Can’t stop thinking about (aka losing my mind over) @raguma1002’s reverse!bobutter au.
I’m just kinda shaking around in my tiny mind the manners in which they would be swapped. If it would be just an exact 1:1 switch with their personalities, worldviews, relationships, and reputations completely swapped between the two, or if it would be something a bit more nuanced than that.
Even just looking at their upbringings… Like thinking of whether that would be switched too, and how that would go about happening. Like would bojack have this nice supportive family out in rural Canada somewhere, while peanutbutter has a horrific mysoginistic father and emotionally abusive mother. Or should they still have the same upbringing as their original counterparts, but just with slight tweaks that would leave them with more or less damaged (or even just different coping skills and ways of self expression) leading to their “swapped” demeanours in the show.
Like, just imagining a Peanutbutter growing up in this little white bread cookie cutter northern town, where any sort of divergence from a set expectation of who you are and grow up to be is highly frowned upon. Peanutbutter being queer (at the very least) and distinctly neurodivergent constantly feeling othered and ostracized by his own environment. Him just wondering “why am I not good enough, i’m just trying to be myself” and getting repeatedly burned for any form of self expression leading to a closed off and jaded adult. Him eventually fucking off to California and leaving his whole family behind, stumbling his ass into his first and best known role, and once that’s over not knowing what to do with himself, because the first one literally fell onto his lap.
And imagining Bojack as possibly a child of divorce. Maybe Beatrice actually leaves Butterscotch and takes a young Bojack with her, reclaiming her roots as a feminist, especially in an era where feminism is more frowned upon. Giving her a chance to heal from that PPD and birthing trauma she experienced, in being out of such a negative environment (maybe i’m being too nice to Beatrice but also I love Beatrice so i’m coping so hard here). This would give Bojack a lot more stable of an environment to grow up in, with his mother teaching him the value of hard work and carving your own destiny and whatnot.
Bojack wouldn’t necessarily be coddled and stupidly optimistic like Peanutbutter was, and Peanutbutter wouldn’t be as reckless and destructive as Bojack necessarily was. It wouldn’t be exactly 1:1 role swaps necessarily, moreso a natural way to reverse their disposition. Obviously this would make it even more complicated to swap the rest of the characters if it’s not an exact 1:1, but that’s honestly part of the fun.
Love this au, wanna write a fic and do some art so bad, but school’s kicking my ass so i’m stuck doing my sleep deprivation fueled autism ramblings between classes
