The Karate Kid: John Kreese / Characters

John Kreese

"Life isn't always fair. Sometimes the world can be cruel. And that's why you have to learn to be cruel yourself."

^{Click here to see Kreese in the 1980s}

^{Click here to see Kreese in the 1960s}

Played By: Martin Kove, Barrett Carnahan (1960s flashbacks)

Appearances: The Karate Kid (1984) | The Karate Kid Part II | The Karate Kid Part III | Cobra Kai

"I founded Cobra Kai. It belongs to me. It always has. And it always will. I will never let my students lose... even if they have to learn the hard way."

A Vietnam vet and original sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, John Kreese firmly believes in winning at all costs, espousing a "no mercy" philosophy through his dojo, and seeking to teach this attitude to all of his students, especially his prize pupil Johnny Lawrence.

34 years later, Kreese returns to the Valley after hearing that Johnny has resurrected Cobra Kai, reentering Johnny's life to bring the dojo back to its former glory.

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A-F

Above Good and Evil: Kreese believes that there is no "good" or "bad", just strength and weakness. He imparts this view to his students as well.
"Your whole life you've been told to be good. But good is only a matter of perspective. Always remember that your enemies think they're doing what's right. They think they're the hero and you're the villain. But now you know the truth. There is no good, there is no bad, only weak or strong. And now that we've shed our weakness, it's time to show our strength. And if you do that, I promise you, you will be unstoppable."
Abusive Parent: He saw Johnny as a son and Johnny saw him as a father figure more than he did Sid. This is what makes it a more prominent example than Johnny's legal father. Johnny trusted Kreese and took after him, yet his first failure prompted Kreese to trash his trophy and strangle him. Today, Kreese still plays at being Johnny's father figure (perhaps even moreso than when Johnny was a teen), but he's nothing but a sociopathic manipulator.
Aesop Amnesia: Despite losing everything in the original trilogy and being a homeless drifter in the 34 years since, Kreese refuses to acknowledge that seeing his life as a war and his "No Mercy" mentality are directly responsible for fueling it. Even when Johnny flat out tells him the old Cobra Kai philosophy never worked and they need to improve it, Kreese takes this as a sign that Johnny has lost his way and he decides to steal the dojo and Johnny's students from underneath him.
All Take and No Give:
- While he genuinely wants to reconcile with Johnny and run Cobra Kai together, he only wants to do so on his terms and does not appreciate Johnny's attempts to modernize the dojo's philosophy.
- Same goes for Terry who he nudges to come back and help him teach Cobra Kai but not to outshine him or teach any lessons of his own.
- This is also what causes his relationship with Tory to deteriorate as, after his plans to get himself out of prison all fail, he tries to at least help her out by encouraging her to stick with Cobra Kai and help them win their upcoming tournament while ignoring her protests that she doesn't want to be with Cobra Kai anymore.
And Starring: Gets a "With Martin Kove as (John) Kreese" blilling in the second and third films as well as Season 2 onwards of Cobra Kai.
Animal Motifs: Given that Kreese was the original founder of Cobra Kai, it should be no surprise that a snake represent him, especially since Kreese is a Manipulative Bastard who slithers back into the dojo and poisons Johnny's students and son against him.
Anti-Mentor: Bitter, vindictive, stuck in the past, and petty beyond sense, the best thing he ever taught Johnny was the kind of man the latter should not become.
Arch-Enemy:
- To Mr. Miyagi, being his rival sensei and complete antithesis when it comes to their approach in karate. They have faced-off against each other a few times, both by proxy (via their students in the All-Valley) and themselves, with Mr. Miyagi coming out on top in all bouts. It's Cobra Kai's loss in the 1984 tournament that prompts Kreese to reach out to Silver, who was more than willing to enact Kreese's revenge on Miyagi on his behalf. Even 34 years later with Miyagi long dead, Kreese still harbors resentment towards him, which is passed down to his hatred of Daniel.
- To both Daniel and Johnny, to the point that they finally agree to set aside their differences and work together to take him down for good in the Season 3 finale. However, he is gradually supplanted as Daniel's arch-enemy by his former Evil Mentor Terry Silver, and so becomes this on a more personal level to Johnny, being the one who corrupted him into a vicious brute (something Johnny clearly regrets), nearly choking him to death after the 1984 All-Valley, as well as pretending to be a changed man for Cobra Kai only to seize control of the dojo from Johnny — cementing the latter's hatred of him. Even so, Daniel too has every reason to hate him — as almost everything Daniel went through from the start of the first film can be traced back to him, and his corrupting influence on his students.
Archnemesis Dad: He's not Johnny's real father, but Kreese is (or was) the most prominent male role model in Johnny's life. Even Johnny admits that Kreese was probably the closest thing he ever had to a father, given that his stepdad was abusive at worst and neglectful at best. Even after Johnny firmly cements himself as Kreese's enemy, Kreese in his own twisted way still sees himself as Johnny's father and the latter's wellbeing would continue to influence him as he returns to running Cobra Kai.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Kreese thinks very highly of himself, his philosophy, and his fighting prowess. In fairness, he actually is an adept fighter, especially for a man of his age, but he is also arrogant, psychopathic, and utterly unwilling to ever let go of a conflict, no matter how much he ends up getting wrecked by it.
Asshole Victim: Getting betrayed by your own best friend, then frames you up for a crime you did not even commit and leaves you to rot in prison is a Fate Worse than Death. Since Kreese is such an asshole to begin with and considering how he pushed Silver over the edge, he had it coming. Worst of all, his time in prison didn't even change him for the better.
Ax-Crazy: If trying to kill a 17-year-old kid for getting second place in a karate competition and then terrorizing the kid who won a year later wasn’t already enough to validate this trope, John Kreese amps this up by carrying out a 34-year-old petty grudge during the series. He blatantly encourages worse behavior among the dojo than he used to as a sensei, clearly showing he wants his students to assault others to the extent of risking serious damage and even death, but personally, he’s a subtle yet creepy example - he tries to outright murder both Johnny and Daniel when they confront him at the end of Season 3. It’s very clear that Kreese passed through a Villainous Breakdown a long time ago and has pretty resolutely lost his mind by the present. He seems to be under the impression that he’s still at war and imposes this psychology on his students, expecting them to apply a Sociopathic Soldier mentality to everyday life.
The Bad Guy Wins:
- Not only does he manage to outlive Miyagi (granted, they were decades apart in age), but he lives long enough to see Cobra Kai revived.
- Taken even further by the end of Season 2, where he takes both Johnny's dojo and the loyalty of his students from him.
- Downplayed in Season 3. By the season's end, Kreese manages to convert Daniel's former student and Johnny's son Robby to his side, but Johnny and Daniel have finally joined together with the intent of stopping him and Cobra Kai once and for all.
- Also downplayed very much so in Season 4. While Kreese’s Cobra Kai does win the All-Valley tournament, his mistreatment of Terry Silver comes to bite him in the ass when the latter decides to frame him for Terry’s beatdown of Stingray as a means to get rid of him, cementing Terry’s complete control over the dojo.
Bad People Abuse Animals: He presents a mouse to the dojo, which he prepared as snake food. Bert takes a liking to it, only for Kreese to expel him for showing compassion to an animal.
Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: The viewer is initially led to believe that the handsome bully is Kreese in a flashback, but it turns out that he's actually the bullied, nondescript smaller guy. Young Kreese then proves it by beating the shit out of the bullies as soon as he's off work.
Bait the Dog: He spends the first part of Season 2 acting like he's a changed man, this all turns out to be a ploy to worm his way back into Johnny's good graces and swipe his dojo right out from under him.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Kreese was once an idealistic young man with a promising future ahead of him. The hell he endured during the Vietnam War, combined with taking Captain Turner's Social Darwinist teachings to heart, would warp him into the ruthless man he is today.
Berserk Button:
- Don't talk trash about his tattoos unless you want to end up with a bloodied face. Demetri learns this the hard way.
- A deleted scene from season 2 shows him getting pissed with Stingray when the latter brings up a video game strategy when they're at Coyote Creek as if it's comparable to the kind of warfare training Kreese has done. Kreese coldly tells him, "You know nothing about warfare."
- He doesn't take too kindly to Terry telling the whole karate class that he has a weakness, even if it's true and if the point was already made that everyone has a weakness. As a result, Kreese ends up treating Terry like a subordinate rather than a business partner and constantly guilt-trips him with the reminder that he wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Kreese saving him in Vietnam.
Because You Were Nice to Me: He knows very well how to exploit this trope. He finds angry, disaffected youths and manipulates them by making them think he’s the only one they can trust. He’s shown doing this to Hawk, Tory and eventually Robby, all of whom are at their lowest points at the time.
Beware the Quiet Ones: Once upon a time, Kreese didn't have much to say and wasn't nearly the flashy, cocky remorseless liar we all know.
Big Bad: Of the entire series. His actions towards Johnny and Daniel in the original The Karate Kid trilogy still haunt both of them and influence their aggression toward each other prior to his reappearance. He's responsible for encouraging the aggression of the Cobra Kai kids, primarily Hawk and Tory, leading to a school brawl that allows him to seize control of the dojo from Johnny. He further corrupts Robby into joining Cobra Kai and convinces Terry Silver to fall back into his old habits, although this comes back to bite him when Silver gets him arrested to take control himself.
Big Bad Duumvirate: He reunites with Terry Silver to train Cobra Kai in Season 4, though the alliance ends with Silver betraying Kreese.
Big Bad Wannabe: Kreese's constant prodding and disrespectfulness to Silver quickly comes back to bite him in the ass, as Silver comes to realize his deferment to Kreese is his weakness and usurps him as Cobra Kai's sensei.
The Big Guy: By far the most physically intimidating character, even in his early/mid-seventies.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He shows up, claiming that he's a changed man and he's remorseful for his actions back in 1984. It eventually becomes apparent he hasn't changed at all, and was just pretending as such to work his way back into Johnny's good graces and steal his dojo.
Blatant Lies: He tells so many lies he can't keep track of them, including his service in Afghanistan and other countries, and mixing up Rwanda and Somalia. When Johnny finally confronts him about the truth, it ends up being another means of manipulating Johnny.
Blood Knight: For him, life is still war. It's clear that Kreese loves nothing more than a good fight, relishing the opportunity to take on Zarkarian's very intimidating nephews (although he considers it a shame to get blood on the dojo's mat just after cleaning it) and having a big Slasher Smile on his face for most of his fight with Daniel and Johnny in the Season 3 finale. He also does his best to instill this trait in his students.
Kreese: War never ends. Peace is just the lull between battles.
Breakout Villain: The only villain to appear in all three movies.
Broken Pedestal: This is his biggest character flaw. He is very good in gaining loyalty from people, especially impressionable teenagers. However, he is very bad at returning that loyalty if he feel he no longer has any need for that person. In the first movie, Johnny and his friends were utterly devoted to him and he managed to turn it into a life-long hatred of him. When Johnny tried to give him a second chance, Kreese promptly betrays that. In Season 3, Hawk, Mitch, Bert and others realize Kreese doesn’t actually care about any of the students beyond what they can do for him as fighters and pawns in his revenge schemes. They ultimately join Johnny and Daniel’s new dojo to take the man down once and for all.It bites him in the ass big time in Season 4 when even his life long friend and former war buddy, Terry Silver, has had enough of Kreese's mistreatment that he has him framed for assault so that he can take over Cobra Kai for himself. Then in Season 5, he manages to even alienate Tory, who had been his most loyal student and considered him something of a father-figure after he looked out for her, when it becomes clear her concerns are secondary to his own interests. Ironically, the thing that finally turns Tory away from him is when he gives up on his revenge plot against Silver and tells her to help Cobra Kai win the Sekai Taikai so she can make the money she needs to help herself and her impoverished family, when Kreese intended to be a completely selfless act of self-sacrifice for Tory's benefit.
