In Defence of Sarah Lynn | Video Essay (BoJack Horseman)

People hate Cyrillin, he sucks a dick, you fool, that's how I wanted to start this

video

essay

, but let's be real. I can't fully reveal it when I asked people in the Bojack Horseman community groups why they didn't like it, there wasn't a single person. That wasn't it, I got it, I love her as much as everyone else, however I was surprised that there wasn't a silent, seething minority because as great of a character as she is, I can never fully understand her place in the realm. wider. thematic world of the show as much as she was a beautiful and tragic figure, it seemed like she only existed to boost

bojack

instead of being an individual, everyone else had lives and moments outside of

bojack

, heck, they even had full episodes, but

sarah

lynn

just shows up. in her story she's definitely a three dimensional character but she's kind of the runt of the litter when it comes to character development in characters that have to be developed everyone else develops their own why but

sarah

linzwei is mostly justifying her place in Bojack's life and the explanation for his death, and to the extent that she is limited to what she can do within those limits, it downplayed some of the main themes of the show, which I think can be summed up in two of the lines more quotable. stop dancing and you're all the things that are wrong with you individually, they are insightful and thoughtful, but they never really clicked in my head, I know it's basically blasphemy to say it in relation to bojack

horseman

, but listen to me, bojack

horseman

, the show is a masterpiece everything and I mean everything is used at some point for plot or thematic payoff zack braff dies in season 3 and then returns in a surprisingly significant way in season 6 is that zach braff that when bojack steals the d from hollywood poster stays hollywoo and all the emotional lines no matter how specific to any character are relatable to everyone with that in mind what attracted me to these lines and don't stop dancing and you are all the things that are What's wrong with you is that you don't identify with everyone in the series, especially when you look at them in relation to Sarah Lynn's comparatively shallow character exploration.

I think there are two reasons for this, as Don't Stop Dancing is very tied to Sarah Lynn's journey in the entertainment industry. It was hard to connect that line with anyone outside of that bubble like Diane or Todd or the majority of the audience and two, you or everything that happens to you didn't work with the show's use of thematic lines because Cyrillin's connection to it doesn't work. stopping dancing was what was happening to her and that connection only came about because people pushed her towards fame so they could exploit her it wasn't her fault mommy didn't do what mommy did to that star search producer so you could be a Basically, by being a martyr with weak thematic integrity, she drains any hopeful or encouraging messages the audience may have received from the series or whatever character she is and she was doomed forever, which can be a depressing thought for anyone who identifies even remotely with it. but after revisiting this series for literally the sixth time, something started to resonate with me in the episode called "The View from the Middle" that changed my opinion on the way Saralin was handled and her role in the series. series.

No, it wasn't the catchy musical number. shows are an endless life of course, a silhouette that remains when you're gone, it was saralyn's speech about sacrifice, sacrifice is good, it has to be because I sacrificed a ton and it was freaking awesome, oh and what did you sacrifice ? I gave it my all. I gave my whole life You died on a hedonistic spree I'm not talking about my death I'm talking about my life I gave my whole life What struck me about this was that before Sara Lynn seemed like a complacent character trapped in a world. she didn't create, but once I looked at her through the lens of self-deprivation and loss, she stopped being the contradiction, she wasn't just a tragic object destined to die, so bojack was able to reflect, she allows us to more fully explore some of the unique ideas that this series presents to us by showing us that they are not as black and white as they originally seem, so I guess I'm not really defending Sarah Lynn against the people who hate her because, as we discussed, I guess no one does .

I'm more defending her place on the show against me for thinking she was more superficial than she probably actually was and exposing the broader relativity of her outside of the entertainment industry. Whether you consider this a defense or not is up to you, but that's what I do. I'm going with this is my

video

on that note, my name is ariana alexis and I didn't spell defense wrong in the title in Canada, where I come from, defense is spelled with a c and not an s, so take that and you'll be fine with that. out of the way let's run sara

