PG Proposal: Cole (Ninjago)

RIP Kirby Morrow. This one is for you. Time for a proposal for the Musclehead of Ninjago. Speaking of muscle heads, be on the looking for my proposal on Eijiro Kirishima from MHA soon. Also yeah there’s a sequel ongoing but Cole doesn’t have an important role in it and over the last few years Cole has consistently been kind and noble with no corrupting factors, plus the Ninjago writers don’t seem to ever take a break. Let’s just do this now.

What’s The Work?

Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu is a Canadian animated TV series that has lasted over a decade and has over 15 Seasons in the original TV series and has an ongoing sequel series called Ninjago: Dragons Rising. It also has several tie-in comics, video games and Lego sets. It revolves around 4 (later 6) ninjas who are destined to save the world of Ninjago (and sometimes other dimensions) from big bad guys. The ninja have elemental powers such as Earth, Fire, Lighting, etc. This is a show that while I very much love and grew up on, there are many plot inconsistencies I have to point out and character ones, but luckily I don’t have any issues with Cole’s character (other than not having enough focus and his whole ghost arc going nowhere.)

Who is he?

Cole is one of the deuteragonists of the franchise and the Black Ninja of the Element of Earth, also having the power of brute strength. He is the son of the former elemental master of Earth, Lilly, and son of a musician whose name I forget. At a young age, his mother was afflicted with an illness but before she died, she taught Cole to protect the weak, which he would take as a life lesson. Dealing with the troubles of his mother’s death and being sent to a music school, he would eventually be recruited as one of Wu’s ninjas, being their initial leader.

Throughout the show, he is a older brother figure for the ninja most of the time and a responsible leader. If I were to use paragraphs I would be here FOREVER considering he appears every episode in a series with like 500 episodes so I’m just gonna shorten this up into what he does each Season.

Pilot

He piloted the boat that let the Ninja retrieve the Shurikens of Ice.
He slowed down the Skull Truck, allowing the other Ninja to board on.
Alongside the other Ninja, he used a combo move known as The Tornado of Creation to defeat all of the Skullkin and retrieve the Golden Weapons, also thwarting Garmadon’s invasion.

Season 1

He quickly freed the Dragons when the Monastery had burned down.
Upon awakening his full potential, he saved his father and the other Ninja’s life from falling debris.
He broke down the door and stopped a dangerous fight between Kai and Garmadon.

Season 2

He got a job as a security officer at the bank to help the Ninja afford an apartment, stopping at least a few petty bank robbers (seriously, why even bother being a criminal in a show like this if you have nothing to back it up lol.)
With the other ninja, he helped fight off the Sky Pirates, even directly defeating No-Eyed Pete (lol.)
With the other ninja, he competes in the Ninjaball Run and helps win a large sum of money to save Dareth’s dojo.
He directly helps in Lloyd’s green ninja training.
When travelling back in time, he uses his Scythe of Quakes to launch Garmadon’s Mega Weapon into space so he can never use its deadly powers again.
He helps distract the Giant Stone warrior so the other Ninja can trap it.
He blinds a corrupted Nya, helping him and the other Ninja have a chance to escape.
Along with the other Ninja, he aided Lloyd up the tower that would let him defeat the Overlord and save all of Ninjago.

Season 3

Along with the other Ninja, he helps stop The Overlord and his new uprising multiple times such as by stealing the Tech Blades or entering the Digiverse.
In a canon tie-in comic, him and Zane rescue various workers from slavery. His heroism also inspired a girl named Seliel to become a hero.

Season 4

While working as a lumberjack, he saved several workers lives from an avalanche of logs.
Along with the other Ninja, he decides to head to the Tournament of Elements to rescue Zane.
He gives up his freedom in the Tournament of Elements to let Jay continue, voluntarily letting himself be imprisoned so Jay can win and apologizing for ruining things with his best friend.
He informs Zane he will break him out of prison, then later breaks him out, then lead the way out as they got chased by Clouse’s giant snake.
Along with Zane, he built up a plan to help all of Chen’s prisoners escape from the slave factory.
He rescues Nya and Garmadon from being eaten alive by the giant snake.
He helps fight off multiple of Chen’s henchmen.
He uses his Elemental Earth Dragon and helps other elemental masters participate in Chen’s war that endangers all of Ninjago.
He breaks the walls of Kryptarium Prison which allows Pythor to escape to stop the Anachondrai War. Saving Pythor would help stop the war that endangers Ninjago.
He stops one of Master Chen’s delivery trucks

