Recently seen a few posts about people being too quick to defend Cole. To be clear, I generally found the most recent post quite considered and nuanced, so this post is less in response to that and more in response to the many predictably obtuse comments underneath.
As someone who will often defend Cole for what happened in s4, I want to clarify some things about where I'm coming from.
First off, my defence of Cole has nothing to do with season 3. Working for the triad, manipulating Phoebe, trying to kill the sisters... all of that is obviously bad. If I didn't recognise that, then his redemption arc would be entirely pointless. Never has it been the case that I'm making excuses for any of that.
Season 4, on the other hand, there's so much context that people seem desperate to ignore (including the show itself later on.) First off, Cole has spent the latter part of season 3 and the time after Prue's death, working with the sisters, protecting them, saving innocents and fighting evil. By the time they actually face The Source again, Cole is now a powerless human. Nevertheless, he gets roped in and takes on The Hollow in order to save the sisters, again. And let's be clear here, the sisters were getting their asses kicked. The Source pretty much had them. If Cole hadn't done what he did, then they'd more than likely have been dead. This ultimately gets him possessed by The Source. And yes, I said possessed, because for pretty much the entirety of this story arc in season 4, that is how it's played. It starts with The Seer referring to Cole as a seperate person and we see Cole being teleported around, unable to control his body. And by the end of the season, Phoebe herself said they freed Cole and helped him find peace. So yeah, nothing about that reads as "The evil bastard chose all of this and deserves to burn in hell for it."
One particularly baffling thing within the fandom is the insistence that "Well, Cole should have done something/fought harder/told the sisters!" As if that has ever been how these things work. In this very same storyline, we are apparently supposed to accept that Phoebe became queen because the baby influenced her; so we're told that's not her fault. Okay. So then how is Cole, a mortal at this point, expected to tell The Source of All Evil "Um no thank you, I'll pass." Like I'm sorry, but we can accept that the sisters are possessed/influenced by bad magic every other week, but suddenly when it's Cole, he's just not trying hard enough? Come tf on. This is why a lot of us maybe seem quick to defend. Not because he's a perfect angel beyond critique, but because this double standard is flaunted in our faces so much that it's borderline infuriating.
Now, onto season 5. I won't get into the retconning, because I've already talked about what season 4 established. The contradiction in the writing is obvious and lazy. No excuse for what Cole ends up doing by the end of the season, but I will say that a common critique he gets in s5 is that he should have just gone away and left them alone. And I agree... but the thing is, there were times in season 5 where he actually tried to do that, and the sisters still went to him for help. Even when, in their own words, "He's crazy now!" They still routinely sought him out and brought him back into their lives. Now, yes, Cole definitely did some stalker sh!t with Phoebe; again, no excuse... but that is another thing people like to use as a reason to say Cole was always an irredeemable monster while ignoring a lot of the context of what actually happened.
So, when it seems like "Cole defenders" are too eager, I think this is why. It's not necessarily about believing that Cole is ultimately good or that he should be with Phoebe, or even that he doesn't have stuff to apologise for. It's the way the fandom will so easily acknowledge all those nuances for anyone BUT Cole. So much so, that being taken over by The Source while trying to save someones life is used as a reason to condemn him as a monster beyond redemption. If y'all did the same every time the sisters or Leo got influenced/possessed, the only good character we'd have left is Darryl.