to be fair elliot wouldn't be offering if there were no cancer diagnosis in the first place 😭😭 walter made an insane choice at the expense of his family, as thrilling as it was to watch 🤣 i agree though, takes one insanely proud person to turn away cancer treatment funds 😎
Every great villain embodies an idea or answers a question Joker = Embodiment of Chaos Griffith = Embodiment of Narcissism Michael Myers = Embodiment of Darkness Walter is the pure embodiment of *PRIDE*
He would have probably said yes if Elliot appealed to his ego and said they needed him and that he deserves the credit for his part in creating the company.
@@pyroAdapt I *100%* Agree. Everything Walter does is because of pride. If Elliot and Gretchen had given him some story about how they had a project coming up that only he was smart enough to figure out and he was the head of his own sub company or something ridiculous like that. I can guarantee Walter would have said yes and the series would have been over in 5 episodes
Hmmm... I'm not sure about that. If Walter was too proud he wouldnt have worked as a teacher nor had a job at the car wash. I think the series starts at the beginning of the change from Walter to Heisenberg.
a good quote i heard about Walter "Heisenberg isn't the alter ego of walter white in the crime world, But walter white is the alter ego of Heisenberg in the norm world"
I forget where I heard this but Walter didn’t become Heisenberg like when Turning on the lights doesn’t create cockroaches, it simply reveals that they were there all along.
@@AdhavR7 That's still missing the point. Walter White remains himself throughout the show, but only gives way to darker aspects of himself more as the series continues. He still loves his family just as much as he did in the beginning, still holds resentment towards Gretchen and Elliot, and feels like he wasted his life up until recently. The "Heisenberg" parts of his personality are what he is allowed to express when he is head of a meth empire.
That's a very low level perspective. His character developed into Heisenberg. And yes, it's OBVIOUSLY not like a light switch that'll be a disorder. It's his shadow self. Which he developed by the end of the show. He WAS a decent man when he started out. So don't tell me "he was evil all along" he wasn't.
@smart-ass8515 he was always evil, his true character didn't have a chance to come until he started making meth. He was never decent, just harmless. A decent, good man wouldn't have gone down the road he did. A decent man would have swallowed his pride accepted help for the good of his family, whether he liked it or not
I definitely think people overstate him being a good helpless guy at the beginning. For starters he keeps talking about self-reliance and a man being a product of his choices. So then why is he so mad at his life when they are a product of his own choices? Like leaving gray matter prematurely or breaking up with Gretchen or marrying Skyler and buying the house and so on... Moreover, as much as he hated his life, he had a pretty decent one compared to a lot of other people. He wasn't living in poverty or anything. He wasn't abused. His wife wasn't cheating on him. It's also suspicious that he doesn't have any friends or family outside of Hank, Marie and Skyler and Junior. He seems to be mostly a strange from his mother. No siblings are close friends. It's interesting they didn't even give him like one male friend as a neighbor or something.
I’ve been saying this ever since I first started watching Breaking Bad for the second time. Walt didn’t have a character arch. That’s who he was the entire time. His cancer diagnosis represented freedom to do whatever he wanted to do.
@@BenjaminGroff-qi6lc You’re talking about ability. That’s something he always had. It was always there. Once he received his diagnosis, that ability went from potential to kinetic. That’s not an arc. That’s an inciting incident.
10:55 “all those year..”. the series starts with Walt’s 50th birthday…. it ends with his 52nd. when Hank figures it out, it’s been a year and a half. people seem to forget that it was only half a decade from the audience’s perspective.
Every great villain embodies an idea or answers a question Joker = Embodiment of Chaos Griffith = Embodiment of Narcissism Michael Myers = Embodiment of Darkness Walter is the pure embodiment of *PRIDE*
@@smart-ass8518 Walter has done too much evil in my book to be considered an anti hero. He allowed Jane to die. He is responsible for countless deaths He destroyed his family despite not needing to He had Jessie tortured When in comes to anti heroes it's difficult to say where the line is but I think Walter crossed over the line in later seasons.
@@StephanePare Bro what the fuck are you all talking about, ego was never the reasons fir all his problems with Gus, Walt was happpy to work for Gus he even accepted a small percent of the money he was making even though Jesse literally told him he wanted a bigger share of the outcome. (3 million VS the almost 100 million all that meth was worth) The only reason Walt had to kill Gus was because Gus tried to kill him first, Gus tried to kill Jesse which Walt would have NEVER hallowed , all he did was trying to defend his friend and later the show himself. Walt HAD a big ego through the show, but don't act like everything bad that happen was because of that. Gus dead was his own fault. He shouldn't have tried to hurt Walt or anyone near him.
@@StephanePareWalter’s ego didn’t have anything to do with his problems with Gus Walter was happy work for Gus Walter problems with Gus stared when he saved Jesse life from 2 of Gus’s dealers. Gus then wanted Walter dead but Gus still needed Walter until Gale was ready once Gale was ready Gus was going to kill Walter so Walter tried to kill Gale to save his and Jessie’s life but before he could Gus got his men to bring Walter to the lab to kill him so Walter then got Jessie to do it.
@@todd2.08 I find it fascinating that so many people can watch the same show and get something completely different. It really shows how subjective human social perception really is, and I love reading opinions like yours
Wal-Turd White could have just accepted what his former partner Elliott offered him for his cancer treatment. He also could have accepted Hank's offer to support his family after he died. The show could have ended about five minutes into the pilot. If Walt was not a turd, there would have been no show.
I'd say if he was actually smarter, and not let his greed get the better of him, he wouldn't have been caught in the first place. Let alone half the stuff that happened could've been prevented.
Walter was a covert narcissist. A victim of his own pride. The reason I believe to why he settled as a high school teacher was because he gave up trying to protect his ego. This would supply his ego, so that he at least was still somewhat respected. He believed could never be more, he failed once and never wanted to risk failing again. Deep down he despised himself and grew bitter over the years. Maybe he expected that if he did the right thing, supporting his family and being a humble husband and father then he would be rewarded? The cancer diagnoses was the final straw... I guess. He could have accepted financial support. But this wasn't who Walter really was and knowing that he would soon die, he was finally free of this emotional prison. All he saw in himself was a loser, a nobody. He bottled up this bitterness and resent for so long and now it wanted to break free. The only way it could thrive was through Heisenberg. Heisenberg allowed him to be this someone else, the product of all Walter's failures. A pathological liar, narcissist with a borderline god-complex. Over one year, he destroyed so many lives. He went into hiding for around 14 months and only came out again because he saw an interview from Elliot and Gretchen. It took him so long to decide to make right some of his wrongs. Which he really only did for himself. This is really only scratching the surface though for why I think Walter is much worse than Gus. Gus was in business for over 20 years. Gus also had no family. His motivation was vengeance. His partner Max murdered in front of him by the cartel. Max was not only his business partner but also his romantic lover. Gus kept Max's killer Hector close by after Tuco died. Walter used this weakness against him to take him out. If Gus was such an evil ruthless person surely he wouldn't have hesitated to remove Walter and or his family as soon as Walter became a problem. I think this is why Walter is the definitive villain of the show, because he always had the chance to be a good person, he made decisions knowing they had terrible consequences for his loved ones and he chose a legacy over morality.
@@christucker7655 That's when he was working at Los Alamos on the Crystallography breakthrough; he must have screwed up something with that. Still trying to figure out why he left that job, even with Walt Jr.'s physical problems.
He never could have worked into a big tech firm, his people skills and temper are a big no-no in that kind of environment. He's not a team player and anytime someone has success he's resentful of it.
