Sandbox / Bojack Horseman - Diane Nguyen

Diane Nguyen

"Most people don't get to do the "Brady Bunch" version of what they want. You're in a really good position right now."

^{Click here to see Diane from S 5 E 1 - S 6 E 07} 

^{Click here to see Diane from S 6 E 07 onwards} 

Voiced by: Alison Brie
Debut: "The BoJack Horseman Story: Chapter One"

''"Dear Diane. We are sorry to say that your piece, 'An Open Letter to Open Letters', wasn't right for us, despite its evident merit." Do you know what this means? [...] Someone gave my piece a read and decided against it.

A nerdy socially awkward writer from Boston who is Mr. Peanutbutter's girlfriend, then wife, then ex-wife & BoJack Horseman's good friend. Diane is initially tasked with writing BoJack's memoir, but the two become close throughout, as she spends a lot of time with him and relates to the horse's depression and struggles, as she also suffers similar issues to him.

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• Age-Gap Romance: There is an 11 year age gap between her and Mr. Peanutbutter, her boyfriend and later husband.
• The Alcoholic: Briefly, after returning from Cordovia and crashing at BoJack's, Diane devolves into a drunken mess as a way to cope with the horrors she saw in the derelict country, fear of confronting Mr. Peanutbutter about the state of their marriage and shame of having "abandoned" him.
• All for Nothing:
  • Her campaign against Hank Hippopopalous ends this way. Despite revealing Hank's long history of sexual abuse, the Hollywoo hype machine stamps out Diane's voice until the public gets bored and moves on to something else. Then, when Diane tries to salvage something on a charity mission, that ends up making things even worse. She returns home to Hollywoo undergoing a Heroic BSoD about how she can't seem to do anything right.
  • Discussed with Princess Carolyn in the Season 6 episode "Good Damage." While trying to write her book of essays, Diane goes off on a light-hearted tangent about a young girl named Ivy Tran solving mysteries in a mall, and clearly enjoys writing it. When Princess Carolyn suggests that Diane just write stories like that, Diane says she doesn't want to because that would mean that "all the damage [she] got isn't good damage," and that she would have undergone years of hardship and pain for nothing. Diane wants to write her essays because she wants little girls undergoing the same things she is to feel less alone. Princess Carolyn counters that Diane could do that just as well with a series of light-hearted detective novels for young girls.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Not in the present day, but in her backstory. Diane recalls that in high school, a group of cheerleaders wrote "virgin slut" on her forehead, and when she asked how she could be both, forced her to eat a lipstick.
• Alone in a Crowd: She doesn't like big parties and can often feel uncomfortable by how easily she's overlooked. Mr. Peanutbutter throwing one for her 35th birthday in "After The Party" (and insisting on keeping it alive far beyond the comfortable) is one of the catalysts of their fight.
• Amicable Exes: Zigzagged with Mr. Peanutbutter after their divorce. They try to go about it maturely despite the inevitable awkwardness and Diane even comforts his new girlfriend Pickles, but they end up having sex twice, and after the second time she rejects him wanting to get back together. By "Angela" they are able to play this straight during a phone conversation that's implied to have lasted a couple hours, and they both agree they don’t regret marrying each other.
  • Zigzagged again with Wayne, who she acts suspiciously towards when he writes a Buzzfeed article on Mr. Peanutbutter. She does later reach out to him to leak excerpts of her book on BoJack in order to spite the latter for hating it.
• Anti-Hero:
  • A writer with a strong sense of morality, a no-nonsense attitude willing to fight for the overlooked and apologize when she has gone too far who will nevertheless overstep personal relationships and privacy in her search for the truth embodied in her books, who tries to hype up her sense of worth through stories because of the crushing drudgery of everyday life and has an underlying fear that she may be part of the problem instead of the solution or worse that her work may not be important in the grand scheme of things.
  • In terms of classification, Diane nicely fits in between Type I and Type II of the Sliding Scale Of Anti-Heroes, ricocheting between a Classical Anti-Hero and The Snark Knight. It also ties in the dynamic of the group, since she's not as decisive and dirty as Princess Carolyn or as extreme in the ideological scale as BoJack or Mr. Peanutbutter.
