History Characters / BojackHorsemanTheHorsemanFamily

These three characters are the most prominently featured (biological) relatives of [[Characters/BojackHorsemanMainCharacters Bojack Horseman]] on this show. For other people who are (technically) part of their family, please see [[Characters/BojackHorsemanTheMainGroupFamilyMembers Main Characters' Family Members]].
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[[folder:Beatrice Horseman]]
!!!'''Beatrice Elizabeth Horseman (née Sugarman)'''
[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sin_ttulo_5.png]]
[[caption-width-right:210:"[[OneBadMother Don't sit too close to the T.V. It'll make you cruel]].]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote: In her old age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/39f1f27b_526e_4e98_8af5_549f56ba54d4.png]][[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:In her middle age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ee1f6947_3468_4bf3_add5_aede5f64d9d3.png]][[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26f8b54d_20c1_4e9e_bf4c_8bf1926c3952.png]][[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a child]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/797d01ab_8fec_49bb_a097_1a5fc8c9c874.png]][[/labelnote]]




->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/WendieMalick
->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E02BojackHatesTheTroops "[=BoJack=] Hates The Troops"]]\\

-->''"Here's your omelette. I'm sorry it's not as good as the omelets your secretary makes, but then you're not married to your secretary, are you?"''\\\

[=BoJack=]'s mother. A wealthy heiress who, along with [=BoJack=]'s father, is much of the reason that [=BoJack=] is so screwed up.
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* AbusiveMom: She was dismissive, manipulative, and even violent towards young [=BoJack=]. This continues even into his adulthood, with her dismissing him as a "clown" and openly blaming him for ruining her life by the mere fact of his birth. [=BoJack=] even claimed that she tried to drown him in a bathtub when he was ''22''.
* AccidentalMisnaming: In Season 4, due to her dementia she constantly refers to [=BoJack=] as "Henrietta", which is the name of her former maid.
* AffectionateNickname: Hollyhock calls her "Grammy Gram".
* AgeAppropriateAngst: "Time's Arrow" reveals the catalyst for her lifelong misery turned out to be a traumatic childhood memory involving [[spoiler:her father burning all her things due to her scarlet fever, including her " baby" doll, right in front of her.]]
* AlcoholicParent: She consumed alcohol as much as her precious smokes to cope with her misery, which proved to be a bad influence on [=BoJack=].
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Part of what initially drew her to Butterscotch was his rugged good looks, disregard for high society niceties, and rebellious disregard for authority. He did crash her debutante ball, after all.
* AmnesiacsAreInnocent: Losing her memories due to senile dementia has allowed Beatrice to show a kinder, less toxic side of her; she's at worst snarky during [=BoJack=]'s and Hollyhock's visit and never reaches the levels of cruel condescension she usually showed to [=BoJack=].
* AnalogyBackfire: When an adult [=BoJack=] reasonably asks why she and Butterscotch don't just divorce, she snarls that that may be the Hollywood way, and rattles off a few examples of frivolous divorces... only to stumble on a good reason.
-->'''[=BoJack=]:''' I don't understand why you two don't just get a divorce.\\
'''Beatrice:''' Oh, sure, that's the Hollywood way! "We're out of mustard. Let's get a divorce!" "I'm a little sad. Divorce!" "We've grown apart over the years and our adult child has moved out out of the house and there's no reason for us to stay together. Divorce!"\\
'''[=BoJack=]:''' [[LampshadeHanging That actually is a legitimate reason to get a divorce.]]
* AntiVillain: Chronologically, she goes from the beloved daughter of a rich family to a TragicVillain after a rough life. Series-wise, she starts off as an unsympathetic [[AbusiveParents Abusive Mom]] before flashbacks contextualizing her actions and personality make her a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. None of her terrible experiences are used to condone any of her actions, they just explain why she ended up that way.
* ArchEnemy: To Clemelia Bloodsworth. From an early age, neither girl liked each other with Clemelia frequently antagonizing Beatrice during playground hours and Beatrice eventually responding in kind as grown-ups. She represents everything Beatrice is not and hates about her peers (and what she eventually becomes).
* AscendedExtra: While she was an important character in the first three seasons, she only appeared in a spare amount of episodes via flashbacks and only made one present appearance in season 2. In season 4, Beatrice's screen-time increases.
* BabyFactory: Her father Joseph expected her to marry a "good man from Columbia" during her college years, tried to marry her off, and discouraged her reading time arguing brain function "takes away from breasts and hips". She's not keen in becoming elite "breeding livestock", so she proceeds to rebel in any way she can - which ends up leading to an unexpected pregnancy and a miserable marriage.
* BeautyIsBad: Falls into this With her blonde, luscious braids, fine upper crust heritage and remarkable cadence in her voice. Even in old age, she's still willing to stroke her ego by keeping herself as good looking as possible. She's still a terrible person and abusive mother.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: As a young mare, she openly disparaged the vacuous, snobby, image-obsessed IdleRich lifestyle she was born into. After eloping with Butterscotch and getting a taste the commoner's life she once romanticized, she found she couldn't cope without the luxuries she was accustomed to and ''couldn't wait'' to get it back.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: After eloping with Butterscotch, Beatrice learned the hard way that living in poverty wasn't as fun as reading about it. The once fierce activist determined to overthrow the "garish" disparity of wealth in the country couldn't ''wait'' to get her husband to accept a corner office job in her father's company so she could get back the IdleRich lifestyle she once denounced.
* BelatedBackstory: While hints are given of Beatrice's past, including links to Sugarman Sugar and her deep resentment being rooted in a bad life, the full story is not given until season 4, where her life story runs back-to-back with [=BoJack=]'s present to highlight and contrast both.
* BerserkButton:
** Every reminder of her previous life before becoming a housewife just sets her off.
** Don't wear informal clothing in a theatre or demand anything from her in any way or form that seems disrespectful. She won't let you hear the end of it.
* BettyAndVeronica: The "Archie" for Butterscotch's rogue, bad boyish "Veronica" and Corbin Creamerman's friendly, nervous "Betty". She chooses Butterscotch because he got her pregnant and regrets it dearly.
* BlueBlood: Daughter of one of the most well-heeled families. She loses her riches after marrying a commoner.
* BondingOverMissingParents: She and Butterscotch bonded over lost mothers; a lobotomy in her case and death in the latter's.
* {{Bookworm}}: Almost every flashback in Time’s Arrow shows her with a book (from early childhood all the way into her geriatric years), even though she was discouraged from reading for being a girl. When her father sent her to college for her MRSDegree, she got an actual Bachelors degree instead. Part of what drew her to Butterscotch in the first place was that he was an aspiring novelist.
* BourgeoisBumpkin: She grew up rich and lost most of her luxuries upon marrying Butterscotch. She quickly soured on the bohemian lifestyle she and Butterscotch romanticized and pushed him to get a cushy office job at the family company. This got some of her privilege back, but she still resents him for it and mourns how far she'd fallen.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: To Joseph in her young adult years. She returned from college a young and beautiful liberal who found her old lifestyle trivial. When Joseph tries to force her to fit in again during her debutante ball, she lashes out, questioning everything about his old fashioned advertising, callousness about selling her as a honorary BabyFactory through a thinly veiled ArrangedMarriage and his elitist condescendence. His frustrated resignation implies this isn't the first time they've had this conversation.
* BrokenAce: An intelligent woman with enough opportunities in life, a whiplash of a wit and unexploited talent...[[spoiler:whose past involved coming face to face with the institutionalized misogyny of society in the treatment and fall of her mother, the death of her brother and the knowledge that her worst enemy came in the form of one of her parents; then, her life back on track derailed by an unexpected pregnancy, an unhappy marriage with a deluded, prideful man she eventually came to despise as well as her offspring, resulting in the biggest disgrace of all; being cuckolded with the maid, resulting in yet another pregnancy.]]
* BrokenHero: Subverted. Beatrice tried to break away from her chains and remain a somewhat decent person in spite of her traumas. As history proves, she failed spectacularly.
* BurnBabyBurn: [[spoiler:Beatrice's toys, including her baby doll, her most beloved possession, were burned in her bedroom's fireplace to keep quarantine on her scarlet fever. Her traumatic memories of it melting in the fire and her father's callousness toward her feelings of despair led Beatrice to refuse to abort [=BoJack=].]]
* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: At Butterscotch's funeral, all she said was, "My husband is dead, and everything is worse now." [=BoJack=] isn't sure if it's because of TheMasochismTango they formed, or if it's because Butterscotch left her so much debt on his death that she had to sell the house and move into a retirement home.
* CerebusRetcon: Her awful personality is shaped by [[spoiler:her mother getting a lobotomy after the death of her brother in World War II, and her father cheerfully threatening to do the same to her if she ever let her "womanly emotions" get the better of her too.]]
* CheerfulChild: During her [[TheForties 1940s]] childhood. She doesn't [[BreakTheCutie get to keep it for long]].
* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler:A combination of old age and dementia take their toll in Season 5, ultimately claiming Beatrice's life at the age of eighty.]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Beatrice has gone through a rather (ungrateful) journey.
** Starting as a filly, Beatrice was innocent, though naïve and trusting of her peers' better judgement such as her father' retrograde thinking and her mother's acceptance of it. Once her brother [=CrackerJack=] dies and Honey is lobotomized , Beatrice's perfect world is destroyed and is exposed to the cruelness of the world, in addition to being left in the care of Joseph, the root of her predicament.
** As a debutante, Bea's knowledge of the world has expanded and has now acquired much needed sarcasm to deal with the idiocy of her world, hoping for something better. In spite of this better self, she's not above stupid impulses and it's the suppression of these and desire to rebel which makes her possible future crumble.
** As a housewife, she has discarded much of her previously held idealism and is an elitist at heart with supreme bitterness to bring down whoever decides to remind her of her rotten luck. Concerned with wealth whereas she had previously rejected, she obsesses over what could have been if she had chosen a different life.
** As an elder, she's slowly falling apart and regretful of most of her actions even if she can't admit to herself or others. In trying to make amends, she reveals herself to be utterly incapable of it dooming her to fade to oblivion while everyone else struggles with her debris.
** In her last stage of dementia, she has now become innocent as she used to with her snark added even if she's now as helpless as a child. Of course, her innocence just makes her more susceptible to the bad advice she was given as a child, which shows her as a product of her environment; someone who once had potential and was tainted by life in the process.
* TheChainOfHarm: She is ''very'' guilty of perpetuating this, on many levels.
** Ordered [=BoJack=] never to cry when he was a colt, because her own father ordered her never to cry when she was a filly [[spoiler:and threatened to lobotomize her like her mother if she ever disobeyed]].
** She also decided to be CruelToBeKind by taking Henrietta's baby from her "for your own good" [[spoiler:just like the time her father took her baby doll and burned it "for your own good" when she was a child]].
** She was also just a terrible mother to [=BoJack=] (cruel and aloof) because [[spoiler:she saw her mother fall apart and get a lobotomy from grief for loving her brother Crackerjack too much, and wanted to prevent that trauma from ever happeneding to herself.]]
* CommonalityConnection:
** Stuck in a lavish, yet vacuous lifestyle, Beatrice was drawn to the rough-and-tumble Butterscotch because he was a counter-culture rebel who'd read the Beats, like her, had an independent way of thinking and of course crashed her party and boasted about it.
** She started to come around to her AbhorrentAdmirer Corbin Creamerman when he revealed that he had greater dreams for his life than what his overbearing father wanted for him, which she could relate to. Then she learned she was pregnant from her one-night stand with Butterscotch.
* CompanionCube: She becomes attached to another horse doll after she succumbs to dementia, to the point that she views it as her "baby" akin to the horse doll she had as a child. She can't bear to be away from it.
* CrapsackOnlyByComparison: Beatrice disliked living in a normal home because she was raised in a mansion, despite the fact it's no different than lower middle class. Even after rising due to Butterscotch getting a job in Sugarman West, she still thinks it's unfair for her.
* CruelToBeKind: Beatrice decides to pay Henrietta's way through medical school on the terms that she is to [[spoiler:give Hollyhock up for adoption. Beatrice even goes as far as to refuse to let Henrietta hold her baby after the birth because she knows Henrietta will get attached and back out at the last minute]]. While cruel, it's all to protect Henrietta from going through what Beatrice went through. It is, in her own twisted way, the kindest thing we ever see Beatrice do.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: Or the closest thing to "praise" someone like Beatrice can give, anyway. After [=BoJack=] invites her to a live screening of ''Horsin' Around'', all she can bring herself to say is, "Well, it wasn't [[Creator/HenrikIbsen Ibsen]]." [[spoiler:Inverted ("Praised by Faint Damning") when it's revealed that Beatrice [[GuiltyPleasures secretly likes the show, but feels she shouldn't]]. The fact that someone as [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]] as Beatrice can't think of anything insulting to say beyond "it wasn't Ibsen" foreshadowed that she liked the show more than she was willing to admit.]]
* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: When she returns in season 4, Beatrice has been confined to a wheelchair and suffers from dementia. There's something darkly comedic and tragic about [=BoJack=] been tortured by a frail old lady whose nothing more than a shadow of the cruel woman she used to be.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Agreed to sneak off from her debutante ball for a romp with Butterscotch because he convinced her it'd piss off her dad. [[SurprisePregnancy Then]] [[ShotgunWedding reality]] [[AwfulWeddedLife ensued.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: It's quite easy to see where [=BoJack=] got his condescending attitude and hurtful snark from -- Beatrice reacts to most things with mean-spirited sarcasm delivered in a cutting tone.
* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: One of the incidents that led to Beatrice becoming who she is was her mother getting part of her brain cut out. Before Honey lost what was left of her personality, she made Beatrice promise her she wouldn't love someone as much as she did Crackerjack, and Beatrice ended up fulfilling that promise in the worst possible way. Despite her efforts to not end up like her mother, she is now dying of an illness degenerating her brain, and she's losing her sense of self to the disease, much like her mother lost her sense of self to the lobotomy.]]
* DeathOfPersonality: {{ZigZagged|Trope}}. By season 4, her onset of dementia has reduced her mindset to nothing more than a snarky version of GrannyClassic without any remembrance to who she was or who did she used to know. This produces mixed feelings for [=BoJack=]; on one hand, he's not sad she's not losing her mind, given how she's treated him all his life; on the other, there's no satisfaction since she cannot longer recognize him and clearly doesn't know what to feel guilty about. Dementia also leads Beatrice to being much, much kinder and harmless than usual with her maternal side popping up with a doll and Hollyhock, which drives [=BoJack=] mad. That being said, she still gets glimpses of sanity and her true colors haven't disappeared, they've just filtered through her messed mind. [[spoiler:Especially the diet pills needed for girls with girth like Hollyhock...]]
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the frustrated wealthy socialite forced to live through common people's customs. Because she overly romanticized the bohemian lifestyle, she entered it without much thought and was thus miserable.
* DefiledForever: She declares herself a "ruined woman" after finding out her romp with Butterscotch has resulted in pregnancy. Letting aside the problems with being a single mother, she can no longer hope to get married to Corbyn Creamerman and the customs [[TheSixties of the time]] dictate that getting pregnant or turning 30 are ways in which a woman loses value. Not to say of what her father will say when he finds out. Butterscotch stops her train of thought and simply uses an analogy to propose to her, with both knitting a fantasy of their life together.
* DefrostingIceQueen: At first, she wasn't a fan of Corbin Creamerman at all because of his awkward, dorky personality. However, she eventually realized that he isn't a bad guy at all and that they have quite a few things in-common... [[spoiler: and right after she started to like him, she found out that she is pregnant with [=BoJack=] by throwing up on Corbin.]]
* DeliberatelyBadExample: InUniverse and out, she represents this to [=BoJack=]. Alongside Butterscotch, Beatrice is an example of what a selfish, toxic version of [=BoJack=] would be, and the direction his life could take if he chooses to let his demons consume him.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: After having a one-night stand with Butterscotch and [[spoiler:getting pregnant, Beatrice had several options: abort the baby, marry Butterscotch or marry Corbin and beg him to claim he's the father or cover up the abortion. With abortion off the table due to her trauma of her baby doll being burned when she caught scarlet fever as a child, Beatrice chose to keep the foal and marry Butterscotch thinking it would give her happiness and freedom. She and Butterscotch found out the hard way they weren't ready to be parents. Corbin at least may have ensured Beatrice could maintain her standard of living and have more money for raising a child]].
%%* DisapprovingLook: Her default face. FOR. EVERYTHING. ANYONE. WOULD. DO.
* DismissingACompliment: Frequently, especially when such complements came from little [=BoJack=] himself. A notable example occurs when [=BoJack=] is filming the "JustForFun/HorsinAround" pilot and Beatrice pulls no stops in pretending to give him some compliments, only to backpedal and berate everything he's done so far.
* DyingAsYourself: Subverted. [[spoiler:At her funeral, [=BoJack=] reflects that she seemed to have a brief moment of clarity and said "I see you" to him as she died. Then, on reflection, he remembers they were in the Intensive Care Unit and she was just reading the sign "I C U" on the wall behind him.]]
* DynamicCharacter: She's more of a StaticCharacter in the present (which makes sense in retrospect) but once her backstory is revealed, Beatrice is shown to have gone through a lot of changes in her life (personality and otherwise); rarely were good ones, but she never really stayed the same way.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Beatrice's first appearance happens in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E02BojackHatesTheTroops "Bojack Hates The Troops"]] during a {{Flashback}}: she serves Butterscotch his breakfast omelet by tossing while subtly guilt-tripping him by demeaning her cooking, then outright accuses him in a passive-aggressive tone that the omelet "is not as good as the ones made by [his] secretary" while reminding him they're married, all with a dismissive tone and in front of little [=BoJack=], whom she barely notices. Then, he calls attention to himself, asking for an omelet as well. Beatrice dryly admits he's the birthday boy after all and goes back to cooking. MoodSwinger EvilMatriarch with a severe LackOfEmpathy....seems about right.
* EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy: She does it fairly well in her debutante ball, even if her attitude indicates her disdain for the move. When Butterscotch calls her curtsy "atrocious", she just laughs.
* EvilOldFolks: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. She has mellowed out with age, but she hasn't stopped being toxic. In Season 4 she now has dementia and has mellowed out even more as a result, especially towards Hollyhock, though she'll still make the occasional insult, usually towards “Henrietta” (in reality [=BoJack=]). This goes south fast after [[spoiler:she starts drugging Hollyhock to "help" her lose weight]].
* ExhaustedEyebags: Her eyes were larger and more expressive as a young adult. Her eyes get smaller and her eyebags get steadily bigger as she ages, representing her growing more jaded and being shut off from the world.
* FamousLastWords: [=BoJack=] goes through the ringer trying to figure them out in "Free Churro". [[spoiler:According to [=BoJack=], Beatrice's last words were "I see you." He spends a good part of his speech at her funeral wondering what she could have meant by that, and how only at the very end of her life did she finally acknowledge [=BoJack=] for what he was. However, during the same speech, he realizes that they were in the intensive care unit of the hospital, so it was more like "ICU." He's incredulous that, even in death, she wouldn't give him one bit of what he'd always wanted from her.]]
* FemaleMisogynist: After getting pregnant, she believed herself to be a "ruined woman" and held the old fashioned value of not divorcing despite being miserable in her marriage. She also dealt with body image issues since childhood, which lead her to complain her looks were ruined by having BoJack [[spoiler:and drugging Hollyhock with weight loss pills]].
* FormerTeenRebel: Former activist in-training, former idealist, former NonIdleRich. Alas, all dreams died once she became a wife and mother. Although what really bothers her was never using her skills to such ends, wasting away her intellect in a culturally dead end.
* FreudianExcuse: Season 4 ''[[BelatedBackstory finally]]'' shows us what her life was like growing up, with [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS4E02TheOldSugarmanPlace "The Old Sugarman Place"]] and [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS4E11TimesArrow "Time's Arrow"]] expanding on it. The loss of her brother and mother and her father being sexist and restrictive, coupled with her impulsive hookup with Butterscotch, ended up turning her into a miserable woman.
* FurryReminder:
** The performance Beatrice puts on at her debutante ball has her jumping over hurdles and trotting as though she's in a horse jumping competition. Just to cap off the effect, she blows delicately as she does. It's also pretty much a TakeThat[-/-]VisualPun of women being sold as cattle during those balls.
** When we see her in [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bojackhorseman/images/5/51/Old_Beatrice_Horseman_Season_4.png/revision/latest?cb=20171127015940 old age]], she gets cataracts, turning her eyes from the standard black to something of a greenish, which is something that happens with aged/ing horses.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: She refused to abort [=BoJack=], although she's [[{{Jerkass}} far from]] [[RichBitch being nice]], and this was mainly due to the trauma of her baby doll being taken from her by her father and burned when she had scarlet fever as a child. [[spoiler:While she does encourage Henrietta not to keep her daughter, she does still have her carry Hollyhock to term and give her up for adoption.]]
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Bad smoking. She's seen smoking on {{Flashback}}s and she's a horrible mother to [=BoJack=] in every single one of them. Tellingly, one of the only times she doesn't have a cigarette in her mouth is in the present, when she's apologizing to [=BoJack=].
* GrannyClassic: In a twisted way, yes. Beatrice's inability to remember anything related to her past for long periods of time surprisingly and to care for herself mellows her out, to the point of being a somewhat decent grandmother to Hollyhock and even a nurturing mother to a plastic doll. This ''doesn't'' sit well with [=BoJack=], who remembers Beatrice way too well to believe her change for even a minute, much less humoring her sickness or let anyone believe this is how she always was.
* GuiltyPleasures: [[spoiler:Season 4 reveals that Beatrice secretly liked ''Horsin' Around'' more than she let on; bragging to everyone in the retirement home that that's the show her son is on, and joyously laughing at every line. She just felt she ''shouldn't'' like it since it wasn't up to the high standards her classical tastes and education dictated she should enjoy, nor the impossibly high standards she felt [=BoJack=] ''should'' aspire to after all the "''[[DefiledForever sacrifice]]''" she put in to raise him.]]
* HairstyleInertia: Ever since she was a little girl Beatrice’s hair has been worn in the exact same curled/braided style, up until she succumbs to dementia, where most of the curls have come out likely due to her being too frail to keep up with it.
* HatesSmallTalk: Beatrice would prefer to talk about important issues and things that stimulate the mind and critical thinking, not just about any kind of event.
* HeelRealization:
** After reading [=BoJack=]'s memoirs, she calls him up to apologize for being a horrible parent as well as the fact that he was genetically predestined to be a miserable wreck.
** A flashback in "Time's Arrow" implied she realized she was pushing her son away after she berated him like usual and he curtly replied, "Thanks for the painting. [[SarcasmMode It'll be nice to always have this conversation]]," only for [[spoiler:her worst traumatic memories of her life to come flooding back]], and she numbed herself with a deep drag of her cigarette to keep the damn from bursting. [[spoiler:She never reconciled with her son.]]
* HiddenDepths: For all her flaws, season four reveals that she was very intelligent. She even graduated from Barnard College, even though her father [[DeliberateValuesDissonance only sent her there to find a husband]].
* HistoryRepeats: She ended up becoming a miserable person after having a horrible childhood. Her abuse of Bojack during his childhood is a big part his own misery.
* HollywoodPudgy: As a little girl, Beatrice was bullied for being "fat" despite looking just a little chubby. Her father apparently told her she was just growing, although later on he shows optimism that her swollen throat from her scarlet fever could help her lose weight. Incidents like this lead Beatrice to develop WeightWoe that continues into young adulthood, as she relies on over the counter "pretty pills" to keep her slim figure.
* HopeCrusher: Ironic considering her name; Beatrice herself had seen her dreams die slowly through the years, so this gave her justification enough to destroy her husband's and son's as well.
* {{Housewife}}: Reduced to this later in life, after marrying Butterscotch and having [=BoJack=], much to her displeasure, as this title is exactly what her father and society wanted her to be, and what she originally strived to avoid. Of course, she still had a grip on those unfortunate enough to enter her reach.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: From daughter of the Sugarman Family '''⇒''' the only successor of the family '''⇒''' one of the most desired debutantes of her time '''⇒''' a disgraced pregnant woman '''⇒''' an unsatisfied housewife '''⇒''' an old woman with a lot of regrets '''⇒''' a senile old woman without any riches, loved ones and with an increasingly tenuous grasp on reality.
* IdiotHoudini: The reason why Beatrice [[spoiler:is never punished for accidentally poisoning Hollyhock and making [=BoJack=]'s childhood and life miserable? She's suffering from dementia and as such there's no point in trying to pin the blame on her, since she doesn't even remember doing half of those things. Her screwed mind and decay is punishment enough. [=BoJack=] does find the absolute worst room in a retirement home he can for her instead of caring for at home after he finds out what she did to Hollyhock, though.]]
