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Post by vandergraafk on Mar 21, 2007 12:08:28 GMT -5
Nothing excites Charmed fans more than the character of Cole. Love him or hate him, Cole was an integral part of Charmedverse for nearly 2 and one-half seasons. In a story arc spanning 60 episodes, plus one reprise in Season 7, Cole was ever-present and of constant concern for the Charmed Ones. Many fans felt that Cole should have exited when vanquished as the Source. Others are dissatisfied about his strange demise in Centennial Charmed. A few fans claim that Cole had to go because his character had been milked for all it's inherent value. Others dispute this and suggest that the character of Cole, far from being a spent force, was the most complex of any non-lead character in Charmed. Many more stories featuring Cole were still to be written, yet could not be since Julian McMahon requested release from his contract. Life goes on, but Cole will forever be a part of Charmedverse.
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Post by vandergraafk on Mar 21, 2007 12:09:59 GMT -5
in the Charmed Cafe, maracev got the discussion going by claiming that the character of Cole was a spent force. Ljones demurred, but directed her wrath at the writers who allegedly ignored one important story line regarding Cole as the Source. Here, in verbatim, are the comments made in the Charmed Cafe.
Knowing full well the consequences of her comment, maracev suggested the following:
I'm going to get flamed for this but, because there was no longer a point of having Cole on the show. The character ran its course. I actually believe he should've stayed dead after Long live the queen, that was an awesome ending.
Ljones countered by arguing:
Actually, I don't think the character had ran its course. It's an argument that fans who never liked the Cole character, tend to perputrate. It's all subjective in the end. I suspect that Julian McMahon didn't like how the writers were taking Cole in S5 and decided to leave. After all, the Source storyline was never concluded satisfactorily, considering that the sisters never learned the true story behind Cole becoming the Source. One of the writers' true failures on the show.
Also, McMahon didn't know about NIP/TUCK, until after he shot his last episode of CHARMED.
I thought the ending to "Long Live the Queen" sucked. But, I guess it's all a matter of opinion.
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Post by vandergraafk on Mar 21, 2007 12:13:35 GMT -5
Vandergraafk soon weighed in with this lengthy commentary on Cole:
As for Cole, I have to agree with ljones on this one. To me, Cole is the most interesting character - apart from the sisters. In Sam I Am, Cole's character is defined by his rhetorical query of Phoebe when he asks: I can't be good; I won't do evil. Try as she might - in order to separate herself from Cole - Phoebe cannot paint Cole as purely evil. She will never be able to vanquish Cole on her (the Charmed Ones') terms because Cole will always fall between the cracks. As a result, I can hardly accept the notion that the Cole story had run its course. I, for one, would have loved to have seen Cole take on the Avatars. Cole certainly would have made a much better antagonist than Leo ever managed to achieve.
This statement, though bold, does not seek to blame Leo or praise Cole. Rather, it is the consequence of what we know of each character. Like him or not, Cole was certainly a much more complex character than Leo ever became. On the other hand, each was brought to the Avatars for different reasons.
Consider that Leo accepts the Avatar offer for several reasons. First, he desperately wishes to resuscitate a dead Piper. Only the Avatars have the powers he needs. But, on a grander scale, Leo too has grown weary of the whole eternal balance between good and evil. Indeed, the masks truly have succeeded in tormenting a Leo who has been tricked into killing an Elder, been forced to kill his friend and mentor (Gideon) and become obsessed with ferreting out Fear. Desperately, if only for the chance to have a meaningful relationship with Piper, Leo needs to get beyond good and evil. Everything that he learns about the Avatars suggest that they might be a true middle path between good and evil.
Cole, on the other hand, is approached by the Avatars because they have recognized, as has Cole, that he has run out of options. Cole is every bit the riven being, a magical entity possessing enormous powers who cannot be vanquished yet finds himself unable to be completely beyond reproach (Good) owing to his own past and the corruption of certain powers that he possesses. Still, he refuses to do evil or so he proclaims. A line is crossed, however, when Cole uses his powers to render sentence on the two criminals who shot up the biker bar. The danger that Cole - in his pursuit of justice for the greater good of society - could pose a grave danger to that self-same society was exposed in that bar. The Avatars recognized this and hoped to profit from it.
Just how would Cole have dealt with the Avatars' plans, especially as he knew that the Avatars could drive both good and evil? Leo, unfortunately, never saw the duality of the Avatar ambition. He only saw the immense good that could result if the Avatars could root out demonic influences and substantially alter the propensity within human nature to embrace occasional acts of evil. Cole never would have fallen for that line since his whole entity was torn between these twin impulses: the desire to good and capability to do evil.
One final note perhaps: as much as I like the Cole character even into Season 5, perhaps one of the problems that emerged during Season 5 stems from the failure of the writers to grasp the enormous potential that Cole, freed from Phoebe and the Source, could bring to the show. Instead of a reasonable progression in character development, we are instead subject to the "suicide by witch" Cole in Sam I Am, the "vanquish me please" Cole in The Importance of Being Phoebe and finally the "I'm hell bent on destruction" Cole in Centennial Charmed. Surely, it must have been difficult to prepare for such ever shifting expectations of the character. Nip/Tuck was more straightforward. And, even if an offer wasn't present at the time of his departure, I am certain that Julian was aware that there was interest in his star potential or actual star power. Might as well test the waters, especially if the writers of Charmed aren't sure what to make of me!
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