How Cobra Kai Fans Really Feel About Terry Silver

The villains on "Cobra Kai" and "The Karate Kid" franchise that inspired it can sometimes appear to be one-dimensional on the surface, but on closer inspection reveal a multi-faceted personality with varying drives and motivations. This aspect is probably best highlighted by Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), who was the primary antagonist/bully of the first "Karate Kid" movie, and is now the primary protagonist and empathetic figure of "Cobra Kai." Perhaps the biggest takeaway here is how much perspective and point-of-view can change one's view on a story.

Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) was the main baddie of "The Karate Kid 3," and he was the one who provided John Kreese (Martin Kove) with the original Cobra Kai dojo. The two served in the Vietnam War together and were captured by the Viet Cong, who forced them into brutal games of death for their amusement. They eventually escape due to a well-timed friendly airstrike and go their separate ways for a time. Now that both Kreese and Silver have been reunited in Season 4 of "Cobra Kai," certain fans have taken an interesting stance on the returned foil.

Redditor u/Relsen started the conversation by explaining, "I see a lot of people saying that Terry is a psycho, but in reality he is not, and that makes him even worse. Psychopathy is not some synonym of 'evil', actually, there are a lot of psychopaths who are not evil and live normally. Psychopathy is a disorder with many traits, one of them, a very important one, is the inability to feel empathy and Terry does not have this one." They continued by adding that Silver had shown empathy and the ability to understand emotions during the scene where he explained that everybody has a weakness.

u/Keekee-88 replied that they like Silver's character, and felt that Kreese actually made him a monster. They added that they felt the show was trying really hard to make people sympathize with Kreese by making Silver extremely unlikable. Similarly, u/RandenVanguard believes that the reason for making Silver look so bad and to invoke sympathy for Kreese is to highlight both his positive and negative traits, which they also believed is a recurring trend in "Cobra Kai."

u/Citron-Economy admitted that they enjoyed the character of Silver, and felt that Kreese's manipulation of him was far more reprehensible than anything Silver has done, with u/CobraKaiSince1984 adding that Kreese "was the main reason why Silver has turned evil again." Judging by these fan comments it seems that "Cobra Kai" has done its job, and people can even look at Silver with empathy.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.