To an extend I see Walt's and Jimmy's characters as opposites. Jimmy in his core was a good kid, but was pushed and shoved and whenever he tried to do anything good, he got rocked for it, until he just stopped trying to be good. Walter was only good because he never had a chance to be bad, while James was pushed to become Saul Goodman, Walter was held back from becoming Heisenberg, until he wasnt. By the end Walter becomes basically pure evil, while Jimmy gets a chance at redemtion.
My Mum struggled to finish the series because she grew to hate Walter and whenever she dislikes a character she doesn't want to keep watching the show. The only thing that kept her going was wanting to see if Jessie would get out alive
@@ChiknPog he killed people, stole, deal drugs, messed things up, and in the end he betrayed and snitched on Walt, i think he's as bad as Walt, and the fact that he thinks he's better than Walt and label him as a demon is him being a hypocrite
Same thing happened with Tony and Carmela Soprano. I reckon there's a subset of people out there - almost entirely men, I'll wager - who find 'naggy women' to be worse than murderers.
Walt's killing of Gus was 100% self-defense. Gus ordered the hit on Tomas in order to have Jesse killed by the dealers. Walt couldn't afford to lose Jesse; that's why he saved him. Despite this, Walt assures Gus that he is ready to compromise. But instead, Gus tries to kill Walt, leaving him no choice but to retaliate.
Killing Gus wasn’t the issue it was that he was willing to do it by blowing up a bomb in a nursing home. Like imagine if some innocent old lady stood behind the door when is exploded
I'm a bit tired of this overly simplistic view that’s become so popular in recent years, portraying Walter as this always-evil person who did everything just to satisfy his ego. Walter is compelling because he’s complex and makes decisions that can only be understood by putting yourself in his shoes. Yes, he becomes a repulsive human being by the end, but he’s not this demonic, one-dimensional figure from the start. Reducing his character to "ego man does evil things" really oversimplifies who he is.
@@vicbasces THANK YOU. His moral complexity is what makes his character and the show so compelling. It’s not so black & white. Just like the world we live in.
After watching Better Call Saul I realized how Walt just kind ruined the lives of everyone he came in contact with: Jesse, Brock, Flynn, Skyler, Marie, Gomez’ family, Mike
@@Therealdacooter Right right right. Well, alls I know is Wart told Jersey to kill a guy with a G name. I’ll just say it really fast and nobody will notice.
He is not pure evil. He loved Jesse. He risked his own life for that reckless guy multiple times. He manipulated him a lot, but he loved him. Secondly, he wanted to give all his money and to go to prison for the rest of his life, just for Hank's life in episode when Hank was killed. Everything he did for his family, all that money, just to lose, only for sparing life of a guy who wanted to arrest him. Walt is just calculated. He love Jesse, Hank and rest of family. He will kill anyone who makes any trouble in his plan. He is scary not because he is evil, but for he behave with people's life like with math.
The first clip you played is such a good summary of Walt as a character. He feels his intelligence alone makes him an equal to his betters, but always fails to understand the arguably more important qualities that they all have over him.
The thing many people miss is Walters strange and subtle sadism. He says at the end that he liked it. He liked hurting others, manipulating and playing with peoples heads and their emotions. He loved destroying Jesse's life, he loved seeing Skylar weak and afraid. He loved sticking it to Hank by toying with him. The thing that makes that sadism not as overt as say Lalo's or Tuco's is because Walter is essentially just a coward. He cannot show this side because he wants and needs to be seen as stable, fair, rational and powerful. He is a completely deluded, self-absorbed and insufferable narcissist. I cannot stand his behavior and arrogance in the later seasons because its so evident that he is just posturing. He has no charm, warmth, charisma or humor. He never laughs, never cracks a joke, he is socially awkward and mean, he is repressed and angry and generally just a dislikeable prick. Mike sees right through Walter from the beginning and Walt cannot stand it. He absolutely loathes Mike because he is smart enough to understand exactly what he is about.
@@mathiasstrom7790hes not a sadist, hes an egomaniac. He clearly shows regret when killing or hurting others. He just cares more about his immediate pride but he does end up regretting this in the long run since it destroys his family
@@mathiasstrom7790crazy how when he says he likes it you resort to him destroying lives😂 when he said he liked it he was talking about being good at something and actually being respected. Not being some random high school teacher nobody cares about. He showed remorse throughout the series, he’s just the only one smart enough to understand what it takes on the streets to get to where he was without getting killed. I thought the show did a good job showing that but I guess people really don’t understand that side of life no matter how realistic they show it to you
@@23mylo60 Well, he destroyed lives didnt he? Both willingly and unintentionally. And showing remorse sometimes and then to continue doing horrible stuff isnt real remorse, its guilt.
Although we don't know enough to draw any firm conclusions, from what we do know, pre-cancer diagnosis there doesn't seem to be any manifestation of psychopathic/sociopathic traits. He appears to have maintained a monogamous marriage and taken responsibility for his children, including working two jobs and being a doting father. There doesn't appear to be any evidence of chicanery in the workplace either, nor is there any hint of any criminality. He's widely respected too. It's clear that the subsequent environmental input has had at least a significant impact on the evolution of his character. The only arguable flaw is his bruised ego re cashing out before his former company became hugely successful. But in such a status-driven society, this would affect most people.
Jesse is the only reason it escalated to the level it did. He forced Walt to kill those two dealers which perpetuated the conflict with Gus. He should have took Gus’ advice from the start and dropped Jesse.
Yes if Walter had of let Jesse had be killed by the two dealers Gus and Walter relationship would of stayed good until Walter ether retired or died what would of mean lots of people still being alive like Hank, Mike, Gus, Brock’s mom and many more
I remember even Vince saying that he was always this way. It was what I concluded too after I finished the show. Walter from even the titbits we get from flash backs, and how he dealt with his mother could show the viewer it was always there. Like chemistry it took a set of circumstances for it to come out and cause the distraction that it did.
I disagree that Walter couldn't stand working under Gus. He was fine with it, but he wanted to protect Jesse (i.e., keep him alive), who insisted on cooking independently. So, Walt chose him over Gale as his assistant. Also, when talking about Elliot, you didn’t mention that Walt co-founded Gray Matter with him and Gretchen, which definitely influenced his refusal of their money. Good video nonetheless.
I really like how clear it's made throughout the show that Walt's falling into a pit of his own making. He had so many opportunities that would've let him down a better path. Staying with Gray-matter and Gretchen early on, accepting Elliot's job offer, letting Hank carry on thinking Gale was Heisenberg, letting all the money go into Walt Jr's fundraiser... The world gave him so many chances at a better life, his own ego and selfishness ruined it every time. Elliott's job offer is the best example of both. Of course there's no doubt that Walt's diagnosis had at least influence on Elliot's actions. However, Walt is also a genius scientist who's very much unqualified for his current job, Elliot of all people would know that. Also, his party might've been the first time in years where he properly interacted with Walt. While charity may have had some role in the offer, Elliot still would've seen a great deal value in Walt's scientific expertise. Even if it had been a purely charitable gesture, so what. It's not just Walt that would benefit, his family would. At that point, a decent person would've put aside their ego.
Best dialogue "a man provides. And he does it even when he's not appreciated, or respected, or even loved. He simply bears up and he does it. Because he's a man"
His ego cause him once a great damage, when he was in grey matter... Walter breaks in that moment and Heisenberg just take the place when he sees himself near the end... But he never learned the lesson about his ego in first place... So Heisenberg was doomed from the beginning
Walter White is terrible. I watched the whole series years ago. I remember liking it but ir wasn't a top show for me. I'm older now and my kids are older now and watching the show the 2nd time I stopped rooting for him in season 2 especially letting Jane die and stopped watching after season 3 episode 1 or 2. I probably won't watch the show again. I liked the premise and season one was great but he becomes an irredeemable character that I just can't root for. It's strange because I like mob movies but I think of him as a family man so I detest his actions more for some reason.
