ohhh i wanna hear more about your vendetta against bolin!! i've never seen anyone dislike him and i'm pretty neutral as far as his character goes (I will admit it's been some 2 years since i've rewatched LOK) and i'd love to hear your thoughts
thank you for asking lmfao i think i have made a post touching on this, but i'll happily talk about it again! (tw: SA mention)
my main issue with Bolin is his behavior in S2, specifically towards his co-worker Ginger. in this season, he works as an actor in Varrick's movie, in which he's a hero and his love interest is played by Ginger.
and Bolin, for some stupid reason, gets it into his head that if Ginger's character is the love interest, then that means she's into him in real life too. and Ginger CLEARLY rejects him MULTIPLE TIMES, but this fucking asshole just keeps going after her.
and in a scene where Ginger is TIED UP on set, he kisses her without consent. that is straight up sexual assault, but it's just played for laughs.
what's worse is, later when Bolin saves the day and is an actual hero, yada yada, suddenly Ginger is into him. and so we're led to believe that him kissing her is not a big deal because look! she likes him now.
what pisses me off the most is that 99% of the fandom seems to have forgotten about this incident. and everyone LOVES Bolin. i've seen people say that he's such a sweetheart and a green flag, and that he's better than Mako, and it BAFFLES me.
people remember clearly that Mako cheated on Korra and Asami, but somehow conveniently seem to forget that Bolin SAed a woman. i don't condone either of those things, cheating is a pretty big offense too, but i wouldn't say that it's worse than SA. and i definitely wouldn't call a sexual offender a green flag.
i swear for the longest time, i wondered if i just imagined that whole part about Bolin because of how none of the fans seem to remember it 😭 it's kinda like how the majority of the spop fandom seems to forget or ignore how abusive Catra was.
i think part of the reason is because Bolin was never called out or held accountable for his actions. say what you want about Mako, but at least he didn't get rewarded for his misdeeds. he didn't end up with either of the girls he cheated on, he was called out by multiple characters throughout the show, and he turned into a better person by the end of it.
meanwhile, Bolin's predatory behavior is just played off as a joke. Varrick basically praises Bolin for kissing Ginger, if i remember correctly, and adds it to the script. and later, Ginger fawns all over him, so he basically gets rewarded for assaulting a woman.
and with him working for Kuvira in S4, he does get called out by Mako and Opal but.. idk man. i feel like he should have known better as a grown man, he has no excuse there.
Bolin also let his brother be falsely and unjustly imprisoned because the fame got to his head. it's a lesser offense compared to his other atrocities, but it was still a shitty thing to do.
overall, i just feel like the show AND the fans coddle Bolin too much and conveniently glossy over his shitty actions, while hating on Korra for being a little impulsive or arrogant.
