- "The day we met, you were wearing Pepto-Bismol as a hat. Right over there. A few months later, you're an All-Valley champ. Now you're on the verge of a world title! You're Miguel fucking Diaz. You earned this."
- ―Johnny Lawrence to Miguel[src]
Miguel Diaz is one of the four main protagonists (alongside Robby Keene, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence) of the Netflix series Cobra Kai. He is portrayed by Xolo Maridueña.
Miguel is the neighbor of former karate champion Johnny Lawrence, who after being bullied by Kyler Park convinces Johnny to train him. Miguel helps him to reopen and establish a student base at Cobra Kai Dojo, though he quickly falls into the Cobra Kai mentality of "No mercy". As his attitude shifts, his relationship with Samantha LaRusso falls apart, leading to a dangerous rivalry of his own with Johnny's estranged son, Robby Keene, where the two fight each other in the All-Valley finals, with Miguel winning the match using dirty tactics and becoming an All-Valley champion.
Miguel continues to train in Cobra Kai, under both Johnny and Kreese's teachings, this is also when he meets Tory Nichols, with the two forming a relationship soon after. However, Miguel and Robby's rivalry reaches a boiling point during the school brawl, resulting in Miguel showing Robby mercy and suffering a spinal injury due to getting sent over a balcony and hitting the stairs.
When he does awaken from his coma, he learns he may never walk again. However, Johnny helps train him, ultimately leading to Miguel being able to stand. With his relationship with Tory called off, Miguel and Sam begin dating again. Miguel recruits Johnny's help once again, this time, forming a new dojo away from the merciless teachings of John Kreese. Miguel is caught in the middle of his sensei’s long-standing rivalry with Daniel LaRusso. Despite learning of the rivalry, Miguel gains some respect for and accepts the teachings of Sensei LaRusso. He participates in the 2019 All-Valley Karate Tournament as the returning champion; however, during his semifinal fight with Hawk, he suffers an injury and chooses to drop out of the tournament. Later, it's revealed Miguel has left for Mexico to find his biological father.
Miguel eventually finds Hector Salazar, who is his father, however, he learns of Hector's true nature and is ultimately reunited with Johnny and Robby. After this, despite Robby coming all the way to Mexico with Johnny to find Miguel, there was still tension between them. Later at the pool, Miguel got angry with Robby for defending Cobra Kai, even though he left. Their rivalry doesn't dial down and it continues to escalate, causing Johnny to tell them to fight it out to settle their differences; when they do, Miguel gains the upper hand and almost recreates the outcome of their fight in the school brawl, but held back since he did not get into karate to hurt people. They both reconcile with each other and later, Miguel befriends Robby and Tory, and helps them and the Miyagi-Fangs in exposing Silver to his students.
During his senior year, he trains for the Sekai Taikai tournament and hopes to get into Stanford University. He was one of the first 4 students selected to represent Miyagi-Do along with Tory, Sam and Robby. However, after learning that he was on the waitlist for Stanford, he tunneled too much on the position of male captain, believing it to be his best chance to get into Stanford. This causes him to lose balance during he and Robby's fight and he ultimately lost out to him for the position of male captain despite gaining a 2-0 lead.
Once he arrives in Barcelona for the Sekai Taikai, Miguel’s frustration towards Robby’s position is further exasperated by Robby losing every one of his fights. Despite Miyagi-Do struggling for a good part of the tournament, Miguel pretty much single-handedly kept them from elimination. However, after Johnny made Miguel realize Robby's struggles, he gives his friend a pep talk, which re-energizes him and helps Miyagi-Do reach the semifinals. He also finally helps Daniel and Johnny bury the hatchet by giving them a pep talk and reminding the two senseis of their achievements as well.
After returning to the Valley following the supposed conclusion of the Sekai Taikai, Miguel is informed of the tournament continuing and helps Robby train for his rematch with Axel. After Robby get discouraged, Miguel gave him a pep talk to re-energize him to keep training for the match. During Robby and Axel's match, Miguel witnesses his step-brother brutally injured by his rival. After Robby is unable to continue and Sam drops out of her fight against Tory, Miyagi-Do forfeits the tournament. However, Johnny reclaims Cobra Kai and he and Miguel join Tory with the latter being Kwon's replacement as male captain. Before the finals of the Sekai Taikai, Johnny and Miguel reminisce of their past and how far they've come. After Tory defeats Zara in the girls' finals, Miguel finally faces Axel in the boys' finals. Whilst Miguel kicks off an impressive early 5-0 lead against the formidable enemy, Axel makes a comeback at 5-15, leaving Miguel to almost be knocked out. However, through words of encouragement from his sensei, as well as Johnny handing over his headband to his first student, Miguel ultimately came back, scoring 10 points and knocks Axel down for another 10, making the score 25-15, winning the boys' championship of the tournament. He found out he was already accepted into Stanford during his championship match, he soon finds out Cobra Kai and Iron Dragons are tied, resulting in a match between Johnny and Wolf. Johnny ultimately wins, thus making Cobra Kai the winners of the Sekai Taikai. After the tournament's conclusion, Miguel chooses to fly with Sam to Okinawa for the summer before heading to Stanford, opting to help her get settled in and for a bright future.
Roles
During Cobra Kai, he is the deuteragonist-turned final main antagonist in Season 1, one of the four main protagonists (alongside Robby Keene, Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso) in Seasons 2, 5 and 6, one of the two main protagonists (alongside Johnny Lawrence) in Season 3, and one of the three deuteragonists (alongside Samantha LaRusso and Hawk) in Season 4.
Biography
Miguel was born on March 14, 2003 to Carmen Diaz and Hector Salazar. His father was a criminal with connections to a drug cartel. This dangerous lifestyle forced Carmen, who was pregnant with Miguel and her mother Rosa, to flee from Ecuador and take refuge in the United States where Miguel was eventually born. They moved around the United States until settling in Riverside, where Miguel grew up. The family again moved and settled in Reseda, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, and resided in Reseda Heights.
Cobra Kai
Season 1
Miguel first appears when his neighbor, Johnny Lawrence, takes out his trash. Miguel introduces himself and asks Johnny if he was having trouble with his water, however Johnny tells him to go away. Later that day, Miguel walks into a store looking for Pepto Bismol for his grandma, then a teenager named Kyler comes in, trying to buy beer. Miguel confronts Kyler, saying that he is not of age. Kyler and his friends follow Miguel out of the store and beats him up. Miguel is shoved into a car owned by Johnny. Johnny gets up and tells Kyler and his friends to knock it off. Kyler insults Johnny, then shoves him. Out of anger, Johnny beats all of the teenagers up, which ends up in Johnny getting arrested.
The next day, Johnny goes back to his house. Miguel notices him and talks to him about the fight. Miguel tries to ask Johnny to train him in karate so he can defend himself against Kyler the next time that he bullies him, though Johnny has no interest in helping anyone. Miguel's determination in this effort collides with Johnny's decision to reopen the dojo that taught him, Cobra Kai. Miguel becomes Johnny's first student, as well as, the dojo's janitor and site administrator due to Johnny's complete lack of technological knowledge. The new friendship raises concerns from Miguel's mother, Carmen, as she doesn't want her son fighting or participating in violence.
Miguel remains steadfast in his desire to learn. He improves quickly under Johnny's tutelage and becomes more confident at school, even recruiting his best friends to join Cobra Kai. Though Eli Moskowitz finds his footing at the school, Demetri ultimately leaves as he doesn't believe in the violent teachings or societal expectations of the members and because he has Miguel to protect him if Kyler or anyone else tries to bully him. In the meantime, Miguel witnesses a female student confronting Kyler about rumors he spread about her. As Kyler becomes aggressive, Miguel inserts himself and easily disarms Kyler and the others that attempt to aid the bully. The student, Samantha LaRusso, is grateful to Miguel. Miguel gains popularity at school for the act and respect from Johnny, which also results in a multitude of students joining. He ultimately begins to date Sam, which displeases Johnny due to Sam being the daughter of his thirty-year rival Daniel LaRusso.
As time passes, Johnny's aggressive teachings and negative outlook on the world begins to affect Miguel, who also picks up the attitude displayed from his only father figure. After a series of misunderstandings between Sam, Miguel, and Robby, the friction reaches its breaking point during a bonfire party. When Sam and Robby arrive together, a super drunk Miguel misunderstands their arrival and starts a fight with Robby. Sam intervenes and accidentally intercepts a punch from Miguel, causing her to end things with him. The rivalry between Robby and Miguel also begins.
The trial and tribulations of the year collide at the All Valley Karate Tournament. Miguel fights under Cobra Kai's banner with Johnny in his corner, while Robby Keene fights as unaffiliated. Miguel reaches out to Sam to apologize for his actions the past few weeks, but Samantha reminds him that his actions don't match his words anymore. Miguel rebukes the idea that he's to blame for their breakup or anything that followed. Miguel reaches the semifinals alongside Eli, who is ultimately disqualified for using aggressive tactics. Miguel, however, defeats the defending champion Xander Stone 3-1, allowing Miguel to advance to the finals. The last fight of the night is between Robby and Miguel. Robby is now supported by Daniel LaRusso and fighting with an injured shoulder after a cheap shot made in a previous match.
The match is even with Miguel gaining a 2-1 lead due to Robby's injury. Robby manage to tie at 2-2 with a 2 legged kick after a pep talk from Daniel and when Robby tries to help Miguel up, Miguel instead yanks Robby's arm and further injures his shoulder. The referee warns Miguel that if he does it again he'll be disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct. Johnny told him that there's no need to fight dirty but Miguel coolly states there's nothing dirty about winning. Miguel continues to fight aggressively and targets Robby's injured arm and ultimately wins the competition, becoming the newest All Valley Karate Tournament champion. As he celebrates with his family, Demetri tells him that Samantha left the tournament and didn't see him win.
Season 2
Both Miguel and Eli are scolded by Johnny for their cheating/cheap moves during the tournament, stripped of their black belts, relegated to white belts along with the rest of the class, and forced to do 50 push-ups under Johnny's order. When Miguel confronts Johnny about the punishment, Johnny explains to him that when he was younger, he did not show mercy or honor and eventually paid the price, and the reason he is being tough on Miguel is so that he can be a better man than Johnny ever was.
At first he wants to talk things over with Sam. He sends her some apology texts, but she doesn't respond. Sam later blocks him, making him further guilty and upset. However, he soon meets a new Cobra Kai student named Tory, and over time they become a couple. However, it's quite clear that he still has lingering attachment to Samantha.
While dropping off some of his mom's food at Johnny's apartment, Miguel notices a picture of Robby on the fridge. He tells Eli, and the two find out that Robby is Johnny's son. They assume that Johnny is only being hard on them because of his relationship to Robby. They confront Johnny, but the latter angrily tells them to mind their own business. However, Johnny later tells Miguel how he screwed up with Robby, and that he is proud to now be teaching Miguel, which makes their bond stronger and helps Miguel realize that Johnny isn't favoring Robby over him.
During a competition in the woods hosted by Johnny's sensei, John Kreese, Miguel finds out that Eli was the one who instigated the vandalism of the Miyagi dojo and stole Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, and Miguel uses the training exercise to defeat Hawk and takes the Medal. He goes to Sam's house to return it, but when Robby opens the door Miguel gives the Medal to him instead, trusting that he would give it to Sam.
As the relationships between Miguel and Tory and Sam and Robby progress, they cross paths at the roller-skating rink where Tory works. There, Miguel realizes that Sam and Robby are there as a couple. Tory sees this too, and she provokes Sam by kissing Miguel in front of her, making Sam jealous. Miguel and Sam then have an argument about why he is dating Tory, followed by Tory and Sam get into a physical altercation resulting in Tory falling. This leads Miguel to defend Tory against Sam, and Sam and Robby are kicked out of the rink.
