Why cant bolin metal bend

Updated On October 19th, by Claris Lam: This article has been updated to correct some information that had become out of date since the original version was published. Bolin was insecure about his inability to metal bend, and he never lived up to his hero, Toph Beifong. The poor kid felt even worse about it when Team Avatar visited the metal bender city of Zaofu and watched Korra learn the art.

However, Bolin harnessed the incredible power of lava-bending, despite his self-doubt. He also rose from being an orphan and a robber to being a pro-bender and a hero. Bolin wouldn't believe it at first, but his growth is remarkable.

Just as Suyin says, all you have to do is have faith in yourself and unlock it. Though the brothers both grew up on Republic City's streets and consorted with organized crime to survive, it was Mako who smoothly navigated this world.

However, Bolin couldn't, and he just followed Mako's lead. When he is left alone, Bolin trusts the wrong people and gets involved in serious trouble. Bolin freely admitted in season two that he's bad at reading people, which is a serious drawback when you deal with shady types as part of your livelihood. It also led to him almost ending up in a horrible marriage during the second season, after his initial fiancee mistreated him horribly. Being a pro-bender a fighter in the battle against Amon, and a member of team avatar will take its toll.

Bolin needs some time to relax and recharge, and he's got some odd tastes. One of these funny times resulted in Bolin finding Varrick's purple leather suit and walking around in it for fun. Bolin is quick to blurt out whatever odd thought comes to mind during the most stressful of times, easily diffusing the tension around him. One example of this is during the planning phase of the air-bender rescue mission when he volunteered to confront Zaheer's group, pose as a traveler, and imitate bird calls.

And not to mention that not all benders are the same and they don't have the same capabilities. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Avatar Wiki Explore.

Since it's clearly been established within the consistent metaphysics of the series that talented benders can easily control the internal energy of their elements, instigating phase changes at will, it makes sense that earthbenders would have the ability to manufacture and manipulate molten lava. What doesn't make sense, is why we haven't seen more of them. Just about every waterbender on the show has demonstrated the ability to melt and form ice and snow from their base element.

With that in mind, the ability to melt and manipulate rock should be just as common, so how come we don't see any lavabending until Legend of Korra? It remains one of Avatar 's most nagging unanswered questions. A few savvy fans on Reddit have some intriguing theories about why lavabending might be such a rare art.

What it comes down to is that Toph or the writers, if you wanna get meta believes he has the potential, which kind of settles the matter for me. At some point, if you're willing to dismiss Toph's and therefore the writers' appraisal of Bolin's potential, you should ask why you're so unwilling to believe Bolin could possibly do something that has become as common as metal bending. This isn't an RPG, each character doesn't get a skill tree whereby they pick a 'sub-element' and are stuck with just that element.

Bolin will probably have a very steep learning curve, and will probably need a remarkably insightful teacher to help him, but it doesn't seem unreasonable that he'd eventually learn to metal bend. It doesn't matter what he'd do with it, it doesn't matter whether it'd replace lava in his skill set; just that he could, and whether that would happen. So, getting back to the original question, Team Korra is still young, so I expect it'll be some time before he gets around to it, but I forsee him maybe going to Toph to finally master metal bending.

I have this headcannon in which she shuts him down completely, telling him Korra understands him far better, and should be his teacher which would be great development for Korra, tbh. Which I wish we could get maybe a one or two-episode special on it, I hope we get to see Bolin learn it in the comics.

It should be a hilarious affair. Why aren't people questioning why "Toph says so" is supposed to settle the matter? Toph has never been infallible.