lynn

through those quotes starting with and don't stop dancing out of all the lines this is the one that stood out to me the most it speaks to a deep rooted need within artists to sacrifice their happiness to create a legacy and gain validation from her audience sarah lynn is the embodiment of that sacrifice she gave up her dreams of being an architect and having a normal life in search of pleasing the people who supported her through parasocial relationships parasocial relationships are when a person feels like they have a meaningful relationship with another person who is usually a celebrity but the other person doesn't even know they exist, like one time when you were 18 and you forced your family to go on vacation from Toronto to New Jersey to to meet Walter Flanagan. of the men in the comics and you ask her in the style of the employee's comment if they still call it the 90's grass chain to which she laughed accurately and then said no, that's what a parasocial relationship is like, it's nice to meet you , thank you also for this harmful way of thinking. goes back to a bojack that taught her as a child on the set of riding horses with your family will never understand you, your lovers will leave you or try to change you, but your fans, be good to them and they will be good to you the most important thing It's just that you have to give people what they want even if it kills you even if it drains you until there's nothing left to drain no matter what happens no matter how much it hurts don't stop dancing and don't stop smiling and give them those people what they want sarah lynn seems to peacefully accept this message through years of reinforcement she may never get the freedom she wants, but at least she will have the love of anonymous fans her speech from the view from the middle of an episode in which she She's already dead It's one of the only times she gets defensive about how she lived her life There's panic in her voice Sacrifice is good It has to be because I sacrificed a ton and I was freaking awesome This is when she realized I'm not had been comfortably numb, she was consciously living in a hell of screaming and waking.

Not only did she sacrifice the life she could have had, she sacrificed her sanity, she recognized the torment she faced but she chose to ignore it because she once was. She is no longer pretty and young, materializing that torment was what the fans responded to. Do you like to see me suffer because you know I will beg for you? If she really pursued what she wanted outside of Hollywoo, she would lose everything, the audience, the adoration, the relevance. legacy and that's why she casually mentions her inevitable and tragic death in an unrelated conversation. I'm in a place right now where I never need to grow as a person or rise to the occasion because I can constantly surround myself with sycophants and enablers until I die tragically young that's why his fall into the final good night was so peaceful that's why That he was so reckless with drugs that he wasn't afraid to die because it would give him an escape from having to constantly perform for the love he longed for, I can see why it's easy to rationalize sacrifice as suffering pain in the pursuit of something you want.

We live in a world that regularly uses discomfort as a measure of value. Have you ever heard the expression beauty is pain, no pain, no gain, I'll take it easy? When I'm dead, life is pain, we validate ourselves based on how hard we try, but I maintain that that is not sacrifice. Sacrifice is, by definition, the act of giving up something valued for something more considered more important or worthy, but after watching Cyrillin's role in the series, I don't think his actions can be classified as sacrifice when you define yourself by your tendency. to lose your own well-being for something unsustainable, your sacrifice is really just self-destructive behaviors in disguise. as something noble, true sacrifice is recognizing and letting go of those harmful behaviors that you use as a crutch instead of dealing with the underlying issues, as bojack said when we valued the idea of ​​the sacrifice of the loss of suffering, now jack, don't start with this.

Again, when we grow up in a house that does that, we internalize this idea that being happy is a selfish act, but sacrifice means nothing, sacrifice in the service of something greater, perhaps, but in and of itself, what's so good about it? well that about Sarah Lynn? The character's arc matches this perspective on sacrifice as it relates to the entertainment industry. This is backed up by people who responded to my Sarah Ling questionnaire in the Bojack groups, stating that her story primarily acted as a window into the struggles of fame, there was a disconnect in how Don't Stop Dancing could relate to a life outside. from hollywood to understand how sarah lynn connects beyond the world of celebrity, we must revisit the first time she internalized don't stop dancing don't stop dancing and don't stop dancing smiling and give those people what they want, no, not here, bojack, oh my god, bring it.

It's great to see a real friend who knew me before she grew up and she's not just trying to get something out of me, she's vulnerable. and excited when bojack visits her for the first time in a long time, these are emotions we rarely see in the adult sarah lynn, she even has these signs on her wall that remind her that she's worth something outside of the audience, almost like she's actively trying to prove young bojack wrong and then bojack reveals why he's visiting. I'm doing this new show, the bojack horseman show, but it's been a lot of fun, the ratings aren't great, but we have this next episode and we're looking for a really big guest star, oh, do you want? that is in your program that right there is the moment when we see life leave his eyes as he learns the true meaning of don't stop dancing it's not that your friends and family will leave you since the audience is still the lesson is that everyone will leave you. will leave unless you are useful like the song tells us no matter how sad you are no one cares not even the people you care about like beatrice bojack's mom told bojack when he was a kid no one gives a damn what you feel that you have has an audience and they want to hear you sing if you look closely, this interpretation of the line is sarah lynn's main motivation throughout the series, her obnoxious self-centered behavior makes sense when you consider that everyone close to her has used and abandoned. her away why would she spend energy making meaningful connections when attachment ends in pain, abuse and abandonment? the obvious signs of her stepfather's inappropriate behavior.