During Moon's house party on the last day of summer vacation, the feud continues in a drinking contest between Tory and Sam, which results in a drunken Sam. During a quiet moment together, Sam realizes that Miguel was the one who gave back the Medal, and she thanks him. Then the two share a kiss, which they both immediately regret. However, they are unaware that Tory sees them.
When a school fight starts on the first day of school, Miguel sees Robby holding Tory against a locker. Unaware that Tory was attacking Sam before and Robby was trying to stop the fight, Miguel tackles Robby and the two fight. After gaining the upper-hand on Robby, Miguel notices Sam and Tory fighting. He runs to stop the fight, but is stopped by Robby who attacks him. He kicked Robby into two of his Cobra Kai friends and runs to Tory and Sam, leaving Robby to deal with his two friends. After reaching Tory and Sam, he tries to stop Tory from attacking Sam, only for Tory to kick him in the stomach.
After Robby defeats Miguel's friends, he runs to help Sam, only for Miguel to stop him. They then continue their fight, which seems to be evenly matched. At times, Miguel has the upper-hand, and at times, Robby has the upper-hand. After gaining the upper-hand on Robby again, Miguel tells Robby that Sam loves him more than Robby, causing an infuriated Robby to aggressively attack Miguel and gain the upper-hand yet again. Miguel, however, manages to recover and get the better of Robby by flipping him over and trapping his arm in a lock. After seemingly winning the fight, he decides to show mercy due to Johnny's teachings. He lets go of Robby's arm and apologizes. However, an infuriated Robby, who was tunneled vision and unbalanced, gets up and kicks Miguel, accidentally knocking him over the railing he was backed up against. He lands hard on the handrails and is knocked unconscious. Miguel is admitted into the hospital in critical condition.
Season 3
While in a coma, Miguel is dreaming about fighting and beating an unknown opponent in the All Valley tournament, but eventually he wakes up. His legs, however, aren't functioning. While he is supposed to have surgery, it is unknown whether this will help him to walk again. Initially, Miguel blames Johnny for being in this position, but after some time Johnny starts giving hope to Miguel, promising they will do whatever it takes to get him back on his feet and that Johnny will always be there for him every step of the way.
After Miguel is released from the hospital, Johnny begins performing exercises with him in order to help get his legs functioning. Initially, the exercises aren't effective, frustrating Miguel. However, while at a concert, Johnny and Miguel witness Miguel being able to tap his foot, giving everyone some hope. Johnny continues to work with Miguel, sometimes with unorthodox methods, especially in comparison to the physical therapy Miguel also receives. At the same time, Miguel helps Johnny with a Facebook profile.
While at a restaurant helping Johnny with photos for his Facebook profile, Tory sees Miguel. He expresses that he's upset that Tory did not come to visit him while he was in the hospital. He also does not like when Tory says that Cobra Kai is trying to get back at Miyagi-Do for what happened to him, since he does not see it as Miyagi-Do's fault. At the same time, Tory voices her disappointment for his kiss with Sam. Miguel still does not see this as justifying the fight Tory caused and the brutality with which she fought Sam, and he tells her that she needs help, which angers Tory, as she feels he is calling her crazy, and they ended their relationship. Later that day while training with Johnny, Miguel lacks motivation, which annoys Johnny, who does not know that Miguel is struggling because he is upset about his breakup with Tory. The two get into an argument, with Miguel accusing Johnny for giving up on his students. After he finishes his ranting, Johnny points out to Miguel that he is standing without assistance, making them both happy and causing them to hug. From then on, Miguel continues to improve with Johnny's training. Miguel goes from a wheelchair to crutches and eventually walking on both feet without the need of any support.
Now that Miguel can walk again, he goes back to school, but not before telling Johnny he will help recruit students to Johnny's new dojo, which Johnny calls Eagle Fang Karate. At school he rekindles his friendship with Sam, and expresses disappointment in Hawk after learning from Demetri that Hawk broke Demetri's arm. Miguel's and Eli's friendship ends as a result of Eli's ruthless actions. Luckily for Miguel, some of his classmates join Johnny's dojo such as Mitch and Bert. They begin training together, but Miguel still struggles with his recovery. He hurts himself while attempting to kick in training, but Johnny tells him that it's alright and that no one expects him to be back to his normal self. After Mitch gets news that All Valley is cancelled, Johnny tells Miguel it's okay, since he would not have been able to compete anyway, which angers Miguel who protests and wants to defend his champion title. Johnny tries to make Miguel understand that he does not want to risk Miguel getting hurt again, but Miguel is adamant on competing and defending his title. The conversation ends with Miguel storming into his apartment and Carmen talking to Johnny about her believing in him saving the All Valley Tournament.
In the community hearing about the tournament, Councilperson Roberts is summarizing that the All Valley Tournament should be banned because of the school brawl and the City Council thinks that karate is the problem, but then Miguel shows up. Miguel points out to Roberts that he was involved in the school fight, and that he was the one who was kicked off the second floor balcony and was paralyzed as a result, and he tells the Council that it was Johnny who helped him walk again. He then explains to Roberts that he was bullied and how karate is a means of teaching kids to defend themselves, and that tournaments are safe places to practice these skills. He also credits Johnny for his success. He is joined by Sam who makes similar arguments. Miguel ends his case by saying that the All Valley should be allowed to be held to give the kids ways of defending themselves. Moved by their pleas, Councilperson Roberts allows the tournament to resume, making both Miguel and Sam happy and hug.
Back at Miyagi-Do dojo, Miguel and Sam are chatting and celebrating their accomplishment of saving the tournament, and Miguel jokingly gives Sam a hard time about Miyagi-Do. Miguel even teases her into taking him down a second time, reminding of their first date. The two briefly spar, unfortunately, in that moment Robby just so happens to walk in on them together, having come to see Sam after his release from juvenile detention center, and he accuses Sam of cheating on him with Miguel. Miguel tries to calm Robby down, tells him it isn't Sam's fault and points out how Robby wasn't there for Sam when she had panic attacks and PTSD from Tory's attack and the school fight, but Robby angrily tells Miguel to stay out of it. Miguel refuses to do this, and it becomes clear that the rivalry from season one continues. Robby then reignites their rivalry and attempts to punch Miguel, but Sam blocks his punch and pushes Robby away, while telling him to stop. Robby angrily states that they deserve each other and then breaks up with Sam. This leaves Sam devastated.
The following morning, Miguel and Sam are inside the Miyagi-Do dojo, where Miguel is looking at a picture of Mr. Miyagi and holding Daniel's Okinawan hand drum. Sam asks Miguel to put the drum in his pocket and attack her. Miguel does so, but is blocked by Sam the same way Daniel blocked Chozen's attacks in Karate Kid 2. Miguel then performs a take down, causing both to fall. On the ground, the two kiss, but they are walked-in on by Daniel LaRusso. Although initially tense, the relationship between Daniel and Miguel softens as the two bond over the car Daniel got from Mr. Miyagi. Daniel tells Miguel certain facts about Johnny and his rivalry with Johnny, which Johnny never told Miguel, helping Miguel realize both sides to the rivalry between the two senseis.
Later that night, Sam invites Miguel and the other Eagle Fang students to her house while Amanda and Daniel are out in the Country Club Dinner with Ali and Johnny. She wants all of them to work together, which no one can agree upon except Sam and Miguel. However, after some discussion they agree and unite. And thankfully, it was just in time, since Tory interrupts the "party" with a group of Cobra Kai students, including Kyler. Miguel is especially unhappy to see that Kyler has joined Cobra Kai due to his past bullying. The Cobra Kais then attack, resulting in a fight. Miguel first pins Mikey to the table, but then faces Kyler. Kyler has the upper-hand for most of the fight due to Miguel still recovering from his fall off the balcony in the high school brawl and only recently returning to training. However, while being repeatedly hit by Kyler, Miguel remembers the encouragement Johnny gave him while in the coma and his dream about competing in the tournament, as well as imagining Robby as his opponent. Now, regaining his confidence, Miguel defeats and knocks out Kyler, and thanks him for the motivation. After the fight ended, Miguel and Eli alongside Demetri manages to stop Sam and Tory from fighting before Tory leaves she calls both Miguel and Eli "traitors". Later on, Miguel returns home bloodied up recovering with ice pack, as Johnny is about to confess his love for Carmen and Johnny gets shocked at Miguel and tells him what happened, after learning the event Johnny fled to Cobra Kai dojo to confront Kreese.
Back at Cobra Kai, when Daniel is getting the better of Kreese, Miguel and Sam show up and stop the fight between them. Robby arrives and stands next to Kreese, siding against his old sensei and father in the same move, and shocking Daniel and Johnny. Robby angrily shouts at Miguel, Sam, Daniel and Johnny and tells the four to leave. The following morning, Miguel and the other Eagle Fangs show up at the Miyagi-Do dojo, where they begin training under Johnny's and Daniel's leaderships in preparation for the tournament against Kreese, Robby, Kyler, Tory. Mikey, Doug, Big Red and the rest of the Cobra Kai.
Season 4
As training begins under the new dual leadership of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, Miguel is caught in the middle of their feuding. He wants the opposing senseis to get along and tries to work with Samantha, who is back as his girlfriend, to achieve a sense of unity between the men. After an unsuccessful first day, Miguel and Johnny arrive to their apartments where Miguel talks about Rocky III. He tells Johnny that in the movie, Rocky and Apollo had a rough history but they had to work together in order to defeat Clubber Lang. Miguel compares the situation to the merge and how they need to put his and Daniel's differences aside in order to defeat Cobra Kai. The next day, Miguel and Sam are hanging out but notice Eli with a sledgehammer. However, they are relieved to learn that he and the other students are building an Okinawan sparring deck, the same one from the painting inside the dojo. The two join him and shows Daniel and Johnny the first step to working together.
The Diaz's have dinner with the LaRussos but Miguel accidentally spills wine on Daniel. During one training session with Miyagi-Do, Eagle Fang is tasked with catching the koi fish in the dojo pond. Eli offers to go practice at a Chinese restaurant, but Miguel tells him his mom has to pick him up. However, Carmen has car trouble and Daniel offers to help after telling Miguel about the tow company's prices. After their training session, Daniel brings Carmen's car to his repair shop. Back at Miyagi-Do, Miguel catches a koi and earns the Miyagi-Do headband. However, Johnny watched the exchange and becomes jealous over the two, afraid of losing his connection with Miguel after losing Robby.
In another training session, Miguel and Daniel are doing kata much to Johnny's jealousy. Johnny offers to make Miguel dinner but he tells him that he was going with Daniel to work on his mom's car. While Daniel is repairing her car, the two bond with each other. Daniel explains how he blew his money on his trip to Okinawa and a bonsai tree store. He also talks about the true meaning of Miyagi-Do. After the car is fixed, Miguel and Daniel go on a test drive where they are listening to "Sailing" by Christopher Cross. Daniel explains that the 80s also had soft rock and not just hard rock. Miguel ends up speeding through a yellow light, since Johnny always does it, and Daniel warns him on what to do if he were to take Sam out on drives. He talks about his dad and how he ended up in a bad lifestyle. He meets with Sam at a party place for Daniel's worker's child. They kiss in front of Tory, who also works at the party place, angering her. Miguel, Sam and the rest of the Eagle Fangs and Miyagi-Dos are then at a drive-in where they end up in a confrontation with Cobra Kai. He tells them to meet in the baseball diamond only for Miguel not to show up. In the end, Cobra Kai is drenched with the sprinklers. Hawk is impressed with his idea, though Sam was disappointed, and they leave. He tells Johnny about the incident but he gets upset about what he did but Daniel praised it, telling him how restraint is important.
