 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy. | „ |
| ~ The Cobra Kai creed. |
| “ | Cobra Kai is not a hobby, it's not a club. Cobra Kai is your brothers and your sisters. You're all Cobra Kai for life, because Cobra Kai never dies. | „ |
| ~ John Kreese to his students. |
Cobra Kai are the main antagonists of The Karate Kid franchise.
It is a martial arts dojo located in Los Angeles which teaches an aggressive style of karate. It was founded by former US Army Special Forces officer John Kreese with financial backing from his friend Terry Silver. After being closed down in the 1980's, following a string of violent actions by students and staff, it was eventually reopened by former top student Johnny Lawrence in 2017, with Kreese taking over again shortly afterwards.
History[]
Foundation[]
| “ | Do you remember when we got back from 'Nam? We went through hell watching our friends die, only to be welcomed home by a bunch of hippies, calling us killers! People needed to learn some respect. Some discipline. That's why we started Cobra Kai. Together, we made a difference. | „ |
| ~ John Kreese to Terry Silver about the motivation for founding Cobra Kai. |
The dojo was originally established by former Special Forces officer and Vietnam War veteran John Kreese, created to use the tactics he learned in the war to assist the youth of the time. While never said directly, the name of the dojo is implied to be a reference to Kreese's experiences in the war, specifically during a mission where he was captured by the Vietnamese and forced to fight his captain, Captain Turner, over a pit of snakes. He managed to get the money to fund the dojo with the help of fellow Vietnam veteran and successful businessman, Terry Silver. The dojo became known for the ruthless tactics that are taught to the students.
Owing to the success of the method, Cobra Kai won the All-Valley Karate tournament four times between 1980 and 1983, with the most notable champion being Kreese's star pupil, Johnny Lawrence.
The Karate Kid[]
Throughout the film, Johnny, alongside his henchmen Dutch, Bobby, Tommy, and Jimmy, torment Daniel LaRusso, who has moved from New Jersey to the San Fernando Valley, and developed a relationship with Johnny's ex-girlfriend Ali Mills.
At the All Valley Karate Tournament, Kreese displayed a willingness to have his students use illegal strikes in order to achieve victory. However, Johnny was ultimately defeated by a more calm and collected Daniel, causing Cobra Kai to come in second place in the tournament.
The Karate Kid Part II[]
Angered at Johnny for coming in second, Kreese violently choked him despite most of his students' protests, before being stopped by Miyagi. After Miyagi defeated Kreese, all of his students departed from his dojo, leaving Kreese without students.
The Karate Kid Part III[]
With Kreese having fallen on hard times after losing all his students, the Cobra Kai Dojo was bankrupt and empty. However, with the help of Terry Silver, Kreese managed to reopen his dojo and began plotting revenge against both Daniel and Miyagi for ruining him
Silver hired a martial fighter named Mike Barnes to harass and defeat Daniel at the All Valley Tournament. However, Daniel defeated Mike Barnes and the audience threw back their free t-shirts in disgust at Kreese and Silver. With that, Cobra Kai was closed down seemingly for good, (or at least, it seemed).
As mentioned in the Cobra Kai series, following the 1985 Tournament, the dojo was banned from participating in the Tournament by the executive committee as a result of Kreese, Silver, and Barnes' illegal tactics, closing it down. Kreese went missing and was presumed dead, while Silver and Barnes attempted to reform themselves.
Cobra Kai[]
Season 1[]
Though long thought to be dead by Daniel, the dojo was reopened 33 years by Johnny Lawrence, who had since fallen on hard times. Johnny sought to reform Cobra Kai, still teaching students to be merciless but in a more positive way and also to boost their self-confidence against bullies. His first student was Miguel Diaz (a kid he saved from getting beaten up by Kyler Park and his friends), who managed to attract more students to the dojo after winning a fight against Kyler at his high school using his Cobra Kai training, such as Eli and Aisha, among others.
