Sorry if this is a stupid question but I genuinely want to find out.
Why does Bojack keep doing bad stuff when he seems (in most cases at least) to not actively want to cause any harm?
Like is it because he never thinks anything through? I had a friend very similar to Bojack, and they kept saying mean shit, but to them it was just “being sincere” and to them it felt like having to filter or think through every single thing they say in order to not be an asshole would take a lot of effort. So maybe it’s like that for Bojack, just automatically doing bad things because he acts on impulses and it’s basically natural to him?
I’d really like to hear what you guys think
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Trauma
Trauma and addiction if we want to cut it down to just 2 words.
It’s my belief the addiction stems from the trauma, so one word was sufficient.
His experience of being parented, fame, addiction, being selfish, being an imperfect human. Amongst other things
they basically explained this with gina’s song and dance sequence in the fifth season, though it’s all coated in metaphor so you might not have noticed. the big line is “spun by forces you don’t understand”: bojack is in the midst of intense emotional turmoil constantly but he doesnt know why because he’s never done therapy or done anything to uncover why he behaves the way he does. when you get hurt a lot, when you’re a kid especially, your brain starts to develop behavioral defense mechanisms that are usually not helpful once you’re out of harm’s way, and if you don’t know that that’s happening it can seem like you’re just behaving erratically against your better judgement
Man that was a great scene. Don’t stop dancing…
A lot of the time is impulsivity but also there’s times where he wanted to do good but ended up backfiring awfully like when they tried to record that Nixon scene or when he tried to get Ed to fly again for example. Or it ends up in a misunderstanding like when he attempted to apologize to Kelsey
Id like to point out that most of the things Bojack does “right” make assumptions about other characters that Bojack has no right to assume.
The Nixon scene he was so sure he could convince whoever he needed to convince (I forget, Turtletaub?) that he ignored being told no and did it anyways, crossing a clear boundary.
Eddie’s flying was a clear trauma issue that Bojack is not qualified to handle (even if he had Eddie’s consent to do so) and was told very clearly that Eddie didn’t fly. It was maybe less invasive because he didn’t directly push Eddie but he put him in a scenario where he would fly, a direct crossing of Eddie’s boundaries
To add to that, Bojack and Sarah Lynn went to see Penny because Bojack wanted to see how she was handling things, not because he wanted to offer any sort of apology or closure to Penny. Same deal with Sarah Lynn going on the bender in the first place, letting Todd stay at his place, etc etc. Bojack has shown a clear pattern of assuming he knows best for everyone else and making the decisions in contradiction to their boundaries
is he stupid?
I actually think this is a great, thoughtful question.
A lot of people even in this sub will just say “Bojack is a bad person” and I think they are missing the entire point of the show.
Bojack is dealing trauma. The trauma is generational and deeply affects his daily life. We get glimpses into his mind throughout the show and it is not pretty. The “stupid piece of shit” monologue is only one episode but the show makes it clear that that’s how his brain works all the time.
Almost every bad thing Bojack does is in search of relief from that negative, awful chatter. He just constantly does so in bad ways. Namely through drugs and alcohol. And mixing that all together makes for some extremely bad decision making. I think Bojack’s self loathing also “gives him permission” to do bad things, and sometimes I think he does bad things because he hates himself and thinks “this is what a shitty person would do.”
The show’s greatest achievement imo is presenting all of this and showing Bojack as a character in pain and as a vulnerable human, but also making it extremely clear that this does not make it okay that he does what he does. He’s not given permission or even necessarily forgiven. It can be understood but not condoned. He is a victim in many ways and hurt people hurt people, but it doesn’t give him the right or make it okay to be shitty. He still has to do better.
Bojack did bad things??
This is 100% my personal opinion so please take it with a grain of salt.
I think the biggest reason why BoJack keeps on doing bad things and pushing people away and not trying to get better for the majority of the show, is because he doesn’t believe he can. He thinks he’s a terrible person who’s done so many awful things that even trying to redeem himself is a waste of time, and he’s already so deep in his own hole, there’s no point of trying to dig himself out anymore. That is what I continually felt as I watched the show, especially through the later half. It was a feeling I have a little bit of my own experience with.
That said, I think this is a fascinating question that’s fairly open to interpretation and there aren’t really any wrong answers. BoJack is a complex character in a show filled with them, I think there’s a multitude of reasons and factors for why he is the person he is and why he made the choices he did.