You're not meant to root for him, to be fair. It's more interesting to look at it as when is he going to inevitably get caught and how long can he keep this up? How much damage will Walt do to everyone in his life?
So it was okay for Jane to blackmail Walt but Walt is evil for using Jesse in the same way? Jane deserved to die because she was doing something harmful to herself regardless of if Walt could’ve saved her or not.
If anything the show is an argument for socialized medicine. You shouldn't be driven to extremes to fight cancer. If we are made to feel alone, we become lone wolves
The argument over "the moment Walt became Heisenberg!" is hilarious to me... He literally changes apparence by shaving his head & wearing the Heisenberg hat. It isn't some vague, indecipherable point. They made it shockingly obvious when he transitions. 😂
i always thought it was clear that walt was almost purely ego driven, he felt slighted by life and owed a prestigious life due to his (admittedly incredibly high) intellect. he had to be the smartest in every room and bitterly resented the lack of notoriety and accolades he received for his work.
I would say that Walt wasn't always evil per se, but I feel like he was always kinda just a casually bad person, due to his pride and ego. He never seemed to be truly honest with anyone, maybe even himself, feeling spite for other purely because of pride, ego and envy. His criminal activity embraced and magnified all these negative traits to the extreme, allowing them to fully take over Walt's mindset, getting rid of the noble and positive traits, making him truly evil. He wasn't evil because he was an emotionless psychopath but because he decides to embrace all the evil traits, leaving cpmpassion, empathy and other good traits that Walt did have behind. Dude wasn't a monolith, he was multifaceted and definitely TOXIC and conflicted but chose evil over self-improvement
Exactly. Walt might've been a liar, or a tad bit manipulative. But Marie herself was a compulsive thief. And Hank also wasn't an honest to god policeman. And THAT'S OK. It's part of being human. But saying that alone means Walt has "always been" Heisenberg is at best a blatant misunderstanding or at worst a stupidly gross oversimplification of his character.
I agree... people who "change" really don't. There's a core to everyone that's unchanging, and the range of behavior attached to that core can be quite wide, depending on the circumstances. That behavior might change, but the core person usually doesn't. Near the end of the series, Walt says that he's always been watching Grey Matter's stock price, and you can hear the envy and resentment in him. His rejection of Elliot's money was more than just pride. It was spite, and envy, and ego. It's the same thing that made him walk away from Grey Matter in the first place, because he was disgusted at leveraging startup money from Grechen's wealthy family. Walt wanted to be great on his own terms, through his own genius. As soon as he got that cancer diagnosis he became a man about to die, so he felt he could take crazy risks and prove himself. This is what got him started.
The problem wasn't the heist--it was his own greed. Rather than cutting it off at say 300 gallons, or right at the cap of 900, or even 850, that kid's life could've been 100% prevented. It was only after that he stretched his own greed out, and made a mistake that it ended up costing the kid his life.
@@ardynamberglow3124 I'd say it was more them not thinking on their feet long enough to think of an explanation. The kid knew nothing and had no reason to suspect any wrong doing. They could have just come up with some bullshit excuse about what they were doing and had Mike and Saul monitor the kid to make sure there wasn't a loose end while coming up with a convincing alibi for what they were doing out there. Instead they sat there and gawked which is probably why Todd thought he needed to kill the kid. That was just a lack of thinking on their part and not really attempting to stop Todd.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins Hence why if they cut off at 300 or 900 gallons they would've been fine. But instead, Greed got the better of Walter. a lot of things in the show could've been prevented if Walter was more careful, but he wasn't and it cost him, and everyone else.
@@MrRyan-wu4jx I don't think so, Say they cut it off at 300 gallons, They'd've had time to screw things back on, get the truck out of the way, cover up their tracks, and get away, well before the Kid could've reasonably been there, and thus avoided Drew's death.
I think it goes to show how far a desperate man will go to get what he wants then he ends up enjoying what he does. I think he was fearless at the start because he had nothing to lose it was either pay for his medical bill or die . Think when he got that offer from Elliott he was too far gone and didn't accept it because of pride
He is tho, because unlike most of the other villains, Walt did what he did for an entirely selfish reason. Gus did what he did for revenge, Tuco did what he did for family and Todd was just a complete psycho influenced by the people around him. It's not just the sadism that makes a villain pure evil, it's the reason and Walt only did it for himself and nothing else
I just finished season 4 and found out the "lily of the valley" thing, and my freakin gut was telling me Walter is the villain of the story. And it's right.
I never understood why Walter White settled as a high school science teacher? Why didn't he start his own pharmaceutical company? Or use his genius intellect of chemistry to become a high level chemical engineer/scientist? To attain a job that would have provided him and his family with a high level of income. That he could have used to pay for his disabled son's medical bills and his own cancer treatment. Thus not having to resort to illegal activities to fund those bills. He gave up on fulfilling his potential far too soon just because he had a child and gave his rights to company which he co founded before it took off. He has the ambition to be high end drug maker and drug dealer!! But to never do anything else? That didn't make sense to me as a viewer.
Facts! He's a white male living in America which means he has the home field advantage, highly educated, very high IQ, Nobel prize recipient and he's teaching high-school in da hood smdbh... Even if he sold his shares (Another missed opportunity) he could've started another company or go work for a competitior or become a college professor at some snazzy university earning tenure writing journals for the scientific community even a book etc etc... In short he had options rather than becoming a drug dealer...
I feel like Walter settled as a highschool teacher for a couple reasons. He wanted to still be in the chemistry business but he didn’t have as much trust and confidence in himself as he did after the relationship between him and grentchen fell through( presumably by elliot.) I think that mental block of a rather weak looking man like elliot took his woman away, he felt emasculated and scared. I think he didn’t want to start another chemistry business probably bc he still knew he was a genius so he pridefully thought his best work was in grey matter. So he chose a job where he could still feel like a total genius but not still be the “king” of his classroom.
He could have worked for the DEA or for a Pharmaceutical company or for DuPont. They hire chemists, don't they? Hank could have told Wal-Turd about the DEA's need for people who know what Walt does about chemistry. Someone like Hank would also know about other police departments who could use Walt's expertise in their crime labs and those jobs would have paid him more and respected him more than high school teaching.
He liked being the smartest man in the room. We see how uncomfortable he is with gale-a man that matches his intelligence. Instead trying to use the opportunity of having a partner on equal footing he ran back Jesse because Jesse made him feel superior. He probably entered teaching as a temporary solution to some other dilemma he was facing and kept with it due to the insane ego trip being completely overqualified in his field gave him.
Walt wasn't Heisenberg all along. Heisenberg isn't about losing your cool for a bit nor standing up for yourself. Heisenberg is being toxicly alpha, "eat or be eaten", forcing your truth to be reality. Heisenberg wouldn't let himself get bullied by teenagers. He would argue his use of the family creditcard instead of meekly apologizing. Heisenberg wouldn't ruin his source of income at the carwash, he'd plan a way to force Bogdan to do his bidding. Heisenberg is in no way the "beta male" at a gathering. Heisenberg is so dour and dark, that you need Jesse "the angel" Pinkman to even withstand Heisenberg's hopeless numb selfishness. Walt was not remotely close to that in the beginning. He was perfectly sympathic and enjoyable at the start.
Pure evil? No. Walt is not pure evil. He becomes twisted and unsympathetic as the series progresses but his mix of good and evil qualities is what made him such a compelling antihero character.
