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"I'm flipping the script."
―Hawk to Johnny[src]

Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz is a main character in Cobra Kai.

Initially, a quiet and bullied victim, he gains confidence after joining the Cobra Kai Dojo and becoming a star student, alongside Miguel. However, he is quickly corrupted by Cobra Kai's ruthless mentality, which makes him aggressive, ruthless, and a flat out bully. He arguably becomes worse than the people that bullied him.

Despite turning for the worst, Hawk's conscience eventually begins to return, which causes him to question his and Cobra Kai's antics. During the brawl at the LaRusso household, Hawk finally realizes the errors in his ways, which prompts him to turn against Cobra Kai and side with Miyagi-Do Karate and Eagle Fang Karate, as well as reconcile with his former friends he lost during his time at Cobra Kai.

Biography

Eli was born with a cleft lip, which when surgically repaired resulted in a scar running from lip to nose. At some point prior to the events of Cobra Kai, he meets Demetri and the two become best friends. Eli was a fan of Harry Potter and Doctor Who, which Demetri similarly enjoyed. Eli was often bullied because of his surgical scar. Eli was even a quiet individual according to Demetri.

Cobra Kai

Season 1

At first Eli is quiet and shy, and he is often made fun of for his scar, the result of the repair of a cleft lip. Miguel meets Demetri and Eli at lunch when looking for a place to sit, which he finds with them due to them also being unpopular. The three are picked on by Kyler and his friends.

"Just give it a chance. You saw the fight. Miguel kicked ass."
―Hawk encouraging Demetri[src]

After Miguel beats up Kyler and his friends, both Demetri and Eli join the Cobra Kai Dojo. At the dojo, Sensei Johnny Lawrence mocks Eli's lip even when Demetri, and then Eli, tells him to stop. Johnny then tells Eli to flip the script in order to stop the others from making fun of him. Eli then leaves, possibly quitting, which visibily disconcerts Johnny, but he uses Eli's leaving as an example of weakness. The next day, however, Eli returns with a new style and a mohawk and says he has flipped the script, which impresses Johnny. From then on, Eli goes by Hawk. He even has a hawk tattoo on his back that his parents aren't supposed to know about. The change in looks reflects a change in personality, as he goes from being shy, scared and insecure to overconfident, over-the-top, aggressive, and hot headed. In a way he turns into Dutch and Bobby Brown, Johnny's friends at Cobra Kai when they were students at the old Cobra Kai dojo, run by Kreese. He turns a little bit into Bobby as he becomes the second best Cobra Kai student, inferior only to Miguel; Bobby was inferior only to Johnny. However, he is not "too" much like Bobby as Bobby does know a lot about his "limits" and even shows sympathy and is not reckless, while Hawk's personality is almost the exact opposite, as Hawk is reckless, can be extremely harsh and severe, while also showing no remorse in the end to a fight that he has won(until season 3, when he broke Demetri's arm).

His new look and personality causes Moon, who used to bully him with the other popular students for his scar, to become attracted to him. The two kiss and supposedly become a couple at the lake party the Cobra Kais set up to mess with Yasmine and Kyler. At the All Valley tournament, Hawk/Eli reaches the semifinals where he faces Johnny's son Robby Keene. He wins the first point against Robby, but loses the second. After losing the second point, Hawk taunts Robby and in response Robby mocks Hawk's mohawk, which infuriates Hawk and causes him to kick Robby from behind in the shoulder, thus dislocating it and causing Hawk to get disqualified from the tournament. Following Hawk's disqualification, an upset Johnny asks him why he did what he did, but Hawk angrily defends his action and he shows no remorse. After Miguel wins the tournament for Cobra Kai, Hawk and the others cheer for him.

Season 2

Following Miguel's victory in the All Valley tournament, Hawk along with Miguel, Aisha, Moon and Demetri celebrate. The following morning, however, Hawk and Miguel are forced by Johnny to do 50 push-ups because of their unsportsmanlike behavior against Robby in the tournament.

