The Karate Kid Part II changed the franchise by escalating the stakes to life and death, which has elevated the excitement of the films and its TV series spinoff, Cobra Kai. 1984’s The Karate Kid introduced Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), his mentor and sensei Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita), and his lifelong enemies of the Cobra Kai karate dojo. But after the inaugural film’s high school-set teen drama ended, The Karate Kid Part II mounted an escalation where Daniel’s life was now being threatened, so that only his karate skills and belief in himself could save him.
The Karate Kid certainly had its share of violence as the Cobra Kai, led by its star pupil Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), used strength in numbers to beat Daniel up and injure him. When Mr. Miyagi saved Daniel from a gang assault and took him on as his pupil, the wise karate master’s solution to Daniel-san’s woes was for him to enter the All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament and compete against the Cobra Kai. Under this controlled environment, Miyagi hoped Daniel would perform well enough that he would earn the Cobra Kai’s respect and his harassment would stop. He ended up exceeding expectations, and defeated Johnny in the finals for the championship.
But for The Karate Kid Part II, screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen and director John G. Avildsen eschewed the safety of the karate tournament and immersed Daniel into a more dangerous world. In the sequel, Daniel-san accompanied Miyagi home to Okinawa, where he learned that his mentor had a rival of his own – Sato (Danny Kamekona) – who has wanted to fight Miyagi to the death since they were teenagers. Sato’s nephew and top karate student, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), instantly hated Daniel, who repeatedly stood up to him. The movie’s climactic confrontation between Daniel and Chozen was markedly far more violent than the previous film’s and the difference was that Chozen fully intended to kill Daniel to “win back his honor.” Chozen even came armed with a butterfly knife, and he brutally attacked Daniel’s girlfriend Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). Hammering home that the stakes of this fight were life or death, Miyagi’s warning to Daniel-san changed The Karate Kid franchise going forward: “This not tournament. This for real.”
The opening scene of The Karate Kid Part II introduced the series’ escalation of violence when Cobra Kai’s sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) attacked Johnny after the All Valley Tournament. After Miyagi humbled Kreese, his conversation with Daniel revolved around the fact that Miyagi could have killed John but he didn’t (which would have been murder, as Miyagi well knew and would never stoop to). Daniel later mimicked Miyagi honking Kreese’s nose to mock his defeat when he triumphed over Chozen, who fully expected LaRusso to end his life.
After The Karate Kid Part II, there was no turning back once the stakes had been raised. The Karate Kid Part III also climaxed with a tournament showdown between Daniel and Cobra Kai’s new bad boy, Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), but Barnes attacked LaRusso and his friend Jessica Andrews (Robyn Lively) multiple times throughout the film. At one point, Barnes and his lackeys held Daniel and Jessica over a cliff and threatened to drop them to their deaths. The franchise was now freely depicting instances of rival karate students potentially crossing the line into first and second-degree murder.
Unsurprisingly, Cobra Kai‘s ongoing rivalry between the karate students representing Daniel’s Miyagi-Do dojo and Johnny and Kreese’s Cobra Kai exploded in the season 2 finale. A full-on, ultraviolent karate gang fight erupted in their high school led by Cobra Kai’s Miguel (Xolo Mariduena) and Tory (Peyton List) versus Daniel’s pupils, including his daughter Samantha (Mary Mouser) and Johnny’s son Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan). The kids were completely out of control and literally fighting for their lives; at one point, Tory threatened to gouge Sam’s face with a spiked bracelet and the brawl only ended when Miguel was nearly killed. Cobra Kai season 2 ended with Miguel hospitalized, a tragic casualty of the violent escalation that began in The Karate Kid Part II and continues into Cobra Kai.