He has almost no good qualities, he is about as unlikeable and self-involved as they come. I genuinly saw no good qualities in Walter aside from his genius. Maybe he has a little bit of morality and stuff that kept him from certain depravity but he poisoned a child, ruined Jesses entire life, broke Skylars soul, got his brother in law killed and all of that for no greater purpose than him wanting to feel powerful. He is just a terrible pr*ck all around but thats just my opinion
@@mathiasstrom7790 You’re overlooking a lot of nuance in his character’s overall moral complexity due to what sounds to me like a strong personal dislike towards a fictional character. But that’s also just my opinion…
Other ways to solve the problem ? Even if there was no cancer, tg3 family was not in a good financial situation for years. Don't you think Walt thought about those other ways before the show ? Remember there are years before the first episode. If it was so easy, why do poor people exist ? Why can't everybody be rich ? It is not true to say that meth was the first thing he thouvght about whether we see him thinking about other ways or not. Walt had no other ways to get out of this. This is why people become homeless or go broke and if what you were saying was true, homelessness and poverty would not exist. Dealers in the hood, especially with records, either don't get jobs or do not get a good paying one. You make it sound sooo easy to make money. You think a brilliant guy like Walt hasn't thought this through ?
I can understand why he didn’t take the job, I’d probably also rather make drugs than work for them but you are insane if you genuinly believe that choosing drugs over the job was justified in any way
He isn't evil lol, Walter is a great guy who just believes anything good for him must be good for others that he likes and if they don't get it then they are simply wrong. But even if you think that's "evil" just look at every other character that's either a criminal or his wife or Hank's Karen of a wife, they are worse, they are bigger opportunists and even more self centered. Walter is very jealous of others, overly proud and angered at how life is easy for others. Walter believes (and is mostly right) that him doing the right things by the book and being responsible is how he ended up with nothing. The world just insists on proving him right time and again rewarding him again and again for ambition and violence and trampling others. He is still to the very end a way more decent person than Gus or the Salamancas, arguably more decent than Jessie.
People have a one in a quintillion chance of being born or something, you get one life, not two or more. Walter still decided that him being able to work with Jesse was more important than Jane’s life, now is that something a great guy would do? Would a great guy rather make drugs and ruin people’s lives than take a job from wealthy friends. And no, his ego is not more important and you are insane if you even thought sbout using that as justificatiom
@@Oskir_Schlickarsson Oh no! He chose not to help a drug addict who he thought will ruin the life of his best friend Jesse? He told him exactly what will happen and if he wasn't there she'd be just as dead, so she did it to herself. Take a job from wealthy friends..? Did you ever quit a job and then came back for a much lower salary? It's not like they were going to let him be their partner again, but he contributed to that as much as they did, so why should he work for them? Did him cooking drugs ruin anyone's life? Not really, they were already consuming a much lower quality product which is far more dangerous to them and if anything Walt contributed to the USA itself by being part of the reason a violent Cartel lost all its members AND their internal distributor, think about how much safer the border became! Thanks Walt! For stopping KFC-ripoff from smuggling drugs into the states from Mexico! Your perspective is juvenile at best.
@@blueplayer6197 also no when he tried to wake jesse up by shaking him he accidently pushed her onto her back so she would probably survive if it wasn’t for him
i don’t really agree with this video. i think at first walt did genuinely just want to leave behind money for his family and then never cook again. the meth was simply just an opportunity, he wasn’t in it for the crime or the power but to leave money behind for his family. but then he got addicted to the thrill and the power he felt after being so powerless for so long, and he couldn’t let that go, not even for the sake of his family. early on into their partnership with tuco, walt is calculating how much money his family needs and how many more sales with tuco they need to make, this strikes me as nothing more than a man wanting to provide for his family and leave. he was not particularly enjoying the work he was doing. however near the end, the opportunity to give up his methylamine for $5,000,000 shows up & he doesn’t take it because he wants to keep being a criminal, he enjoys it. this is imo proof that walter white did transition or “break bad” into heisenberg, and i don’t think it was a “the moment he switched from walter to heisenberg” kind of thing, it was a slow and gradual change from innocent chemistry teacher to blood-hungry drug lord and it’s impossible to find a certain point that is the actual transition.
No, this characterization is distorted. It suggests an already questionable character within Walt, and a craving for power and respect that blinds him to how wrong certain actions can be, as well as encouraging a disregard for the well-being of others. He wasn't a bad person at the start, and throughout the stoey, he found himself either grappling with those things about the world he go himself into that were necessary to survival and success. He wasn't chasing anything as greatly as his initial interest in providing for his family after his expected demise. He did end up so compromised that he essentially became a different person, but even at the end, there was a shred of the person he started as. If not, things would have gone differently, and more bodies would have been piled up in his wake.
I love how the video glosses over the fact that Walt messed his relationship with Gus because of saving Jesse's life and how after he saved Jesse's life Gus literally was looking to murder Walt and Jesse. Also glosses over the fact Gus threatened Skyler, Walter Jr and his infant daughter... and not only threatened them but was going to kill Hank as well. Walt didn't kill Gus because he needed him out of the way, Walt killed Gus because he threatened Walt's family... heck Gus betrayed Walt first by sending the salamanca twins to kill Hank...
Actually, the twins wanted to kill Walter but Gus stopped them, but offered them Hank instead. Then set the twins up for a fall by warning Hank with that phone call...resulting in Hank offing the twins. Remember, Gus was at war with the cartel.
@@tobiasdog100 He still betrayed Walt by sending the twins to his brother in law. Gus didn't have to do that, he did it because he wanted to kill the Salamanca. And Gus had no idea Hank would kill the twins, he just bet with Hank's life. There were 3 possibilities...the twins killed Hank and they were fine. The twins killed Hank but they were injured or one of them died or Hank killed both, and Gus had no way of predicting which scenario would happen.
If you think that Walter White is pure evil, you have missed the whole point of Breaking Bad. It was the earnest intention of the writers of Breaking Bad to wrestle with moral complexity. ALL GREAT LITERATURE WRESTLES WITH MORAL COMPLEXITY, the dilemma of the human condition. Black and white "morality" (e.g., "pure evil") is for simple-minded children. Breaking Bad is a story of layered motives (admirable and not), moral compromises, hypocrisy, and, woe is me, the slippery slope. It is about the road of good intentions leading to Hell. Even the sympathetic characters have deep flaws and sins to be regretted, AS INTENDED BY THE WRITERS. At the beginning, Walter White is a broken, humiliated man, with buried, justifiable rage. His chief weakness is wounded pride, his chief flaw is an inability to transcend his embittered pride. A flawed human being. Throw the first stone if you can. The writers would be dismayed. We watch as, trapped by one appalling crisis after another (as well as by one surprising success after another), Walt's decency is eroded. Yeah, we hate to watch him manipulate Jesse, use Jesse...just as Gus Fring coldly manipulates and uses Jesse. But Walter White's moments of compassion for Jesse, his choices to take a stand to protect Jesse, have layers of motive, mixed motives. If you don't see that, you are missing the whole point of the show.
He's not pure evil but he is evil. All the horrible things he did solely for his pride and ego, having so many ways out of the criminal life he rejected. So many times he could have got his money and treatment or got out of the game but he refused because he wanted to feed his ego. When you're poisoning children and melting them, you're evil.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins "solely for his pride and ego" Dostoevsky would disagree: "Don't let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them." As a matter of self-discipline, I keep this quotation in my mental back pocket. It's an antidote to (so tempting) simplistic judgments which would condemn a person for being "pure evil". The quote tacitly advises us to condemn actions, not the person. I think that the writers had the depth of intellect to invest themselves in the point-of-view inherent in the quote from Dostoevsky.
Actually, Walter White embodies the saying of Heath Ledger's joker in the Dark Knight: "In their last moments, they will reveal who they truly are." And when Walter White got cancer, he revealed who he truly was.
