I know I brought this up before and everyone was all "nope", but I wanted to give like a "defense" I guess for it.
In the original idea for Second Age (the Second Son sequel) by Madman, he came up with the idea that Beast Cole had travelled through time to create the current "Good Karma" timeline, and that he is the true main antagonist of the story. I thought it was interesting when he brought it up, especially since he is pretty adamant against Good Cole being resurrected (I used to want Good Cole revived, but the more I thought about it, it would make his sacrifice from inFAMOUS 2 much less impactful, and he really has no more place in the current story other than fanservice). However, something I disagree with his Beast Cole being a full-blown villian like from inFAMOUS 1, where all he wants is to just take over the world.
My take on Beast Cole's role in the story is similar to how he was portrayed in the "Legacy of The Beast" fanfiction, where he is simply a man trying to save the world, through any means necessary (undecided if he should be Anti-Hero Cole or Good Cole if he switched to The Beast's side at the very end. Leaning towards the latter, as that would make his altering the timeline much more believable). He didn't become The Beast to gain power, to rule over Conduits, or even to save himself. They didn't know the RFI would actually cure the Plague, and if it didn't all they'd do was kill the only people immune to it, with the rest of humanity following soon after. So Cole chose John's side, killed his former allies, and destroyed the RFI before it could be used against Conduit-kind.
After inheriting The Beast's powers, Cole made his way across the world, activating as many Conduits as he could before the Plague killed them. However, he wasn't prepared for the aftermath of ordeal. Not long after, there was infighting between factions of Conduits, some sought to use their powers for self gain and to sow chaos, other sought to stop them and keep the peace, and others tried to help the remnants of humanity and stop Cole (however they would soon find their aid unwelcome). This, along with the human factions in possession of First Sons technology and a stockpile of the world's remaining nuclear weapons, led to a devastating war that led to the destruction of all life on the planet (these events, I imagined, would be covered in a sequel/prequel game "inFAMOUS 3").
Overwhelmed with failure and grief, Beast Cole, like Kessler before him, discovered his ability to travel through time, attempting to rewrite history. He would influence his past self (through currently unknown means) to choose to activate the RFI, convincing him that while John might be the only way anyone will survive this, the price was simply too high. Teleporting to Earth's moon to escape the RFI's blast radius should things go wrong and need further correction, Cole was suprised to learn the RFI exceeded expectations and cured the Plague across the globe, as well as leaving 10% of the Conduit population alive.
Then, when everything seemed all well and good, the remaining Conduits were hunted and slaughtered by the military, riots broke out across the country and the world, and factions of both humans and Conduits killed and risked war for the sake of self-righteousness, outdated indentity politics, and petty squabbles over personal freedom and societal order. It was, essentially, what happened to Cole's timeline all over again. Cole, long ago, made a promise that he would save the world through any means necessary. And he would be damned if he was going to sit by and watch the world destroy itself a second time.
