| 1 | [[center:[-[[Characters/BoJackHorseman Main Character Index]] | '''Main Characters''' ([[Characters/BoJackHorsemanBoJackHorseman BoJack Horseman]]) | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanTheMainGroupFamilyMembers Main Characters' Family Members]] ([[Characters/BoJackHorsemanBeatriceHorseman Beatrice Horseman]]) | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanTheMainGroupSocialCircles Main Characters' Social Circles]] | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanLAResidents Los Angeles Residents]] | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanHollywooTVMovieCrews TV/Movie Crews]] | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanHollywooBusinesses LA Businesses]] | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanWorksOfFiction Works of Fiction]]-]]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1614551607_1092.jpg]] |
| 4 | [[caption-width-right:350:The main cast in their natural state. (L-R) [=BoJack=], Diane, Todd, Princess and Mister]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | The five central protagonists of ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman''. |
| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | %%[[folder:General tropes about all of them]] |
| 11 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | [[folder:[=BoJack=] Horseman]] |
| 14 | For tropes related to him, [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanBoJackHorseman see here]]. |
| 15 | [[/folder]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[folder:Princess Carolyn]] |
| 18 | !!!'''Princess Carolyn (or "PC" for short)''' |
| 19 | [[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/princesscarolyn.png]] |
| 20 | [[caption-width-right:190:''"[[BrutalHonesty You look like a pile of crap ate a second pile of crap and then crapped out a third pile of crap.]]"'']] |
| 21 | [[quoteright:150:[[labelnote:In 2007]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4c0fee35_843a_4670_8fad_a06e8e37b7b1.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 22 | [[quoteright:150:[[labelnote:In the 90s]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b79ebc5c_f97e_4196_bb48_fb0735086e2d.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 23 | [[quoteright:150:[[labelnote:As a teenager]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/63288c4b_3c4c_444f_9137_6fa88ec7a073.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 24 | |
| 25 | |
| 26 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AmySedaris |
| 27 | ->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E01TheBojackHorsemanStoryChapterOne "The [=BoJack=] Horseman Story: Chapter One"]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | An anthropomorphic pink Persian cat, who is [=BoJack=]'s successful talent agent and also (formerly) his on-and-off girlfriend. She was one of the top agents working for [[Characters/BoJackHorsemanHollywooBusinesses Vigor]], until she founded her own management company VIM. She is an incredibly pragmatic yet good-natured individual who prides herself on being able to separate her personal life from her professional life, for the most part. |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | * NinetiesHair: She had "The Rachel" in flashbacks to the 90s. |
| 32 | * AloofAlly: Usually when dealing with one of [=BoJack=]'s schemes, PC will be the first one to point out [[ZanyScheme how stupid it sounds]] and declare she doesn't care at all, [[SarcasticDevotee while still helping]]. |
| 33 | * AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Her fur is all pink, a hair color definitely not seen in real life. |
| 34 | * AmicableExes: She maintains friendly relations with [=BoJack=] even when they are not actively dating. In the final season, she sticks by him longer than any of his other friends. |
| 35 | * AntiEducationMama: Princess Caroline's mother fought her attempts to go to college and make something of herself, both because she feared they could not afford tuition and because she resented the implication that being a housecleaner wasn't good enough for her daughter. She finally relented after a plan to push Princess Caroline into a loveless marriage to the son of the rich family she worked for fell through. |
| 36 | * AntiHero: She is a self-involved agent who will not hesitate to throw someone under the train if [[FallGuy the person]] can be used as a [[TheScapegoat scapegoat]], not above using dirty tactics to get what she wants or fish some possible clients, but deep down, she is not a bad person. |
| 37 | * AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Time and time again, she has had the chance (and valid reasons) to drop [=BoJack=] as a client, yet has never done it. As much as he claims that they're just really lonely and hang onto each other for solace, she obviously cares about his well-being. [[spoiler: For his part, he has admitted that he ''does'' love her in as much as he can love anyone and even that is not enough to keep him from cutting professional ties with her in season 3.]] |
| 38 | * BehindEveryGreatMan: [=BoJack=] might be the one living his life, but PC is the one pulling the strings, mostly because he can't take care completely of himself. |
| 39 | * BeingPersonalIsntProfessional: PC prides herself in being able to separate her professional and personal lives. She can even oscillate between two different opinions depending on each of them. Coming to terms with the fact that this pride is completely misplaced is a big part of her arc. |
| 40 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. While Princess Carolyn tries to appear friendly and personable around [[TeenPregnancy Sadie]] in "The Amelia Earhart Story", Sadie loses respect for her when she sees her chewing out her coworkers and clients over the phone, as well as her [[ManipulativeBitch sleazy sales tactics]], and ultimately calls her out for acting elitist just because she [[SmallTownBoredom managed to leave town]]. It's downplayed because Princess Carolyn [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold really is a caring person]] underneath her snarky exterior, even if she struggles to show it. |
| 41 | * CatsAreSnarkers: She is a pink Persian, and ''very'' snarky. |
| 42 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Oh, fish!" (usually when something is VERY messed up.) |
| 43 | * CharacterDevelopment: Princess Carolyn becomes more practical as time goes on. |
| 44 | * ChekhovsSkill: A common RunningGag in the series, PC sports quite a talent for coming up with tongue twisters on the spot. Season 6 reveals that she tends to use them as a mnemonic device, and turns out her baby Ruthie loves to hear them. |
| 45 | * ChosenConceptionPartner: Averted. Early in the series, it was made clear that she was keen on having a kid with [=BoJack=], but it was very made clear that he wasn't pleased with the idea. |
| 46 | -->'''Police Officer''': Step away from the stolen vehicle, sir!\ |
| 47 | '''[=BoJack=]''': No, no, no. Misunderstanding, officer. I was running away from my girlfriend whom I don't respect enough to have a baby with. |
| 48 | * TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: As PC delicately puts it to Diane: |
| 49 | -->'''Diane''': All right, but why are you helping me?\ |
| 50 | '''Princess Carolyn''': Because my life is a mess right now and I compulsively take care of other people when I don't know how to take care of myself.\ |
| 51 | '''Diane''': Oh. |
| 52 | * ConsummateLiar: Be it formulating a story out of the top of her head to pass up as an old friend of a dead guy to pretending to laugh even if she doesn't feel like it, she always has a way of bullshitting her way through bad pickles. |
| 53 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: As a child, she grew up in a poor family and covered for her alcoholic mother at work as a maid when she was drunk. [[spoiler:It is revealed in "Ruthie", that before getting pregnant by Ralph twice and miscarrying, she had three other miscarriages in the past, her first one being at eighteen from her mother's employer's son.]] |
| 54 | * {{Determinator}}: Princess Carolyn has proven time and time again, that no matter how much pain or trauma she suffers, she never gives up and always lands on her feet. |
| 55 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: Princess Carolyn's first onscreen appearance is in a {{Flashback}}, [[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim wanting to break with [=BoJack=] while he's completely not paying attention]], portraying them as incompatible, with Princess Carolyn putting in most of the work, showing her as [[LoveMartyr a pretty devoted, but uncorresponding romantic partner]]. And then [=BoJack=] throwing her out of a moving car only for her to land on her feet shows how she [[XanatosGambit improvises]] and [[TheAce recovers well,]] also because [[FurryReminder she's a cat.]] Later, when they do break up, Princess Carolyn calls him in [[DoubleThink a friendly tone as his agent, despite the rude treatment [=BoJack=] shoves her way]], showing her as [[ConsummateProfessional professional]] and [[BeingPersonalIsntProfessional pragmatic]]. Then, it turns out [=BoJack=]'s one of her less remunerative clients, again confusing love with work. |
