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[Korva]

He described my human warrior as, "War and weariness, blood and battle. Life learning to lead, clash, kill." I thought that -- as well as the rest of his little reading -- was rather neat and fitting for her, especially given her new position as Inquisitor.

 

Also, Cole really is not childlike, nor mentally deficient as some people think. He is a spirit. His way of perceiving the world is utterly different from a mortal's: "songs", memories, feelings, not just from living people but also imprinted on places and objects, and of course the constant pull of people's hurts -- it's all as natural to him as vision and hearing are to most of us. His guileless sincerity and his ignorance of some things like tying his shoelaces may make him look "childlike", but he is not, he's an alien creature in an alien environment with alien rules, both physical and social. In the Fade, if you want your shoelaces tied (if you had shoelaces that is), you'd just will for it to happen ... or if they're separate entities, ask them to tie themselves for you, please.

[Ryzaki]

He described my human warrior as, "War and weariness, blood and battle. Life learning to lead, clash, kill." I thought that -- as well as the rest of his little reading -- was rather neat and fitting for her, especially given her new position as Inquisitor.

 

He said that to my rogues too so it might just be an origin specific thing.

[Iakus]

Well a human Mage is practically a separate origin from the ham fighter/rogue. That might be different

[Pasta]

Sera eventually warmed up to him a bit, by calling him "him and he" more from "it"

 

Not sure if this is when you took the human path for him though.

[Iakus]

Also, Cole really is not childlike, nor mentally deficient as some people think. He is a spirit. His way of perceiving the world is utterly different from a mortal's: "songs", memories, feelings, not just from living people but also imprinted on places and objects, and of course the constant pull of people's hurts -- it's all as natural to him as vision and hearing are to most of us. His guileless sincerity and his ignorance of some things like tying his shoelaces may make him look "childlike", but he is not, he's an alien creature in an alien environment with alien rules, both physical and social. In the Fade, if you want your shoelaces tied (if you had shoelaces that is), you'd just will for it to happen ... or if they're separate entities, ask them to tie themselves for you, please.

Cole is not stupid or mentally deficient. But he is childlike on that he does not understand how the world works. He doesn't really get human relationships. Has a hard time understanding social etiquette. He didn't even really understand the concept of death for much of Asunder.
Nevertheless he wants to help

[actionhero112]

I don't hate Cole. He's one of the most genuine characters in the game and that's refreshing considering how many of them lie to you. 

[myahele]

Him reading their minds and announcing it to the rest of the party members isn't gonna win him any approval points. But they all warmed up to him

 

Its understandable why Cassandra and Vivi will be leery of Cole, due to them being in the upper echelons of the chantry.

 

Also keep in mind the mage origin's Harrowing. It was not sunshine and daisies. You had the spirit of Valor wanting to duel you and potentially kill you, you had a bunch of things wanting to kill you, you had "mouse" help you throughout only to find out he's a demon working under a pride demon.

[Korva]

Cole is not stupid or mentally deficient. But he is childlike on that he does not understand how the world works.

 

I may be nitpicking here, but bear with me a moment, please. If we had a reverse-Cole, i.e. a mortal thrown into the Fade as a unique human-spirit hybrid and forced to cope with that alien world and its alien rules, would we refer to that human as "childlike" if they have a hard time handling all this and will never understand many aspects of the Fade like a true, native spirit does? Or would we say well, what do you expect, the Fade is seriously weird sh*t and I'm doing my best so get off my back and stop infantilizing me? We are humans, so we generally consider our perspective to be true and the norm and superior, while being different -- as Cole is -- gets slapped with an inferiority label (which childlike is IMO when it means cluelessness and ignorance), and that bugs me a bit. So I prefer "alien" to describe what Cole is: not inferior, but different and out of his element. Not to pick a fight, just to clarify.

 

(Also, some of the fandom really go for the "childlike" view of Cole to the point that it's almost squicky, so I'm admittedly a wee bit ansty about that term.)

[Reman]

Cole is not stupid or mentally deficient. But he is childlike on that he does not understand how the world works. He doesn't really get human relationships. Has a hard time understanding social etiquette. He didn't even really understand the concept of death for much of Asunder.
Nevertheless he wants to help

Because he has been in another realm of existence, he didn't know anything about anything outside of the fade. He came in and felt the helplessness of an apostate 

 

and was traumatized. He thinks of death in a different way because spirits are reborn without memory of their past when they "die", so he thinks that is applicable in the physical world as well. 

 

He doesn't get that there are limitations in the physical world, which is why he is so disconnected to everyone/thing around himself.

[AlleluiaElizabeth]

No, it's just making it harder because it makes us so "bright". He does give us his impression of us in the same conversation, after all. Plus, he felt our predicament with Envy and came to help with that. And he can read Solas, who is also "bright" as well as quiet inside.