The Bully: To Daniel? Of course! To his students? That’s a given. But this also extends to his friend who he coerces back to the dark side then prods his Trauma Button when he feels he’s stepped out of line. The first time he manages to soften from this in almost 40 years is at the end of Season 4, when he grudgingly allows Tory to "fight how she wants".
Bullying a Dragon: Even his Only Friend Terry Silver isn’t safe from this. Terry wanted to move on. Kreese wasn’t having it. Terry tried to teach his students in a way he thought was important. Kreese got angry that he didn’t recognize his place and pushed his Trauma Button to keep him in line. And then there’s the guilt tripping, abuse, and rank-pulling. Then he’s somehow angry and shocked when Terry betrays him... although it's unspecified whether Kreese was fully cognizant what Terry was capable of.
The Bus Came Back: Unseen since the end of Part III, he returns at the end of Season 1.
Character Development: In Season 4, Kreese takes on a genuine fatherly role with Tory and politely warns Amanda LaRusso against causing any further damage to her already difficult life. He also demonstrates he really cares for Johnny by stopping Terry Silver's plans to seriously injure him before the tournament to demoralize Miguel. By the end of Season 4, he realizes how pointless his "win at all costs" bullying style of teaching is and how it cost him his relationship with Johnny. When Silver urges Tory to fight dirty to win the grand finals while Tory wants to win clean, Kreese tells her to "do what she wants". This even extends to his relationship with Kenny; whereas he'd previously ridiculed and turned away potential prospects who didn't immediately meet his standards, Kreese cared well enough for Robby to trust his decision to train Kenny and eventually came to respect the kid's genuine determination to be a skilled fighter.
Chronic Villainy: In the beginning of Part III, Kreese seems to be fully resigned to close the Cobra Kai for good and start over, and even tries to talk Terry Silver out of planning a revenge in his name. In the end, however, his villainous tendencies got the best of him.
Cold Ham: Contrasting Silver's Evil Is Hammy nature, Kreese makes his nefarious presence felt through his intense gravitas.
Combat Pragmatist: Perhaps the only real concession Kreese has given to his age is that he can't solely rely on his physical prowess anymore, choosing to pick up weapons or fight dirty when he loses control of the situation as he did when Johnny gained the upper hand in their fight and again when Daniel stepped in to save Johnny.
Conflict Killer: Kreese's return and the house fight is ultimately responsible for ending the conflict between Johnny and Daniel, leading them to focus on him instead.
The Corrupter: By the time he establishes himself in Cobra Kai, he begins corrupting Johnny's students into becoming violent bullies. This ultimately bites him HARD in Season 4 where his treatment of Terry Silver causes him to relapse into the diabolical sociopath Silver tried so hard to bury and turn on Kreese at the end of the season.
Cruel Mercy: Miyagi spares Kreese in their fight in Part II, saying that living would be a worse punishment for Kreese than death since he cannot forgive. Mind you, Kreese learns nothing from the experience.
Cycle of Revenge: It turns out that, during his adolescence, Kreese was bullied by a group of football players with a "no mercy" attitude. Also, he fought in the Vietnam War, which resulted in a lot of mental problems for those who fought in it (especially as it is revealed that Kreese became a POW).
Dark and Troubled Past: It turns out that Kreese has a nightmarishly tragic backstory (mother committed suicide, made a POW in Vietnam, sweetheart died in an accident while he was at war, with his commanding officer purposely keeping it from him until they were forced to fight to the death), which explains (even if it in no way justifies) why he's such a monstrous sociopath.
Demoted to Extra: Due to Kove dealing with scheduling conflicts at the time of filming Part III, Kreese plays a lesser role in the film.
Devil in Plain Sight: While he manages to convince Johnny, literally no one else believes Kreese is sincere in his quest for redemption. When Daniel first learns that Kreese is teaching again he's in complete disbelief that Johnny would bring him back after what Kreese did to him. Johnny blows off these concerns due to the tension between them. Miguel similarly brings up his worries to Johnny about Kreese but Johnny again deflects these criticisms. And then Johnny's old Cobra Kai buddies also tell him what an awful idea it is to keep Kreese around, but Johnny is still insistent in believing that Kreese has become a better man.
Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat:
- His attempts to injure the competition and having his students Ordered to Cheat arguably costs him the first tournament as both Bobby as well as Lawrence are probably capable of beating Daniel fairly. The fact they aren't allowed is part of the reason they lose.
- This also applies to his (and Silver's) plan for the tournament in Karate Kid III. If they had fought cleanly, Mike Barnes would have easily beaten Daniel on points, which would have won them the championship and put Cobra Kai back on top. Instead, in order to cause Daniel maximum suffering, they order Mike to foul Daniel after every point (thus losing the point and keeping the score even) for the whole match until Sudden Death is declared. This sadistic, rule-breaking idiocy costs them the game after Daniel rebounds and beats Mike in Sudden Death instead. Instead of an easy victory, Kreese and Silver chose to showboat like mustache-twirling villains until all their plans collapse with one hit.
- At the end of Season 5, he wouldn't have to break out of prison until word about Silver's actions had reached them, which would have allowed him to leave anyway instead of violating his sentence.
Dirty Old Man: While meeting with Johnny at a diner, Kreese makes a not-so-subtle pass at a waitress as he orders coffee. Keep in mind that the Season 3 flashbacks confirm that Kreese has to be in his early 70s at least.
Kreese: And bring me a cup of Sanka. Red-hot, just like you, doll-face.
Disappointed in You: He and his dojo confront Johnny and his new dojo, Eagle Fang Karate, shortly after their opening and offers him one more chance to return to Cobra Kai's ways. Johnny declines, and Kreese warns him that he'll regret his decision.
"You made your choice. And you are gonna regret it."
Disc-One Final Boss: After serving as the main antagonist for the first three seasons, Terry Silver proves to be Eviler than Thou and gets him arrested to remove Cobra Kai's remaining weaknesses.
Disproportionate Retribution: He leaves Demetri with a bloodied face all because the latter touched his arm and made critical remarks about the former Cobra Kai sensei's tattoos.
The Dreaded: Even though he hasn't been seen in 29 years, Johnny and Daniel still fear his influence... and rightfully so.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: He's a Vietnam veteran who demands military precision from his students. Lose your focus for one second, and it's sixty push-ups on your knuckles. Turns out he picked this up from his Superior officer during the war.
Eagleland: Unlike Johnny, Kreese is a straight Type B (and later revealed to be a Type B+). A paramount example is his riposte to Daniel's demand to keep his venomous influence away from the children of the Valley — a banal claim that "it's a free country."
Emerging from the Shadows: He makes his comeback by stepping out of the dojo's shadowed entrance into the lit-up main room.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Despite Cobra Kai previously being an all-male dojo, he's apparently able to look past having female members faster than Johnny did, most likely basing them on their performance.
Et Tu, Brute?: His reaction to realizing that Silver has framed him for aggravated assault and set him up to be arrested is a minute-long progression from shock to rage.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- When he mentions his mother while chatting with Tory, it's clear he regrets that he didn't realize how much she was struggling with her mental health before she committed suicide and wishes he could have helped her.
- Flashbacks to his time with Betsy also show he genuinely loved her and coming home to her was his main motivation for surviving the war. Her untimely death left him grief-stricken and the tie-in comics show her memory is still extremely close to his heart. Season 5 also confirms that Kreese never got over her death and considers Betsy the love of his life. It's one of the only times in the entire franchise he shows genuine vulnerability and (positive) emotion.
- He also has a genuinely close bond with his army buddy Terry Silver after the hell they went through together in Vietnam, and he even tells Silver that he needs him by his side when they open Cobra Kai. Unfortunately, their relationship has soured GREATLY by the end of Season 4.
- The series also does an excellent job expanding on his relationship with Johnny, and while he was always terrible at showing it, Johnny is one of the only people in the world Kreese genuinely cares about.
- The Season 4 finale confirms that he has a genuine affection for Tory, due to their shared troubled upbringings. He allows her to fight her own way when she refuses to cheat against Sam in the All Valley final, marking the first time he has put a student's wishes ahead of his desire to win at all costs. It helps that she won the tournament because of this. Season 5 shows she's the only person still in his corner, but this is strained when he encourages her to stay with Cobra Kai in a misplaced attempt to do what's best for her.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- Yes, even Kreese has standards. He agrees to and honors Miyagi's condition to leave Daniel alone to train.
  Kreese: "Listen up! Nobody touches the prima donna until the tournament."
- He fought his own bully David for hurting Betsy, and sticks up for Tory against a creepy landlord attempting Sexual Extortion against her. He also does not physically retaliate against Amanda LaRusso when she slaps him for encouraging violence and thug-like behavior, though this is a downplayed example since he then takes advantage of the situation to file a restraining order against her and paint himself as the victim of her assault to the outside community.
- His time in Vietnam showed Kreese despised the Vietnamese for their savagery. Additionally, he's disgusted at Captain Turner's lack of leadership and glee at killing his own men during their imprisonment and rightly calls him out for it.
- In Season 4, even he realises that Terry baiting Johnny into a beating all in an effort to demoralize their opponents is pretty unhinged, and calls the Curb-Stomp Battle off.
- It's never stated or even implied that he knew of or would have approved of Terry bribing the judges to ensure Cobra Kai's victory. For all the sneaky, underhanded stuff he does, Kreese does have some kind of honor with Karate, only wanting victories that are genuinely earned, even if done in his usual ruthless and dirty manner.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Kreese is so convinced of the wisdom of his own teachings that he either doesn't believe Johnny wants to change, or can't understand why he would want to. Even in Season 3, Kreese repeatedly offers Johnny a chance to rejoin Cobra Kai, long after Johnny's made clear he wants nothing more to do with him, and considers it a betrayal that Johnny and several former Cobra Kai students, who Kreese himself had expelled for what he considered subpar performance, have formed their own dojo and refused to remain "allies". Terry also has to point out to him that he basically stole Johnny's son by corrupting Robby, Kreese seems to only realize that hurt Johnny.
- Zigzagged in regards to Tory. In Season 5, he tries to convince Tory to go along with Silver's cheating to gain entry into the Sekai Taikai in order to earn money for her family. This destroys her respect for Kreese and she abandons him. While he was trying to help her do what is best for her family, Kreese does not understand that Tory is trying to become a better person and wants to prioritize honor over victory, and that letting Silver continue to get away with his bribery destroys the reason why she was talking to Kreese in prison in the first place.
Evil Counterpart:
- To Mr. Miyagi, to an even greater extent than he already was in the films. He has become an Old Master himself, and it's revealed that Johnny saw him as a father figure just as Daniel saw Mr. Miyagi. Though where Miyagi was altruistic and a Martial Pacifist at heart, Kreese is vile to his core. Season 3's flashbacks even reveal that their wartime experiences were eerily similar, as they both had to deal with the death of their Love Interest while they were away and witnessed the horrors of war first hand, but while Miyagi's experiences only strengthened his belief in pacifism, Kreese allowed his to warp him into the sociopath he is in the present.
- To Johnny Lawrence. Two Johns who are practitioners and teachers of Tang Soo Do (being senseis of Cobra Kai). Both had rough childhoods before being taught (and eventually betrayed) by an evil mentor (Kreese from Captain Turner, Johnny from Kreese himself); as such, both eventually fight their evil mentors during the climax of Season 3. Both had it rough after their defeat from Mr. Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso, and by Season 4, both happen to be their poorer counterparts of their co-senseis (Johnny to Daniel, Kreese to Terry Silver). But while Johnny is all about turning bullied students into becoming better versions of themselves and teaching them how to be "badass" (but in a more merciful way), Kreese is all about recruiting and indoctrinating bullies into worse versions of themselves and showing no mercy by all means.
Evil Gloating: A fairly subdued version occurs when he arrives at Johnny's dojo; he's clearly enjoying his former student resurrecting their creed and avenging their first loss to Daniel.