| 56 | * EveryoneHasStandards: Up till the point when she adopted Ruthie, Princess Carolyn has desperately wanted a child. However, when the adoptive mothers decide not to give their child, she accepts their decision. Also, despite calling out Diane for wanting an abortion, it is out of jealousy, and Princess Carolyn otherwise accepts Diane's decision. |
| 57 | * ExhaustedEyebags: She has had visible bags under her eyes ever since her early 20s, likely due to her workaholic attitude. |
| 58 | * FamilyVersusCareer: Deals with this in Season 6. She wants to be the perfect agent, business owner, and mother, but tends to ignore the latter in favour of work. She is overworking herself by choice as a means of generating self-satisfaction and feels guilty for loving her work too much, but at the same time took great efforts to adopt her daughter Ruthie and is more positively involved in her life than any other parent in the show besides Gekko, Rutabaga, Kelsey, Guy, and Hollyhock's dads. |
| 59 | * FeminineWomenCanCook: Whenever she is with [=BoJack=] and [[OnAgainOffAgainBoyfriend even when she is not]], she is usually the one making breakfast, courtesy of being an early riser. She later reveals she learned how to cook while constantly having to cover for her mother at her job as a live-in maid for a rich family. |
| 60 | * FurryReminder: She takes her coffee with ''several cartons''' worth of milk, and she prides herself on "always landing on her feet" as cats are said to do. |
| 61 | * GirlbossFeminist: Currently provides the page quote. While she's a highly respectable [[SelfMadeMan self-made woman]] and once suggests rebranding ''Ms. Taken'' as a feminist film in the wake of a mass shooting committed by a woman, she often fails to practice what she preaches if it means she can benefit from it, such as trying to cast the disgraced [[DomesticAbuse Vance Waggoner]] in ''Philbert'', a show she produces. |
| 62 | * GoGetterGirl: Shown in "The Telescope" during the {{Flashback}}, being a dutiful secretary to [=BoJack=]'s first agent, whom she probably replaced once he retired, and proves to be a [[TheSocialExpert social expert]] when flirting in a friendly tone with [=BoJack=] over the phone. [[spoiler:As it turns out, this trait of hers started all the way back when she was a little kitten and, not all of it was by choice. Rather, necessity. [[WackyParentSeriousChild Tragic necessity.]]]] |
| 63 | * GoodIsNotSoft: If she calls you out, she will have a list of good reasons to do so. Don't think of justifying yourself, she won't want to hear it. If you are behaving like an idiot, she ''will call you exactly that'' and send you on your way. She has good reasons and intentions, but she won't be a pushover. |
| 64 | * GoshDangItToHeck: She's not averse to swearing, but her CharacterCatchphrase for when things go really wrong is a much milder "Oh, fish!" |
| 65 | * GuileHeroine: Crossed with TheFace. Whenever there is some talking, negotiation or dealing the group has to do, Princess Carolyn is always at the front, detailing the conditions, the basic requirements and bargaining with the other representatives in order to get the most beneficial deal she can make. |
| 66 | * HadToBeSharp: Being a calculating, imposing woman is a requirement for an agent. And Princess Carolyn has had to resort to some underhanded tactics to keep her job or get what she wants. |
| 67 | * HighPoweredCareerWoman: The show pulls a DeconReconSwitch of this trope through Princess Carolyn, who starts the show off as a straight example: always on the move, continuously thinking of new plans and ways to clean up after [=BoJack=]'s messes as his manager, a woman who [[TheDeterminator always lands on her feet]] even if the worse should happen. The show later explores the toll such a lifestyle has taken on her, as she has little personal life or bonds with those outside of her job. She tries to [[spoiler:have a baby later on with then-boyfriend Ralph Stilton only to miscarry due to her older age and low fertility. However, by the end of the series, she has adopted the child she's always wanted and is married to her former assistant Judah, the only person who takes work just as seriously as she does and is more than willing to support her any way he can]]. |
| 68 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Despite one of her major BerserkButton being unappreciated for her status as HyperCompetentSidekick, Princess Carolyn deliberately sabotaged her assistant Lora’s attempts at getting promoted to ensure that she stuck around. |
| 69 | * InconsistentSpelling: Her name is Princess Caro'''lyn''', but in some foreign versions of the show, like the Japanese dub, her name is incorrectly rendered as "Princess Caro'''line'''" instead. |
| 70 | * KnightInSourArmor: Deep down, she has absolutely no hope of ever finding solace in any relationship. Not that that will stop her from trying. |
| 71 | * LawOfInverseFertility: The only one of the main cast who actually wants kids and she's had ''six'' miscarriages. [[spoiler:Eventually, she chooses to adopt instead.]] |
| 72 | * LikeParentLikeSpouse: Her relationship with [=BoJack=] is pretty clearly a recreation of her relationship with her mother. (Another LoveHungry bitter alcoholic who constantly made messes Princess Carolyn had to clean up.) |
| 73 | * TheMadnessPlace: Usually, her best moments and flashes of tactical genius shine after going through emotional breakdowns, days of reflexion about what she wants, disaster going through her personal and professional life, failed relationships coming to an end or instances of FeelingTheirAge and almost losing her job because of it. Once Princess Carolyn's out of her funk, she comes up with CrazyEnoughToWork plans or [[XanatosGambit Xanatos Gambits]] that put her back in the game. |
| 74 | * MarriedToTheJob: She pours herself into her work to the point that she turns 40 while she's pulling an all-nighter at the office, all of her romantic relationships go nowhere, and she always finds her best personal satisfaction at work. As such, Princess Carolyn remains devoted to her job, mostly because it's the only place she can find a modicum of control. |
| 75 | * MsViceGirl: Was more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold in season 1 but becomes this in season 2 onward. Through all her faults, she is still a caring and dedicated person. |
| 76 | * MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: When dating [=BoJack=], Princess Carolyn would often hint the possibility of having a baby. Later, her desire to have a baby (and her medical difficulties carrying one to term) become a major part of her character arc. |
| 77 | * MyInstinctsAreShowing: On occasion, Princesss Carolyn gets signs of FurryReminder in extreme situations; hissing when [=BoJack=] complains that she's in his house making breakfast or crouching on all fours and jumping out the window when she and Todd are cornered by the police about the David Boreanaz scam. |
| 78 | * NonStandardCharacterDesign: While every other anthropomorphic animal in the series has realistic coloration, she is bright pink. |
| 79 | * OddFriendship: She and Todd turn out to be remarkably good roommates despite their diametrically opposed personalities. |
| 80 | * OldMaid: A central part of her character. Turning 40 is practically reaching old age in Hollywood due to the high standards in beauty and perfection, making her chances of finding a suitor in her environment increasingly unlikely. The fact that she believes that she has wasted her life in bad relationships doesn't help. Later subverted. |
| 81 | * OpportunisticBastard: As part of the job description, Princess Carolyn will never waste any advantage or opportunity that is presented to her, be it taking over an illegal operation and involving several of her resources to turn into a prolific scam, crashing a funeral to attract new clients by faking compassion, taking advantage of abortions campaigns and mass shootings to gain positive publicity for her clients, or promoting unsatisfied assistants to avoid further strikes. |
| 82 | * PennyAmongDiamonds: {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in her {{backstory}}. The youngest of all of her siblings, PC covered her mother’s job as a maid within a rich family’s mansion. As she describes it years later, such aristocrats were the living image of {{Idle Rich}}es and flaunted their wealth and excesses without shame in front of a young kitten whose living condition were considerably worse than normal and had to clean up after them in a daily basis, no doubt from the remains they left carelessly and could afford to do. Such dissonance between what an idealized lifestyle would look like next to how other people would disregard it without any thought and how someone like her, someone who could give good use to such fortune, had to live through alongside her family was the catalyst for her current {{Workaholic}} nature. |
| 83 | * PluckyOfficeGirl: Princess Carolyn's portrayed as a competent, strong-willed agent who is constantly hindered by her personal issues and the casual machismo and incompetence in Vigor, the company in which she works until Season 2. |
| 84 | * RagsToRiches: As [=BoJack=] lampshades, she went "from a daughter of a maid to head of [her] own company". |