At school, Miguel and Sam tell Eli and Demetri that Daniel and Johnny are going to have a rematch at Miyagi-Do. When he gets home, he notices Johnny train and tells him he doesn't care about their rivalry. During the fight, him and Sam are the referees for the match. The fight ends but Miguel leaves Miyagi-Do after realizing the merge failed.
Eagle Fang learns about the new updates for the upcoming All Valley Karate Tournament. Miguel tells him that they should give Sam a chance in their dojo, but Johnny rejects the idea. He then goes to the school field with Johnny to try to find a girl but to no avail. Miguel tells Moon that they need female students. She turns him down, but point the two to a gymnastics center to recruit Piper. Before she goes to her friends, she accepts their request, happy that they finally found their female student. However, since Johnny never updated the address on his flyer, Piper ended up joining Cobra Kai. Miguel explains that Cobra Kai ordered new gear and is the reason why they got new students. He then explains to Johnny that he made him a champion and needs to think outside the box. Remembering Bert's idea, they go to a debate trial and recruit a girl named Devon, from the debate team, to join their dojo.
Johnny begins a dangerous training session and has Miguel become co-sensei. After the class, the rest of his classmates are upset that he got to be co-sensei. Later, Miguel cuts class to go to the dojo with Johnny. He then tells Miguel that he wants to become Miguel's father. After, Miguel and Sam want to learn the flying tornado kick and he approves. When he gets home, he tells Johnny and his mom that the reason why he came home late is because he was with Samantha. Johnny begins to act like a dad towards Miguel but he is upset with how Johnny and his mom's relationship is going.
Miguel and his family go to the LaRusso house to take pictures with the LaRussos before the prom. He tells Sam that they are happy to put karate aside in order to spend the night with each other. During prom, Miguel and Sam share a dance but get distracted with Robby and Tory dancing. At Stingray's after-party, Sam and Miguel get in a fight with Robby and Tory. When he gets home, he helps a drunken Johnny to his bed and reveals that he loves him but he mentions Robby, saddening him.
During the All-Valley tournament, Johnny talks to Miguel saying he knew about his fight with Robby and Tory and understands his situation. He tells him to focus on the tournament. Later, Miguel participates in the skills competition where he shows off his offensive skills but Eagle Fang falls in sixth place. In the one-on-one matchups, he easily beats his opponent and advances. His opponent in the semifinals is his former Cobra Kai and Eagle Fang classmate and his friend, Eli. They are evenly matched until Miguel knocks Eli down, though no point is awarded due to a block. Miguel prepares to deliver a kick, but ends up pulling a muscle and collapsing. The injury he suffered was the same from the school brawl. As he writhes in pain, the medic tends to Miguel's injury.
Miguel decides not to return and lets Eli advance to the finals, since he doesn't believe winning will solve his inner turmoil. Before the finals, Miguel and Sam reconcile and takes an Uber home. Upon arriving home, Miguel writes a letter to his mother and grandmother saying that he is going to Mexico City to find his biological father. Unbeknownst to him, Tory Nichols won the tournament by beating Samantha 3-2, giving Cobra Kai the grand championship, and also that Terry bribed the referee to ensure she would win, alongside the fact that his biological father does not know about his existence.
Season 5
After the 51st All-Valley, Miguel arrives in Mexico. He approaches local surfers for directions but the surfers take his backpack. After one of them gives him directions, Miguel buys his backpack and map. Later, he arrives at a bar but realizes that it was the wrong guy and leaves. After having a conversation with Sam, he sees a man and begins to follow him. He talks to a kid who runs away from him. After he tries to get his soccer ball, Miguel saves him. Hector thanks him and he invites him over for dinner.
The next day, Miguel helps Hector make breakfast. Hector is happy to learn that Miguel is an All-Valley champion. Later, he invites him to go to an MMA event. When Carmen calls him, he chastises her for lying to him about Hector. He tells her that Hector is a good man and that he missed out on everything because of her. At the MMA event, Hector gets mad at Miguel for not telling him he's from America but apologizes to him after he comes clean. After, Miguel calls his mom and tearfully tells her about how he learned of Hector. Later, Johnny and Robby find him and Miguel and Johnny hug, though is upset when he sees Robby.
While Eli is getting a new tattoo, Miguel recaps his road trip back home with Johnny and Robby. When he tells him and Demetri about Sam's messages, the binary brothers are nervous for him. Demetri brings him to a jewelry store to buy something to make up with Sam. When he notices an octopus necklace, he is sad that he can't afford it. He meets with Johnny and Johnny says if he owns up to his mistakes, he can make things right. After Sam tells him she is breaking up with him, Miguel accepts it but when he leaves Miyagi-Do, he is heartbroken and drops the necklace.
Miguel and other the Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do students are spending a day at the water park. When he arrives, he checks up on Sam and the two attempt to talk to each other. However, after getting into an altercation with Cobra Kai, all the students are kicked out.
One day, Johnny's attempts of having Miguel and Robby get along go bad. Inspired by Daniel, Johnny has the two fight each other to get the hatred out of them. The two end up on the second level of the apartment during their fight. Reflecting the school fight, Miguel becomes enraged and attacks Robby the same way he attacked him during the brawl, which leads to him gaining the upper-hand. However, after remembering his fall, he stops fighting. Robby asks Miguel why he stopped, to which Miguel says he didn't learn karate to hurt people. In the end, Miguel and Robby finally make amends. The two hug Johnny when they learn he's going to have a baby with Carmen. After, the two have dinner at the Diaz apartment.
The Eagle Fangs and Miyagi-Do students learn a new lesson under Chozen Toguchi. Each of the students hide eggs but are picked off by Chozen. Anthony gets an idea to work together to hide all the eggs. The plan works and in the end, Chozen surrenders.
While having dinner at the LaRusso house, Johnny talks to Miguel, Robby and Eli about who will be the male representative against Cobra Kai. Despite Eli losing the boys portion, Sam wins the girls division and Miyagi Fang qualify for the Sekai Taikai tournament. While having a party, Miguel meets a girl and they make out, causing Sam to run out.
At Miyagi-Do, Miguel and Sam talk about Terry Silver bribing the referee in order to ensure Cobra Kai's victory. Later, Miguel and Sam go with Bert to confront Stingray about Kreese's assault. To explain the story, he demonstrates it with a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
To finally put things to an end, Miguel, Robby, Sam, Demetri and Eli all go to the flagship Cobra Kai dojo with Tory to find evidence on Terry Silver. While the binary brothers are finding evidence, the others see the Cobra Kai students attack Anthony. Miguel and his classmates are surprised when they learn that Mitch betrays the merged dojos and tipped off Cobra Kai. A fight then breaks out between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. Miguel takes out several Cobra Kai's and saves Robby from Kenny and a few other Cobra Kais. After a long fight, Daniel finally defeats Terry. Miguel and Sam then repair their relationship.
Season 6
Part 1
Miguel arrives at West Valley High School for his senior year. After school, he and Robby Keene arrive to the Eagle Fang dojo where they see it demolished. Later, the two go on a double date with Sam and Tory. Miguel and Robby are enjoying themselves but Sam and Tory are uninterested. Both threw each other under the bus to their girlfriends when asked who came up with the double-date idea. He tries to get Sam and Tory to bond through ice cream but to no avail. He, Sam and Tory later arrive to defend Robby who is fighting Kenny and his brother Shawn, with Miguel and Robby defeating Shawn.
At his apartment, he reads his Stanford personal statement to his family and are happy about it. During a college fair, a representative from College of the Valley recommends him to go to their school and transfer to Stanford. During a college tour, he, Eli and Demetri encounter their former bullies Kyler and Brucks, but the latter two are nice to them. The three go to a fraternity party where they learn that Kyler is being hazed and the fraternity is planning to disqualify him. However, Miguel exposes Zenker's actions to Kyler in front of them, shocking Kyler and finally causing him to stand up to Zenker. When Kyler fights Zenker, Miguel defends him while Eli, Demetri, and Brucks fight the other students. After they win, they flee the house. Kyler then encourages Miguel to pursue his dreams.
During the qualifiers for the Sekai Taikai, Miguel is one of the twelve students to advance to the next round. After the next round, Miguel, Robby, Sam, and Tory are chosen to go to Barcelona. He and Robby are set to fight each other to earn the title of male captain of the team for the Sekai Taikai. Having been deferred from Stanford, Miguel believes his best chance to get accepted is to be the captain. During his fight with Robby to be the captain, Miguel takes a quick two to zero lead, but Robby mounts a comeback and wins, causing him to be the male captain. Despite being upset that he lost. Miguel shows no ill will towards Robby. He, Eli, Robby, Demetri, Sam and Devon are the six students to represent Miyagi-Do. When they arrive, however, Miguel is upset that Tory has re-joined Cobra Kai.
Part 2
During the Sekai Taikai, Miguel helps the Miyagi-Do's comeback in the events. He still held a little resentment towards Robby for beating him, but was still willing support Robby even after they lost the first preliminary match due to Robby's unbalance state. However, Robby’s unbalance state led him to lose every single preliminary match afterwards drived a wedge between them with Miguel harshly criticizing Robby, telling him to either step up to the challenge or admit that Miguel is fighting better and give the captaincy up to him.
Later, Miyagi-Do finds itself in an elimination round against Dublin Thunder Karate. Robby is once again distracted by Tory and knocked out early while Demitri accidentally kicked Hawk and his opponent off and got himself eliminated afterwards. Miguel then finds himself as the last fighter standing against two Dublin Thunder opponents, succeeding in knocking them both off the match and preventing Miyagi-Do from being eliminated.
After the event, Miguel and Johnny fly back home to check on Carmen's pregnancy. Miguel is still angry about Robby being captain due to how bad Robby performed and how Johnny had been disregarding Miguel all tournament long. However, he ultimately calms down when Johnny makes him realize Robby’s situation and also expressing his regret for not showing support to Miguel too. This gives Miguel a better perspective of the situation. As they reconcile, a rude passenger, Stew, who's been mistreating the duo and everyone on the plane, tries to pick a fight, but Miguel knocks him out. Carmen ends up being okay, much to the happiness of Miguel and Johnny. Miguel and Johnny return to the tournament with their encouragement, and also bring Kenny who goes on to take Devon's spot. Later on in the tournament, Miguel sees Robby still struggling with his emotions and mental state. He then finally offers him the support he needs, ultimately admitting he was a bit harsh to Robby. Miguel reminds Robby about his success, deserving to be captain, and tells him to be the leader that he is.
During one of the rounds afterward, he tags Robby in to show he trusts him. With Miguel's support, Robby begins to get back into form and with the assistance of Kenny, helps Miyagi-Do win the round. Shortly after Robby's and Kenny's victory, the Miyagi-Do's have a heartfelt conversation in the locker room about their upcoming elimination match against Cobra Kai and this being one of the last times they fight together as a team. Miguel hugs the binary brothers and tells them and the rest of the team that they'll always be a family, no matter what the outcome is. He scored one point against one of Cobra Kai member, before tagging in Demetri. He was tagged in again, this time against Kwon. After a heated exchange, he lost a point to Kwon, and ultimately decided to tag in Robby, since Robby has not fought since he got tag out by Sam at the beginning. A fresh and rejuvenated Robby scored the final point on Kwon to eliminate Cobra Kai from the tournament and earns Miyagi-Do a spot in the semi-finals.
