Swaps Star In "philbert"! Based On @fandomfreakstudios's Post

my friend saw a man in a supermarket wearing similar clothes and said it was pb-coded. i drew it

playing video games

okay, about old married couple bobutters and hollyhock…

i just consider this topic terribly interesting because i like hollyhock and i like their dynamics (going back to that post from my dead account, rest in peace)

i have two scenarios in my head. the first is that hollyhock is raised by his 8 fathers and, as in the original, finds bojack and tells him that she may be his daughter. AND THE TEST CONFIRMS THE KINSHIP. AND SHE WAS BORN IN 1999, WHEN BOBUTTERS WERE ALREADY TOGETHER. do you understand? that would be a real drama... kind of a test of their relationship. before they came to the conclusion that hollyhock was his sister, not his daughter, bojack would vehemently deny the fact of cheating (maybe he'd even start doubting himself due to his insecurities and all) but what pb's reaction would look like… given his fear of loneliness and tendency to forgive... it's interesting to speculate about. i have a lot of thoughts but i want to hear yours first

and the second scenario is just fun. what if they adopted hollyhock. i honestly didn't think through exactly how this would happen because beatrice would hardly be eager to give the child to them. maybe henrietta would contact them directly, knowing that these two were good guys? idk. but watching and exploring their cute family dynamics seems interesting to me :3

anyway what do YOU think? take your time with the answer, i know that it's about 5:00 am for you

woah holy shit ok… the DRAMA of that first idea… woah.. Because we don’t often see any sort of drama between the two and this would be really interesting to explore… Bojack KNOWING he didn’t cheat, and PB hoping his partner would NEVER do that to him.

That scene where Bojack rushes to hollyhocks house with the information about his dad and Henrietta, but he rushes to PB on his KNEES begging for forgiveness after that conflict, and honestly they’re both better off because of it

As for them adopting hollyhock… that’s just adorable, and the way you brought it up happening feels probably the most likely, to me at least.. especially if (and i’m embarrassed saying this) but if Jay exists then i could see the two being like sisters which is a lovely idea

i agree with you in many ways (for example that pb is really not as innocent and good-natured as it seems from a superficial point of view), but i want to make some remarks!

tbh i don't think that mr peanutbutter had any special attitude to bojack.

OBVIOUSLY pb has his flaws (and you listed them) but to me he seems a rather nice guy? pb generally shows a kind attitude to everyone, it is natural for him; but precisely because he does it unconsciously, and not because of any stable principles and beliefs, in most really difficult situations he behaves incorrectly and selfishly. however, he is capable of really noble deeds - for example, the fact that he forgave diane after he found out about her lie (the scene in the restaurant). i can say that he cared about diane and loved her, just as he appreciates and cares about his other friends (giving todd a place to live, helping bojack with a doll and supporting him after that in the bar, saving a damn underwater city).

he also shows a disdainful attitude towards bojack as well as towards others. i don't even need to list it - as soon as bj starts to really tell pb about his problems, he runs to erica promising that "they will catch up later"! and the fact that he did leave bojack at the party in the last episode. or he brings him to a public event although he must understand that it will be pretty uncomfortable (to put it mildly) for bj to be there now (i'm talking about giving d to hollywoo)

it may seem to us that mr peanutbutter treats bojack in a special way because, despite all insults and the actual betrayal of the latter, he still treats him friendly. i always thought that he didn't care so much about bojack himself as about bojack's opinion of him almost right up to the end of the show, 'cause as we all know he just needs everyone to love him (bj is not special in this regard). he is extremely amiable to bj, forgives any his bad actions etc, as he tries to make bojack like him too because how can someone not like him???

at the same time i in no way exclude pb's sympathy for bojack. even he wouldn't be able to keep running after a man who can't stand him for twenty years!!!

but yes, it doesn't seem to me personally that mr peanutbutter treated bojack in any special way, he's just like that with everyone. he can do both good deeds, helping and supporting, and bad ones, neglecting his friends' feelings. because he's silly used to ignoring any negative emotions in general and because he is too fixated on keeping his image of a cheerful and carefree guy to really pay attention to others' problems.

yeah he definitely has something to work on…

I kinda realized something rather harshly. PB is often woobified by the fandom (this is rather obvious but hear me out). He is typically seen and perceived as this kind genuine and generous person. Because he is….. to Bojack

This is not bobutter propaganda I swear, hear me out

It is a well observed phenomenon in this fandom (as well as in many other fandoms with morally complex and nuanced main characters) that the viewer can often be swayed by the perspective of the main character. As a simple example, the amount of Bojack viewers that sympathize with his actions simply due to the fact that you see how he may be led to commit certain acts is staggering.