| 85 | * RelationshipRevolvingDoor: Princess Carolyn and [=BoJack=] are always going back and forth between seemingly breaking up for good and returning to give it one more shot. {{Justified}} since, as he explains himself, they're not really in love, just craving to communicate with someone, basically hanging onto each other since there's no one better around. |
| 86 | * SarcasticDevotee: She is dismissive and impatient with [=BoJack=]. Still, she will always be there to get his back. |
| 87 | * SelfMadeWoman: She founded, owns, and runs the manager company VIM since Season 3. |
| 88 | * ShorterMeansSmarter: According to model sheets, she stands at only 4'9" (145 cm) out of heels, but she's by far the most level-headed and consistently competent of the main characters. |
| 89 | * SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: She's tired of fooling around and wants to enter a steady and serious relationship. It turns out to be a lot harder than she thought, especially with the demands of her job. [[spoiler:Later, she fulfills this goal when she began dating and finally married the reliable and loyal Judah Mannowdog]]. |
| 90 | * TheSocialExpert: She has excellent people skills and is very good at figuring out what motivates her clients. One of her key advantages over other agents is that she actually takes the time to learn her clients' interests, so she knows exactly the trump card to pull out to get them to do what she wants. |
| 91 | * TeenPregnancy: [[spoiler:When she was eighteen, she dated Cooper Thomas Rodgers Wallace III, a wealthy football player at her high school, and got pregnant by him. She briefly angsts about what to do now that she's having a baby, but a convenient miscarriage makes the decision for her.]] |
| 92 | * TongueTwister: Every once in a while, other characters say tongue twisters, but Princess Carolyn uses this as her trademark. According to Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Princess Carolyn's voice actress, Amy Sedaris, complained about the tongue twisters, and as a result, the writers gave her the most. In fact, the tongue twisters come in handy in "The New Client" when she uses them as a mnemonic device, and tells them to her baby to calm her down. |
| 93 | * TookALevelInKindness: Becomes kinder and more sympathetic towards others after season 1. |
| 94 | * UnusualEuphemism: "Oh, fish!" when she is angry or has just realized something unpleasant. |
| 95 | * {{Workaholic}}: She works all the time. Partially, because there is really nothing else in her life. But even after she develops a life outside her job, she still is career-oriented and enjoys her fast-paced hectic lifestyle. |
| 96 | [[/folder]] |
| 97 | |
| 98 | [[folder:Diane Nguyen]] |
| 99 | !!!'''Diane Nguyen''' |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/df150a95_cd14_486e_a214_cb59b8a069a2.png]] |
| 102 | [[caption-width-right:150:''"[[PsychologicalProjection Most people don't get to do the "Brady Bunch" version of what they want]]. [[KnightInSourArmor You're in a really good position right now.]]"'']] |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[caption-width-right:150:[[labelnote: Click here to see Diane from S5E1 - S6E07]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dff943ee_fb1d_4c77_8b13_2f36c1121eaf.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 105 | [[caption-width-right:150:[[labelnote: Click here to see Diane from S6E07 onwards]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7a60601e_ccea_4479_8b76_891e04accd64.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 106 | |
| 107 | |
| 108 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AlisonBrie\ |
| 109 | '''Debut:''' [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E01TheBojackHorsemanStoryChapterOne "The [=BoJack=] Horseman Story: Chapter One"]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | -->''"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? [...] [[TheIdealist Someone gave my piece a read and decided against it.]] |
| 112 | |
| 113 | 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. |
| 114 | ---- |
| 115 | * AgeGapRomance: There is an 11 year age gap between her and Mr. Peanutbutter, her boyfriend and later husband. |
| 116 | * TheAlcoholic: Briefly, after returning from Cordovia and crashing at [=BoJack=]'s, Diane devolves into a drunken mess as a way [[DrowningMySorrows 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. |
| 117 | * AllForNothing: |
| 118 | ** Her campaign against Hank Hippopopalous ends this way. [[spoiler: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 HeroicBSOD about how she can't seem to do anything right. |
| 119 | ** 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. |
| 120 | * AllOfTheOtherReindeer: 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. |
| 121 | * AloneInACrowd: 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. |
| 122 | * AmicableExes: 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. |
| 123 | ** 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. |
| 124 | * AntiHero: |
| 125 | ** 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. |
| 126 | ** In terms of classification, Diane nicely fits in between [[UnfazedEveryman Type I]] and [[KnightInSourArmor Type II]] of the [[Analysis/AntiHero Sliding Scale Of Anti-Heroes]], ricocheting between a ClassicalAntiHero and TheSnarkKnight. 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. |
| 127 | * AsianAndNerdy: Sort of. She's not a stereotypical nerd or TVGenius, 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. |
| 128 | * AscendedFangirl: [[spoiler:Being a fan of ''JustForFun/HorsinAround'' as an escape from her horrid family life, Diane eventually grows up to meet and write the biography of its star, [=BoJack=] Horseman.]] |
| 129 | * AudienceSurrogate: She reacts as well as a normal person would to the weirdness of Hollywoo, especially when interacting with [[ThePrimaDonna [=BoJack=]]] or [[ThePollyanna Mr. Peanutbutter]]. |
| 130 | * BeingGoodSucks: Fighting for good causes in a society as shallow and self-serving as Hollywoo sucks, as most people just [[{{Demonization}} demonize]] her as a StrawFeminist 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. |
| 131 | * BigBeautifulWoman: [[spoiler: Diane, who is attractive enough to fit the HotLibrarian trope, gains a significant amount of weight after being put on anti-depressants, and is no less attractive in her presentation nor to her boyfriend Guy]]. |
| 132 | * BirdsOfAFeather: With [=BoJack=]. They both come from horrible homes and Diane sometimes can be just as cynical as [=BoJack=]. {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in season 3 when Diane explicitly states they bring out the worst in each other ''because'' [[NotSoDifferentRemark they're so alike.]] |
| 133 | * BlackSheep: Not literally (since she has a black sheep adoptive brother), but she fits the figurative meaning of the trope, being TheUnfavorite in a family full of {{Jerkass}}es. |
| 134 | * BoyishShortHair: 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. |
| 135 | * ButtMonkey: 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. |
| 136 | * CantTakeCriticism: 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. |
| 137 | * TheConscience: 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. |
| 138 | ** 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. [[DramaticIrony This is contrasted with BoJack, whose abuses can be obvious or subtle, but of which he is entirely aware.]] |
| 139 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: 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, [[ILied who contrary to what she said to [=BoJack=]]], was just as abusive as [=BoJack=]'s parents. |
| 140 | * DeadpanSnarker: Not to [[TheCynic [=BoJack=]]] or [[SarcasticDevotee Princess Carolyn]] levels, but she can do the occasional quip, often mixed with bluntness and condescending attitude. |
| 141 | ** "The Telescope": When [=BoJack=] insults Todd while he's talking about his betrayal of Herb and he asks what they were talking about. |
| 142 | --->''You were about to tell a story about you being a shitty friend, but then, we got interrupted by you yelling at Todd.'' |
| 143 | ** "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. |
| 144 | --->''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 [[LogicBomb how I could be both a virgin and a slut]], [[TalkToTheHand they make me eat a lipstick]].'' |
| 145 | * DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the teen [[TheSnarkKnight 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. |
| 146 | * DespairEventHorizon: After realizing that she's not the [[IntrepidReporter 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. |
| 147 | * TheDutifulDaughter: 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. |
| 148 | * EmbarrassingNickname: She'll always be known as "Cry-ane" by her brothers. |
| 149 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: At the end of the series, [[spoiler: Diane is HappilyMarried 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]]. |
| 150 | * EmbarrassingOldPhoto: 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. |