Miguel found himself being targeted by the Iron Dragons' male captain, Axel, who's been glaring at him since the previous day, and wants to know what's going on, Sam tells him of their encounter while he was away and how she rejected his attempt to kiss her and told him of their relationship. Miguel understands what happened as the couple see that Axel's not taking it very well. Leading up to the semi-finals match, Miguel witnesses an argument between Johnny and Daniel and stops it. Miguel gave them a pep talk, reminds them of their past achievements and everything they did together, allowing the two senseis to reconcile. He joins his senseis for Sam and Robby's training regimen for the semi-finals while exploring parts of Barcelona.
Robby’s semi-final match with Axel ultimately ends in a no contest when Kwon cheap shots him. Miguel gets on the mat to interfere but Axel pushes him down. While he and Robby confront their enemies for what they did to them, one of the Tiger Strike senseis, Ivanov, punches Gunther, who tried to de-escalate the situation, leading to an all out brawl. Miguel struggles and gets knocked down by Axel. He and Robby help fight other dojos during the brawl. He, along with everyone else, horribly witness Kwon's death when the latter tried to kill Axel with Kreese's eunjangdo knife.
Part 3
A month later, Miguel celebrates the tournament being continued at the All Valley Sports Arena and welcomes his new little sister, Laura Lawrence. Just before Carmen gives birth, she and Johnny get married by Johnny's friend, Bobby, with the Diaz family, Robby, Daniel, Amanda, and Chozen present. He even helps prepare Robby for his match against Axel.
Unfortunately, Robby is severely injured during his match against Axel, forcing him to withdraw. Miguel ran to confront Axel, but was stopped by Chozen. Fortunately, when Johnny is given Cobra Kai back by a remorseful Kreese, Miguel takes Kwon's place as Cobra Kai's male fighter (which Miguel is allowed to do as a former Cobra Kai), leading to a final face-off against Axel. Miguel and Tory are trained by Johnny, Daniel and their friends before their respective fights against Axel and Zara. Prior to Miguel and Axel's match, he finds out that Sam has not applied to UCLA and has instead applied and been accepted to a year-long exchange program in Okinawa. Miguel informs her that he is happy for her and only wants what is best for her. Miguel and Axel's fight commences and despite not landing a single hit on Axel during the brawl, Miguel starts the fight strong by taking a 5-0 lead. However, Axel then fights back, resulting in Miguel getting overwhelmed and eventually knocked down. After being knocked down, Axel is about to knock him out, but Miguel is spared by the bell ringing. Despite being down 15 points to 5, he gets a pep talk from Johnny, who encourages him to use every lesson he learned, going all-in. Miguel follows through in the final round by using everything he has learned, leading to him landing point after point, while Axel is unable to counter most of Miguel's strikes or land a single hit on him. Although Sensei Wolf instructs Axel to fight dirty and break Miguel's weakened spine, Axel chooses to fight him fairly instead. Miguel continues to dominate, and manages to tie up the score. He then knocks down Axel to emerge as the male champion of the Sekai Taikai. However, Cobra Kai and Iron Dragons are tied in overall points, forcing a tie-breaking match between Johnny and Wolf. Johnny ultimately emerges victorious, making Cobra Kai the Sekai Taikai champions.
When Miguel and his family are having dinner at the LaRussos' house, he tells everyone that he was ultimately accepted to Stanford during his fights for his hard work and character, much to Sam's elation and the two hug. After the tournament, he and Sam exchange gifts with Sam giving Miguel a Stanford sweatshirt and Miguel giving her a sai dagger to use while living in Okinawa for a year. At the airport, Miguel surprises Sam by revealing that he has decided to spend the summer in Okinawa with his girlfriend rather than attending the summer program at Stanford.
Personality
Miguel initially appears as a naïve, good-natured, kind-hearted teenager. Initially, Miguel will only fight for those he cares about, but the longer he's exposed to Cobra Kai's mentality, he becomes an aggressive karate champion who makes his former tormentors afraid to be around him. More negative tendencies begin when he becomes paranoid in his relationship with Sam, letting his insecurities take hold. Miguel's transformation from a mild-mannered and pleasant person into a vicious and obsessively competitive individual represents the way that Cobra Kai's "strike first" and "no mercy" rule corrupts students.
- "We're not all assholes."
- ―Miguel Diaz to Robby Keene[src]
Despite becoming indoctrinated into Cobra Kai's "Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy" code, he remains loyal to his core friends and Johnny above all-else. He becomes conflicted when Johnny begins to teach mercy, and has difficulty adjusting. He rebuffs Kreese's teachings, realizing that's not what Johnny wants them to learn. After discovering that Eli vandalized the Miyagi-Do dojo and stole Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, Miguel returns it, showing his decency, honor and understanding the value of the Medal, despite his prior actions and Cobra Kai's ruthless mentality. He begins to accept the new form of teaching, allowing him to be merciful in the school fight. When this action results in his paralysis at the hands of Robby Keene, Miguel's personality shifts. He becomes bitter, blames Johnny for the circumstances, and vengeful towards those that put him in this situation. He also begins to pity himself and loses hope of regaining mobility. Johnny helps guide him into realizing the situation is temporary, and helps him regain both his mobility and confidence. The incident gives Miguel a better understanding of empathy and a clearer picture on the world he's immersed himself in. He rekindles his relationship with Sam and becomes more open-minded towards those he used to despise.
While training under Daniel, Miguel begins to develop an appreciation for Miyagi-Do and its methods of avoiding violence, as seen when he lures Cobra Kai into a trap by tricking them into meeting the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students at the baseball diamond. At the same time, he begins to drift apart from his loyalty to Johnny and Sam, due to the former's relationship with his mother and Sam's aggression towards Tory, but he manages to patch things up with Sam at the Tournament and also tells he will always root for her. Despite this, he begins to become increasingly distant from the people he cares about, and becomes despondent after mistakenly believing he is nothing more than a replacement for Robby, after Miguel tells Johnny he loves him. This leads him to lose his confidence and drive to win the tournament and leave the Valley.
When he arrives at Mexico City, he's pleasantly surprised to discover that his father appears to be a loved and honest employer, but when Hector's true colors come to surface, Miguel quickly realizes to have made a mistake and flees as fast as he can without revealing his true identity, as his honesty is still much stronger than his desire to stay with his father. After he and Sam broke up and he made amends with Robby, Miguel proves to be mature enough to not get jealous at seeing the other two talk to each other, knowing that they are just friends and that even if he and Sam were still together, he would have no right to tell her who she can talk to. Also, he's one of the students among Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang that more than anyone else is determined for the two dojo to work together by being willing to even put aside his feelings toward Sam for the group's sake. When it's time to decide who will represent Miyagi-Fang for the Sekai Taikai's admission match in the boy's division, he and Robby decide that the right thing to do is for Eli to do so, as the latter won the All Valley fairly. The way he hugs Robby when the two cheers for their dojo's mission proves how he's willing to let go the past, just as when, after he and Robby stopped Sam from attacking Tory, he believes Robby when the latter denies any knowledge about the bribing at the All Valley. His further proof of how much he has grown up since the past seasons is when he encourages Sam to understand Tory's position and then, after the Cobra Kai is shut down for good, he has the courage to tell Sam that he loves her but is willing to respect her feelings and choices.
During his senior year of high school, Miguel becomes focused on getting into Stanford University. After getting deferred, he strongly desires to be the captain for the Sekai Taikai, as he believes he needs that to get into Stanford. Despite losing to Robby in their fight to become the captain, he shows no animosity towards him. However, Robby's struggle at the Sekai Taikai greatly frustrates him, until he is reminded by Johnny how karate is all that he has. Realizing that Johnny is right, Miguel shows support to Robby and gives him a pep talk, leading to Robby being rejuvenated. Miguel later learns that he was accepted while he was fighting in the tournament for his hard work and character rather than Miguel's karate skills. However, Miguel chooses to accompany Sam to Okinawa for the summer rather than attending a summer program at Stanford.
Competitive Karate Record:
Miguel is a formidable fighter, having several wins and two major tournament wins, and a very few losses. He is technically undefeated in tournaments, as he withdrew from the semifinals of the 2019 All Valley. 
| Boys | Quarter-final | Win | Reid | ||
| Boys | Semi-finals | Win | Stone | 3-1 | |
| Boys | Finals | Win | Keene | 3-2 | |
| 2019 All-Valley Karate Tournament | |||||
| Event | Round | Result | Opponent | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys | Quarter-final | Win | Post | ||
| Semi-final | Loss (forfeited) | Moskowitz | WD | ||
| 2020 Sekai Taikai Karate Tournament | |||||
| Boys | Final | Win | Axel Kovačević | KO | |
Fighting Style
Miguel fighting against Kyler
- "Yeah, it all happened so fast. Everything just came together. I was blocking. I anticipated. I slithered."
- ―Miguel to Johnny[src]
After he begins his karate training with Johnny, Miguel develops into a solid all-around fighter. Not as flashy as Eli Moskowitz, Miguel favors simple, effective techniques and combinations. His defensive skills, movement, and timing are excellent; he can wait out an aggressive opponent and pick the right moment for a counter, as seen in his match with Xander Stone. Like any true Cobra, however, he can turn on the offense when he needs to. During the tournament, Miguel used Miyagi-Do's well known technique: The Crane Kick perfectly by pure imitations. He is also skilled against multiple opponents, as displayed in his lunchroom fight with Kyler's gang.
When his anger gets the better of him, Miguel fights more aggressively and underhandedly, evidenced during his fights with Robby at the All Valley Tournament and school brawl, though he also knows when to fight a fair fight and show mercy. Miguel has fought underhandedly, evidenced at the All Valley Tournament, where he aggressively attacks Robby's injured shoulder, and even yanks it in the finals.
Miguel's biggest weakness is letting his guard down, which allows his opponents to attack him by surprise and beat him. After gaining the upper hand on Tory in their sparing match, he ends up dropping his guard by offering Tory his hand, who uses this opportunity to flip him over and beat him. After seemingly trying to end the fight with Robby in the school brawl, he drops his guard by letting Robby go. However, Robby in anger after Miguel had attacked and taunted him throughout the brawl continues the fight, kicking Miguel, who is unable to defend himself due to dropping his guard, resulting in Robby unintentionally kicking him over the school balcony, ending the fight. This rendered Miguel unconscious and severely injured his spine.
While Miguel defeated Robby in the All Valley tournament, their match was basically even, despite Robby's injured shoulder putting him at a disadvantage. Robby proved to be the better fighter with Miguel under the Cobra Kai methods, fighting dirty which eventually led to him defeating Robby. During the school brawl, Miguel successfully pins Robby to the ground without fighting dirty, showing that Miguel's skills have grown. Miguel's physical strength has come a long way since he began his training. Near the end of the school brawl, he dented a metal railing when he attempted to kick Robby.
After his back injury, Miguel suffers some physical ailments and limitations. When he starts walking and training again, his kicking is weak and he almost hurts himself. Since his legs are not back to full form, this puts him at a disadvantage in his fight with Kyler, until he regains his confidence.
During the brief alliance between Daniel and Johnny, Miguel trains under Daniel and learns some Miyagi-Do tactics such as circling his opponent, blocking his opponents, and avoiding fights when necessary. After the spilt between dojos Miguel primarily uses Eagle Fang/Cobra Kai Karate when he fights and gained an aptitude for aerial spin kicks. Miguel holds his own against his rival Robby Keene during their prom battle but ultimately comes up short as Robby eventually counters his offence and throws him into a swimming pool. In his semifinal match with Eli Moskowitz, he matched him blow for blow and knocked Eli down despite the latter newly learning and becoming competent in Miyagi-Do Karate. Miguel might have beaten his former classmate if he didn't pull a muscle and decided to withdraw from the match.
