YMMV / The Karate Kid (1984)

• Adorkable: Daniel, who's essentially an endearingly awkward "cool" loser. Aside from being physically attractive himself, the way he approaches Ali is sweetly awkward as well; whether it is the way he talks to her, or even the way he checks his armpits before approaching her in the school hallways.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Daniel is a hot-headed jerk who started all the conflict with Johnny, while Johnny was just trying to get him to back off (notably, this isn't entirely at odds with the text of the movie either, as Daniel was depicted as hotheaded and his counter-pranks lead to more bullying, which is why he needed discipline). This interpretation circled the internet for a while before being discussed in various YouTube video essays. Cobra Kai takes this and turns it into Ascended Fanon, as while the events of the film aren't retconned in any way shape or form, it's shown that said theory is exactly how Johnny remembers the events of said film. Neither is precisely innocent of the things the other holds him responsible for. Even the film doesn't gloss over the fact that both Daniel and Johnny are impulsive and hot-blooded. Difference is, Miyagi teaches Daniel discipline and self-control, namely always seeking revenge on your enemies is a dead-end road. Johnny however, has the sociopathic Kreese for a sensei.
  • Cobra Kai's revelation that Tommy was in love with Ali casts his first lines in a new light, as he's the one who draws Johnny's attention to Ali and Daniel flirting at the beach. Was he trying to help Johnny get back together with her, mocking him for their breakup, or hoping Johnny's aggression would take both him and Daniel out of the picture so Tommy could have Ali for himself?
• Award Snub:
  • Pat Morita lost Best Supporting Actor to Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields), but Morita even getting nominated was an impressive feat, since an actor best-known for TV sitcoms appearing in a modestly-budgeted popcorn flick aimed at younger audiences isn't an obvious example of Oscar Bait.
  • "The Moment of Truth" being denied a Best Original Song nomination, though it was in fact ineligible for the award. The Academy's rules require that a nominated song appear either in the main body of the film or as the first musical cue in the end credits, while "The Moment of Truth" was the second cue in the end credits. Even if it had been eligible, given how stacked the field was that year,^note Against All Odds doesn't have a film page. it's hard to determine where it would’ve fit in.^note Incidentally, another well-known song from the film, "You're the Best", was also ineligible, but for a different reason. A nominated song must be written specifically for the film in which it was featured; "You're the Best" was originally written for Rocky III but was rejected by Sylvester Stallone in favor of "Eye of the Tiger".
• Awesome Music:
  • "You're the best! Around! Nothing's ever gonna keep you down!"
  • Bill Conti's score deserves mention also. Including the main theme derived from Survivor's "Moment of Truth." Survivor had the freakin' market cornered on rousing 80's anthems. Additionally, the music played during the training scenes really brings out the serenity and beauty of Miyagi-Do.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Johnny Lawrence is perhaps the only antagonist in the franchise to get this treatment. Eventually, a series depicting him as the protagonist was created.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Vidal, the ace of Locust Valley Karate, only shows up in the tournament portion of the movie but is still very memorable due to his Awesome, but Impractical fighting style and his skill in reaching the semifinals. He also had enough popularity to be namedropped in the later Cobra Kai series as Johnny's rival in a prior tournament.
• Fan Nickname: Freddy is derisively referred to by some fans as "Fairweather Freddy", due to how he ostracizes Daniel after the beach beating, only to be seen cheering for Daniel after the tournament victory in the end.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Tommy's Memetic Mutation line "Get him a body bag!" becomes a lot harsher in Cobra Kai when he passes away due to a terminal illness in his sleep and is last seen having his corpse loaded into one. And it became harsher still a few months after season 2 premiered, when Tommy's actor passed away in real life.
  • Pretty much everything about Johnny becomes this when his home life and Dark and Troubled Past are revealed in Cobra Kai. With that knowledge, suddenly Daniel crane kicking him in the face isn't as satisfying as it was before the series premiered. Also, him giving the trophy to Daniel at the end became this when it turns out that he and Daniel still resent each other many years after the seeming end of their feud.
  • Same can be said about Kreese to some degree. Sure, him being a Vietnam War veteran should give the audience the impression that his harsh behavior is the result of suffering from PTSD, but Season 3 of Cobra Kai expands on what Kreese had to go through in Vietnam (and even prior to that) before he became the deranged sensei that he is in the 80s.
  • The fact that of all the main Cobra Kais in the film, Dutch (being the gang's most vicious member) is the only one that doesn't go through a redemption arc. If anything, it's implied he came out worse than he was post-All-Valley since he's currently serving time in prison throughout the entirety of Cobra Kai.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • When Pat Morita died in 2005, Ralph Macchio stated in a eulogy at Morita's funeral "Forever my sensei!"
  • Having Johnny hand the trophy to Daniel foreshadows the later seasons of Cobra Kai. At first, the two are unable to work together, but after a while, they do manage to become friends and partners. By Season 5, Johnny has become nothing more than a Best Friend and co-sensei to Daniel, and given his status as sensei to Eagle Fang, aligns more with Miyagi-Do than Cobra Kai.
  • As a matter of fact, Johnny's entire Cobra Kai gang (sans Dutch, who remained vicious enough to be in prison for the entirety of the series) has reformed since the All-Valley. Bobby (while always the Token Good Teammate) has gone as far as to become an ordained minister (and playing a huge role in helping Johnny with his struggles in Season 3), Jimmy has become a well-established family man, and Tommy also has changed for the better prior to his death.