| 151 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: [[TheSmartGirl Diane]]'s first onscreen appearance is almost unstated, with her coming out behind [=BoJack=] during the party, showing her as [[FishOutOfWater ''different'' to the rest of Hollywood]]. The distance and brief talk between her and [=BoJack=] show them [[PlatonicLifePartners becoming pretty]] [[ShipTease intimate with each other]], with [=BoJack=] being able to open up a little. Then we discover that she's [[TheRival Mr. Peanutbutter]]'s girlfriend, highlighting [[NoAccountingForTaste her odd choice of men]] and becoming [[ForbiddenFruit the unobtainable]] for [=BoJack=]. Yet, despite hearing [=BoJack=] insult Mr. Peanutbutter, she never once calls him out, proving her to be [[NiceGirl very patient]]. Plus, she WroteTheBook about Secretariat, [=BoJack=]'s childhood hero. |
| 152 | * ExtremeDoormat: 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. |
| 153 | * FatalFlaw: 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. |
| 154 | ** 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 [[spoiler:Diane is slowly able to do just that over both parts of Season 6, and ends the series HappilyMarried to NiceGuy Guy and [[EarnYourHappyEnding the successful author of a middle school detective girl series]].]] |
| 155 | * FishOutOfWater: 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. |
| 156 | * ForgettableCharacter: 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. |
| 157 | * FormerlyFit: [[spoiler:Gains a significant amount of weight from antidepressants in the second half of Season Six]]. |
| 158 | * {{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. |
| 159 | * HannibalLecture: 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. |
| 160 | * HappilyMarried: |
| 161 | ** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with Mr. Peanutbutter. "Happily" doesn't translate to "totally functional". [[spoiler:By season 3, their marriage has become so strained that the "happily" part is questionable at times. Then, in season 4 it seems [[HopeSpot they still have some opportunity to be together]] only for their personal issues and building resentment [[FromBadToWorse to break the camel's back]], making both the "happily" and "married" not forthcoming choices.]] |
| 162 | ** PlayedStraight [[spoiler: in the GrandFinale with Guy]]. |
| 163 | * HappyPlace: [[spoiler:''JustForFun/HorsinAround'' 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.]] |
| 164 | * HardDrinkingPartyGirl: After returning from [[{{Ruritania}} Cordovia]], she crashes [=BoJack=]'s house, curses and drinks like a sailor and spends her time goofing off and slacking the time away. |
| 165 | * HeadbuttingHeroes: With Princess Carolyn in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS3E06BrrapBrrapPewPew "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. |
| 166 | * HeroicBystander: As detailed in BadassBystander, 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. [[ZigzaggedTrope 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. |
| 167 | * HeroicWannabe: Diane '''''always''''' wants to make a change. [[IJustWantToBeSpecial So]]. [[UnwantedAssistance 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. |
| 168 | * HeroWithBadPublicity: After denouncing Hank Hippopopalous of sexual abuse with his secretaries, she is booed and even threatened by society. |
| 169 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: With Stefani Stilton in season 4. |
| 170 | * HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Diane's miserable experiences ''were'' fun to someone: her brothers and parents. To her...[[DudeNotFunny not so much]]. |
| 171 | * HoldingBothSidesOfTheConversation: When trying to justify her actions from [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS2E09TheShot "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.) |
| 172 | * HollywoodHealing: PlayedWith 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. |
| 173 | * HollywoodNewEngland: According to "Live Fast, Diane Nguyen", she hails from UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}, since her family is based on obnoxious stereotypes from Boston. |
| 174 | * HotLibrarian: 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. |
| 175 | * AHouseDivided: Increasingly as the series goes on: |
| 176 | ** 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". |
| 177 | ** 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. |
| 178 | ** 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. |
| 179 | ** [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 180 | ** [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 181 | * HugeGuyTinyGirl: [[spoiler: Her new boyfriend Guy in Season six is a bison and is much larger than her]] |
| 182 | * {{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. |
| 183 | ** 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. [[spoiler: 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.)]] |
| 184 | * HyperCompetentSidekick: She becomes this to [[KnowNothingKnowItAll 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. |
| 185 | * IJustWantToBeSpecial: Despite her constant arguments that she's happy the way she is, a large part of Diane's CharacterArc 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. |
| 186 | * ImaginaryLoveTriangle: ZigZagged. [=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 "[[ArmorPiercingQuestion 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. |
| 187 | * ImportantHaircut: 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..... |
| 188 | * ItsForABook: 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. |
| 189 | * ItsAllAboutMe: 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 CharacterDevelopment in season 6 is shedding this once and for all by writing material that makes her happy. |
| 190 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Downplayed. Normally a NiceGirl, 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. |
| 191 | * JerkassRealization: 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. |
| 192 | * LadySwearsALot: 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. |
| 193 | * LonerTurnedFriend: 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. |
| 194 | * LoonyFriendsImproveYourPersonality: RareFemaleExample. Diane has always been introverted and distantly friendly, which has drawn her to [[{{Foil}} Mr.]] [[OppositesAttract Peanutbutter]], due to being her polar opposite. As far as friends are concerned, [[RebelliousSpirit [=BoJack=]]] is the only one she has in Hollywoo, (well besides [[BigFun Roxy]] and [[AmicableExes 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 [[SenseiForScoundrels Princess]] [[EvilMentor Carolyn]] in a professional sense especially in [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste coming to terms with the craft of Hollywoo]] and [[MellowFellow Todd]] in the sense of accepting her more relaxed side and willing to simply let the dice roll. [[DeconstructedTrope 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 [[ReconstructedTrope reconstructs]] this trope is that give or take these downfalls, Diane has developed into a more assertive person, [[GoneHorriblyRight for better]] or [[GoneHorriblyWrong worse]]. |
| 195 | * LovableNerd: 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. |
| 196 | * MoralityPet: Of the entire cast, Diane is the sole person that [[ByronicHero [=BoJack=]]] is the nicest to. |
| 197 | * MostWritersAreHuman: 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. |
| 198 | * MostWritersAreMale: GenderFlipped 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. |
| 199 | * MostWritersAreWriters: Pretty self-explanatory at this point, but InUniverse, Diane is an acclaimed non-fiction writer. |
| 200 | * MsViceGirl: 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. |
| 201 | * NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: While bonding with Kinko, Diane mentions that her name means "my parents used to enjoy watching ''Series/{{Cheers}}''". |
| 202 | * NerdGlasses: Being a nerd, she certainly has ones, although it's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] since she's more of an intellectual. |
| 203 | * NerdsAreSexy: She's quite good-looking with her NerdGlasses and proves to be a DudeMagnet when [=BoJack=] and Mr. Peanutbutter start fighting over her. |
| 204 | * NiceGirl: 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 JerkWithAHeartOfGold above. |
| 205 | * TheNondescript: {{Invoked|Trope}} 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''. [[DeconstructedTrope 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. |
| 206 | * NotSoAboveItAll: She has moments of selfishness and even craziness, as well. ''Especially'' [[BerserkButton when it comes to comparisons between her and [=BoJack=].]] |
| 207 | * OnlySaneEmployee: 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. |
| 208 | * OnlySaneWoman: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. 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. |
| 209 | * RaisedByDudes: Sure, her mother had a certain part in her upbringing, but Diane's childhood was spent at the service and mercy of her 4 JerkAss brothers and even bigger JerkAss 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 AntiIntellectualism has rubbed on her. She clearly loves reading, books and information precisely for the same reasons they loathe them, yet {{Pride}} and ChronicBackstabbingDisorder 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, [[ScrewDestiny for]] [[LikeFatherUnlikeSon several]] [[GenerationXerox reasons]]. |