Evil Is Petty: It bears repeating that Kreese's ultimate goal in Season 2 is taking over his own student's dojo so that high school age kids will more readily beat each other up, all for the sake of revenge for Daniel and Miyagi beating his dojo in a tournament decades ago and stopping him from choking out his own student.
Evil Mentor: The original. He teaches his students to view anyone who opposes them as an enemy and that enemies deserve no mercy. Not surprisingly, this turns most of them into jerks. The Cobra Kai spin-off comic even reveals that the reason Johnny plants the kiss on Ali at the country club is because Kreese advised him to assert his dominance over her. Most of Johnny's poor influence on his own students in Season 1 can be traced back to his teachings, while in Season 2 it's his direct influence that causes Hawk, Tory, and others to go completely off the rails.
Evil Old Folks: Kreese is in his 70s by the time of Cobra Kai. He's still the same ruthless sensei that we all know from the original franchise.
Evil Reactionary: Kreese is sorely disgusted and disillusioned by today's era of social equality and political correctness and hopes through Cobra Kai he'll be able to bring society back to the values of patriotism and strength.
Evil Virtues: Despite thinking Virtue Is Weakness, Kreese does seem to legitimately value loyalty towards your comrades and having a collective mentality, best exemplified by how he considers an attack towards one Cobra Kai student to be an affront to the entire quiver. It's just a shame his idea of loyalty is completely one-sided, built around what he believes others owe him and not the other way around and believing it means he can mistreat them and they will still come back to him.
Exact Words: He challenges his dojo to kick off a bonsai tree balanced on top of a tall log. When Hawk kicks the log to make the tree fall, Doug Rickenberger accuses Hawk of cheating, but Kreese refutes him, as he never specifically said anything about not touching the log.
Doug: But [Hawk] cheated.
Kreese: No, he didn't. Unlike you, he did exactly what I asked him to do.
Expy: Kreese seems to have drawn many similarities with Emperor Palpatine. Both are Evil Old Folks who manipulate and corrupt those around them to put themselves into a position of power.
Faking the Dead: Seems to be a recurring theme to him. In Part III, he and Silver conspire against Miyagi-Do by Kreese pretending to have died while Silver being a False Friend to Daniel. At the beginning of Cobra Kai, Johnny believed he died and was surprise to see him return in the Season 1 finale. In the Season 5 finale, he pretends to get shanked so he can escape prison.
Fallen Hero: With Kreese's backstory, it becomes very clear that it's one of tragedy. When he was younger, he was a heroic young man that fought against bullies and joined the army out of patriotism and wanting to help the cause. However, the events of the war left him mentally damaged and he is still living the war to this very day. Unfortunately, he integrated the brutal Social Darwinist approach that his commanding officer instilled in him. He views his students as soldiers and openly talks about fighting "the war". If this wasn't bad enough, his years spent wandering with no purpose after Karate Kid III caused further Sanity Slippage.
Fatal Family Photo: Inverted. He shows off a picture of his girl back home to his army buddies, but since his survival of the Vietnam War is obviously guaranteed, it's his girl who ends up dying.
Fatal Flaw:
- His You Have Failed Me / You Have Outlived Your Usefulness approach. While he justifies adding more athletic students and dismissing the weaker ones as necessary for Cobra Kai, it winds up alienating the stronger students who are friends with the weaker ones and were used to Johnny's A Father to His Men and Undying Loyalty approach. By the end of the third season, even Hawk has had enough and defects back to Johnny.
- Playing into the above, his short-sightedness when it comes to judging his students' fighting prowess. Having no patience for letting students prove they can meet his standards for being a natural fighter, Kreese often expels students who actually have genuine talent for fighting but simply had the bad luck to get picked to fight a stronger fighter. Mitch, for example, may have lost to Kyler in the dojo (and only when Kyler got him in a chokehold that Mitch had never learned how to counter), but he later beats Mikey during the brawl at the LaRusso house, indicating that Mitch is the better of those two and Kreese should've kept Mitch instead of Mikey. In Season 4, he initially refuses to let Kenny join Cobra Kai because of how he fares against Kyler, despite the fact Kenny is at least four years younger than Kyler and hasn't even hit puberty yet so it was impossible for him to stand a chance. Sure enough, when Kenny is given proper training by Robby and later Terry, he proves himself an extremely adept fighter and on track to becoming one of Cobra Kai's star pupils. Meanwhile, because Kyler is too arrogant and idiotic to apply himself to training properly, his development stagnates.
- Simple arrogance. While he can have multiple people dancing to his tune at any time he seemingly can't help himself when it comes to performing Emperor Palpatine levels of overplaying his hands. He keeps thinking he has Johnny right where he needs him to be but he often decides to push a button he shouldn't to further antagonize Johnny. As noted above, he tries to "trim the fat" of Cobra Kai due to getting punked in the School Fight when in reality Hawk is right in that they had nothing to gain for losing "soldiers", even weaker ones. If Kreese just stopped going for Home Runs and let everyone around him self-destruct he would get where he needs to go with ease but the desire to be seen as the one person dominating all does him far more harm than good in the end. This one really comes back to bite him in Season 4 as he completely underestimates Silver and thinks he can get away with mistreating him. Silver proceeds to frame him for assault and gets him arrested.
- His inability to plan for the long-term or see the bigger picture. Despite sharing Terry Silver's goal of spreading Cobra Kai's influence as far as possible, Kreese's actual influence never expands beyond the Valley or the few dozen people within his immediate scope because he gets so caught up in his personal war with Miyagi-Do and wanting to build the strongest team possible that he never does anything to actually expand (and as noted above, he's greatly limiting himself by refusing to accept anyone who doesn't already have a "killer instinct"). Not only that, but he never seems to realize that almost every student he expels joins either Eagle Fang or Miyagi-Do and just makes his enemies stronger. Silver himself is aware of it and has to advise Kreese to stop sending the students on missions to attack Miyagi-Do and focus on winning the All Valley and convince him to lower his high recruiting standards to bring in more students. And once Kreese is out of the picture, Silver is able to expand the dojo far beyond what Kreese was ever able to do.
- In season 4, Silver espouses how everyone has a weakness, and he knows exactly what Kreese's is. He's not wrong either; what is it? Well, not what, who: Johnny Lawrence. Despite Kreese's Abusive Parent treatment of Johnny, the whole reason he does so is because he treats Johnny like the son he never had and genuinely thinks he knows what is best for him. In his youth, Kreese saw Johnny for the lost, confused teenager he was, and he realises things haven't gotten much better into adult hood (even if Kreese doesn't realise he's part of the reason Johnny is so messed up). Even after multiple falling outs, stealing the dojo from him, and kicking the dog enough that most people would rightfully have placed a restraining order on him, Kreese still keeps coming back to Johnny and trying to win him back like an estranged father, treating Cobra Kai as if it's a legacy he will gladly hand back over if Johnny only embraces it's philosophies. If it wasn't for his constantly trying to win back validation from Johnny, Kreese could easily win his war against him and Miyagi-Do. Silver – understanding all this about Kreese and how his twisted love for Johnny throws a monkey wrench in all their plans – knows that this is what is ultimately holding Kreese back from truly dominating the Valley, and is the more pragmatic motive behind his betrayal.
- On a more personal level, his inability to change with the times.
A Father to His Men: Subverted. Unlike Johnny who genuinely cares about his students (enough to accept anyone who joins his dojo and can tough out their training), Kreese does not have the same compassion even if he pretends otherwise. A student can give him their Undying Loyalty, but he'll still kick them out of the dojo the second a better fighter comes along. And even when he's throwing his students a bone (settling things with Tory's landlord, letting Hawk beat up Brucks, letting Robby stay as long as he likes, etc.), he's just grooming them for further indoctrination into his brutal creed. However, in seasons 4 and 5, this gets played completely straight with Tory. Kreese lets Tory fight on her own terms, regardless of whether she wins or loses the finals match in the All Valley tournament against Sam. Later in Season 5, his last piece of advice to Tory is to win the Sekai Taikai to further her own opportunities in life, prioritizing her own needs over his revenge on Silver for putting him in prison to begin with.
Faux Affably Evil: Kreese is very capable of being the most charming person in the room. When he's not dealing with someone challenging him, he sprinkles enough truth and compliments into basically everything he says, it's hard for the naive not to buy into it. Even when you know his true nature, he can worm his way into your confidence, as happened to Johnny when Kreese first reappeared. But in the end, everything Kreese does, even his most kind and altruistic moments, is in service of hurting his enemies, gaining control over others, and nothing more. He's just excellent at pulling a Villain with Good Publicity and making you look like the bad guy.
Finish Him!: This is still Kreese's signature expression. He ironically finds himself on the receiving end of this in the Season 3 finale – when he is completely at Daniel's mercy, Johnny nods to Daniel to end Kreese once and for all. Had Miguel and Sam not arrived at the scene, Daniel would have gone through with it.
Foil: Partners in crime, co-senseis and old war buddies they may be, but John Kreese and Terry Silver have very different lives and more importantly, approaches to running Cobra Kai.
- Kreese is implied to have come from a less well-off background, having to work as a busboy after his mother's suicide, while Silver comes from a wealthy family, given his talk about taking over his father's business and the fact that he is very rich in the present day.
- Kreese's only mentioned relative is his mother, whom it is implied he remembers fondly. Silver's only mentioned relative is his father, with whom he doesn't appear to have a good relationship, given that he casually threatens to cut him off financially if he doesn't come home to help run his business.
- Kreese leaves his girlfriend to go to war, and is devastated by her death, which is a painful memory for him decades later. Silver abandons his girlfriend for a petty karate rivalry, and pretty much forgets about her the moment she's out of the picture, ignoring the many text messages she sends asking where he's gone.
- Kreese generally remains outwardly calm, even when acting with murderous intent. Silver becomes almost cartoonishly excited and animated when the opportunity for a fight arises.
- Kreese is a poor long-term strategist, always preferring to strike back immediately at his opponents for even the most petty of slights with no regard for the consequences of his actions. Silver favors Pragmatic Villainy, encouraging his students to focus on the All Valley as it's the only fight that truly matters.
- Kreese believes fighters are born, not made, favoring "natural athletes" like Robby (because of his relationship to Johnny), Tory (because of her rough upbringing) and Kyler (because of his wrestling training). Silver thinks a champion can come from anywhere, and supports unorthodox fighters like Kenny and Piper. This fits with their respective backgrounds, as Kreese is an accomplished brawler long before receiving any formal training, telling David he's "been fighting [his] whole life", while Silver doesn't appear to have been much of a fighter before or even during his time in Vietnam, being mocked by his squadmates and nicknamed "Twig" due to his lack of muscles.
- Kreese favors a strong core team and spends more time cutting students than recruiting them. Silver wants Cobra Kai to be as expansive as possible, spending huge amounts of money on merchandise to appeal to the mainstream and making plans to open dojos all over the Valley.
For Your Own Good: He says this word for word about stealing the Cobra Kai dojo from Johnny.
Frame-Up: At the end of Season 4, he is arrested for aggravated assault and attempted murder on Stingray, who Silver bribed into pinning the blame on Kreese. This allows Silver to claim control of Cobra Kai for himself.
Freudian Excuse: It's scarcely touched on compared to his later experiences, but Kreese obviously had a shitty childhood; no dad in the picture, being poor, the caretaker of his mentally-unstable mother, looked down upon and treated as a freak after his mother's suicide, and saying he's "been in fights his whole life". He never came from anything remotely secure or forgiving and it's not surprising it helped fuel some of his later views, or that the Generation Xerox Gender Flip Tory takes most strongly to what he espouses.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Season 3 shows that Kreese used to to be a decent young man who cleaned floors at a diner, was shunned as a freak after his mother committed suicide, and defended women from abusive boyfriends. After he joined the Vietnam War, he set off on his Start of Darkness.

