Daniel LaRusso

The Karate Kid (1984)

In The Karate Kid, Daniel and Lucille move in to the South Seas Apartments in Reseda. Daniel is invited by his new neighbor Freddy Fernandez to a beach party, where he meets Ali Mills. He also encounters and is defeated by Ali's ex-boyfriend Johnny Lawrence in a brief fight. During his first month in school, Daniel is harassed by Johnny and his Cobra Kai gang. At the school's Halloween dance, Daniel attempts to get back at Johnny by placing a hose above the toilet stall where Johnny is rolling a joint and getting him wet. His scheme backfires and he is chased and beaten up by the Cobra Kai gang outside his apartment until Mr. Miyagi, the apartment's maintenance man, intervenes and saves Daniel. The next day, Mr. Miyagi confronts Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese and proposes to have Daniel and Johnny's feud settled in the upcoming All Valley Under-18 Karate Championships tournament on December 19. Kreese agrees, but warns that if they do not show up at the tournament, both Daniel and Mr. Miyagi will be declared fair game to Cobra Kai.

Daniel is initially upset with Mr. Miyagi over the arrangement, but Mr. Miyagi assures that with proper karate training, he will no longer have to worry about Cobra Kai. Mr. Miyagi has Daniel do mundane chores at his rest house such as waxing his classic cars, sanding the wood floors, and painting the fence. Daniel threatens to quit over doing these chores, but Mr. Miyagi shows that the chores double as karate defensive maneuvers. While training with Mr. Miyagi, Daniel develops a relationship with Ali. Mr. Miyagi also gives Daniel his yellow 1948 Ford Super De Luxe convertible as a birthday present and a reward for getting his driver's license.

At the tournament, Daniel unexpectedly advances toward the semifinals. Kreese instructs Bobby Brown, one of his more compassionate students and the least vicious of Daniel's tormentors, to put Daniel out of commission. Bobby reluctantly does an illegal kick to Daniel's knee, getting himself disqualified while Johnny looks at Kreese in disgust. As Johnny is about to be declared the winner by default, Ali informs the tournament announcer that Daniel will fight in the final round. During the fight, Daniel gets the upper hand and gives Johnny a bloody nose. Kreese orders Johnny to sweep Daniel's leg, an unethical move. Fearing his sensei, Johnny hits Daniel's bad leg with an elbow strike and receives a warning from the referee. Upon the restart of the round, Johnny loses the match after Daniel lands a crane kick to his face. Having gained respect for his nemesis, Johnny gives Daniel the trophy.^[2]

The Karate Kid Part II (1986)

In The Karate Kid Part II, which mainly takes place six months after the first film, Daniel has separated from Ali. When Daniel learns that Mr. Miyagi is going to Okinawa to visit his dying father, he uses his college fund to fly with him. Upon their arrival, they meet Sato Toguchi, a wealthy businessman and Mr. Miyagi's former best friend. Daniel meets Kumiko, a teenager who aspire to move to Tokyo and pursue a career in dancing. He also encounters Sato's nephew Chozen, who harasses him after Daniel inadvertently exposes the corruption on Chozen's grocery business. One day in town, Chozen challenges Daniel to chop a row of ice sheets; however, Daniel wins Chozen's wager by using Mr. Miyagi's breathing exercise and successfully breaking all of the ice sheets. The Toguchi family continues to terrorize the Miyagi family home until a typhoon hits Okinawa. During the storm, Sato is pinned by debris from his family's dojo and while Chozen runs away, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi save Sato's life. Because of this, Sato's decades-old grudge with Mr. Miyagi is settled and he offers to rebuild the village. A disowned and humiliated Chozen crashes the village's Obon festival to take Kumiko hostage and challenge Daniel to a fight to the death. Chozen initially has the upper hand on Daniel due to his more advanced karate skills, but Miyagi, Sato, and the crowd use their handheld drums to motivate Daniel and defeat his opponent.

The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

In The Karate Kid Part III, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi return to Los Angeles to discover that their apartment is undergoing demolition and Lucille is back in New Jersey to care for Daniel's uncle Louie. Using the rest of his college fund, Daniel helps Mr. Miyagi set up a bonsai tree nursery. Daniel receives an invitation to defend his championship title at the next All Valley Under-18 Karate Championships, but Mr. Miyagi tells him to ignore it, seeing no point in the competition. However, he is confronted by prodigious and undefeated karateka Mike Barnes, who threatens Daniel to defend his title and steals the shop's bonsai trees. Terry Silver, a friend of Kreese and co-founder of the Cobra Kai dojo, offers to train Daniel for the tournament. Little does Daniel know that this is an elaborate scheme for Kreese and Cobra Kai to exact revenge on him by physically weakening him and having him suffer a humiliating defeat by Barnes. When Kreese reveals himself and Barnes attacks Daniel, Mr. Miyagi saves his pupil and agrees to train him for the tournament.

At the tournament, Barnes swiftly advances to face Daniel in the final round. He uses Silver and Kreese's tactic of scoring a point, then losing it with an illegal move until he wins the sudden death round. After Mr. Miyagi prevents him from conceding the match, Daniel performs a kata in the sudden death round. A confused Barnes charges at Daniel, but Daniel flips him to the ground and strikes him to win the tournament.

Cobra Kai (2018–)

In Cobra Kai, which takes place 34 years after the first film, Daniel is happily married and has two children. He and his wife Amanda own the LaRusso Auto Group, a chain of car dealerships in the San Fernando Valley. As part of the dealership chain's commitment to customer satisfaction, Daniel personally gives each new client their own bonsai tree. He meets up with his old nemesis, Johnny Lawrence, whose car was wrecked and sent to his intake lot, he is unaware that his daughter, Samantha and her friends accidentally caused the wreck and Daniel offers to fix his car for free. He discovers that Johnny has reopened the Cobra Kai dojo in Reseda. He fears that Johnny will create a new generation of bullies that he and Mr. Miyagi had to face in the past. In addition, Daniel begins to struggle with issues within his family and business.^[3]

Johnny's estranged son Robby Keene gets a job at the LaRusso Auto Group as an elaborate scheme to get back at his father. Despite not knowing Robby's actual motives, Daniel takes him in as his karate student. As such, Daniel proves to be a positive influence on the boy, who turns on his criminal former friends to defend Daniel's business and even defending him against his own father when Johnny learns to his outrage what Daniel has been doing with his son. However, upon learning the truth of Robby's relations, Daniel rejects Robby and fires him suspecting he is engaging in some scheme against him. Undaunted, Robby participates in the All Valley Karate Tournament against Cobra Kai as an independent fighter, and the combination of this tenacity impressing Daniel and his wife convincing him to forgive the boy's mistakes leads to Daniel becoming Robby's sensei again. Daniel coaches Robby in the final match, but loses to Johnny's top student, Miguel Diaz. With teacher and student reconciled, Daniel plans to expand the Miyagi-do style and philosophy with an official dojo to oppose Cobra Kai with Robby being his senior student.