| 210 | * RunningGag: Throughout the series, Diane's ringtone is portrayed by different personalities of public radio, such as Ira Glass, Sarah Koenig, and Terry Gross. |
| 211 | * ShrinkingViolet: 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. |
| 212 | * ShyBlueHairedGirl: Technically supposed to be black but appears blue as part of the art style, 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. |
| 213 | * SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Like Princess Carolyn, Diane wants a caring and thoughtful romantic partner who respects her. |
| 214 | ** She initially has this with Mr. Peanutbutter, describing him as "sweet, kind, and loyal" but this gets deconstructed over time, as while she loves those traits, their differing personalities and temperaments become ever-increasing, [[spoiler:and they end up divorced but [[AmicableExes still friendly]].]] |
| 215 | ** While Diane does note [=BoJack=]'s more noble qualities, such as honesty and intelligence, she doesn't pursue a romance with him because of his self-destructive nature. They still remain PlatonicLifePartners. |
| 216 | ** [[spoiler:By the series finale, Diane is now in a happy union with a NiceGuy, named Guy, who is not only all the things Diane desired in a romantic partner but is also compatible with her in other areas.]] |
| 217 | * SmallNameBigEgo: 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 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. [[BreakTheHaughty She's had to learn this in the most painful ways]]. |
| 218 | * SmartPeopleWearGlasses: 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. |
| 219 | * SoapboxSadie: 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". |
| 220 | ** Season 2, in particular, presents two instances where this is [[DeconstructedTrope 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". |
| 221 | * StrawFeminist: Zig-zagged a bunch and often PlayedForLaughs, 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 StrawFeminist on [=MSNBSea=] whenever she tries to raise awareness to otherwise [[StrawmanHasAPoint 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, [[DoubleStandard 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 [[DisproportionateRetribution ban all guns in the state of California.]] |
| 222 | -->'''Princess Caroline:''' Wow, Diane! You just passed sensible gun legislation.\ |
| 223 | '''Diane:''' I can't believe this country hates women more than it loves guns. |
| 224 | * TookALevelInCynic: 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. |
| 225 | * TookALevelInJerkass: 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 NiceGirl for the most part. |
| 226 | * TooMuchAlike: 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 [[spoiler:until she moves away from California in Season 6]]. |
| 227 | * ToxicFriendInfluence: 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 TooMuchAlike and they bring out the worst in each other. (Or rather, he in her.) [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 228 | * UndyingLoyalty: 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. |
| 229 | ** 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. [[spoiler: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]]. |
| 230 | * UnexplainedAccent: Even in a flashback to her childhood there's not a trace of a Boston accent. |
| 231 | * UnfazedEveryman: Despite being an AudienceSurrogate in the way of Hollywoo epic scale eccentricities, Diane is otherwise calm and straight-faced in absurd situations like [[spoiler: a lemur catching on fire in "[[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E03PricklyMuffin Prickly Muffin]]"]] or the fact that she's dating an anthropomorphic Labrador. Varying from episode to episode go from a [[SelectiveMemory selective]] WeirdnessCensor or a harsh case of ScullySyndrome. |
| 232 | * TheUnfavorite: 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 [[CrapsackWorld 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. |
| 233 | * UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: [[DownplayedTrope 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 CerebusSyndrome of the series, it's been slowly {{deconstructed|Trope}} through her interactions with [[LoveMartyr Mr. Peanutbutter]]. |
| 234 | * UptightLovesWild: Diane is the reserved, aloof '''Uptight''' who is married to the spontaneous, energetic '''Wild''' Mr. Peanutbutter. |
| 235 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With [=BoJack=]. Despite their volleying insults and frequent frustration with each other, they're inseparable and support each other fiercely. [[spoiler: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 [[BelligerentSexualTension might indicate something else]]...]] |
| 236 | * TheWatson: Being a ghostwriter assigned to write his memories, Diane's questions and reactions, as well as commentaries to [=BoJack=]'s {{Flashback}}s 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. |
| 237 | * WeightWoe: [[spoiler:Zig-zagged. One of the reasons Diane stopped taking her antidepressants in college is because they made her gain weight, albeit the biggest reason she didn’t want to go on them was her fearing she would lose herself and become "nothing". When she meets Guy at the airport months later after he returns from a photo shoot, she's significantly chubbier but has a huge smile on her face, implying that she started taking them again and can live with the change in appearance if it means it helps her depression. She, nor anyone else, never even negatively mentions her weight at all in the remainder of the series, not appears bothered by it.]] |
| 238 | * WellDoneDaughterGirl: 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. |
| 239 | -->'''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? |
| 240 | * WetBlanketWife: A sympathetic, [[JustifiedTrope 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 SecretlySelfish Labrador, being cautious is always welcomed. |
| 241 | * WhiteSheep: 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. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:Mr. Peanutbutter]] |
| 245 | !!!'''Mister Peanutbutter''' |
| 246 | [[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pb.png]] |
| 247 | [[caption-width-right:180:''"[[CrapsackWorld The universe is a cruel, uncaring void]]. [[TheAntiNihilist The key to being happy isn't a search for meaning]]. [[SubvertedTrope It's to just keep yourself busy]] with unimportant nonsense and [[StrawNihilist eventually, you'll be dead]]."'']] |
| 248 | [[quoteright:180:[[labelnote:In 2007]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_5047.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 249 | [[quoteright:180:[[labelnote:In the 90s]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a150570f_e739_4a89_9baa_72597666b6ab.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 250 | |
| 251 | |
| 252 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/PaulFTompkins |
| 253 | ->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E01TheBojackHorsemanStoryChapterOne "The [=BoJack=] Horseman Story: Chapter One"]] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | -->''"Mr. Peanutbutter and [=BoJack=] Horseman in the same room! What is this, a crossover episode?"'' |
| 256 | |
| 257 | A native of the Labrador Peninsula in Canada, Mister Peanutbutter was raised in the countryside as the runt of the litter with his parents and grandma, free of the world's cold touch. Submerged in a saccharine and comfortable sugar bowl where the motto was "Nothing bad ever happens in the Labrador Peninsula", PB grew with the expectation the world was just as light. During a trip to Hollywood, he wandered off against his wife Katrina's objections and stumbled onto the set of ''Untitled Horsin' Around Ripoff''. With his charisma and natural ability, Mister gained the public's favor, taking the role from Vincent D'Onofrio. Money and second rate fame ensued with the newcomer PB helming what henceforth would be called ''JustForFun/MrPeanutbuttersHouse''. |
| 258 | |
| 259 | Growing at the shade of the much more famous [=BoJack=] Horseman, PB quickly took to being famous, even if he preferred to be a good sport about it, contrasting BJ himself whom he gradually started idolizing and view as a peer in the industry, admiring his work even if he constantly failed to get most of the scorn thrown his way by the horse. |
| 260 | |
| 261 | To hear Mr. Peanutbutter himself list these tropes, see [[SelfDemonstrating/MrPeanutbutter here]]. |
| 262 | ---- |
| 263 | * AesopAmnesia: PlayedForLaughs at first, PlayedForDrama later. Mr. Peanutbutter is somewhat aware of his shortcomings as a dog (he admits he's not the one who usually gets bored in a relationship) and a husband (he tries, but can't remember to make compromises for his wives). And it's not like he can't see he's running out of time to change. But he just can't get himself to admit it, let alone act to fix it. He's way too reckless, distracted, and reliant on good vibes to begin confronting his dark side. As he is, he's always been comfortable that way and expects everyone to be, even when people get tired or frustrated with him. Better to blame it on "not being able to change" or to move on quickly to the next thing, regardless of whether that's the healthiest thing to do. |
