Some people may have branded Bolin as the typical comic relief, but there are so many layers to the character that the show wasn't able to fully realize. From his inner struggles with his style of bending to his refreshing naivete, here are just some of the most though-provoking opinions that fans have come up with regarding our favorite "Hero of the South".
I also think that Bolin shows restraint where Ghazan showed no restraint, no consideration for those around him. Bolin is out to defeat his opponents, not to kill or destroy them, the sign of a true master. This is why Bolin's use of lavabending may seem weaker than Ghazan's: he's more calculating and considering of his actions. But damn is he one powerful bender now. All those people looked at him like some sort of Lava Avatar.
Bolin had the potential to be one of the best written characters in LoK.
I've gone back and fourth on hating and loving Legend of Korra. After a bit of mulling it over, I can finally say that I like the show but it will always be something I watch once in a blue moon while skipping through the less interesting tidbits. My biggest undying pet peeve will always be Bolin and by extension bending in Korra in general.
Lavabending is awesome. Its 100% my favorite bending art in the series and should have been to Bolin as metalbending was to Toph but with less "I'm the best ever and Imma bend this metal partly to escape but mostly to prove that I can" and more of a coming-into-his-own moment. My thoughts are that he trained with a waterbender and his bending style is noted as abnormal for an earthbender, lighter on his feet than most. How I see his story going is his inferiority complex flaring up in season two: Korra goes on to save the world, Mako becoming a cop, Asami running a company and his only major accomplishment by season's end is accidentally creating war propaganda. He takes a hit to his already bruised ego from being constantly compared to his brother, so his attempts and subsequent failures at metalbending only make it worse. Then, when he sees Ghazan lavabending, he starts trying to match his motions, using sand as a fluid enough substitute for lava until we get the reveal in the air temple.
Bolin should be the determinator, constantly getting knocked down by life but through hard work and thinking outside the box he gets rewarded in creative ways. Instead we get a Bolin who just lucked into lavabending for REASONS.
Just look at him. If he wants, he could have taken out all those Empire soldiers and their robots single-handedly by drowning them in lava. This is something Korra can't do (now, or ever before).
Why doesn't just Bolin use lavabending evey time he gets in a dangerous fight?
Despite his goofiness, Bolin is probably the most accomplished member of Team Avatar II.
Not only did he help Korra save the world a few times, he was also the world's first movie (mover) star and he was one of the most important agents of reestructuring the Earth Kingdom--sure Kuvira later went bad but for three years, they stopped the state of emergency. I imagine him being the most famous non-Avatar or ruler of his time.
I don't know why people insist on casting Bolin as a kind of failed Sokka replacement. The 'wise-cracking' sidekick or the 'funny guy' in the group archetype didn't start with Sokka.
When you're writing a group of characters, you balance personalities. You can't have all the characters be totally earnest all the time. If a bunch of your characters are usually pretty serious, you throw in a comic-relief character to balance things out.
When people say that Bolin is the 'Sokka of LOK' it just betrays that they're only capable of viewing LOK through the lens of ATLA.
