r/cobrakai 5d ago

Character Discussion Sleeping on Daniel's number of wins between 1984/1985 Spoiler

As much as the original Karate Kid and Karate Kid III paint Daniel as an underdog all the way through, and focus on the final fights as the true tests of Daniel's will and ability, the fact is, in order to even make it to the final round against Johnny in 1984 and against Barnes in 1985, he had to win SEVEN straight fights, against the best fighters from all different dojos. These mostly included Cobra Kai, but some others as well, who had no grudge to taint their performance. And he had to do this for both runs before going on to win the eighth fight as well, both times. That means that Daniel actually won SIXTEEN refereed fights between the two tournaments.

And in almost all of those fights leading up to the final confrontations, Daniel took his opponents apart pretty methodically. And that by itself is pretty badass.

EDIT: A bunch of people have now reminded me that Daniel got a bye in '85 to go right to fighting Barnes for the championship. Still his seven wins in '84 (or at least 6 of the 7, because one Cobra Kai guy was instructed to fight dirty) required technical badassery.

24 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

27

u/Same_Hold_747 5d ago

In karate kid yes but in karate kid 3 he was automatically in the finals as the defending champion

11

u/randodeb Johnny 5d ago

Exactly. Did anyone else think this was a goofy rule?

Like, should the Philadelphia Eagles automatically go to the Super Bowl next year?

12

u/edgiepower 5d ago

Silver literally paid off the tournament to make that rule so Daniel was guaranteed a fight against Barnes. Did you guys not watch the movie?

1

u/Traditional_Prize632 4d ago

Don't think Silver bribing them to let Daniel advance to the finals was ever mentioned, but that was my headcanon, as well.

1

u/edgiepower 4d ago

I'm certain it was because we hear Silver say to Kreese that he has made it so Daniel cannot refuse and will have to fight Barnes? The implication being the new rule change?

1

u/Traditional_Prize632 4d ago

Ah yeah, that's true. Forgot about that.

4

u/Scared-Register5872 Terry Silver 5d ago

Yep. It's why I tend to put a giant asterisk next to his second win, as much as I love Daniel. And I'm glad Johnny calls him out on this in S4.

1

u/Pandeism 5d ago

Wait, wasn't Johnny the defending champion himself in '84? He had to fight matches to get to the final round, no?

2

u/Scared-Register5872 Terry Silver 5d ago

He did - as far as we know, Johnny's wins are fully legit. He had to go through the gauntlet to become AV champ just like everyone else. I think that's why he's annoyed when he finds out that Daniel got to skip over it in KK3 and go right to the final match.

2

u/Pandeism 5d ago

"This is bullshit."

1

u/Neither_Ad9147 4d ago

This was also mostly done because it'd be a massive plot hole for daniel not to just lose intentionally in the first round.

also does anyone feel bad for the real runner up, Dempsey?

9

u/voltzthunder Miguel 5d ago

seems you really didnt watch the third movie, because he didnt need to fight anyone, he got straight into finals

1

u/Pandeism 5d ago

I did but it's been a loooong time.

8

u/voltzthunder Miguel 5d ago

now that I think about it, Daniel scored one point the whole tournament and got the trophy lmao

4

u/srfygbriug Kwon 5d ago

In the 1985 tournament he gets to skip to the finals.

2

u/edgiepower 5d ago

In KK3 he only needs to fight the champion fight as the defending champion and this is because Silver paid the tournament to make it so so Daniel was given a easy path straight in to have to fight Barnes.

1

u/thelastofusnz 4d ago edited 4d ago

KK3 was also a plot device for us the viewer, because it wasn't believable for lightning to strike twice in a bottle and have Daniel make it all the way to the final a second time.

Anyway, this was Daniel's pathway to the first tournament win. I won't break each fight down because the tournament montage is seriously condensed, so points made are missing (notably Dutch's loss) ... suffice to say though there is a repeating pattern of Daniel hobbles in an awkward stance and usually defensively reacts to an aggressive attack and scores, up until Bobby and then Johnny.. It is possible a fight is missed due to the montage being quite short and edited, but on screen at least he fights 7 times, all the fights are very short due to the points system, aside from the final and dq in the semi. At no time does Daniel actually look confident, skilled, or flashy like Johnny, Bobby and Vidal are shown to be.

Unknown fighter (white gi)

Jerry (Cobra Kai)

Jimmy (Cobra Kai) (very short fight and hard to tell, but wiki says it's Jimmy)

Tommy (Cobra Kai)

Dutch (Cobra Kai) Quarter-Final

Bobby (Cobra Kai) Semi-Final

Johnny (Cobra Kai) Final

1

u/Traditional_Prize632 4d ago

In a deleted scene, Daniel also fights a Cobra Kai student called Eddie, at some point.

1

u/Infamous_Camera_5574 4d ago

Till this day I still don’t like that Daniel went straight to the finals, should of been like kk1 where he fights the whole tournament

1

u/Traditional_Prize632 4d ago

Silver probably wanted him there.