#me to bolin at any given moment: aren't you just tired of being nice? don't you wanna go apeshit?

[wilcze-kudly]

Hi!(Sorry if I ask too many questions, I just have a ton of ideas and no one to discuss them with)

What if Bolin became a villain in Korra season 4?

He has a desire, motives and a personal reason:To help the Earth KingdomHe would start off well, but gradually he would be swallowed by paranoia, a constant desire to control everything (So that everyone would be well) and to keep people safe.

Because of what the Queen did to his family, he does not give power to Prince Wu and therefore creates the "Earth Empire"

And also the scene "Azula in the mirror" could fit into the villain Bolin.

In the mirror he sees his father (Metaphor of Bolin's innocence and kindness) and Bolin saying "Even you will think I'm a monster"

After Su and the twins tried to kill him.

And when San says "No, you're my son Bolin, a little boy"And Bolin in anger, throws an object (associated with fire, personifying the fact that because of the robber firebender, he lost his childhood and parents)

After all, for him to be a "little boy" means to be weak and naive (from season 1 to season 3)

Bonus:

The scene of Azula's nervous breakdown at the end of the series, when she literally has blue flames coming out of her mouth.

Although Bolin did not experience what Azula experienced.

Due to accumulated stress, paranoia and fear, he literally begins to vomit lava from his mouth (Fire + earth: Fire as hatred and anger, earth as stubbornness)

Oh hun you have no idea how in love I am with the concept of Bolin going villain mode. Of course, I think all of the Krew members would make interesting villains, but Bolin especially. Like Mako and Asami have got very good reason to go dark and also would be very interesting and fun villains.

But Bolin is just so... compelling. First off, he's got the tragic backstory, and he's been manipulated and used multiple times and abused at least once, he's probably struggling to find his place in life... all of which are excellent reasons for him to fall off the deep end.

Him playing a more villainous role would be very interesting too because it would be such a heel turn from his sweet bubbly self. I think he'd maintain those traits, but seeing them from the perspective of an opponent would be eerie. Especially that a lot of Bolin's previously comedic quirks, like his expressiveness and his desperation to comnect with people could easily be tweaked into genuinely tragic and disturbing. Just a few tweaks in animation, music and atmosphere could change the scenes of him being awkward and clingy from comedic moments into something much more.

Oh and combatwise he's also fucking terryfying.

Like bendingwise, Bolin is a fucking beast? He's extrenely agile and fast but he still packs a punch, which is especiallg impressive since he's probably mostly self taught. He picks up lavabending incredibly quickly, and it makes him one of the scariest benders in the franchise in my opinion because lavabending is absolutely terrifying. Like it's so op that Bolin was actively nerfed in the comics and made to only use the fucking lava disk.

I imagine the AU you're proposing would have Bolin going along a similar path he did in canon. But where in canon we had Kuvira essentially gaslighting him the whole time (fitting into the pattern set by Shady Shin, Eska, Varrick and Kai of Bolin getting manipulated and used by others for his good intentions), in this AU we would see Bolin gaslighting himself. Which he probably is capable of because I think he does a lot of in order to convince himself that things are fine, that he isn't upset with someone who wronged him, etc. And he does already gaslight himself into believing the Earth Empire is correct in canon.

I actually think Bolin would make a decent dictator?

He's rather charismatic and he knows how to influence massess. I also think he can be decently manipultive at times? I don't think he does it conciously, I'd say it could be a response trained by being in the streets. He learnt that acting a certain way, and saying the right words make people nice and more likely to help him survive or not hurt him and its a survival strategy that followed him out of the streets.

It would also honestly be fun to see him come into his own and genuinely put his foot down. Bolin can be a bit... spineless at times, his stubborn side coming out more with people he's comfortable with.

So seeing him actively giving orders, arguing with political opponents, standing up against Korra and presumably his previous friends and Mako would be a huge evolution for his character. Whether that be evolving for better or for worse, we'll see.

[Everytime I watch Bolin slap Varrick it's free seratonin]

If Bolin had a villain arc, you could actually make some nice parallels between him and Azula, just as you said.

They're both very charismatic people who can manage a crowd, but struggle and become awkward in more intimate settings.

They're both prodigal benders who have mastered an incredibly lethal form of their bending. And yet despite these achievements, they still struggle to find their place in the world, nothing seems to fit. [Because the writers do not love them]

The concept of Bolin having hallucinations of San is interesting, though it would mean that his mental health had deteriorated severely, which is sad.

Though since Bolin looks so much like San it wouldn't be a big stretch for him to look into the mirror and see his late father.

I don't know exactly how Bolin would be able to vomit lava, unless he somehow ingested dirt...? But it is a cool visual and I can see his breakdown incorporating the earth around him cracking into lava.

I think Bolin struggling with his innocence and being perceived as childish is a very good theme, and I am sad that it wasn't explored more. And having Bolin come to resent it and go villain mode is certainly a way to do it . It's a theme I wanna get into more in my own fics lol.

Also the impilcations this AU would have for weilin are... problematic but also wonderful. I feel like Wei would just be trying to murder him all the time tho. Mm kinky lol.