Cobra Kai creators reveal why they believe Kreese and Mr. Miyagi both share parallel backstories, despite the characters having opposing views and approaches. Miyagi is considered to be the overarching patriarch of the Karate Kid film series, and his influence is ingrained throughout Cobra Kai, but Kreese also plays a paternal role, but one that treads a darker path than his one-time contemporary. The two men had diametrically opposed views, but they may have shared more similarities than viewers realized.
In an interview with Collider, to discuss the recent release of Cobra Kai season 6 part 2, series creators Josh Heald, Hayden Schlossberg, and Jon Hurwitz discuss how the two characters share similar backstories. Heald discusses the approach both characters had to life, and how they both see the world in black and white, before talking about how both men fought in wars, and both had tragic romantic backstories. Check out Heald’s comments on the matter below:
Heald:
There are a lot of parallels between Kreese and Miyagi in terms of they both fought in wars, they both have faced tragedy romantically, they both believed in their own type of drive in terms of what’s right, and they both saw the world as right and wrong. They just happened to be on completely different islands.There was a little bit of poetic justice of, “What’s it going to take for Kreese to see something and finally, possibly, see that black is not black and white is not white in terms of, is there an endgame to what “no mercy” means?” If somebody fully drinks the Kool-Aid, what are the pitfalls? We dealt with that a little bit with the school fight with Miguel going so far as to pay the price, but this was obviously a major degree more.
We wanted to bring the whole martial arts community to this place where we’ve set up this tournament as a place where there have been injuries, there have been deaths — Mike Barnes tells us that in Episode 4. We start to unravel some truths about Mr. Miyagi. When this happens, it should come out of thin air, kind of out of the blue, and at the same time, it’s been set up the entire time that something like this was probably going to happen.
What This Means For The Cobra Kai Conclusion
More Revelations Look Certain To Come
In many ways, Cobra Kai season 6 part 2 continues to reveal that Miyagi is not the paragon of virtue that Daniel always believed him to be very much mirrors Johnny’s same realizations about Kreese, albeit years later. While there is a very good bet that Miyagi killing his opponent in the Sekai Taiki will be revealed as an accident, the point of the arc is to help Daniel realize that Miyagi was not perfect. Like all human beings, Miyagi was a deeply flawed man, but that doesn’t preclude the fact that he was a good man who changed Daniel’s life.
The grizzled sensei is set to have something of a Darth Vader journey, dying at the conclusion while saving Johnny.
In a similar vein, Kreese is flawed, and though he is not without his good points – he helps the kids achieve discipline, competence, and self-reliance – he is not the good man Miyagi was. Even his fascinatingly toxic father-daughter relationship with Tory is not without genuine affection, Kreese is still a bad man who has done evil things, but the tragic events and revelations of the season finale could cause him to ultimately choose the path of light.
Our Verdict On How Kreese’s Arc Will End
The Long-Time Villain Looks Set For A Redemption Arc
There is a good chance now that Kreese will eventually join forces with Johnny and the rest of Miyagi-do to finally bring down Silver once and for all. As soon as Silver was revealed to be back in the picture, and working with Wolf, it became likely that Kreese would get a redemption arc, and I believe this is what will happen in Cobra Kai season 6 part 3. I think the grizzled sensei is set to have something of a Darth Vader journey, dying at the conclusion whilst saving Johnny, and cementing his status as a franchise antihero.
Source: Collider