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Nathaniel

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"If you died, I won't even attend your funeral."
―Nathaniel to Bert[src]

Nathaniel, also known as "Nate", is a supporting character in the Netflix series Cobra Kai. He is portrayed by Nathaniel Oh.

He joins the Cobra Kai Dojo at first, but after realizing that Cobra Kai's ruthless antics are going too far, he switches to Miyagi-Do Karate. Despite maintaining Cobra Kai's mentality when he first arrives at Miyagi-Do, he is soon able to let go of that and becomes a part of Miyagi-Do.

Biography[]

Cobra Kai[]

Season 2[]

Nathaniel was part of a wave of teenagers that joined the Cobra Kai Dojo shortly after seeing Cobra Kai's success at the All Valley Karate Tournament. However, after Daniel LaRusso, the sensei of the rival Miyagi-Do Karate Dojo confronts Cobra Kai's sensei Johnny Lawrence about trashing his dojo, Nathaniel leaves the dojo along with Chris, Frank, Abe, and Lil Red, realizing that Cobra Kai's ruthless teachings have gone too far.

After leaving Cobra Kai, Nathaniel along with the others join Miyagi-Do Karate, much to the chagrin of the Miyagi-Do students Sam, Robby and Demetri. Despite struggling to grasp the teachings of this new dojo, as they were already into the Cobra Kai philosophy, Nate and the other students eventually started to work together as a team.

At Moon's party on the last night before the first day of school, Nathaniel is shown participating in a dance battle with Edwin, with the crowd cheering for him. After Demetri roasts Eli at the party, he is seen with the rest of the Miyagi-Do's getting ready to fight the Cobra Kai's right before the police showed up and everyone at the party had to run away.

When a school karate war occurs on the first day of school, Nathaniel fights the Cobra Kai student Bert, and initially gains the upper hand. However, after some time Bert is able to break his glasses; an angry Nathaniel brutally tackles Bert and starts punching him until a security guard picks them both up (and possibly takes them to the principal’s office).

Season 3[]

After Miguel Diaz gets a broken spine at the end of the karate war at school, the Miyagi-Do students make a fundraiser to fund Miguel's surgery, with Nathaniel collecting the money. At the end of the day however, Eli, Mitch and two other Cobra Kai's corner Nathaniel, taking the money from him and beating him up. After being beaten up, Nathaniel and the other Miyagi-Do's show up at Sam's house, where he tells her what happened, this prompts Sam to re-open Miyagi-Do and train with Nathaniel and the others without her father.

Later on, when Sam attempts to form a truce between Miyagi-Do and Johnny's Eagle Fang Karate Dojo to fight against Cobra Kai at her house, most initially disagree, with Nathaniel and Bert insulting each other. However, everyone soon agrees after a speech from Demetri telling them off. Unfortunately, the same night Sam's house was broken into by the Cobra Kai students lead by Tory, who attacked both dojos in an all-out brawl. During the battle, Nate seems to be fighting with Bert and Demetri before being thrown at a christmas tree, he then is seen fighting one Cobra Kai student along with Bert. Nate's side eventually wins the fight because of Eli defecting and siding with the Miyagi-Do's and Eagle Fang's.

The morning after the fight, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang merge into one and are training at Miyagi-Do's dojo, with Johnny and Daniel as their senseis. Now befriending each other, Nathaniel and Bert exchange high-fives before training.

Season 4[]

Nathaniel is in attendance on the first day of the training merge between Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang. He also listens to Daniel and Johnny's speech about the tournament and how to beat Cobra Kai. While Nate is doing breathing exercises, Mitch accidentally kicks him. Later on, Nate and the others are waxing Mr. Miyagi's cars. When Eli is taking a water break, he notices a painting in the dojo of an Okinawan sparring deck and tries to apologize to Chris and Nate for his actions as a Cobra Kai student. Nate and the rest of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang help clear out space at the Miyagi-Do dojo to build an Okinawan sparring deck like the painting. The senseis agree and becomes the first step to the alliance.

During the alliance, Miyagi-Do is training with Johnny. Nate and the others go up to the roof where Johnny has them to jump from one building to another. He gets upset when Demetri uses him as measurement. Later on, Sam decides to take the risk and jumps to the next roof, impressing the others. When Miyagi-Do returns to the dojo, Johnny prepares them for another lesson.

At school, Nate and Bert are talking in the bathroom when they notice a boy named Kenny Payne. The two insult him due to his affiliation with Cobra Kai. Kenny is about to punch the two but is stopped by Eli, who tells him to leave Cobra Kai. Nate and Bert go to a drive-in where Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang get into a confrontation with Cobra Kai. In the end, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang win after they drench Cobra Kai with the sprinklers.

Before Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang's class session, Nate and the rest of his classmates hide in Miyagi's house where Daniel and Silver are having a conversation. Nate tells Bert that Silver is the highlander.

Daniel tells his students about the new updates for the All-Valley tournament. Later on, Nate cheers for Demetri while he's sparring with Daniel during an imaginary tournament.