In the following weeks after the tournament, Miguel continued to grow stronger and has not demonstrated any problem in regards to his back while fighting ever since the tournament. He applied an armlock in a Mexican thug, blocked his blows expertly and managed to throw him to the ground without much effort. He and Robby ultimately had another fight and during the fight, his remembrance of the school fight led to him becoming enraged and overpowering Robby. He could have kicked him off a balcony, similar to how Robby had done to him during the fight at West Valley High School, but restrained himself and ended the fight. During the final showdown in the Cobra Kai Encino Dojo, Miguel was capable of defeating several Cobra Kais, including Kenny, without much trouble. He demonstrated the ability in the use of improvised weapons, as shown when he used his flannel shirt against the Cobra Kais in said showdown. When the Miyagi-Fangs tried to protect Anthony by forming a circle around him, Miguel was one of the five remaining fighters standing in the circle as the rest were being pulled away from the group by the cobras.
Miguel continues to be a very strong fighter during his senior year. He helps Robby fight off both Kenny and Shawn at the batting range. During the fraternity brawl, Miguel helps Kyler beat up several people. When preparing for the Sekai Taikai, Miguel is one of the four strongest contenders and four contenders (alongside Sam, Robby, and Tory) to be considered for the captain of the team. When fighting Robby for the captain spot, he initially takes a two-zero lead, but after Tory arrives, Robby becomes more focused, leading to him coming back and Miguel losing 3-2.
Despite Miyagi-Do (Robby in particular) struggling for a good part of the Sekai Taikai, Miguel pretty much single-handedly kept them from being eliminated. In Captain's War, he eliminated a Cobra Kai female member, and took on Yoon Do-Jin and Min-Seok in a 1v2, eliminating the latter. In the first platform fight, he was able to earn some points for Miyagi-Do by knocking down the Hornet's Nest male captain from it with a knee. During a critical second platform event, despite his teammate's (Robby and Demetri) blunder leaving him at a 1v2 disadvantage, he took on and defeated two Dublin Thunder students, including their male captain by himself, to keep Miyagi-Do from being eliminated. During the all-dojo brawl, he helps Robby defeat some students with Miguel knocking down the students of West End Warriors, but finds himself being easily defeated by Axel, while managing not to land a single strike on the latter.
During his second match with Axel, however, he gets off to a good start by taking a 5-0 lead. Unfortunately, Axel then takes control of the fight by fighting more aggressively, leading to Miguel being overwhelmed and knocked down. However, Miguel is eventually able to defeat Axel by recalling and using everything that he had learned from Johnny over the years, proving to be the only one capable of beating Axel. In turn, Axel chose to fight Miguel fairly rather than fighting dirty as Sensei Wolf had instructed him to.
Due to his natural talent, physical strength, quick learning, effective skills and mastery in offense and defense, and years of experience across Miyagi-Do, Cobra Kai, and Eagle Fang, Miguel has cemented himself as one of the greatest fighters in Cobra Kai history. His ability to seamlessly blend different fighting styles, and take on multiple opponents at once makes him a nearly unbeatable force. Miguel’s precision, strength, endurance, durability and strategic mind allow him to dominate both in offense and defense in an almost perfect way, almost always staying one step ahead of his opponents. All the knowledge he has learned, and victories at the All Valley and Sekai Taikai tournaments have made him possibly the best teenage fighter in the show's history.
He has surpassed all the teenage fighters, such as Axel Kovacevic, Xander Stone, Robby Keene, Kwon Jae-Sung, Yoon Do-Jin, Hawk, Kenny Payne, Demetri Alexopoulos, Shawn Payne, Kyler Park, Diego Aguilar, Tory Nichols, Zara Malik, Samantha LaRusso and all of the Sekai Taikai male captains. The only ones who could possibly challenge him are Axel and Robby.
Relationships
Carmen Diaz
Carmen is Miguel's mother, and they have an extremely close bond as she is the only parental figure he had as a child. Carmen is often overprotective of Miguel, especially after he decides to do karate. While she forbids him from doing karate after he is beaten up by Kyler and his gang, she is then persuaded by Johnny to let him do it. Following this, she doesn't seem to be as protective, though she seems ambivalent about the violence that continues to be involved. In the end of Season 1, she is seen cheering on Miguel from the beginning to the finals of the All Valley Tournament. However, after the school brawl, Miguel is admitted to the hospital due to the fight with Robby, and Carmen is shown to be distraught and extremely distrusting of Johnny. Carmen is with Miguel in the hospital before and after he wakes up from his coma. After waking up from his coma, she is there to make sure he is ok. When Miguel is released from the hospital, Carmen eventually expresses her appreciation to Johnny for helping Miguel recover and walk again, and Johnny and Carmen get back together. Miguel is deeply disturbed and worried when he learns there has been a complication with her pregnancy, but deeply relieved when he learns the surgery to correct the issue was successful.
Rosa Diaz
Rosa is Miguel's maternal grandmother. Rosa supports his decision to do karate. When the nurse tells Rosa and Carmen to remind a comatose Miguel that they are there and to talk about things he loves, Rosa talks to Miguel about his favorite sports teams. Rosa is the first person who asks Johnny to be there for Miguel, and reminds him that that Miguel needs him. She asks him to pray with her, which Johnny accepts.
Hector Salazar
Hector is Miguel's biological father who has been absent from his life. Carmen and Rosa have always told Miguel that his father is a "bad man", and he made no known attempts to get to know him. However, after a drunken Johnny calls him "Robby" in his sleep, a desire to learn more about Hector awakens in Miguel, and he withdraws from the All-Valley Karate Tournament to go to Mexico and find him. As they first encounter each other, Hector is seen to be a friendly, charming and kind gentleman who showers Miguel with praise after saving his girlfriend's child from being run over by a car. He offers the young man to stay with them and promises to show him around the town, creating an illusion in Miguel's mind that all the things his mother and grandmother said about his father were untrue. However, the façade is shattered quickly as Hector assumes he's being chased by the Federales and flees into a hideout with Miguel, where he reveals he's actually a criminal who is selfish, greedy and paranoid, confirming Carmen and Rosa's words. Heartbroken, Miguel leaves without ever telling him about their relation and returns home with Johnny and Robby.
Johnny Lawrence
- "I'm so sorry, Sensei. I... I thought I had him.
You did have him.
Yeah.
And then he had you. That's how fights go. That's how life goes. We all get our asses handed to us sometimes. There's gonna be more where that came from, I guarantee it. On and off the mat. But I've never known anyone who could take a shit-kicking and fight back harder like you.
Thanks, Sensei, but... I'm further behind on points than where we started. I don't know if I could make it back in one round.
Who gives a shit about the score? Points are for pussies. Just go out there and give him the best two minutes of karate you got. Everything you learned. Every lesson. Every win. Every loss. Leave it all on the mat. Go all in! Got it?
Yeah. Yes, Sensei.
Screw this headband. You're Cobra Kai." - ―Johnny and Miguel[src]
Johnny is Miguel's karate sensei and father figure/stepfather. When they first meet in Season 1, Johnny is rude to Miguel. However, one night at Reseda Mini Mart, Johnny engages in a fight with Kyler and his gang for harassing Miguel after witnessing Miguel being pushed by Kyler to his car. Miguel attempts to explain to the police that come to arrest Johnny that it wasn't his fault, he did not just attack the teenagers, which reveals his growing attachment to Johnny. The following morning, Miguel asks Johnny to teach him karate, but Johnny refuses to teach him at first. Later, Johnny changes his mind when he reopens the Cobra Kai dojo.
In many ways, Johnny becomes a Mr. Miyagi to Miguel, who is more often reminiscent of Daniel than Johnny. Johnny passes on his Halloween skeleton costume idea to Miguel, though their situations are reversed from Johnny and Daniel in the original The Karate Kid. This time, Miguel is the one badly injured by Kyler and his gang, and Johnny is the one to find Miguel and bring him safely to his apartment. This results in Carmen wanting to forbid Miguel from continuing karate and coming near Johnny. After some time, Johnny realizes that he truly cares about Miguel, who is one of the only people who hasn't given up on him. So, he then persuades Carmen that she should let him back into his dojo and he promises not to fail him. Carmen agrees to let Miguel do karate again, but only if Johnny makes sure that next time Miguel will be able to defend himself.
With Johnny's training, Miguel becomes a skilled fighter, which allows him to defeat Kyler and his gang, resulting in several students joining Cobra Kai and Johnny even giving his old gi to Miguel as a reward. Miguel and Johnny bond over the course of season 1, with Johnny even giving Miguel advice on dating Daniel's daughter. In the Season 1 finale, Johnny expresses discomfort when Miguel fights dirty against Robby in the All Valley Tournament. While he advises Miguel not to fight dirty, he continues to anyway, which allows Cobra Kai to win the tournament. Despite the victory, Johnny feels bad about what Miguel has become.
In Season 2, Miguel and Eli are rebuked and punished by Johnny for their dirty tactics in the tournament. When Miguel confronts him, Johnny says he paid the price for not knowing the difference between honor and mercy, and wants Miguel to avoid making the same mistake. Their bonding continues, with Johnny even telling Miguel that he is proud to be teaching him. In the finale, Miguel gets the better of Robby, but lets him go after remembering Johnny's advice. However, this backfires, as an enraged Robby attacks Miguel and Miguel flips over a railing, rendering him unconscious and severely injuring his spine. At the hospital, Johnny listens to a voicemail Miguel left earlier and peeks into Miguel's room and sees him lying unconscious, causing him to cry and feel guilty.
When Miguel wakes up from his coma in the beginning of season 3, he is cold to Johnny at first, as it was Johnny's teachings that he followed that led to him ending up in the hospital. However, after some time, Johnny begins giving a hopeless Miguel courage, and they become close again with Johnny helping Miguel return back to training and Miguel helping Johnny with his dating and social life via Facebook and accepting that Johnny was seeing his mother. When Miguel is released from the hospital, Johnny works with Miguel to help him walk again through training, and eventually Miguel begins to walk again. After being able to walk, he co-founds and joins Johnny's Eagle Fang Karate dojo. By the end of the season, The Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do dojos have merged, and Miguel along with the rest are training at Miyagi-Do with Johnny and Daniel as the co-sensei's.
When Miguel starts to spend more time with Daniel, Johnny becomes jealous of their developing relationship and eventually, the two senseis clash about their incompatible methods of training their students and Miyagi-Fang disbands. In order to spend more time with Miguel, Johnny gets him out of school early and takes him to the Eagle Fang dojo where he tells him about his relationship with his late father and he ends the conversation telling Miguel he wants to be his father. After a disastrous prom night, Miguel goes to seek support from Johnny and heads to his house to talk to him but he finds a drunken Johnny on the floor and takes him to his bed. Johnny tells him that he tries to be a father to him but he's not good at it and Miguel tells him that he's doing just fine and that he loves him but Johnny says that he loves Robby too. This makes Miguel realize that he was talking about Robby and not him so he leaves Johnny's house disheartened. When Miguel prepares for his fight against Eli at the All Valley tournament, Johnny tells him that he's defeated Eli before and can do it again but Miguel counters that he's his friend and later tells him who's side is he on. During their fight, Miguel pulls a muscle trying to perform a kick and Johnny goes to check up on him. In the infirmary, Miguel expresses his doubts of being able to continue but Johnny gives him a pep talk and tells him to show everyone who's the best and Miguel realizes that's why Johnny wants him to continue.
After the tournament, Miguel goes to Mexico to meet his biological father and while he initially thinks he isn't that bad of a guy, he eventually finds out the truth behind him and Johnny comes to pick him up and the two hug each other. Back in California, Miguel goes to Johnny's apartment to seek some advice about his relationship with Sam and he tells him that if he can accept the mistakes he's made, he can fix things between them. Johnny tries to end Miguel and Robby's rivalry by having them come to Olive Garden and creating an escape room for them but to no avail. However, when he has them fight out their problems, the outcome of the school fight is almost recreated, with Robby almost falling off the balcony, but Miguel stops the fight before things escalate and the two mend their relationship and Johnny accidentally tells them that he and Carmen are having a baby and the two hug him in celebration.
