| “ | Maybe I just can't turn my back on people when they're down! | „ |
| ~ Bolin to Mako. |
Bolin is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Asami Sato) of the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra. He is an earthbender in Rebublic City with his brother, Mako, and one of the first people Korra meets when arriving to train with her mentor Tenzin.
His naturally chipper demeanor gave Korra a fast friend in after her move to the city. Through Bolin, Korra and Mako also become fast friends and the three start off as team-mates in Probending, which establishes them as team-mates for stopping various threats Korra must deal with as The Avatar. He is also the boyfriend of Opal Beifong.
He is voiced by P. J. Byrne.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Bolin was born to a multicultural family in Republic City two years after Mako; his father, San, was from the Earth Kingdom, and his mother, Naoki, was from the Fire Nation. Sometime after learning earthbending, Bolin attempted to learn metalbending, inspired by its creator Toph Beifong, but never succeeded. At the young age of six, he lost his parents to a firebending mugger, leaving Mako as his only immediate family. To survive, Bolin was heavily dependent upon his brother who, as the oldest, took on a parental role. To generate some form of income, the brothers initially ran small-time scams on the streets of Republic City during their youth and, for a time, also consorted with the Triple Threat Triad.
The Legend of Korra[]
Eventually, Bolin and his brother founded a pro-bending team, the Fire Ferrets, that would later include Avatar Korra. After the Pro-bending Tournament ended, Bolin joined Team Avatar in an attempt to stop the Equalist organization.
In the following months, Bolin quickly became close friends with the Southern Water Tribe industrialist Varrick and starred in The Adventures of Nuktuk: Hero of the South, a propaganda film series created by Varrick in an attempt to drum up support for the Southern Tribe within Republic City during the Water Tribe Civil War. After reuniting with Team Avatar, Bolin attempted to help his friends stop Chief Unalaq from fusing with Vaatu, the spirit of darkness, during Harmonic Convergence.
A few weeks after Harmonic Convergence, Bolin and his friends traveled around the Earth Kingdom to search for airbenders. At one point, the group had to flee from Ba Sing Se and split up from Tenzin. They continued their search until the Red Lotus attacked Zaofu, at which point they instead worked to combat the anarchist organization, and Bolin learned that he could lavabend.
After bringing down the Red Lotus, Bolin began a relationship with Opal and joined Kuvira in her goal of reuniting the divided Earth Kingdom with military force with the rank of corporal, believing it gave him the opportunity to help others. He eventually realized, however, that there was a darker side to the army's actions, which prompted him to desert, though he was apprehended. However, he managed to escape with Varrick, leaving the army to believe they were dead for a while, and rejoined Team Avatar in Republic City to help them defeat Kuvira, while rebuilding his relationship with Opal.
Personality[]
Despite his tough childhood on the street, Bolin is still a laid-back and fun-loving person and possesses a good sense of humor, in contrast to his older brother Mako. He is also expressive, naive, high-spirited, enthusiastic, and comfortable in his own skin. At the same time, he is not without insecurities, having a degree of sensitivity over his inability to perform metalbending. According to Mako, he has a "knack" for getting himself into trouble. He is typically an optimist and enjoys the attention he receives from his fangirls, though he is a novice in the world of dating. Bolin affirms that he is strong, fun, and attractive, though readily admits he is not good at reading other people. Bolin is also not the best at keeping secrets, as he accidentally blabbed to Asami about Mako and Korra's kiss while she was still dating his brother.
His naive and immature personality is attributed to his past, as Mako attempted to shield him from the harsh realities of the world after their parents were murdered.Despite differences between Mako's personality and his own, Bolin shares a close bond with his brother. However, he lacks the firebender's confidence, which leaves him to often doubt his own abilities, needing to be reassured by others, though throughout his travels in the Earth Kingdom, Bolin does develop a greater self-confidence. He can also get starstruck when in the presence of powerful or famous figures, such as Korra, Lord Zuko, and Toph. Despite such nervousness, he is always respectful and deferential.
