Cobra Kai the third season, the first batch of episodes to premiere on Netflix, does something fascinating with its Great Evil, John Kreese: in an arc of history about how past rivalries and trauma from the past can continue to cause harm over decades, writers on the show use the character to question the amount of automatic respect and trust America places on its veterans.
This charged and nuanced criticism stands out Cobra Kai. The story of two karate students who fought each other in a tournament when they were children and discover that their rivalry revived in their adult life when they both faced New karate students, it’s ridiculous. The characters in the series seem to know that none of this makes sense or is plausible in a normal reality, but knowing that a situation is silly does not mean that you are out of that situation.
Every character on the show is trapped, in his own way, in the high-risk drama of the Karate Kid films, and in this world everything in life can be resolved or made worse through karate. Even Daniel’s wife finds the whole thing difficult to explain, or at least to believe.
Daniel’s wife in Cobra Kai is so fucking hearing about karate at this point in her life and it’s one of the best things about the show pic.twitter.com/74tPPWUn1x
– Ben is worried about everything now (@BenKuchera) January 10, 2021
Then there is the question of Kreese, who was considered the definitive villain of the series. Season 3 reveals an already crazy backstory about Kreese’s time in Vietnam, in which he was captured and forced to fight other prisoners to death in a literal snake pit, because Hollywood doesn’t believe you can name it to something without also creating a backstory to justify that name.
Kreese fights in place of another prisoner, wins, they are released and the two men open a karate dojo called Cobra Kai to convey the importance of killing your opponents before they kill you. A karate dojo in a shopping mall is a little different from a death hole in Vietnam, or at least it should be for most people, but nobody can say that to Kreese.
So when Kreese returns to the world of the Karate Kid at the end of the first season of Cobra Kai, we know that things are about to get serious. Lawrence is an idiot who ages and is out of reach looking to improve a little by reopening Cobra Kai, but Kreese wants to control the dojo because he is a thug out of a cartoon, someone who seems to take pleasure in causing suffering in others.
I kind of feel for Johnny in Cobra Kai because man clearly knows that his childhood has hindered him a lot and he wants to do better, but he literally has no support, no model and three brain cells, but damn, he’s there trying to stop the generational trauma, so i feel like i have to stan pic.twitter.com/0o7W23BNS1
– Ben is worried about everything now (@BenKuchera) January 11, 2021
During yet another karate fight between students, Cobra Kai students broke an opponent’s arm, and Kreese, of course, is fine with that. Hurting your enemies is the main point! But in real life you can’t just teach kids to hurt other kids. Someone will come to complain. Understandable! When Amanda LaRusso responds, we see how scary and effective Kreese can be as a villain.
Everything in the scene gives me the creeps. She is alone in her business, he obviously has no regard for any kind of social contract, and Kreese knows exactly how much Amanda missed by hitting him in response to his veiled threats and aggressive behavior. Suddenly, he has all the power in this situation and is ready to play one last card to get out of prison: he is a veteran.
In a meeting with the local government to discuss the cancellation of the next karate tournament, which in this universe is the only way to resolve anything, Kreese starts by presenting himself with his classification, is grateful for his services, he makes a false demonstration of being a good but tough teacher, who only wants the best for his students and reminds the classroom that he was very happy to serve his country. He is not the violent one, the people who try to interrupt him are the bandits, and he has already had to file a restraining order against Amanda LaRusso for assaulting him.
His combat veteran status was the first weapon he picked up, knowing it was likely to be the most effective. American society gives a lot of social power to the people who served, and Kreese knows exactly how to use that inherent trust to manipulate those around him.
Whether Kreese would have been so convincing without playing this particular card is debatable, but it is a card that the character is clearly used to playing and knows how to use to get what he wants. Martin Kove, the actor who plays Kreese, is also in his 70s, so his real physical combat options on the show are limited and he is a more imposing enemy when the threat is more cerebral anyway. It also shows its cunning; whatever he can use to an advantage, he will use.
This turnaround in the power dynamic between a newcomer to the community and a well-known local businesswoman who owns a car dealership is just a small moment in a surprisingly dense show. But as it is written, the scene between Kreese and the other adult characters from Cobra Kai offers a rare warning about how to elevate veterans or service members based solely on the fact that they are veterans or service members.
This is a provocative prospect for a piece of American TV. Our pop culture often turns soldiers into action heroes and the police into anti-heroes who break the rules to do what needs to be done. These romanticized versions of the people who occupy these jobs face some friction when compared to reality, where a multitude of citizens, including veterans and law enforcement officers, have abused their social position and the trust placed in them to organize a riot on the United States Capitol. Cobra Kai is not saying that soldiers are particularly manipulative or wicked, just that being a veteran is not by himself a good reason to believe that someone is telling the truth. It is a data point, not the whole story.
Kreese’s Season 3 arc shows the disadvantages of this particular prejudice and how it can easily help to cause, and also cover up, violence and ongoing abuse. Daniel LaRusso has already kicked the guy in the ass once in the show’s third season, but the scene of the debate is where his real threat becomes apparent: Kreese doesn’t need his own fists to cause harm, only the trust and support of the community while he pay for war in your rival dojos. And he is able to get there, in large part, due to bringing up an aspect of his extremely troubled past.