A couple months later, Johnny takes Miguel and Robby to the Eagle Fang dojo to train before they head to Miyagi-Do, only to find out the dojo has been demolished and when they make it to Miyagi-Do, the two boys express their sympathy for Johnny. Miguel reads his Stanford admission letter to Johnny, Robby, Carmen, and Rosa but while he's reading it, the pipe in the Diaz apartment breaks and leaks, causing the family to move into Johnny's apartment. Johnny and Carmen discuss how they won't be able to afford to send Miguel to Stanford due to their family getting bigger but Johnny assures her that the Sekai Taikai will help them earn the money to do so. Johnny and Carmen spend time together and Miguel enters and he tells him that he's been deferred from Stanford and the two offer him support and comfort. In Barcelona, Miyagi-Do competes in the Sekai Taikai, but when the team is celebrating a victory, Johnny receives concerning news from Rosa and he is informed that Carmen has been admitted to the hospital due to pregnancy complications. He and Miguel get on a flight to California but during the flight, the latter gets irritated by Johnny's attempts of assuring him that Carmen's alright and he moves to the front of the plane in an attempt to get away from Johnny. Johnny requests to speak to Miguel but when the stewardess asks him if he would like to talk to him, he declines and she tells Johnny to go back to his seat. However, Johnny manages to sneak to the front of the plan and he manages to talk to Miguel. He outright tells a distraught Miguel that he considers him to be his son just as much as Robby, and he also apologizes for not showing him as much attention as he did to Robby back at the Sekai Taikai.
A month after the Sekai Taikai is abruptly canceled after Kwon's death in the all-dojo brawl, it is reinstated and continues in the Valley in the All Valley Sports Arena. Following Miyagi-Do's forfeit, Johnny reclaims Cobra Kai from Kreese with Miguel serving as Kwon's replacement as male captain and he later helps the former and Tory train for their respective final matches against Axel and Zara. On the day of the finals, when Miguel's struggling against Axel during their fight, Johnny gives him a pep talk and reminds him of everything he's sustained over the years and Miguel, now driven thanks to Johnny, successfully defeats Axel. When Cobra Kai and Iron Dragons tie, Johnny must go up against Feng in a tiebreaker to determine the winner of the tournament. Miguel and the rest of his friends support Johnny by donning the black Cobra Kai gi. After Johnny wins, Miguel, Hawk, and Demetri lift him up and celebrate his victory.
Samantha LaRusso
Samantha is Miguel's girlfriend for a few episodes in Season 1 and once again from Season 3, and she plays a similar role in the rivalry between Miguel and Robby that Ali played between Johnny and Daniel in The Karate Kid. On his first day of school, Sam catches Miguel's eye and he wants to approach her, but he is interrupted by Kyler. After defeating her ex-boyfriend Kyler and his gang during the lunch altercation, the two go on a date and become a couple. Their relationship mascot is an octopus from the prize Sam earned on their first date together. However, their relationship becomes strained when Sam does not want to bring him to her house to meet her family, due to Miguel being a member of Cobra Kai, which is the rival dojo to her father's Miyagi-Do. Things get more strained when Sam does not respond to his texts, though this was not Sam's fault. Unbeknownst to Miguel, Sam's mother took her phone away. Still, she eventually manages to get a hold of her phone and wants to meet Miguel at the party, which she arrives at with Robby. Seeing this, Miguel assumes they are together, confronts Sam and attacks Robby, but he accidentally hits Sam instead. After this, she asks Miguel to leave her alone and their relationship ends for the rest of Season 1.
In Season 2, the two don't have much interaction. Initially, Miguel wants to make things right and rekindle their romance, but Sam wants nothing to do with him due to his actions. When spending more time with Tory, he falls for her and starts dating her instead. Sam, however, has bad blood with Tory and disapproves of Miguel dating her. She even confronts him about it, upsetting Miguel. On the night before the first day of school, a drunk Sam thanks Miguel for returning Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, and the two share a kiss, but immediately regret it due to them already being in relationships. They are unaware of the fact that Tory saw them, which is what leads to Tory attacking Sam the next day in school, and to the fight between Miguel and Robby. After Robby flips Miguel over the railing, Sam is horrified both at what Robby did and Miguel's condition. At the hospital she tearfully says that she hopes Miguel is ok.
Shortly after waking up from his coma in Season 3, Sam visits him and gives him a get-well card, and the two apologize to each other for the whole situation. Sam organizes fund raise for Miguel's surgery with the help of Miyagi-Do students. After Miguel is able to walk again, he returns to school and rekindles his friendship with Sam. Over time, they rekindle their former romantic feelings for each other and end up back together. Sam and Miguel work together to bring Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do together, and by the end of Season 3, Miguel is training with Sam and the other Eagle Fangs and Miyagi-Dos at the Miyagi-Do dojo.
In Season 4, Miguel and Sam are dating again. They work together to try to put Daniel and Johnny's rivalry aside. The two then referee their rematch but can't come to a decision on who's the winner. Realizing that the merge didn't work, Eagle Fang splits from Miyagi-Do. Miguel and Sam both go to prom together but they get distracted by Robby and Tory. The two cross paths with them at Stingray's house and end up fighting with each other. During the All-Valley, the two reconcile as Sam gets ready for the final round.
In Season 5, Miguel wanted to make up to Sam for not being at the tournament to cheer for her and for arguing with her because of it. With Eli and Demetri's help, they found an octopus necklace, being able to afford it due to a discount. Before Miguel could give the necklace to Sam, Sam sadly decided to break up with him; Sam wanted to get out of karate so she can get back into a normal life. Miguel, heartbroken by her request, accepted it and dropped the necklace at the yard. Realizing that there will always be bullies and jerks no matter where Sam goes, she decided to get back into karate, training to put an end to Silver's reign. On the night celebrating Miyagi-Fang's qualification to the Sekai Taikai, Sam arrived with Miguel's necklace she found at Miyagi-Do, only to find him kissing another girl. The next morning after learning the truth from Tory, Miguel tried to reason with Sam about his actions, Sam pushed the event aside wanting to hear out Stingray's story first. After hearing Stingray's story of him being attacked by Silver, Sam resorted that it was Tory's fault for not coming clean right from the very beginning. Miguel gave Sam the push to hear out Tory for not revealing everything since he was in Cobra Kai with her. After the final fight against Cobra Kai and Daniel defeating Silver, Miguel and Sam are having a moment where she asked about the necklace. Miguel said the necklace was meant for her, but didn't get to give it to Sam when she broke up with him. Miguel stated that the break up is not what he wanted, but accepted her decision. Sam is thankful for that. Miguel stated that it's "what you do when you love someone". Sam's surprised at first, but also said she love him too, rekindling their romantic relationship with a kiss.
In Season 6, Miguel and Sam continue their relationship. The two share a kiss after arriving at school on their first day of their senior year. To bring Sam and Tory together, Miguel and Robby takes them on a double date at Golf N' Stuff, but it goes awkward at first. When the couple has their own conversation, Miguel confesses that it was his idea and he convinces Sam to give Tory a chance. While Robby tries to speak to Kenny, Miguel tries to get attempts to bring the girls together through ice cream while talking about their own future after high school, but it doesn't work. The three were able to assist Robby fighting Kenny and Shawn, this apparently leads Sam and Tory become friends. While checking out the college fair at school, Miguel notices that Sam has a lot of brochures but she assures him that three of the colleges that she's considering applying are close to Stanford University. The two share a kiss before Sam takes off while Miguel stays with Eli and Demetri to check out the College of the Valley. While training for the gender captain's match, Miguel and Sam have their own training session with Daniel in the woods. On the day of the fights, Sam has support in Miguel, standing in his corner. When it's 2-2, Sam assures Miguel that whether he wins or lose, everything's going to be okay. For Sam and Tory's match, Miguel stands in Sam's corner while supporting her.
After arriving in Barcelona, Miguel, Sam, and everyone in Miyagi-Do was shocked upon seeing Tory had decided to return to Kreese and Cobra Kai after she was denied to fight Sam for the role of female captain to honour her late mother. When Miguel temporarily leaves Spain alongside Johnny to check on his mother Carmen, Sam gets along with Axel Kovacevic, the male captain of rival dojo the Iron Dragons, and they fight off Kreese's Cobra Kai students together. During their time together, Axel starts falling for Sam and tries to kiss her, only for her to reveal she already had a boyfriend in Miguel. Though Sam was not mean to Axel by saying this, the Iron Dragons captain develops animosity towards Miguel upon his return, which establishes a rivalry between the two of them, leaving Sam uncomfortable. When the fight is halted, Miguel and Sam stood by together when they shockingly see Kwon dead.
A month later, Miguel and Sam help prepare and later attend LaRusso Auto's 18th anniversary party. After Johnny takes back Cobra Kai from Kreese, Sam helps train Miguel and Tory for their matches against Axel and Zara respectively. During a break after Tory wins her match, when Miguel puts his card for Sam in her jacket, he sees her acceptance letter to a one-year exchange program in Okinawa and realizes that she's going there after high school instead of UCLA. The two talk where Sam reveals that she was going to tell Miguel about her decision after his fight, but he praises her for this before the two kiss. After Miguel defeats Axel, Sam celebrates with Miguel. When the Diazes have dinner at the LaRussos' house, Miguel tells everyone he was accepted to Stanford, much to Sam's elation and the two embrace each other. The two later support Johnny during his fight against Wolf by donning the black Cobra Kai gi and they would eventually witness their sensei's victory. Later, Miguel surprises Sam at the airport by deciding to spend the summer at Okinawa with her before he goes to Stanford. When he notices that Sam's not wearing Mr. Miyagi's necklace that Lucille gifted her, she reveals that she's wearing the octopus necklace he gave her, much to his happiness and the two kiss before they catch their flight.
Tory Nichols
Tory is Miguel's love interest in Season 2 until mid Season 3. With Miguel initially being upset over his breakup with Sam, Tory, who had joined Cobra Kai and taken interest in Miguel, helps him get over his breakup. The two quickly become a couple, and while Miguel does not know the full extent of Tory's family background, he knows she works hard, and he s willing to defend her behavior against the criticism of others. Tory also has an influence on Miguel about what can be considered fair or not fair in fighting and in life. However, Tory witnesses Miguel and Sam kissing the night before the first day of school. In the school brawl that she instigates, Tory, still angry over the kiss, kicks Miguel in the stomach when the latter tries to stop her from attacking Sam. She is horrified, however, when Miguel is kicked over the railing by Robby.
The next time they see each other is while Miguel is at lunch with Johnny, who is posing for pictures for his Facebook profile. Tory sees him when Johnny goes to the bathroom. Miguel shows that he's upset with Tory for not coming to visit him in the hospital. He is further upset when Tory says that Cobra Kai is trying to get back at Miyagi-Do for what happened to him, while Tory voices her disappointment for his kiss with Sam. Miguel tells her that she needs help, but this angers her, as she feels he is calling her crazy. Miguel then breaks up with Tory for her role in severely injuring Sam and starting the school brawl, and then she leaves in anger. The next time they see each other is when the Cobra Kai students enter Sam's house in order to attack the Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang students who had just formed a truce. Miguel tells Tory she doesn't have to do this, to which Tory says "it's too late". Then a fight breaks out, which Cobra Kai loses. Before Tory leaves, she calls both Miguel and Hawk traitors.
