People give Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn tons of crap for being the actor who plays Skyler White

I’ve heard many a celebrity say that googling ones own name is a path to madness.

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Kind of a given though…

I think you are projecting your later knowledge of Walt’s development onto the scene I referenced.

The moment I mean was 14 minutes into the pilot, chronologically before Walt collapsed at the car wash, before he was diagnosed, before he went on the ride-along and saw Jesse’s lab.

Certainly the scene of him crashing the RV in the flash forward was established, and Walt himself had preexisting personality issues that are hinted at in the back story with Gretchen. But at that moment, we in the audience had seen only the beaten-down weakness of Walt, and that moment was part of it.

A pity-fuck would have been a monument of dignity compared to that.

yes jimh, I’m with you and Gilligan. Its disgusting and stupid and very very misogynist. As one of the commenters to her piece in the Times put it: these aren’t exactly the best and brightest throwing around all the hate. But it does amaze me how hateful people can get. I have to think its their own horrible insecurities they are giving voice to: perhaps they hate their own tendencies to be a doormat; perhaps they feel weak and incapable of her character’s strength. I mean damn, I still know people who freak out when my wife gets mad at me for doing something stupid – they’re like, damn she’s harsh! And I’m like, but I really fucked that up and her reaction was just a bit of anger, what’s the big deal? It seems to me that some people, male or female, have a much harder time coping with anger or strength from a woman than from a man.

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Maybe Gunn will become a beloved figure of geek culture in the future. After all, everbody hated the character of Wesley Crusher back in the day but Whil Wheaton seems to have a good thing going these days…

I think you’re right about Hank/the DEA catching up to Walt. But I still remember the last time they used flashforwards like this, and it was a total red herring. My latest pie in the sky theory (ie, my “if they were totally fucking with us, this is what might be what’s REALLY happening” theory) is that those flashforwards are actually for Walt coming back to take care of Todd and his uncle and their gang, for some reason. Walt seems to have very successfully disappeared himself and started over. Why is he coming back? And why would he need that huge gun to deal with Hank and the DEA? I am thinking Todd and his uncle and their gang have kidnapped Jesse, because they’re still not able to cook to the quality level of Walt/Jesse, and the flashforwards are actually going to be showing us Walt’s redemption, where he comes back to save Jesse even though he’s managed to start over with a new identity and is, in theory, completely safe.

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He has always had a strong impulse to look out for Jesse’s safety. It is the redeeming character trait.

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If I google my name IRL. it shows a line of products specifically for gay men. I just make a joke of it at parties and stuff.

Funny, if I google mine, it comes full circle:

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Yeah, I think there must be something pretty badly wrong with me, because I don’t understand what all these people are talking about when they call Walter a sociopathic amoral monster and such. Sure, he’s made some questionable decisions and done some fucked up stuff, but he didn’t kill that kid by the train, and he didn’t seem real happy about it happening. What’s he supposed to do, sacrifice everything he’s worked for in a futile attempt to bring a dead kid back to life through the sheer power of his moral conversion?

While taking it out on Anna Gunn is clearly insanely inappropriate, I don’t think people dislike Skylar for being a strong woman. We dislike her because she’s been constantly, coldly unpleasant since Season 1, and righteously hypocritical besides. I would dislike her just as much if she were a man. Off the top of my head I can’t think of another character on the show I would less want to interact with socially — Fring, Hank, and Jesse’s idiot pals included. The Salamancas, I guess.

Maybe, maybe not. Robert Kazinsky, who played Warlow on True Blood recently (why am I still watching that crap?) had a much hated character on Eastenders.

“In England I’d be at dinner and they’d throw bread rolls at me. I hope that doesn’t happen here.”

He had 10 witnesses killed in a 2 minute period, just to keep himself from going to jail. And that’s just the first thing that popped into my head.

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Yeah and all of them were tied into the drug trade. Hardly choir boys.

What about Brock? The Lily of the Vally? He poisoned that kid.

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Brock never ate his vegetable and played too many video games. He was a ticking time bomb.

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Yes, but it’s not like he killed them BECAUSE they were tied into the drug trade, and he was doing it for some noble reason. He was doing it to save his own ass. He still killed 10 people for his own selfish reasons. That’s pretty psychopathic as far as I’m concerned.

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Hoping that’s pure sophism…

But then, I guess there’s no shortage of folks who can muster the heinous gall it takes to imagine there’s any excuse to pretend they have a right to end anyone else’s life… and your avatar is a detail shot of a loaded revolver, so there’s that.

Breaking Bad is very Greek tragedy: the evolution of a man into a monster through hubris. The hardest part of these sorts of narratives is keeping the viewer’s empathy throughout. To stay interested in Walt’s fall, we have to understand the decisions he’s made, empathize with them, and reel in the enormity of their consequences with him.

I feel as if, in part to add some depth to her initially flat character, her recent transition is meant to make her a foil to the reader’s own experience. We started out rooting for Walt, but he’s evolved to the point where we’re having trouble sympathizing with him.

In contrast, Skylar started out with no understanding of or sympathy for Walt’s decisions. As she gets deeper into the muck herself, she finds herself identifying and empathizing with his monsterous and compromising acts: she’s slipping down the same slope and is realizing how hard it is to stop. And connecting with him over the experience.

In a way, her transition is meant to get viewers back on track. They’re saying, “Remember, this is all about understanding Walt’s fall. You can’t write him off as a villain just yet, you’ve still got to identify with his decisions. You’ve got to see the same weakness in yourself.” Skylar conveys that message by reminding us how easy it is to slip out of moral ambiguity and into darkness. She reminds us that we still should be empathizing with Walt, because we could wake up one morning and realize we’re in freefall as well.

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If you read the whole thread of the conversation, I said that one doesn’t have to be an asshole for wanting Walter to “win”. I point out several ways one can relate to the character. One may even attempt to rationalize most of the people killed were in no way good people (pointing out the exception of Brock and the kid on the bike).

Naturally, you can take this analysis of a flawed fictional anti-hero, and assume that in the real world I don’t value human life and find no problem with people trying to end others. Obviously, since I have a firearm in my avatar, I am a psychopath who is one bad day away from a murderous rampage.

Not to put any intention behind anybody else’s words, but my guess is that Kimmo was responding to the fact that when I said “Killing 10 people simply to stay out of jail” was perhaps a good example of why people think of Walter as an amoral sociopath (more psychopath, really), you said “Well, they’re all tied to the drug trade” - as if that excuses killing all of them simply to cover one’s own ass. Your earlier post probably didn’t much come into consideration.