i was talking to my sister the other day about how all the characters whom i believe to have bpd (i.e., terry, johnny, tory) specifically seem to be drawn to kreese (usually viewing him as some sort of protector). it could be assumed to be related to his strength and resilience when it comes to facing hardship, which i do think could be an aspect of it (especially for tory), but i honestly believe it has more to do with his unwavering self assurance, which none of the characters i mentioned genuinely have — at least not in cobra kai, tkk iii terry is very self assured imo — they don’t really trust themselves, specifically when it comes to their ability to quickly make the ‘correct’ choices in regards to their own well-being. they are often overly emotional and shown to act on impulse, whereas kreese is always very pragmatic in all of his choices. he seems to intuitively know what needs to be done to get to where he needs to be (figuratively or literally). i would imagine that seemingly always landing on your feet would bring some level of otherwise unknown peace to the people around you who feel that their life or they themself are ‘out of control’. this could be enhanced by the fact that kreese doesn’t appear to have any level of fear when having to make an immediate decision, even one with potentially dire consequences if the wrong choice is made. all the characters we see him share a strong bond with have experienced a lot of trauma throughout their lives (for johnny, much of which was caused by kreese himself) which left them in positions where they had to either act immediately to prevent harm (think of terry in the war), or to continually make the same choice every single day to continuing fighting for their security (think tory having to work several jobs to support her family). we see these characters, despite their otherwise consistent strength when facing adversity, all make either very impulsive or very emotion (including fear) centered choices that go against the goal of self preservation; the choices they made disrupted what they were trying to do for themselves and their loved ones — think terry freezing when he was told he’d have to risk his life fighting over the snake pit during the war, or tory getting fired from her job at the restaurant for yelling at amanda. kreese, despite his fearlessness and lack of empathy for most people, does not ever display strong emotions (such as horror or rage) when put in a situation where immediate action is required. he is quick with his wits and knows what to do. and he knows that he knows; he isn’t afraid that he may be wrong. he, as i said before, is shown to always land on his feet. he is socially adept and calculative in a way that many who are drawn to him often struggle to be — at least in a way that is consistently successful; terry is often very calculative and good at reading people, but he ultimately still makes many decisions from an emotional standpoint and is shown in both cobra kai and in tkk iii to be pretty impulsive despite his ability to seemingly plan out what may seem like the ‘perfect’ evil revenge schemes, many of which ultimately don’t end up working out in his favor in the long run. it is weird to think of kreese as a symbol of security for anyone considering how much of a straight-up bad person he is, and how often he ruins the lives of those he ‘loves’, but to someone who feels that they are always spiraling out of control, an individual who is always there and ready to act immediately with precise awareness of the course of action required for self preservation is genuinely appealing, and would, for good reason, allow them to feel safe (at least temporarily), which may be a rare feeling for someone who has been through what they have.