After some time, Miguel finds out that Robby is Johnny's son and he tells Hawk, causing them both to believe the only reason Johnny is being hard on them because they attacked his son. When they confront Johnny, an angry Johnny tells them that despite Robby being his son, he doesn't tolerate unethical behavior. He also tells them to mind their own business.

Over the course of the season, Hawk becomes a flat-out bully, intimidating and insulting new students o the dojo, and bullying Demetri after the latter writes a bad review about Cobra Kai. When Demetri is at the comic store in the mall, Hawk and some of his fellow Cobra Kai classmates corner him, and Hawk threatens Demetri, trying to force him to take down his Yelp review about Cobra Kai. When Demetri refuses, Hawk attacks him. Demetri then runs away, but Hawk and his gang corner him. Hawk is about to attack him again, but Robby and Samantha arrive. Hawk and his gang fight them, but Hawk is beaten by Robby, and the rest of the gang is bested as well. Later, Hawk's behavior has even more repercussions as Moon, his girlfriend, points out to Hawk that she likes his new attitude and style, but not his bullying, and so she dumps him. Furious over the breakup, Hawk takes his anger out on a punching bag. Johnny's sensei, Kreese, then uses Hawk's anger against him by manipulating him into behaving more aggressively.

Encouraged by Kreese and without Johnny's knowledge, Hawk leads a small group of Cobra Kai students (not including Miguel) to vandalize and destroy Daniel LaRusso's dojo, and Hawk steals the Medal of Honor which belonged to Daniel's sensei Mr. Miyagi. When Johnny finds out about this, he doesn't know who was responsible and so he collectively punishes the dojo with endless exercises. Hawk is ready to come clean, but Kreese secretly tells him not to. Later during one of their training exercises, Miguel notices Hawk with the Medal of Honor and realizes Hawk is the one who destroyed Daniel's dojo. Miguel confronts Hawk, who then challenges Miguel to fight him for it. Despite putting up a good fight, Hawk is defeated by Miguel. Miguel then takes the Medal of Honor and later brings it to the LaRusso house. Although he wanted to give it to Sam, Robby is there, so he gives it to Robby, explains he had no part in the destruction of Miyagi-Do. Surprisingly, Hawk is not angry at Miguel after this fight and the loss, sensing that the fight was fair and square.

On the last day of summer, Hawk is at the party at Moon's house, where he tries to win her back by flirting with another girl. Moon interrupts their flirting and kisses the girl, revealing that they are dating. This upsets Hawk, of which Demetri gets the effects. Demetri comes and they manage to briefly bond over Doctor Who, but after Demetri suggests he have inner peace, Hawk responds by pouring beer on Demetri's head. Later at the party, Demetri gets revenge by telling a large group of the party-goers embarrassing stories about Hawk. An enraged Hawk tries to attack him, but the cops arrive. In their attempts to not get caught, Hawk runs into Demetri and threateningly reminds him they'll see each other the next day at school.

During the fight that breaks out as a result of Tory's attacking Sam, Hawk gladly participates in the school brawl. He fights and beats several Miyagi-Do students before chasing Demetri. Eventually he catches Demetri and starts attacking him, but Demetri defends himself with Daniel's Miyagi-Do Karate teachings and manages to beat Hawk. Hawk is there in the aftermath when Miguel is lying unconscious on the steps.

In one of the last scenes back at the Cobra Kai dojo, Hawk, along with Tory, Raymond, Mitch and some other students, are training with Kreese. When Johnny comes to the Dojo, Kreese reveals he now owns the dojo. Johnny accuses the students of abandoning him, only for Hawk to blame him for Miguel's injuries.

Season 3

In one of the first training exercises with the new dojo master, Kreese, the students are supposed to say whether they are uncomfortable feeding a mouse to a snake. Hawk is among the handful that don't raise their hands, but he is surprised and uncomfortable when Kreese dismisses the students who objected, kicking them out of Cobra Kai. Hawk asks Kreese if this is the right time to make cuts, since they already lost a few students as a result of the school fight, but Kreese sees this display of possible compassion as a weakness, which Hawk is quick to deny. After finding out that the Miyagi-Do students are hosting a fundraiser for Miguel's surgery, Hawk sees this as an affront against Cobra Kai and vows they won't get away with this. At the end of the day and Miyagi-Do's successful fundraiser, Hawk, Mitch and two other Cobra Kai students corner Nathaniel, who was responsible for the donations for Miguel's surgery, beat him up and take the money. Mitch does say they plan on giving it to Miguel's family themselves.

