It was a while
back that I caught wind that a character on BoJack
Horseman, an animated Netflix original series with talking animals that
delves into the nature of fame and the seemingly-futile pursuit of happiness
and fulfillment (phew!), had an ace coming-out arc. Unfortunately, it fell off my radar in a “so
many shows, so little time” way, but I recently decided I wanted to take
another tour through the few asexual characters I’ve encountered and figured I’d
better add any new ones I can find to the list (within the next month or so, I
should have another new ace from a show called Sirens.) A few Todd-related
spoilers.
First up,
who’s Todd? We meet him as the titular
BoJack’s roommate – kind of. Todd is a
cheery but aimless 20-something who fell in with BoJack, a former sitcom star
who’s been living off his residuals for 20 years and desperately trying not to
be irrelevant, a handful of years ago.
Todd found his way to a house party at BoJack’s one night and never
quite left; he sleeps on the couch and frequently irritates BoJack with his
messiness, mooching, and harebrained schemes that take up lots of space around
the house.
And for
two-and-a-bit seasons, that’s pretty much who Todd is. He’s lovable but dim, a nonchalant
freeloader, a kooky ideas man who supplies plenty of B-stories with his crazy
business ventures with frequent partner Mr. Peanutbutter (such as a Halloween
store that’s only open in January,) and an incurable optimist as an answer to
BoJack’s relentless negativity. Other
than his goofy side plots, he doesn’t get a ton of his own stories, but when he
does, they’re usually about his relationship with BoJack and whether either of
them is good or bad for the other.
In season
3, though, Todd gets a minor arc of his own that has very little to do with his
patented “has this ever happened to you?”
sales pitch. A chance encounter
reconnects him with Emily, an old friend from high school, and between the
flashbacks we get of them and their present reacquaintance, we start to see
that, how fast and furiously as Todd falls into friendship, romance and sex are
another ball game for him. As teenagers,
it’s clear (probably to everyone but Todd) that Emily has a crush on him, and their
first scene together shows her torturing herself by pestering him with
questions about “who he likes.” When he offers
a safe but halting answer, Emily groans that “everybody likes Kimber,” thinking, Why do you have to go for the obvious pretty girl? when, for Todd,
the answer is really that he was on the spot and threw out the first plausible
name he could think of: Who do I like? Guys like Kimber – I suppose I do, too. While the two eventually start dating,
Todd is plainly uncomfortable at the prospect of having sex, and when they meet
up again as adults, Emily’s insinuation that they pick up where they left off
sends him into an unarticulated panic.
Matters
get more complicated (although this arc does
stay largely in the background of the season – to be honest, I was a little
disappointed not to get more of it,) and it culminates in Emily bluntly asking
Todd if he’s gay, confessing how confused she’s been by his apparently-mixed
signals. Todd, beautifully, replies, “I’m not gay. I mean, I don’t think I am, but… I don’t
think I’m straight, either. I don’t know what I am. I think I might
be nothing.” And to her credit,
Emily immediately reassures him that that’s okay – I’m sure she’s bummed that
their relationship won’t go where she wants it to, but I think it’s also a
relief for her to know that it “isn’t her” and understand why it was she couldn’t
get a read on how he felt about her. It’s
a really nice portrayal of a presumably-aromantic ace accidentally (and largely
unknowingly) getting himself into a mess with a sexual who thinks he’s sending
her signals he’s not aware of. It’s
respectful to the feelings of both and resolves gently, with friendship.
That last point is an important one. One of the best things about Todd is that he’s
such a devoted friend – not always the best
friend, since he can be blithely obtuse and, although always well-meaning,
he doesn’t always have the intelligence or ability to back his good
intentions. However, his friendship and
loyalty is fierce. This is especially
true with BoJack, who has to do some seriously terrible things before Todd
confronts him about how he treats Todd, but it applies to virtually anyone Todd
comes into contact with for a decent-ish length of time. Back in season 1, when Diane is working as
BoJack’s ghostwriter, he wonders why they don’t “hang out” just the two of
them, he and Mr. Peanutbutter make a fine hapless pair together, and he often
assumes everyone to be as friendly and welcoming as he is. One of my favorite sideplots of his is when
he discovers a runaway “food” chicken from a slaughterhouse and, amidst his
determination to help her escape recapture, guilelessly declares her “the best
friend I ever had!” I love that an aro
ace character is so into friendship; as a fellow aro ace, that really resonates
with me.
I think Todd is a great new entry to my meager list of asexual
characters. He’s a major supporting
character whose storylines are often just about fun and humor, with tons of
great lines and endearing moments.
Before this coming-out arc, any hints of romance for his character have
been entirely ignored outside of a few mild references in the first couple of
episodes, so this development is well within the bounds of his
characterization. And though I still
have an admitted soft spot for the likes of Sheldon and Sherlock, the first
ace-ish characters I came across, I always appreciate seeing one who doesn’t
fall into any sort of “socially-abrasive ace” stereotype. On the contrary – Todd is warm and loving,
along with enthusiastic, dumb, lazy, creative, and mishap-prone. In other words? He’s entirely his own character who “just
happens to be” asexual, and in my book, that’s pretty much always a good
thing. I hope we see more of him
understanding his sexuality in season 4, alongside his usual antics,
one-liners, and supportive friendship.
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