who
was bulled because of the way I looked, because of my interests, because of my intelligence, and
I desired to be popular. I wanted to get back at people so bad and do whatever I could to fit in.
It took me a long time to learn that popularity and high school doesn't last forever, and that
the real people who like you for who you are will gravitate toward you, and be by your side.
You also can't be afraid of who you are – if people don't understand that or dislike that,
then that's their loss. You also can't let people dictate who you are either or tell you what you
can or can't do – if I would've realized this back then, I would've saved myself a lot of trouble.
Here are my final thoughts on Demetri and what we could see from him in the future seasons.
Demetri's defense has vastly improved over time, especially considering how low in skill
he was in the beginning. He finally learned to anticipate Hawk's attacks and manages to defend
and avoid all strikes except for one towards him in the beginning of the Christmas fight,
and it's not until he is cornered by two people that he starts to take damage.
With Johnny's tutelage, he could improve his speed even more by applying it to both offense and
defense. Demetri's intelligence when applied can also be used to further his karate game even more,
finding the weak spots in his opponents and striking at the right time,
which could make him a great counter fighter like Daniel. With Hawk now joining the team,
Demetri can learn how to improve his offensive game and do more damage with his striking power.
There could be trouble however as Demetri now having to still recover from his arm being broken,
much like Miguel not being 100% either due to just relearning how to walk.
If their weaknesses are exploited, it can lead them to being critically injured, leaving Sam
and Hawk to carry the team. Either way, Season 4 is bound to be an exciting season with the teams
facing off at the All-Valley and only time will tell which team will come out on top.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments below – what characters do you relate to?
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Thanks for watching, stay beautiful, stay awesome, and we'll catch you around next time.