| 264 | * AllLovingHero: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. He is fun-loving, friendly and has a positive and cheerful attitude. In this case, people who interact with him on a daily basis believe him to be a moron, or just get irritated with his behavior. He's also shown to mostly be nice because he wants other people to like him, even if it causes them no end of grief or frustration. (Like his grand romantic gestures for Diane making her uncomfortable, or his run for governor of California causing a huge unnecessary mess.) |
| 265 | * AnimalStereotypes: |
| 266 | ** Has a short attention span, gets excited when the doorbell's rung, and is very energetic and playful. He also ''hates'' the post office and mail carriers. |
| 267 | ** He also fits the "big friendly dog" stereotype; he's always excited to meet new people and tries to be FunPersonified. The keyword here being "tries". Mr. Peanutbutter's problem is that he can't seem to realize how grating this attitude can get. In his mind, everyone should be like him, because that's the only way to properly live. |
| 268 | * TheAntiNihilist: In his own words, life is largely miserable, and the best way to deal with that is to distract yourself from it as often as you can, enjoying every moment until you die. However, it's gradually {{subverted|Trope}} the more and more the series goes on; it becomes clear that for PB, this doesn't mean "accept your mortality and insignificance, and move on with the things that really matter." Rather, it means "deny anything that's wrong and focus on the exciting parts", which is just a more hedonistic form of nihilism itself. |
| 269 | * AscendedFanboy: As a child, he was a big fan of Hank Hippopopalous, getting his album ''The Hank Hippopopalous Hip-Hop Hypothesis'' and taking a picture of him and [=BoJack=] with good ol' Uncle Hankie at the Emmys. In 2015, Mr. Peanutbutter becomes Hank's co-worker when ''HSAC:WDTKDTKTLFO!'' and ''I Think You Can Dance'' are put back-to-back in MBN. |
| 270 | * BerserkButton: |
| 271 | ** As a dog, he hates mailmen. |
| 272 | ** He hates watching tennis because no one catches the ball. |
| 273 | * BigFriendlyDog: He's the friendliest and most cheerful character of the series. |
| 274 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: Comes off as very friendly early on. Once [=BoJack=] starts competing with him for Diane, his douchier side begins to emerge. This is hinted at in the first episode, when [=BoJack=] actually responds honestly to Mr. Peanutbutter's concerned-sounding "How are you?", cutting [=BoJack=] short with "Living the dream, huh?" and wandering off. |
| 275 | * BookEnds: Diane & Mr Peanutbutter's engagement[=/=]marriage begins & ends with Mr Peanutbutter making a grand romantic gesture that Diane ultimately doesn't feel comfortable accepting. Immediately after Mr Peanutbutter asks Diane to marry him with "just the two of them, no cameras" there is an immediate surprise party and a scene where Diane calls [=BoJack=] and is clearly not happy. It ends when Mr. Peanutbutter recreates a childhood fantasy of Diane's without realising why it wasn't something he should have done and why Diane can't appreciate it. |
| 276 | * BornLucky: Mr. Peanutbutter gets everything he wants with little to no effort. He didn't even have to work his way up, he starred on a CaptainErsatz copy of ''JustForFun/HorsinAround'' (which season 4 reveals he got by just happening to wander onto the set of "Untitled Horsin' Around Knockoff" and unintentionally charming the audience) and when in need of a job, he ends up with two options, one of which he never noticed! |
| 277 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "What is this, a {{Crossover}} episode?" |
| 278 | * CharacterDevelopment: From what we see in "Nice While It Lasted", Mr. Peanutbutter is [[spoiler:single. While he does want to hit on someone at Princess Carolyn's wedding, he's not rushing into another relationship in search of something perfect. He instead spends sixty percent of the day focused on helping [=BoJack=] rather than ten percent if at all]]. |
| 279 | * CharacterTics: As Princess Carolyn points out in "Let's Find Out", Mr. Peanutbutter's ears flop up when he is excited. |
| 280 | * ChickMagnet: He was married twice to Katrina (first) and Jessica Biel (second) before divorcing them for different reasons. Sometime after his second divorce, he began a relationship with Diane that led to marriage. And in "Higher Love", while he worked as a lady shoes salesman, ''many'' women were excited to see him. [[spoiler: His current girlfriend becomes attracted to him nearly instantly after they first meet [[CaptainOblivious while having dinner with Diane, his now ex-wife]].]] |
| 281 | * TheDanza: An InUniverse example; his TV character was also named Mr. Peanutbutter. |
| 282 | * DogStereotype: Mr. Peanutbutter is a Labrador Retriever, and is thus incredibly nice (if a bit dim and has his moments of being InnocentlyInsensitive), [[FunPersonified light hearted]] and he has a [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny very short attention span]]. He also ''hates'' {{UsefulNotes/Tennis}} because he doesn't understand why no one ''catches'' the ball. |
| 283 | * DogsAreDumb: He has the simple-minded, excitable personality you'd expect from a dog. |
| 284 | * DogsLoveFireHydrants: He's got a fire hydrant fountain in front of his home. |
| 285 | * DumbBlond: He's a yellow lab. And while not completely stupid, he is ''very'' naïve. |
| 286 | * {{Foil}}: To [=BoJack=], since they both had a hit sitcom in the 80s, but while [=BoJack=] is bitter, antisocial, and depressed, Mr. Peanuttbutter is friendly, positive, and upbeat. However, the two are actually more similar than they seem. See AntiNihilist and BitchInSheepsClothing above. |
| 287 | * FriendlyEnemy: To [=BoJack=], though the friendly part of this trope often overpowers the enemy aspect. Hell, he actually wishes they could be friends. By season 4, they could be considered VitriolicBestBuds in-training. |
| 288 | * FullNameBasis: "Mister" is his first name and "Peanutbutter" is his last name. Everyone refers to him as "Mr. Peanutbutter", except for the children of his brother, who call him "Uncle Mister," and Pickles, the only character to consistently call him by his first name alone. |
| 289 | * GleefulAndGrumpyPairing: Is the always upbeat Gleeful to [=BoJack=]'s miserable and self-loathing Grumpy. |
| 290 | * HeroicDog: He's saved Todd from a burning roller coaster, saved [=BoJack=] from drowning, saved an entire underwater city with spaghetti strainers and was one of the first people to [[spoiler:pull a painkiller high [=BoJack=] off of Gina when he strangled her.]] |
| 291 | * HiddenDepths: Everyone is surprised that Mr. Peanutbutter, best known for playing the Bumbling Dad or jovial gameshow host, can play a cold and calculating killer on ''Philbert'' that terrorizes the title character [[spoiler:despite being a hallucination]]. More so since he replaced a bad boy actor who was a better fit for the part. [[spoiler:Mr. Peanutbutter lampshades this, while expressing a desire to actually be a hero and saves Gina from a drugged-out [=BoJack=] by pulling the horse's hands off her neck]]. |
| 292 | * IgnoredEpiphany: In "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos", Diane has to spell out for Mr. Peanutbutter that his marriages keep failing because he's [[ManChild mentally still a teenager]] and keeps dating women in their twenties, who inevitably outgrow him once they become more mature than he is. She tells him he can start dating older women, or grow up himself. He does consider the latter, but ultimately opts to keep having frivolous fun. [[spoiler:At the end of Season 5, Mr. Peanutbutter again avoids dealing with relationship problems in a healthy and mature manner, instead cheating on Pickles with Diane and then just proposing to Pickles to gloss over their relationship flaws (like he did with Diane in Season 1), showing he's making the same mistakes that led to his three previous failed marriages.]] Season 6 shows the consequences of this, where [[spoiler:Mr. Peanutbutter confesses to Pickles about what happened with Diane, asks her to cheat on him to make things even, and breaks off the engagement. Pickles, unsurprisingly, breaks up with him via the phone. At the least, Mr. Peanutbutter is single by the end of the series, implying that he is working on himself about a year after the event.]] |
| 293 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: To his credit, Mr. Peanutbutter is simply trying to appease his girlfriend and show as much love and support as he can. It's just unfortunate that he never acknowledges how he's breaching their boundaries, being insensitive, and unfairly comparing each girlfriend to his ex. |
| 294 | * InsecureLoveInterest: For all of his happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care antics and the way he takes even the most distressing things at face value, he's revealed to be very afraid of losing Diane either by death or her leaving him. |