The rivalry between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, largely sustained by Hawk, continues at school. Hawk destroys Demetri's science project, but Demetri cannot retaliate due to the new anti-fighting policies at the school. Recognizing this, the two dojos find other ways of acting out their rivalry. During a gym class soccer game, the Miyagi-Dos and Cobra Kais get physical, with Demetri pushing and leg sweeping Hawk as revenge, and Hawk getting back by headbutting Demetri. Hawk also kicks the soccer ball at a Miyagi-Do student's face. When the game is interrupted and both sides are sent to the counselor's office for disciplining, Hawk (who was allowed to tell their side first) gets himself and his friends off without punishment with a (fake) docile and apologetic demeanor, while Sam, Demetri, and the other Miyagi Dos involved get detention.

This isn't the end, as shortly thereafter, Hawk, Mitch and some other Cobra Kais cause havoc in the arcade and harass Chris at work. He calls Sam, who then recruits some of the Miyagi Dos to stop them, resulting in a fight. Initially, Hawk is losing to Sam, and the Miyagi Dos have the edge. However, when Tory arrives with Big Red and Edwin, Cobra Kai gains the edge. After pinning Demetri to the ground, the other Cobra Kais tell Hawk to break his arm, while Demetri pleads him not to. After momentarily hesitating, Hawk breaks Demetri's arm, but shows some discomfort while Demetri screams in pain.

The following morning, before class (at Cobra Kai), Hawk shows some discomfort and uneasiness when Mitch brags about Hawk breaking Demetri's arm, but then Hawk says Miyagi Do got what they deserved (Likely to look tough in front of his friends). However, after noticing his former bullies Kyler and Brucks joining Cobra Kai, Hawk becomes angry and tells Kreese they aren't Cobra Kai material, but Kreese says they are natural athletes. When Kyler and Brucks encounter Hawk, they make fun of him, much like old times, which makes Hawk become Eli again for some time. Mitch then loses to Kyler in a sparing match, causing Kreese to kick him out of the dojo. While Hawk objects, pointing out how loyal Mitch has been, Kreese still kicks him out for not being Cobra Kai material. When it is Brucks' turn to fight, Hawk says he will fight him, and Kreese, seeing Hawk's taste for revenge, indicates the match won't run by the normal, fair rules of competition. Brucks mockingly says he will fix Hawk's lip, but Hawk lets him see his hawk tattoo and shows he is unbothered, as Brucks and Kyler become uneasy. Hawk then aggressively easily beats Bruck in competition and doesn't stop even when Brucks begs him to stop and is on the ground, seemingly letting out the pent-up emotions of his past bullying. In the end of the fight, Brucks is groaning in pain. Hawk glares at Kyler after beating Brucks, frightening the latter.

After Miguel returns to school, Hawk greets him and things seem to continue like before. However, their friend group dynamics are changed as Hawk is quick to mock Mitch when they meet in the cafeteria, and tells him to sit at the loser's table. Then, Hawk is confronted by Miguel for breaking Demetri's arm and going against their sensei. Hawk argues that Johnny is the one who betrayed them, and that he is no longer their sensei. This upsets Miguel, who tells Hawk he is letting Kreese take over his mind. Hawk is then shocked to learn from Miguel that Johnny has started a new dojo. Miguel tries to persuade Hawk to join. When Johnny shows up at school later that day, he approaches Hawk and some of the Cobra Kais, and he acknowledges his mistakes. However, Hawk criticizes Johnny for quitting and going soft on them, which causes an angry Johnny to remind Hawk that he, not Kreese, is the reason that Hawk went from being a weakling to a tough guy. He then tells them that Kreese doesn't care about them, and that they should come to his dojo tomorrow.

