FTFY 
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Anti-heroes as a literary concept are not new or unique to Hollywood. Walter White wasn’t supposed to be one, though. He was straight-up the bad guy of the piece. However he had all the elements (I presume unintentionally) to become a hero of the incels, edge lords, proto-Nazis, etc. He was a mediocre white guy with a lot of power fantasies who got to live out those fantasies. Angry white men are always gonna root for that character no matter what else is going on, and will hate anyone who gets in the way of it.
As for your wife, well, it turns out women are raised in the same culture so we can have similar toxic ideas. Angry white men run the culture, so angry white male ideas infect us all, whether we like it or not.
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Hah! I promise I didn’t see you comment before I wrote mine. And charging folks was one of our first ideas after driving away, rather than shaking your proverbial fist.
I like your idea. Or lean all the way in and park an RV out front and sell blue rock candy out of the side like an ice cream truck.
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I like where we’re going with this.
I think we could also get a local pizza place to sponsor the thing. For every pizza used “on set” they donate one to a local shelter.
Somewhat ironically, I stopped watching the show once Walter was offered the really lucrative “legit” job early on (with health insurance!) and turned it down. Once I realized he was just going to be the baddie I was over it. The title hadn’t tipped me off, bc I’m obviously very dense sometimes!
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As if his selfishness with regards to his getting cancer wasn’t enough (his dumb ass refusal to take financial help due to this stupid masculine pride), I think where they showed it the most was in his treatment of Jesse, who had probably the most robust arcs of the whole show. He went from a dumb ass kid who dealt drugs and made stupid decisions, to an adult who was very much trapped in the world that Walter White created for himself. He was incredibly abusive to Jesse and made him suffer horribly. Meanwhile, White believed himself to be a father figure to Jesse… sure… an abusive one that killed his girlfriend maybe and poisoned a kid…
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Yes, exactly! Jesse shows the true darkness of Walter. He was totally abusive to him the entire time and used him as a prop to hold up us own fragile ego. Walt only valued himself proportional to how superior he could feel to Jesse, so his self worth depended on destroying Jesse to increase the superiority gap. That’s my reading, anyway. The way he treated Skylar and Juniour was awful as well, of course, but I think Jesse really puts it in stark relief.
The act of turning down the financial aid and even a lucrative cushy job from his best friends is what should have sold the fact that he’s a bad guy to people. He chose burning down the world over accepting community support. Weirdly, as you say, a lot of people ended up hating those people for making the offer because it was an assault on Walt’ fragile ego (and by extension the fans’ own fragile egos). The edge lords and manbabies took the same wrong message from that moment as Walt did. It’s a weird meta situation with fans and story that hurts my brain a little.
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I think that’s pretty spot-on. I rewatched the show not too long ago, and the Jesse’s whole arc is just heart breaking to watch, because of how Walt treats him.
Yep and I think that’s the point that Vince Gilligan was really trying to make, that that sort of shallow individualism, fed by fragile white masculinity, that is a huge problem in society that needs to be addressed.
Yeah, but sadly, no matter how much you try to illustrate a particular point (even calling the show “Breaking Bad”… I mean HELLOOOOOO!!!) some people are just determined to miss it.
Either way, it’s still a great show, with great writing and acting. Personally, I like Better Call Saul (and I’m behind, so no spoilers please!) better, just because I like the three sort of main characters from both shows (Saul, Gus, and Mike), as I find them more complex characters, especially when made the main thing of the show. Saul in BB was such a two-dimensional character and Jimmy is such a complicated guy who does seem to try and walk the straight and narrow…
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It’s interesting to think that Gilligan originally planned to kill off Jesse at the end of season 1:
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I finally caught up to the newest season of Better Call Saul and it is so good. I have to wait for the last season to get to streaming now. Taps foot.
I did finally get to El Camino, and it was satisfying.
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I’m glad he didn’t. Jesse was really the best part of the show…
I’m behind on that, so no spoilers! There’s Stranger Things, Unbrella Academy, and then Sandman drops pretty soon! Currently watching Mr. Robot (I know, that’s from a million years ago…)…
Agreed. Jesse deserved to get away.
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Guess I’m going to have to check this out at some point. I’ve avoided it because Saul felt so shallow in BB and I didn’t see how he could carry a whole series. Plus I’ve been catching up on Sex Education on Netflix, which … breaks my little romantic heart over and over again and then patches it up once more, it’s such a delight.
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He really is on BB, but I found his story arc far more intriguing and interesting than that of Walt’s in BCS… plus, I adore Kim:
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The last half of the last season starts in a week or so; cant wait.
Also all your points about Walter White being the real monster are spot fucking on; there were no heroes in that story, but in the end, Jesse Pinkman found redemption.
BCS is just as good if not better than Breaking Bad; the writing is phenomenal and really takes Saul from a 2 dimensional background character to a fully realized and complicated persona of a man who is deeply flawed, but still relatable.
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I can’t add much to this conversation other than enjoy the merry-go-round every time the topic of Walter White comes up and what a toxic bastard he is. Better Call Saul is the better, more nuanced, mature show though and if you’d told me i’d think that when it was first announced i’d have questioned your sanity.
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Definitely worth a watch. What you get to see is how he ended up as such a trashy and one dimensional person, basically. The journey is really well done and happens so slowly you hardly notice it. It’s a plausible way that real life trash people end up that way. Tiny little ethical lapses here and there eventually snowball until he starts leaning harder and harder into it. The fall is mostly due to his own failings, but also largely to do with how other people are treating him. It’s a great story.
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The last half of the last season starts in a week or so; cant wait.
Good news! The season resumed last night, so no need to wait. You can watch the latest episode now!
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Oh, snap; sho you right!
(I was on vacay until yesterday & wasnt clocking the date.)
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