* IdleRich: After growing up, she settled into living off Butterscotch's six-figure salary. Having your spirit broken by life'll do that to you.
* IHaveNoSon: After a faulty choir solo in school, Beatrice pretended not to know [=BoJack=], much less taking him home after the presentation. This almost led [=BoJack=] to have a NearRapeExperience when the professor he carpooled with tried to touch him. When [=BoJack=] made it home unscathed, Beatrice replied "Huh. I guess no one wants you."
* IllGirl: Fell sick to scarlet fever during her youth, [[spoiler:which led to the traumatic burning of her toys and stuff in a ruthless gambit to avoid any spreading of the disease.]]
* ImpoverishedPatrician: After running off with Butterscotch, Beatrice -- a former heiress -- is reduced to living in an average house on a working class salary. Butterscotch does eventually accept a job offer from Joseph Sugarman, which eases things a bit. But [=BoJack=] reveals in Season 5 that [[spoiler:Butterscotch frittered away the last of her inheritance and left her with crippling debts after his death, forcing her to sell the house and her fancy jewelry and move into a retirement home, which is where she lives when the series proper begins.]]
* IndifferentBeauty: Growing up, Beatrice was quite beautifu;, but she doesn't appear to have put much stock into it; for example, she rolls her eyes when Corbin tells her she “looks nice” for the hundredth time.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Beatrice made others feel miserable and like less of equals because she herself was miserable and felt the lesser one.
* InformedDeformity: She has complained about having lost her beauty after having [=BoJack=], but she never looks any worse for wear other than a few wrinkles.
* InnocenceLost: Beatrice's childhood was a normal one with a loving (if retrograde) family, until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII occurs. Her brother died in the war, and her father [[spoiler:had her grieving mother lobotomized]] exposed her to the cruelty of the world at a young age.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Returning from university with a Bachelor's Degree instead of a bachelor like her father wanted left her intellectually unfulfilled in her shallow high society life. [[spoiler:This drew her to the [[RuleAbidingRebel seemingly subversive ideas]] of inspiring writer, Butterscotch Horseman.]] Part of why she's so bitter in the present is that she feels she's SurroundedByIdiots, unable to find intellectually stimulating conversation with anyone.
* IronicName: "Beatrice" comes from Latin, meaning ''bringer of joy''.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Beatrice is incredibly self-centered and raised [=BoJack=] only to make up for the pain she went through. This also ruins her personal relationships; she's too self-absorbed and convinced of her own propaganda to make a change.
* ItsThePrincipleOfTheThing: She frequently complains her body and beauty were ruined because of [=BoJack=]'s birth. There's nothing truly wrong with her, it's just that from her perspective, she has been DefiledForever and so she sees herself as "ruined" no matter what.
* IWasQuiteALooker: She was a lovely debutante in her youth, and bitter about how she looks now, and uses it to guilt her young son. "You know, I was ''beautiful'' before I got pregnant."
* {{Jerkass}}: Her wealthy upbringing and haughty demeanor are just the icing in the cake. She's got a tight grip in Butterscotch, knowing exactly where to hurt his ego and talks quite openly about things that would be better be kept under wraps in front of the kids. Manipulative also doesn't even begin to describe her attitude towards other people's feelings.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** As soul crushing and full of despair as her speech about emptiness is for [=BoJack=] in "Brand New Couch", Beatrice is correct in pointing out that no matter how he tries to fill the void with projects and attitude, they're just band aids over the wound, even if her mindset points toward resigning rather than try to make a break out of it.
** When Butterscotch tries to deflect blame for [[spoiler:Henrietta's pregnancy]] as Beatrice's fault for not "fulfilling her wifely duties", Beatrice rightfully calls him out on this not being a real excuse [[spoiler:for his infidelity]].
** She bemoans that Henrietta's weeping over her dire situation [[spoiler:after getting pregnant with Hollyhock and not having any other prospectives to raise her desired baby leaves her with not a lot of choices]] isn't gonna do her any favors. She's as insensitive as usual, but she's not wrong.
** She calls out [[spoiler:her decision to raise the baby by herself]] foolish as she has seen in the flesh how such ideal ''doesn't'' hold up and will lead her to act bitter and self-centered toward her child.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Most of the time. Beatrice became a cold woman as an adult and the few times she had the opportunity to show a little compassion, she bared her heart of tin. For example, she makes [=BoJack=] a birthday breakfast...which just consists of an omelet she made because he asked her. This after having a verbal sparring with Butterscotch.
%%* KickTheDog: Her spare hobby, played like a professional.
* KickTheMoralityPet: She genuinely appears to get on with Hollyhock, to [=BoJack=]'s concern (as she'd never been anything but cruel to him) but then [[spoiler:poisons Hollyhock's coffee with weight loss drugs because of her belief of her needing to lose weight. Once [=BoJack=] finds out, he abandoned all pretenses of wanting to reconcile with his mother and stuck her in a crappier nursing home.]]
%%* LadyDrunk: Oh, yes. She really enjoys it.
* LaughablyEvil: Sometimes, her abuse of [=BoJack=] is played for laughs.
* ALighterShadeOfGray: Initially. She was a sass-mouth in her younger years but miles more decent than [[TheBully Clamelia]] [[RichBitch Bloodsworth]], who she despised.
* LonelyRichKid: A flashback to her days in private school show that the was quite an outcast, being bullied by [[AlphaBitch other girls]] for being "[[HollywoodPudgy fat]]".
* LossOfIdentity: Gradually between Season 2 and Season 4, as befits a dementia-riddled old woman. By the time [=BoJack=] [[spoiler:and Hollyhock]] visit her, she barely bears any resemblance to the toxic woman she used to be.
* LovingAShadow: Strange maternal example. In Season 4 the now-senile Beatrice becomes very smitten with a doll that she thinks is a "baby," coddling and cooing over it, which [=BoJack=] finds quite offensive since she was never that affectionate with ''him''. We find out in a late season four flashback episode that [[spoiler:her father threw her dolly, which she considered her "baby," in the fire when she was a little girl. When she got pregnant with [=BoJack=], she refused to give up her baby because she was scarred from losing her doll. However, [[RealityEnsues reality ensued]] when she endured the pain of childbirth and learned the hard way that real babies are crying, screaming, fussy ''work''. It seems Beatrice loved the ''idea'' of having a baby, but only as long as it's as quiet and needless as a doll. The real thing will never measure up.]]
* TheMasochismTango: Her entire relationship with Butterscotch. They're miserable together but neither of them would allow the other to be happy any other way but theirs. Woe may befall if they found out any signs of disrupt or soul-searching elsewhere. The least said about their toxic co-dependence and influence, the better.
* MaternallyChallenged: She wasn't the best mom, saying the least.
* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: In her mind, a younger Beatrice still sees her current day self reflected back in mirrors.
* MisplacedRetribution: Got your life ruined by [[spoiler:your brother's [[PlotTriggeringDeath death]], your mother's [[DeathOfPersonality lobotomy]], your father's [[StayInTheKitchen dismissal of you as anything other than a placeholder]]]] and your husband's pride [[PrincessInRags forcing you to live like a peasant]]? Blame it on the closest victim you've got: that little foal you gave birth to!
* MockMillionaire: Even after apparently losing most of the family's fortune by marrying Butterscotch, Beatrice always made a big deal of her status as OldMoney to her friends whenever they'd encounter at social gatherings. She would even make little [=BoJack=] sing for them "The Lollipop Song" to keep appearances, guilt-tripping him to act by way of emotional blackmail.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: And more intelligent and savvier and cruel: Butterscotch might have been ThePatriarch of the Horseman family, but it's clear that all Beatrice needed to bend him to her will was use a few cruel words, point out how he was fucking up in a way he wouldn't be able to offer a rebuttal and wait for his common sense to trump his pride as he slowly withered away. She also had a grasp on how things worked and her tongue only sharpened year after year. It says something that out of the two, Beatrice is the one corrupting influence that [=BoJack=]'s unable to let go of and the one mainly keeping him from progressing.
* MorningSickness: How Beatrice was clued into realizing that apparently innocent sex-capade with that scoundrel Butterscotch hit bullseye. Shame she during a morning stroll with Corbin and just [[HopeSpot as Beatrice was starting to see Corbin in a new light]].
* MRSDegree: Joseph Sugarman is not shy about expressing his disappointment in Beatrice for actually graduating from college, name dropping marrying a good Ivy League man as his preferred outcome.
* MustHaveNicotine: Every time she's shown, she has a cigarette on her mouth and she's rarely (if ever) seen without it. She doesn't have one anymore in the present.
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: The entire FramingDevice of [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS4E11TimesArrow "Time's Arrow"]]. As Beatrice is being driven by [=BoJack=] to her last nursing home she'll ever reside in (and the worst he could find, nonetheless), Beatrice's mind drifts into a recount of her own life to clarify HowWeGotHere (and because of her dementia).
* NeverMyFault: Although she ended up in a bad position simply out of rotten luck, that's still no justification for redirecting the hatred to her young son, no matter how many times she excuses it as "ensuring the mistake is repaired". Season 4 implies that she ''can't'' accept blame or learn to improve herself because that would mean [[FreudianExcuse facing all the damage that's been done to herself and her family.]]
* NightmareFace: She makes a very scary face in season four, screaming horror because [=BoJack=] had thrown a "baby" (actually a doll) off his balcony to spite her.
* NonActionBigBad: Despite being the ArcVillain for [=BoJack=] in season 4, Beatrice never really has any influence on anyone or does anything truly horrible [[spoiler:besides accidentally poisoning Hollyhock]]. The true antagonist is [=BoJack=]'s memories of her and how her presence affects him one way or the other.
* NonIdleRich: As a young mare, Beatrice was more interested in social causes and the upcoming women revolution than any alternatives her empty life could offer. Come adulthood, it didn't take long of her to become the opposite.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: PlayedForDrama. [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS4E11TimesArrow "Time's Arrow"]] reveals that this is how she handled the birth of [=BoJack=] and [[spoiler:Hollyhock]]. When she was a little filly, [[spoiler:her father callously ripped her doll from her arms and threw it in the fire due to her Scarlet Fever. Being a little girl, she felt just as devastated as if he'd killed her actual baby. When she got pregnant with [=BoJack=], she chose to keep him because she feared that losing this baby would hurt as much as losing her first "baby." When Beatrice's maid Henrietta became pregnant with Butterscotch's baby and considered keeping her, Beatrice projected her own disappointment in keeping [=BoJack=] onto Henrietta and coerced her into putting her baby up for adoption.]] In both cases Beatrice meant well, but it wasn't ''quite'' the right thing to do.
* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: She was used to the upper-class life of her childhood and resented giving up her life to marry Butterscotch. She took out her bitterness on everybody around her, [[AbusiveParents her son most of all]], condescending anybody she deemed lower-class and forcing her son to perform at her dinner parties just to keep up her good reputation. She was also quite culturally insensitive, referring to 1990's Hollywood as "full of AIDS" and telling everybody at her supper club that her friend's son "is a gay."
-->'''Beatrice''': The man sitting next to me was wearing a t-shirt, a t-shirt [=BoJack=], in the theater. The T-shirt told me to "just do it." I don't know to what "it" the T-shirt referred but I will not be spoken to in that tone by an article of clothing.
* OffingTheOffspring: According to [=BoJack=] in "[[Recap/BojackHorsemanS3E04FishOutOfWater Fish Out Of Water]]", she tried to drown him in the bathtub when he was 22. Why she attempted to do it is never revealed but knowing Beatrice, nothing her son does is out of the table.
* {{Ojou}}: Respected, refined, sharp as a tack and top bachelorette due to her high status.
* OjouRinglets: Her mane ringlets at the sides add to her aristocratic status. More so when she was younger and the Sugarman Sugar company actually had money and not just prestige.
* OldMoney: Her family line always had wealth with their company of sugar cubes.
* ParentsAsPeople: There are shreds of humanity spread all over Beatrice Horseman, buried in resentment and snobbery. When talking to him in the present, there's a sense of guilt and regret over the way she treated [=BoJack=] and the way she and Butterscotch made him and each other miserable.
* ParentsKnowTheirChildren: A dark version of the trope. [[spoiler:When [=BoJack=] is stuck in limbo during ''Secretariat'' 's shoot, Beatrice calls him and half-heartedly apologizes before admitting to him that the rot he might be trying to root out himself might be hereditary, which she regrets passing down to him. Likewise, she, through a ruthless SherlockScan, pinpoints [=BoJack=]'s ambivalence toward his redemption and simply states he's broken, he can't do a lot to improve in that camp and she knows it because she raised him herself to be that way.]]
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Her marriage and motherhood was full of passive-aggressive snark.
* PerpetualFrowner: Her default expression, mainly after [=Bojack=] was born, is a frown. She's stuck in grudges, narcissism and her own unhappiness to even consider a fake smile, not even during a family picture. She's that unhappy.
* PetTheDog:
** When she's [[spoiler: talking to Henrietta and convincing her to not have the child, it's practically the only time we ever see her show any kind of empathy or warmth towards someone else as an adult, with her imploring the girl not to make the same mistake she did and even offering to pay for her education as long as she gives up the baby.]]
** [[spoiler:Even if it's somewhat twisted, Beatrice is quite nice to Hollyhock once she meets her. This is notable, since she's basically the bastard daughter of her husband and her maid, so being who she is, one would think she'd be furious. But she treats her well and never once blames her for her parents' actions, showing at least some awareness and desire to make it right. Of course, this is accompanied with some KickTheMoralityPet moments. Just look above.]]
** [[spoiler: When she's stricken with severe dementia and doesn't recognize [=BoJack=] anymore, we see that she actually did enjoy watching ''Horsin' Around'' and bragged to the others in the nursing home that her son was the star, but she never admitted this to [=BoJack=] willingly because it was a "dumb show" that starred her perceived disappointment of a son, so she decided she wasn't allowed to show enjoyment for it.]]
* PitbullDatesPuppy: Her tentative courtship by Corbin Creamerman initially fails because Corbin is way too meek and shy for the spirited, strong-willed and stubborn Beatrice. Only when he starts showing some initiative and vision for Creamerman Ice Cream does Beatrice starts seeing him differently.
* PlayingTheVictimCard: She'd rather think herself of a good, self-sacrificing mother who raised an ungrateful little brat turned a disappointment of a son. It never occurs to her that [=BoJack=] has every right not to give her any appreciation or that she's the one who tortured him during his childhood. Nope, he's the one to blame, he only takes, takes and takes!
* ThePowerOfHate: Beatrice eventually gave in to her inner darkness and pent up frustrations in life. If she couldn't be happy, she'd be sure everyone would share her misery.
* PredecessorVillain: To her son [=BoJack=]'s AntiHero. Beatrice is pretty much why he's so screwed up and in many ways, she's a much worse horse than he'll ever be.
* PrincessInRags: Unaccustomed as she was to working class living conditions, Beatrice's pride worsened after having to rely on Butterscotch for income both because of the time period's attitude toward working women (this was TheSeventies, after all), being let down by Butterscotch's failure as a writer and refusing a cushy office job for her father (even comparing it to slavery), and because being an IdleRich, she had probably never worked in her life for money. Whenever she would encounter old friends at the club, she'd pretend to still be one of them despite her poor status. The resentment at having to rely on a working-class horse as well as her crushed expectations and separation from her lavished upbringing produced a hatred of him and [=BoJack=]. Butterscotch does eventually agree to get the cushy office job for Bea's father, and she uses this (as seen in a montage) to remodel the living room, hire maids, and buy a nicer outfit.
* ProudBeauty: She was an IndifferentBeauty in her youth and did not become this trope until after she believed her pregnancy “ruined her”. As a reference, how much she took notice of her appearance was always directly tied to how good she was doing in life: the less she was succeeding in the latter department, the more she'd focus on the former.
* PurpleIsPowerful: In her appearances after [=BoJack=] is born, she wears a lot of purple, which calls back to her regal upbringing.
* RebelliousPrincess: As a young woman, Beatrice desired to break free from her lavish lifestyle.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives [=BoJack=] a sharp one indeed in "Brand New Couch" when he's in a particular bad place. She was the one who called him in the first place, mind you.
-->''I don't wanna fight you, [=BoJack=]. I just wanted to tell you I know. I know you wanna be happy, but you won't be, and---I'm sorry.[...] It's not just you, you know. Your father and I, we-- Well, you come by it honestly, the ugliness inside you. You were born broken, that's your birthright. And now you can fill your life with projects your books and your movies and your little girlfriends but it won't make you whole. You're [=BoJack=] Horseman. There's no cure for that.''
* ResentfulGuardian: She hates her son [=BoJack=] for "ruining her figure" and "life".
* RichBitch:
** First implied in Diane's book in "Downer Ending". She wrote that Beatrice was the heiress to the Sugarman Sugar Cubes fortune, and was "used to certain comforts".
** Later played with -- she grew up a rich socialite, but got the bulk of her bitchiness ''after'' she married the considerably less wealthy Butterscotch, unused to middle-class life. Her mean attitude continued when Butterscotch accepted the cushy office job that improved their fortunes.
* RichKidTurnedSocialActivist: Subverted. She returned from college a liberal who expressed frustration with her rich upbringing and decried wealth inequality. However, instead of being genuine, Beatrice's struggles are presented as an attempt to rebel toward the misogyny and vapid lifestyle of her peers without any real substance beyond what she thinks it involves. Once she gets a taste of the real commoner's life, she finds herself unable to cope with the lack of luxuries and becomes bitter, resentful and the kind of dissatisfied elitist she despised in the first place.
* ScatterbrainedSenior: She's succumbed to dementia as of Season 4, meaning she no longer recognizes [=BoJack=] and frequently gets past and present events mixed up. Worth noting is the fact that, unlike a lot of the characters in WesternAnimation who fall under this trope in some way, Beatrice's dementia is ''not'' played for laughs. Episode 11 of season 4 (''Time's Arrow'') is told (almost) entirely from her confused perspective, and it's pure NightmareFuel.
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: She's introduced properly along her husband Butterscotch in a {{flashback}} in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E02BojackHatesTheTroops "Bojack Hates The Troops"]].
* ShadowArchetype: To an extent, she has all the traits [=BoJack=] hates about himself - both are petty, abrasive, miserable, bitter, sarcastic and poisonous. However, unlike Beatrice, [=BoJack=] does admit his failures and does his best to be a better person, while Beatrice more or less succumbed to her miserable existence.
* SimultaneousArcs: With her son [=BoJack=] in season 4. Short synopsis; [[AntiHero [=BoJack=]]] [[CharacterDevelopment ascends]], [[EvilMatriarch Beatrice]] [[StartOfDarkness descends]].
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: {{Zigzagged|Trope}}. Beatrice resented how she was raised simply to have a husband and was initially disappointed by her suitor Corbin Creamerman's appearance and meek disposition; she was instead attracted to Butterscotch's rebellious attitude and revolutionary ideas. An unhappy marriage later to Butterscotch later, Beatrice's broken mind wonders if marriage to the kind and sensitive Corbin would have been so bad.
* SmokingIsCool: As a younger, more idealistic mare, she still smoked but because of her more sympathetic attitude and her insufferable situation, it's not portrayed as a bad thing, along with the fact the time period encouraged it.
* {{Socialite}}: Was this before getting pregnant with Bojack and running off with Butterscotch. She was the daughter of a wealthy sugar salesman and grew up in luxurious household. Even after she, to her great regret, left this lifestyle, she was still very concerned with public appearance, a regular attendant of high-brow parties, including a supper club, and haughty as her standard temper.
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: [=BoJack=] gives a eulogy that acknowledges his mother was never a good parent, and he's going to have to live with her mistakes and the trauma she passed.
* StageMom: She raised [=BoJack=] as a performer so that, in her mind, he can make up for ruining her life. Even after he finds success as a sitcom actor she derides him as a "clown".
* StartOfDarkness: "Time's Arrow" reveals that she was a bit jaded and sharp-tongued as a young woman (due to her childhood trauma), but overall still good and idealistic. She was also a happy bride with Butterscotch and new mother to [=BoJack=] until [[spoiler:the RealityEnsues hard work of caring for an eternally crying baby in an economic class lower than she was used to shattered her outlook. When Butterscotch scathingly reminded her, "You wanted this baby, remember that," [[NeverMyFault it drove her to want to blame]] ''[[NeverMyFault anyone]]'' [[NeverMyFault but herself for the nightmare she trapped herself in]]. Needless to say, the seeds of cruelty and resentment that latter engulfed Beatrice's entire personality and parenting to [=BoJack=] started that night.]]
* StrongFamilyResemblance: She shares the gap in her front teeth and curled hair with her mother, Honey, and the diamond pattern from her father, Joseph.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Thanks to her hard life, Beatrice went from a [[NiceGirl cheerful and sweet]] little girl, to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold sassy but still well-meaning]] young woman, and finally ended up as a [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk miserable and abusive]] middle-aged woman.
* TookALevelInKindness: Downplayed. Weirdly enough, her [[SanitySlippage senile dementia]] in Season 4 has made her a much more friendly and pleasant person, at least compared to the mean old bitch she used to be. Though of course, this has nothing to do with a conscious effort to be a better person; but her old age has effectively destroyed most of her mind, memories and personality included, and she just can't even ''remember'' how to be an angry and hateful person anymore. This confuses her son to no end.
* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Beatrice only had the one-night stand with Butterscotch out of retaliation for the latter condescendingly bringing up Beatrice doing whatever her father wanted. Then, she got pregnant....
* TragicDream: All she ever wanted was to find happiness, put her skills and intelligence to use and to taste ice cream. If you have read this far, you know Beatrice never got any of these things.
* TrueBlueFemininity: As a young adult socialite before having Bojack, her regular outfit consisted of a pale blue sweater and light blue dress with white dots, and she also wore light blue eyeshadow.
* TroubledAbuser: She is an [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]] to Bojack and sure, Bojack's childhood was horrible, but Beatrice's childhood wasn't any better.
* UndignifiedDeath: Her refusal to go down easy results in [[spoiler:her corpse being frozen in a permanent, grotesque rictus]] and her shoddy treatment of Bojack made him so ambivalent to her passing that he [[spoiler:squanders his heartfelt eulogy on the wrong corpse.]]
* TheUnfavorite: As the girl and spare of the Sugarman family, she was this as her parents connected with Crackerjack more. Deconstructed but not in the usual way. When Crackjack was alive, this didn't affect the family dynamics. But Crackerjack's death meant that she was a poor substitute to her parents; her mother couldn't emotionally handle the loss of her favorite child and her father viewed her as an inadequate heir.
* UptownGirl: A wealthy heiress filly like Beatrice and a working class horse like Butterscotch end up married due to a surprise pregnancy. Needless to say, the difference in classes of their marriage took a toll on both.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Season 4 reveals that this was the case with her; [[spoiler:she was a happy little girl in the 40's who watched her family fall apart following her brother's wartime death, culminating in her mother's breakdown, drunken endangerment of Beatrice in a car crash, and eventual lobotomy where Beatrice was told never to love anybody that much again. What little chance she had of recovering was crushed when her father callously burned her things in a fire, and threatened to lobotomize her just like her mother if she ever cried or showed too much emotion again.]]
* UnwantedSpouse: She and Butterscotch hated each other. The feeling is quite mutual.
* VanityIsFeminine: While she's got enough baggage to pick from, it's partly the loss of her figure to childbirth what makes her particularly furious about [=BoJack=] not meeting her grand expectations.
* VicariouslyAmbitious: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Beatrice's unreachable ambitions for her son and inability to express what she was truly expecting or give him some sort of approval and love has made [=BoJack=] perpetually unhappy and constantly reaching out for goals without any specific aim.
* WeightWoe: She was considered fat as a child and grew up in a time period and society with very high expectations for a woman's looks. This leads to her relying on “pretty pills” to help her stay thin as an adult and plays into why she believes pregnancy ruined her body. She encourages this mentality in Hollyhock [[spoiler:to the point of secretly drugging Hollyhock with those supplements to the point of overdose.]]
* WhereWereYouLastNight: Beatrice's jealousy would be often triggered by the knowledge that Butterscotch might be sleeping with someone else. She would often interrogate him about it in a rather aggressive manner.
* YouRemindMeOfX:
** It's {{implied|Trope}} that part of the reason why her father Joseph can't stand her snarky attitude and non-compromise (besides her questioning every aspect of his handling) is because Beatrice reminds him too much of Honey pre-lobotomy.
** Turned on its head later when Beatrice denies any possible attachment to [=BoJack=] [[spoiler:because of his resemblance to [=CrackerJack=] and her memory of how such maternal love destroyed her mother.]]
* YouSeeImDying: By-proxy example. The only way [=BoJack=] is reluctantly convinced to take her in is her doctor telling him in gentle terms she'll croak soon.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Her doctor tells [=BoJack=] that due to suffering dementia, Beatrice "doesn't have many years left, if at all". [[spoiler:She passes away less than a year later in October 2018, shortly before the events of "Free Churro"]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Butterscotch Horseman]]
!!!'''Butterscotch Horseman'''
[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c693de7a_5efe_4eb5_8410_9649e6b79f0e.png]]
[[caption-width-right:210:"[[WindmillPolitical Imaginary friends are freeloaders invented by Communists to rip off welfare]]."]]
[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:In his middle-old age]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/31d57745_4cde_4705_b55c_22a90a30ba77.png]][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b3d7537f_57ba_4b98_aa09_3d12798053cb.jpeg]][[/labelnote]]


