I've noticed in the course of discussion about Bojack Horseman a certain reappearing misconception. That is that Bojack is about how "meaningless and terrible" life is. They point to money, fame, sexual exploits & professional success of the main character and say "even all that doesn't change the fact that life is still empty and cruel!" It is a shallow & ignorant interpretation that I hope to set right.
What's important to understand is that Bojack is a paradoxical creature. He despises his fellow man, yet yearns for their approbation. He is convinced his intelligence makes him superior, yet simultaneously considers it a curse because he cannot comprehend & obtain lasting contentment the way others seem to do effortlessly. Bojack's dissatisfaction stems from himself. Not from any cruelness inherent in existence, but from the way he pathologically keeps his desires beyond his reach. While he believes that he is someone who simply accepts the cold indifference of existence exactly how it is; in actuality he is perpetually unhappy because he refuses to come to terms with reality. Bojack refuses to be satisfied unless he can eat his cake and have it too. He accepts nothing less than his idealized fantasies and becomes depressed when he invariably finds that putting his dreams into action necessitates some degradation of the ideal.
Bj's foil is his old girlfriend who finds contentment; not with success, money, fame or exploits, but with simplicity. She has no grand ambitions to torment her. Bojack rejected that life and lives in a hell of unsatisfied desires. The moral of Bojack is not that "life is uncaring, worthless & nothing matters" or that "you can never fill that void inside of you no matter how hard you try." It's that "life is what you make of it".
There's more to be said about influence of Hollywoo on the inner wellbeing of the characters. It's no coincidence for instances that the one character wholly satisfied with life did so by leaving the city.
DUDE ENTRY LEVEL EXISTENTIALISM USING CARTOON AS A VEHICLE LOL
The choice of "Hollywoo" as the setting reveals a lot about the intentions of the creators. Hollywood is synonymous with movies, TV & ultimately fantasies. There's an 'unrealness' which is important to consider. It's a place where dreams are manufactured & sold, and the characters who inhabit it are all in one way or another there to go after dreams. What they find is that they've only pinned their happiness on a vapor. Something unreal, fleeting & intangible. Bojack's dreams as mentioned above come down to a desire for the external world to validate his own inner self image.
Diane dreams about doing good. About righting wrongs & helping the disadvantaged. She pictures herself as a caring individual & desires an opportunity to prove it. Ultimately she comes to find that her conceptions about what being a 'good person' entailed were entirely self serving. With her fantasies deflated by reality she lapses into depression like Bojack.
Mr. Peanutbutter on the other hand is not overtly depressed. He is characterized by his unflagging high spirits, affability & optimism. But his happiness is shallow & facile. He admits that he sees no meaning in life & is only distracting himself through constant action. Unlike the other two his fantasies change so often they never lose novelty, before he can become disillusioned he has already moved on. But he too would find himself like the others if his perpetual action were to come to a halt.
Princess Carolina is so driven by her professional aspirations that she becomes blind to reality. Her relationship with Vince Adultman is emblematic of his. She loses sight of everything that isn't related to her work. Even the obvious fact of Vince's true identity. There is also something to be said of her animosity with her perpetual superior Vanessa Gecko. She resents that there exists someone better/more successful and it torments her.
>>69753962
That's definitely a valid interpretation, but that doesn't stop the fact that life us uncaring, worthless, and nothing matters, and that the show is apt at showing this.
>>69753980
Goddamn posts like these are so goddamn worthless.
>>69754101
>but that doesn't stop the fact that life us uncaring, worthless, and nothing matters
The entire point of Charlotte's character is to debunk this notion. She exists to show that there was always an alternative for Bojack that he WILLINGLY rejected.
>>69754351
It can't be debunked though. The only reason we exist at all is because the Earth just happened to be the right distance away from the sun, that Thea just so happened to crash into the earth 4 billion some years ago, etc. My friend's mother died of cancer last year thanks to the fact that the nature of death by sickness is uncaring. This universe gives no fucks about us, and it is indeed up to us to try and be happy with the opportunities presented to us, to pretend to be happy like Mr. Peanutbutter, (which isn't really all that different from being regular happy), or get wrapped in depression and die.
>>69754523
>>69754351
So yes, life is what we make of it but that doesn't change the fact that the universe does not care for us and that shit just happens without rhyme or reason.
>>69754101
>that doesn't stop the fact that life us uncaring, worthless, and nothing matters, and that the show is apt at showing this.
I would disagree. I think if anything the show ultimately shows that an unhealthy balance of work goals and a social life is a recipe for disaster. His vision of a simple life in Maine in season one and the evidence that it can be realistically attainable with his trip to Santa Fe in season two are proof of this. Life was fine in New Mexico until Bojack showed up and poisoned it with his toxic presence. Instead of learning from the people that welcomed him in and changing himself he perverts the situation and takes the whole ship (I swear I didn't mean that as a pun) down with him.
I think the show is saying happiness is attainable, it's just that Bojack is poison and unable to accept it even when it's presented to him.
>>69754569
>I think the show is saying happiness is attainable
I agree completely. Everyone has the chance to be happy. Some greater than others, like Bojack who squandered his opportunities. My initial point was that that doesn't stop the world from being an uncaring mechanism.
>>69754523
You're missing the forest for the trees by inserting your own preconceived notions of existentialism into your interpretation.
>>69754696
That's a pretty pessimistic take on something that could and probably should be taken as a Ebenezer Scrooge-style lesson about the value of a positive and balanced outlook on life and the dangers of apathy. You're starting to sound like a real Zelda, you know that?
>>69754569
>>I think the show is saying happiness is attainable
I think Bojack brings his toxic presence but not intentionally. Bojack could have had a family and a nice simple life in Maine as he imagined, but Bojack doesn't just want that. He also want's the fame, he wants others to validate him in the form of his talent, and in some ways even wants to be the tortured artist. The main problem with Bojack is that he has goals that directly contradict each other, and he is unable to settle for one or the other. This keeps him in a loop of perpetual unsatisfaction
Op why would u waste words on this shitty excuse for a show?
>>69756380
It's not a shitty show. It's okay not to like it, but don't shit on discussions that are actually trying to discuss things and not just saying "CapeKino" "CapeShit"
>tfw no messy Diane gf
>>69755140
>>>>>>>>/tv/
>>69754928
And you're Mr peanutbutter
>>69757280
I was almost disappointed at how easily Mr. Peanutbutter accepted Diane back at the end of S2. It's definitely in-character but it didn't feel like it had enough weight to it.
>>69754928
Sup Mr. Peanutbutter.
Mr. Peanutbutter is my waifu
Good thread OP
>>69757517
It's a repost
Just how big is BoJack's horse cock?
>>69754078
>>69753962
*Hollywood :^)
>>69757561
Everything is
>>69753962
Wait which "old girlfriend" are you referring to?
>>69758083
Not him, but princess caroline
