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Andrew Francis is doing a fucking fantastic job as Cole.

For me, I see two variations of Cole. One is pilot through seabound, obviously given life by Kirby. The second is Dragons Rising Cole, now through Andrew.

After 2020, of course everyone was wondering what was going to happen to Cole's character, what the team was planning, and by god I think they made the best choice possible. Every episode Andrew is giving his heart and soul to Cole, and I love and admire that he himself said that he wasn't going to mimic or be a copy of Kirby's Cole, but rather his own version.

Now, when it comes to Crystalized, I feel like that was a transition period between Kirby's version to Andrew's. One of the biggest reasons is that Dragons Rising (as far as I've heard) has not used a single audio bit from Kirby, while Crystalized did. What I mean by that is there are several instances in 16 where Cole cries out (in shock, is hit, etc) and you hear Kirby's voice rather than Andrew's. Honestly, I like to think this was the team's way of allowing Kirby to complete the original series even though he couldn't be there. Dragons Rising is Andrew's Cole, hands down.

If you haven't seen it, I'm gonna link [here] Brent's interview with Andrew after the announcement was made of his succession. I think about it a lot and you can tell he's paying respect while making Cole his own character.

60 years holding the staff you start seeing the hatman

(How fucked up would it be if the staff talked but only to Zane lol)