The following morning, when Johnny's students are training, Hawk shows up with the other Cobra Kais. After initially thinking they are going to join Johnny's new dojo, Kreese also appears and Hawk reminds Johnny that he is Cobra Kai for life. Things are tense for a moment until the Cobra Kais leave, but this is where it becomes clear that Hawk's and Miguel's friendship is over. However, Hawk still seems to care about Miguel, since he is upset to find out that Robby has joined Cobra Kai, which is problematic because of what he did to Miguel.

Still, Hawk wants to please Kreese as the new sensei, and so he, along with some of the Cobra Kais, sets up a plan to sneak into the zoo and steal a snake for Kreese. When Robby arrives, Hawk is angry that he was invited by Tory, but Tory challenges Hawk having a problem with Robby being on the mission. When Hawk aborts the mission because Kyler forgot the snake pole, Robby ends up getting the snake with his bare hands. Hawk is still not pleased about Robby being on their team. That night after bringing the snake, Kreese reveals to them all that Miguel and Sam are now working together. Kreese orders the members to go and attack the Eagle Fangs/Miyagi-Dos.

Then, on that same night, when the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs had just agreed to work together at Sam's house, Hawk and seven other Cobra Kais show up and attack them. Hawk spends a lot of time fighting Miyagi-Do student Stiven. While Stiven puts up a fight and gets some hits, Hawk has the upper-hand overall and beats him. However, after noticing Miguel, Mitch and the other Miyagi Do's being beaten up by the other Cobra Kai students, he shows discomfort and uneasiness, remembers what Johnny and Miguel said at school, and also remembers what Kreese said about enemies. After this, he sees Doug holding Demetri's arm. Doug encourages him to break his arm a second time. Hawk runs up, but knocks down both Doug and the other Cobra Kai, and saves Demetri. After saving Demetri, he apologizes to Demetri for everything, resulting in their friendship being rekindled. The two then work together to defeat several Cobra Kais.

After defeating the Cobra Kais in Sam's house, Hawk heads to Daniel's home dojo by the pool along with Miguel and Demetri, where they see Tory, who was just disarmed by Sam. Hawk tells Tory the fight is over, but she refuses to believe it's over. She leaves, but not before telling Hawk to watch his back. Demetri promises that Hawk's friends will watch it for him. The following morning, the last scene of this season shows Hawk going with some of the other former Cobra Kai's to Miyagi-Do, where he high-fives Demetri, and trains with the Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang students under Johnny and Daniel's leadership.

Personality

Season 1

Eli, like the other misfits in his school, is a very quiet and introverted individual. His only friend is Demetri. After witnessing Miguel Diaz beating Kyler's gang, he joins Cobra Kai. After Johnny Lawrence mocks him for his lip scar, Eli becomes angry and unhappy. However, he later learns how to minimize the significance of the facial difference to "flip the script" and show an improved self-confidence. After becoming "Hawk", his personality drastically changes to being more self-assured, willing to take risks, but also more aggressive, hotheaded and disobedient. His new behavior, however, gets the better of him as he angrily attacks Robby from behind during the All Valley tournament, but shows no remorse in doing so when his act gets him disqualified.

"Defeat does not exist."
"There's that winning attitude that pushed her away in the first place. I think you need a healthy dose of inner peace.
"
―Hawk and Demetri[src]


Season 2

Hawk's behavior and actions become much worse and more dangerous the more involved in Cobra Kai he becomes, as he adopts a far more thuggish, cruel, and vengeful approach toward life, given that he is shown intimidating new students and calling them "fresh fishes", as well as bullying people and trashing the Miyagi dojo. Hawk even turns on his best friend, Demetri, and bullies him after the latter writes a negative review about Cobra Kai, as well as allows Johnny's sensei Kreese to poison and corrupt his mind. Spiraling more out of control, Hawk's attitude costs him his relationship with Moon, strains his relationship with friends, and makes him more impulsive and reckless in fights. It is implied he defeated Tory during the "Battle of Coyote Creek." During the high school brawl, Hawk goes wild during the fight, chases and eventually attacks Demetri with reckless abandon, who defensively kicks his former best friend into a trophy case and defeats Hawk. At the end, after Johnny walks into the dojo and finds out that Kreese, along with Hawk and the others, has betrayed him, Hawk openly blames Johnny for Miguel being hospitalized.