• Asian and Nerdy: Sort of. She's not a stereotypical nerd or TV Genius, but is shown to have intellectual interests and is an acclaimed writer. But on the other hand, the rest of her Vietnamese immigrant family avert this hard, all being a bunch of lazy idiots with no ambitions whatsoever.
• Ascended Fangirl: Being a fan of Horsin' Around as an escape from her horrid family life, Diane eventually grows up to meet and write the biography of its star, BoJack Horseman.
• Audience Surrogate: She reacts as well as a normal person would to the weirdness of Hollywoo, especially when interacting with BoJack or Mr. Peanutbutter.
• Being Good Sucks: Fighting for good causes in a society as shallow and self-serving as Hollywoo sucks, as most people just demonize her as a Straw Feminist and Soapbox Sadie who needs to shut up and go away. A surprising number of episodes end with her giving up her squeaky-clean morals just to find some peace or get along with her friends and coworkers.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Diane, who is attractive enough to fit the Hot Librarian trope, gains a significant amount of weight after being put on anti-depressants, is no less attractive in her presentation nor to her boyfriend Guy.
• Birds of a Feather: With BoJack. They both come from horrible homes and Diane sometimes can be just as cynical as BoJack. Deconstructed in season 3 when Diane explicitly states they bring out the worst in each other because they're so alike.
• Black Sheep: Not literally (since she has a black sheep adoptive brother), but she fits the figurative meaning of the trope, being The Unfavorite in a family full of Jerkasses.
• Boyish Short Hair: Shortly before her divorce with Mr. Peanutbutter is finalized in the beginning of Season Five, she cuts her hair into a short bob style with an undercut. By Season 6B it grows out a little bit. Her hair was also fairly short when she first met Mr. Peanutbutter in 2007.
• Butt-Monkey: Diane came from a family in which she was the most tortured one, with everyone ganging up on her, eventually growing up, moving to Hollywoo and being constantly disillusioned about ideals and people, traumatized by events other people often overlook, constantly ignored and berated and often feels useless and unimportant believing she will never reach her full potential or make an impact on the world.
• Can't Take Criticism: When BoJack sees the finished version of the book Diane's writing about him, he confronts her about it. She is respectful and tries to appeal to him, but when he outright tells her that she did a bad job and to try again, she gets offended, and goes behind his back to tell a friend of hers to leak facts about the book to BuzzFeed so that he has no choice but to let the book get published.
• The Conscience: Usually provides a moral and sensible contrast to BoJack's self-centered, off-the-wall antics and schemes, as well to her husband's obsession with positivity and desire to cling to a perfect reality.
  • Subverted on occassion, and the realization of it is part of Diane's arc. While responsive to obvious abuse or exploitation around her directed at others, her insecurities make it very difficult for her to confront when she is subtly abusive or exploitative to someone or something around her. This is contrasted with BoJack, whose abuses can be obvious or subtle, but of which he is entirely aware.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Diane's upbringing wasn't the best, to say the least. In the present, her mother constantly guilt trips her about leaving her family... a family who did nothing but torment and belittle her. There's also Diane's father, who contrary to what she said to BoJack, was just as abusive as BoJack's parents.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not to BoJack or Princess Carolyn levels, but she can do the occasional quip, often mixed with bluntness and condescending attitude.
  • "The Telescope": When BoJack insults Todd while he's talking about his betrayal of Herb and he asks what they were talking about.
    You were about to tell a story about you being a shitty friend, but then, we got interrupted by you yelling at Todd.
  • "One Trick Pony": When Diane and BoJack compare their reunion after the former gets married to returning from vacation to class, she only has this to say about the ol' school days.
    Yeah, well, I hope the cheerleaders don't stuff me in a locker and write "virgin slut" on my forehead, and then when I ask how I could be both a virgin and a slut, they make me eat a lipstick.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the teen snarky crusader; in this case, becoming all grown up and disillusioned by her future in a corrupt, morally grey business that makes her feel just as an outsider as she was back home. This swift change also shows a much darker motivation beneath the seemingly altruistic desire: recognition and fame from much dumber peers.
