Kreese and Silver's advantage over Daniel and Johnny will become starker as season 4 of Cobra Kai progresses. Season 3 of the top-rated Netflix series saw new rivalries ignite and old enemies reconcile, with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) finally on the same page as they prepare to battle Cobra Kai at the All Valley Karate tournament. The stakes for the All Valley have never been higher in The Karate Kid canon, with the fate of all three dojos on the line.
Cobra Kai Season 4 will oversee the return of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), the primary antagonist of The Karate Kid Part 3 and the original corporate owner of the Cobra Kai dojo. Netflix teased Silver's comeback in a 23 second Youtube clip which shows the character's silhouette as his most famous lines from The Karate Kid 3 fire in rapid succession. The clip ends with Silver's most iconic quote flashing on the screen, which reads: "Now the real pain begins."
Kreese and Silver will certainly hold an advantage against their opponents heading into season 4 of Cobra Kai. The two men's military history will prove crucial, with former Cobra Kais John Kreese and Terry Silver primed to lead their students in testing circumstances and incite strategic violence at will to sabotage the other teams. Kreese and Silver also have vast experience as dojo leaders, something LaRusso and Lawrence are both novices at.
Terry Silver owes his life to Kreese, who saved him from a forced deathmatch in Vietnam. Silver has since pledged a lifelong debt to the Cobra Kai sensei, and both men's military experience will prove crucial in their upcoming conflicts with the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang dojos. Both Kreese and Silver are able to use their military training to motivate and mobilize combat-based recruits in their own image. Their ruthlessness gained from years of jungle warfare (shown in Kreese's season 3 backstory) means each man can give unscrupulous orders that their rivals would not dream of doing, giving them the upper hand tactically. Their ability to engender group fortitude in order to pull their dojos through testing circumstances also cannot be underestimated.
Yet the biggest card the two men hold against Daniel and Johnny is their wealth of experience as senseis. While Daniel and Johnny have recently opened their dojos and are shown still to be finding their feet as leaders, Kreese and Silver have vast reserves of training to fall back on. John Kreese has years of nous under his belt, having run Cobra Kai dojo for 6 years before the events of the original Karate Kid movie. Terry Silver's experience leading dojos goes back even further, founding Cobra Kai in 1979 as part of his debt to Kreese, before returning to train a new slew of students his "Quicksilver" techniques in The Karate Kid Part 3. The siege mentality that Kreese and Silver embody throughout the Karate Kid canon delivers proven results and molds formidable, ruthless students. Despite their defeats in previous Karate Kid movies at the hands of the prodigal Daniel LaRusso, they should not be bet against all these years later in Cobra Kai season 4.