#and you're welcome to respond to my lil serial killer analogy w how you'd feel / whether or not you think it's a valid comparison

[phoebehalliwell]

Do you think redemption for Cole after Black as Cole is possible? I mean he met one of his victim, and all he cared about was Phoebe’s reaction. For me it’s a sign that he wasn’t interested in that sort of things. As long as Phoebe was full of forgiveness and acceptance he couldn’t care less about Emma, or any other of them But this is what I actually like about his arc. It shows that being in love doesn’t equal redemption.

The second question is about Phoebe and her behavior in the same episode. Imo in Black as Cole her way to become the Queen begins. She chose Cole before but it was ether a split second decision (let him go) or chain of events that couldn’t have been foreseen (Prue’s death.) This ep she chooses him over his victim without any sign of hesitation. And that is the very first step to become evil.

i feel like redemption for cole after that episode is possible but would be a very lengthy and complex process. taking a step back, i would say redemption for cole wasn’t going to happen after we got black as cole bc let’s face it if you wanted to give him a redemption arc you just would not have given him that episode because it would have been so much easier to keep his demonic past in the abstract than to actually bring in a very obvious manifestation of the pain he caused.

as far as the episode itself, i will admit i haven’t watched it in a minute, but i do agree with your assessment. i feel like cole really put a great emphasis into make sure phoebe wasn’t horrified at him (which is a valid fear) but i don’t remember any earnest apology from cole to emma? which again i feel like greatly implies the writers had no intention of fully redeeming cole, though the kept the illusion he could become a good guy up until the bitter end imo.

they really kept harping on the “you make me want to be a better man” but like,,, that’s not enough?? it shouldn’t be on the li to generate that motivation? like yes it can be the spark but after that we should really see this person try to do better on their own, to really make that decision for themselves. (i’m gonna bring up the best redemption arc ever the grace television and say that zuko’s redemption officially came when he made the decision to leave the fire nation and help the avatar. and it was made clear that was a decision he came to on his own terms. yes there was guidance towards good, but there was also a pull away from it. and we saw the war and we saw the struggle and we saw him choose to do the right thing. not for anyone else. but for him. let’s face it cole was never being good for cole, cole was being good for phoebe. if you removed her from the equation i don’t think his character as written in canon would have ever become good.)

and on to phoebe. in an ask just two days ago, i explicitly stated my belief that if phoebe even had the slightest inkling that her relationship with cole could lead to the death of her sister, she would vanquish him. she would not risk that. and imma be honest with you, i really don’t get why phoebe didn’t vanquish him in sleuthing with the enemy. like, at this point, you know your relationship is built on lies. he might be in love with you, but you’re not in love with him, no, you fell in love with the mask he crafted specifically for you. see the difference? (that’s also one of the many reasons i never got behind phole as a ship.) And Here’s The Thing Tho. cole was ready to let phoebe vanquish him. it was like him paying penance. and then krell attacked and even tho phoebe was about to vanquish cole two seconds ago now she’s fighting to protect him which you know what i will let slide. But Then. phoebe tries to fight off krell and then krell tries to kill phoebe and then cole saves phoebe and he seems to view that as his get out vanquish free card. like a minute ago he was like i’ve done unspeakable things blah blah blah vanquish me. and now that he’s saved 1 (one) person, he’s like nvm those unspeakable things have been canceled out by the only good thing i’ve done every and phoebe’s like all my hate for you has turned to love because you just saved me from that demon and even though you are a demon who did make any attempts on my own life as well as my sisters lives, not to mention manipulated me into a relationship, in spite of all of that i will kiss you passionately and help you fake your death. Ma’am?? like let’s grab some relativity for 90 seconds let’s look at this in human terms you’re mindhunter or whatever and you’ve been stopping serial killers. you fall for this one guy who seems to be the man of your dreams, but then you find out he’s one of the worst serial killers in the game, and he has indeed tried to kill you multiple times. but he couldn’t, because he loves you. and to be fair you loved him too before you knew he was a Serial Killer who Manipulated & tried to Kill You. now, personally, if i’ve got the gun pointed at him i’m not going to hear him out on the but i’m still human & you make me want to do good spiel. even if he saves my from some vigilante murder who was trying to kill him but also felt the need to take me out too because we were in cahoots. dude he’s a serial killer who i have feared would take my life for idk like almost a year now. that mf would be dead. but idk maybe that’s just me if you were looking at this in the fully human terms would you burn down the house and let the dead vigilante burned beyond recognition sit underneath that serial killer’s headstone. evidently phoebe would.

so when we’re talking about phoebe “choosing evil” it’s quite obvious that she has an extremely dim conception of what evil truly is (i mean hello we are looking a the woman who thought she could be both the queen of hell and protect innocents at the same time and just Did Not Get why that couldn’t be a thing). so i feel like in her mind, when she’s siding with cole, she’s purely operating under this belief of she just doesn’t understand who he is when in truth it seems emma understands who cole it a lot more that phoebe did.