• Despair Event Horizon: After realizing that she's not the Intrepid Bookauthor she thought she was and she can't make big a difference as she wants, she spends two months simply wallowing around BoJack's house and being just as pessimistic about life as he is, to the point of driving BoJack towards a regression of his old self.
• The Dutiful Daughter: She returns to her hometown to bury her dad and is the only one to organize the funeral or care to assist. That, despite the fact that her family has never done any favors to her.
• Embarrassing Nickname: She'll always be known as "Cry-ane" by her brothers.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the series, Diane is Happily Married to Guy, somebody who actually likes and respects her, her mental health has improved from taking anti-depressants, and is the successful author of a middle-school mystery series.
• Embarrassing Old Photo: Despite Diane's pleads not to, her brothers end showing BoJack the "Cry-ane" video, which details how they tricked her into believing she had a pen pal named Leo and they later set her up (and filmed her) with a hobo as her homecoming date.
• Establishing Character Moment: Diane's first onscreen appearance is almost unstated, with her coming out behind BoJack during the party, showing her as ''different'' to the rest of Hollywood. The distance and brief talk between her and BoJack show them becoming pretty intimate with each other, with BoJack being able to open up a little. Then we discover that she's Mr. Peanutbutter's girlfriend, highlighting her odd choice of men and becoming the unobtainable for BoJack. Yet, despite hearing BoJack insult Mr. Peanutbutter, she never once calls him out, proving her to be very patient. Plus, she Wrote the Book about Secretariat, BoJack's childhood hero.
• Extreme Doormat: To her family, and as it turns out, in general as compared to the rest of Hollywoo. She really, really hates this part of herself.
• Fatal Flaw: Her significance to get the truth out has also caused harm amongst others. When she tries to prove Hank is guilty, she ends up making herself look bad by the public and turns out she hasn't considered the feelings of her friend BoJack or even her husband.
  • Stefani Stilton spells out near the end of Season 5 that Diane's main problem is she holds herself and others to impossible standards, and then hates herself and feels disappointed with the world for failing to live up to them, and what she needs to do is learn to forgive the flaws in herself and others. It seems her advice sticks, as Diane is slowly able to do just that over both parts of Season 6, and ends the series Happily Married to Nice Guy Guy and the successful author of a middle school detective girl series.
• Fish out of Water: Diane hails from Boston, is an acclaimed writer and a quiet person in general who hates being in the spotlight unless necessary, yet stands firm by what she thinks is right and isn't above wanting to have some fun. However, as the show presents and as she finds out, the dog-eats-dog world of Hollywoo doesn't care for those things, thinking nothing of her as an individual, writer or woman, morality she's ill-equipped to face.
• Forgettable Character: A bit zig-zagged but ultimately Diane's the victim of this trope. For roughly the first two seasons, Princess Carolyn seems to forget that she and Diane have been beyond well introduced to each other and repeatedly starts calls to her with reintroducing herself as if they'd perhaps only briefly spoken enough to exchange contact details. The thrust of the gag is that Diane is forgettable compared to PC's usual assortment of high profile connections.
• Formerly Fit: Gains a significant amount of weight from antidepressants in the second half of Season Six.
• Ghostwriter: In the first season, she's hired to be the ghostwriter for BoJack's much-delayed autobiography. When it finally gets published the following season, Diane is credited as the author.
• Hannibal Lecture: Receives one during her private reunion with Hank Hippopopalous when she tries to convince him to come clean about his charges: Diane doesn't really matter in the grand structure of Hollywoo. Soon, as Hank says, he will be forgiven and all about his case will become ancient history. Her accusations and insistence about it, however, will continue to cause trouble for her and the people she cares about.
• Happily Married:
  • Deconstructed with Mr. Peanutbutter. "Happily" doesn't translate to "totally functional". By season 3, their marriage has become so strained that the "happily" part is questionable at times. Then, in season 4 it seems they still have some opportunity to be together only for their personal issues and building resentment to break the camel's back, making both the "happily" and "married" not forthcoming choices.
