Axel Kovacevic is a major character in Season 6 of the YouTube Red/Netflix series Cobra Kai. He is the male captain of Iron Dragons Karate and Miguel Diaz's arch-rival, due to him being in love with Samantha LaRusso. He is also the archenemy of Kwon Jae-Sung, being his accidental killer during the Sekai Taikai brawl.
Biography[]
Not much is known about Axel, other than the fact that he participates in the Sekai Takai tournament along with the other competing dojos. He is trained by none other than Sensei Wolf and fights alongside his female partner and co-captain Zara Malik. Based on the way that he fights his opponents, it is clear that he has been training his whole life and proves to be a nearly unstoppable opponent in the tournament. Due to Sensei Wolf's harsh training methods, Axel has grown to be a very powerful fighter that can defeat every opponent that he encounters with little effort. There is no indication where Axel comes from; however, he seemingly comes from Bosnian origins with his last name and Eastern European accent.
Cobra Kai[]
Axel is part of the Iron Dragons dojo led by Sensei Wolf, where they compete in the Sekai Taikai tournament and try to come out as the most powerful dojo in the world. He is revealed alongside his partner Zara Malik after four other students of that dojo feign an attempt to fight three fighters of the Cobra Kai dojo students, where he manages to take down Cobra Kai students Kwon Jae-Sung and Yoon Do-Jin, effortlessly despite being outnumbered two to one.
While training in the Iron Dragons dojo, he gets hit on the back of the head by Sensei Wolf for losing a fight in the tournament and swears that he will not lose future fights against Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do.
He also meets Samantha LaRusso and ends up falling for her, against the rules of talking to other competitors. They form a close relationship with each other after Sam notices scars on Axel's back and ends up meeting on the beach after the participants in the Sekai Taikai tournament leave to blow off some steam. Axel walks Sam back to her hotel, only to be stopped by Kwon and his friends, where they both defeat them. After escaping to the beach, he attempts to kiss her until Sam reminds him that she is in a relationship with Miguel, causing an embarrassed Axel to walk off.
When facing Robby Keene in the semi-finals, he takes a 5-0 lead with his superior defense and offense. However, their fight would come to a standstill when Kwon landed a cheap shot on Robby who was knocked out of the circle. The match came to a halt when the disqualified Tiger Strike led by Sensei Ivanov instigated a huge brawl to break out, with every dojo fighting each other. Axel gains the upper hand on Miguel fairly easily. Later, he attacks Kwon after seeing Sam struggle with him and pushes him against a camera. Kwon then grabs John Kreese's eunjangdo and attempts to stab him. However, Axel manages to defeat Kwon by kicking his foot, leading to Kwon falling on the knife, which fatally stabs him to the point that he appears to be dead, ultimately putting the brawl to a stop, much to everybody's horror.
Personality[]
Despite being arrogant, Axel is calm and intimidating that strikes fear into the hearts of everyone who stands in his way. Well he is just as disciplined as Zara, if not more so, he is also low-key. He does not show that much emotion when fighting his opponents, but prefers to reveal his battle cry at the end of fighting his opponents when he wins.
But Axel is extremely jealous of Miguel Diaz after learning that Samantha LaRusso, the girl Axel he has a crush on, is in a relationship with the latter; he is prone to glare at Miguel and then bump into him, which leaves Miguel confused; until Sam told him what happened. As; such, Miguel can see that Axel was not able to let go and move on. This is likely because Axel has never been allowed to have feelings for others or even have any fun due to Sensei Wolf's harsh training towards him. So when he developed a crush on Sam, this was something he had never experienced before, and did not want to lose it.
Axel is also basically the definition of a robot who follows orders to the end and does not feel anything in the process. This is why Demetri Alexopoulos compared him to the Winter Soldier. Axel has never been able to think for himself. This caused some conflicting feelings for Axel when he accidentally more or less killed Kwon, as he had likely never taken a life before then.
Trivia[]
- Axel has a personality comparable to the character Ivan Drago from the Rocky franchise.
- Axel is the second known participant in the Sekai Taikai to kill an opponent albeit by accident, although it could also be considered self-defense as Kwon was trying to murder Axel at the time while the latter is probably unaware of the eunjangdo in his right hand.
- Although Axel is under the Hero’s wiki page, he cannot really be seen as a hero or a villain in Cobra Kai; as his role in the show depicts him as nothing more than a blunt instrument for his sensei to use.
External Links[]
- Axel Kovacevic on the Karate Kid Wiki