| 295 | * ItRunsInTheFamily: His brother and grandmother share his tendency of hiding their insecurities and sadness behind ever-happy facades. |
| 296 | * IJustWantToBeLoved: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Mr. Peanutbutter's goal is to simply be loved by who he is. Unfortunately, he believes everybody should accept him as he is even after seeing how BeYourself doesn't work when it screws up and messes with other people. He also has a tenuous grasp about love: namely, that it involves physical affection rather than mutual understanding. |
| 297 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 298 | ** In "Let's find out" he completely abuses his position as a quiz show host to torment [=BoJack=]. When [=BoJack=] finally snaps Peanutbutter retorts that [=BoJack=] deserves it for trying to get with Diane and always insulting him. While it is certainly petty it does make sense that he'd get fed up of trying to be [=BoJack=]'s friend. When [=BoJack=] then admits he's jealous Peanutbutter replies that he lives in a big house, has a loving relationship and is going to be the star of a big movie, basically telling him that it's his fault if he's still wallowing in self-pity. Given that [=BoJack=] never really attempts to resolve his issues Peanutbutter is somewhat right with his view on [=BoJack=]'s character. |
| 299 | ** This is why Diane can't face him at the end of season 2. He was less-than supportive about her going to Cordovia to write a book on Sebastian St. Clair for several reasons: it's one of the most war-torn areas in the world, life is full of things that one person cannot change, no normal person would want their spouse going to a dangerous place, and Sebastian St. Clair is an eligible wealthy bachelor with a reputation. With that said, when he and Diane talk it out, he agrees to support her when going and gently suggests ShooTheDog when she starts receiving death threats about the Hank scandal so that idiot trolls won't be targeting her. Diane finds out to her chagrin that her husband was right about most of these points, minus Sebastian St. Clair hitting on her and flies home to wallow in [=BoJack=]'s home, lying that she's still in Cordovia. It's not that he would say IToldYouSo because he is too nice for that; it's that Diane would have to apologize for hurting him for nothing. |
| 300 | * MailmanVsDog: Mr. Peanutbutter has a problem with chasing the mail truck with his car. In "Horse Majeure" he gets pulled over for doing this and later loses his license. Even just mentioning the post office makes him growl. |
| 301 | -->'''Diane:''' Were you chasing the mailman again?\ |
| 302 | '''Mr. Peanutbutter:''' Yes, why? Did you see him out there too!? [[UnstoppableMailman Nothing stops them! Not rain, not sleet, not dead of night, not gates!]] |
| 303 | * ManChild: His solution to anything depressing in his life is to seek out simple pleasures. Once when he threw a surprise birthday party for Diane, he bought or rented ''many'' expensive and unnecessary things, including a ''ball pit''. Addressed in "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos" when Diane explains that Mr. Peanutbutter is mentally still in his 20s, so he keeps dating women who inevitably outgrow him. |
| 304 | * MirrorCharacter: Although initially presented as a perpetually-optimistic {{Foil}} to [=BoJack=], it becomes increasingly apparent over the course of the series that Mr. Peanutbutter actually has a lot in common with [=BoJack=] personality-wise; Both are insecure [[ManChild Manchildren]] who numb their existential depression through hedonism, desperately crave the affection of others, and have a history of toxic relationships with younger women. |
| 305 | * MortalityPhobia: Peanutbutter is deeply afraid of his own inevitable death, and seeks out whatever he can do in life to distract himself and (pretend to) be happy. |
| 306 | * NeverMyFault: A cheerful and carefree version, but still. Another wacky business venture fell apart? Who could have seen that coming! Ah well, can't argue with Lady Fate. Guess it just wasn't meant to be. Now time to wander aimlessly till the next big opportunity presents itself and throw extravagant amounts of money at it till it too fails. |
| 307 | * NiceGuy: He's generally quite friendly and pleasant towards other people, though not without some hidden personality flaws that he tends to be in self-denial about. |
| 308 | * OlderThanHeLooks: It's easy to forget that Mr. Peanutbutter is supposed to be in his 50s by now just like [=BoJack=]. |
| 309 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Anytime Mr. Peanutbutter drops his usual [[{{Keet}} energetic]], [[BigFriendlyDog friendly]] nature means that something incredibly serious has happened to make him more serious than usual. |
| 310 | * PerpetualSmiler: It's hard to see Mr. Peanutbutter with a frown on his face. This is shown to be both a [[ThePollyanna good]] and [[StepfordSmiler bad]] thing. |
| 311 | * PoorMansSubstitute: [[invoked]] Part of the animosity [=BoJack=] has for him is that Mr. Peanutbutter tended to mirror [=BoJack=]'s career and choice of projects, particularly how "Mr. Peanutbutter's House" was an even more vapid knockoff of "Horsin' Around." |
| 312 | * RunningGag: Often cuts off [=BoJack=] while greeting him at some social function to enthusiastically greet Erica, [[TheGhost who's always standing somewhere off-screen]]. |
| 313 | -->'''Mr. Peanutbutter:''' Erica! How are you? [insert some related nicety] |
| 314 | * SerialSpouse: His marriage to Diane in the first season was his third marriage. His exes show up on occasion, indicating they did not end amicably. By the fifth season it's examined further; due to his {{Manchild}} personality, he tends to date women who are younger than him, but while he remains perpetually young and energetic, the women he marries will inevitably mature and outgrow his immature antics. |
| 315 | * StepfordSmiler: It's heavily implied that his perpetually optimistic and cheerful attitude is merely a mask to cover up his nihilistic worries about life ultimately being cruel and meaningless. |
| 316 | * StupidGood: A reoccurring theme with Peanutbutter is that he's genuinely trying to be supportive and caring for his girlfriend but constantly fails to see the bigger picture or learn from his mistakes. His relationship with Diane best represents this; he compares her to his ex, pushes her out of her comfort zone, and hosts a party for her despite her telling him that she doesn't want one. Peanutbutter constantly breaks her boundaries and ignores what she really wants by trying too hard to help her. |
| 317 | * UndyingLoyalty: By the end of the show, [[spoiler: Peanutbutter's the only person who commits to [[HeterosexualLifePartners stick by [=BoJack=] to the very end]], despite all he has done.]] |
| 318 | * UptownGuy: Mr. Peanutbutter, a rich TV star and celebrity, dates and later marries Diane, a still up-and-coming author who came from a poor family. When they first met, Mr. Peanutbutter was already a rich celebrity going to extravagant parties while Diane was working at a Starbucks and working as a waitress at those extravagant parties to make ends meet. |
| 319 | [[/folder]] |
| 320 | |
| 321 | [[folder:Todd Chavez]] |
| 322 | !!!'''Todd Chavez[[note]](original family name unknown; Chavez is the surname of Todd's stepfather, not his biological father)[[/note]]''' |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_5045.png]] |
| 325 | [[caption-width-right:200:Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me chicken soup with rice.]] |
| 326 | [[quoteright:122:[[labelnote:Teenager in 2007]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_5046.png]][[/labelnote]] |
| 327 | |
| 328 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AaronPaul |
| 329 | ->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/BoJackHorsemanS1E01TheBoJackHorsemanStoryChapterOne "The [=BoJack=] Horseman Story: Chapter One"]] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [=BoJack=]'s slacker roommate. Little does [=BoJack=] know, Todd has had run-ins with several gangs including a Mexican drug cartel. Todd may be a freeloader, but [=BoJack=] seems to prefer having him around to the point where he would sometimes go to great lengths to keep Todd from moving out. Also likely the only one who ''does'' love [=BoJack=]. |
| 332 | ---- |
| 333 | * AllLovingHero: Todd is caring and sweet person who always wants to help. However, his loving nature gets pushed to its limits when dealing with the self-destructive [[ByronicHero [=BoJack=].]] |
| 334 | * AmbiguouslyBrown: While in prison he was simultaneously courted by both the Aryan Nation and Latin Kings. In-fact, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the show's creator, [[http://www.vulture.com/2018/09/bojack-horseman-todd-chavez-latino.html referred to him as "Schrödinger’s Latino"]]. [[spoiler: Season 6 reveals that his last name comes from his stepfather, and he identifies himself as white later in the episode.]] |
| 335 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: Todd is the youngest of the main cast. While he is certainly the silliest of the main characters, Todd can surprisingly be the most emotionally mature out of all of them (especially after some CharacterDevelopment). |