  • Just the fact that despite Kreese being a complete asshole to him after losing the All-Valley, he had so much faith in Johnny leading Cobra Kai to prominence that Season 5 of Cobra Kai reveals he turned down Terry Silver’s offer for Cobra Kai to compete in the Sekai Taikai all so that he could develop Johnny into a champion.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the years since the film's release, the iconic Crane Kick came to be mocked as implausible and unrealistic ("IT'S A JUMP-KICK!") and even the second film had Daniel try it against a new opponent who was able to defeat it. Then at UFC 129, Lyoto Machida knocked Randy Couture clean out with what was effectively a Crane Kick- Machida didn't lead into it by theatrically raising his hands above his head and balancing on one leg, but he hopped off the ground after faking with his left and smashed Couture's face in with a front kick from his right. The commentators shouted out to the movie, and even the match record lists the finishing move as "Crane Kick". In Cobra Kai, Daniel does use the Crane Kick again but like Machida, uses a more realistic version of the move by not telegraphing the kick.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Mr. Miyagi lost his wife and unborn/infant child when he was away at war, due to lack of medical assistance in internment camps. However, this never stopped him from finding hope in life, and eventually becoming both a sensei and father figure to Daniel.
  • Daniel has it rough at the start; he and his mom have moved all the way across the country, where he is immediately bullied (physically and verbally), to the point where he almost ends up in a near-death situation on Halloween. However, once Mr. Miyagi trains him, he becomes a lot stronger and confident.
• Jerkass Woobie: Bobby becomes this during his match with Daniel at the All-Valley. He's Ordered to Cheat by Kreese, even though he wants to beat Daniel fairly, and is clearly distraught after injuring Daniel, repeatedly apologising after taking out his knee.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Johnny and the Cobra Kais are a pack of vicious bullies, but their biker gang vibe and badass fighting skills make them too cool to hate for many viewers, and the movie shows that their actions are mainly due to the influence of their Sociopathic Soldier Sensei for Scoundrels. Their camaraderie with each other both after Johnny's lost that has lasted well into adulthood makes them even more admirable. Kreese is a despicable Sadist Teacher training his students to be brutes, but he's got a lot of fans for his coldly dramatic demeanour which only skyrocketed after learning of his genuinely Dark and Troubled Past. The most hated character in the film is Freddy Fernandez, for the comparatively minor offence of being a Fair-Weather Friend who abandons Daniel after he gets beaten up by Johnny only to start palling around with him again after he wins the All Valley.
• Mandela Effect: A lot of people remember Daniel's headband being white with a red sun and rays, similar to the flag of Imperial Japan. It's actually white with a blue flower pattern, which almost looks black in some shots.
• Memetic Mutation: Many things, most famously the Crane Kick in the sunset image. But some of the dialogue has achieved that point as well.
  "Get him a body-bag! Ye-heah!"
  "Sweep the leg."
  "Johnny, you're a cream puff!"
  "Banzai!"
  "Daniel-san."
  "Strike first. Strike hard. No Mercy!"
  "Mercy is for the weak!"
  And of course, "Wax On, Wax Off."
  • More recently, the ceremony after each match of the All Valley Tournament, in which a placard bearing the name of the winner of each bout is physically advanced to the next round, has been adopted in real life. The Basketball Tournament, a US men's tournament held every summer with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, has used this ritual since it began in 2014. The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament adopted this in 2018, using a portable bracket board brought into each winning team's locker room.
• Retroactive Recognition: Jery, the Cobra Kai student that sparred with Johnny in the dojo and the first Kai member to be defeated by Daniel, is played by Larry B. Scott of Revenge of the Nerds fame.
• Rooting for the Empire: Searching on YouTube you'd be surprised to find fan edits that have Johnny Lawrence winning the Karate Tournament instead of Daniel. A great example of this is Barney Stinson, who believes this to the point that he considers Johnny to be the title character (as he is the one who actually knows karate).
• The Scrappy: You'll be hard pressed to find someone who likes Freddy Fernandez for being a Fair-Weather Friend to Daniel. Especially when compared to the Cobra Kais who had Johnny's back when he lost, defying a violent Shell-Shocked Veteran then quitting in response for nearly killing Johnny. Even the subtle hint the two are still friends in Cobra Kai isn't seen as enough to redeem him.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Freddy could've been a great sidekick to Daniel. Instead, he abandons Daniel after he gets beaten up at the beach, becoming a Fair-Weather Friend who winds up as one of the most hated characters in the franchise, with even his supposed redemption at the end of the film falling completely flat.
• Unintentional Period Piece: There are scenes in an arcade, which have been almost completely replaced by home video game systems. This was excused in the 2010 remake taking place in China where arcades live on like Japan. Also, the presentation of karate as the ultimate self defense martial art in an otherwise realistic setting is obviously made in an era before Mixed Martial Arts, which demystified traditional martial arts. Cobra Kai makes a point of alluding to karate being all the rage in the 1980s, and it losing popularity before Johnny's revival of Cobra Kai wins the 2018 All-Valley Tournament with Miguel Diaz.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Freddy and his friends cheering for Daniel and helping the crowd raise him on their shoulders after the tournament was most likely intended to be a redemptive moment for the character after his earlier spurning of Daniel. However, most fans interpret it as yet another example of him being a Fair-Weather Friend, as he's only shown to be acting friendly to Daniel again after he's already won the tournament.

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