Princess Carolyn, a Deconstructed Mary Sue
She always lands on her feet.
This article contains spoilers.
I didn’t have a favorite show until I watched Bojack Horseman. Utilizing a tactic often used by Norman Lear, Bojack tackles hard-hitting issues like mental health, generational abuse, and toxic relationships by wrapping its core message around a nonsensical world populated by anamorphic animals and humans. It’s the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.
The show takes risks with its antihero protagonist, its slapstick humor, its nontraditional storytelling concepts, and its self-reflexive commentary on celebrity and Hollywood culture. Bojack is nearly perfect for me and it speaks to me on several levels, but I stayed for Princess Carolyn.
Princess Carolyn stands out as a character, from her pink color to her perfectly-recited tongue twisters to her confidence. She and Mr. Peanutbutter are the only main characters with names that sound like surname-less animal names. She’s introduced as a plucky career gal who had to claw her way to the top of the Hollywoo/d/b power agent list. No matter the challenge, Princess Carolyn always lands on her feet.
We regard her as a relatable Mary Sue. She’s smart, tenacious, tough, witty, sexually confident, and ambitious. She rolls with the…