Season 3

While Hawk remains just as aggressive, he shows signs of his conscience bothering him. Kreese's merciless methods don't sit with him as well as he initially thought. When he joint-locks Demetri during the Laser Tag fight, he is clearly conflicted about injuring his former best friend, despite their contentious recent history. While he does break Demetri arm (after being pressured by his Cobra Kai's), he does have a look of discomfort on his face after doing so. Eventually, during the invasion in the LaRusso house, specifically after witnessing the Miyagi Do's being beaten by the Cobra Kai's, Hawk realizes that he is on the wrong side, which prompts him to save Demetri, instead of breaking his arm a second time. Apologizing to Demetri, Hawk reconciles with Demetri and fights side-by-side with him to defeat his former compatriots. Reconciled with his old friends, Hawk later joins Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang in preparing to fight Cobra Kai.

Fighting Style

"Prepare to face the fury of the Hawk."
―Eli Moskowitz to Robby Keene[src]

Once he enters training in season 1, Hawk develops into an aggressive fighter with a penchant for high-risk techniques. Light and wiry, he is something of a natural athlete. He does demonstrate a solid defense when pressed, weathering an intense combination from Robby only to counter with a well-timed take-down.

In season 2, Hawk's style becomes even flashier and more reckless, incorporating aerial kicks and other high risk moves. However, over-reliance on offense is of limited utility when he is facing opponents with solid defensive technique. Robby, Miguel, and Demetri are all able to defeat him with superior timing and defense. Hawk also had a tendency to underestimate everyone except Miguel. Despite losing in multiple fights, he is still able to defeat many people, such as most of his Cobra Kai peers at Coyote Creek, as well as several Miyagi-Do students during the school brawl.

In season 3, after being advised by Kreese to fight smart, Hawk tempers his aggression and fights smarter and patient, as well as less impulsive, all of which visibly improve his fighting style. He also stops underestimating his opponents, which makes his fighting style even more enhanced. His timing has improved. While he still uses his high risk technique, he is less reliant on it and more smart on when to use that style. After teaming up with Demetri during the fight at Sam's house, the two manage to combine their skills to defeat several Cobra Kai's, making them a complimentary duo.

Relationships

Demetri

"Look man I'm sorry. For all of it. Do you want to help me win this thing?"
―Hawk to Demetri after redeeming himself[src]

Demetri's is Hawk's best friend. They were best friends before Cobra Kai and during season 1, due to their similar interests, and possibly because of their shared unpopular status. They become friends with Miguel in season 1 of Cobra Kai. They join Cobra Kai together, though Demetri quits after being embarrassed by Sensei Johnny. Despite quitting, the two are still friends. In the All Valley tournament, Demetri is seen cheering on his best friend, though he is shocked to see how Hawk fights Robby and his disqualifiication.

Their friendship becomes strained when Demetri complains to him about being hit by Kreese, but Hawk insults him and shows no sympathy. Their friendship comes to an end after Demetri writes a bad review about Cobra Kai due to Kreese hitting him, causing Hawk to attack him in the mall along with some of his Cobra Kai friends.

Demetri attempts to bond with Hawk at Moon's party by talking to him about Doctor Who, which initially appears to work, as Hawk seems interested, but then it sours when Demetri suggests Hawk has inner peace, causing Hawk to respond by dumping beer on his head. Furious over the treatment, Demetri gets revenge by revealing embarrassing stories about Hawk, enraging the latter. The following morning during the school brawl, Hawk attempts to get revenge by chasing Demetri across the school and attacking him, but is defeated in the end when the latter uses his Miyagi-Do tactics to counter all of his strikes, before kicking Hawk into a trophy case.