@@sabhishek9289 Yeah, lots of people keep saying that Walter White was an evil man all along. But thank you for the quote from the Joker. Me, I prefer the quote from Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky vs. Joker. Hm. To each their own. ;-) In any case, Walt's life pre-meth was entirely lacking in dignity, joy, and beauty. His life was a living hell of suffocating banality and emasculating humiliation, not to mention justifiable embitterment. A living hell. Trapped. Forced to pretend that he was content. Poor Walt. So...one could say that he gradually allowed himself to express his anger and embitterment, knowing that he had less than a year to live. Is it evil to be angry and embittered? As for his actions, Walt was a complex human being stumbling down a slippery slope that was fraught with dire danger to himself and his family. When he killed Crazy Eight, it left him in a state of anguish (though Crazy Eight would have killed Walt and his family). It seems to me that his anguish revealed "who he truly was" at that point on the slippery slope. Even as he descends that slippery slope, there are moments when he acts with decency and honor. For example, when he and Jesse are held hostage in Tuco's house, Walt saves Jesse's life, saying "You don't get me without him.". Or when the white supremacists intend to kill Hank, Walt offers them his entire fortune in exchange for Hank's life and weeps when they kill Hank anyway. So, decency is an element in "who he really is". An element in a panoply of elements. Walt is a complex human being, as are we all.
"At the beginning, Walter White is a broken humiliated man, with buried, justifiable rage." Hmm, the humiliation is actually self inflicted here. If he wanted, he could have stayed at Grey matter technologies and could have become a billionaire like Elliot. But because of his Ego, that he is not in the center of Gretchen's life, he leaves the company. So really, the "beginning" here happened because of Walter's ego. And yes it is truly awful about how the way he is treated by everyone around him considering that he is an overqualified genius. But really much of the blame falls on Walter here because it is self inflicted by his own ego.
I think what people fail to understand is walters intelligence. The show is called breaking bad, it’s about what it takes to break bad and be successful in that business. I know most of y’all don’t know much street stuff, but all I saw was a man that understood the role he needed to take to be successful, and what was simply a tough guy ruse at first to gain the respect he needed to not be robbed and killed, turned into a real persona. Yeah you can talk about his ego at some points, but fake it til you make it so long you end up becoming who you’re faking. And that was Heisenberg.
Walter is a dislikeable, arrogant and evil coward. He has no warmth, no charm, no sense of humor, no charisma and no presence. He isnt as imposing or commanding as he believes he is. He is almost like the Joker in the way he completely ruins everything and everyone that ever comes in contact with him. He respects no one and he likes no one but himself. His behavior is insufferable and he loves destroying people for his own amusement. He is a close to heartless as they come, the only redeeming quality he has is his genius intellect and at the end he kind of shows that he sort of understood how terrible he had become and humbled himself. He loved his family but not in the same way most people think of as love, they were more like possessions to him. The fact that he knew all along that he was only out for himself makes him objectively worse in my opinion
@@cerdic6586 Eh arguable, he uses people to further his own goals instead of facing them head on. I see what youre saying though since he had the balls to do stuff even the worst of the worst were shocked by. So yeah he might not be a coward all the time but his manipulation of Jesse and everyone else is definitely cowardly. Its complicated
No one in their right mind would have ever taken Elliot’s offer with how smug he was and how demeaning he was towards Walt while offering… that isn’t spoken about enough
@@argenisjrg there was no saving his life, just prolonging his life while costing him a good livelyhood, everyone knows chemo makes your life worse but makes you live longer, some people don’t feel the side affects are worth living a few extra years, me included, that’s why during the intervention scene I was on Walt’s side and found skyler unbearable that she won’t even let her own husband decide that he doesn’t wanna go through the side affects of chemo… That’s why I believed he went through route he did in the series because there was no way of surviving so he done horrible things knowing he would die anyway
@@j.c.jeggis1818 god forbid a man that doesn’t want to be remember by his family as useless and the way in which chemo would make you… some people think living longer isn’t worth it when you ruin the quality of life… plus she wasn’t listening to him, chemo or not wasn’t going to make a difference on how long he lived so what’s the point in getting it
@jackhowes8530 Walter worrying about how he will be viewed after his death is egotistical. In the end, he got the exact opposite of what he wanted. He was viewed as a terrible person. And even more so by his own son. Skyler's worries are more valid cause she genuinely had the family in mind. While Walter claimed he did all the things he did was for his family, it actually wasn't. He even admits it in the last episode.
Walt's pride made him enter into a highly dangerous and criminal profession when he had other legal options. The reason he's not rich is because his pride made him dump Gretchen because her family is richer than his. Several times he could have gotten his money and been done with his criminal lifestyle but kept at it solely for his pride. That is worthy of condemnation. Pride by itself doesn't make people do bad things because people also tend to have enough rationality as well as emotional maturity to hold back their pride in moments where it is needed. Walt lacked that which is why he's in the situation he is in at the start. He had the opportunity of a lifetime founding Grey Matter and he threw it away over his pride then threw what little time he had left endangering himself and everyone around him. That's not just pride, that is toxic pride that has routinely ruined his life. His pride is so toxic he shoots Mike just for calling him out. He was fuming over that and immediately went to murder him. If you think that's a normal way people should live and act, you have issues.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins Thank you for your reply. Let's start with the "job" offer from Elliott. Gray Matter would never have existed without Walt's brilliant research. After Gray Matter took off, Elliott and Gretchen acted out of greed, not ethics. An ethical person would have returned Walt's $5,000 and restored him to his rightful place in the partnership. They retained sole ownership on a legal technicality, not ethically. When people take refuge in a legal technicality rather than face their ethical obligation...well, that's lousy. So there is justice in Walt's embitterment. Elliott's "job" offer is demeaning and self-serving. It would have put Walt subordinate to Elliott, keeping Walt in his place. It was an offer of a phony (i.e., demeaning) "job" that, oh so conveniently, would have served as a expense to be deducted in the books (Elliott the calculating business man!). It would have served to alleviate Elliott's guilt at little cost to Elliott. If Elliott had been honorable, instead of offering a phony job, Elliott would have given Walt half of Elliott's equity in Gray matter. In his angry exchange with Gretchen, Walt snarled, "A rich girl just adding to her millions." The implied question in that statement is, "Gretchen, how much money is enough? How much is enough?" The Schwartz's sit on top of their billions like Scrooge McDuck sitting on top of a pile of gold coins. They choose greed over ethics. (I think that people would do well to ask themselves the question, "How much money is enough?" The question challenges rationalization, such as "justification-by-legal-technicality". It is a critically important question in one's perception of our current society.) Why do people want Walt to swallow his pride and submit to this indignity? Walt's pre-meth life was a living hell of indignity and humiliation. A living hell. People who want Walt to humbly accept Elliott's demeaning "job" offer want Walt to continue to live without dignity. They want Walt to be a pathetic, dependent, emasculated sad-sack IN HIS FINAL MONTHS, right up to his miserable death. I ask you, in such circumstances, is pride such a contemptible sin?
@@MysteriousTomJenkins Further thoughts, Tom. "his pride made him dump Gretchen because her family is richer than his." I don't think that you are putting yourself in Walt's shoes. Is it not possible that he broke the engagement because he was uncomfortable? I myself would never want to marry into an uber-rich family, not for one New-York minute. I've been acquainted with people who have done so. It's almost always a very uncomfortable life. The ordinary person can't fit in. The term "culture-clash" doesn't come close. The uber-rich live on a different planet than the rest of us. They have unquestioned priorities that would make me very ill-at-ease. And enmeshed in the unavoidable tension of class disparity, the ordinary person married into an uber-rich family must live in a state of perpetual self-censorship. It's icky. The question of whom to marry is fraught with complications. It is simplistic to reduce it to a motive of pride. "Marry and you'll regret it. Don't marry and you'll regret it." Yes, indeed, Mr. Kierkegaard.
