Cole's Original Arc
In the earlier version of Cole and his personal quest, the Inquisitor had three decisions
- Side with Solas and make Cole more of a Spirit
- Side with Varric and make Cole more of a Human
and the decision that never came to be...
- Let Cole kill the Templar
As Cole is a spirit of Compassion, the path would be an emotional interference. Patrick Weekes personally hated the option, thinking "well, there's gonna be that one player". Apparently, the scene had way more knife cuts than necessary for the kill. But, an issue came up with the third option: the budget. "We have the budget to do two really well, or three kind of. And it was changed."
Weekes was admittedly happy for the change, as he described himself a "light side hippy", but the bigger question was whether he cut it because it genuinely fit or if it is something he personally doesn't want. As a writer, that's the difficult thing to discern. But the choice for Cole was cut for the better of the story.