Their rivalry continues and they're still enemies. In school, Hawk ruins Demetri's science project because Hawk thinks he is impressing his ex-girlfriend Moon, he then kicks the ball into the science project that causes Demetri to confront about this and even provoking Hawk by saying to him pissing the bed. Later on, Hawk and Demetri get into fight with their dojos at soccer game. At the Arcade fight between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai, Hawk breaks Demetri's arm after being pressured by his Cobra Kai peers, but he was initially hesitant to do so. When Demetri screams in pain and crying after Hawk breaks his arm, Hawk has some concern and remorse. As the days go by following the arcade fight, Hawk's conscience slowly begins to return, and he begins to show increasing signs of remorse over his behavior towards his former best friend. Hawk ultimately realizes he is on the wrong side during the fight at Sam's house, which leads to him defecting from Cobra Kai, saving Demetri, apologizing to him, and reconciling his friendship with him. The two fight together against the Cobra Kai students. The following morning, the two share a handshake and a hug, as they stand together when Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang begin training together.

Miguel Diaz

Miguel is Hawk's another best friend and right-hand man. They immediately become friendly, due to them being bullied by Kyler and his gang. Eli joins Cobra Kai after witnessing Miguel using his skills at Cobra Kai to beat up Kyler and his gang. After becoming Hawk, he would go on to become one of the top students along with Miguel. Despite Hawk's abrasive personality and actions, as well as the two getting into a fight over Mr. Miyagi's badge of honor that Hawk stole, they remain close friends. After Miguel is admitted to the hospital due to Robby kicking him over the railing, Hawk tries to wake Miguel up, but a cop tells him to back away. Hawk even angrily blames their sensei Johnny for this.

In Season 3, Hawk is one of Miguel's regular visitors in the hospital. Hawk gets revenge on Miyagi-Do for what they did to Miguel, for example by stealing the fundraised money for Miguel's surgery and making it look like it came from Cobra Kai's efforts. When Miguel returns to school, Hawk is happy to see him. Things quickly sour when Miguel finds out how Demetri's arm got broken by Hawk. Miguel immediately confronts Hawk about this, but Hawk tells him that he should be thankful to Cobra Kai for avenging what Miyagi-Do did to him. Miguel can't understand Hawk's motivations and corrects Hawk that it isn't Johnny's fault, but Hawk responds back saying that Johnny isn't his sensei. Miguel warns Hawk about Kreese getting inside his head and tries to persuade Hawk to join Johnny's new karate dojo. Miguel and Hawk see each other later at the park, but when all the Cobra Kai's and Kreese arrive, Hawk reveals he is still loyal to Cobra Kai. When Johnny refuses to go back to Cobra Kai Dojo, it seems Hawk and Miguel are about to fight each other, but they are stopped by their senseis. Following the park scene, it is evident that their friendship is over. Despite their friendship ending, it can be very likely that Hawk still cares about Miguel, as when Robby joins Cobra Kai, Hawk is furious because of what he did to Miguel during the school brawl and Hawk attempts to fight Robby, to avenge Miguel's injuries. During the fight at Sam's house, Hawk remembers Miguel telling him about Kreese getting inside his head, and this is one of the reasons that prompts Hawk to defect from cobra Kai and side with Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang. Hawk's friendship with Miguel is restored after switching sides during the fight at Sam's house. They both manage to stop Tory and Sam from fighting. In the end of season 3, Hawk and Miguel trains under Johnny and Daniel and the rest of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang Karate for the upcoming tournament.

Moon

"I'm not dating a bully."
Moon to Hawk[src]

Moon is Hawk's former bully and ex-girlfriend. Moon and Yasmine, along with Kyler and Brucks, have been making fun of Eli's lip for years. When Eli turned into "Hawk," and got his mohawk, their relationship changed. They do get along at Yasmine's interrupted lake party, where they make out. In season 2, Moon dumps Hawk for threatening to beat up Demetri, as she, too, has changed and rejects bullying. This upsets him. Later in the season at Moon's party, Hawk attempts to flirt with a new girl to make his ex jealous. To his great surprise he then sees Moon kiss the new girl, revealing that they are together. Moon then introduces Piper to him. Hawk tells her that it is awesome, covering his jealousy. During the soccer game in season 3, Hawk attempts to wink at Moon, indicating that he still has feelings for her, but she rolls her eyes at him. We can assume that they barely talk to each other anymore, since we don't see them in any other scenes after this. This can imply that their friendship is strained. Since their relationship is clearly over, he covers the tattoo of her name and shape of the moon that he got for her with a grim reaper tattoo, indicating that he is over her.