  • Played Straight in the Grand Finale with Guy.
• Happy Place: Horsin' Around used to be her refuge when she was little and lived with her insufferable family, as she tells BoJack. No wonder she slipped into watching old episodes of the series when depressed.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: After returning from Cordovia, she crashes BoJack's house, curses and drinks like a sailor and spends her time goofing off and slacking the time away.
• Headbutting Heroes: With Princess Carolyn in "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew". She's also this usually with Mr. Peanutbutter when they both reach a stalemate over what they think they should do. Surprisingly averted with BoJack: be it helping each other through advice, obsessing over similar things or sinking through pits of despair, they always seem on the same page.
• Heroic Bystander: As detailed in Badass Bystander, Diane has become more and more proactive when it comes to issues she considers important to defend, most of which are often overlooked or dismissed by her Hollywoo friends and contemporary. Zigzagged, however, in that while her reasons to do so stems partly from a genuine desire to do some good, they're also desperate attempts to find some major purpose she can dedicate her life on.
• Heroic Wannabe: Diane always wants to make a change. So. Very. Much. However, because of her nature, refusal to compromise, insecurities and general inability to deal with the fallout, she always falls short of achieving it and she won't just quit no matter how inconvenient it is, all to feed her own self-esteem and ego. It doesn't mean she doesn't care about the cause, she just can't help but want to be important while doing good, even if she fails constantly. Still, she has scored a few victories here and there.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: After denouncing Hank Hippopopalous of sexual abuse with his secretaries, she is booed and even threatened by society.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Stefani Stilton in season 4.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Deconstructed. Diane's miserable experiences were fun to someone: her brothers and parents. To her...not so much.
• Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: When trying to justify her actions from "The Shot" up to "Out To Sea" toward Princess Carolyn and later to Mr. Peanutbutter, this is all she can come up with: telling PC to shut up and PB that she's talking to a a refugee (and then, imitating a refugee's voice to keep the charade going.)
• Hollywood Healing: Played With regarding her trauma after the Cordovia situation. Diane does eventually recover rather fast, but it takes her taking long naps, distract herself from the issue and even falling into a depressive state at BoJack's house to even consider moving on with her life again.
• Hollywood New England: According to "Live Fast, Diane Nguyen", she hails from Boston, since her family is based on obnoxious stereotypes from Boston.
• Hot Librarian: While lacking the bun, Diane has this down to a science. An attractive, yet reserved and moral woman who's clothes barely manage to hide any beauty, has a nerd vibe to her, prefers to concentrate on work rather than to have fun, can be kind of a wet blanket to her husband, and has more than one man interested in her? Diane rocks this trope.
• A House Divided: Increasingly as the series goes on:
  • The first major one was about Diane's desire to go to Cordovia to work with Sebastian St. Claire which was postponed at Mr. Peanutbutter's urgence in "Later".
  • Then, a fight breaks out in "After The Party" when Diane explodes over Mr. Peanutbutter needling her on facts and decisions about what she knows and wants.
  • During Diane's battle against Hank, she tries to get Mr. Peanutbutter's support on the subject, but Mr. Peanutbutter, in order to keep his job, is forced to side with the network and tries to dissuade her from continuing. Their diverging ideas and agendas only further the wedge between them.
  • The lack of communication between them, Diane's inability to express her feelings and Mr. Peanutbutter's pushiness masked in a cheerful façade in "Love And/Or Marriage" are also big factors in the somewhat stagnated process of couple's therapy. Once Diane takes some Gush, she expresses herself more openly mending the damage.
  • While staying in the Labrador Peninsula, Diane notices something is troubling Captain Peanutbutter, PB's brother. When she tries telling him, he dismisses her worries turning angry and even insulting her when she keeps insisting on the subject.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Her new boyfriend Guy in Season six is a bison and is much larger than her
• Hypocrite: In the first episode, she told BoJack you're responsible for your own happiness. When it came to the issue of Sarah Lynn's life, she is quick to pin everything that happened to her on everyone else's shoulder's, particularly BoJack's.