After Johnny managed to get the lifetime ban on Cobra Kai removed, Cobra Kai then competed in the All-Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament, with Aisha as the first female fighter in the tournament's history. In the penultimate fight of the tournament, Eli, now known as Hawk, faced off against Johnny's son Robby Keene, who had been training under Daniel. He was ultimately disqualified after illegally injuring Robby in the arm. This caused Robby to fight Miguel in the finals, who managed to defeat Robby by exploiting his injury, causing Cobra Kai to win the tournament for the first time since 1983.
Returning to his dojo, Johnny, having finally realized the flaws of Cobra Kai by seeing it done to his own son, was approached by John Kreese, who congratulated him for winning the annual All Valley Karate Tournament and putting Cobra Kai back on top.
Season 2[]
Kreese claims that after Cobra Kai was closed down, he re-enlisted to the Army to train Special Forces soldiers and run strikes during the Gulf War and the War in Afghanistan, and that he now feels lost as the world has changed around him, but is rejected by Johnny. He eventually allows Kreese to attend Cobra Kai classes as an observer, despite initially rejecting his forgiveness.After Miguel points out holes in his stories, Johnny trails Kreese to find that he has actually been living in homeless shelters over the past 30 or so years. Kreese revealed that while he did attempt to re-enlist, he wasn't accepted as the military needed fresh bloods.
During this time, Cobra Kai begins a rivalry with Miyagi-Do, a dojo founded by Daniel in an effort to compete with Cobra Kai. This is primarily shown with Hawk and his former best friend Demetri, who grow apart. Hawk attempts to beat Demetri after he leaves a negative review on Yelp, but is defeated by Robby and Daniel's daughter Sam, leading to him vandalizing the dojo.
Now a sensei at Cobra Kai again, Kreese uses his position to begin teaching Johnny's students to be more aggressive and to show no restraint in fights, seeking revenge on Daniel. When Johnny leaves the dojo to go spend time with his old high school friends, Kreese secretly makes arrangements with the landlord of the mini-mall Cobra Kai is in to obtain ownership of the dojo, as well as conditioning Johnny's students to be more aggressive in fights in a brutal tracking and hunting game similar to how he trained the members of the Special Forces, presumably during his original service in Vietnam. After Johnny returns and finds out what Kreese has been teaching his students, he kicks Kreese out of the dojo and gives his students a speech on when to show mercy.
Despite this, Kreese's influence has already seeped into the students, and Miguel's girlfriend and Cobra Kai student Tory Nichols starts a fight at High School between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do. During the fight, Miguel is severely injured and put in a coma by Robby after showing mercy to him. Combined with the losses during the fight, all of Johnny's students leave him and go to Kreese. When Johnny goes to confront Kreese, his students block him, loyal only to Kreese now. Upon seeing what his dojo has turned into and realizing his grave mistake for trusting Kreese in the first place, Johnny tells Kreese that if he wants Cobra Kai, it's his and storms out of the dojo in anger.
Season 3[]
Following the school fight, Cobra Kai loses some of its students, with Kreese kicking out "weak" Cobra Kai students to him like Bert and Mitch, and even tried to recruit other students into their cause such as Hawk's former bullies, Kyler Park and Brucks, and while the former was able to qualify after he beats Mitch, Brucks is kicked out after he is brutally beaten by Hawk as revenge for bullying him, with Sarah losing to Tory as well. Despite the school fight, the Cobra Kai's, under Hawk's leadership, continue their rivalry with Miyagi-Do, even harassing them at school and escaping punishment. They also began a rivalry with Eagle Fang Karate, a newly formed dojo by Johnny Lawrence that consisted of students who were kicked out of Cobra Kai or left them. Upon learning of Johnny’s new dojo, Kreese saw this as an opportunity to increase his Cobra Kai allies and tried to smooth talk Johnny and his new students into rejoining Cobra Kai. Johnny coldly tells Kreese to stay away from his students as he will never work with him again which makes Kreese mad. Kreese and his students then leave. After coming to the realization that Johnny will never return to Cobra Kai, Kreese appeared at the Juvenile Detention Center where Robby Keene was being held in an attempt to recruit him. While Robby initially told Kreese to piss off, Robby would later use Cobra Kai to fight off another inmate and felt liberated by it. He would later join the Cobra Kai Dojo, intending to get revenge on Daniel and his own father Johnny for the events that happened in the school fight. By the climax of the season, the Cobra Kai's, now led by Tori, launch an attack on the LaRusso family home, causing Hawk, realizing that Johnny was right to him and that Kreese's teachings were wrong, to side with the Miyagi-Do's and Eagle Fang's, and reconcile with his best friend Demetri.