G-N

Gaslighting: He spends the second season manipulating Johnny into believing that the former Cobra Kai sensei has changed his ways. Even when Johnny eventually catches on and dismisses him from the new Cobra Kai, Kreese seizes control of the dojo some time after the school brawl, and Johnny is powerless to stop him.
Gendered Insult:
- He mockingly refers to Daniel as a "prima donna" when ordering his students not to attack him until the day of the All-Valley Tournament.
- He refers to the Cobra Kai students as a "pack of pussies" after they question Johnny for making them go inside a cement mixer as part of a training session.
Genius Bruiser: Very intelligent, and incredibly manipulative, as well as a hulking, ex-soldier martial arts sensei.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He is reintroduced puffing on a glowing cigar to help sell his evil credentials — as though he needed any assistance with that. Later, he puts one of his cigars out in a Miyagi-do bonsai pot.
Greater-Scope Villain: Throughout Season 1, Johnny unwittingly channels Kreese's teachings when he accidentally corrupts his own students into the same type of bullies he used to be. Kreese himself congratulates Johnny for that by the end of the season finale, and ultimately steps up as the Big Bad of the series by taking over the dojo.
Hate Sink: He's a violent asshole who frequently brutalizes his students and generally likes to torment those who are weaker than him, even non-combatants. Is it any wonder why all of his students end up becoming almost as bad as him? It would take 34 years for the narrative to give him some redeeming and sympathetic traits, after which this trope goes away.
Heartbroken Badass:
- Issue 3 of the comic series seem to imply this. He had a sweetheart named Betsy sometime before he was deployed to Vietnam. However, Kreese said she became a distraction to his duties and he thus had to end things with her. Kreese was about to go into details with young Johnny, but then decides against it after an apparent look of sincere forlornness.
- We find out in Season 3 that it was much worse than he hinted, to the point it actually makes Kreese somewhat sympathetic. He joined a special force during Vietnam and right before a big mission, Betsy died in a car crash. This information was kept secret from him because it would be a "distraction" but his CO saw fit to reveal this to him while they were about to be forced to fight to the death as POWs, hoping to gain an advantage. It's no wonder that this ended up becoming part of his Start of Darkness.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: In Season 4, when it seems like he's starting to abandon the Cobra Kai philosophy, Silver comes right in and frames Kreese for a crime he didn't commit and has him arrested, taking over the dojo in the process.
Heel Realization: In Season 4, at the All-Valley Tournament, Johnny calls Kreese out for ordering him to fight dirty against Daniel, then nearly killing him when Johnny lost anyway. When Tory is put in a similar situation and Silver starts offering her similar advice, Kreese sees Johnny and his disgusted look as he accurately predicts what Tory is being told. Kreese flashes back to the events of that night and realizes that Johnny has some very good reasons to hate his guts, and he's about to send Tory down the exact same path. This inspires Kreese to overrule Silver, telling Tory to fight the match however she wants, with as much or as little honor or mercy as she sees fit. He also had one earlier when Terry Silver beat up Johnny which makes him see firsthand how he treated Johnny when he lost in 1984.
He Who Fights Monsters: Volunteered for Special Forces duty mainly to serve his country, with some promises of being a hero. Ended up internalizing so much of Turner's "no mercy" philosophy that he even smokes the same cigars, more than 50 years later.
Hidden Depths:
- He seems to have some knowledge of animal behavior and terminology, as he accurately compares his absence to a cobra entering brumation and corrects Johnny when the latter calls it hibernation, which is only done by warm-blooded animals.
- Despite what his experiences in Vietnam turned him into, he reveals he initially had a hard but idealistic view of Cobra Kai not too unlike Johnny when he opened it. He was disgusted by the lack of sympathy he got by the counterculture movement after the war and wanted to create a generation willing to fight back if need be.
- He actually has a very eloquent way of speaking and even if it is in a rather crass ideology, he often talks of it in a way that almost sounds philosophical.
- Season 5 has him open up to his psychiatrist and reveal that he does carry regret for some of his actions. He also (for the very first time) talks about Betsy and confesses she was the love of his life.
His Own Worst Enemy: Cobra Kai makes it clear that while people like Mr. Miyagi, Daniel, Johnny, and Silver may prove to be a thorn in his side, most of Kreese's defeats really stem from his own flaws, primarily his arrogance, his My Way or the Highway attitude, and his refusal to admit his mistakes and learn from them. Ultimately, Kreese is the one who is responsible for his own follies and, even if the aforementioned characters didn't foil him, others would just do it in their place.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Two instances in Season 3:
  - He instructs Hawk to fight smart and think hard, which ultimately leads to him analyzing his situation in the S3 finale and realizing that he needed to switch sides and turn against Kreese and Cobra Kai.
  - He insists all Season that Johnny ought to return to the old Cobra Kai ethos of "Strike First, Strike Hard, and No Mercy", and then...Johnny does exactly that when he's pummeling the crap out of him. He barges into Cobra Kai and starts the fight with Kreese, therefore "striking first", Johnny hits hard with every single strike he directs against Kreese, therefore "striking hard", and it's clear when you look at Johnny's face while he's endlessly wailing on Kreese's face that mercy was the last thing on his mind. Had it not been for Robby intervening, Johnny may very well have beaten Kreese to death right there and then. And then Daniel soes the same thing. He "strikes first" by kicking Kreese to break his chokehold on Johnny, "strikes hard" by not holding back either and "no mercy" when he has Kreese immobilized, the look on Daniel's face shows that unlike when Mr. Miyagi had Kreese in this position 34 years ago, mercy is far from Daniel's mind after Kreese's students invaded his house and assaulted his daughter and it's clear that Daniel would've murdered Kreese if his daughter and Miguel didn't show up with the former calling out to him.
- In Season 4, Kreese convinces his old accomplice Terry Silver to return to Cobra Kai and help train his students. This backfires royally as his repeated attempts to humble Terry and remind him who's in charge pushes Terry to frame Kreese for his assault on Stingray, have him arrested, and usurp Cobra Kai.
Hollywood Restraining Order: Kreese files a frivolous restraining order against Amanda LaRusso after she confronts him at Cobra Kai's dojo for his students having assaulted her husband's students.
Honor Before Reason: You didn't misread that. Despite believing Virtue Is Weakness, Kreese will not tolerate any affronts to his system of Cobra Kai. He believes any insult or humiliation dealt to his dojo and its students should be dealt with an immediate retaliatory strike, no matter the consequences that might yield.
Kreese: Cobra Kai never backs down from a fight. Tournament or no tournament, we always strike first.
Hunk: Certainly qualified as this in his Vietnam days.
Hypocrite:
- While he pretends to be a Father to His Men, the truth is he's a Social Darwinist who will expel a student the second they show any reservations about his philosophy or a better fighter joins the dojo, considering it impermissible for them to lose (or "not finish") any confrontation despite repeatedly losing to opponents himself (i.e., Mr. Miyagi, Johnny, and Daniel).
- Kreese constantly preaches the importance of Undying Loyalty to Cobra Kai and each other to the students, while never extending that same treatment to the students himself.
- He constantly tells the Cobra Kai students that Miguel is one of them and they need to continue their war against Miyagi-do for his sake, while simultaneously writing Miguel off because he showed mercy to Robby during the school brawl. The fact that he later recruited Robby, the person who injured Miguel in the first place, only serves to drive this point home.
- For all of his preachings on Might Makes Right, he refuses to back down from having his students harass Daniel's and Johnny's even after the two of them kick his ass in the Season 3 finale.
- He boasts about having built Cobra Kai from the ground up to his students when in reality he ran the original dojo into the ground by alienating all of his students and the new iteration was built by Johnny and Miguel and Kreese just stole it.
If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Mouse, in this case. Bert refuses to feed Clarence to a snake and Kreese uses this as an excuse to expel him and a bunch of other kids, as "a true cobra feels no sympathy for its meals".
Ignored Epiphany: In the third movie after his life has been destroyed, Kreese seems to understand that seeking revenge will just make things worse for him but allows Terry to persuade him otherwise. He also has a tendency to impose this on others like Robby, Tory and Terry himself.
Improvised Weapon: How he won his death duel in Vietnam, and something he attempts against Daniel later - break something in the immediate area, then try and stab the opponent with it.
Insane Troll Logic:
- Because of the hell he endured during his time in Vietnam, he often treats whatever facet of life outside of war imaginable as a war zone.
- His response to Daniel ordering him to keep his Cobra Kai students away from Daniel's kids is to smugly state that it's a free country. Apparently he forgot that even free countries have laws against things like assault and breaking and entering.
Irony: He’s committed enough crimes that he should be in jail ten times over. But he’s managed to avoid legal consequences for a long time. Then when he finally does get arrested it’s for a crime he didn’t commit.
It Has Only Just Begun: Kreese's very words letting you know He's Back!!
It's All About Me: He cares little about the wellbeing of his own students and views them only as stepping stones for his nefarious personal goals. He makes no exceptions for Silver either, treating him like a subordinate and tool rather than an equal all to get back at Daniel and Johnny; this later comes to bite him in the ass when Silver frames him and gets him arrested for aggravated assault and attempted murder on Stingray.
It's Personal: He makes it known to both Daniel and Miyagi that he'll personally bring pain upon both of them if Daniel fails to show up for the All Valley Tournament.
I Was Quite a Looker: Age and life experience have wizened him, but Season 3's Vietnam-era flashbacks show that Kreese was pretty handsome as a young man.
Jerkass: He's really just a bully who gets off on hurting weaker opponents. Demetri even describes him as "The King of All Assholes".
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Almost every time Kreese shows his more human side, he negates it with some pointless cruelty, or reveals that it was all an act for some selfish purpose.
- After talking with Johnny at the beginning of Season 2, he gives the impression that he's remorseful for what happened in 1984. Later, when Johnny discovers that he is practically homeless, Kreese tells a story about his history of failure and explains that he feels like a "broken man". Kreese is still the same ruthless bastard that he was in the original Cobra Kai days, and he was only playing on Johnny's sympathy in order to get close enough to steal the new Cobra Kai dojo from him.
- In Season 4, he appeals to his old friend Terry Silver's loyalty to convince him to return to Cobra Kai so they can team up against Johnny and Daniel, only to start abusing Terry by pushing his Trauma Button in reminding him of the horrors of Vietnam just because his ego can't handle Silver acting like an equal partner instead of a subordinate.
- Despite seemingly having a Heel Realization at the end of Season 4, Season 5 has Kreese declare that he's done nothing wrong and doesn't deserve to be in prison, though it's unclear whether or not he actually believes this. He also opposes Silver and forms a brief Enemy Mine with Johnny and Daniel, but he does this for entirely selfish reasons (namely revenge for Silver framing him and in exchange for Daniel falsely promising to help him get out of prison respectively) and is openly apathetic to Daniel being viciously assaulted by Silver as collateral damage to one of his plans gone wrong. In the finale, an apparent moment of sincere regret expressed to his therapist turns out to have been a ploy to pick-pocket her key card as part of an escape plan.
- The one exception to this is his relationship with Tory, to whom he seems to display genuine affection. Kreese even allows Tory to fight fair in Season 4's All Valley instead of ordering her to cheat, which is of no real benefit to him. However, Kreese is still very much a Tough Love mentor towards her and in Season 5, he enlists Tory to act as The Mole in Cobra Kai for his revenge plot against Silver, forcing her to stay in a dojo that abuses her and is run by a man she hates for his own purposes. When he eventually selflessly gives up on this plan and tells Tory to make her own decision for her future, she is not happy as she now believes everything she went through for Kreese was pointless.