  • Also in the first episode, she's explicitly introduced as a ghostwriter and offers to BoJack that she can write his memoirs as either a shallow piece for good PR, or a sincere look at who he is as a person; whichever he's looking for. Once the book is finished and BoJack disapproves, however, she not only leaks part of it to the press and defends her motives for doing so, (although her breach of ethics is acknowledged) but her name is explicitly attached to it and the book is written from her perspective. (Which, while certainly a much more equitable arrangement given it's her work, is also a breach of ethics for her position.)
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: She becomes this to Flip after he cracks under the pressure of writing Philbert. She takes over and essentially ghostwrites the rest of the first season, and it's implied that her efforts to make Philbert more relatable were a major contributing factor in the show's success. Needless to say, the writing of the show takes a major dip after her departure.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Despite her constant arguments that she's happy the way she is, a large part of Diane's Character Arc is her desire to leave a mark in the world in a meaningful way, and her increasing sense that she's wasting her life writing typical celebrity bullshit and settling into a marriage because of a fear of independence instead of chasing after what she truly wants.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Zig-Zagged. BoJack and Diane's relationship is characterized first and foremost as a professional one, with the occasional chummy moment like the "Stiller" puns based on a magazine in the plane from Boston to Hollywoo or simply talking in an honest matter of fact way about their insecurities and problems. Once she announces her compromise to Mr. Peanutbutter, things start getting a bit awkward around them in spite of their professed camaraderie. Eventually, during a tiny breath in which Diane is interviewing BoJack for the autobiography she's ghostwriting, BoJack (who unbeknownst to Diane was the one who pulled the "D" sign stunt rather than Mr. Peanutbutter) congratulates her over her engagement, as they resume their pun-based comments as a relaxing exercise to resume normal routine. Once asked about what he thinks, BoJack tells Diane that accepting the "D" doesn't sound like a Diane thing, more like a Mr. Peanutbutter thing. Diane, genuinely curious, asks what would be a Diane thing. He simply answers that it would be a more personal gesture like giving her "a collection of photos and e-mails" or "an iPod with her favorite podcasts" or "a practical houseplant". When Diane gently needles him further about it, he tries to dance around the issues by saying she should "be with someone who knows [her]". Diane implicitly asks him "Like who?" as if she's expecting BoJack to tell her how he really feels. Before he can answer, however, the recorder clicks and they both remember they're still in an interview, so BoJack quickly changes the subject.
• Important Haircut: After her divorce from Mr. Peanutbutter in season 5, she decides to renew herself by cutting her long hair into more of a bob style. Of course, she doesn't seem to be having much luck playing it as "different" or "important" since she feels just the same.....
• It's for a Book: Diane is hired by Penguin Publishing to help BoJack finish his biography, since he has let the publication slip without presenting anything. As part of it, she starts following him, interviewing him and hanging around his house in order to write him in the most realistic way.
• It's All About Me: Her various journalistic crusades and moral high ground misadventures are less about the greater good and more about trying to inject meaning and happiness into her otherwise mundane and meandering life. Part of her Character Development in season 6 is shedding this once and for all by writing material that makes her happy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. Normally a Nice Girl, Diane isn't someone you would completely trust or like either when she'd become sufficiently convinced that something deserves her undivided attention. She's had more than enough selfish moments, including sinking to near-BoJack levels of jerkassery (hence why they can sympathize so well with one another): often being annoyed enough with her husband to ignore him or simply sidetrack anything involving him in some capacity if it hinders her, fighting with people who have been nothing but accommodating to her because they stand against what she believes in, the list goes on. But likewise, she's not a bad person herself and can pedal back a bit if she goes too far.