Season 5

While in Sensei Yang’s haunted Dojo, he gives up his own mortality and voluntarily stays in the house to retrieve the scroll of Airjitzu that would be pivotal in stopping Morro’s omnicide. By doing this Cole, knowingly gave up his humanity and became a ghost to help his team.
While climbing a giant mountain, he saved the other Ninjas lives from falling by creating a giant snow platform to catch them.
Despite his fears of not knowing how to use his powers, he helped his team fly up to the Cloud Kingdom which would allow them to get the Sword they need to save the multiverse.
When the Ninja were all tricked by Fenwick and locked and the room with a man-eating Nimbus, he used his Ghost powers to escape and rescue the Ninja from being eaten.
While raiding the First Spinjitzu Master’s tomb, he is the only one brave enough to take a leap of faith and jump down a hole, leading to the other Ninja’s following him and saving their lives, allowing them to progress further.
Despite water being deadly to him, he jumped in to save Lloyd.
He sacrificed his Ghost cycle in an attempt to stop the Preeminent.

Season 6

He used his ghost powers to try to rescue Zane from being tortured by The Mechanic, then helped the other Ninja escape Kryptarium Prison so they could stop Nadakhan.
He used up his last wish to help the Ninja escape from Nadakhan, undergoing a painful imprisonment in the process.

Day of the Departed

He rescues Sensei Yang’s ghostly students from a Fate Worse than Death by escaping through the interdimensional rift and escaping their curse.
He helps redeem Sensei Yang and help him find happiness.

Season 7

He uses his Earth Fist to help the Ninja find a sewer system which allowed them to find the Vermillion Headquarters.

Season 8

He rescued a baby Wu from imprisonment at the Sons of Garmadon Base, then would later nurture the boy into going back to his old self. He continues to protect his life from the Sons of Garmadon multiple times.

Season 9

He rescues young Wu from a dangerous dragon.
Him and Wu sneak into the Iron Baron’s gladiator ring and rescue Kai, Zane and Jay from a gladiator death battle.
He builds a wooden dragon that lets Wu rescue the ninja from imprisonment again and also save all of the baby dragons from imprisonment.
With the other Ninja, he saves Ninjago city from the Colossus and Garmadon.

Season 10:

Along with the other Ninja and Garmadon, he does a tornado of creation to stop the Omega’s omnicide.

Season 11:

HE helps fight off multiple of Aspheera’s minions.
He helps fight off the Blizzard Samurai who was threatening the Ice Village.
He befriends a Yeti beast named Krag, becoming his first ever friend after his kind was genocided by Vex and plays a part in helping save the Never-Realm and Zane.

In Season 12, he alongside the other Ninja rescue multiple people in Prime Empire (sorry, I don’t remember this season very well.)

In Season 13, he finally gets his own focus season where he leads the Upply, rescues them from a Magma monster, teaches them to become heroes, rescues the Geckles and Muntz as well as his friends from the Skull Sorcerer (a Pure Evil Villain)’s slavery and genocide and arresting King Vangelis while putting an end to his Vengestone Plot and his horrific tyranny.

In The Island, he saves Twitchy Tim from falling overboard.

I’m sure I’ve already solidified what a good guy he is at this point and he’s kind of just a supporting character who does what other Ninja do in later seasons, like saving the multiverse from the Overlord. Granted he deos play a role in helping Princess Vania and some of her people fight against the Overlord and he does fight Vangelis. He’s also there in Dragon’s Rising where he supports the Ninja in stopping Empress Beatrix’s totalitarian rule over the Merged dimensions while teaching a Golem he met named Geo how to use powers and acting as his mentor.