->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/WillArnett
->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E02BojackHatesTheTroops "[=BoJack=] Hates The Troops"]]

-->''"Well, maybe if my secretary ''also'' refused to get an abortion, I would be."''

[=BoJack=]'s father, seen only in flashback. A working-class horse who, along with [=BoJack=]'s mother, is much of the reason that [=BoJack=]'s so screwed up.
----
* AbusiveDad: Although it was Beatrice whose had a greater influence on [=BoJack=]'s screwed psyche, Butterscotch was still dismissive, manipulative, and even violent towards young [=BoJack=]. .
* AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler:When his mistress Henrietta gets pregnant, Butterscotch first tries to blame his wife Beatrice because she's been missing her "womanly duties", making her snap at him. Only then does Butterscotch pleads her to help him and breaks down sobbing, acknowledging how justified she is at hating him and talk to Henrietta "woman-to-woman".]]
* BorrowedCatchphrase: As it turns out, the lame joke "Get It?" [=BoJack=] always says comes from something Butterscotch said while leaving the house.
* CantTakeCriticism: [=BoJack=] states that he was... less than pleased with his novel's reception. He even went so far as to offer to [[DuelToTheDeath duel]] anyone who thought poorly of it, which ultimately led to his death.
* CommonalityConnection: Stuck in a lavish, yet vacuous lifestyle, the rough-and-tumble Butterscotch was down to the wealthy, effervescent Beatrice because like him, she was a counter-culture rebel who'd read the Beats, had an independent way of thinking, reminded him of his mother (and had lost a mother as well). Though it was mostly only for a one-night stand, it also got them through the honeymoon period happily enough.
* DirtyOldMan: [[spoiler:Sired Hollyhock on a woman ''40-50 years'' his junior.]]
* DisappearedDad: [[spoiler:To Hollyhock, whom he fathered with his maid, Henrietta. He initially tried to persuade Henrietta to get an abortion and then asked Beatrice to persuade Henrietta.]]
* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Almost always seen carrying one while in his studio, evoking the idea of a business-like guy.
* DopeSlap: Often slapped [=BoJack=] whenever he would say something he deemed stupid or do something "un-American".
* ExecutiveExcess: A former working class aspiring writer, he eventually accepted an unspecified lofty post at his father-in-law's company, the Sugarman Sugar Cube factory, purely to shut up his wife Beatrice. Butterscotch's only interest was working on his novel on the weekend, and so turned to alcoholism, adultery, and spending all Beatrice's inheritance to distract himself.
* ExhaustedEyebags: Had eyebags when portrayed as a married man and father to symbolize his exhaustion and frustration with everything in his life and his weariness and bitterness toward those he deems responsible for his misery.
* ExpressiveEars: His ears perk up when surprised and descend when disappointed. Like [=BoJack=]'s, the way his his head is drawn makes them appear to be perpetually pinned back.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: He brutally shot down pretty much all of young [=BoJack=]'s childhood flights of fancy, dismissing them as unproductive.
* {{Foil}}: In season 4, to [=BoJack=]. Butterscotch and his son share several quirks and attitudes, but in season 4, it can be seen that, through the time, Butterscotch only got worse, more bitter about his married life and a kid only made him worse, with [[spoiler:his affair resulting in a kid]] being something he is shameful of. To [=BoJack=], [[spoiler:Hollyhock as his unplanned daughter]] causes a large advancement for him personally, leading him to become better and reject doing things his father would probably do in the same situation.
* FormerTeenRebel: Ironically he used to be a rebellious young stallion who admired the beats and snuck into rich people's parties for free booze. That is, until being rejected by his idols made him the uber-conservative Jerkass we know today.
* FormerlyFit: Grew to have a gut when he became elderly.
* HairTodayGoneTomorrow: As a young horse, he had a scruffy, unkempt mane, symbolizing his apparent untamed nature, which of course would make Beatrice attracted to him. By his last years, it had receded to his scalp as thin hairs with most having turned grey.
* HandsomeLech: His seducing Beatrice was only intended for a one night stand. Taking into account his expertise at playing charming and knowing what kind of words would convince her, it's implied he has done this before. Beatrice was quite aware of it being a one time thing and was willing to play along with it since she needed to blow some steam...at least until it resulted in pregnancy.
%%* HenpeckedHusband: And, man, is he bitter about it.
* HeteronormativeCrusader: His monologue in the Cold Opening to "Free Churro" shows that only does he feel emasculated by having to make his own sandwich and picking his son up from soccer practice, he says that it's not his fault if [=BoJack=] "turns queer" from being confused by gender roles.
* {{Hunk}}: An actual strapping stallion in his youth, compared to Beatrice's nerdy other suitor.
* IWasQuiteALooker: He was quite muscular and trim as a young adult (he ''was'' a draft horse) with a thick, scruffy mane, but by the time he was an elderly man, he lost most of his mane, with what remained turned grey, and he also gained a bit of a gut.
* JadedWashout: Once his dream of writing the next great American novel went down the drain, all he had left was his pride, his unappeasable wife and his young son, all which made him more miserable. He became a bitter, defensive SellOut who could only dream of his non-existent GloryDays.
* {{Jerkass}}:
** Butterscotch's bitter, dismissive of his family at every turn and openly contemptuous towards them for being the final nail in his miserable life. There's also his treatment of [=BoJack=] which ranges from just plain ComedicSociopathy to outright mental and physical abuse.
** Season 4 shows that he pretty much won Beatrice over for a one night stand, among other indiscretions [[spoiler: like having an affair with the maid, using the same story he used to garner sympathy with his wife when they first met no less.]] And unlike his wife or son he has no FreudianExcuse for his behavior.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: In his younger years. While a scoundrel in every sense, Butterscotch still was a WideEyedIdealist who dreamed of telling his own story about the struggles of the everyman, especially involving a rather progressive thinking (for the time), had enough decency to actually apologize when he thought he had made a tasteless joke about Beatrice's mother and changes his tune about aborting the baby when Beatrice refuses; even proposing to her when she protests she's now [[DefiledForever a ruined woman]] with no chance to ever marry.
* KarmicDeath: His obsession with his novel proves to be his undoing. According to [=BoJack=], he turned his head to ask the man he was going to duel if he'd really read his book. Distracted, he then tripped over a root and brained himself on a rock.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Shares several mannerisms with his own son, specially their snarky behavior when younger.
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: While Beatrice fell in love with him to rebel against her father, he ended up growing to be very similar to him -- a dismissive misogynist who'd dismiss her feelings as just "womanly hysteria."
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Season 4 reveals that [[spoiler:Butterscotch tried to invoke this to weasel out of taking responsibility for Beatrice's pregnancy by asking if he was the father. Beatrice was not amused.]]
-->'''Butterscotch:''' Are you...certain it’s mine?\\
'''[[spoiler:Beatrice]]:''' Well, whose else could it be?!
* MayDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:Had an affair with Henrietta, who was roughly 40-50 years his junior.]]
* MiseryBuildsCharacter: His main philosophy and one he practices at every turn in "raising" his son; as long as [=BoJack=] doesn't do things the way he considers fit, the more punishment and rejection he'll receive. There's the treehouse incident and there's his harsh critic of [=BoJack=]'s drawing for him. The way he sees it, happiness is grueling pain.
* MissingMom: As he tells Beatrice when they first meet, Butterscotch never knew his mother as she died when he was too young.
* NeverMyFault:
** When he has to admit to Beatrice that he ended up [[spoiler: impregnating Henrietta]], he greatly downplays his role in the act, saying that [[spoiler: she "got herself pregnant"]] and then blaming Beatrice for the act, accusing her of [[spoiler: being "neglectful in her wifely duties"]].
** He refuses to take responsibility for his failed writing career, blaming "Jews, liberals, and Commies" for keeping the publishers from appreciating "the genius of [his] work," instead of trying to improve his work based on critical feedback.
* OedipusComplex: [[spoiler: Hinted at, as he fell for Beatrice and Henrietta due to sharing traits with the dead mother he never knew.]]
* OhCrap: His face when Beatrice shows up in his porch is already brimming with dread. When she announces she's pregnant, his face changes to one of utter horror and stuttering, similar to [=BoJack=].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[spoiler:Beatrice refuses to try to convince their maid, Henrietta, to get an abortion until the normally proud and stubborn Butterscotch finally confesses he doesn't know what to do and breaks down crying. Beatrice is so shocked that she goes to talk to the girl.]]
* ParentsAsPeople: He's given some characterization beyond "mean" and "abusive" in the style of "broken dreams" and "hurt ego by his wife". Still doesn't excuse him, but it shows him as having some depth.
* PerpetualFrowner: Always shown frowning unhappily, and couldn't even hide this for a ''family portrait''.
* PetTheDog: The only decent moment he has is [[spoiler:apologizing to his son for being a lousy father in "The View From Halfway Down" and that he loved [=BoJack=] even though he was terrible about expressing it. Of course, it may not have been real]].
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He angrily blamed "Jews" for shooting down his failed writing career and is dismissive of his wife Beatrice.
* PosthumousCharacter: He died sometime around 2007 and we get to know him through flashbacks.
* {{Pride}}: His FatalFlaw. His writing career came to pretty much nothing, due to his stubborn insistence on writing ''his'' way and completely refusal to try to improve based on the critical feedback he got. And he insisted for the longest time on keeping his exhausting, low-paying day-job at the local cannery, despite Beatrice pointing out that her father was perfectly willing to offer him a higher paying, more comfortable job at the family company, simply because he so deeply resented the idea of being even more beholden to his wealthy in-laws than he already was, and became even more resentful once Beatrice finally talked him into it.
* ResentfulGuardian: Like Beatrice, he partially blames [=BoJack=] for ruining his novelist dream, although it was in part because of his own failed life.
* SignificantDoubleCasting: Shares the same voice actor with his son to emphasize their similarities.
* SourGrapes: His extreme right-wing political views stem from [[spoiler:being rejected by the Beat writers he admired so much.]]
%%* StandardFiftiesFather: He has the look down. The attitude, however..
* StrawPolitical: Espouses extreme right-wing views, such as imaginary friends being invented by communists to create welfare cheats. He is shown to have had different views when he was younger in a flashback in Season 4, wanting to get in with a group of beatnik artists he admired. It's implied that his conservative streak was mostly a bitter response to being rejected by his heroes.
* UndignifiedDeath: He died during a [[DuelTotheDeath duel]] when he tripped and fell over a root and smashed his brains out on a rock.
* UptownGirl: A wealthy heiress filly like Beatrice and a working class horse like Butterscotch end up married due to a SurprisePregnancy. Needless to say, that she was well-off financially did a number on Butterscotch's life and only made him even more bitter.
* UngratefulBastard: When little [=BoJack=] gave his dad a heart-shaped, handmade card to wish him a happy Father's Day, Butterscotch only criticizes the card for its crappy design, and gives [=BoJack=] a semi-relevant (rhetorical) question about [[ItMakesSenseInContext whether or not to cross the Panama Canal]]; when [=BoJack=] gives the "wrong" answer, Butterscotch slaps him.
-->'''Butterscotch''': Are you gonna go around the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn Horn]] like a gentleman, or cut through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal Panama Canal]] like some kind of Democrat?\\
'''Young [=BoJack=]''': ...The Canal?\\
'''Butterscotch''': (''gives his son a DopeSlap'') You go around the ''Horn'', like God intended!
* UnpleasantParentReveal: PlayedWith. [[spoiler:He's revealed to be Hollyhock's biological father rather than [=BoJack=], which would mean this trope would be played straight if he were alive. He isn't though, having died in 2007, so Hollyhock is spared the disgust.]]
* WhereWereYouLastNight: Beatrice's jealousy would be often triggered by the justified possibility Butterscotch is sleeping with someone else. She would often interrogate him about it in a rather aggressive manner.
* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: He's constantly disappointed with [=BoJack=] for failing to meet his standards on how an American boy should be. From what we see in flashbacks those "standards" are random incomprehensible nonsense unique to him; for instance when a very young [=BoJack=] builds a treehouse himself Butterscotch is enraged that he used screws instead of nails.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hollyhock]]
!!!'''[[OverlyLongName Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzarelli-[=McQuack=]]]'''
[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daff8e47_8f70_4353_bcd9_53a12b0fd5ff.png]]
[[caption-width-right:230:"Ever since I was a baby, people have told me I look a lot like [=BoJack=] Horseman."]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Aparna Nancherla
->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS3E12ThatWentWell "That Went Well"]]\\