Why can't you do this in Sarah Lynn's dressing room? yo he's a photographer princess caroline who only tried to befriend her to get to andrew garfield or how her ex boyfriend andrew garfield only dated her because of their celebrity couple status when we started dating you were the star biggest in the world, but your last few albums got ruined so now I don't even know what you are, this is reflected in her behavior with Bojack when they reconnected in the first season. Bojack ran away after exploiting her friendship all those years ago and that's why she doesn't give him any emotional bandwidth when he returns. -enters her life, however, she begins to sympathize with him because even though Bojack previously left her, he was still her father figure, inadvertently providing her comfort and stability during her formative years, you're just a tough older man who gave me a strong masculine personality. presence during my training year, she was hungry for that relationship and felt like she had to earn his love in the present, when he finally wanted her in his life, instead of when he pushed her away as a child because she couldn't do anything for him.

What are you going to do this weekend? Don't know. I'll probably go to the amusement park. Maybe the circus flies a kite on the beach. Watch the sunset. Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun. I can go? Yes, I want to spend the weekend. dating a girl when she was an adult, she realized that she could keep bojack close to her if she was there. This is best shown in how we rarely see Bojack and Sarah Lynn together unless she is doing something for him. I just want to thank you for coming to this. time to give me drugs writing yourautobiography quelling her guilt playing daddy daughter going on drug rides when she voluntarily went on a bender for several months with bojack she was in her right mind she had been sober for almost a year yes i know she stopped using drugs because I heard that if you stop doing drugs for a while the first time you do them again, it's amazing, but she was still sober and, as we established throughout the series, was painfully self-conscious when Bojack asked her : "You want a party," without hesitation. she shattered his progress ready to follow him into the abyss this time when bojack disappeared he wasn't in some nebulous place out of reach she was there with him and he wanted her there through the spree as bojack drifts in and out of consciousness sara lynn remains conscious of all she's lucid enough to comment rationally and remember bojack's actions when he can't let's turn this car right now uh sorry we didn't turn the car no we did but then you turned do it again because really You wanted to find that dear girl, so we decided to do a stakeout.

There was a whole makeover sequence where we went to the mall and tried on different trench coats on each other. Don't you remember any of that? I'm sure she forgot. she was nominated for an oscar but the oscar didn't matter if sarah lynn really lived her life for her fans this award should have been concrete proof that she was worth virgin's sexually confident 2007 tour my manager leaked nudes to get more dates tour I added my mom pointed out that every carb I ate was helpful, but it gave millions of fans a show they will never forget and that is worth something, but what it really represented was the superficial entertainment-focused meaning of don't stop dancing , abandoned his life of fame in one of the most important moments of his life to focus on the real meaning of the line, being useful in winning the love of those you love and, what's worse, this is the only time in the series where bojack admits he loves her.

I never discovered what love meant, but right now I don't need to discover anything. Just sorry. I love you sara lynn sarah lynn so when she slipped into the night she did so peacefully knowing that she wouldn't have to suffer anymore. She can be a child again before the system wore her down, her head resting on the shoulder of her surrogate father as she marveled at the world, announcing what she wanted from life. I want to be an architect. In that moment she felt that she had earned the love she needed. for a second before her death she was able to stop dancing and as she placed her unconscious bojack she finally said the words that he should have told her when she was a child and that would have prevented all of this, so it doesn't matter what we did in the past or how we did it .

I will be remembered, the only thing that matters now is this moment, this spectacular moment that we are sharing together, right, Cerelyn, but it was too late, Mr. Lynn, okay, now that we have seen the arc of Sarah Lynn's Don't Stop Dancing , let's discuss. why are you all the things that are wrong with you don't add up this line makes a lot of sense in the context that it was said that bojack had just apologized a million times to todd for some shit he did if bojack's problem is that He feels like a dumpster for all his disturbingly horrible actions, so maybe he should stop doing things he'll regret, but this line doesn't make sense if you think one of the main messages of the series is that generational trauma is all-consuming. and it is unavoidable.