Karma Houdini Warranty: Double Subverted. In Season 4, after all the terrible things he did during the films and series, he finally gets some karma when he is arrested for aggravated assault against Stingray, something that was actually Silver's doing no less. Season 5 ends with Silver's lie being exposed, which would mean Kreese is now a free man... except Kreese broke out of prison before he was officially exonerated so he has to lay low and avoid the authorities or he'll be put back behind bars for escaping.
Kick the Dog:
- When visiting Daniel's dojo, Kreese puts his cigar out on one of Daniel's bonsai plants as his way of "paying respect" to his deceased nemesis Miyagi.
- When Miguel defeats Hawk in the Coyote Creek exercise, Kreese tells Miguel to Finish Him!... despite how Hawk is already the Cobra Kai student most in line with Kreese's values.
- The climax of Season 3 sees him announce his intent to not only dominate the next All-Valley Tournament, but also to "melt down the entire snowflake generation" in a condescending tone.
Kick the Morality Pet: "Do you remember...the cage?”
Knight of Cerebus: The show gradually grows darker when Kreese reenters Johnny's life. His arrival triggers a series of events that culminate in the devastating brawl at the school which ends in tragedy.
Laser-Guided Karma:
- A Downplayed Trope action but still directly there in that his appalling behavior during the tournament and subsequent humiliation (where Miyagi does a Literal Metaphor about Kreese's actions only hurting himself) destroy any respect his students have for him as well as cost him his livelihood.
- He came back into Johnny's life after the latter brought back Cobra Kai. He then used manipulation and lies to eventually usurp Johnny, taking Cobra Kai for himself. He encourages these students to act cruelly and ruthlessly, expels any who don't meet his standards, and punches a prospective student in the face. This leads to several of these students leaving, and most join either Miyagi-Do or Eagle Fang, swelling the ranks of his enemies. If not for his actions, Eagle Fang wouldn't exist and Miyagi-Do would only have two students.
- After causing them, their families and their students all sorts of crap ever since his return and sending his students to the LaRusso home to attack the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students there, he receives a brutal and vicious beating from Johnny (including blood flying out of the mouth) and then a fight and paralysis from Daniel … and both could’ve killed him had Robby not stopped Johnny punching him or Sam and Miguel hadn’t shown up with her calling out to Daniel before he was about to deliver Kreese the final blow after immobilising him.
- Then when he brings Terry Silver back into the fold, that’s precisely what Silver does to him, framing him for his assault on Stingray and sending him to a lengthy imprisonment. If Kreese had just left “Terrence” alone he would have avoided getting a taste of his own medicine.
Last-Name Basis: To differentiate him from Johnny Lawrence, who shares a similar given name as him, Kreese is always referred to by his surname in the present time. Terry Silver is the one exception to this, usually calling him Johnny, funnily enough.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: His return may have been a twist when Season 1 was first released, but the marketing for Season 2 makes no secret of his presence.
Lazy Bum: In terms of being a sensei. Season 3 shows Kreese has no patience for training any students that don't immediately meet his standards, makes zero effort to help them improve and sometimes kicks them out of the dojo right off. Even if they show a lot of potential, like Mitch or Sarah (the girl Tory fought), he prefers to focus more on refining the skills of already strong fighters rather than take the time to build up a student's athleticism and skillset.
The Lost Lenore: His girlfriend Betsy, who was the one thing inspiring him throughout combat and made him determined to return home, died in a car accident while Kreese was still deployed. The news of her death was one of the things that broke him. She's still seemingly on his mind decades later, as he even uses her Affectionate Nickname "Dollface" for other women who catch his eye.
A Lighter Shade of Black: Though Kreese may be a deranged Fallen Hero, he is shown to have hints of redeemable qualities. In Season 4, his co-villain, Terry Silver, becomes worse than Kreese.
Like a Son to Me: In his twisted way, this is how Kreese feels about Johnny. The producers have also indicated that he genuinely wanted to co-exist with Johnny in Cobra Kai, and that his principle motivation for taking the Cobra Kai dojo from Johnny was disappointment in Johnny having "lost" his way from the original Cobra Kai teachings. Even in that heartbreaking moment, Kreese offers Johnny a Tough Love-esque "One day, you'll thank me for this". It becomes even more twisted in Season 3 when Kreese recruits Robby to the dojo in the hopes it will bring Johnny back into the fold and they can rule Cobra Kai as "three generations". This means that Kreese sees Robby as his grandson.
Made of Iron: For an old man, he can take quite the beating.
Manipulative Bastard: Kreese is as skillful at manipulating others to get what he wants as he is at karate.
- Acts like he cared for Johnny all along in order get Johnny to let him teach at Cobra Kai again, allowing him to swipe Johnny's dojo and students out from under him by the end of Season 2. One of his master strokes is encouraging Hawk and his gang to vandalize Miyagi-Do, resulting in Johnny punishing the whole class to find the culprit. Once Johnny is away for a bit, Kreese lays on "you're all brothers and sisters, one you does something you've all done it" spiel, drawing the recruits closer in a pack mentality and driving a wedge between the students and Johnny.
- He uses his status as a veteran as clout to get others to take him more seriously, which is seen when he gets the cops to put a restraining order on Amanda La Russo when she confronts him at the Cobra Kai dojo, and when trying to convince the city council to reinstate the All Valley youth karate tournament, which had been banned due to the brawl at the school at the end of Season 2.
- When Robby ends up in juvey, Kreese pays him a visit and plays on Robby's feelings of resentment and betrayal to turn him into Cobra Kai's next rising star, and keep him alienated from both Daniel and Johnny.
- It might not have worked at first with the prison psychiatrist to get him an early parole, but Kreese managed to trick her into getting close so he could steal her card key to break himself out of prison. Whether he was faking those feelings or genuinely felt that way but could not pass up the opportunity to get back at her for denying him early parole is up to debate however.
Master of Your Domain: At the end of season 5, he is seemingly stabbed to death in the prison dining hall with a guard checking him for a pulse only to find none. He gets brought to the infirmary only to incapacitate two guards and a doctor and escape from the prison disguised in the doctor's outfit, meaning that he was able to temporarily stop his pulse for long enough to be brought to an area with lower security.
Meaningless Villain Victory: Season 4 ends with Cobra Kai winning the All Valley Tournament and by extension the bet with Johnny and Daniel, leaving Kreese free to expand Cobra Kai's influence through the Valley. However, he doesn't get to enjoy this victory as his mistreatment of Terry Silver leads the man framing him for assaulting Stingray. Kreese is last seen being arrested by the police.
- Season 5 also ends with him managing to break out of prison, but Silver being exposed not only caused most, if not all the students to leave Cobra Kai, it also meant that he would have been released anyway if he just stayed a little longer. Instead, he's now on the run from the police, since, innocent of his original crime or not, breaking out of prison and assaulting the staff are still illegal.
The Mentally Disturbed: It's heavily implied he inherited at least some form of whatever mental illness his mother had. His experiences in Vietnam also didn't help.
Might Makes Right: A large part of Kreese's philosophy. All that matters to him is strength, with him bringing in people with natural athletic talent regardless of their personality and expel any student who shows weakness or fails once regardless of their loyalty. Subverted when he never backs down or changes his ways even after Daniel and Johnny and (for that matter) Mr. Miyagi have bested him.
Miles Gloriosus: He's a very tough guy when picking on teenagers and people who can't fight back. But put him in a fight with Mr. Miyagi and he goes down easily.
Mook Chivalry: In the third movie, when Mr. Miyagi comes to Daniel's rescue after Terry Silver has revealed his true colors, Kreese — along with Mike Barnes and Silver himself — each try to fight Miyagi one-on-one rather than rush him all at once.
Morality Chain: Betsy. Kreese was a reasonably nice guy who hoped to marry her and be happy. As soon as he hears she's dead, he's able to murder his CO, and his relentless villainy continues unabated to this day.
My God, What Have I Done?: The final match of the final episode of season 4 finally makes him realize how horrible his training style is. He thinks back to how he treated Johnny and regret finally hits him. When Tory argues with Silver over how to win in the tournament, Kreese urges her to win the way she feels is best.
My Greatest Second Chance: Kreese sees Robby as this in Season 4 for his failure with Johnny. However, it eventually becomes apparent that his mentoring of Tory is what drives him to be a better teacher and perhaps even a better individual overall. A defining moment is during the All Valley Girls Final where Kreese witnesses Terry instruct her to use underhanded tactics to defeat Sam – Kreese realizes that she is being put right in Johnny's situation during the tournament final in 1984. Refusing to let history repeat itself, as well as out of genuine care for a student he hasn't had since Johnny, Kreese intervenes and encourages Tory to fight how she wants to.
The Narcissist:
Never My Fault:
- Kreese doesn't seem to acknowledge that he's responsible for the misery that was brought upon him, instead blaming all of his misfortunes on LaRusso, Mr. Miyagi, and modern society. The only time that he ever admits any fault is when he was trying to manipulate Johnny into trusting him.
- In Season 3, he expresses outrage at the fact Johnny has started his own dojo and recruited several former Cobra Kai students, ignoring that he was the one who caused it by stealing Cobra Kai from Johnny and expelling all of those students because they failed to meet his standards.
- In Season 4, he blames Daniel and Mr. Miyagi defeating Johnny at the 1984 All-Valley for the downward spiral Johnny's life took afterwards. In reality, Johnny was fine with coming in second place and what really sent him into a spiral was Kreese ordering him to fight dirty before nearly killing him because he lost and called Kreese out on being a Sore Loser.
- In Season 5, in addition to again laying the blame for Johnny's fall on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, he also states that Silver is the problem to blame for Cobra Kai becoming even worse after the All-Valley Tournament, ignoring that he prodded Silver into coming back to Cobra Kai in the first place, and refusing to believe that his or the dojo's philosophy is inherently flawed.
Never Say "Die": He's incredibly vague about his ultimate plans for Daniel, simply saying he wants to 'defeat him'. The finale of Season 3 leaves very little room for interpretation that his ultimate goal is to kill him. Even in this moment, Kreese doesn't use the words 'die' or 'kill', instead simply saying that it's time for Daniel and Miyagi to "reunite".
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Recruiting Kyler and Robby to Cobra Kai in an effort to strengthen the dojo ultimately causes Hawk to have a Heel–Face Turn, make amends with Miguel and Demetri, and rejoin Johnny.
- In Season 4, he gives a The Reason You Suck speech to Amanda regarding her attitude towards Tory, letting her in on Tory's unstable home life. This causes Amanda to take on a supportive role towards Tory, pushing her to bring balance to her life in a way Kreese himself neither could nor would.
- In Season 5, he pulls off an elaborate scheme to break out of prison, not knowing that he would soon be exonerated for the crimes that put him there and be a free man who could swoop back in to restart Cobra Kai. Instead, he's set himself up to be put right back behind bars if he gets caught by the authorities and has to lay low to avoid them.
Not Me This Time: Ironically, the aggravated assault against Stingray that led to Kreese's arrest was actually the one crime he was completely innocent of. Silver committed the deed and framed him for it out of revenge for Kreese's mistreatment of him throughout the second half of the season. When Daniel visits Kreese in prison, Kreese admits that Silver attacking Daniel at Stingray's apartment using the hint delivered to him of who actually assaulted Stingray was not part of his plan. It doesn't stop him from holding it over Daniel's head that it was a good consolation prize.
Not Quite Dead: Happens three times throughout the films and Cobra Kai to Daniel, then Johnny and lastly the audience. Daniel was told by Silver that Kreese died which was later revealed to be a hoax. Johnny, at least, seemed to be under the impression that Kreese was dead in Season 1 and most recently, Kreese seemingly got killed in prison at the start of the final episode of Season 5 but was revealed to have faked his death to break out of prison.