-->''"...That's a terrible thing to say to a baby!"''
-->--'''Todd, in response to Hollyhock's mentioning of her resemblance to [=BoJack=].'''

A young horse girl who may or may not be [=BoJack=]'s illegitimate daughter. She lives with her eight adoptive dads in Wichita, Kansas.
----
* AdultFear: A few examples, toward Hollyhock and from her perspective.
** Hollyhock wonders why her parents gave her up, and worries that they didn't want her. She also worries that, if she does find them, they won't want her in their life.
** She also wonders while looking for Beatrice in "Commence Fracking" [[spoiler:whether senile dementia is hereditary and even calls out [=BoJack=] for being willing to take advantage of the situation and not caring about his mother by raising the point that this might happen to them in the future and then who's gonna be there for them when it happens?]]
** From [=BoJack=]'s perspective, he is afraid that, as his daughter, she'll inherit his dysfunctions, or that by being a part of her life, he'll screw her up.
** The reveal that [[spoiler: Beatrice has been drugging her with weight loss pills under [=BoJack's=] nose.]]
* AgeAppropriateAngst: She reveals in "Commence Fracking" that the simple fact that she's looking for her mother makes her feel guilty, as she grew up in a healthy home with everything she could have asked for. Essentially, she feels like she doesn't know who she is or where she belongs.
* BigEater: She has a huge appetite that is similar to [=BoJack=]'s.
* BrainyBrunette: She's shown to be very intelligent when academics come up. She even graduated high school early and is taking a gap year during the time she's with [=BoJack=].
* BrokenAce: Her wall is filled with achievements, trophies and pictures of loved ones and friends, but she still feels adrift due to her lack of knowledge about her birth parents.
* TheBusCameBack: She reappears in Season 5, though she makes only a few cameos. It's justified, since she's going off to college and no longer has the time to deal with [=BoJack.=]
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: At the beginning of Season 4, she comes off as much lazier and more selfish than her later energetic and moral portrayal.
* CharacterTics: Circles her knee with a finger while she sits and talks.
* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: When looking around Hollywoo for [=BoJack=], she stumbles onto Todd in a backyard. Todd initially tries to defend himself, since her trenchcoat makes her look imposing.
* DaddysGirl: She was HappilyAdopted by eight gay men in a polyamorous relationship, and she loves them all, even keeping a collage of pictures of them when she was staying with [=BoJack=].
* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: She wonders about her biological parents and hopes they had a good reason for giving her up. As it turns out, her mother [[spoiler:wanted to raise Hollyhock but doing so meant giving up her medical studies career, and she was unwilling to have an abortion. Beatrice actually {{invoked|Trope}} this after learning the baby was her husband Butterscotch's; she says Henrietta has no idea what she's getting into and will eventually regret giving up her future for her baby, and offers her a compromise; she'll pay for the hospital bills and Henrietta's studies, but only if Henrietta gives the baby up.]]
%%* DeadpanSnarker: While nicer about it than [=BoJack=], she's still a snarker.
* DearJohnLetter: [[spoiler: By the second half of season 6, she sends Bojack one. We never hear what's on it, but it's assumed from Bojack's reaction that it's her telling him she doesn't want to see him again.]]
* DemotedToExtra: She appears less post-season 4, since she's leaving for college.
* DescentIntoAddiction: [[spoiler:What her parents believe happened to her after reports reach them about Hollyhock suffering an amphetamines overdose. She was actually being drugged without her knowledge by Beatrice.]]
%%* {{Deuteragonist}}: In season 4, paralleling [[SupportingProtagonist BoJack]] and [[VillainProtagonist Beatrice]].
* DoesNotLikeSpam:
** She hates applesauce, citing it's too slimy.
** In "What Time is it Right Now?", she admits to hating honeydew, like [=BoJack=]. She even calls honeydew "the Jared Leto of fruits,"[[note]]"[[TakeThat It's the worst part of everything it's in]]."[[/note]] which [=BoJack=] agrees with wholeheartedly.
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Hollyhock didn't have her ear piercings in her first appearance back in season 3.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: For season four. [[spoiler:While she suffers an overdose after getting "Chub-Be-Gone" in her coffee courtesy of Beatrice in "lovin' that cali lifestyle", Hollyhock eventually recovers and gets her real mother's name, Henrietta Platchkey, courtesy of an apparently anonymous [=BoJack=]. She heads to Minneapolis to visit her, and tells [=BoJack=] she's glad to have a brother.]]
* FakeGuestStar: Hollyhock is a major recurring character in season 4, yet Aparna Nancherla is still billed as "Guest Starring".
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: She and [=BoJack=] both assume [=BoJack=] is her father. [[spoiler:He's actually her half-brother, an illegitimate child of Butterscotch.]]
* {{Foil}}: To both [=BoJack=] and Beatrice, whom she stays with in season four. Consider how Beatrice once told [=BoJack=] that the rot is genetic. Unlike them, however, Hollyhock was raised outside the family by loving and supportive parents, and is thus well-adjusted and good-natured despite some teen angst.
* GoodIsNotDumb: One of the nicest and most moral characters on the show. She's shown to have a pretty good head on her shoulders, both academically and emotionally -- she has a wall full of achievements and is realistic and understanding about [=BoJack=]. She doesn't expect him to assume any kind of responsibility and sees through his lies, often states the obvious solution and doesn't condone any of his vitriol or self-destructive behavior.
* HappilyAdopted: Hollyhock seems to be very happy with her eight adoptive fathers, but is still interested in knowing who her biological father and mother are.
* HasTwoMommies: Gender-inverted and exaggerated: She was adopted by ''[[UpToEleven eight]]'' gay men[[note]]To elaborate: Five humans, a bear, a duck, and a lizard.[[/note]] in a polygamous marriage, hence her OverlyLongName.
* HeroicBastard: The possible illegitimate child of [=BoJack=] and unknown woman who nonetheless grew up to becomes a caring and sweet person. [[spoiler:Later on, it turns out that she's not [=BoJack=]'s illegitimate child... she's Butterscotch's, as a result of an affair he had with his maid, Henrietta.]]
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: It's heavily {{implied|Trope}} in "Stupid Piece of Shit" that her InnerMonologue is very similar to [=BoJack=]'s, filled with contemptuous remarks and digs at herself for everything she does. The fact that [=BoJack=] tries like hell to avoid facing her and his mother for most of the episode doesn't help.
* HistoryRepeats: In season 4 itself, this is played with. She varies greatly from [=BoJack=] in upbringing and has a little more self-control, but "Stupid Piece of Sh*t" implies she's developing the same inner monologue of self-hate that eats away at [=BoJack=].
* HollywoodPudgy: [[invoked]] Discussed as part of her becoming more self-conscious being in LA around extra thin and attractive models. She's on the heavier side but not in an unhealthy way, her body type is not much different than [=BoJack=] who's also implied to be out of shape. She also has several sports trophies, implying that her physique is actually StoutStrength rather than just pudgy. [[spoiler: Her LOSING weight turns out to be a sign that something is wrong.]]
* HumanMomNonhumanDad: Hollyhock is a female horse and [=BoJack=] might possibly be her father. Whether her mother is human or an animal is unknown for most of the season. [[spoiler:It's revealed that [=BoJack=] is not her father, it's actually his father, Butterscotch, who is the father. Hollyhock's mother is a human nurse named Henrietta Platchkey.]]
* IconicSequelCharacter: Hollyhock first appears at the end of season 3 and has a big role in season 4. She is the main character's illegitimate daughter [[spoiler:except she's actually his half-sister]] and her presence forces [=BoJack=] to man up and grow as a person to earn her trust and love, with CharacterDevelopment finally kicking in.
* InsecureLoveInterest: Downplayed. During the brief time she dates Miles in "The Judge", Hollyhock does end up having a little image crisis concerning her weight, calling herself a "blob". [=BoJack=]'s suspicions about Miles don't help either.
* InterspeciesFriendship: [[FreezeFrameBonus One of the pictures in her room]] is of a dog hugging her, implying this trope. Also, ironic considering [=BoJack=]'s [[VitriolicBestBuds relationship]] with Mr. Peanutbutter.
* IntoxicationEnsues: It is eventually revealed that [[spoiler:[=BoJack=]'s mother had been lacing her coffee with fat burner amphetamines]] that takes it toll on her body and cognitive awareness throughout the season. There are hints that she's being doped with something, though.
* ItAmusedMe: Why did she drugged Todd with chloroform a second time in "Hooray! Todd Episode!"? Because it's [[RuleOfCool cool]] and [[ForTheLulz funny]]! Also, it's not like you can't ''not'' use it when you have it.
* ItRunsInTheFamily: [[{{Sloth}} Laziness]], UsefulNotes/{{depression}} and [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment issues]]. She's better at handling them than her contemporaries thanks to the healthy way her adoptive parents raised her.
* IWillFindYou: As of season 4, she has traveled to Hollywoo to find her possible father and mother. [[spoiler:The finale has her flying out to meet her biological mother, Henrietta Platchkey, for the first time.]]
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: She is introduced in the last minutes of season 3.
* LazyBum: She isn't in any rush to clean up [=BoJack=]'s house, let alone keeping the charade she's his newly hired maid to get some DNA for a test. Better take selfies and sleep! While she's much nicer than Bojack, this trait convinces Todd that she very likely is his daughter even without the DNA test.
* LeavingYouToFindMyself: PlayedForDrama. Hollyhock, curious about her past, decides to fly to Hollywoo on her own to find her biological parents, leaving behind her adopted parents. Ripened but inexperienced, Hollyhock sustains herself well enough yet becomes a bit too trusting of her surroundings and the fake glamour of Cali people with only [=BoJack=] to recur to making a dent in her confidence. The purpose of her trip also leaves her with a sense of unease due to the unpredictability: will her parents want to know about her? Is she taking the right call? Hollyhock's parents, by their own part, are constantly worrying about her and [[spoiler:see their apparent fears realized when she suffers an overdose.]]