When Johnny learned of the house fight, he immediately marched into Cobra Kai to find Kreese training Robby. Kreese once again tried to convince Johnny to rejoin Cobra Kai using Robby as leverage calling the three of them three generations of Cobra Kai. In a fit of rage, Johnny brutally attacks Kreese and beats him to a pulp to the point that Kreese passes out from the pain. Daniel then shows up and joins the fight after Kreese incapacitates Johnny. Following the fight between Kreese, Daniel, and Johnny at the Cobra Kai Dojo, the sensei's agreed to settle their feud at the next All Valley Karate Tournament; the winner will operate the dojo for free, while the loser will have to close down their dojos for good. The next day, John Kreese calls upon an old friend to assist him in his plans to defeat Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang as the three dojos prepare for the tournament.
Season 4[]
Despite having lost a number of students after the fight at the LaRusso house (including Doug Rickenberger, Mikey Miller and other original members), Kreese recruits new students for the tournament, as well as Terry Silver. With Robby and Terry Silver now full fledged members of Cobra Kai, the dojo has become more powerful than ever. Leading up to the tournament, Robby would teach the students Miyagi-Do karate to ensure they didn’t lose to Daniel’s students, and Silver would use his vast wealth to draw in new recruits with new equipment and uniforms.
By the time the All Valley tournament came around, Cobra Kai was extremely prepared, while the other two dojos, having split due to Johnny and Daniel's rivalry, were nervous due to the high stakes. Daniel thought they couldn’t be beaten, owing to having saw the Cobra Kais using Miyagi-Do karate against his students. In the final match of the tournament, Robby was pitted against Hawk, ultimately losing due to realizing that he had turned Kenny evil, while Tory was victorious over Sam owing to Silver paying off the referee, making Cobra Kai the grand champion. After the tournament, Silver framed Kreese for a crime that he had committed and got him arrested. Silver then took control of Cobra Kai and would begin to expand the facilities all over the valley.
Season 5[]
After the tournament, with Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang closed down, Cobra Kai was cemented as the #1 dojo in the valley, only furthered by Silver's far grander resources. With his old friend in prison and more students joining the dojo, Silver needed more senseis to back him up, most of them having previously led other dojos such as Locust Valley Karate Club and Xtreme Martial Arts. After his first band of senseis was defeated by Chozen, he recruited some of the best martial arts instructors in the world to help him prepare his army of students, including Kim Da-Eun. Silver's ultimate plan was to get Cobra Kai to compete in the Seikai Taikai tournament, the most respected Karate tournament in the world in order to spread Cobra Kai worldwide. However, Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do, now having joined forces, once more showed up and also placed a spot in the competition alongside Cobra Kai, much to the frustration of Silver and the others.
