ugh, why do I do this to myself...
My position is basically supported by every other moment he has been on screen. If he was really a kid or whatever he would've been demonstrating that from the first episode. He hasn't, he's been characterized as a somewhat cocky and confident comic relief character, he isn't going to revert to nothing short of mental retardation when posed with a moral quandary. And yeah, you are calling him a kid in basically every way possibly. Every other post makes reference to his 8 or 5 year old mindset or the fact that he doesn't think like your or me because he's a kid. You've basically said in every way possible that he has the mind of a child.
To be a child in one way is not to be a child in another. One can be vastly ignorant of social norms, but teach Godel's incompleteness theorum with no trouble. I vaguely recall this one mathematical genius would regularly get lost on his way to his own rooms, even though he's lived in a place for months. Yet his mathematical prowess was legendary. Was he a genius or an idiot? My suggestion is that he is ignorant of how dark things can get in the world. He hasn't experienced it enough because his brother protected him. You'd be amazed at how little people can know just from simple lack of experience with something. But how can that be? That's why he is not a retard, yet be this profoundly ignorant. Well, lets take it from the top.
he's lived on the streets
This confirms he was poor, nothing else.
his brother worked for the gangs
And I'm sure he would have brought home plenty of stories to share about that. Also, remember, according to him, he just ran numbers for them, he didn't torture a guy with firebending or anything.
every other character in the series knows about the gangs and what they do,
There is knowing, and there's knowing. Intellectually, he probably knows what they do, but he doesn't fully comprehend it. The same way you can't really fully comprehend what it's like to fall from the sky, feeling the wind blast your face. Or ice skate, despite knowing the general physics that would allow you to push forward. Or sex. If you read about enough and know all the techniques intellectually, does that mean you already know the experience of sex without ever having it? This is the same thing here. He knows they do things like extort money, but his brother has been explicitly stated to protect him from this sort of stuff, so he doesn't have personal experience with it.
he personally knows people who work for the gangs, he's aware of people in general who work for the gangs, he knows specifically what the gangs together are referred to as
These can be droplets of information that he learned by observing his brother whenever his work came home that mako couldn't catch. He never really saw the dirty business done first hand, but he learned a few faces. It'd have been impossible to fully protect him.
he has to be reassured by someone who works for the gangs that a job he's being offered isn't illegal.
Again, there's knowing and there's knowing whats going on. He knows intellectually that it's illegal, but that doesn't mean he comprehends what it fully means. Extortion, drugs, death, that's just a vague and distant thing that he doesn't fully realize.
You're telling me, all that considered, it's inappropriate to assume Bolin knows full well what the gangs are? Are you kidding me?
No, I never said that. Just that all that is can be circumstantial and explained by Mako's job. On the other hand, the indication that he seems to see Mako as the Authority of moral matters and doesn't think for himself, can't be as easily explained. If he is like you say, much more savvy of whats going on, then the way he acted there is none the less a strange lapse in his own agency and strange acting overall concerning the money.
I never said it was illegal, only morally questionable if you're the one working for them of your own choice. Yeah, you can deny service (though that opens a whole can of worms about retribution and such) but you're still ignoring the distinction between getting a good job under the assumption that you're doing honest work as opposed to choosing to work for a gang that does illegal stuff all the time.
If you are a waiter, and you see a criminal walk in, and are told to serve him, then you are in the exact same position that Bolin is in. You have the criminal in front of you, he wants a service, and you can accept or refuse him. If you don't, someone else probably will, and you won't get paid. So, if Bolin is wrong for taking the job that he is told is not connected with any illegal activity, so is the waiter, which is a ridiculous notion to me. There is nothing wrong with doing a legal job, for anyone. It's a bad idea to get yourself mixed with criminals because it's dangerous, but you are not doing a morally wrong action.
And this is the biggest hole for me with your argument, Generic. Your interpretation of that scene runs counter to everything we knew about him up till that point, and nothing about that scene required a radical reinterpretation of Bolin as a moron.
You guys never seen anyone who is incredibly capable in many areas, but horribly failing in one in some way? Or otherwise seems really dumb but is really capable in some other line of thinking? Intelligence often isn't that clear cut, where someone is evenly capable in all areas. This could be a good example of that. Bolin isn't a moron, but he is sheltered by his brother. That alone can explain why he'd know so much about gangs, yet so little about what they do. Mako could hide the bloody details from him. This is the first and only time we've seen him in a moral dilemna and concerning gangs. We need to see how he acts in several situations, but this is one path they can potentially take. That's all I'm saying. Like i said, I don't think we have enough to go on to know for sure just yet.