Mitigating Factors

Incompetence: It’s probably no secret that Cole is a brawn over brain kind of guy that can make stupid reckless decisions, sometimes even almost being a hindrance to the team. In Season 2 he fell asleep during his watch shift at the Bank (allowing Serpentine to break in), in Season 4 he started licking the chocolate mask he made during a covert mission that could have ruined there disguises (though luckily it didn’t), in Season 6 he accidentally ate the tools hidden inside the cake that Dareth tried to use to break them out of prison and in Season 8 he acts like an idiot while trying to pose as a Son of Garmadon which almost accidentally gives his and Zane’s identity away.. I don’t think this is too big of an issue though. Cole does have a few screw-ups but they are overall very minor (absolutely nothing compared to the Brown Ninja) and don’t impact his character or many missions, especially since he is shown to be very brave and even strategic almost every other time (he is pretty much never stupid in newer seasons too.) Cole only screw up when it comes to cake and loses control and sometimes makes stupid decisions, but over the years this has become a much less consistent trait and he has tried his best to not let his love of cake hinder his missions, even training himself to stop. As for Cole’s poor disguises, it is always played for laughs but he gets better at the whole “Rocky Dangerbuff” persona in Season 9. So overall his incompetence is not taken seriously, extremely minor and much less prevalent in newer seasons. It is also worth noting that in the most high-stake moments, Cole never has any of these screw-ups. They usually only happen on side missions that don’t impact the plot, so he’s only an idiot when it doesn’t matter.
Arrogance: Cole can be a musclehead at times and like other Ninja, he thought he was superior to the others in Season 1 (though he quickly put his pride aside after realizing Lloyd was the Green Ninja.) There have been occasions where he flexes his muscles or brags about how strong he is. For instance, he shows off his lifting skills to his students and teaches Lloyd that flexing is the best way to get women. However, after Season 1, it never reaches into jerkish territory and at worst, Cole just makes jokes about it without coming off as too prideful, which even then doesn’t happen frequently at all in newer seasons. Even ignoring that, Cole is a very humble and selfless guy in every other way who is willing to accept defeats and put others above himself. It’s also made pretty clear his pride is something he treat like a strength and believes his strength gives others hope. It’s a similar case to All Might always bragging about how he’s the symbol of peace really.
Jerkish moments: He has a few scattered throughout the earlier seasons like getting mad at Kai for his incompetence in the Pilot Seasons, calling Zane a freak for being weird, getting mad at his father for being obsessive over singing and most of all frequently bickering with Jay in Season 3 over their love rivalry with Nya (even breathing bad breath on him and screaming at him even in important missions.) However, Cole as subverted every jerk moment he had. He was more than apologetic for how he treated Zane and even Jay, the latter of whom he sacrificed his freedom to make up for their lost friendship. He also saved his father’s life and came to accept his views. In the present, Cole has absolutely no jerkish moments and is always a nice guy. Plus any time he bickers with Ninja in the present, it is never taken seriously and doesn’t go beyond playful banter.

Cole has overall gotten way more mature and responsible every season and nearly all of his negative qualities are gone. Anything else? Well he did get mad at Jay for going behind the groups back in Season 6 but this was perfectly justified since Jay was hindering their missions for his own greed and while him and the other ninja did force Jay to get the Venom, not only did he deserve it for lying but this was needed for the Ninja to stop Nadakhan from destroying Ninjago. He does drink the Truth of Tea and confesses that he likes to “urinate in pools” but we aren’t given any further details. It’s not taken seriously and for all we know he does it in private pools, which I doubt is corrupting.

Admirable Standard

Yes the Admirable Standard is as abysmally high as the astronomical Heinous Standard (which so far has 20 villains who pass it, 17 being canon) since high scale threats and omnicide are basically average Tuesday in Ninjago.

a brief summary of candidates here:

Lloyd stopped the Overlord which saved people from being corrupted and also reverted his father back to being good.
Zane sacrificed his life (though retconned back into being alive) to stop The Overlord (a PE villains) from terraforming Ninjago.
Nya used her water abilities to stop multiple of Morro’s ghost army and even helped defeat the Preeminent to stop its omnicide, then sacrificed her life to stop Kalmaar (another PE villain)'s rampage.
Jay stopped Nadakhan from terraforming Ninjago into his own Djinn playground realm and also stopped Unagami’s rampage.
Sensei Garmadon sacrificed his life to stop the Anachondrai war started by Chen.

Does Cole stand out? I think so. I think it is incredibly obvious he passes the baseline but the In-Story Standard? For starters, I think the First Spinjitzu Master and maybe even Lloyd are unfair comparisons due to their higher resources but even then I think Cole could stand out from them, given how many times he has put his team above himself, such as when he sacrificed his own flesh and become a ghost to allow them to continue their mission, which honestly might be a comparable sacrifice to Zane’s against the Overlord or Nya’s against Kalmaar. As a ghost, he was a huge importance in helping stop Morro’s omnicide as support. He also has the unique niche of saving Sensei Yang’s dozens of students from their Fate Worse than Death, which to my knowledge nobody else had done. Then finally I think he could stick out for stopping a Pure Evil villain (Vangelis) and ending his genocide/slavery also helps him stand out, also indirectly preventing him from making the Overlord’s destruction worse. We also cant forget that he was a huge part in saving both amnesiac Zane and baby Wu’s lives, so we can attribute some of their later admirable deeds to him. He’s also saved his own fellow ninjas countless times. While not having a flashy sacrifice like Nya or Zane I think he does more than enough to stand out on his own.

Verdict

Unless I’m forgetting something then yeah he’s a definite keeper.