* LethalChef: She destroys the microwave oven trying to make a simple Pop Tart. Even worse, she was using ''[[TooDumbToLive a fork]]'' to reach for the bruned toast and fend off the fire while the machine was on short-circuit.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Due to their similar mindsets, Hollyhock and [=BoJack=] act this way rather than the father and daughter dynamic they allegedly have. Unlike the Penny situation, Hollyhock has enough maturity to curb some of [=BoJack=]'s worst AntiAdvice, and in turn he makes a more restrained effort to come clean and offer genuine tips (even if coated with a bitter almonds flavor). [[spoiler:These two might have a unconscious sibling sense or at least a sense of what worked better. It helps that they're half-siblings, thanks to a fling between Butterscotch and the maid who would become Hollyhock's mother]].
* LikeFatherUnlikeSon:
** As [=BoJack=]'s daughter, she resembles him far more in physicality if not personality itself: she's far from selfish, actively tries to curb his worst tendencies by calling him out and has the least harmful aspects of him, namely, laziness and lack of concentration.
** [[spoiler:As Butterscotch's '''REAL''' daughter, she has quite a lot of prospects for a future, is cheerful and idealistic not to the point of blissful blindness and knows how to back up her claims beyond simple charm.]]
* LongLostRelative: To [=BoJack=], appearing to be his illegitimate daughter of 16+ years he has no knowledge about. [[spoiler:However, she's not actually his daughter, but rather his sister, on account of both having the same father, Butterscotch.]]
* LovableJock: Most of her trophies are sport-related, but she's fidgety, nervous and adorable.
* LoveHurts: Once her relationship with Miles falls apart due to the latter's {{ambition|IsEvil}}, Hollyhock can't help but feel bad, and tells [=BoJack=] she wants to be alone.
* LukeIMightBeYourFather: Well, she's not quite sure herself if she's [=BoJack=]'s daughter, and neither is [=BoJack=]. The resemblance, the constant lamp-shading by other people, the multiple women [=BoJack=] slept with without remembering if they ''all'' had the abortion and her being adopted has aroused suspicion. But alas, nothing conclusive. [[spoiler:Although a DNA test reveals they share the same genes, they turn out to be half-siblings.]]
* MeaningfulName: She's named after the hollyhock, a flower whose roots can be used for medicinal purposes. True to her name, every time she appears, she curbs [=BoJack=]'s worst traits and brings out the good side in him. The hind knee area of a horse is also referred to as the hock.
* MentorsNewHope: For [=BoJack=], Hollyhock represents a new chance to make or break a daughter figure, especially considering what happened with Sarah Lynn and Penny when they looked up to him, which makes him nervous and especially cautious to not give wrong impressions around her. Likewise, her self-adjustment and maturity help him face his demons and become a slightly better horseman.
* MoralityPet: To [=BoJack=], as he tries to curb his self-destructive nature to be someone Hollyhock can look up to. They end up being the healthiest relationship [=BoJack=] has really had with anyone, as he is desperate to protect her and in turn she holds him accountable in ways no one else can. [[spoiler: Her cutting ties with him after his disastrous interview in the final season causes him to fall OffTheWagon ''hard''.]]
* NatureVersusNurture: There's no denying Hollyhock has some of the "Horseman gunk" in her DNA. Same traits, same flaws, same propensity to the ol' blues...however, because she was raised by a loving family instead of being subjected to the dysfunction [=BoJack=] was, Hollyhock is much better-adjusted and far more moral than her relatives.
* NiceGirl: Hollyhock is a sweet and affable horse-girl, but she isn't above tricking Todd into pulling out one of his hairs or using chloroform on him.
-->'''[=BoJack=]''': And she's funny, but she's not mean, which is kind of remarkable when you think about it because a lot of 17-year-old girls think you have to be mean to be funny, but Hollyhock is very sweet... even if she can be sarcastic sometimes, but... she has this smile...
* OnlySaneWoman: The only one in season 4 who's got her head screwed right (beside occasionally [=BoJack=]) and who never loses her shit through the season (other than the amphetamine incident).
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Starts acting rather strangely late in season 4, losing her formerly healthy appetite and doing odd things like trying to see how fast she can channel surf or sort all the change in the house, going against her usual laid-back behavior. [[spoiler: Turns out this is because Beatrice was secretly slipping her amphetamines in her coffee in an attempt to make her slim down.]]
* OverlyLongName: She was adopted by eight men in a polyamorous relationship, giving her the unwieldy name of Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzarelli-[=McQuack=]. This makes remembering it a problem for Bojack [[spoiler:after Hollyhock overdoses on weight loss pills]].
* PositiveFriendInfluence: Being around Hollyhock has been good for [=BoJack=]. Her presence forces him to at least attempt to reconcile with his mother as well as the pressure of being around his possible daughter makes him more wary of himself, with her being a huge reason for his CharacterDevelopment through season 4.
* RaisedByDudes: Downplayed. She's a jock raised by eight men, but is reasonably well-adjusted and feminine.
* ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow: Lampshaded and justified. Sir Mix-A-Lot questions why she's not in school in "The Judge", but she graduated early and is taking time off before college.
* SiblingYinYang: [[spoiler:Hollyhock is social, a people person, friendly, well-adjusted, no non-sense, goofy and active. [=BoJack=] is brooding, antisocial, rash, childish, goofy, sedentary and messed up.]]
* SmittenTeenageGirl: Her relationship with Miles is based on initial impressions of him as a good, fun guy. She's proven right when he proves to have honest intentions with her. [[spoiler:And wrong when it turns out he's still willing to sell that for a chance for stardom.]]
* StaticCharacter: Hollyhock doesn't go through that big of a change through the season, staying mostly the same from beginning to end and never really interacting with any major character in any outstanding way beyond [=BoJack=].
* StrongFamilyResemblance:
** Outside of the overall pattern of her fur, and the fact everyone has told her since she was little she looked a lot like him, she displays a lot of personality traits similar to [=BoJack=], including general laziness and buying the same disguise kit he has.
** She is implied to have also gotten her looks from [[spoiler:Butterscotch's mother, as she had a diamond marking on her forehead, like Beatrice and [=BoJack=], and chestnut hair like Henrietta, whose hair is styled similarly to Hollyhock's.]]
* SweetTooth: She loves ice cream and when she and Bojack go to see Dr. Hu, she's seen eating several lollipops out of the jar.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: The reason she's calling VIM in the first place is because she wants to find out if [=BoJack=] is her birth dad.
* TenderTears: When [=BoJack=] tells her that if she truly belongs to the Horseman family, she might desire more than she'll ever get. Hollyhock, worn out of searching her mom in Hollywoo all day, starts crying and apologizes for it when [=BoJack=] is at a loss of how to comfort her, and explains her fathers told her it's ok to cry and she shouldn't feel bad about feeling bad.
* TraumaButton: As shown in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS5E09AncientHistory "Ancient History"]], Hollyhock still has bad memories of being drugged by Beatrice, causing her to freeze up in the doorway to Bojack's house, and dump Bojack's painkillers down the sink later that evening.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: She admits loving to eat apples. She's also big on pizza, [[spoiler:which turns out to be a red flag when she turns down [=BoJack=]'s offer of it.]]
* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:It is never revealed what was written in her letter when she permanently broke off contact with Bojack.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: Not only does she basically change the course of the story by just existing, but the fact that she seems to be [=BoJack=]'s illegitimate daughter only makes everything more complicated. [[spoiler:The reality is, she's not his daughter, but rather, his half-sister.]]
* WeightWoe: She gets self-conscious about feeling like a "blob" compared to the skinny but big-assed girls on ''Felicity Huffman's Booty Academy,'' and [=BoJack=] repeating the statement to her innocently doesn't help. [[spoiler:Then a dementia-ridden Beatrice took it upon herself to secretly dose the poor girl with weight-loss pills...]]
* WhatAreRecords: One of the things that distances Hollyhock from [=BoJack=] is that the latter, being a DiscoDan, is attached to outdated tech, something Hollyhock often fails to recognize; exaggerated when the thing she fails to recognize is a DVD case. Once visits to Beatrice become routine, however, she's the one often bringing the DVD cases of ''JustForFun/HorsinAround''.
-->'''Hollyhock''': Why are you carrying that thin hard book?
-->'''[=BoJack=]''': It's not a book, it's a DVD case. We did a special episode about elder care. Now we're gonna watch it and learn how to handle this bitch.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Because she cut off ties with [=BoJack=], we don't know what became of her after the one year time skip.]]
* WhiteSheep: Out of all the people in [=BoJack=]'s family, she's by far the kindest, most good-natured, and least emotionally stunted. Although she struggles with her self-image and anxiety and has negative traits like laziness, these are portrayed in moderation and are not crippling like they are to [=BoJack=]. A lot of this can be attributed to her being raised in a loving adopted family, as opposed to the terrible and traumatic childhoods that [=BoJack=] and Beatrice experienced.
* YouthfulFreckles: Dots of lighter fur in her cheeks, neck, and shoulders. This shows she's a young adult.
[[/folder]]

