People call Daniel an idiot and then point to trauma responses as proof. Like yes?? That's the thing about trauma?? It makes it difficult to be rational?? He's not an idiot, he's just a man who's never been taught what mental health is and has no idea that his is rapidly deteriorating and has been since he was a child.

Nobody's told him, "Hey, you were just a kid. Nearly being killed multiple times, getting challenged into a literal fight to the death, having your trust violated by an older man in a position of power over you who pretended to be your friend, and all this other stuff you've been through are called traumatic experiences and they're rough. You deserve help."

Daniel is stubborn. And he comes from a working class background, where a lot of people view mental health as a luxury. He lost his dad and he was uprooted and still he never gave up. He's always trying to help other people, he just doesn't always know how. And the person he knows the least how to help is himself. So no, he's not an idiot, he's just a traumatized, stubborn man who wants to help others and doesn't realize how much help HE needs. Yes, he's made mistakes and needs to take accountability, but that's true of every person on this planet.

Daniel LaRusso being told as a child by his abuser that the crane kick is weak and won't defeat anyone only for Daniel to grow up and crane kick that same abuser in the face is immensely satisfying, I'm just saying.

Daniel Larusso really said the trauma of my youth and the subsequent guilt that I’ve placed upon myself for that trauma is too much for me to fully examine and reflect on without collapsing in on myself so in order to survive I must bury my emotions and put on a persona of happiness and success. I have lived within this carefully constructed persona for so long and yet my life still feels as flawed and empty as it did before I made the conscious decision to suppress my trauma. Now I am desperately trying to stay strong and handle the resurgence of my unaddressed pain and anger but I don’t know how to do so properly and I have just become more alienated from my mistakes as I fear no one will ever be able to understand the depths of my trauma and that the persona I’ve built around myself like a sort of armor will fall apart and revert me back to being the same position of powerlessness I was in when my trauma first began. Like DAMN Daniel please give me a moment to breathe before you make me  overidentify with you like this!!!

god the entire robby situation twists my heart.. and part of me is like he would never trust kreese and go that easily... but honestly? he's been wronged so many times by the same people and kreese is such a master manipulator and robby is rightfully angry and fragile. this poor kid forreal. maybe robby tells amanda and thats partly why she slugs kreese.. idk but..

the heartbreak.

people call Daniel annoying as if that isn’t his best trait :/

I would like to sign up as a LaRusso defense squad member. Thank you!

Forever a member of the Daniel Larusso, Robby Keene, Tory Nichols, and Samantha Larusso defense squads.

I'm going to be completely honest, I have some feelings about the way Daniel's real trauma with Cobra Kai is reduced to a petty grudge and they're not positive.

People refusing to understand that Daniel LaRusso has PTSD is my villain origin story.

I am of the personal opinion that it is almost impossible to understand Daniel LaRusso if you haven't seen the Karate Kid movies. Sure, not all of them are great, but they're essential to understanding the character. He went through several traumatic events as a child. If his reactions towards Cobra Kai in the modern era seem over the top, it's because of that trauma. If you don't understand Daniel as a trauma survivor, his actions will never make sense.

In Season 4, I need more scenes of Daniel fighting ASAP

And not just one on one fights or him against two guys. I’m talking about my boy Daniel going up against an entire gang of guys by himself and winning! 

I know we had the fight one the beach between him and the three goons harassing Robby but that wasn’t nearly enough for me.

We’ve seen so many of those fights with Johnny throughout the series and now it’s time to get one of those for Daniel. In fact, I think it would be a fantastic narrative choice for his character!

To show Daniel Larusso growing from the boy who could barely defend himself and was harassed and almost killed by a gang of malicious bullies to the man who can now protect himself and his loved ones against any physical threats no matter how outnumbered he is.

The complete evolution of Daniel Larusso from the victim to the protector

There is this whole stigma that I’ve seen around the internet lately about how Daniel was “making things worse for himself” or “became less sympathetic” because he fought back against his bullies....

WHAT?!? 

Why in God’s name do we need a victim of abuse to never once fight back in order for them to gain our full sympathy???  Daniel Larusso was beaten up and humiliated in front of his peers on the beach, harassed throughout the school year, pushed down a really steep hill and could’ve died, and was almost beaten to near-death on the night of the Halloween dance until Miyagi saved him and yet you mean to tell me that suddenly you can’t bring yourself to sympathize with this literal child and victim of abuse because he stood up for himself ONE time! 

No No No Nope No I call bullshit!

On Daniel Larusso, the appearance of Kreese, and *That* Decision

Very unpopular opinion here but I’ve seen too many people ragging on Daniel for this so here it goes:

I understand Daniel’s decision not to tell Johnny about Robby’s whereabouts in the presence of Kreese. I think the fandom is slowly but surely starting to accept the idea that Daniel still has PTSD and a ton of unaddressed trauma from the events of the original trilogy, ESPECIALLY in regards to what Kreese, Terry Silver, and Mike Barnes did to him in Part 3. In addition to that entire situation which must have been extremely traumatizing for him, there’s also the fact that he thinks Johnny has let this man back into his life(which he absolutely did for a period of time!) after, from the last Daniel saw of those two together, Kreese nearly murdered Johnny as a child!!! Do people honestly think that Daniel would want Kreese to catch even a hint of Robby’s whereabouts so he could add yet another child to his list of victims?

ALSO I’ve heard people say that Johnny deserved to know where his child was and to that I say that Johnny had AT LEAST 16 years to actively involve himself in his son’s life and he has chosen not to. I know we all love Johnny and Miguel’s relationship but, honestly, that’s not an excuse to just abandon one son for another child and Johnny should have found a way to cultivate a relationship with both of them instead of prioritizing one over the other. 

And before I get these kind of replies to this, let me make it very clear that there is a HUGE difference between housing a child who has been abandoned by both of his parents(Robby and Daniel) and letting a child stay at your house for the night because they got drunk without telling their parents who are actively looking for them(Samantha and Johnny).

In short, I feel like Daniel gets WAY too much unjustified hate and anger thrown his way that is all 

Hey if any of you guys love Daniel Larusso do you mind interacting with this post so I can scream about how proud I am of him?? This trailer is bringing out the feelings in me!!! We’ll call ourselves the Daniel Larusso Defense Squad and have matching shirts(maybe not the matching shirts but we’ll find something to show our love for the guy)