@@zeitgeist5134 To quote the interview where Vince revealed what really happened between Walt & Gretchen, "In my mind, the interesting thing here -- and I always kind of hate to nail it down so explicitly -- but let's put it this way, most viewers of 'Breaking Bad' assume Gretchen and Elliott are the bad guys, and they assume that Walt got ripped off by them, got ill used by them, and I never actually saw it that way." Gilligan explained that the truth is more nuanced. It all stemmed from White's feeling of inferiority while spending time with Gretchen's family. "I think it was kind of situation where he didn't realize the girl he was about to marry was so very wealthy and came from such a prominent family, and it kind of blew his mind and made him feel inferior and he overreacted. He just kind of checked out. I think there is that whole other side to the story, and it can be gleaned. This isn't really the CliffsNotes version so much. These facts can be gleaned if you watch some of these scenes really closely enough, and you watch them without too much of an overriding bias toward Walt and against Gretchen and Elliott," said Gilligan" (Bradley Huff Post.com). And Walt literally says, in the episode Peekaboo, "... To build your little empire on my work [...] Little rich girl just adding to your millions." So While part of his motivation for leaving Gretchen might have been due to being uncomfortable with marrying into a rich family, it is also undeniable that another one of Walt's reasons for leaving Gretchen was his insecurity that his work would just be seen as another part of Gretchen's family's fortune. Yet another instance of Walt's pride ruining things for him, and everyone around him.
The idea that this is who he was the whole time is ridiculous and short sided. We all have this within us and Walter was operating off of fight or flight all along. Most of his actions were very machiavellian. Jordan Belfort says it’s best “when you cross the line, the line keeps moving”.
Or it could be a weird mix of both. There is no such thing as good, only pacified evil. Everyone has some level of ego, everyone has some level of pride, of lust, of greed, of dogma, of desires of control and/or power, of ignorance, of bigotry, of complete unwillingness to back down even when we know we’re in the wrong. What it be outrageous to at least consider the possibility man is inherently evil?
Don't forget that he tried to SA Skylar on to occasions. First time in season two, I think. Nobody talks about that. So i dot ThinkPad Waltz a family man at all...
1:37 nope well actually half right imho he turns into Heisenberg by flipping a switch sometimes on purpose othertimes necessity, kinda like BB/Hulk.... you can literally see it happen when heisenberg takes over
The only truly evil things Walt did were not helping Jane, poisoning the kid, and killing Mike, everything else were it's me/us or them situations, or to save Jesse from his own mistakes.
He also destroyed Jesses life with zero care in the world. He ruined his wife and his family and showed no signs of regret or remorse until the game was up. Walter is evil, he is just sympathethic because he is the protagonist
really no need to explain the basics of the shows premise. we know walter white is a chemistry teacher. we know he partners with jessie. we know gus fring is not as innocent as he seems. you said at the top of the video that the video will contains spoilers. everyone still watching has already seen the show
I've been on the anti-Walt train ever since I first watched the show when it first came out, but I find this analysis to be way too simplistic and lacking in nuance.
It blows my mind how people see Walt as such a narcissist for feeling heartbroken that finally after all these years the job offer he got was only because he had cancer and was gonna die soon. Imagine the happiness he felt at first just to then find out “hey yeah ur gonna die soon so come work with us so we can all look better meanwhile you’re gonna die soon so it’s not like it’ll hurt us at all”. Makes me wonder if the viewers of this show actually like go outside and experience life
I have a theory that the writers wrote Breaking Bad with the idea that the characters were all re-living a past life. Sort of like a video game. Certain characters are able to recall things that happened in their past life, leading them to make better decisions in certain situations. The more intelligent characters make better decisions and are able to be more successful at “the game”.
Why are your clips pop locking? One minute louder, next lower than your voice? Didn't you watch your video BEFORE you posted this? Narration was on point. We already know this, man. If l had balls like you. I would do Lydia or Jack. People who don't get as much attention. Do Walt Jr. without getting preachy. You know how he's good and honest. Or, Hank the hypocrite. Good luck. You almost got it.
Crazy 8 was self defense, the big teenagers were dumping on his palsied son, the others were criminals, and the only undeserving victims were Jesse's girlfriend's kid whom Walter poisoned with berries and Gus' chemist, who Walter had Jessie kill to make Gus Fring exclusively dependent on them. The rest deserved it. If you have Inoperable cancer, you can't get a new job or increased coverage then your legal choices are non-existent. His pride did get in the way of putting up with the ridicule of his partners family so he took a buy out from the Gray Matter. IPO. He may have been strapped the time and NEEDED THE 5K. [BUT WHY DUMP ON HIM TO BEGIN WITH.?] His pride DID get in the way when he turned down a job offer [maybe including equity] with benefits from his former partner--- interpreting it as pity..
You're forgetting a very important fact here that's been the cloud and egg-timer over Walt's head the entire time - he HAD no time to spare, he was chronically ill. There's not much in the way of options when you're given literally less than a year to live, what is a 9-5 job going to do in that time? The family were broke, he had no health insurance, so in short, he needed a small miracle to ensure that his family had enough money for the remainder of their lifetime after he died. A 9-5 job is NOT going to take care of that in one year, doesn't matter what your chosen field is. The black market was Walter's only hope of accumulating the sort of money needed with the time remaining. To add to that, the company that offered him the job was his own idea, his own IP, so of course he's not going to take that up. When you consider Walter was nothing more than a former chemistry teacher, the show actually demonstrated tremendous courage on his part to step into a world he really had no business being in. That took alot of bravery, most people would not be cut out for. He was not Heisenberg the entire time, no, he grew into that hands on, on the job.
@@legrandliseurtri7495 You do understand right that most people who flaunt the house, the cars, the clothes are some of the most broke people amongst us? You do know what debt is right?
![[안방1열 풀캠4K] 베이비몬스터 'DRIP' (BABYMONSTER FullCam)│@SBS Inkigayo 241110](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AQ4RIghEvUs/mqdefault.jpg)
![ไลฟ์สุ่ม iPhone 295 บาท... โกงมั้ย?[ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.97 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gdstHEE4UUE/mqdefault.jpg)
Walt would’ve said no to Elliot’s offer before the cancer diagnosis. Wether he’s Walter or Heisenberg he’s always been too proud.
to be fair elliot wouldn't be offering if there were no cancer diagnosis in the first place 😭😭 walter made an insane choice at the expense of his family, as thrilling as it was to watch 🤣 i agree though, takes one insanely proud person to turn away cancer treatment funds 😎
Every great villain embodies an idea or answers a question
Joker = Embodiment of Chaos
Griffith = Embodiment of Narcissism
Michael Myers = Embodiment of Darkness
Walter is the pure embodiment of *PRIDE*
He would have probably said yes if Elliot appealed to his ego and said they needed him and that he deserves the credit for his part in creating the company.
@@pyroAdapt I *100%* Agree. Everything Walter does is because of pride. If Elliot and Gretchen had given him some story about how they had a project coming up that only he was smart enough to figure out and he was the head of his own sub company or something ridiculous like that. I can guarantee Walter would have said yes and the series would have been over in 5 episodes
Hmmm... I'm not sure about that. If Walter was too proud he wouldnt have worked as a teacher nor had a job at the car wash. I think the series starts at the beginning of the change from Walter to Heisenberg.
a good quote i heard about Walter "Heisenberg isn't the alter ego of walter white in the crime world, But walter white is the alter ego of Heisenberg in the norm world"
yes that's exactly the case. Walther White is Heisenbergs mask of sanity.
I forget where I heard this but Walter didn’t become Heisenberg like when Turning on the lights doesn’t create cockroaches, it simply reveals that they were there all along.
