*crickets*

Like early in the series, ofc, he was actually snappier than he is now, more sarcastic, more witty, more blunt. And in that original context, there was nothing deeper, but now... Well he have the understanding that he went to train as a ninja very soon after his mother died, couldn't have been more than a year, right? And now, he's much softer, more gentle, and more interested in being altruistic than being perceived as tough.

This pretty much leads me to believe that, with that added context, this was a front for his grief. And considering he knew none of the ninja early on, and kept a lot of stuff to himself... that checks out to me. I mean it also kinda lines up with that little line about how grief takes many forms, some sing and dance, and some climb mountains. He may very well have just wanted to appear fine. Normal, even. Like that meme "PFFT could a depressed person do THIS?" *free solos a mountain*

the grief thing is a rlly good interpretation and addition but Cole kind of stays in this odd. manly man likes punching things and eating cake and being vaguely goofy until abt s8-9, which obviously in meta is bc that’s when all the ninja got their soft reboot, BUT this could also be maturation in general since he only rlly confronts his grief in s13

so MY reasoning for it is ALSO

- the transition of Cole from tough guy fighter to silly guy foundation of maturity was (also) a manifestation of internalised homophobia

- Lou sending him to art school (gay as fuck) and him hating it so much bolstered an association b/n gayness and dance, song, etc. that he was desperate to get away from

- so even tho he may’ve had no issue with being gay itself, he was lowkey a macho alpha chad guy (but like. less misogynistic. LESS. not not. we remember “takes a lot of paint to make them look good”) in order to distance himself from Lou and his expectations

"Maybe Cole's so bad at cooking bc his mom was too sick to teach him, and by the time she passed away, his dad was too distant to teach him anything at all, so he just had to wing it"

I used to think that Cole being lazy and shirking training was out of character for him, back before he had much of a backstory. Bc like he was meant to be serious and whatnot. But no it actually makes complete and total sense

I mean if you'd been forced to grow up as fast as possible because your mother died and your dad fucked off and left you all alone to do everything by yourself, probably leaving you no free time and no goof around time

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