 

Him not turning his perceptiveness on the Inquisitor comes, as always, down to the fact that Bioware is crap about making protagonist/companion relationships mutually supportive. Companions form beautiful two-way bonds, caring for each other and inquiring after each other's well-being, but the protagonist gets left out of that and is only there to give one-way support. I get it, it's hard to account for different personalities, but they could at least try to have companions -- especially someone like Cole -- show some caring in return after major events.

They actually have Cole do this for a solasmancing Lavellan after the "break up". Like he reads her mind about that hurt and questions Solas on it. So its not impossible for them to do this. But its also hard to have Cole read the Inquisitor's mind in general, cus its the player. So its used, but not often.

[BraveVesperia]

Most assume he's a demon (or has the potential to become one), and learning things like how he killed Lord Seeker Lambert or imprisoned mages probably doesn't help. Plus he's strange, and people tend to be uncomfortable with difference. And he can read your mind and spill your darkest secrets for the world to see.

 

In banter though, you end up seeing Cole and Cassandra become amicable friends. There are some really sweet conversations with those two. After his personal quest, he reads Vivienne when she asks if he's alright and finds out that she does actually care, deep down. Even Sera eventually starts referring to him more like an annoying kid brother than a demon. Blackwall is uncomfortable for a while (no doubt due to his own dark secrets) but eventually warms up to him too.

 

On the flip side, you have Solas, Varric and Dorian who like him from the start. Even Iron Bull takes to him pretty quickly (even if he thinks Cole's a bit weird).

[SpiritMuse]

Cole is mindrape personified. If you've seen that entry on his character spot on the tv tropes page, I'm the guy who put it there.
 
Cole reaches into your mind, pulls out your most private and painful memories, and lays them bare for all to see in his bumbling attempts to help, even when asked to stop. 
 
On top of that, he can make you forget he ever existed. He can alter and deny your perception of reality.
 
His intentions are noble, I'm not denying that, but his methods are horrifically invasive and he has no concept of consent. 
 
So, yea, I can think of a few reasons why someone might take exception to him.

I'm sorry, I disagree. Here is TVTropes' definition of Mind Rape:

"A character is attacked by a villain in the most painful non-physical way possible: Their mind and soul are assaulted with painful, horrifying visions, sensations, and/or memories, and their will and sanity broken until afterward they're powerless, hopeless and numb, but not dead, although they may wish they were. "

That doesn't sound anything like what Cole does. Sure, he's invading some very personal space, without consent, and dregs up some very painful things sometimes, but with the purpose of helping people deal with it, and it usually works. If anything it seems like the opposite of Mind Rape, really. I'm still not saying it's right, as he is doing all this without consent, but I'd hardly call it "mind rape personified".

[Kinsz]

Cole and Cassandra have one of the most beautiful relationship in the game after her initial impression of him , banters can be heard on youtube , Sera and Vivienne are the only two who do not get along with him but he is friends with everyone else.

[ctd757]

Sera just hates all magic and anything she can't understand. I like putting them together so he can creep her out. But I never use him much because he annoys me.

[dirk5027]

The game has a lot of things that bug me, Cole is a bright light in the game for me, and that voice actor is so ridiculously good, he deserves major amounts of praise

[HoustonDragon]

While his story ends up being interesting (I chose the spirit path), it was so what annoying for Cole to just show up as a companion to me, and that sort of tainted my views of his character.

Then you have the constant "A.I."-ish vibe where he's trying to learn humanity but is confused by it, while busy interfering with people's lives. Personally, not a favorite.

[Sifr]

I may be nitpicking here, but bear with me a moment, please. If we had a reverse-Cole, i.e. a mortal thrown into the Fade as a unique human-spirit hybrid and forced to cope with that alien world and its alien rules, would we refer to that human as "childlike" if they have a hard time handling all this and will never understand many aspects of the Fade like a true, native spirit does? Or would we say well, what do you expect, the Fade is seriously weird sh*t and I'm doing my best so get off my back and stop infantilizing me? We are humans, so we generally consider our perspective to be true and the norm and superior, while being different -- as Cole is -- gets slapped with an inferiority label (which childlike is IMO when it means cluelessness and ignorance), and that bugs me a bit. So I prefer "alien" to describe what Cole is: not inferior, but different and out of his element. Not to pick a fight, just to clarify.

 

(Also, some of the fandom really go for the "childlike" view of Cole to the point that it's almost squicky, so I'm admittedly a wee bit ansty about that term.)

 

Here here, well said!

 

In fact, you could say that our protagonists tend to be the Reverse-Cole's because whenever we are in the Fade, even the Mages tend to be like "What the hell is going on?" and they are the ones who deal with the Fade on a fairly regular basis?!

 

We see a lot of codex entries in-game where various Circle mages discuss and debate how the Fade works and how they over-simplify it (like the Veil works), as well as see the views of apostates (the Dalish and Solas), as well as Spirits who all seem to see it differently from each other, suggesting that in reality, how the Fade works is pretty much incomprehensible to everyone and doesn't follow any rules at all? Or that since "Imagination = Reality" in the Fade, then one's own preconceived ideas on how the Fade works are how it operates for that person, but not another?