The whole premise of the show or at least what I've been telling people to sell it is that everyone is a product of their environment, it's a group of broken people who live despite their damage but never fully overcome it, It relies a lot on this. The idea that you can't run away from your past is a part of you and directly affects how you act and that's what makes this line "You are everything that's wrong with you" so dissonant with the rest of the series, especially when is about sarah lynn, whose terrible upbringing wasn't limited to her family, it's more emblematic of a systemic problem driven by literally everyone around her, including bojack, no matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, you don't stop dancing and you don't stop smiling. and you give those people what they want, that made me think: are you really all that's wrong with you?

If what happens to you is fundamentally not your fault. We have no control over how we get hurt. We can't choose. Get up, we're just like a friend once told me you were broken, they were but they were also right. I'm broken, but we all are a little bit, and while we may not be able to choose how damaged we are, we can choose how. We let damage control us, don't get me wrong, I know sometimes scars can be debilitating, but you are not your damage, like the sign on young Sarah Lynn's wall said, you are in charge of your own destiny, visit to Diane for a while.

There are no bad guys or good guys, we're all just guys who do good things sometimes and bad things sometimes and all we can do is try to do less bad things and more good things, but you're never going to be good. because you are not bad every time you have the choice between living through your trauma and overcoming the pain to do what is right for you, you have that choice now that we have talked enough about Diane and free will, let's go back to sarah lynn sarah lynn understood what they were Her demons, as mentioned, were mentioned regularly in casual conversation, but instead of trying to overcome them, she accepted them as a part of herself my entire life.

I have never been forced to face my problems head on- so is it okay if instead of facing my problems head on I hide out here for a while and while she did the extremely difficult work of addressing her addiction, she held on to the underlying problems that inevitably led her to relapse? It's not her fault that she had the mentality to never stop dancing, but in her sober head she chose to go on an extended bender with bojack, and despite being the more sensible of the two, she was also the one who suggested they do it.

Saralyn's trauma from heroin told her that Bojack would leave her unless she continued to be useful to him and she didn't fight it and that's why in the reprieve she didn't stop dancing, no matter how afraid she seemed from the view from halfway, he jumped. she chose it because for her it was the only way to escape from herself instead of making the difficult decision to eliminate bojack and find love and acceptance in other ways sarah lynn is not just a tragic hollywood figure that gives us insight from the world of celebrities and she is not the contradiction with the main messages of the program, she allows us to fully explore the themes that bojack horseman presents to us the series about the human condition and what it means to be happy sarah lynn pushed don't stop dancing and You are everything that is wrong with you to its limits by working within its obvious and superficial interpretations, forcing us to look more closely at its nuanced messages when it comes to sacrificing personal responsibility and finding peace, but what does this mean?

For those of us who relate to Sarah? Lynn's Search for Love and Fear of Abandonment Am I Doomed? are you condemned? Are we all doomed? yes no not necessarily if you're watching this you're still alive sarah lynn wasn't doomed either i used to think the show was telling us there's no cure for the past but sarah lynn shows us that no one is a lost cause unless they believe they are you always have the opportunity to take the more satisfying path the funeral was huge there are so many people there who kept thinking I did this to him and they were all standing around thinking this was going to happen but it wasn't meant to happen it's hard to sacrifice the impending thoughts for which You define yourself, but doing so leads to much more joy and growth, you just have to stop dancing for a long time. enough to appreciate it unfortunately sarah lynn didn't learn that until it was too late and there's no defense for that sarah lynn and that's my kind of defense of sarah lynn's video if you enjoyed this video and want to see more of my defenses of others bojack horseman characters specifically beatrice and diane you can click the link on the cards or in the description hello everyone, I'm editing ari.

I'm also thinking about doing other defense videos like defense of todd or defense of jerry from rick and morty, so if you have suggestions for characters from any other tv shows or movies you want to see me defend, let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do right now. I would like to thank all my sponsors, js. major polter kites brittby astro sandwich alex barkley thank you very much for supporting my channel. I really appreciate it. If you, the viewer, also want to support my channel, you can like this video, subscribe or donate to my patreon.

The link is in the description below. Last thing for me I also have Instagram, you can follow me. My name is in 500 days of ari. I just realized I never talk about it, so I mention it here. That's all for editing. I'll talk to you later, bye. you