10 Lessons About Mental Health From Bojack Horseman And Steven Universe
9. Kids Shouldn't Suffer For Their Parents' Mistakes (but Often Will)
Bojack's childhood trauma hangs over him for a significant portion of the series. His alcoholism likely came from his parents' habits, and his depression possibly genetic, but mostly resultant of their abuse and neglect. No child deserves such a fate, but that was Bojack's life, and he has to carry that weight with him for most of it.
Even from the beginning of the series, when everything was a lot less harrowing, Steven had to carry the mistakes his mother made - mistakes that hurt many people, resulted in war and rebellion and murder (or alien Gem equivalent of such) of many friends, something that no child should take responsibility for.
Even as a superheroic figure with seemingly endless optimism, Steven is weighed down and eventually traumatised by the amount of violence he's subjected to as a direct result of his mother's actions - his mother, who, while a good person, had enormously harmful mistakes that she inadvertently left him to solve.
Parents should never let their own issues and mistakes touch their children, but it happens more often than not, in real life as much as in these outrageous cartoons.