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Lylo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,176
Yeah, the entire premise of the series is to show that good and bad is just a matter of point of view, at some point you realize that you are sympathizing with a complete asshole and think: "This guy is completely vile"
 
Oct 29, 2017
2,055
Hopped off #TeamWalt when he chose continuing cooking meth over reconciling with his ex-partner and allowing him to pay for Walt's cancer treatments. Even on my second watch I could shake off Walt making the decision to cook in the first place, as well as him icing the dealers. But when you're given a way out by someone who is genuinely altruistic and flatly turn it down, then it's difficult to support any morally-bereft decisions you made thereafter.
 
Oct 28, 2017
6,300
Ironically, whether it's Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, Ken never wins.

Walt's cancer was a permission slip to shirk his mask and let his true nature emerge. This clip is an early indication of that.
 
Oct 25, 2017
13,246
In every single season except for 5A, they gave you worse villains than Walt, forcing you to root for him. Which is why so many people are conflicted as they're supposed to be. It's not bizarre. The show made you root for Walt a lot, and also made you hate him a lot.

While that's true, I think the final season also has to justify him getting back into the whole thing after getting himself clear of Gus, which both highlights what a terrible person he is, but how absurd the constant one upping is.
 

Blue Skies

Banned
Mar 27, 2019
9,224
Guys, I'm watching Mad Men, and I don't understand, Don seems to love his wife, but he keeps sleeping with other woman. This seems pretty inconsistent with his character since he is clearly a family man, but this will destroy his family if he keeps doing it, it makes no sense.
Damn it this made me laugh
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,715
Arizona
I'm sure it's been said, but this is the same guy who lured his archnemesis into a retirement home so he could blow him up with a pipe bomb. It's one of many elements that deliberately illustrate the man he always was inside, but was too timid to bring out.
 

Deleted member 13645

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,052
Walt is a selfish, horrible person. I think a moment like in the OP is when we see him fully give into it, he doesn't care that it might hurt people or is bombastic, it's him giving into his desires without a care for anyone else. That's who he is, and it just comes out more and more as the series progresses.
 

blame space

Resettlement Advisor
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,420
let's be real, ken had this coming. if Walt could kill two birds with one stone, to do this for his family and to blow up Ken's BMW.. I'm not exactly going to bat an eye at this one.
 

sappyday

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,828
I don't like that scene either, but mainly cause I don't believe Walt would have had the balls to have done that at point of the show (literally at the end of the second episode, no?). Season 3 Walt? For sure. Season 2 Walt, yea probably. Early season 1 Walt? Hell no.
 

Brotherhood93

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,828
As others have been pointing out, Walt is a terrible and very petty person. The only thing possibly out of character is that he had the courage to do something like that at this point, not that he wouldn't want to or enjoy doing it.

Also, small thing, but people are using "psychotic" wrong in this thread. Psychosis is a mental illness and not a negative character trait. Walt wasn't psychotic.
 

Deleted member 31333

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 6, 2017
1,216
Ken deserved it! #TeamWalt

Yes I know Walt is a bad guy but it is okay to root for the anti hero or bad guy in a work of fiction
 

Robin

Restless Insomniac
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,504
He didn't even look at the explosion, doesn't he know how cool those are??
 

blame space

Resettlement Advisor
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,420
like

you kinda are. that's kinda the point of a tv show. you cheer on Walt. you cheer on Tony. because you're invested in the story. that doesn't mean the things that they do are okay outside of the television story.
 

skillzilla81

"This guy are sick"
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,052
like

you kinda are. that's kinda the point of a tv show. you cheer on Walt. you cheer on Tony. because you're invested in the story. that doesn't mean the things that they do are okay outside of the television story.

No, that's not the point. The point was to show the lengths a man might go when he thought he would die.

I never cheered on Tony. He's a terrible person.

I don't need to be a cheerleader. I'm more interested in the humanity in the characters.

It's scary to me that people cheer on the murderers.
 

skillzilla81

"This guy are sick"
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,052
if you were really that disgusted you would have turned off the TV

Where did I say I was disgusted? I love breaking bad. Walt is a great character, and a terrible person. Same with Tony.

Instead let's talk about how people look at walt as a hero and skyler as a villain. The misogyny in those takes show up constantly in real life relationships.