Throughout the series he slowly uncovers the Heisenberg personality until there is no more Walter White left
@@AdhavR7 That's still missing the point. Walter White remains himself throughout the show, but only gives way to darker aspects of himself more as the series continues. He still loves his family just as much as he did in the beginning, still holds resentment towards Gretchen and Elliot, and feels like he wasted his life up until recently. The "Heisenberg" parts of his personality are what he is allowed to express when he is head of a meth empire.
That's a very low level perspective.
His character developed into Heisenberg. And yes, it's OBVIOUSLY not like a light switch that'll be a disorder. It's his shadow self. Which he developed by the end of the show.
He WAS a decent man when he started out. So don't tell me "he was evil all along" he wasn't.
I’ve always seen he always has that anger all along..
@smart-ass8515 he was always evil, his true character didn't have a chance to come until he started making meth. He was never decent, just harmless. A decent, good man wouldn't have gone down the road he did. A decent man would have swallowed his pride accepted help for the good of his family, whether he liked it or not
I definitely think people overstate him being a good helpless guy at the beginning. For starters he keeps talking about self-reliance and a man being a product of his choices. So then why is he so mad at his life when they are a product of his own choices? Like leaving gray matter prematurely or breaking up with Gretchen or marrying Skyler and buying the house and so on... Moreover, as much as he hated his life, he had a pretty decent one compared to a lot of other people. He wasn't living in poverty or anything. He wasn't abused. His wife wasn't cheating on him.
It's also suspicious that he doesn't have any friends or family outside of Hank, Marie and Skyler and Junior. He seems to be mostly a strange from his mother. No siblings are close friends. It's interesting they didn't even give him like one male friend as a neighbor or something.
I’ve been saying this ever since I first started watching Breaking Bad for the second time. Walt didn’t have a character arch. That’s who he was the entire time. His cancer diagnosis represented freedom to do whatever he wanted to do.
Very low level perspective.
@@smart-ass8518 At least I have one.
He did. His arc was becoming able to execute his plans with no remorse.
@@BenjaminGroff-qi6lc You’re talking about ability. That’s something he always had. It was always there. Once he received his diagnosis, that ability went from potential to kinetic. That’s not an arc. That’s an inciting incident.
@@efanamethesequelHe clearly had remorse for killing crazy 8 in season 1, he did have an arc
10:55 “all those year..”. the series starts with Walt’s 50th birthday…. it ends with his 52nd. when Hank figures it out, it’s been a year and a half.
people seem to forget that it was only half a decade from the audience’s perspective.
Yeah breaking bad canonically ended in September 2011
@@MichelangeloVA 2010*
Every great villain embodies an idea or answers a question
Joker = Embodiment of Chaos
Griffith = Embodiment of Narcissism
Michael Myers = Embodiment of Darkness
Walter is the pure embodiment of *PRIDE*
Gus=Embodiment of Revenge
Lalo=Embodiment of Sadism
Todd=Embodiment of No empathy
@@sidarth632 I would say Todd is emptiness personified as there really isn't much to him as a human being but yeah
Except Walter is an anti hero.
@@smart-ass8518 Walter has done too much evil in my book to be considered an anti hero.
He allowed Jane to die.
He is responsible for countless deaths
He destroyed his family despite not needing to
He had Jessie tortured
When in comes to anti heroes it's difficult to say where the line is but I think Walter crossed over the line in later seasons.
@@smart-ass8518 Walter is anything but an Anti-hero
You say a lot of incorrect things. He did not kill Gus simply because he could not bear being an employee, this is simlly not true.
He had every opportunity to be an employee to Gus. He screwed all of these up because of his ego.
@@StephanePare Bro what the fuck are you all talking about, ego was never the reasons fir all his problems with Gus, Walt was happpy to work for Gus he even accepted a small percent of the money he was making even though Jesse literally told him he wanted a bigger share of the outcome. (3 million VS the almost 100 million all that meth was worth)
The only reason Walt had to kill Gus was because Gus tried to kill him first, Gus tried to kill Jesse which Walt would have NEVER hallowed , all he did was trying to defend his friend and later the show himself.
Walt HAD a big ego through the show, but don't act like everything bad that happen was because of that.
Gus dead was his own fault. He shouldn't have tried to hurt Walt or anyone near him.
@@StephanePareWalter’s ego didn’t have anything to do with his problems with Gus Walter was happy work for Gus
Walter problems with Gus stared when he saved Jesse life from 2 of Gus’s dealers. Gus then wanted Walter dead but Gus still needed Walter until Gale was ready once Gale was ready Gus was going to kill Walter so Walter tried to kill Gale to save his and Jessie’s life but before he could Gus got his men to bring Walter to the lab to kill him so Walter then got Jessie to do it.
@@StephanePareThat wasn’t Walter’s fault, that was solely on his empathy towards Jesse and Gus’ mind games to get what he wants
@@todd2.08 I find it fascinating that so many people can watch the same show and get something completely different. It really shows how subjective human social perception really is, and I love reading opinions like yours
Wal-Turd White could have just accepted what his former partner Elliott offered him for his cancer treatment. He also could have accepted Hank's offer to support his family after he died. The show could have ended about five minutes into the pilot. If Walt was not a turd, there would have been no show.
Shelly Marsh
I'd say if he was actually smarter, and not let his greed get the better of him, he wouldn't have been caught in the first place. Let alone half the stuff that happened could've been prevented.
This is why turds are so important
@@ardynamberglow3124 Oh yeah, you're definitely smarter than WW.
@ardynamberglow3124 his intelligence isn't the problem, his pride and fragile ego is
Walter was a covert narcissist. A victim of his own pride. The reason I believe to why he settled as a high school teacher was because he gave up trying to protect his ego. This would supply his ego, so that he at least was still somewhat respected. He believed could never be more, he failed once and never wanted to risk failing again. Deep down he despised himself and grew bitter over the years. Maybe he expected that if he did the right thing, supporting his family and being a humble husband and father then he would be rewarded? The cancer diagnoses was the final straw... I guess. He could have accepted financial support. But this wasn't who Walter really was and knowing that he would soon die, he was finally free of this emotional prison. All he saw in himself was a loser, a nobody. He bottled up this bitterness and resent for so long and now it wanted to break free. The only way it could thrive was through Heisenberg. Heisenberg allowed him to be this someone else, the product of all Walter's failures. A pathological liar, narcissist with a borderline god-complex. Over one year, he destroyed so many lives. He went into hiding for around 14 months and only came out again because he saw an interview from Elliot and Gretchen. It took him so long to decide to make right some of his wrongs. Which he really only did for himself.
This is really only scratching the surface though for why I think Walter is much worse than Gus. Gus was in business for over 20 years. Gus also had no family. His motivation was vengeance. His partner Max murdered in front of him by the cartel. Max was not only his business partner but also his romantic lover. Gus kept Max's killer Hector close by after Tuco died. Walter used this weakness against him to take him out. If Gus was such an evil ruthless person surely he wouldn't have hesitated to remove Walter and or his family as soon as Walter became a problem. I think this is why Walter is the definitive villain of the show, because he always had the chance to be a good person, he made decisions knowing they had terrible consequences for his loved ones and he chose a legacy over morality.
Why do you think Walt was so cocky in the flashback where him and skyler decide to buy the house?
@@christucker7655 That's when he was working at Los Alamos on the Crystallography breakthrough; he must have screwed up something with that. Still trying to figure out why he left that job, even with Walt Jr.'s physical problems.
He never could have worked into a big tech firm, his people skills and temper are a big no-no in that kind of environment. He's not a team player and anytime someone has success he's resentful of it.
@@mikhailiagacesa3406 Given Walt's personality issues regarding his inherent ego and narcissism, he may have been fired.