Although helpful and friendly, Bolin is also protective of the people about whom he cares and will spring to the defense of his friends and family. A prime example of this would be when he rode in on Naga to Asami's rescue at the Equalist airfield, employing ferocious and brutal earthbending attacks on Hiroshi Sato, who was about to kill her with his mecha tank. On the other hand, Bolin is generally forgiving of others, even if they have wronged him or those he cares about, such as Korra, Varrick, or Eska.
Bolin is an optimist, always motivated by a strong desire to help people and make their lives better. When the Earth Kingdom fell into chaos, he joined Kuvira and her army, believing she wanted to help others as much as he did. As a result, his idealism and naivete prevented him from second guessing the extreme lengths Kuvira would go to in order to achieve their goals, until they were pointed out to him.
Abilities[]
Earthbending[]
As the earthbender for an official pro-bending team, Bolin has become highly skilled in the art of earthbending. Bolin describes his earthbending style as "light on his feet", being more agile and less reliant to being rooted to the ground as opposed to conventional earthbending. Despite this, Bolin also employs traditional earthbending outside of matches, lifting boulders and summoning earth walls, as well as employing brute strength to help the Beifong sisters topple a building, albeit with noticeable strain. He can also hold his own against multiple opponents, as evidenced when he took down three waterbenders in tandem, using the small discs available in the Pro-bending Arena.
Bolin also possesses a sharp aim, being able to direct an earth disc at the exact angle to make it ricochet off a guard rail and squarely strike an opposing player. His fine control and aim is of such skill that he can bend a tiny pebble and strike P'Li's third eye or fire small chunks of earth in rapid succession to take down a speeding motorcycle.
Bolin is able to sandbend, having recently begun to develop this skill.
Lavabending[]
Bolin created a large stream of lava with ease.
Although Bolin discovered by accident that he had the rare ability to bend lava, he was able from the start to quickly stop an oncoming flow of the heated substance. Shortly afterward, despite being an amateur, Bolin proved himself able to phase change the earth between both states and manipulate it in battle. During his second fight with Ghazan, Bolin was able to hold his own using this skill against the more experienced lavabender. At first, he used a range of pro-bending tactics in his combat against Ghazan. As the battle continued, he used more traditional earthbending tactics, incorporating them into his lavabending. By the fourth season, his proficiency in lavabending had improved to the point that he could create larger streams of lava that stretched much further and even use it while being handcuffed. He also demonstrated the ability to lavabend with his feet and is able to turn lava back into earth much quicker and with less effort, while also being able to create large waves of molten rock. Bolin can also manipulate and maintain lava in a disc shape and rotated it at high speeds to cut through metal.
Other skills[]
Bolin is agile, as he was able to dodge the Dai Li's attack in attempt to escape the Earth Queen's Temple, and also has some skill in wrestling and grappling, which he utilized during his one-on-one tiebreaker match with an experienced Black Quarry Boar-q-pine earthbending opponent. He also has a degree of resilience to pain, as during his semifinal pro-bending match, he was able to continue fighting despite being hit in his right shoulder by an earth disk. Bolin has also proven himself to be a good swimmer, capable of holding his breath for a significant period of time while simultaneously dodging Ghazan's lavabending attacks.
Bolin has a strong business sense, as has been noted by both Asami and Varrick, and is a talented and charismatic public speaker, able to draw huge positive reactions from crowds. Varrick decided to exploit this ability by casting Bolin as the star of his propaganda films, making him the poster boy of the Southern rebellion. These skills also helped Bolin in his job as a presidential aide, charming visitors and smoothing political inroads for Zhu Li.
Bolin was able to figure out how to pilot an airship, albeit with some difficulty, and has a close relationship with his pet fire ferret, Pabu, to whom he could give various commands
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Bolin on the Avatar Wiki
- Bolin on the Shonen Heroes Wiki
