#got so caught up making this post i forgot abt d/20 lol

[ex-princessvania]

AUGHGA the people have spoken. good god i hope this makes sense:

cole death symbolism is fairly well established i think? but here is a list of a lot of the different parts of it just for reference. one thing that stood out to me the more i thought abt it was that his becoming a ghost and s10 “death” both have him come CLOSE to dying, but never actually crossing the threshold. i think i made this post a while ago just talking abt that phenomena in relation to cole.

ALSO in relation to cole and death (which i see ppl talk abt but not necessarily as part of the overall death symbolism he has which i think is interesting) is the older-mirror scene in s5. the writers later made this scene foreshadow his ‘disappearance’ in s5 which. was not done particularly well lol, and so it can easily be reinterpreted. if we assume that, on a narrative level, this scene is not explaining his ability to disappear, but is actually foreshadowing his death. well.

it’s kind of unclear how old everyone is supposed to be when they see themselves in the mirror?? because they are legos but like. they are certainly not super old, which (if we are continuing on the assumption that cole dies before everyone else) means that cole very specifically dies young.

lets come back to that in a minute i have to take a quick tangent about cycles. also something i feel is well established, but its important for background info. one thing ninjago does A LOT of is have its main characters repeat things. both things they themselves have done AND ALSO things their parents/ancestors have done. think nya becoming the sea the same way nyad did, lloyd having to fight the overlord in a never ending loop like the fsm, etc.

the whole deal with cycles and generational trauma etc etc when specifically talking abt cole is centered on his mom; he does almost exactly everything his mom did before she died in s13 (adjusted for the situation) and of course has her element. if this extends to his actions, it could certainly also extend to his death. i think this is more evidence to the idea than anything else? like cole dying young is a continuation of the loop unintentionally created for him by his mother.

to actually return to the point i was making, cole is surrounded by death. he almost dies a couple times, but his death is stopped partially or entirely by some other supernatural force. based on this he could be seen absolutely as a psychopomp/grim reaper, but because of both the s5 symbolism and his mom, im really more inclined to say that he is more doomed by the universe to die at some point. now this is really me speculating and tbh just making things up, but i think this does lend credibility to the idea that the universe itself is keeping cole from dying at these points (s5, s10) because there is some point in the future that the universe has literally decided is the time that he is Going To Die.

and like why??? what is so significant about that (theoretical) death that the universe is literally changing the laws of physics to stop this man from dying? what is so important about this point in time that the whole world is bending over backwards to make sure it happens?

going to get emotional now but like! cole being the first to die of everyone is so crazy to me! cole who is the leader and the oldest and the most mature and the one trying so hard to keep everyone together who dies first, and dies young! just like his mom!! in a world where robots come back from the dead every single year and the children of gods live forever there is one guy who has a point that he can never come back from. despite evading death he is surrounded by it; he cant die yet because you cant fight destiny!! your time will come bitch!!

anyway tldr; i think that cole dies young just like his mom because the universe loves him and has big plans for him. or maybe the universe just cares about perpetuating the cycle whos to say.