While Daniel, Johnny and Chozen were out celebrating their accomplishments, Barnes, whose furniture store was burned to the ground by Silver, hijacked the limo they were riding in and convinced Johnny and Chozen to assist him in beating the crap out of Silver as retaliation. The three men burst into Silver’s home and got into a massive fight with Cobra Kai’s other senses, while Johnny and Daniel's students were attacked by the students at the dojo. Silver then engaged in a sword battle with Chozen culminating with Silver supposedly killing Chozen by slicing his back open and leaving him for dead on the ground. Back at the dojo, the Miyagi-Fang students, alongside Tory, managed to reveal to the students that Silver cheated during the All Valley. Silver himself then appears at the dojo where he fights Daniel for a second time, and is defeated by the sensei. Kenny then takes off his Cobra Kai shirt and throws it down onto Silver, followed by Kyler and then others. In the fight’s aftermath, Cobra Kai gets shut down again and Silver gets arrested for his many crimes. However, John Kreese fakes his death and ultimately escapes prison, heavily implying he is still continuing to retake Cobra Kai and continue his unfinished business on Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso, and will likely team up with Kim Da-Eun to recruit more students for the Sekai Taikai. Nevertheless, it’s implied that most of Terry Silver’s former students will likely join Miyagi-Fang after leaving Cobra Kai. This is basically shown in a teaser picture for the upcoming sixth season, where a handful of students have joined Miyagi-Fang such as Edwin, Big Red, and Charlotte.
Season 6[]
Following Terry Silver's defeat, the American Cobra Kai branch is shut down, though Stingray continued to be obsessed with it, teaching students at a park while using old recordings of Kreese and convincing Johnny Lawrence to restore his dojo under his leadership again, but to no success. However, Cobra Kai continued existing internationally, especially South Korea, with Kreese teaming up with Kim Da-Eun to train a new batch of students for the Sekai Taikai. One of which being Kwon Jae-Sung, a rebellious troublemaker who later becomes their top student, taking Yoon Do-Jin's place. It is also revealed that Kim Sun-Yung is still alive, as Kreese convinces him to join them, only to refuse due to his granddaughter failing to expand her dojo in America, and for Terry Silver's defeat. He does, however, give Kreese a chance to prove himself by going inside a cave and retrieving a knife hidden there, all while killing a snake. Tory Nichols, after being grief stricken of her mother's death, rejoins Cobra Kai, shocking the Miyagi-Do's.
Fighting Style[]
| “ | We do not train to be merciful. Mercy is for the weak. Here, on the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy. | „ |
| ~ John Kreese |
Cobra Kai's operates under the creed of "Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy." Their fighting style is the Korean Tang-Soo-Do.
Under Kreese's leadership back in the 1980s, students were taught to be merciless towards their enemies. Having been traumatized by his time in Vietnam, Kreese wanted to influence the ideals of doing whatever it takes to win to his students, oblivious to the fact that those ideals don't translate to children, resulting in his students becoming bullies. Best seen with Johnny's rivalry with Daniel, the kid's expertise in karate led to them becoming egotistical jerks. During the All-Valley Tournament, Kreese even encouraged his students to perform illegal moves to defeat their opponents, which many were not okay with.
Under Johnny's leadership years later, the dojo for the most part operated under the same philosophy. However, after seeing his son Robby be beaten by his own students, Johnny attempted to make his students more merciful. The dojo was mainly emphasized to be a badass style of fighting, as opposed to being cruel and merciless. However, many of the students still showed jerks attributes. Owing to his limited experience with training, as well as his limited budget, Johnny's training methods were unorthodox and dangerous in both conception and execution, such as pitting them against wild dogs, forcing Miguel into a pool with his hands tied up in order to learn how to kick, and having the group attempt to push a cement truck from the inside. Despite this, Johnny's goals were more noble than that of Kreese's, and when Hawk broke into Daniel's dojo, Johnny forced to them to do pushups or come clean as punishment.
After Miguel's use of mercy left him in a comatose state, Hawk, Tory, and other students joined Kreese in his new Cobra Kai. Under Kreese's old leadership, the dojo returned to its old ways of "No Mercy". However, with the competition of Daniel and Johnny, the dojo was extremely more intense, and Kreese pressured his students to do more extreme things. After a test of will in forcing them to feed a mouse to his pet cobra, Kreese's students ultimately began committing crimes in an effort to defeat Miyagi-Do, such as stealing Bert's money, breaking Demetri's arm, and eventually invading Daniel's home. This led to many students, including Hawk, to quit upon realizing the direction the dojo was headed in.