• Jerkass Realization: When BoJack mentions how she wrote the book without concern about his privacy, Diane realizes that she never stopped to consider the effect it would have, if she should even do it and that she never really saw anything wrong with it afterwards, despite the signs.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Diane didn't use profanity as much as BoJack but throughout the seasons, she became more frequent in cursing to the point that she was the first main character in the show to use the f-word out of anger.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: A twofer example in her relationship with BoJack, since while they have companions and contacts, neither of them has true friends in Hollywoo. Well, except Todd but that's not saying much.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Rare Female Example. Diane has always been introverted and distantly friendly, which has drawn her to Mr. Peanutbutter, due to being her polar opposite. As far as friends are concerned, BoJack is the only one she has in Hollywoo, (well besides Roxy and Wayne, but she hardly frequents them anymore) and their mutual problems and discussion about them have gone a long way in helping her overcome those problems. So has her interactions with Princess Carolyn in a professional sense especially in coming to terms with the craft of Hollywoo and Todd in the sense of accepting her more relaxed side and willing to simply let the dice roll. The thing is unlike PB, Diane has goals beyond just being comfortable with what she's got and is often exasperated by the lengths he goes to express his love for her, leading to often try to do activities just involving herself to keep her individuality; as for BoJack, his extreme cynicism has made Diane fearful of what she might become if she gives in to much weariness or too much work with no life outside of it, yet their mutual similarities have become more pronounced; Princess Carolyn's advice has led her to become more comfortable, pragmatic and willing to stretch her moral ethics through the murky workplace of L.A. and Todd in a way has influenced her to take things more slowly, sometimes to the point of becoming a passive participant in situations which could use some of her experience. What reconstructs this trope is that give or take these downfalls, Diane has developed into a more assertive person, for better or worse.
• Lovable Nerd: Often does a lot of research involving her books and has deep knowledge about a wide range of topics, but she's far from gawky and has quite a lot of quirky and endearing traits.
• Morality Pet: Of the entire cast, Diane is the sole person that BoJack is the nicest to.
• Most Writers Are Human: While she's not the only writer, she's one of the main characters and one of the only human characters, besides Todd, in the main cast.
• Most Writers Are Male: Gender Flipped and played with. She's not the only writer in Hollywoo, but she's the most featured and besides her ex, Wayne; one of the few writers with a sense of moral.
• Most Writers Are Writers: Pretty self-explanatory at this point, but In-Universe, Diane is an acclaimed non-fiction writer.
• Ms. Vice Girl: Being the most moral and good natured character out of the main five, Diane still possesses some flaws like often letting her continuous search for the truth get the best out of her without taking into account people's feelings, privacy or even opinion on the matter or allowing it to consume her whole attention. Not to say about her constant depression and avoidance of certain horrible truths. Nevertheless, these do not detract from her sympathetic persona.
• Named After Someone Famous: While bonding with Kinko, Diane mentions that her name means "my parents used to enjoy watching Cheers".
• Nerd Glasses: Being a nerd, she certainly has ones, although it's downplayed since she's more of an intellectual.
• Nerds Are Sexy: She's quite good-looking with her Nerd Glasses and proves to be a Dude Magnet when BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter start fighting over her.
• Nice Girl: She's never completely mean to anyone and is one of the few, besides Todd, to show any genuine sympathy towards BoJack, although she's more than willing to call him out if needed. Although this can be downplayed when personal issues, ideals and self-importance comes to the front. See Jerk with a Heart of Gold above.
• The Nondescript: Invoked by herself, of all people. Being a pretty meekly person herself, Diane has always felt uncomfortable when having to deal with multitudes or social gatherings. Therefore, she has made a priority to never be the center of attention, always scooting by when at big parties, tries to avoid interacting with everyone, not be noticed at all and is reasonably upset when a reality TV camera crew is filming in her house and invading her personal space. Out of sight, out of mind, as long as she's easily forgettable and doesn't leave a mark, it's okay for her. Nobody remembers her, she is no one of importance, end of story. Unfortunately, as "Hank After Dark" shows, staying out of the spotlight and remaining there means that whenever you want to make an actually important point to the general public, your lack of reputation may be a hindrance rather than helpful.
• Not So Above It All: She has moments of selfishness and even craziness, as well. Especially when it comes to comparisons between her and BoJack.
• Only Sane Employee: During her brief stint at VIM in season 3. She's the only one who's allowed to (badly) do her job since Princess Carolyn seems to be the one who does most of the work by herself and protests about the shameless way PC and Sextina are using the abortion scandal.
• Only Sane Woman: Deconstructed. Diane is this out of the main cast and is certainly the most level-headed out of them. But she's far from perfect with a lot of neuroses and flaws that only shine through when she's around other, more well balanced people.