Mrs. Moskowitz

Not much is known about the relationship between Mrs. Moskowitz and her son, Eli/Hawk. She may not even know about his new alias. What we do know is that she is a caring mother and loves him very much. She wants to help him when he is upset about being bullied, and she calls the school to report it, seemingly thinking that a school announcement will help stop the bullying. Eli knows this won't help, even if they don't mention specific names about who is being bullied. After she finishes the phone call, Eli lets out his insecurities and frustrations at his mother, telling her that he is a freak, that he will never get a girlfriend, never have any other friends besides Demetri, and adds that he will always be made fun of. However, it does seem that he knows his mother care about him. It is unclear to what extent his mother catches on to all the changes that come with his transformation to Hawk. She can obviously see his mohawk, knows he takes karate lessons and was competing in the karate tournament, but she seems unaware of his nickname Hawk, his tattoos, that he isn't friends with Demetri anymore, and that he became a bully.

Johnny Lawrence

"When you came into my dojo you were softer than a baby's ass. I made you what you are, not Kreese!"
Johnny Lawrence to Hawk[src]


Johnny was Hawk's former sensei at the Cobra Kai Dojo. When Eli first joins Cobra Kai halfway into season 1, Johnny mocks his lip scar and tells him to flip the script. Eli takes his message to heart and shows up the next day with a mohawk, impressing Johnny. From then on, Eli is Hawk. However, when Hawk is disqualified in the semifinals at the All Valley tournament for kicking Robby when his back was turned, an angry Johnny confronts him, but Hawk shows no remorse. Hawk seemingly starts losing faith in Johnny, and is being more obedient to Johnny's sensei Kreese. In the finale, Hawk and a handful of students have joined Kreese, who has now taken over the dojo. When Johnny confronts Hawk and the students, Hawk angrily blames Johnny for Miguel's injury. Hawk is shown telling Johnny that they, the students, paid the price for Johnny going soft on them. However, Johnny tells him that Kreese doesn't actually care about Hawk. During the fight at Sam's house, Hawk realizes that his former sensei is right and defects to help defeat Cobra Kai, later joining Johnny's new Eagle Fang Karate and training with them and Miyagi-Do against Cobra Kai.

Robby Keene

Robby is Hawk's second rival-to-main rival. They first meet in the semifinals of the All Valley Tournament in season 1. Hawk attempts to intimidate him before fight starts. After Robby mocks his mohawk, an enraged Hawk kicks him when his back is turned, resulting in Robby's shoulder being injured, and Hawk being disqualified. When Hawk and his Cobra Kai friends corner Demetri in the mall, Robby and Sam jump in and tell them to leave. Then a fight breaks out between both groups. When seeing Robby joining Cobra Kai, Hawk shows his disgust and claims that Robby isn't a Cobra Kai material. He is shown being envious of Robby when he gets the snake from the zoo, which impresses his friends. They likely to become enemies again when Hawk defects from Cobra Kai.

John Kreese

Hawk is the most corrupted by Kreese's teachings, to the point of becoming a sadistic jerk who seems to enjoy tormenting people. After Kreese begins co-teaching at Cobra Kai in season 2, he fuels Hawk's negative and violent tendencies. Encouraged by Kreese and without Johnny's knowledge, Hawk leads a small group of students to vandalize and destroy Daniel LaRusso's dojo, and Hawk steals the Medal of Honor which belonged to Daniel's sensei Mr. Miyagi. The influence of Kreese and Cobra Kai's initial teachings are so great on Hawk that even after Johnny believes he has gotten rid of Kreese, and tries to instill humility and mercy into his students, Hawk is shown to be clearly infuriated by this concept. For Hawk, the confidence and power the initial teachings gave him are hard to reconcile with the concept of showing mercy to a world that had shown him any since the day he was born (indirectly implying a felt injustice of being born with a cleft-lip). When Kreese takes back Cobra Kai from Johnny in the end of season 2, Hawk is one of his students.

