Bojack Horseman rant

- Bojack Horseman Rant -

(WARNING, SPOILERS - & TW MENTIONS OF PEDOPHILIA & ADDICTION)

Bojack Horseman as a character and maybe even the show as a whole, despite being one of my favorites, is very obviously problematic. 

Within this show they tackle some very harsh subjects that you usually don't see displayed so prominently in any popular media, and although the formatting of the show is consistently satirical, and presents a lot of these heavy subjects in an almost unserious manner, ultimately in my opinion I still think they went about it a lot better than most, more realistically,  and did some really good things with their portrayal of Some of these issues. 

4 example, their constant Heavily self-aware jabs at the film industry and Hollywood, their portrayal of addiction from many different views through a multitude of different characters, and their close ups of many different kinds of relationships, good and bad, familial, romantic, and or sexual. I feel they conveyed these things in a very realistic, relatable manner, and went into a lot more detail than you'd usually see. 

Aside from those things though, there were certain subjects that I feel that were displayed harmfully, that the satirical format was wrong for. For example; grooming/pedophilia in Bojack horseman. 

Although there is the obvious cases of Penny Carson and Sarah Lynn, which I will not dismiss as any better or worse than what I'm talking about (and will probably talk about later), I'm here today to talk about Princess Carolyn. 

for some background information, PC is a central character in this show, and had what is in my opinion one of the most interesting character developments in the entire show. She comes from a hard place, with an alcoholic mother whom she took care of, and went from there to go to college and build herself up to everything from absolutely nothing. She has an immeasurable desire to succeed, which quickly drags her to the top, but also often skews her perception on reality in relation to other people and the effects her actions leave. Her morals are forgotten on her road to success.

Living within her skewed reality, she makes a string of horrible decisions with detrimental consequences for many people. Such as fellow women in her industry, her clients, her friends, her partners, and women everywhere when she would go out of her way to promote people to the public who she knew had done horrible things to women, giving them a platform regardless. She's very quick to keep things hush hush and protect terrible men in power if it is in the best interest of her career, no matter who it hurts, through this she makes it very clear she does not Actually care about victims. Or at the very least, she values her career More.

That's why I was almost not even surprised, only disappointed to see PC start talking to Vincent, seemingly in the moment in spite of Bojack. Because regardless of how obvious it was he was 3 small boys in a trench coat, its, through her eyes in her best interest in that moment to have another partner, to be able to show Bojack she does not care anymore.

 The show goes on to treat their entire tryst as a joke. Their capitalizing on bojacks bad actions throughout the show does make it a little harder to see where the other characters are going wrong sometimes, yes. But here the show doesn't even barely acknowledge shes doing anything wrong at all. Not her, not her friends, not anyone around them in the very public settings they're constantly in, just Bojack. 

And even then its only in quick quips and short angry comments in relation to other issues he has with her.  

I think it was incredibly irresponsible to try and depict pedophilia as a joke, as satirical, as a bit. Especially if you look at PC and Vincents situation without that joking lense. Shes 40, grooming not 1 but 3 different little boys, putting him in serious adult situations, and discussing serious adult topics with him. These little boys are portrayed to be no older than 5-10 years old, so there is absolutely no way she could've mistaken them for otherwise, and even then as an adult its her responsibility to know the age of anyone shes pursuing. 

This is actually fucking disgusting, and the way they protray it as just a joke only makes it easier to ignore in PCs case, and then with that you have the slew of people putting her character up on a pedestal and focusing on how relatable she is, while throwing her faults, even if they're life ruining down the drain. 

and all of that is not even mentioning how cruel these types of "jokes" are to the many Many cases of CSA in Real Life that are heavily under reported, especially with little boys.

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This is an essay I've wanted 2 write for a while and might go and do a part2 even. I see a MASSIVE amount of discourse and discussion surrounding Bojack horseman but I little to no remarks about the displays of pedophilia beyond penny and I really did feel that was unjust, as there is so much more to discuss and criticize in that area of the show despite it being a very uncomfortable subject. 

An incorrect, and or satirical portrayal of victims can be very harmful.

If you've made it this far though,  thank you!!!! so so much 4 reading!!!! And please do feel free to comment your opinions and feelings on this, I would love to hear more outside input!!!!

-Rotted Bunnii !!