BoJack Horseman’s Princess Carolyn: Our Favorite Fictional Character

If you have watched BoJack Horseman — the animated series featuring a world of anthropomorphic creatures that reflects today’s obsession with pop culture you’d probably agree that each character of the show has been outlined in detail and carries a multi faceted personality. All of their traits, be it the positive or negative ones, have been put under the microscope to undergo a thorough scrutiny of their past and present, just the way celebrities go through in the real world.

For such a wonderfully conceived show it’s only fair for its viewers to have many favorite characters. And I’m thrilled to admit that my favorite is Princess Carolyn — the magnate of the advertising world. A pink Persian cat woman, Princess Carolyn runs her own PR company for the celebrities of ‘Hollywoo’. She is known for her no nonsense attitude and high rising ambitions. Being a cat, her motto for life is ‘We always land on our feet!’ PC, as we’ll refer to her as from now onwards, never accepts defeat however tough her circumstances might be. She has a tendency to fix screwed up matters — be it her life or of those around her!

In the former seasons of BoJack Horseman we get to know that she and BoJack were something of an item. But BoJack isn’t emotionally involved with her and PC understands pretty quickly that he doesn’t really care for her. So when they break up, she still hangs on with him to be his agent.

Princess Carolyn: BoJack!
BoJack: Oh, my God, we just broke up.
Princess Carolyn: Yeah, but I’m still your agent! I pride myself on my ability to separate my professional life from my personal life.

Being the self-loathing, wasted man BoJack gets into trouble repeatedly and leaves the mess for Princess Carolyn to clean up — like the time he runs off to New Mexico to meet Charlotte Moore, his ‘deer friend’ that too in the middle of ‘Secretariat‘ shooting. But Princess Carolyn has got his back each time. Their relationship evolves over time to being really close friends and she knows BoJack from inside out, eventually realising that he isn’t the right partner for her and that she cannot be romantically involved with such a toxic person.

In her early forties, Princess Carolyn dates a mouse called Ralph who is genuinely interested in her despite their racial differences (haha). They try to have a baby but Princess Carolyn gets to know that she might never conceive because she is infertile. After a really hard day and having a miscarriage she gets overly drunk and breaks up with Ralph over a row.

It is almost ironic that she has all the makings of a good mother but she can’t bear children. It is hard for Princess Carolyn to accept this fact. In the episode ‘The Shot’ of season 6, BoJack and the crew of movie Secretariat break into the Richard Nixon Presidential Library to get a shot done inside Nixon’s office. Princess Carloyn gets an emergency call from BoJack for help but when she reaches there, she gets immersed into a surrealist painting called ‘Glowing Fuzzy Nonsense’ (hinting at the misery of those who hate their job) made by the American Painter Thomas Kinkade and finds it extremely ‘soothing and serene’. She starts fantasizing that she is present in the painting, living in a cottage and enjoying the rustic life while being served by her constant rival Vanessa Gekko, who here is her maid.

She feels happy and contented for a while but soon it dawns upon her that she has never really wanted the simple life or its comforts. She is perfectly happy in being the career oriented woman that she is and one can’t have everything in life. So she takes the reins of her life, landing right on her feet again. To experience motherhood, she decides to become a single mother. She adopts a baby porcupine and names her Ruthie. Princess Carolyn represents the modern woman of our generation. In the tussle between professional and personal front, she sometimes ends up in a fix and wonders whether she should quit trying so hard to be on the top of her career all the time. But her weak moments are short lived and are always concealed behind closed doors.

After a few months of adopting Ruthie, Princess Carolyn starts having doubts about her competence as a mother, that she is not being able to give her daughter enough time. She hires Todd to babysit Ruthie. Todd boosts her confidence by giving her the pep talk that she uses on others. And in no time, Princess Carolyn aces the role of a mother. It all works out for her in the end as her long time assistant and well wisher Judah Mannodawg confesses his feelings to her and in the Season 6 finale they have a wedding which is attended by BoJack. He and Princess Carolyn have a dance and BoJack tells her that after he’s served his term in prison he will need an agent who could represent him. Indirectly, he is hinting at PC to be a part of his life. But Princess Carolyn politely declines his request, acknowledging that she will always love him and has already forgiven him for everything— but it is not her responsibility to take care of him anymore. She has let go of that streak and is finally ready to be truly happy in life.

Kriti Kundu is a student pursuing Mass Com. from Jamia Millia Islamia.

edited by: Rutba Iqbal

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.