• Raised by Dudes: Sure, her mother had a certain part in her upbringing, but Diane's childhood was spent at the service and mercy of her 4 brothers and very old-fashioned dad. As such, their impact on her and her development was pretty much influenced in both good and bad ways: for one, her victimization at their hands has made her a pretty reclusive, quiet person with a desire to make a change in society; on the other side, their manly attitude bordering on Anti-Intellectualism has rubbed on her. She clearly loves reading, books and information precisely for the same reasons they loathe them, yet Pride and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder rear their ugly heads over and over, with her ironically hot-headedness, dressing code bordering on tomboy, uninterested on female behavior proportionately inverse to female ideals and haughty reasoning clearly traits inherited by her in part due to her family, for several reasons.
• Running Gag: Throughout the series, Diane's ringtone is portrayed by different personalities of public radio, such as Ira Glass, Sarah Koenig, and Terry Gross.
• Shrinking Violet: She tries to avoid overstepping boundaries, often struggles to find the correct thing to say, apologizes even through she doesn't need to and often avoids large crowds and parties to not get embarrassed.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Hard to tell if it's really blue, but she's mostly a meek, nerdy person with a dark shade of blue hair, uncomfortable with a lot of people and prefers to remain with the traditional.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Despite her desire to make a change and being more often than not for good reasons, Diane gets the wrong idea that her opinion and the fact that she's right alone is enough for people to listen to her regardless of how truly influential she is or how much it can be in other people's interests not to. She's had to learn this in the most painful ways.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: An intellectual Vietnamese-American woman with quite good looks who uses glasses. She's also one of the more level-headed members of the main cast.
• Soapbox Sadie: Despite her generally introverted personality, she'll push hard for worthy causes. Sadly, as the series moves forward, this is presented as not always being a good thing, as Diane hasn't yet realized the difference between "supporting" and "being part of it".
  • Season 2, in particular, presents two instances where this is deconstructed - first, when she's trying to bring attention to Hank Hippopolous' crimes, she gets nothing but vitriol for smearing a beloved figure, and is finally asked by Mr. Peanutbutter (who'd been reading the various death threats sent to her by mail) why she has to be the one fighting for it when she has no personal stake. The second is when she travels to war-torn Cordovia to "make a difference", but is completely overwhelmed by the aftermath of the refugee camp getting hit with a bomb, going home in disgrace because she couldn't "walk the walk".
• Straw Feminist: Zig-zagged a bunch and often Played for Laughs, but ultimately a deconstruction. While Diane is a proud feminist and a staunch advocate for social equality, she bears no ill will towards men and harbors no spite or prejudice towards any of the male characters, and she has plenty of other interests and hobbies that she enjoys other than advocating social justice. This, however, is not how the public perceives her, due to the fact that her stubbornness and self-righteousness showcase her as an angry, ranting Straw Feminist on MSNBSea whenever she tries to raise awareness to otherwise good talking points that have actual merit when discussing social issues in the US and is met with resistance, such as when she tried to expose Hank Hippopopalous and the various times he sexually harassed his assistants. In Season 4, she begins working for a feminist blog and is initially discouraged by the fact that no one wants to read her serious articles on social issues, to the point where she has to resort to writing clickbait articles with actual, serious discussion woven in just to get people to read her work. As Mr. Peanutbutter starts to support controversial stances on issues such as fracking and gun control, Diane publicly defies him by writing these articles targeted at him, and even arguing with him directly on the news, once again showing her self-righteous, argumentative side when she tries to explain the benefits of gun ownership, particularly for women. When a female mass-shooter causes an uproar in the media, she fights for the right to gun ownership when California legislators start drafting gun control bills, but only after a female mass-shooter attacks following several attacks from male shooters. Instead of listening to her words and addressing the cultural problems that lead to women wanting to own guns in the first place, the male lawmakers decide to instead ban all guns in the state of California.
  Princess Caroline: Wow, Diane! You just passed sensible gun legislation.
  Diane: I can't believe this country hates women more than it loves guns.