That's the scary thing to me. If anything, I'm disgusted at fanbases that are overtly sexist while propping up terrible men as the heroes.
 

blame space

Resettlement Advisor
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,420
oh definitely. there is a lot of completely insane hero worship regarding these characters, and a lot of really gross villainizing too.

but that's all been discussed a lot. and that's fine. i just think maybe we've gone full circle now and saying "Walt did something positive once" or even "Walt could have had a noble intention once" is met with extreme disgust. i just don't think it's good for conversation. we're not these characters' cheerleaders, in either direction. but we are following them for a reason. we like it.
 

Lothar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,550
I don't like that scene either, but mainly cause I don't believe Walt would have had the balls to have done that at point of the show (literally at the end of the second episode, no?). Season 3 Walt? For sure. Season 2 Walt, yea probably. Early season 1 Walt? Hell no.

He went into Tuco's place and bombed his building in Season 1. That's his Season 1 story. He didn't give a fuck anymore. He could do whatever he wanted and not worry about consequences. He just had qualms about killing people for moral reasons, which went away when he became used to it.
 

BlackFyre

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,430


When I first saw it, I quite liked it.
But the more I think about it, it makes little sense.
I get that Walt is really unhappy he just found out he has cancer and may leave his family in debt,
But to blow up someone's car just because he's an entitled douche bag seems psychotic, not to mention that its next to gas station which could of blown up and injured or killed many innocent people and caused $1000s in damage.


Bro, did you watch the show? Walt is pretty much the villain.
 

dark_prinny

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,374
As others have been pointing out, Walt is a terrible and very petty person. The only thing possibly out of character is that he had the courage to do something like that at this point, not that he wouldn't want to or enjoy doing it.

Also, small thing, but people are using "psychotic" wrong in this thread. Psychosis is a mental illness and not a negative character trait. Walt wasn't psychotic.

This is important. People should get informed about what being a psychotic is.
 

BobbeMalle

Banned
Dec 5, 2017
2,019
it's a showing of what a man can do in the right situation, no man is just good and no man is just evil
He discovered his malicious side and that's what he's capable of
 

carlosrox

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,270
Vancouver BC
I just remembered that the real Anthony Hopkins sent a gushing fan letter to Bryan Cranston that got leaked.

And he was not happy about it being out there.
 

Donos

Member
Nov 15, 2017
6,543
When you are in the Empire Business, you have to put fools in their place. #TeamHeisenberg
 

lemmykoopah

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
740
Wow a lot of posts in this thread are downright nasty and demeaning towards the OP. I think some people read a few too many exaggerated ''deep'' pseudo psychology character breakdowns of Walter White. And of course now it looks really elite when you show how you figured out and 'get' he psychology of Walter White.

Please, Walter White wasn't a psychopath or a sociopath. Did he fuck up? Yes. Was he a flawed person? Oh, absolutely. But a deeply rooted evil person he is not.

Psychopaths do not feel remorse or empathy. There are several moments in the show where you see these traits on Walter.

I didn't like the scene too. It's very unrealistic. You can't just set a car on fire at a petrol station and just get away with it like Walt does in the show. It felt like a forced crowd pleaser to me tbh (oppressed character overcomes the bully).
 

Nameless

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,412
it's a gross oversimplification of the character to chalk everything Walt does up to "he's just an evil mustache twirling psychopath/sociopath". Is he somewhere on the spectrum? Likely. But so are millions of functioning members of society who never harm a fly. Turn off the power & water in your city for a few weeks and you might be shocked at what "good people" are capable of. On the old site I'd often use the analogy of a soldier in war to highlight the effects of suspending morality and nurturing the darker parts of one's humanity, particularly when the person feels they have justification.
 

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,438
I never bought that Walt was always a psycho. It always felt to me like he was playing an imaginary character until he became it.

Like the best scene that gets that across is just after he first meets Tuco, and he has a weird adrenaline comedown in the car. Then later on he inhabits Heisenberg more easily, finally becoming him in seasons 4 and 5 when even kid killing doesnt phase him anymore.

Remember when he killed Crazy 8? Didn't seem like a psycho then

So yeah that scene in OP is kind of dumb imo.