Under Silver's command, while the dojo was still immoral, Silver opted to use a more calm approach, less willing to perform actions such as house break-ins and gang assault. Despite this, he was willing to subject his students to more extreme methods, such as forcing Tory to punch a concrete block.
Uniform[]
The main uniform of the Cobra Kai Dojo is a white gi with the signature Cobra symbol on the back. During 1984, most of John Kreese's early students including Johnny Lawrence wore green and black belts, though they've switched back to white belts when Johnny became sensei and reopened the dojo. It was heavily implied that prior to the 2018 All Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny's students switched to a different color belt, because following Miguel and Hawk's dirty tactics at the tournament, the dojo went back wearing white belts. When Kreese took over, they still continued wearing the same colored gi and belt. When Cobra Kai participates in the All Valley, their gi is an open short sleeved shirt with yellow lining, with a fist on a yellow patch that has the name of student participating, along with a black belt and pants.
Before the 51st Annual Karate Championships, when Cobra Kai was under the leadership of both Kreese and Silver, the latter ordered new training gear for Cobra Kai to use to train for the tournament. Instead of the standard gi, the outfit had switched to an athletic style gear sponsored by Champion. These outfits mostly are a variety, ranging from T-shirts, shorts, sweatshirts, tank-tops, leggings, sweatpants, and sports bras. Although the students still remained barefoot for the duration of the class. Most of their outfits were either colored red or black. Most of them even had the Cobra Kai logo on it, while a few didn't. The training gear were seemingly advanced and much better than the standard gi.
When Terry Silver became the new sensei for Cobra Kai, they switched back into wearing the Gi, albeit colored dark black instead of white. The athletic gear was still used, but only if one was to exercise on the dojo's training machines.
Members[]
1984[]
- John Kreese - Founder / Sensei
- Terry Silver - Founder
- Johnny Lawrence - Top Student
- Bobby Brown
- Dutch
- Tommy
- Jimmy
- Several unnamed students
1985[]
- Terry Silver - Benefactor
- John Kreese - Sensei
- Mike Barnes - Mercenary
- Daniel LaRusso (briefly)
- Snake
- Dennis
2017/2018[]
- Johnny Lawrence - Sensei (formerly)
- John Kreese - Sensei
- Miguel Diaz - Top Student (formerly)
- Aisha Robinson (formerly)
- Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz - Top Student (formerly)
- Bert (kicked out)
- Tory Nichols
- Mitch (Kicked out)
- Chris (formerly)
- Doug Rickenberger (quit)
- Mikey (quit)
- Nathaniel (formerly)
- Raymond "Stingray" (Kicked out)
- Kyler Park
- Brucks (Kicked off)
- Sara (Kicked off)
- Robby Keene
- Big Red
- Paul
- Several unnamed students
2019[]
- John Kreese - Sensei (formerly; arrested, but escaped)
- Terry Silver - Sensei (formerly; arrested)
- Kim Da-Eun - Sensei (current)
- Odell - Sensei
- Min-Jun - Sensei
- Vicario - Sensei
- Hyan-Woo - Sensei
- Suk-Chin - Sensei
- Raymond "Stingray" Porter (rejoined, but then defected)
- Robby Keene (formerly; Returned to Miyagi-Do)
- Tory Nichols (formerly; defected)
- Kyler Park (quit)
- Kenny Payne (formerly; defected)
- Piper Elswith
- Big Red
- Edwin
- Dieter
- Jake
- Paul (formerly)
- Charlotte
- Lindsey
- Rob
- Maya
- Devon Lee (briefly, defected)
- Mitch (temporarily rejoined, but then quit)
Gallery[]