During the weeks where Cobra Kai was expanding throughout the Valley following their victory in the All Valley Tournament, Tory sees Silver's true colors and makes amends with Sam, Miguel, Robby and their friends so they could dismantle Cobra Kai and place Silver in jail. Even before Tory officially left Cobra Kai and helped Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang to shut it down for good, Miguel defended Tory: when she confesses the truth about All Valley, Miguel defends her secrecy when Samantha blames her for what happened after the tournament, knowing him how much Tory must have struggled on coming clean, given the toxicity of Cobra Kai. Thanks to his patient prodding, Samantha finds the strength to listen to Tory.
With Tory joining Miyagi-Do, Miguel and Robby planned to have Sam and Tory get along by taking them on a double date at Golf N'Stuff, but it goes awkward. While Robby tries to deal with Kenny, Miguel attempts to bring the girls together through ice cream while talking about their own future after high school, with Tory revealing that she was having difficulty in finding college opportunities after being expelled and placed in probation for the whole year of 2018-2019. Even though the bonding attempt doesn't work, the three were able to assist Robby fighting Kenny and Shawn, this apparently leads Sam and Tory to become friends. Since then, the two couples are fully on good terms while they train for the Sekai Taikai. However, Tory reluctantly rejoined Cobra Kai after she lost her mother.
When the Sekai Taikai resumed in the All Valley, Johnny has regained the ownership of Cobra Kai from the redeemed Kreese, thus making Miguel the new male captain and Tory's partner. Together before their match against the captains of Iron Dragons respectively, they trained together with their sensei and friends from Miyagi-Do, which has paid off so well that they became the new champions of the Sekai Taikai. Later when Johnny's having his tie-breaker match against Iron Dragons' sensei, Feng Xiao, they cheered as their sensei's victory has won them and Cobra Kai the entire championship.
Eli Moskowitz
Eli is one of Miguel's closest friends. They meet in the school's cafeteria, where Demetri introduces them, and immediately become friendly due to being somewhat outsiders and bullied by Kyler and his gang. Eli joins Cobra Kai after witnessing Miguel using his skills from Cobra Kai training to beat up Kyler and his gang. After his change, he would go on to become one of the top students along with Miguel. Despite Eli's abrasive personality and actions, as well as the two getting into a fight over Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor that Eli stole, they remain close friends. At the end of the school fight, when Miguel has fallen from the second story balcony. Eli immediately recognizes Robby as the one responsible for this. He is also one of the first at the scene on the stairs and tries to wake Miguel up, but a police officer tells him to back off. Eli believes that their sensei, Johnny, is indirectly responsible for the situation Miguel is in.
In Season 3, Eli is one of the people who regularly visits Miguel in the hospital. He interrupts Sam's visit to Miguel and keeps the rivalry between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do alive, extending so far as to organizing the theft of the fundraising money for Miguel's surgery (though it is implied that the money does become contributed to the costs of the surgery in Cobra Kai's name). After Miguel is able to walk again, he returns to school, where he is welcomed back by Eli. However, after learning from Demetri that Eli broke Demetri's arm, Miguel confronts Eli and shows disapproval about him letting Kreese get inside his head. Eli's latest actions lead to their friendship ending. However, their friendship is likely rekindled when Eli redeems himself by defecting from Cobra Kai and becoming part of Eagle Fang, joining forces with Miyagi-Do.
Miguel and Eli train together in Eagle Fang despite Eli trying to fit in. He and Eli leave Miyagi-Do after realizing that the merge didn't work. Despite quitting karate, the two are still friends. During the tournament, the two face off against each other but after Miguel withdraws, Eli wins and advances to the finals.
After Miguel's return from Mexico, Eli, along with Demetri, tries to help Miguel with Sam, eventually suggesting him of buying her a jewel, which Miguel does even though Sam breaks up with him before he could show it to her. During the day at the water park, Eli goes to stay with Moon, but while there's Miguel with him, there's also Samantha with her, leading to an embarrassing situation. The two friends then try to stop Cobra Kai students from bullying Anthony LaRusso and the Eagle Fang students, but this eventually leads to them being kicked out from the park. Eli and Miguel, along with the others Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang begin to train with Chozen. During the training, Eli offers to kick Robby's butt for talking with Sam, but Miguel disagrees, knowing that the two are simply friends. When it's time to choose who will represent their dojos in the match against the Cobra Kai, Miguel, along with Robby, agrees that it's up to Eli to fight, much to the latter's pleasant surprise for their trust in him. The two aid Sam and Bert to talk to Stingray. At his apartment, he demonstrates the crime through Dungeons and Dragons. During the fight at the Cobra Kai dojo, the two protect Anthony while he holds Demetri's tablet.
While on a tour at the College of the Valley, Miguel, Eli, and Demetri run into Kyler and Brucks. They all go to a fraternity party in Theta Omega's house. When Kyler picks a fight with the frat members after learning that he's never getting in, Miguel, Eli, Demetri, and Brucks assists him fighting them off. While getting ready for the next round of Mike Barnes' challenges, Miguel learns from Hawk that he never applied to MIT because since the frat party, he hasn't been thinking about other schools to apply. Miguel encourages him to tell Demetri when there's a chance. After Demetri and Devon earn the final two spots, Miguel comforts Eli about his loss of earning a spot. However, he ends up getting a spot after Tory left. Now, the two All Valley champions are able to go to Barcelona with their selected teammates.
At Barcelona, Miguel reluctantly agrees with share a room with Eli when Demetri wants to bunk with Robby. Although, all 4 of them ends up getting a hotel room together after Robby loses his and Demetri's room to Kwon through a kicking contest. Miguel and Eli share a bed while the same goes for Robby and Demetri. When Robby struggles in his role as the team's captain due to him being conflicted about Tory being in Cobra Kai again, Eli and Demetri tells Miguel that he should've been the captain. When Kenny joins the team later in the tournament and the binary brothers suspected him of being a mole for Terry Silver that lead to Miyagi-Do losing their tag team match against Furia De Pantera, Miguel scolds Eli for not tagging him when he had the chance. Miguel and Robby then proves the binary brothers wrong when Kenny helps Miyagi-Do win against Redentores. In the locker room before their match against Cobra Kai, when Eli and Demetri make up, Miguel hugs the two while assuring them that they'll always be his best friends.
The Sekai Taikai later resumes in the Valley. Miguel, Eli, and Demetri help Robby with his training for his continued semifinal match against Axel. After Johnny retakes Cobra Kai, Eli, along with Miyagi-Do, trains Miguel and Tory for their final matches. When Miguel defeats Axel in the final match, Eli and the team celebrates his victory. After Johnny wins his tiebreaker match against Wolf, Miguel, Eli, and Demetri lifts him up to celebrate his victory.
Robby Keene
Robby and Miguel had tense relations from the start. One could say he was Miguel's main rival. While the two don't have much interaction, they never have a positive one. Both dislike each other since their separate and unaware moments of first seeing the other. Their rivalry is similar to Daniel and Johnny's original rivalry, but on more personal levels. Miguel hates Robby for stealing Sam away and Robby hates him for stealing his father, who is Miguel's sensei. In the penultimate episode of Season 1, Miguel and Robby meet at a party, where Miguel has gotten drunk out of desperation over Sam not returning his texts or calls. When Miguel sees his girlfriend and Robby walking together to the party, he is immediately jealous. Getting the wrong idea, he attacks Robby, but accidentally pushes Sam in the process, leading her to dumping him. In the Season 1 finale, Miguel and Robby face off in the All Valley Tournament, where Miguel viciously attacks Robby's shoulder which was injured thanks to Eli in the semifinals, allowing him to defeat Robby and win the tournament, though it was a close match.
In Season 2, they don't have much interaction. When Miguel went to Daniel's house to return Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor that Eli stole, he was shocked when Robby opened the door. He does not realize that Robby was not yet really together with Sam; he was there because the LaRussos' took him in after his mother abandons him for a short period. Still, Miguel gives him the medal, trusting that Robby will give it to Sam. Instead Robby, worried the admission would ruin his chances with Sam, pretends to find the medal in the Miyagi-Do dojo. Sam finds this out through Miguel at the party, but appreciates that Robby admitted it to her in the end before the school fight. When the school brawl starts, Miguel becomes involved when he notices Robby is holding Tory, Miguel's girlfriend, against a locker. Unaware that Robby was trying to stop the fight, as well as believing he was attacking her, Miguel attacks Robby, causing the two to fight. Their fight is long and intense, and it appears to be evenly matched. Eventually, Miguel flips Robby and put his arm in lock, but after remembering Johnny telling him to show mercy, he lets Robby go and apologizes. Unfortunately, an enraged Robby attacks him again and flips him over the railing, resulting in Miguel falling on the stairs below and suffering a broken back. Horrified at what he had done, Robby runs away.
Later in Season 3, Robby, who was recently released from juvenile detention, sees Miguel, who is now walking again, with Sam. Getting the wrong idea, he tries to attack Miguel, only to be stopped by Sam. Robby then walks away and his relationship with Sam ends. Later, when Miguel and Sam show up at Cobra Kai to stop Daniel from further escalating his fight with Kreese, Robby comes out and tells all of them to leave.
In Season 5, when Johnny is making every attempts to have Miguel and Robby bond with each other, all of the methods failed due to their history with each other. However, inspired by Daniel's chat, Johnny decided to let the boys fight it out with their fists. During the fight at the apartment complex, it moved to the second floor where Miguel was about to do to Robby what the latter did to the former. However, after few flashbacks of what happened to Miguel when he got kicked out of the second floor, he decided to back down. After the fight, Robby admitted that what he did to Miguel was the worst moment of his life and wished he could take it back. As the two have finally forgiven each other, they learned that each of their parents is having a baby together, which got them excited. Since then, Miguel and Robby acted like best friends; both are joking around with Johnny and agreed together that Eli should represent Miyagi-Fang for the Sekai Taikai qualification match against Kenny. During the final brawl against the Cobra Kai students at their dojo while publishing Silver's bribing, Miguel kicked away Kenny before the latter could strike Robby, showing that Miguel is concerned and supportive for Robby. Finally, when the video of Silver’s confession is played on the televisions, he looked back to Robby to confirm that the boys and their fellow students from Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do succeeded in their mission to expose Silver.
In Season 6, Miguel and Robby have gotten closer. They plan to have Sam and Tory get along and take their respective girlfriends on a double date at Golf N' Stuff, but it goes awkward for the girls. When Robby was forbidden by Shawn for trying to reconcile with Kenny that leads a fight in the batting cage, Miguel, Sam, and Tory were able to assist him fighting off the Payne brothers and this apparently leads Sam and Tory to become friends. The boys are happy to see that their plan worked. For the Sekai Taikai male captain spot, Miguel and Robby are selected to fight on who will lead Miyagi-Do. The boys really want the position for their own opportunities with Miguel wanting it so there can be a better chance of him getting accepted to Stanford University while Robby wants it so he can have opportunities after being on probation and placing second in the last 2 All Valley's. On the day of the fight, Miguel and Robby are first to fight. Miguel takes a 2-0 lead, but Robby mounts a comeback and beats Miguel and becomes male captain. The two share a fist bump ensuring that there's no hard feelings between them.
In Barcelona, Robby performs deficiently in the tournament due to him having a hard time dealing with Tory's return to Cobra Kai and this frustrates Miguel. The tension between them escalates and Miguel confronts Robby and gives him an ultimatum: either he steps it up or he hands the captaincy over to him. After Miguel returns to Barcelona after leaving temporarily to visit Carmen in the hospital, he realizes how tough he's been on Robby and apologizes to him for not knowing what he was dealing with and he also gives him a pep talk, reminding him that he's a natural born leader and deserves to be Miyagi-Do's male captain. The two reconcile, and later, the two fight alongside each other during most of the all-dojo brawl.