• Took a Level in Cynic: By the end of season 2, it's clear that she has become more jaded about her capability on leaving an impact on the world as she had first assumed.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While not a drastic change, Diane was clearly more meek and sweet-natured in the first season. Her more self-centered and stubborn sides become clearer with the seasons, but she's still a Nice Girl for the most part.
• Too Much Alike: She and BoJack both come from bad homes, suffer from depression, and desperately seek out importance and approval. When Diane returns from Cordovia, she ends up in a depressive spiral and spends most of her time getting drunk and high with him, which ruins BoJack's relationship with Wanda (leading him to run away to New Mexico) and keeps Diane stuck in a rut. After this, Diane tries to distance herself from BoJack, believing they bring out the worst in each other, but keeps getting stuck working with him until she moves away from California in Season 6.
• Toxic Friend Influence: After staying at BoJack's house for several months after returning from Cordovia feeling like a failure, Diane decides to put some distance between them in Season 3, as she feels they're Too Much Alike and they bring out the worst in each other. (Or rather, he in her.) This is why she ends their friendship for good in the Series Finale. His unspoken expectation that she be this perfect person who could "save him" from himself put so much pressure on her to be responsible for his happiness and wellbeing, then feel like a failure when she inevitably couldn't, was part of why she self-destructed over the series.
• Undying Loyalty: To BoJack. These two are extremely loyal, compassionate and understanding to each other, making them such an inseparable pair. They even share free insightful advice and their own feelings.
  • Season 5 downplays this by showing that while Diane does legitimately care for BoJack, she has her limits and can lash out against him when he crosses the line. Still, she is ultimately the person who finally convinces BoJack to seek professional help and even opts to drive him to the rehab center herself, although in the series finale the two have what Diane wants to be their last conversation together.
• Unexplained Accent: Even in a flashback to her childhood there's not a trace of a Boston accent.
• Unfazed Everyman: Despite being an Audience Surrogate in the way of Hollywoo epic scale eccentricities, Diane is otherwise calm and straight-faced in absurd situations like a lemur catching on fire in "Prickly Muffin" or the fact that she's dating an anthropomorphic Labrador. Varying from episode to episode go from a selective Weirdness Censor or a harsh case of Scully Syndrome.
• The Unfavorite: She has a lot of hard-drinking Bostonian brothers who do absolutely nothing with their lives, and yet Diane is still the one their mother criticizes the most. It seems to stem from their mother's belief that anything out of Hollywoo is toxic. She's not entirely incorrect about that, but Diane's attempts to improve herself and have her family tell her that they're proud of her is baffling to BoJack since they never give her even the slightest bit of encouragement.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: A tad, really, since her motives and personality remain sympathetic, being her actions and selfishness what drags her to this trope. Of course, in keeping with the Cerebus Syndrome of the series, it's been slowly deconstructed through her interactions with Mr. Peanutbutter.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Diane is the reserved, aloof Uptight who is married to the spontaneous, energetic Wild Mr. Peanutbutter.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With BoJack. Despite their volleying insults and frequent frustration with each other, they're inseparable and support each other fiercely. As Roxy notes, that they're willing to go that far for each other despite friction and BoJack is the first person Diane goes whenever there's trouble might indicate something else...
• The Watson: Being a ghostwriter assigned to write his memories, Diane's questions and reactions, as well as commentaries to BoJack's Flashbacks lead to the show portraying an increasingly clear portrait of his persona, as well as multiple neuroses and obstacles, as the two of them eventually get to known each other.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Despite denying it earlier, this is her motivation for all the abuse she takes from her family: She knows it's futile, but she wants some recognition from their part for all the things she has done.
  Diane: The stupid thing is, even now I still just want them to be proud of me and think I did good. Is that really stupid?
• Wet Blanket Wife: A sympathetic, justified example. Diane can be a little pessimistic about Mr. Peanutbutter's plans and promises, but when you are married to a hyperactive, easily distracted and Secretly Selfish Labrador, being cautious is always welcomed.
• White Sheep: She's the only member of her family that is actually (relatively) well-adjusted and responsible. As such, they treat her with mockery and contempt.