Cobra Kai’s Worst Student Was Daniel (& Why He Joined His Enemies)

Daniel LaRusso is still embarrassed that he joined Cobra Kai in The Karate Kid Part III, when he was tricked into joining his enemies in a setup.

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Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) was at his worst in The Karate Kid Part III, and he even turned his back on Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita) and joined the Cobra Kai. However, Daniel-san turned out to be Cobra Kai’s worst student — which is actually a compliment since he eventually came to his senses and realized he was being played by Cobra Kai’s malevolent senseis, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and John Kreese (Martin Kove).

The Karate Kid Part III was the final film uniting Macchio’s Daniel and Morita’s Mr. Miyagi. Set immediately after they returned to America from Okinawa, where they spent the summer during The Karate Kid Part II, Daniel soon finds himself the victim of an elaborate plot concocted by Terry Silver, the obscenely rich benefactor of John Kreese and Cobra Kai. When Miyagi refused to let Daniel defend his All Valley Karate Championship, Silver posed as a helpful stranger and gradually won the frustrated Daniel’s trust. Daniel-san joined Cobra Kai behind Miyagi’s back, but he eventually discovered it was all a ruse and that Silver and Kreese set him up to fight (and lose to) “karate’s bad boy”, Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan). As always, Mr. Miyagi came to Daniel-san’s rescue and trained him to upset Cobra Kai and win the tournament once again.

Daniel joining Cobra Kai was an interesting twist that let The Karate Kid Part III exploit all of LaRusso’s worst qualities, like his short temper and his often irrational decision-making. Silver preyed on the underlying frustrations Daniel-san had with Mr. Miyagi’s cryptic teaching methods and brought out LaRusso’s aggressive tendencies. In truth, Daniel had flirted with Cobra Kai before; he even briefly considered joining the school in The Karate Kid before he realized all of his archrivals, especially Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), were students. Silver toyed with Daniel’s desire to be a champion and to fight offensively, especially since he and his new female friend Jessica Andrews (Robyn Lively) were repeatedly being bulled by Mike Barnes (which was also part of Terry’s elaborate scheme).

When Terry Silver became Daniel’s sensei, he dismissed Miyagi’s karate, like his crane technique and katas, as “garbage” and taught LaRusso “real” karate, like the aggressive punches and kicks he longed to throw. But that was also part of Silver’s plot; since he promised Kreese to make Daniel’s “knuckles bleed,” Terry maliciously made sure Daniel repeatedly struck wooden planks until he was injured. Terry was careful to pretend to be respectful to Mr. Miyagi at first, but he eventually revealed his true evil as he trained and coerced Daniel into doing things LaRusso knew were wrong.

When Daniel questioned Silver’s methods, the Cobra Kai sensei intimidated him into complying — but Daniel initially not wanting to do what Silver asked were his natural instincts rejecting Cobra Kai’s methods because, deep down, he knew better. It’s actually to his credit that Daniel was a bad Cobra Kai student because, despite his own short fuse, LaRusso is at his best when he’s following Mr. Miyagi’s example. Of course, in the end, it was thanks to Miyagi’s ways that Daniel-san humiliated Cobra Kai once again.

Still, Daniel never forgot the brief time when he abandoned Mr. Miyagi and joined his greatest enemies. In Cobra Kai season 2, Sensei LaRusso admitted to his students at his Miyagi-Do dojo that he, too, was once Cobra Kai and that even he was swayed by their “strike first, no mercy” methodology. Some of Daniel’s students are ex-Cobra Kai who couldn’t abide by the way John Kreese and Johnny Lawrence taught karate, although a few Cobra Kai students, like Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena), are also good kids at heart. Daniel is living proof that even he could be seduced by Cobra Kai’s violent ways but LaRusso can take pride that in The Karate Kid Part III, he was the worst Cobra Kai student of all.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/karate-kid-cobra-kai-daniel-student-terry-john/