#bojack rant

the root of the problems began where he didn't stand up for herb, when he thought that letting him go would be the best for everyone. he regrets this deeply, we see this in the later seasons and everything. we know that in season 6 when angela has him at her house, he gets pissed at her because he thought he had no choice. i like to think that he didn't contact herb after that because he was too disappointed in himself, and he thought herb would've been better off not talking to him. but after bojack visited/reunited with him, we see that that was not the case. herb would've definitely been pissed at bojack (who wouldn't be?) but, he would've forgave him overtime. thats the thing.

i think we all know that charlotte and herb both had a healthy relationship, even after they broke up and parted ways. herb had a picture of her on his own home. since herb had a picture of her in maine, i would assume she kept touch with him? if that's the case, then bojack would've known that she wasn't living in maine anymore and that she had a family now. this information would've prevented bojack from going to new mexico after herb's funeral, this would've stopped the whole situation with penny.

and herb stayed in contact with sarah lynn, too. with the few scenes we see of adult sarah lynn and herb, we see that he was trying to help her sober up, i guess? and if bojack knew this, maybe bojack wouldn't have made her relapse and everything.

sorta headcanon stuff here, but i feel like bojack and herb just... understood each other. i mean, herb definitely gave some great advice and memorable moments. he literally went and immortalized his silhouette on the side of the laugh shack. we know that herb deeply cared for bojack. and im pretty sure bojack doesn't really have "best friend" relationship statuses with anyone else in the show. if bojack didn't abandon him and he was still in his life, then i have no doubt that herb would've probably guided/helped him through a lot of shit. that is if herb didn't get tired of him after a while,,, we see that they literally had a great time together when they reunited until bojack opened the wound again and got pissed when herb didn't forgive him.

Bojack starts to really grow fond of this baby. He risked his life for it multiple times throughout the episode. We can see him smiling at it, entertaining it, and doing a really good job of taking care of this child that doesn't belong to him. (In some way, I want to say that this is a reference to his big bender with Sara Lynn in season 3, where he fantasizes about a life he could've had with Charlotte and how in the fantasy he is an amazing father).

Bojack failed him once, in season 2, to discover later how valuable his friendship was and save him from that not-Scientology cult. Since then they’ve been such good friends and it’s showed in things so little, like gestures they wouldn’t have had in the first seasons.

But now Bojack slept with Emily. At first I didn’t understand what was wrong with it, but still something in the back of my head said “please don’t sleep with her”. And in this episode it’s basically revealed as a joke, but then you start to see how it’s really affected the characters. Emily can’t even handle spending time with her friend because of the guilt, and unlike Bojack (who shows little to no remorse, except for when he has to see Todd in the eyes), she confesses to him. And it’s such a painful scene, because even though Todd has been a comic relief since the beginning of the show, for the first time he shows this level of depht and intelligence. Emily doesn’t even has to tell him what happened, she just says that Bojack hasn’t been a good friend <i>either</i>.

And he understands.

And this is not about jelousy; Todd doesn’t see Emily as an attractive woman, it’s more about the disappointment of knowing that his friend keeps falling in the same game over and over: sleep with any woman whenever he has the opportunity, and in the case she actually wants to stay with him after that, he won’t open up and give what a person needs to give to mantain a good relationship (”Known and be known”). And this time he involved a person as good as Emily. Todd’s friend. Who’s been in love with him since they were kids, and he can’t bring himself to feel anything similar for her, as much as he tries.

And he knows Bojack doesn’t deserve her. He doesn’t deserve her even risking to vulnerabilize her emotions for him.