| 336 | * BigEater: Much more than [=BoJack=], as Todd is often seen eating something almost every episode. He often orders pizza and has quite a fondness for sweets. |
| 337 | * BornLucky: No matter in how many crazy misadventures he ends up involved, Todd will always come out more or less unscathed or not worse for wear. In Season 6, when his stepdad comes to visit, it's revealed that Todd never plans ahead or applies himself because he knows things will "just always work out" for him, and he just wants to coast through life on his own eternally charmed luck. |
| 338 | * BrilliantButLazy: Todd has been shown to possess a plethora of skills including an understanding of Japanese, entrepreneurial know-how, and artistic capabilities. Besides having allied with Mr. Peanutbutter for various business ideas, he tried writing and composing his own rock opera, ''Newtopia Rising, Book I: The Search for a New Utopia''. However, his overall laziness and video game addiction often hinders his success. |
| 339 | * CharacterDevelopment: Throughout the course of the show, Todd was a shut in roommate who through his own wacky misadventures ends up doing one job after another and then never plans ahead. At the end of the show, he finds a stable life direction by [[spoiler: opening a daycare at VIM]] and has found a solid relationship with his new girlfriend Maude. By season 4 he also becomes much more open about himself, coming out as asexual. In the first half of the show, he was a supportive friend to the rest of the main cast. By this point he has developed more of his own identity. |
| 340 | * TheChewToy: Todd can never catch a break. He's been framed for tourist scams he was strong armed into doing, dismissed by his friends at every turn, beaten up by two girls who caught him off-guard and stole his stuff, thrown in the can where he witnesses a very messy murder and ends up in a power play between the Aryans and Latinos that almost ends with him being curb stomped, had his RockOpera sabotaged...the list just goes on and on. |
| 341 | * TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight: Two instances: |
| 342 | ** When Todd figures out it was [=BoJack=] who ruined his rock opera. He's right, but [[BatDeduction the methods he uses are preposterous]]. |
| 343 | ** In a desperate attempt to keep his own Disneyland, he suggests that maybe Walt Disney copyrighted the wrong name. He's right. Disney copyrighted "Diisneyland" |
| 344 | * DidNotThinkThisThrough: While Todd is UnluckilyLucky, most of his hard luck comes from him not thinking through most of his [[ZanyScheme zany schemes]] and almost suffering the consequences for it, only for his own [[BornLucky supernaturally good luck]] to prevent him from suffering any ''real'' harm. For example, in Season 1 [[ItMakesSenseInContext he tries to court two separate prison gangs]] in a "two dates, one prom" scenario, and when it predictably goes south he's only saved from having his arms broken by the prison suddenly bursting open. |
| 345 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Todd was initially more down to earth than [=BoJack=], and would [[DeadpanSnarker snark]] at how out of touch with a "normal" life [=BoJack=] was. It wasn't long before Todd became a full-blown [[TheDitz ditz]] and [=BoJack=] became even more snarky and aware of how different he is from other people. In the first few episodes and bits of the first season he's also written a bit like a younger and slightly more naive version of [[Series/BreakingBad Jesse Pinkman]] and shown to be involved with the criminal underworld, do hardcore drugs, and possibly be a smoker. By season 2 all of these traits are quietly ejected from his character and he becomes borderline IncorruptiblePurePureness. |
| 346 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: By the time of the DistantFinale, Todd has reconnected and reconciled with his mother and stepfather, has an actual, stable job as the head of VIM Agency's daycare, and lives independently with his girlfriend, Maude]]. |
| 347 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the first episode, Todd doesn't do much besides [[TheSlacker hanging around [=BoJack=]'s house]] and mooching off, yet has a high opinion of [=BoJack=] and clearly loves him, despite [=BoJack=]'s dismissal of him. He seems perfectly content with who he is, while being the butt of the joke at every turn. |
| 348 | * FriendToAllChildren: [[spoiler: Todd is good with Ruthie, Princess Carolyn's adoptive daughter, which is one of the reasons why Princess Carolyn decides to hire him as Ruthie's nanny. This is taken even further in the latter half of Season 6, where Todd decides to open a daycare for VIM Agency's employees and it becomes a great success]]. |
| 349 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: [=BoJack=] asks him if he wasn't some troubled gay teenager with an alternative lifestyle in his first appearance. Early in season 3, he is asked this again. From his interactions with Emily when they were young, it seems clear he is not interested in sex with her: this all comes together in the season 3 finale, with him [[spoiler: coming out as asexual.]] |
| 350 | * GeniusDitz: Todd is shown to be not terribly bright, almost cripplingly eccentric, and many times comes ''just'' shy of becoming quite successful. Early in the show, he started a business partnership with Mr. Peanutbutter where they would pursue Todd's various {{Zany scheme}}s and they would often just fall just short. Todd's closest brush with success came when he started a rideshare company that netted Todd $8 million when it was acquired, but he gave his entire fortune away as a tip by mistake. And also the time he accidentally became Governor of California and stepped down a few short minutes later; a decision driven by the fact that he was at the time struggling to come to terms with [[spoiler: his own asexuality]], and preferred not to deal with labels, including that of Governor. |
| 351 | * MadLibsCatchphrase: "Hooray! (Something related to the current topic of conversation)!" |
| 352 | -->"Hooray! Gross miscarriage!" |
| 353 | -->"Hooray! A task!" |
| 354 | -->"Hooray! Question mark?" |
| 355 | -->"Hooray. Betrayal." |
| 356 | -->"Hooray! Responsibili—" (throws up) |
| 357 | -->"Hooray! And you know, I don't throw that word around lightly." |
| 358 | * ManChild: Todd is a twenty-something slacker who was kicked out by his own family for playing too much video games. When he moves into [=BoJack=]'s house, he continues to be lazy and mooches off his host (which [=BoJack=] bluntly calls out as parasitic behavior). And (at least at first), Todd didn't have a job most of the time. |
| 359 | * {{NEET}}: He lives by freeloading off of [=BoJack=] and sleeping on his couch. He doesn't have any education past high school and is rarely ever employed anywhere for long. When he leaves [=BoJack=]'s house, he continues the trend with Princess Carolyn. |
| 360 | * NeverBareheaded: He always keeps his yellow hat on. |
| 361 | * NiceGuy: Most of the time, Todd is a pretty pleasant, good-natured and helpful fellow who has a lot of patience with someone like [=BoJack=]. He has some JerkassBall moments, but they are arguably less common than with the other characters. |
| 362 | * OddFriendship: He and Princess Carolyn turn out to be remarkably good roommates despite their diametrically opposed personalities. |
| 363 | * PhraseCatcher: "Shut up, Todd!" Also "Todd, clean up your shit!" |
| 364 | * ThePigPen: One episode even reveals that he never bathes. |
| 365 | * QueerColors: The cab company Todd starts in season three, Cabracadabra, has a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/BoJackHorseman/comments/die4rj/i_just_noticed_that_todd_made_the_cabracadabra/ sign colored in purple, white, and black.]] At the end of the season, Todd realizes he's [[spoiler: asexual]], likely making this subtle {{foreshadowing}}. |
| 366 | * QueerEstablishingMoment: Todd has mixed feelings after finding out that [=BoJack=] slept with his ex-girlfriend Emily. In the Season 4 finale, [[spoiler:he suggests to Emily that he "might be nothing" with regards to his sexual orientation, establishing himself as asexual.]] |
| 367 | -->'''Todd:''' I'm not gay. I mean, I don't think I am, but... I don't think I'm straight, either. I don't know what I am. I think I might be nothing. |
| 368 | * StereotypeFlip: An energetic, outgoing, CloudCuckoolander [[spoiler:asexual person]], averting the tendency of such characters to be misanthropic and villainous. |
| 369 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: Seems to have a fondness for cotton candy. |
| 370 | * WeirdnessMagnet: It's a given that no matter where he goes, Todd's storylines will often have shreds of FantasticComedy, ranging from rescuing chickens to becoming a more confident person by the power of self-delusion. |
| 371 | -->'''Todd''': You know, sometimes I feel like my whole life is just a series of loosely-related wacky misadventures. |
| 372 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / BojackHorsemanMainCharacters
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