O-Y

Oh, Crap!:
- When Daniel temporarily paralyzed his arms and readies himself for the kill Kreese has a look of sheer horror like when Miyagi defeated him.
- Has an even bigger one in season 4 when he realizes that Terry Silver has betrayed him to the police.
Older Than They Look: Even in his 70s, he hardly looks that much different compared to his days as sensei of Cobra Kai back in the '80s outside of his hair having turned grey.
Old Master: A given — despite Johnny's own formidable skills by this point, Kreese still manages to fight him to a draw (he is a Vietnam veteran, after all). This is also deconstructed as Season 3 goes on — Kreese is undoubtedly skilled enough to give Johnny and Daniel a good fight, but there's little wisdom to be found in his philosophy.
One-Steve Limit:
- His first name is John. To differentiate between him and Johnny Lawrence, this keeps him on a permanently Last-Name Basis for just about everyone.
- Subverted by Terry Silver, though, who called him "Johnny" in Part 3 and continues to do so here.
Ordered to Cheat:
- He instructs Bobby to take out Daniel's knee, even though doing so will result in Bobby's disqualification. Then Johnny also uses Loophole Abuse moves that target the injured knee. Was originally the Trope Namer.
- Defied in season 4, when Silver's unethical instructions to Tory clearly bother him, and he overrides Silver to allow Tory to fight her way.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Because he only fights Miyagi and loses badly twice, you would be forgiven to think he is just an abusive teacher who can only pick on people weaker than him. Thing is... that's far from true. Kreese is not only a competent martial arts master but also a Vietnam War veteran with plenty of experience in real-life fights. And his Cobra Kai karate is brutal but also extremely efficient, he just can't compare to the skills, experience, and wisdom of Mr. Miyagi, who fought in WWII and even earned the Medal of Honor. 30 years later, Cobra Kai shows that without somebody like Miyagi around to keep him in line, Kreese is an almost unstoppable karate demon who can easily play everyone like a fool. It says something that both Johnny and Daniel (who learned from Miyagi himself) have a hard time fighting despite both being more skilled and experienced than before. That being said, it's notable that he never beats either Johnny or Daniel. While he is a very good fighter, he's not quite good enough to beat them.
Papa Wolf: He has shades of this.
- First and foremost, while he showed it in a terrible way, he's always been protective of Johnny and he later reveals that the reason he assaulted him after the tournament back in 1984 was because he hated seeing Johnny so beaten down and humiliated. He even tells Terry he couldn't let it slide seeing his best student like that.
- Later develops this towards Tory, who is sort of a kindred spirit and also his next champion student. Just look at how he dealt with that creepy scumbag landlord of hers...
Parental Substitute: In a twisted way, Kreese tends to take on being a father figure for characters lacking parental guidance in their lives. First and most importantly with Johnny, but also with Tory and later on with Robby and his relationship with them is a mix of manipulation for his own benefit and genuine paternal affection.
Pay Evil unto Evil: When Kreese gets into an Evil Versus Evil situation, it can be quite satisfying to see his brutality directed towards someone else who's an even bigger jerkass or Hate Sink.
- In 1965, he defended Betsy from her abusive boyfriend, David. (Although in fairness, Kreese wasn't evil yet.)
- In Season 3, he threatens to slice off the fingers of Tory's ephebophilic landlord with a cigar cutter to ensure he'll leave her alone and she'll return to Cobra Kai.
- He lets Hawk beat Brucks into a pulp in retaliation for his bullying and destroying Hawk's mental health and self-esteem back in Season 1.
- Though we don't see it onscreen, the final words he spoke in that scene ("I just cleaned the blood off that mat... oh, well.") indicated a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner toward Zakarian, Erik, and Grigor.
- His fight against the gang of prisoners giving him a hard time counts too.
Pet the Dog: Subverted multiple times. Any time he does or shows an act of kindness, he does it only for his own selfish benefit.
- Kreese returns Johnny's second place 1984 All-Valley Tournament trophy to him, repaired and good as new. Though it appears to be a good-natured gesture at first, Kreese does this purely to get on Johnny's good side and thus regain faith in his former Cobra Kai sensei, setting him up for further manipulation.
- He does this again with Tory in Season 3 in a true gray area. On one hand, what he does for Tory is a legitimately good thing and something the poor girl desperately needed (getting her out of dealing with rent issues as she was juggling two jobs and her GED) — putting a thrashing on a perverted landlord outright propositioning her (a MINOR) so she won't get evicted. And since it resembles an experience from his own youth (when he confronted a couple of Jerk Jocks harassing Betsy), there's probably some sincere disgust and/or protectiveness on his part. On the other hand, it's quite clear he's only doing this to obtain Tory's Undying Loyalty and secure one of Cobra Kai's best fighters for the long haul. It's what makes Kreese so dangerous; you know that basically everything he's doing is in service of his own benefit, but there's still quite a few times that the advice or help he offers is still useful and appreciated despite that. Like a true cult leader, it's the desperate and the down-and-out who are the most vulnerable to Kreese.
- And again to Robby Keene—his advice helped him out against Payne's gang in juvie, and him allowing Robby a place to stay while the kid was homeless has earned Robby's loyalty as well. It stands in stark comparison to Johnny and Daniel, the former of which abandoned his care, and pushed him against a locker, and the latter, who got him sent to juvie in the first place, where he got his face busted in. Even if Johnny and Daniel were right about Kreese, in Robby's mind, they failed him, while Kreese was one of the only people who ever treated him with some semblance of kindness.
- This finally gets played straight with Tory in season 4. After Amanda accidentally gets Tory fired from her waitressing job, he confronts Amanda about the incident without telling Tory, explaining her family troubles and demanding that Amanda leave Tory alone. Later, when she wants to win the grand finals cleanly, Silver wants her to win at all costs. Kreese urges Tory to fight how she wants, as he finally realizes the damage his style has done to the one student he actually cared about: Johnny.
- It's also played straight in a flashback to when he and Terry returned from the war, after his Start of Darkness but before fully Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. Kreese wanted Terry to join him in his Cobra Kai venture, but Terry had to take over the family business (or he'd be cut from his father's inheritance). Terry still pays his half as promised, but it seems at first like Kreese would lose it on him for leaving him or try to guilt him into staying. Instead, he earnestly tells Terry that despite genuinely not wanting to do it without him by his side, that he should do what he has to and that he'll never leave him behind. In their words; 'Cobra Kai Never Dies.'
Phony Veteran: Zigzagged. Kreese did indeed serve in the special forces during the Vietnam War, but the experience was horrifying and not glamourous, leaving him something of a Shell-Shocked Veteran. After his failures in the original films, he attempted to rejoin the service to find purpose again, but was rejected as mentally unfit. Perhaps as a coping mechanism, he subsequently began making up flagrantly untrue stories about his service during and after Vietnam, including claiming to have participated in conflicts he clearly had nothing to do with (for example, claiming to have fought in the Battle of Mogadishu despite not knowing what country Mogadishu is in).
Poke the Poodle: While Kreese is a dangerous sociopath, occasionally his villainous acts are comically petty, such as stubbing his cigar in the soil of a Miyagi-Do bonsai plant or biting an apple at the grocery store without paying for it.
Playing the Victim Card: In Season 3 he gets a lot of mileage out of falsely painting himself and Cobra Kai as the victims when they are actually almost always the aggressors. He also milks his status as a veteran for sympathy with law enforcement and local government every chance he gets.
Politically Incorrect Villain: If you thought Johnny was bad...
- He calls Mr. Miyagi a "slope" in the opening scene of Part II.
- In the space of one episode, he openly disparages a kid for wearing a "The Future is Female" t-shirt and later racially insults the Latino owner of the convenience store next door. Later still, when Johnny informs him Miguel is Ecuadorian, not Mexican, Kreese replies that there's no difference.
- At the end of Season 3, he says he's going to "melt the snowflake generation", firmly establishing him as an adversarial baby boomer who thinks the younger generations are weak and coddled.
- However, this trope is zigzagged given that he does show some subtle Character Development regarding his unquestioning acceptance of female dojo members such as Tory and Aisha in what had previously been an all-male dojo (a hang-up that even Johnny initially struggled to get over). Also, he's more educated on mental illness than Johnny in calling his mother's mental illness "a disease", as opposed to Johnny who simply told Hawk to "get off it" when the latter said he might be on the (autism) spectrum. He also stands up for Tory against her perverted landlord, which could be argued comes from his childhood disdain of thugs sexually harassing women. Enlisting Piper in Season 4 is the epitome of this zigzag. At a glance, she is nearly everything that someone like Kreese would hate: LGBT, Ambiguously Brown, feminist to the hilt and very caring about how things like gender fluidity are taken. However, she's extremely athletic in being an exceptional gymnast, and Moon alludes to her having a nasty streak which is more than enough for Kreese to take her in. Cobra Kai is incredibly diverse in this day and age because Kreese doesn't really care beyond your ability to fight viciously, and be loyal under him. Although Silver's recruitment may have also played a role.
Pragmatic Villainy: Kreese encourages his students to fight smart and does the same even outside physical combat. After Amanda slaps him in the face, rather than fight back, he uses the opportunity to file a restraining order against her, helped by his own status as a former Vietnam veteran. He's not as good as this compared to Terry Silver, however.
Private Military Contractor: AKA "mercenary". Daniel and Johnny both speculate that this is one of the things that Kreese got into in the 30-plus years since they saw him last.
Psychopathic Manchild: Despite being around 70 years old, his refusal to see the faults of Cobra Kai logic, holding of petty grudges for decades, attacking teenagers, inability to hold a lasting job, and being a massive Sore Loser and being incredibly smug and petulant, needing to let everyone know he's the one who defeated them and gloat accordingly even if it hurts him in the long run, really highlights how much maturity Kreese lacks. Season 5 even shows that he still sees himself as he was in his 20s/30s despite having visibly aged several decades. His Blood Knight and Might Makes Right tendencies and blatant sociopathy make up the "psychopathic" part. The prison psychiatrist even compares him to a sulking kid who got in trouble in class during their sessions.
Sadist Teacher: It should be a given since he choked out Johnny while taunting him about second place and and broke his trophy but he’s become even worse in present day. If a student displeases him, he’ll not only kick them out, but he’ll do it in the most humiliating way so he can shame them in front of their peers, then he’ll encourage said peers to continue that humiliation outside of the dojo.
Sanity Slippage: It's clear that his years as a homeless drifter have taken their toll on his sanity as he's gone from simply teaching teenagers a brutal karate philosophy and encouraging cheating in tournaments in the films to outright encouraging his students to break the law and trying to murder Johnny and Daniel in this series.
Satanic Archetype: Kreese is basically the San Fernando Valley's very own devil. For starters, Kreese was once a proud figure within the community before his fall from grace (although not according to the backstory we see, where he was a rejected outcast before going to Vietnam). He's also a Manipulative Bastard who would try to slither back to his former glory by making a deal with Johnny which ends up screwing the latter while Kreese would also corrupt Johnny's students. Then there is the animal that represents Kreese, a snake, which is also one of the animals that is associated with the devil.
Second Place Is for Losers: "Defeat does not exist in this dojo!"
Self-Serving Memory:
- Kreese apparently remembers the day he saw Johnny with a black eye following his fight with Mr. Miyagi as an unprovoked assault on his star student, seemingly forgetting that Mr. Miyagi was defending Daniel from being beaten by Johnny. This is justified as Kreese wasn't actually there to witness the incident and only knows of it second-hand from Johnny who very likely told his own version of the story to Kreese.
- Kreese claims to Johnny that he forced him to fight dirty in the All Valley tournament 35 years ago because he knew that if Johnny lost, it would send him down a spiral of disappointment and adversity. While Johnny's life certainly did take a turn for the worst since that night he lost, Kreese completely disregards that fact that Johnny had actually taken his loss well and was satisfied with coming in second place — it was Kreese's harsh berating for losing and subsequent assault on him that was the real catalyst for Johnny's life plummeting.
