2I didn't know Kirby except as Cole, though he's starred in roles way more popular than Lego Ninjago. Cole has been my favorite character since the beginning, when I was 11 years old. His voice and his portrayal of the Earth Master taught me you can be strong and silly, confident and courageous even when you're unsure, and to enjoy the simple things in life. So, here's to Kirby and his family and friends, in the only way I knew him.
Cole loves mountains. He loves watching the clouds wind around their peaks, and hearing the wind sing in their canyons. He loves the perfectly still sunsets, when the rock turns crimson and the sky is a deep shade of violet. He loves seeing the world when he finally conquers them.
Believe it or not, he also loves the storms. Bad weather in the mountains is nothing to scoff at. People lose their lives in these storms, to flooding or avalanches or cold. Cole's been stranded once or twice, burrowed into a sleeping bag or hiding in a somewhat-sheltered nook as rain pelts his bare arms.
After he loses his mother, the storms start to whisper to him. I'm still here, they say, and in a strange sense it's comforting. When the here and now is all too real, it's as if the mountains remind him there's a bigger picture to this, something that stretches into heaven itself.
Then, in the cold air of Ninjago's highest peaks, his skin sunburnt despite the chill, Cole meets Sensei Wu. They talk, but what's said isn't important. What is important is that Cole expresses the grief he tried to run from, tried to put literal mountains behind him to hide. It's on the coldest height of those mountains, as the world stretches in every direction, Cole decides he wants to make a difference.
And he did.
Oh, there were the seven or so times he saved the world, and the other two where he saved significant parts of it. Where Cole really shone, though, was in the details. All mountains are climbed the same way, in steps that may not move even and inch up or forward. Whether he wore the gi of the Master of Earth or danced ballet, Cole encouraged others to take those steps with him.