In Defence of Diane | Video Essay (Bojack Horseman)

People hate Diane. They call her whiny, hypocritical, and the worse person on Bojack Horseman. But I disagree.
So as Bojack Horseman approaches its series finale (season 6, part 2), I decided to write an essay defending Diane and explaining what she does what she does.

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Instagram: @500DaysofAri
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Music Throughout the video:
| Court and Page by Silent Partner

End Screen Music:
| Title: Mob Battle
| Artist: Silent Partner

[ArianaAlexis]

If you like this video, you might also like this one I made exploring when exploitation is ok in film and television told through the lens of true crime and the Netflix Jeffery Dahmer show:

Or this one looking at the messy behind-the-scenes of Steven Spielberg's forgotten Jurassic Park spin-off, We're Back: A Dinosaur Story:

Or here is the In Defence of playlist if that's what you're into:

[simseya]

“while bojack and everyone else makes the audience comfortable being broken, diane makes the audience uncomfortable that they’re not doing anything about it.” harsh truth

[Bella-bnlq]

Diane has repeatedly said that she doesn't like grand romantic gestures. It should have surprised no one that she didn't like the belle room.

[Eitha_n]

“All of the characters have problems”
Judah: "I belive this is not accurate."

[hv]

I never saw Diane's unappreciated advice as "high and mighty", because to be honest she was usually spitting straight facts

[Damnsaburna]

What her brothers did to her was one of the cruelest things I have ever heard of.

[Nerdygirlz]

I loved Diane, she’s one of the few female characters I’ve been able to connect to. Her character was written as a person and not a two dimensional mother figure we’re used to seeing in her place. A lot of people in the comments have brought up how people have projected their own issues on to Diane and I agree; Diane was not written to fix Bojack and she refuses to do so as the show progress, this clearly has pissed audience members off because they see it as her neglecting Bojack rather than seeing that it’s not her job to fix him.

[jessiehorn]

I think a lot of the hatred also comes from the fact that in most shows, Diane would be the "mother/angel" figure who would only be there to try and help Bojack be a better person. In that role, she can't have flaws. What's brilliant about this show is that the writers refused to take that route, and instead made Diane a fully human character with her own shitty behaviors. But the audience isn't used to that, and I think most of this Diane hatred comes from their confusion.

[nightstrider]

In regards to her Post-Cordovia period staying at Bojack’s, I saw her breakdown as a form of PTSD. She literally watched people die in front of her. She was in a war zone. Even when Wanda wakes her up on the patio, her first words are her screaming “Kinko!” As if she was having a nightmare about his death. Don’t forget she grew really attached to him. She was more than likely mourning those people and processing trauma she experienced. That made her extremely human to me. She couldn’t handle being in a war zone and then felt immense guilt for leaving all those people to die.

[alexcaetano]

Diane asking herself why can’t she be happy under the earthquake is like one of my favorite moments because I could relate to how she was feeling

[Romanticoutlaw]

wait, people hate diane? She’s the most relatable character in the show. Half the time she’s a vessel for the audience when she’s dealing with bojack

[discontinued]

The fans: Diane is awful!!

Bojack: almost slept with a literal teenager

[mikak]

in a lot of ways I feel like diane was written to be the female counterpart of bojack with a lot of issues stemming from her childhood like bojack. except since she’s an asian woman she’s not allowed to act up like bojack when she’s confronted with her issues bc it would destroy her life. we can see this when she’s ridiculed for acting out even in small ways. so instead she’s forced to deal with and work through her issues all on her own. while she wants to be a good person it takes her time to work through her issues to do so and allow herself to be happy

[Tim-zz]

I didn’t even know people hated her. I thought she was a solid character

[DrMechano]

I never knew people didn't like Diane until now.


I always assumed she was a well-received character.

[mariaangelicaradatejerina]

Diane and Princess Carolyn are my absolute favorite characters, because of their self-awareness of how broken they are, but still trying to be better and help others be better as well.

[Grapepary]

I relate to diane more than anyone else in these series, feeling like I have to be stable and help "fix" others who are broken, while finding out I'm horribly depressed and not meant to.
Why do people hate her so much? Was she not allowed to be human and to want to better herself too?

[MeehanSax]

I didnt even think Diane was unpopular?

Edit: reading through these comments reminded me people miss the point of this series and idolize Bojack for some weird reason

[Sam-qvdq]

I was really surprised when I heard a lot people didn't like her. I thought she would be quite popular. Cause I felt she was a unique character. Coming from an abusive family she's the only character that understood bojack in a way that nobody did. And it scared her. Because she's aware that bojack is not a good guy. And she saw herself in him. The whole journey from seeing her as the "stable, good head on shoulders" character to realizing she's just as broken as bojack was quite amazing imo

[verawickiser]

Everyone gets mad at her for rejecting gifts from peanut butter when she repeatedly tells him she doesn't like big gestures, she tried to communicate and he doesn't listen, it always made me mad that people blamed her for that