Sensei for Scoundrels: Unlike Johnny, he's doing this intentionally and takes great pleasure in it. He runs Cobra Kai as a Thug Dojo and twists all of his students into violent bullies, both in the 70's and 80's and into Cobra Kai. He actually encourages far worse behavior in the students in the series than the films, to the point the current Cobra Kai group can make Johnny and his gang in the original trilogy look like saints.
Serious Business: He takes the karate tournament far too seriously or, honestly, not seriously enough. Specifically, he doesn't see any value in it as an actual display of athletics or prowess—he's only interested in winning. He treats the conflict with Miyagi-Do as this, referring to the students as "soldiers". Neither Daniel nor Johnny are amused by this.
Shadow Archetype: Kreese represents all of Johnny's worst traits taken up to eleven, and the flawed Cobra Kai philosophy from which Johnny is trying to escape. While Johnny's Politically Incorrect Hero status is the result of ignorance rather than malice, Kreese revels in his openly racist attitudes. While Johnny, despite his Disco Dan tendencies, learns to be more in touch with modern society and adapts the lessons he learned in The '80s to better fit the present day, Kreese shows no signs of wanting to change, and commits fully to living in the past, acting as if he's still in the midst of the Vietnam War and despising the modern world in which he lives. Johnny sees both the merits and flaws of Cobra Kai's teachings and only inadvertently passes bad lessons on to his students, while Kreese refuses to acknowledge any problems with the "no mercy" mentality and actively encourages his students to become Ax-Crazy psychopaths.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Zig-Zagged.
- Kreese is a combat veteran who has had trouble adjusting to life outside the service, and looks at every interaction as a battle, and day to day life as an ongoing war. This backfires on him when he loses the original Cobra Kai dojo and spends decades being homeless and drifting from job to job. His tendencies as The Sociopath and a Manipulative Bastard don't help his situation any, but his pride won't let him do anything else.
- Ironically, his sociopathic tendencies are what prevented him from getting back in the army. After losing Cobra Kai, he tried to reapply for service, but was turned down because psychological testing for the military had more stringent demands than during Vietnam conscription. He writes it off as them being tight-asses, but much like many of more realistic instances in the show, it's pretty obvious that someone like Kreese would be deemed too maverick and bloodthirsty to be safely enlisted as a soldier.
Sink or Swim Mentor: He's even worse than Johnny in this regard, as he'll expel his students the second they fail to perform to his standards.
Slasher Smile: Literally every time he's being particularly evil.
Small Name, Big Ego: It's clear from Kreese's talk of "melt[ing] the snowflake generation" that he sees himself as some visionary societal leader who can win over an entire generation to his own worldview. However, although he may pose a serious threat to the likes of Johnny and Daniel, in the grand scheme of things he is, as Amanda puts it, little more than a "geriatric karate coach" whose sphere of influence is limited to about two dozen troubled teenagers in the San Fernando Valley.
Smug Snake: Given that his Animal Motif is a snake, he's definitely a candidate for this. While he's definitely a Manipulative Bastard, Kreese is far too arrogant for his own good and his tendencies to underestimate his enemies nearly causes his downfall with Daniel almost killing him.
The Social Darwinist: Ultimately what his philosophy boils down to and why it's devoid of care of conventional morality and respect. In Season 3, he admonishes Miyagi-Do for thinking they're heroes and Cobra Kai the villains, saying there's no such thing and there are only the strong and the weak. Kreese also seems to believe that fighters are born, not trained; when he was out recruiting students, Kreese only approached teenagers that were already shown to be athletic and during the initiation sparring he had them essentially fight for the right to join/remain with the dojo. By the end of Season 3, nearly all of the original Cobra Kai gang from Season 1 (most of which were social outcasts that sought to find strength and confidence in Johnny's Cobra Kai) were gone and all that remained were Kreese's newest platoon of "natural athletes".
"Only the strong shall survive."
The Sociopath: Shows many traits, including constant lying, manipulation of others, a lack of emotion in most scenarios, and even his inability to keep a regular job. While he also has a total lack of remorse, he can fake it, making him all the scarier. Amanda calls him out for it when she confronts him in his dojo in Season 3.
- Interestingly, unlike most sociopaths, Kreese seemingly used to have some empathy and compassion. But during his time in Vietnam, War Is Hell challenged his values and twisted them for survival. Ultimately, Kreese's sociopathy is a result of him still being stuck in the kill-or-be-killed mentality that was instilled in him during the war.
- However, Kreese claimed way before Vietnam that he'd been in fights his whole life, he's relatively unemotional the entire time, and even prior to his worst experiences in Vietnam, he showed and claimed he had a lack of fear (of dying, anyway). Taken together, all of these are strong hints of sociopathic traits already there, just exacerbated by what he went through. He might have spared Turner and managed to be a different person, otherwise.
- And also, while sociopathy isn't considered genetic, his mother's unspecified severe, fatal mental issues and what they contributed to his deprived childhood couldn't have helped anything.
Sociopathic Soldier: He outright says he couldn't re-enlist in the Army because he couldn't pass the "new tests" they have, and unlike his other claims, this one is 100% believable. Season 3 shows us him serving under a CO who operated entirely by this philosophy, with Kreese finally coming to embrace it.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Unlike the movies, where he was as loud and intense as he could be, his voice in the series has softened a lot with age, possibly because he was much quieter as a young man and prior to founding Cobra Kai. He still enjoys inflicting pain or watching his students inflict pain on beaten opponents.
So Proud of You: His praise for Johnny at the end of Season 1 has some strong elements of this, causing Johnny some silent Your Approval Fills Me with Shame.
Sore Loser:
- He berates Johnny over his defeat, and angrily destroys his second place trophy. If that wasn't enough, he chokes Johnny over his failure.
- He’s only gotten worse with age as he reacts poorly whenever his students end up losing fights, and he particularly hates being reminded that Mr. Miyagi kicked his ass twice.
Speak Ill of the Dead: Has mocked Daniel using Mr. Miyagi's death a few times, even calling the late sensei a "little bastard".
Start of Darkness: Kreese used to be a chivalrous young man until the Vietnam War, which molded him into the ruthless Social Darwinist he is today. More specifically, he got his entire squad captured by showing compassion and refusing to sacrifice a fellow soldier. Said soldier was killed anyway. His captors then forced him and his CO to fight to the death. To gain an advantage, the CO Captain Turner told Kreese that his girlfriend was dead, a piece of information that he had previously withheld out of tactical advantage, to demoralize him. This finally caused Kreese to realize what kind of fucked-up world he lived in and what kind of person he had to be to survive in it. When American forces arrived at the camp to liberate the squad and made their fight unnecessary, Kreese chose to kill Turner rather than spare him and report his transgressions to higher command.
Stupid Evil: A recurring flaw of Kreese's is that he continually indulges in committing evil actions, even when they serve no purpose or end up hurting him.
- A lot of his actions in Season 3, like letting Hawk cave in Brucks' face and the arcade fight, would've resulted in a lawsuit (or even criminal charges) in a more realistic show.
- Throughout his appearances, he's only ever interested in teenagers who already have a "killer instinct," meaning that he will never be able to grow his school all that much. Furthermore, as students like Kyler demonstrate, even if those teenagers do possesses that quality, they often have severe character flaws (arrogance and stupidity in Kyler's case) that prevent them from actually becoming elite fighters.
- At the start of Season 3, he's effectively won his war against Daniel and Miyagi-do, as Kreese has usurped control of Cobra Kai from Johnny and Daniel has shut down Miyagi-do as a result of his guilt over the school brawl. Instead of being satisfied with this and focusing on running his school, Kreese insists on continuing to harass Daniel and his students by encouraging the Cobra Kais to torment them. The result is that Daniel eventually reopens the dojo upon realizing his students will be targeted regardless of whether the dojo exists or not.
- His response to seeing Sam and Miguel save the All-Valley tournament is to push Tory to lead the Cobras in a gang assault on the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students as they're beginning to work together, while keeping Robby behind at the dojo so Johnny and Daniel will find him there when they inevitably confront Kreese for the attack. Someone with his military training would know that both dojos would be easier to defeat if they weren't allied and launching an attack on them simultaneously while showing he's corrupting Johnny's son/Daniel's protégé is just what both sides and senseis needed to put all their differences aside and fully unite. Not only that, but he also loses one of his best fighters (Hawk) to the Miyagi-Do / Eagle Fang faction.
- Finally bites him in the ass completely in Season 4. He brings in Terry Silver to help run Cobra Kai and take it to the next level, which Silver is able to do by bringing in vastly improved equipment and merch, alongside a nice contrasting counterpoint in teaching which helps to advance the training of the students. Silver is also able to get into the head of Daniel enough to help trigger yet another blowup between him and Johnny, leading to the dojos imploding at the worst possible time. You would think that Kreese would be overjoyed but instead, he notably gets agitated when Silver implies that Kreese has a weakness just like everyone else and constantly feels undermined. So he constantly berates Silver and pushes his PTSD button... which ends up leading to a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal in the Season 4 finale as he's framed and sent to prison. Once again, Kreese's ego lands him in hot water, and Silver even warned him much earlier in the season about this very issue he keeps repeating.
The Svengali: Particularly in Cobra Kai, Kreese sees the students he teaches as his own personal army to aid him in accomplishing whatever goals he has, whether it be to spread his teachings or (more importantly) get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.
Sympathy for the Hero: Kreese offers his sympathies to Johnny for Miguel's accident and points out that the "mercy" philosophy is also what got him injured, and if Miguel followed the true Cobra Kai way of "no mercy", he probably would not have ended up in the hospital.
This Means War!: Zakarian and his nephews fail to evict Kreese, and the Cobra Kai sensei warns Daniel over the phone to ready his students for an inevitable conflict between their dojos.
"Hello, Danny Boy. Nice try. But you can't end a war with diplomacy. So I suggest you prepare your students for battle. Because now, it's open season. On them... and you."
Thug Dojo: He provides the page image for a damn good reason. After all, this is what Cobra Kai was when Kreese founded it, and this is what he wants it to remain.
Tragic Villain: Yes, really. While it's definitely no excuse for all the horrible things he's done (and will do), Kreese's whole life has been marred by pain and in many ways shaped by it. He grew up lonely and in poverty, constantly bullied and unappreciated by those around him, which no doubt fed into his desire for respect. His mother (and himself) also had mental health issues that went unchecked or flat out unnoticed, which resulted in his mother's suicide. He finally gained some semblance of love when he met Betsy, but he became a POW in Vietnam. His commanding officer also turned out to be a conniving asshole who's responsible for his merciless attitude to life and even gloated to Kreese about Betsy's death. All this combined led to the man we see today. The tragedy really hits home when you realize that if he'd gotten some help or even just been treated better, he may have been a different person. It's fairly safe to say that Kreese is so obsessed with war because he never had the chance to experience peace.
Too Clever by Half: Kreese is a terrifyingly skilled manipulator and strategist but he's not nearly as invulnerable as he thinks he is and his overconfidence combines with his other flaws to undermine his schemes. He is able to effortlessly get his hooks into people but makes no effort to keep their loyalty once he believes he has them on his side and thinks he can win them back later with ease, even after showing his true colors, and thinks they will put up with his horrible behavior without pushing back as long as he turns on the charm when needed. He also doesn't count on anyone maybe seeing through his charm offensive, being genuinely surprised when his prison therapist isn't won over and correctly assesses that he's just playing her by telling her what he thinks she wants to hear. He is smart enough to know that bringing in Terry Silver will help Cobra Kai on multiple levels but never considers that Terry would ever turn against him or see his manipulation for what it is and would tolerate John's mistreatment indefinitely. Kreese pays dearly for this when Terry has him arrested, taking over Cobra Kai for himself.