During the All-Valley, Nate is holding a board for Eli's board-breaking skills but doesn't break the board. During the one-on-one matches, he is paired with Cobra Kai student Kenny where he loses to the latter when he uses the drum technique. Nonetheless. he celebrates with Miyagi-Do after Eli wins the boys division.

Season 5[]

Nate and Miyagi-Do meet up where Daniel explains that he is adhering to his bet with Cobra Kai and is shutting the dojo down. Daniel says that Miyagi-Do will still remain inside of them regardless of what happens.

Nate is with Bert and Chris, they catch Mitch eating a free brownie from Cobra Kai's new location at a mall causing the latter to put the free snacks down and leave with the group.

Later, both Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students begin training with Chozen. He gives each student an egg as well as time to hide but are picked off with ease by their new sensei. After Anthony's idea, the lesson ends with the students learning a new lesson on how to protect something of value.

Later, Nate along with Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang goes to the Cobra Kai dojo to fight against them in order to qualify for the Sekai Taikai tournament. During the girls match, Sam wins her match and because the organizers are impressed with the dojo, Miyagi-Do qualifies. He later attends the afterparty at Miguel's apartment.

Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang arrive at the Cobra Kai dojo to find evidence on Silver. Nate asked why is Tory on their side and Sam explains the answer. However, the Cobra Kai students arrive and confront them. After an intense face-off, it's revealed by Kenny and Kyler that Mitch rejoined Cobra Kai as an undercover mole and informed them of the Miyagi-Fang's plan to break into the dojo. A fight later breaks out. Nate and the rest of the Miyagi-Fang students were able to protect Anthony from the Cobra Kai students while using Demetri's tablet to upload the video of Silver confessing his crimes to Tory.

After a lengthy fight between the students, Daniel and Silver arrive. The two senseis later take on one another with Daniel coming out on top, defeating Silver once and for all.

Season 6[]

Nate was sparring with Devon Lee, Bert, and Chris at Miyagi-Do. Shortly, Mitch arrives, having rejoined Miyagi-Fang after quitting Cobra Kai. However, they are upset over Mitch's betrayal, but make up with him after he promised not to make any more heel turns by showing his half Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang shirt he's wearing.

Later, Nate advances with the final 12 of Miyagi-Do students competing for a slot in the Sekai Taikai during Mike Barnes' challenge. He then gets eliminated after the second round. With training over, Nate stays in the valley with several of his classmates while Miyagi-Do and their selected fighters heads to Barcelona to compete in the Sekai Taikai.

Him and Bert watch the Sekai Taikai and told him that they could've helped the Miyagi-Do's in the brawl.

Personality[]

Nathaniel is an impressionable, foul-mouthed and cocky nerdy child. Even after joining Miyagi-Do in season 2, he initially has trouble letting go of the Cobra Kai creed of "Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy." nor does his training limit his aggression as seen when he fights Bert. However, he does show prominent skill in karate, as shown he was able to overpower and pummel Bert without needing his glasses to see.

In season 3, he helps out with the fundraiser for Miguel's surgery. However, after the Cobra Kai's take the money from the fundraiser which Nathaniel was holding on to, and beat him up, Nathaniel complains to Sam. Later on, when Sam attempts to get Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang to form a truce, most disagree, with Nathaniel and Bert trading insults, though everyone eventually agrees thanks to Demetri giving them a good telling-off. The day after the truce and fight with Cobra Kai, Nathaniel is shown to be friendly with Bert. The students begin training with Daniel and Johnny.

In season 4, both he and Bert are friends, and they bully Kenny who has recently joined Cobra Kai. He also voices anger at Robby for betraying Miyagi Do.

Fighting Style[]

In his fight with Bert during the school brawl, Nathaniel uses his defensive skills to counter Bert's strikes, and offensive skills to hit and take down Bert. Even though Bert breaks his glasses, he is able to take him down and land several punches on his face, before the fight is broken up by a security guard. Despite this, in Season 3 Nate is seen to be easily overwhelmed when the Cobras steal the fundraiser money and during the fight at Sam's house, he and Bert have trouble keeping up with the other kids due to their height. In season 4, he is defeated by Kenny in the All Valley Tournament, partly due to Kenny utilizing Miyagi-Do's technique he learned from Robby. Despite his skill being better than Bert's, Nate is easily one of the weaker fighters of the series and possibly the weaker one from Miyagi-Do.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • He loves humor related to mathematics, as revealed in "Pulpo."
  • He shares his name with his actor "Nathaniel Oh".
  • His actor is real life best friends with Bert's actor Owen Morgan, which means their characters dislike each other (until the Season 3 finale), while they've known each other before the show.
  • Nathaniel is the second Korean-American character on the show, following Kyler Park.
  • After his glasses gotten broken the second time, he stopped wearing glasses.
  • His voice sounds deeper in season 6 due to his actor going through puberty.
  • He's one of the characters to drop the "F" bomb.
  • And since he didn't appear in Season 6 part 3, this makes Eunjangdo his very last appearance in the show...

Appearances[]

Cobra Kai

Season 2[]

Season 3[]

Season 4[]

Season 5[]

Season 6[]

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