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| “ | Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy. | „ |
| ~ The Cobra Kai motto. |
| “ | 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. |
Cobra Kai is the main antagonistic faction of the Karate Kid franchise, serving as the main antagonistic faction of The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid: Part III, a minor antagonistic faction in The Karate Kid: Part II and the titular faction of the YouTube Red/Netflix television series of the same name.
It is an aggressive style of martial arts and karate group located in Los Angeles and famous for participating in the annual All Valley Karate Tournament. It was originally founded by the former US Army Special Forces officer John Kreese with backing from his associate Terry Silver but closed down following Kreese's violent actions in the 1980s. However, it's eventually reopened by former top student Johnny Lawrence in 2018, with Kreese taking over again the infamous dojo shortly afterwards.
History
Foundation
The dojo was originally established by a former Special Forces officer in the US Army and Vietnam War veteran named John Kreese, with the help of his old war friend, Terry Silver, after their return of the War. It was known for the ruthless tactics that are taught to the students.
Kreese's students became skilled fighters and competed in the All Valley Karate Tournament. Cobra Kai won the tournament four times between 1970 and 1983, with the most notable champion being Cobra Kai star Johnny Lawrence between 1982 and 1983.
The Karate Kid I
Kreese taught his students that mercy is for the weak, and an enemy deserves no mercy. At the All Valley Karate Tournament, Kreese attempted to win it for his dojo, willing to have his students use illegal strikes in order to achieve victory. However, his best student, Johnny Lawrence, was defeated by Daniel Russo, causing Cobra Kai to come in second place in the tournament.
The Karate Kid Part II
Kreese got angry at Johnny for winning second place, but Johnny replied by calling him a sick and sore loser. Kreese then violently choked Johnny despite most of his students' protests, but he was 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 defeats Mike Barnes and the audience throws 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).
Pre-Cobra Kai
Following the 1985 Tournament, the dojo was banned by the executive committee as a result of illegal tactics by Kreese, Silver, and Barnes, closing it down.
Cobra Kai
Season 1
However, the dojo was reopened 33 years later by its ex-star student, a now decadent Johnny Lawrence. His first student was Miguel Diaz (a kid he saved from getting beaten up by Kyler Park and his bullies friends), who managed to attract more students to the dojo after winning a fight against the bullies at his high school using his Cobra Kai training.
Cobra Kai then entered the All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament after Johnny managed to get the lifetime ban on Cobra Kai removed. In the championship fight of the tournament, Miguel Diaz faced off against the student of Daniel LaRusso, Johnny's son Robby Keene. He defeated him, albeit underhandedly by striking his shoulder, which had been injured in the fight right before when fellow Cobra Kai Hawk struck him from behind before the tournament had started. With that, Cobra Kai won the tournament, and Johnny reluctantly accepted the trophy.
Returning to his dojo, Johnny was approached by John Kreese, who entered the dojo and congratulated Johnny for winning the annual All Valley Karate Tournament and putting Cobra Kai back on top. Kreese reveals this is the beginning for Cobra Kai and that Johnny still has a lot more to learn.
Season 2
Kreese also reveals 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, though he now feels lost as the world has changed around him. Johnny eventually allows Kreese to attend Cobra Kai classes as an observer, despite initially rejecting his forgiveness. He also wants revenge against Daniel LaRusso for putting his dojo out of business and humiliating him. He continued his story to say that after retiring from the military, he becomes disillusioned with the current generation as he sees them as a bunch of feeble show-off and butt-kisser. This makes him attempt to re-open the Cobra Kai once again by persuading Johnny to join his cause only for Johnny to furiously push him away. However, after revealing he fixed Johnny's second place trophy from the 1984 Tournament, Kreese manages to convince Johnny to let him teach at the Cobra Kai dojo again and is introduced by him to his students. 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, they didn't accept him as the military needed fresh bloods. One of his old Vietnam buddies (it is unknown whether is Terry Silver or not) offered him a job, but he felt that it was just a hand-out.
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. 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 much like 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.
However, after Miguel is severely injured by Robby Keene after showing mercy to him in a school fight, all of Johnny's students leave him and go to Kreese, who has now become the owner of the dojo. 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 Johnny storms out of the dojo in anger.
Season 3
To be added...
Season 4
To be added...
Members
1984
- John Kreese - Founder / Sensei
- Johnny Lawrence - Top Student
- Bobby Brown
- Dutch
- Tommy
- Jimmy
- Several unnamed students
1985
- Terry Silver - Benefactor
- John Kreese - Sensei
- Mike Barnes - Mercenary
- 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 (formerly)
- Tory Nichols
- Mitch (formerly)
- Chris (formerly)
- Doug Rickenberger (quit)
- Mikey (quit)
- Nathaniel (formerly)
- Raymond "Stingray" (formerly)
- Kyler Park
- Brucks (Kicked off)
- Robby Keene
- Big Red
- Several unnamed students
2019
- John Kreese - Sensei (formerly)
- Terry Silver - Sensei (current)
- Robby Keene
- Tory Nichols
- Kyler Park
- Kenny Payne
- Piper Elswith
- Mikey
- Edwin
- Dieter
- Paul
- Charlotte
- Lindsey
Gallery
 Villains
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The Karate Kid (1984) The Karate Kid Part II The Karate Kid Part III DynaTox Industries The Next Karate Kid The Karate Kid (2010) Cobra Kai | ||