"The enemy of your enemy is your friend."
Kreese to Hawk[src]

In season 3, despite still being a part of Cobra Kai, Hawk experiences increasing twinges of his conscience at certain decisions Kreese makes, including kicking several students out of Cobra Kai for not wanting to feed a live mouse to a snake. Hawk also does not like to see Kreese recruiting his former bully Kyler, or "enemy" Robby. However, when his former sensei Johnny and his friend Miguel convince Hawk that Kreese doesn't care about him, Hawk realizes that Kreese's teachings are wrong, which leads to him betraying Cobra Kai, and training against him under Daniel and Johnny in the end of the season.

Other Relationships

Trivia

  • Eli can be compared to the following characters
    • Dutch, as both are aggressive and hotheaded. They also both served as the main character's right-hand man, Dutch to Johnny Lawrence and Hawk to Miguel Diaz. They were also both the most corrupted by Kreese's teachings, to the point of becoming sadistic jerks, who seemed to enjoy tormenting people. They both say to their rivals, “you’re dead meat.”
    • Johnny Lawrence, as both were influenced by their sensei to behave mercilessly, and are also their sensei's favored student. They also were both a bully and victim, leaders of their respective friend groups, target a specific target - Daniel and Demetri respectively- and cornered their victims only to ultimately lose. They also have similar redemption arcs.
    • Bobby Brown- Both reached the semifinals of the All Valley Tournament, but got disqualified after committing an illegal move against their opponents; Daniel LaRusso and Robby Keene respectively. However, Hawk's illegal move was intentional and not part of the fight, and he did not regret committing the move, while Bobby reluctantly committed the illegal move and showed remorse after doing so. Bobby was ordered to do so by his sensei, whereas Hawk lashed out on his own initiative. In addition, Hawk's conscience begins to emerge and he tries to become a voice of reason, such as when he tried to defend Mitch when Kreese kicked him out of the dojo (much like Bobby was this voice of reason in the first film).
    • Hawk can also be compared to Daniel LaRusso, as they both joined karate to stand up to bullies, only to be corrupted by the Cobra Kai mentality.
  • Eli seems to be the most affected by the Cobra Kai's ruthless mentality, like Dutch, until he redeemed himself.
  • Eli is arguably the most focused Cobra Kai student.
  • He has fought Robby twice, but did not emerge victorious either times as he got disqualified the first time, and lost to Robby the second time.
  • While Hawk can be seen as the main villain of season 2 due to him bullying and harassing people similar to Johnny in the original Karate Kid, his actions are a result of John Kreese corrupting his mind and manipulating him into acting this way, making the latter the main villain.
  • Hawk is a fan of British singer Yungblud. We hear his song play in the background while Hawk plays volleyball with Demetri in Fire and Ice.
  • Hawk's mohawk could give reference to fire and ice because his red mohawk represents fire and blue mohawk represents ice.
  • Hawk's audio-cue in the television series is a hawk screech.
  • Hawk and Demetri combining their fighting skills is similar to Jet Li and Aaliyah in Romeo Must Die.
  • There was a mistake in Season 2 Episode 9 "Pulpo" where Hawk's scarred lip was non-existent, which can be seen throughout some shots of him at Moon's party.
  • Hawk, Miguel, Mitch, Bert, Johnny, Daniel, and other three unnamed Eagle Fang students were the only ones to be affiliated with all three dojos mentioned in the movies and series: Cobra Kai, Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang.
  • Hawk was a major player in the house fight. After he betrayed Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang gained the upper hand and Hawk defeats his former dojo classmates and rekindles his friendship with Miguel, Demetri, Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs.

Quotes

"Alright, let me let you in on a little secret. It's not just a haircut or the back tattoo. It's a way of life, man. You just gotta feel the energy and just live in the moment, you know?"
―Hawk to Demetri[src]


"Look man I'm sorry. For all of it. Do you want to help me win this thing?"
―Hawk to Demetri[src]
"Defeat does not exist."
"There's that winning attitude that pushed her away in the first place. I think you need a healthy dose of inner peace.
"
―Hawk and Demetri[src]


"Prepare to face the fury of the Hawk."
―Eli Moskowitz to Robby Keene[src]


Gallery

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