Cobra Kai made it clear who the true villain of The Karate Kid saga was, and it wasn’t Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) or Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). Cobra Kai has concluded after an epic six seasons that finally brought peace to the San Fernando Valley and the new generation of karate kids trained by Daniel and Johnny. Their ultimate triumph also came with the demise of Johnny and Daniel’s enemies, who had especially haunted LaRusso since he was a teenager in 1984 and 1985.
Cobra Kai season 1‘s brilliance was how it flipped The Karate Kid‘s script and made Johnny the spinoff’s main protagonist. Alarmed that his old karate rival had suddenly restarted the Cobra Kai dojo after 35 years, Daniel’s single-minded attempts to stop Johnny initially cast LaRusso as the antagonist. As Cobra Kai continued, perspectives flipped repeatedly, revealing Daniel and Johnny’s angelic and devilish behavior. Senseis Lawrence and LaRusso also passed their personal animosity to their teenage students, who forged their own rivalries.
However, Cobra Kai also delved into The Karate Kid movies‘ history and brought back old enemies. Chief among them were John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), who once tried to ruin Daniel in The Karate Kid Part III. In Cobra Kai, Kreese and Silver soon turned on each other, and Terry mounted his own reign of karate terror in the Valley. Yet in the grand scheme of Cobra Kai, there is one true villain encompassing the Miyagiverse’s Karate Kid saga, and that’s Sensei John Kreese.
Neither Johnny Nor Daniel Was The Villain In The Karate Kid – Kreese Was
“No Such Thing As Bad Student. Only Bad Teacher.”
Johnny Lawrence was Daniel LaRusso’s high school rival in The Karate Kid, but Johnny was under the thrall of the movie’s real villain, John Kreese. Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita) identified Kreese as the true scourge of Cobra Kai when he and Daniel-san visited Kreese’s dojo and saw the Vietnam veteran’s teaching methods. Miyagi’s immortal words summed up Kreese: “No such thing as bad student. Only bad teacher.”
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Daniel defeated Johnny at the 1984 All Valley Under 18 Karate tournament, and Lawrence vanished after Kreese attacked him in the parking lot. While Johnny wasn’t seen again until Cobra Kai decades later, Kreese returned in The Karate Kid Part III. Kreese’s war buddy and benefactor, Terry Silver, drove a wedge between Daniel-san and Miyagi, briefly converting LaRusso into a Cobra Kai. However, Daniel beat Kreese again, who also vanished until his surprise return at the end of Cobra Kai season 1.
Cobra Kai would further explore just how toxic and dangerous John Kreese really was.
In his two Karate Kid movie appearances, it was evident that John Kreese was a monster. He was an ex-soldier and a grown adult who had no qualms about mentally and physically abusing teenagers with his “mercy is for the weak” credo. Kreese had no redeeming virtues and was poison to his students. Cobra Kai would further explore just how toxic and dangerous John Kreese really was.
Cobra Kai Made It Clear That John Kreese Was The True Karate Kid Villain
Kreese Plagued Generations Of Karate Kids & Cobra Kai
From the moment John Kreese returned in Cobra Kai, he was the primary villain of the series. Johnny and Daniel, as well as their students, had their occasions of being bad apples, but Kreese was the worst. By the end of Cobra Kai season 2, Kreese stole the Cobra Kai dojo from Johnny and most of his students. Kreese worked his dark magic on the kids, becoming the mentor of Tory Nichols (Peyton List), especially. Cobra Kai established Kreese as a supervillain who was resourceful and usually one step ahead of Johnny and Daniel.
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Even when Terry Silver turned on Kreese and had him imprisoned, John remained dangerous. Kreese soon escaped and returned to his original sensei, Master Kim Sun-Yung (C.S. Lee), who inspired John’s cruelty. Cobra Kai’s final few seasons set Terry Silver as the big bad of the Valley, but John Kreese was always worse, and he proved it time and again.
Kreese saw the truth of what he did to Johnny and the lasting damage he caused his student in The Karate Kid movies.
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 saw Johnny finally confront Kreese about how his sensei betrayed him. It was Kreese who altered the course of Johnny’s life for the worse until he found purpose again in Cobra Kai. However, Kreese saw the truth of what he did to Johnny and the lasting damage he caused his student in The Karate Kid movies.
How Cobra Kai Embraced The “Real Villain Of The Karate Kid” Debate
Cobra Kai Saw The Karate Kid From Daniel & Johnny’s POVs
Before Cobra Kai fully ran with John Kreese as the saga’s main villain, the show played with the idea of seeing The Karate Kid from both Johnny and Daniel’s perspectives. History is written by the winner, and The Karate Kid movies were Daniel-centric. In Cobra Kai season 1, Johnny hilariously told Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena) The Karate Kid’s story from his point of view, and this was Cobra Kai’s clever wink at popular internet theories and jokes on How I Met Your Mother painting Daniel-san as the movie’s real villain.
Johnny and Daniel are certainly flawed, but Cobra Kai eventually made them understand that they are more alike than they think. One thing Daniel and Johnny had in common was that John Kreese was a plague on both of their lives, although Lawrence bore deeper scars from his ex-sensei. As fun as Daniel and Johnny are to watch when they’re at loggerheads, neither of them are evil men. John Kreese was evil and irredeemable – until Cobra Kai season 6 played one final magic trick with Kreese.
Cobra Kai Season 6’s Ending Redeemed Kreese
Kreese Took Terry Silver With Him When He Died
The tragic death of Kwon Jae-sung (Brandon H. Lee) at the end of Cobra Kai season 6, part 2, had a profound effect on John Kreese. As abusive as he was toward his Cobra Kai students, Kreese believed it made them stronger and tougher. Kreese never had to watch one of his pupils die before. Kwon’s death forced Kreese to reflect on his lifetime of mistakes and damaging behavior, especially towards Johnny Lawrence. Kreese also had a score to settle with Terry Silver.
Before Cobra Kai was over, Kreese found Terry on his yacht and, in their ensuing struggle, an explosion destroyed Silver’s vessel and killed them both.
While Kreese has proven to be resourceful, his death appears to be permanent, signaling the end of over 40 years of John Kreese’s villainy throughout The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai saga. While nearly every character who practiced karate in Cobra Kai flirted with bad behavior, the nexus of evil doing in the Netflix saga was John Kreese. Even if Cobra Kai continues in spinoffs, there will never be a villain who equals Kreese.
8/10
- Release Date
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2018 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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Netflix, YouTube Premium
- Showrunner
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Jon Hurwitz
- Directors
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Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, Joel Novoa, Jennifer Celotta, Steven K. Tsuchida, Sherwin Shilati, Marielle Woods, Steve Pink, Lin Oeding, Michael Grossman
- Writers
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Josh Heald, Ashley Darnall, Chris Rafferty, Bill Posley