And yeah, from Bojack’s perspective Peanutbutter is kind, generous, and caring, because that’s how he always treats Bojack. Constantly scrabbling for opportunities to spend one on one time with Bojack, willing to drop everything at any moment if he needs help, forgiving him when he had no right to be forgiven. Giving up his space, money, and privacy the moment Bojack is in need of a place to stay. Putting his reputation at stake by continuing to associate with Bojack after the public turned on him. Bojack is treated with kindness, patience, and forgiveness in nearly every interaction.

And yeah, if this is how he treated EVERYONE, that reputation he has of being a total sweetheart would be fully justified, but looking beyond Bojack it becomes shockingly obvious that this is NOT the case.

Diane is an easy example, because the seeds that led to their divorce had been sewn throughout the run of the series. Peanutbutter REGULARLY ignores Diane’s needs and perspective, favouring his own ambitions over hers. I saw a post going around about hank after dark (I genuinely can’t find it again or remember who posted it i’m so sorry) but it was about Peanutbutter essentially telling Diane to go to Cordovia to do her own work AWAY from where she could possibly risk his new game show.

This is just the tip of the iceberg but it really shows that he prioritizes his own whims and his own little bubble of hyperfixation over the needs of his wife. He’s usually completely blissfully unaware that she’s often uncomfortable in her own home when it’s full of a film crew, or campaigners, or whatever the hell else he’s latched himself onto. Yes she doesn’t often express this, but to a neurotypical person this would be more obvious by simple observation (peanutbutter is NOT nt, clearly, so he’s less at fault but it doesn’t change the affect), but peanutbutter is so lost in his own whims and excitement that he doesn’t recognize the people around him (AND he tends to get defensive whenever someone tries to bring him back to reality). At least until his divorce with Diane snapped him back to reality.

Also i’m gonna talk about Pickles real quick. I love her, honestly. A lot of people don’t like her but she exists to essentially act as the culmination of all peanutbutter’s problems, and she does that perfectly (also she’s cute, sue me). Yeah, the issue with peanutbutter’s maturity is obvious to the point where Diane calls it out directly. Peanutbutter dates all of these younger girls simply because he WANTS to. He doesn’t care about the affect it may have on the course of these people’s life. He knows it’s wrong, hell Pickles’ age makes him actively uncomfortable whenever it’s pointed out. But he dates her anyways, because he chases whatever makes him happy no matter how selfish.

Yeah, him being bright and optimistic is fun and cute and you could never IMAGINE a man like that doing you wrong, but that mindset lacks real world practicality and sustainability which would in the end lead to the divorce.

Anyways! I digress. Peanutbutter treats Bojack VASTLY different from any of his partners, which is just fascinating to me. He can completely ignore and dismiss Diane’s discomfort with having their house full of crew people, but Bojack appears on his doorstep drunk and distressed and Peanutbutter immediately sends EVERYONE home and gives Bojack his full unwavering support and attention

This ended up kinda tangent-y but I think I made at least some sort of point somewhere in there. I just had thoughts I wanted to get out

i genuinely believe that eventually bojack ended up reading books instead of watching tv or scrolling social networks (he is not very interested in it but he needs to spend pastime somehow....). and mr peanutbutter is almost always there to keep him company so... bojack reads to him and pb sometimes makes comments but most of the time he just listens and. in the end falls asleep (if someone with bojack's voice read to me i would fall asleep too). but bojack doesn't mind. he is also kinda used to discuss books with pb afterwards. and even sometimes chooses the ones he thinks pb might like (true love)

boomer pb is my roman empire now okay

some more arts on this au

and many thanks to @fandomfreakstudios for expanding it! without their wonderful posts it would not be nearly as interesting as it is now :)