* DefrostingIceQueen: At first, she wasn't a fan of Corbin Creamerman at all because of his [[{{Adorkable}} awkward, dorky personality]]. However, she eventually realized that he isn't a bad guy at all and that they have quite a few things in-common... [[spoiler: and right after she started to like him, she found out that she is pregnant with [=BoJack=] by throwing up on Corbin.]]

* DefiledForever: She declares herself a "ruined woman" after finding out her romp with Butterscotch has resulted in pregnancy. Letting aside the problems with being a single mother, she can no longer hope to get married to Corbyn Creamerman and the customs [[The'60s of the time]] dictate that getting pregnant or turning 30 are ways in which a woman loses value. Not to say of what her father will say when he finds out. Butterscotch stops her train of thought and simply uses an analogy to propose to her, with both knitting a fantasy of their life together.

* DefiledForever: She declares herself a "ruined woman" after finding out her romp with Butterscotch has resulted in pregnancy. Letting aside the problems with being a single mother, she can no longer hope to get married to Corbyn Creamerman and the customs [[The60's of the time]] dictate that getting pregnant or turning 30 are ways in which a woman loses value. Not to say of what her father will say when he finds out. Butterscotch stops her train of thought and simply uses an analogy to propose to her, with both knitting a fantasy of their life together.

* BabyFactory: Her father Joseph expected her to marry a "good man from Columbia" during her college years and discouraging her reading time arguing brain function "takes away from breasts and hips". She's not keen in becoming elite "breeding livestock", so she proceeds to rebel in any way she can.
* BeautyIsBad: With her blonde, luscious braids, fine upper crust heritage and remarkable voice, Beatrice is the physical epitome of a SouthernBelle. Even in old age, she's still willing to stroke her ego by keeping herself as good looking as possible. She's still a terrible person and abusive mother.

* BondingOverMissingParents: She and Butterscotch bonded over lost parents; a lobotomy in her case and death in the latter's.

* DefiledForever: She declares herself a "ruined woman" after finding out her romp with Butterscotch has resulted in pregnancy. Letting aside the problems with being a single mother, she can no longer hope to get married to Corbyn Creamerman and the customs of the time dictate that getting pregnant or turning 30 are ways in which a woman loses value. Not to say of what her father will say when he finds out. Butterscotch stops her train of thought and simply uses an analogy to propose to her, with both knitting a fantasy of their life together.
* DefrostingIceQueen: At first, she wasn't a fan of Corbin Creamerman at all because of his [[{{Adorkable}} awkward, dorky personality]]. However, she eventually realized that he isn't a bad guy at all and that they have quite a few things in-common... [[spoiler: and right after she started to like him, she found out that she is pregnant with [=BoJack=].]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: After having a one-night stand with Butterscotch and [[spoiler:getting pregnant, Beatrice had several options: abort the baby, give them up for adoption, marry Butterscotch or marry Corbin and beg him to claim he's the father or cover up the abortion. Beatrice chose to keep the foal and marry Butterscotch thinking it would give her happiness and freedom. She and Butterscotch found out the hard way they weren't ready to be parents. Corbin at least may have ensured Beatrice could maintain her standard of living and have more money for raising a child]].

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Beatrice's first appearance happens in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E02BojackHatesTheTroops "Bojack Hates The Troops"]] during a {{Flashback}}: she serves Butterscotch his breakfast omelet by tossing while subtly guilt-tripping him by demeaning her cooking, then outright accuses him in a passive-aggressive tone that the omelet "is not as good as the ones made by [his] secretary" while reminding him they're married, all with a dismissive tone and in front of little [=BoJack=], whom she barely notices. Then, he calls attention to himself, asking for an omelet as well. Beatrice admits he's the birthday boy after all and goes back to cooking. MoodSwinger EvilMatriarch with a severe LackOfEmpathy....seems about right.

* HairstyleInertia: Ever since she was a little girl Beatrice’s hair has been worn in the same curled/braided style, up until she succumbs to dementia, where most of the curls have come out likely due to her being too frail to keep up with it.

* IndifferentBeauty: Growing up, Beatrice was a beautiful SouthernBelle, but she doesn't appear to have put much stock into it; for example, she rolls her eyes when Corbin tells her she “looks nice” for the hundredth time.

* IWasQuiteALooker: She was a lovely SouthernBelle in her youth and bitter about how she looks now, and uses it to guilt her young son. "You know, I was ''beautiful'' before I got pregnant."

* MockMillionaire: Even after apparently losing most of the family's fortune, Beatrice always made a big deal of her status as OldMoney to her friends whenever they'd encounter at social gatherings. She would even make little [=BoJack=] sing for them "The Lollipop Song" to keep appearances, guilt-tripping him to act by way of emotional blackmail.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: She shares the gap in her front teeth and curled hair with her mother, Honey, and the diamond pattern, fur coloring, and braided mane from her father, Joseph.

[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/butterscotch_horseman_8.png]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a child]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/797d01ab_8fec_49bb_a097_1a5fc8c9c874.png[[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:"[[OneBadMother Don't sit too close to the T.V. It'll make you cruel]].

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote: In her old age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/39f1f27b_526e_4e98_8af5_549f56ba54d4.png[[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:In her middle age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ee1f6947_3468_4bf3_add5_aede5f64d9d3.png[[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26f8b54d_20c1_4e9e_bf4c_8bf1926c3952.png[[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:"[[OneBadMother Don't sit too close to the T.V. It'll make you cruel]]."]]

[[caption-width-right:210:labelnote:In her middle age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ee1f6947_3468_4bf3_add5_aede5f64d9d3.png[[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26f8b54d_20c1_4e9e_bf4c_8bf1926c3952.png[[/labelnote]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote: In her old age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/39f1f27b_526e_4e98_8af5_549f56ba54d4.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:210:labelnote:In her middle age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ee1f6947_3468_4bf3_add5_aede5f64d9d3.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:210:labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26f8b54d_20c1_4e9e_bf4c_8bf1926c3952.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a child]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/797d01ab_8fec_49bb_a097_1a5fc8c9c874.png[[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26f8b54d_20c1_4e9e_bf4c_8bf1926c3952.png[[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:210:"[[OneBadMother Don't sit too close to the T.V. It'll make you cruel]]."Beatrice during BoJack's childhood]]

[[caption-width-right:210:"[[OneBadMother Don't sit too close to the T.V. It'll make you cruel]]."]]

[[quoterright:210:]]

[[quoteright:210:]]

[[caption-width-right:210:[[labelnote:As a child]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/797d01ab_8fec_49bb_a097_1a5fc8c9c874.png%5B%5B/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:150:[[labelnote: In her old age]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/39f1f27b_526e_4e98_8af5_549f56ba54d4.png[[/labelnote]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:150:[[labelnote:As a young adult]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/26f8b54d_20c1_4e9e_bf4c_8bf1926c3952.png[[/labelnote]]]]