Took a Level in Jerkass: As unbelievable as it seems, Cobra Kai shows he's gotten even worse in the decades since the films. Back then, he focused on teaching his students the Cobra Kai philosophy and fighting techniques, yes, but he otherwise left his students to their own devices outside of class. Here, he continues his teachings while also instructing them to engage in criminal behavior outside of the dojo, including breaking and entering, theft, and assault.
Toxic Friend Influence: The series makes it clear that he's this for Terry Silver. Silver may have been the one dealing in toxic waste (ironically), but unlike Kreese, he had a Heel Realization and a My God, What Have I Done?, did the hard work of therapy and getting sober, and was living peacefully during his friend's 35-year absence. Then the second Kreese re-entered his life in snake-like insidious fashion, Silver's unhinged side was brought back to the fore.
Terry: Turns out, you disappearing was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Trauma Button: He is visibly rattled when Daniel references the time when he busted up his knuckles trying to fight Mr. Miyagi.
Tyrant Takes the Helm: Kreese reclaims control of the Cobra Kai dojo from Johnny near the last stretch of season 2 to once again indoctrinate the new generation of students with his ruthless philosophy of "no mercy".
The Unfettered: Kreese remains committed to his "no mercy" philosophy, and doesn't give a damn about the consequences of that philosophy, be it for his students, their victims, or even himself.
Ungrateful Bastard: Johnny reluctantly lets Kreese join Cobra Kai and help him teach his classes, giving him a second chance in spite of the bad blood between them. By the end of Season 2, he had turned all of his students into Barbaric Bullies, needlessly escalated the bad blood between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, had the Miyagi-Do Dojo vandalized (including the theft of Miyagi's Medal of Honor), and took Johnny's ownership of the Cobra Kai Dojo for himself, claiming he did it because he didn't like Johnny's attempts at teaching them honor and restraint.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was a quiet, kind, hopeful young man who protected his future girlfriend Betsy from some violent Jerk Jocks. Then he joined the military and met Captain Turner who, along with his time as a POW in Vietnam and Betsy's tragic death, was the cause of his Start of Darkness.
The Vietnam Vet: He served as a Green Beret during his time in the Vietnam War, and the traumas he went through warped him into a ruthless man who treats every facet of life imaginable as a war zone.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Season 5 ends with him faking his death and escaping from prison, though what he does next, considering Silver has been exposed and arrested to the point where practically all of Cobra Kai's students have left, and he himself is now going to be a felon, is left up in the air at the moment.
Villain Has a Point: Kreese repeatedly shows that he is a lot more clear-eyed and pragmatic than the show's ostensible heroes, even if his near-complete lack of a moral compass prevents him from using those skills in a productive fashion.
- When trying to patch things up with Johnny at the diner, Kreese's claim that society has gotten weak is a broad generalization at best, but his bemoaning that today's children "receive trophies just for showing up" actually somewhat resonates with Johnny, even if it doesn't convince him to let Kreese back in.
- Kreese repeatedly points out to Johnny that he should be the one training Robby rather than Daniel. While he's mostly doing this because he believes Robby will make a valuable "soldier" due to sharing Johnny's karate prowess and he dismisses Johnny's genuine Like a Son to Me feelings towards Miguel by calling Robby Johnny's "real" son, he is right that Johnny's poor relationship with Robby is a failing on his part and he should be making more of an effort to reconcile with the latter.
- Kreese correctly points out that while Daniel may claim otherwise, the conflict between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do has escalated to the point where it is a war in all but name. The brawl in the season 2 finale erases any doubts about that.
- Tragically, Kreese is also right in that Johnny's emphasis on mercy directly contributed to Miguel's hospitalization.
- In Season 3, he admonishes Miyagi-Do for thinking themselves virtuous heroes standing up to the villainous Cobra Kai, saying there's no such thing and there's only the strong and the weak. While it obviously whitewashes his blatantly sociopathic nature, it's not unfair to say Daniel does low-key enjoy being the face to Cobra Kai's heel. It's acknowledged in-story (and a common criticism by fans) that his self-righteousness is one of the main reasons the conflict between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do escalated.
  - Also, while Kreese and his students use his philosophy as an excuse to be assholes, like any good Social Darwinist villain, he's not technically wrong in that the only reason Miyagi-Do can stand up to Cobra Kai is that they're legitimately strong warriors. It's not their morality that matters, it's their fists.
- In Season 4 when he confronts Amanda after she inadvertently causes Tory to lose her job. By his standards, Kreese is positively reasonable: he acknowledges that Amanda was sticking up for Sam, but also points out that she picked a fight with a troubled teenager, and that Tory has serious family problems which her intervention only made worse. Amanda acknowledges that in this instance, she was in the wrong and reaches out to Tory to support her. It might be the first time where Kreese actually did have a positive impact on someone, albeit perhaps unintentionally.
- Whilst he said it in a cruel manner, Kreese was right to not let Stingray rejoin Cobra Kai because the latter is a 35-year-old adult and the students are in the middle of training for the All Valley Under-18 karate tournament with relatively high stakes; therefore, the dojo wouldn't have time to train him. It's also worth mentioning the fact that Stingray's role in the West Valley High School brawl in Season 2 and his subsequent arrest have made him a liability. Kreese is also absolutely correct in his assessment of Stingray as an embarrassment and a buffoon.
Villain on Leave: Spends Season 5 mostly out of the picture due to Silver framing him and getting him sent to prison. At the end, however, he breaks out...
Villain Protagonist: Season 3 heavily focuses on things from Kreese's perspective with flashbacks to his start of darkness playing throughout the season. The prison arc in Season 5 can count as this for him, given that the inmates Kreese deals with are hardly any better than he is.
Villain Respect: Two instances of this trope.
- Despite looking down on Mr. Miyagi himself and outwardly saying that Miyagi-Do karate as an art that is only useful for winning tournaments, Kreese acknowledges that the students of Miyagi-Do are genuinely strong fighters and that their values are irrelevant if it means that they are capable of matching and defeating the Cobra Kais.
- Even after Silver betrays him, Kreese holds Silver's karate skills in a high esteem that he believes that neither Daniel nor Johnny will be able to defeat him.
Kreese: You actually think you're going to be able to take him down without me? He's gonna make mince meat out of you.
Virtue Is Weakness: Kreese preached "Mercy is for the weak" way back in the original Karate Kid, and he's none too happy to witness Johnny's new emphasis on honor and restraint in Season 2. After the season finale, most of the Cobra Kai students come around to Kreese's way of thinking, especially after what happened to Miguel after he tried showing mercy to Robby.
"When you're in a war, the other side never fights with any 'honor'. Take it from me."
- The flashbacks in Season 3 show why he has this attitude: while in Vietnam, he hesitated to blow up a Viet Cong stronghold because one of his platoon was still near it. His hesitation gave the Vietnamese soldiers time to find and capture them. Not only did they get captured, but the soldier Kreese was trying to save ended up being executed anyway, and the rest of the captives were thrown into pit fights for the amusement of the Vietnamese soldiers. It's no wonder he's traumatised.
Visionary Villain: Hinted at when he talks to Johnny at the diner in Season 2, telling Johnny how society has gotten weak and that the world needs Cobra Kai. Outright confirmed in Season 3 with Kreese's declaration of his intent of "melting this snowflake generation".
Walking Spoiler: His return is the big twist at the end of Season 1, especially since Johnny believed he was dead.
We Can Rule Together:
- After kicking Johnny out of Cobra Kai "for his own good", he still makes repeated attempts to manipulate Johnny back to his side. This is probably because of the father-son relationship between Johnny and Kreese. Kreese has always envisioned Johnny has his successor.
- In Season 4, he gets Terry Silver to return to teaching and running Cobra Kai with promises of this. Unfortunately, he ends up abusing Silver as a whipping boy instead, leading Silver to then snap and have him framed for aggravated assault and attempted murder, taking Cobra Kai for himself.
We Have Become Complacent: It's eventually clear that he dismisses the current "snowflake generation" of political correctness and anti-bullying as making people go soft and vulnerable, planning to use Cobra Kai as a means to make people see what he believes to be the hard truth. He has been saying that ever since came back from Vietnam as he created Cobra Kai as a counterculture movement against hippies.
We Used to Be Friends: With Terry Silver, his former war comrade, at the end of Season 4.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zig-zagged. Kreese keeps telling Johnny that he will "thank him for this", and claims that might makes right prevents tragedy. It's left unclear whether or not he believes his own lies or if he is conscious of his sociopathy, manipulation, and the fact that he is legitimately hurting people.
What You Are in the Dark: Kreese could have let Turner live, in spite of it being a Kick The Son Of A Bitch moment. He chose to kill him, and it's affected everything he's done since. See: clearly expecting Miyagi to kill him in the same type of situation.
Windmill Crusader: For Kreese, the Vietnam War never ended and even three decades later he's still hellbent on cleansing today's "weak" society.
The Worf Effect: Kreese's track record is actually rather unimpressive. So far series-wide, Kreese has lost most of his onscreen fights. Besides defeating hulking football player David before enlisting in the army, his commanding officer in a duel to the death during the Vietnam War and overpowering Rodney (Tory's lecherous landlord), the only other victory he has to his name is when he fought off both Armand and his nephews when they attempted to forcibly evict him, and even then it happens offscreen. From this, it can be gauged that Kreese can handle most untrained brawlers no problem, but he's no match for true martial artists like Johnny, Daniel, and Mr. Miyagi unless he resorts to underhanded tactics. Subverted in Season 5 where Kreese defeats a gang of prison inmates in a very one-sided curb-stomp battle.
Would Harm a Senior: He doesn't hesitate to attack the elderly Miyagi for defending Johnny and Daniel in two separate instances. Miyagi, however, makes short work of him both times.
Would Hurt a Child: He bloodies the teenage Demetri's face for touching his arm and making critical remarks about his tattoos. Not to mention sending his students to attack the other teens at Daniel's house. Most notably, strangling Johnny for losing the All-Valley in 1984 which was traumatic enough to eventually kick-start the events of Cobra Kai.
Yandere: A platonic version in regards to Johnny. Kreese actually loves Johnny like a son but every perceived failures is enough for Kreese to try killing him. He then move on to Robbie since Robbie is like a younger version of Johnny and wish they could be a family teaching Cobra Kai and destroying the weak together.
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: His reaction when he sees the next generation of students training under Johnny's Cobra Kai (particularly one wearing "The Future is Female" t-shirt). Counts as Foreshadowing when he eventually purges the ones that look "weak" to him after taking over the dojo himself.
[Sees Lil' Red, Nathaniel, and a Cobra Kai wearing a "The Future is Female" t-shirt] "Jesus Christ..."
You Owe Me: He saved Silver’s life numerous times in Vietnam and is not afraid to remind him of that fact. However, Kreese takes it to the point of entitlement which eventually leads to an unappreciated Terry, realizing Kreese will never consider the debt repaid, betraying Kreese by framing him for a crime.

Characters / The Karate Kid: John Kreese

John Kreese

Played By: Martin Kove, Barrett Carnahan (1960s flashbacks)

Appearances: The Karate Kid (1984) | The Karate Kid Part II | The Karate Kid Part III | Cobra Kai

Alternative Title(s): Cobra Kai John Kreese

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Characters / The Karate Kid: John Kreese

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John Kreese

Played By: Martin Kove, Barrett Carnahan (1960s flashbacks)

Appearances: The Karate Kid (1984) | The Karate Kid Part II | The Karate Kid Part III | Cobra Kai

Alternative Title(s): Cobra Kai John Kreese

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