Quote Originally Posted by Saintheart View Post
Spoiler: Season 3 and whatnot
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The Kreese backstory was the most clunky element of the season. And it started being clunky because this sort of attempt really never works out that well; it's never easy to try and rehabilitate or sympathetically explain the motives of someone who to that point has just served as the Big Bad of a franchise. I think maybe the closest it's ever gone was Godfather II with the backstory of Don Corleone. Even George Lucas, revisionist historian of Darth Vader and Han Solo/Greedo shooting first, was smart enough to never fully explain the Emperor's personal history; sometimes you need a bottomless pit of blackness that is not explainable, and at least in the first couple of films John Kreese was basically just that, he didn't need a motive.

The introduction of his backstory I'm guessing was to amplify the season's theme that 'there's two sides to every story'. As it was, I didn't think that theme needed further exegesis; the previous two seasons had addressed it elegantly when Johnny told his side of the Danny/Johnny feud to Miguel, counterpointed with flashbacks to parts of the original film. Even though Johnny was telling the story from his point of view, we got Danny's side of it via the flashbacks and were able to recognise 'Okay, Johnny has a different take on what happened, it wasn't just plain evil on his part, he was just a young idiot or he chooses to remember stuff differently, just as we all do.'

By contrast, Kreese terminating his commanding officer I suspect was intended as a twist on the 'two sides' theme: no, despite what you probably thought from all the scenes back in 1955, there isn't actually a sympathetic side to Kreese's story, he is a cold-blooded murderer who deliberately chose to do what he did even though they'd already been rescued. It didn't work as well as it could have. Were it up to me, I would not have made it explicit that Kreese caused his CO to fall; I would have had the CO hanging by his fingertips, then the explosions and USAF rescue, then back to Kreese who's looking down at the empty precipice, and with a flat look on his face that we can't interpret as a smile or a scowl, i.e. leave it equivocal about whether the CO fell or was caused to fall by Kreese.

However, I can see some reasonably straightforward paths for how Kreese got to where he is based on that quick sketch of his history. We know Kreese is an abused child, likely fatherless or with an abusive father. We know Kreese realised his CO used the news of his girlfriend's death to unbalance him for the death duel. We know Kreese had seen the CO as a sort of father figure (a common theme in this franchise, Johnny and Danny outright share that characteristic). We know Kreese realised he'd been manipulated and the pit of snakes he dropped the CO into turned up in Cobra Kai's insignia. Kreese, then, acts out the Hollywood (if not real life) pathology of overcompensation: he addresses the series of crappy father figures in his life, or lack of father figures, by being the father that he would have wanted to have - a strong father who believed in showing his children how to strike first, not let the world destroy them, and to rise above their weakness. He believes the principle by which he survived in Vietnam reflects the principle by which he lived his life before the Army: strike first, strike hard, and have no mercy.

Ever heard the expression that we despise most in other people what we hate about ourselves? That's John Kreese. He hates weakness, because he perceived himself as small and weak when he was a young man, and in his heart he knows he didn't win the fight against his CO squarely or on his own skill: he resorted to literally a backstab, and then to killing someone when they were vulnerable. So he pays out extra hard on those he thinks of as weak, and he convinces himself he's trying to destroy that weakness in his students.
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I agree with Peelee here, I don't actually think it was clunky and I also find his backstory interesting.

However, I think where I part with the few others that have commented is that I do think the backstory made Kreese sympathetic. He was bullied, but stands up to his bullies when he sees them abusing the girl. He is respectful, and a hard worker and a go getter. These are all great qualities. He refuses to blow the bomb because his fellow soldier is still in the killzone. He protects the soldier that is breaking down and takes his place in the fight. That's straight up heroic.

His CO, on the other hand, abandons his boys once they are captured. There is no hope, no semblance of morale or brotherhood or strategy. He just blames them all and leaves them to their fear and inevitable deaths. There was nothing somber in his countenance when he had to fight Kreese. Instead, he was glad to get it out of the way and be the last man standing.

I really struggle to see this as the day Kreese became an evil a-hole. I can see it being the first step. I see it more now reading your thoughts and calling out that once the Americans had come, the old order was re-established. So yeah... it was no longer a fight to the death. I guess. I can see it but I also can't. I mean, there's a difference between two men being forced to fight to the death and seeing your commander casually enter the ring with you fully expecting to murder you in the next few moments. I suspect something like that might change your perspective toward them.

But I'm probably over-thinking it. As was mentioned, the snakes are there so this is presumably where Cobra-kai was born.