A month later, Robby, Miguel, Eli, and Demetri train together to help Robby prepare for his upcoming fight with Axel, using virtual reality goggles and an AI program that were created by the binary brothers so that Miguel appears to be Axel to Robby. Shortly afterwards, Carmen goes into labor, giving birth to Robby and Miguel's half-sister Laura Lawrence. Johnny proposes on the spot to Carmen, and they are married by Bobby Brown with Robby and Miguel — who stand side by side — amongst those in attendance. Johnny and Carmen's marriage causes Robby and Miguel to become step-brothers, something that they both excitedly accept.
Since their parents' marriage, they became supportive brothers to the point where Miguel cheered for Robby in his match against Axel. However, when Axel reluctantly broke Robby's leg per Sensei Wolf's orders, Miguel became angry that he attempted to rush after Axel for the latter's action, however, he was stopped by Chozen. Later, after training with Tory under his step-father as the new Cobra Kai captain, Miguel stated that he's looking forward to avenge Robby for his broken leg. Miguel fulfilled his promise by defeating Axel in the boys' final match. Afterward, he hugged numerous people for his victory, including Robby.
Daniel LaRusso
Daniel is Miguel's girlfriend's father and later his co-sensei. In Season 1, they see each other for the first time when Daniel goes to confront Johnny about Kyler being assaulted by Johnny. Johnny tells Daniel the truth about what happened, since it was really Kyler who had attacked Miguel. Daniel is shocked to know that Miguel is training under Johnny, and warns him not to be like him. Daniel tells his daughter to stay away from any Cobra Kai students, without knowing that Miguel and Sam are dating, which strains Sam's and Miguel's relationship. Miguel does not know about Daniel's advice about whom Sam should date, and he attempts to introduce himself to Daniel before thinking that Sam is actually interested in Robby, who happened to be eating dinner at the LaRusso house that evening.
On the other hand, Johnny was shocked to see Miguel is dating Daniel's daughter, and he decides to tell Miguel his side of the story about Daniel. This causes Miguel to dislike Daniel and not want to be associated with the LaRusso family.
Miguel and Daniel do not interact directly over the first two seasons, seeing as Miguel is Johnny's student, though they see each other at numerous occasions, including the All Valley Tournament. There, Daniel witnesses Miguel using his signature move, the Crane Kick, against the opponent in the preliminary round, much to his chagrin.
Upon meeting LaRusso for the first time after his recovery in Season 3, Miguel starts to see that they have more in common than he previously believed, and he begins to respect LaRusso and his methods, as well as his perspective in the rivalry with Johnny. He also learns about Mr. Miyagi, and expresses some regret that he was born too late to have become a student of Miyagi's, feeling he could have learned much, which Daniel appreciates. Daniel also gives his congratulations to Miguel for winning the last tournament by remarking "from one All-Valley champion to another". By the end of the season, Miguel trains at Miyagi-Do with the Miyagi Do's and Eagle Fang students, with both Daniel and Johnny as his co-senseis.
When Carmen's having car trouble, Daniel helps Miguel with the situation by taking her car to LaRusso Auto and the two work together to fix it. While working on the car, Miguel and Daniel continue to learn more about each other. When Carmen's car's finished, Daniel takes Miguel on a test drive on it while teaching him how to drive. After hearing that Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang had a confrontation with Cobra Kai at the drive-in that resulted with Miguel pranking the Cobra Kai's with sprinklers, Daniel praises Miguel for ending a fight without getting hurt. At the All Valley Tournament, before Miguel's semi-final match with Hawk, Daniel wishes him good luck.
While training for the gender captain's match on who will lead Miyagi-Do in the Sekai Taikai, Daniel trains Miguel and Sam in the woods. On the day of the fights, Miguel and Robby are first to fight with Daniel as their referee which resulted with Robby's victory. At Barcelona, Miguel stops Daniel and Johnny from nearly fighting each other again. After he reminds Daniel of his success including defeating Silver and everything he and Johnny have done together, this allows the latter and Johnny to reconcile in order to win the Sekai Taikai as a team. Later, Daniel congratulates Miguel when he wins the Sekai Taikai finals and gets accepted to Stanford University.
Axel Kovacevic
Axel is Miguel's new arch-rival in Season 6.
The rivalry started by Axel due to his jealousy towards Miguel who’s in a relationship with Sam, the girl Axel befriended and developed a crush on. Due to this, Axel is prone to either glare or bump on Miguel, much to his confusion until Sam explained what’s happening. After hearing her story, Miguel can clearly see that he’s not ready to move on and let go of his feelings. Later when Miguel attempted to help Robby for getting a cheap shot from Kwon, Axel escalated the rivalry even further by pushing down Miguel. Later when the all out brawl started, Miguel tried to attack Axel, only to realize that he's a superior fighter.
When the Sekai Taikai resumes and is relocated at the Valley, Miguel helps train Robby get ready for his rematch against Axel by using the Binary Brother's equipment to pose as Axel and study Axel's fighting style in order to improve Robby's chance. However, during Robby's match, things have turned for the worst when Axel broke Robby's leg to break, which caused Miguel to act in anger and attempted to run after Axel only to be stopped by Chozen.
After training with Johnny as Cobra Kai's new captain, Miguel's prepared to get revenge for Robby's leg broken by Axel. However, his stepfather reminded Miguel of what Johnny's been through when dealing with Daniel. Johnny advised Miguel that he should do what Daniel did; don't fight for revenge, but to honor everything Miguel learned and use it all. During Miguel's match, he gained the upper hand in the first round 5-0 until Axel turned around by scoring higher by 15-5 in the second round. During the final round, Sensei Wolf instructed to attack Miguel's spine, which was broken once from the school fight, in order to cripple Miguel again and win by default. However, when he see's the opening Axel was told to attack, he looked at Sam with a realization; if Axel goes through with this by committing a dishonorable act against her boyfriend, she'll never forgive him and will be seen as a monster like Wolf. Instead, with the realization, for once he ignored his sensei's instructions and fight to win or lose fair and square. In the end, Miguel defeated Axel.
Kwon Jae-Sung
Even though they never talked or spoke to each other, Miguel didn’t like how Kwon was to Robby and others which made Kwon a rival to him during the tag team match.
Terry Silver
- "Just focus on what you need to do out there and nothing else. Both of you. Don't worry about overall points. Just win your fight. Okay?
No. Sorry Sensei, but there's no way in hell we're letting Silver buy himself another title.
He's right, we can close the gap.
Badass." - ―Miguel, Tory, and Johnny resolve to putting an of Silver once and for all[src]
Despite their less interactions, Miguel shows strong dislike as not only he is the founder of the Cobra Kai dojo, but also a psychopath who corrupts students using his twisted doctrine. He even learned that Silver bribed the referee to attain Cobra Kai's All Valley victory through Tory and Miguel hated the old man for its crimes, especially towards his involvement to his sensei such as beating Johnny ruthlessly for defecting from Cobra Kai and his order he gave to Axel to injure Robby intentionally, as of Season 6, he declared his resolve to Johnny and Tory that they will win to prevent Silver from buying another title, re-awakening the cobra within him in the process. Even Silver, on his end too, expressed fear and dislike for Miguel Diaz, mirroring the relationship he had with Daniel LaRusso.
Other Relationships
- Demetri Alexopoulos (Best Friend)
- Aisha Robinson (Close Friend/Former Co-student)
- Kyler (Former Bully/Current Friend)
- John Kreese (Former Sensei/Enemy)
- Bert (Friend)
- Mitch (Friend)
- Moon Taylor (Friend)
- Yasmine (Friendly)
- Brucks (Former Bully/Current Ally)
- A.J. (Former Bully)
- Rory (Former Bully)
- Axel Kovacevic (Arch-Rival)
- Kwon Jae-Sung (Rival)
Appearances
Cobra Kai
Season 1
- "Ace Degenerate"
- "Strike First"
- "Esqueleto"
- "Cobra Kai Never Dies"
- "Counterbalance"
- "Quiver"
- "All Valley"
- "Molting"
- "Different but Same"
- "Mercy"
Season 2
- "Mercy Part II"
- "Back in Black"
- "Fire and Ice"
- "The Moment of Truth"
- "All In"
- "Take a Right"
- "Lull"
- "Glory of Love"
- "Pulpo"
- "No Mercy"
Season 3
- "Aftermath"
- "Nature Vs. Nurture"
- "Now You're Gonna Pay"
- "The Right Path"
- "Miyagi-Do"
- "King Cobra"
- "Obstáculos"
- "The Good. The Bad. and The Badass"
- "Feel The Night"
- "December 19"
Season 4
- "Let's Begin"
- "First Learn Stand" (credited; no appearance)
- "Then Learn Fly"
- "Bicephaly"
- "Match Point"
- "Kicks Get Chicks"
- "Minefields"
- "Party Time"
- "The Fall"
- "The Rise"
Season 5
- "Long, Long Way From Home"
- "Molé"
- "Playing With Fire"
- "Downward Spiral"
- "Extreme Measures"
- "Ouroboros"
- "Bad Eggs"
- "Taikai"
- "Survivors"
- "Head of the Snake"
Season 6
- "Peacetime in the Valley"
- "The Prize"
- "Sleeper"
- "Underdogs"
- "Best of the Best"
- "Benvinguts a Barcelona"
- "Dog in the Fight"
- "Snakes on a Plane"
- "Blood In Blood Out"
- "Eunjangdo"
- "Into the Fire"
- "Rattled"
- "Skeletons"
- "Strike Last"
- "Ex-Degenerate"
Trivia
- Miguel can speak fluent Spanish and English.
- Many viewers agree that he bears a physical resemblance to the young Daniel LaRusso.
- When both Xolo and Tanner accepted the roles of Miguel Diaz, and Robby Keene, they also learn that Miguel and Robby are going to be the two lead roles of the series, meaning that Miguel Diaz and Robby Keene are the two main protagonists of the series overall.
- He has an asthmatic condition that requires the use of an inhaler in the first-half of Season 1, though it is implied that training strengthens his lungs and the condition loses severity for him.
- Miguel had braces for all of Season 1 but got them removed before Season 2.
- Eli has given Miguel two nicknames: El Serpiente ("the snake") for his first-place victory in the All-Valley tournament and El Diablo de la Lluvia ("The Rain Devil") for getting members of the Cobra Kai dojo wet.
- Throughout the series, Miguel has only ever lost once in a refereed match.
- Miguel and Johnny have opened up dojos together twice.
- In the video game adaptation, he is voiced by Joe Zieja.
- In season 1, Miguel and Sam's relationship is similar to Romeo & Juliet.
- Though Sam blocked him on Instagram in "Mercy Part II," in "The Right Path," her stories appeared at the top of his page on his phone again, indicating she'd unblocked him.
- Despite his injury, He technically earns 3rd place in the 51st All Valley Tournament.
- He has appeared in every episode of the series except "First Learn Stand."
- Ouroboros is the only episode where he doesn't have any dialogue.
- Miguel, along with Tory, are the only known people to defeat previous Sekai Taikai Champions in Axel and Zara, respectively.
- Miguel is the only person that Johnny has let wear his headband, which was given to him by Ali Mills.
- With his appearances in 64 episodes out of the 65 episodes of Cobra Kai, Miguel Diaz is the second-most consistent character in terms of episode appearances following Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence who appeared in all 65 episodes of Cobra Kai. making them the most consistent characters of the show.
- In an interview, co-creator Josh Heald stated that his character was specifically inspired by Daniel LaRusso, a fish-out-of-water in "almost like a reverse Mr. Miyagi relationship."[1]
Gallery
References
- ↑ Hollywood Reporter: The ‘Cobra Kai’ Bosses Want to Give Mr. Miyagi His Prequel Story