 

But I'm going a little off-topic...

 

As for Cole and his relationship with others, I enjoy his banter with Varric the most, because while Solas understands him the most in terms of what he is as a spirit, Varric really seems to take him under his wing and actually want to get to know him as a person.

 

Cole's personal quest is actually enjoyable because we see both of them really care for Cole, yet disagree on what path he takes based on how they see him? Solas sees him as a Spirit of Compassion who is not fulfilling his purpose how it was intended, while Varric sees him as a Person who constantly wants to help others, but doesn't know how to help himself and needs support?

 

(Incidentally, I chose the "Human" path, because I think that with everything that's happened to him thus-far, Cole's already become far too different from what he was before and should explore it further)

[BlazingSpeed]

Sadly, I don't recall what he says to humans.

 

I actually just had that convo with Cole yesterday btw thanks for the replies everyone I'm only at the Du Lion part of the game so I haven't heard every thing (banter wise...) yet.

[Korva]

Cole and Cassandra have one of the most beautiful relationship in the game after her initial impression of him

 

Indeed, that was really a beautiful surprise, especially since I love these two more than any other character. The mental image of Cass reading to him and Cole happily soaking up both the story and her enjoyment of it, the way she makes it come alive across the Veil, always brings a smile to my face.

 

The game has a lot of things that bug me, Cole is a bright light in the game for me, and that voice actor is so ridiculously good, he deserves major amounts of praise

 

He's incredible, yes. So full of raw emotion and sincerity, but also soft-spoken and guileless and otherworldly. The guy deserves a bleeding award in my book.

[Iakus]

I may be nitpicking here, but bear with me a moment, please. If we had a reverse-Cole, i.e. a mortal thrown into the Fade as a unique human-spirit hybrid and forced to cope with that alien world and its alien rules, would we refer to that human as "childlike" if they have a hard time handling all this and will never understand many aspects of the Fade like a true, native spirit does? Or would we say well, what do you expect, the Fade is seriously weird sh*t and I'm doing my best so get off my back and stop infantilizing me? We are humans, so we generally consider our perspective to be true and the norm and superior, while being different -- as Cole is -- gets slapped with an inferiority label (which childlike is IMO when it means cluelessness and ignorance), and that bugs me a bit. So I prefer "alien" to describe what Cole is: not inferior, but different and out of his element. Not to pick a fight, just to clarify.

 

(Also, some of the fandom really go for the "childlike" view of Cole to the point that it's almost squicky, so I'm admittedly a wee bit ansty about that term.)

In such a case, yes, from the perspective of natives to the Fade, that person would be as a "child"

 

I mean, have you spent a lot of time around a a small child?  The whole world is full of "weird sh*t" to them.   An adult has had decades to figure out their surroundings. How human interaction works.   Natural phenomena such as wind and rain.  Language.  The (rather important) differences between a toy and a pet.  What's appropriate to say and do and what is not.  The world is in fact an alien place to a child.  Now throw in a degree of telepathic/empathic power.

[Mocksie]

Plenty of the companions like Cole. Everyone except Vivienne and Sera grows to like him, and even they warm to him a bit. 

 

If you want to a companion that most other companions don't like or don't get along with, see Blackwall.

 

 

I don't hate Cole. He's one of the most genuine characters in the game and that's refreshing considering how many of them lie to you. 

 

Also this.

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

Why do people assume that because some people hate a character, everyone does?

[Dayze]

I would say Cole is child like even as compared to the other spirits we've interacted with throughout the games.

 

Of course; that might have as much to do with who he mimicked/based himself on as his own original personality.

 

Maybe that is why Solas has a problem with him "becoming more human" because its not really Cole becoming more complex, its just Cole more assuming the mask and losing his original personality?

 

Though even the devs have mentioned cole as being child like and that is part of why he can't be romanced if I remember correctly.

[Elisabeth Hollow]

In such a case, yes, from the perspective of natives to the Fade, that person would be as a "child"

 

I mean, have you spent a lot of time around a a small child?  The whole world is full of "weird sh*t" to them.   An adult has had decades to figure out their surroundings. How human interaction works.   Natural phenomena such as wind and rain.  Language.  The (rather important) differences between a toy and a pet.  What's appropriate to say and do and what is not.  The world is in fact an alien place to a child.  Now throw in a degree of telepathic/empathic power.

I would think of him more like someone who's been tossed into an unknown land. He knows the language, but isn't sure what is or isn't seen as offensive/acceptable. He doesn't know that you're not supposed to blurt things out or root around in someone's personal space because in the Fade, everything has different rules.

[teh DRUMPf!!]

 Um, because "his people" have always been unpleasant for the rest of us to deal with.

 

 

I am a Cole fan but it's not unreasonable for others not to feel comfortable with him.