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| “ | You can't rely on other people, BoJack. It's good for you to know that. And she's a good mother for teaching you that. You've got a head start on most kids. You're actually very lucky. | „ |
| ~ Butterscotch to his son, Free Churro. |
Butterscotch Horseman is the secondary antagonist of the adult animated series BoJack Horseman. He was the father of Bojack and the husband of Beatrice Horseman, who was Bojack's mother.
Cold and abusive, he, alongside his wife Beatrice, is one of major factors of Bojack's long-lasting mental health difficulties and trauma.
Butterscotch was voiced by Will Arnett, who also voiced his son BoJack, Lone Gunslinger in Ice Age: The Meltdown, Vlad Vladikoff in Horton Hears a Who!, Slade in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Mr. Perkins in Despicable Me, and Sweet Pete in Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers.
Biography[]
Past life[]
Not much known is about Butterscotch's past, but there was some information. Born in Michigan or Indiana in mid to late 1930s, he likely originated from a middle class life and his mother died when he was only a child.
Meeting Beatrice[]
Butterscotch met Beatrice Sugarman on her debutante party in June 1963. Due to his rebellious attitude, he gained interest of Beatrice, resulting in a one-night-stand between the two later that night.
After finding out he got Beatrice pregnant, Butterscotch tried convincing her to get an abortion, but to no avail. Eventually, they decided to marry and settle down in San Francisco.
Marriage[]
Initially happily married, Butterscotch and Beatrice's relationship suffered a major decline as their son BoJack was born. To make things worse, the family was in a bad financial situation and Butterscotch was struggling as a writer, being unable to finish his novel, and having every submitted piece of writing rejected by the beatniks, a group he used to admire.
Throughout the years, Butterscotch and Beatrice kept on growing more hateful toward one another and even towards BoJack, taking out their frustrations on him, as well as abusing him both verbally and physically.
Despite being reluctant to do so due to his resentment towards the upper class, in 1970, Butterscotch decided to finally accept the offer to work in Beatrice's father's company, which led to financial improvement of the Horsemans.
Affair with Henrietta[]
By the time of Bojack's success as an actor thanks to his hit sitcom, Horsin Around. Butterscotch continued his adulterous lifestyle, until in late 1999, he encountered a young naive woman from a nursing school named Henrietta Platchkey. He wooed with her as he made a comparison by her resembling his late mother. After the two slept, he pushed her to get an abortion, which Henrietta refused. Feeling conflicted, Butterscotch confessed of his adultery and broke down in tears in front of Beatrice that she should take care of his problem with Henrietta. This would result in the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Hollyhock.
Following her birth, Beatrice sent Hollyhock away to Kansas to live with eight gay men as her adoptive fathers, where she would live a more happier and healthier environment. Butterscotch was not seen in Henrietta's birth to Hollyhock, implying that he was already a deadbeat father to her besides Bojack.
Duel and Death[]
Almost ten years later in late October 2009, after a lone negative review of his book was published in a newspaper, Butterscotch was outraged and challenged every person who did not like his novel to a pistol duel. The challenge was accepted by a lunatic from Montana, who arrived to the Golden Gate Park, where the two men agreed to take ten paces, and shoot. However, midway through the steps, Butterscotch turned to ask the man if he actually read the book. Distracted, Butterscotch tripped over an exposed root and bashed his head in a rock, which resulted into his pathetic death.
At Butterscotch's funeral, Beatrice gave a eulogy, where she said "My husband is dead, and everything is worse now," which was the first time BoJack ever heard his mother say something positive about his father. However, by that time, Butterscotch had foolishly trifled away and wasted all of Beatrice's family inheritance, leaving her in debt. She had to sell her house and all of her fancy jewelry and moved into Walnut Springs Nursing Home in Santa Barbara.
Following his death, this would make Bojack Horseman and Hollyhock possibly the last living relatives of the Horseman bloodline.
Personality[]
Butterscotch was a very delusional, egotistical, self-absorbed, narcissistic, abusive, run-down mess, who, similar to Beatrice, verbally abused BoJack many times throughout his childhood, even going as far as to take the blame on BoJack for "ruining" his life. This is mostly because of his lack of talent and failure as a writer, as well as his own delusions.
Butterscotch seemed to avoid his wife and son most of the time by either staying out late either at the office or having affairs, or locking himself in his study to drink, and chip away at his pipe dream novel. He was often seen yelling nonsensical, patriarchal, ultra-conservative, misogynistic hyperbole at his son. This was usually to cover up and feel better about his own failures and to express his resentment at the world around him, typically blaming it on Democrats, Jews, or Communists. He even used this against concepts such as the Panama Canal, which he said was for Democrats, or imaginary friends, which he claimed were invented by communists to rip off welfare.
He was neglectful and abusive to BoJack, showing resentment towards Beatrice whenever he had to "do her job," like making himself a sandwich and picking up BoJack late from soccer practice. Butterscotch used this as an example for BoJack saying to him that he shouldn’t depend on anyone, and he considered him lucky to learn at a young age. He criticized his young son's Father’s Day card saying it was "shoddy craftsmanship" and accused him of slacking off. He even slapped BoJack when he said, given the choice, would take the Panama Canal as opposed to going around "the horn, like God intended" if he had to take a boat to New York.
He also drugged once BoJack after the latter caught him having an affair with his secretary, by giving him a rum and coke as their first drink together as father and son, and after he woke up from being unconscious from getting sick so Beatrice wouldn't find out, He is shown to have a more cheerful demeanor than his usual self and being uncharacteristically nice towards BoJack saying he "loved the time they spent together" at his office.
Butterscotch was, arrogant egotistical, delusional, and stubborn when it came to his writing. He had dreamed of becoming a beatnik and dreamed of publishing the next “great American novel." However, Butterscotch had barely started working on it by the time of BoJack's birth, as he didn't even have a plot or any characters developed before his son's conception. He had only a vague idea that involved the theme of the great American dream, promised by society, and this behavior would continue for the next thirty-five years.
During this time, Butterscotch would claim he was working on it and blamed the beatniks who rejected him for being "Comme-Liberal, Jew-loving rejects" and not recognizing good talent because of it, and even blamed his wife and son for "distracting" him. He initially refused a good job for Beatrice's father at the Sugarman Sugarcube Company, and worked a low-income job at a fish cannery, because he believed that working at the former was "slavery" and thought that the struggles of the working-class would make his writing better. He only agreed when Beatrice wouldn't stop begging him to.
He did finish his novel, titled The Horse That Couldn't Be Broken, sometime in the 2000s, but it wasn't at all successful, and more just him accomplishing a pipe dream, which was all his "talent and ideals" around his writing broke down too. It's even obvious that he had no talent as a writer and just nonsensical ideas that were vague. His spiteful demeanor, narcissism, and hatred for the world around him were what fueled his ego and made him delusional about his lack of faith in the world.
He is also shown to be resentful and bitter towards Beatrice for her family's wealth, her upper class lifestyle, and her financial independence, which was something that she herself regretted ever losing once marrying him and resents her for his inability to provide as much for her, and the fact she decided to keep BoJack, and he is one of the many factors that turned Beatrice into the bitter, atrocious, cruel, and abusive woman BoJack had the misfortune of having as a mother.
External links[]
Butterscotch Horseman on the BoJack Horseman Wiki
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 Villains
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