That’s a stretch, Gus is worse, he killed people for far less serious reasons, than Walt.
and keeping someone purposefully paralyzed? Come on
To an extend I see Walt's and Jimmy's characters as opposites. Jimmy in his core was a good kid, but was pushed and shoved and whenever he tried to do anything good, he got rocked for it, until he just stopped trying to be good. Walter was only good because he never had a chance to be bad, while James was pushed to become Saul Goodman, Walter was held back from becoming Heisenberg, until he wasnt. By the end Walter becomes basically pure evil, while Jimmy gets a chance at redemtion.
Don't forget that he blackmailed Jesse into cooking on the very first episod
My Mum struggled to finish the series because she grew to hate Walter and whenever she dislikes a character she doesn't want to keep watching the show. The only thing that kept her going was wanting to see if Jessie would get out alive
The one that was even worse. That’s really funny.
@@christiangwenner6384 I'm curious, morally how do you think Jesse compares to Walt?
@@ChiknPog he killed people, stole, deal drugs, messed things up, and in the end he betrayed and snitched on Walt, i think he's as bad as Walt, and the fact that he thinks he's better than Walt and label him as a demon is him being a hypocrite
@@ChiknPogthe whole fallout between Gus and Walter started with Jesse and his anger. Dude is sadistic and too vindictive for his own good
@@mohammadzulfikar8988 he was manipulated by walt bruh
People who say Walter White is better than Skyler and revere him as an antihero should genuinely be put on some watchlist.
Same thing happened with Tony and Carmela Soprano. I reckon there's a subset of people out there - almost entirely men, I'll wager - who find 'naggy women' to be worse than murderers.
Walter White is better than Skyler and he is an antihero.
Walter is way better - instead of whining he took matters into his own hands
Walter White is better than Skyler and I revere him as an anti-hero. Cope. Cry. Screech.
@@smart-ass8518If you think skyler is worse ethically and morally than walter you're either dumb or just straight up sexist
Walt's killing of Gus was 100% self-defense.
Gus ordered the hit on Tomas in order to have Jesse killed by the dealers. Walt couldn't afford to lose Jesse; that's why he saved him. Despite this, Walt assures Gus that he is ready to compromise. But instead, Gus tries to kill Walt, leaving him no choice but to retaliate.
Killing Gus wasn’t the issue it was that he was willing to do it by blowing up a bomb in a nursing home. Like imagine if some innocent old lady stood behind the door when is exploded
I'm a bit tired of this overly simplistic view that’s become so popular in recent years, portraying Walter as this always-evil person who did everything just to satisfy his ego. Walter is compelling because he’s complex and makes decisions that can only be understood by putting yourself in his shoes. Yes, he becomes a repulsive human being by the end, but he’s not this demonic, one-dimensional figure from the start. Reducing his character to "ego man does evil things" really oversimplifies who he is.
Walter whites agony over k*lion crazy 8 shows he had an arc. He was a decent man initially.
@@vicbasces THANK YOU. His moral complexity is what makes his character and the show so compelling. It’s not so black & white. Just like the world we live in.
After watching Better Call Saul I realized how Walt just kind ruined the lives of everyone he came in contact with: Jesse, Brock, Flynn, Skyler, Marie, Gomez’ family, Mike
I forgot that Jessie kills Gabe. Poor Gabe. Reminded me of Gale
Oh, I think you’re talking about Gage.
@@shawnhardee1929no no that’s something you put in your ear, I think they’re talking about Gaze
@@Therealdacooter Right right right. Well, alls I know is Wart told Jersey to kill a guy with a G name. I’ll just say it really fast and nobody will notice.
Yeah Gabriel had to go
When Jessie sold meth to Creed at the Emmys, he was really there to kill Gabe.
I'm rewatching the entire show again. It was at the car wash he decided to change when he stood up to Bogdan (the thick eyebrow guy 😂😂😂😂😂😂)
Walter made himself Heisenberg, but society created him, too, by convincing everyone that they can be rich and famous by working and studying hard.
He is not pure evil. He loved Jesse. He risked his own life for that reckless guy multiple times. He manipulated him a lot, but he loved him. Secondly, he wanted to give all his money and to go to prison for the rest of his life, just for Hank's life in episode when Hank was killed. Everything he did for his family, all that money, just to lose, only for sparing life of a guy who wanted to arrest him. Walt is just calculated. He love Jesse, Hank and rest of family. He will kill anyone who makes any trouble in his plan. He is scary not because he is evil, but for he behave with people's life like with math.
Him taking out all the torturers, Lydia & himself at night like it was almost nothing was completely badass
”I watched Jane die” ”Go to mexico and screw up like I know you will and wind up buried in a barrel” ”Either that or I turn you in”
Maybe the real Heisenberg was the friends we made along the way
I don't think he was prideful when he died he was proud how good he taught Jesse was
The first clip you played is such a good summary of Walt as a character. He feels his intelligence alone makes him an equal to his betters, but always fails to understand the arguably more important qualities that they all have over him.
He was evil from the start. Used everyone and was a ego maniac the whole time assumed he was too good for the life that he made
The thing many people miss is Walters strange and subtle sadism.
He says at the end that he liked it.
He liked hurting others, manipulating and playing with peoples heads and their emotions.
He loved destroying Jesse's life, he loved seeing Skylar weak and afraid.
He loved sticking it to Hank by toying with him.
The thing that makes that sadism not as overt as say Lalo's or Tuco's is because Walter is essentially just a coward.
He cannot show this side because he wants and needs to be seen as stable, fair, rational and powerful.
He is a completely deluded, self-absorbed and insufferable narcissist.
I cannot stand his behavior and arrogance in the later seasons because its so evident that he is just posturing.
He has no charm, warmth, charisma or humor.
He never laughs, never cracks a joke, he is socially awkward and mean, he is repressed and angry and generally just a dislikeable prick.
Mike sees right through Walter from the beginning and Walt cannot stand it.
He absolutely loathes Mike because he is smart enough to understand exactly what he is about.
@@mathiasstrom7790hes not a sadist, hes an egomaniac. He clearly shows regret when killing or hurting others. He just cares more about his immediate pride but he does end up regretting this in the long run since it destroys his family
@@mathiasstrom7790crazy how when he says he likes it you resort to him destroying lives😂 when he said he liked it he was talking about being good at something and actually being respected. Not being some random high school teacher nobody cares about. He showed remorse throughout the series, he’s just the only one smart enough to understand what it takes on the streets to get to where he was without getting killed. I thought the show did a good job showing that but I guess people really don’t understand that side of life no matter how realistic they show it to you
@@Batx0123LOLXD Yeah that makes sense tbh I hadnt really thought about it in that way
@@23mylo60 Well, he destroyed lives didnt he?
Both willingly and unintentionally.
And showing remorse sometimes and then to continue doing horrible stuff isnt real remorse, its guilt.
Walter White *WAS* always Heisenberg, unlike Jimmy McGill who transformed into Saul Goodman.
But jimmy stole from the parents register and caused their store to close down. You don’t know what you’re talking about
@@Tkk861Yeah, slippin jimmy?….
Nah Jimmy was always Slipping Jimmy but he tried to get out of that life to no avail because of Chuck
I mean he literally changed his name
@@Oskir_Schlickarsson right but he’s still the same person…you can change your name but it doesn’t change you
It wasn’t Walter that changed, it was his life that changed. The catalyst was the cancer & the “change” was how he affected everyone around him
Although we don't know enough to draw any firm conclusions, from what we do know, pre-cancer diagnosis there doesn't seem to be any manifestation of psychopathic/sociopathic traits. He appears to have maintained a monogamous marriage and taken responsibility for his children, including working two jobs and being a doting father. There doesn't appear to be any evidence of chicanery in the workplace either, nor is there any hint of any criminality. He's widely respected too. It's clear that the subsequent environmental input has had at least a significant impact on the evolution of his character. The only arguable flaw is his bruised ego re cashing out before his former company became hugely successful. But in such a status-driven society, this would affect most people.
Jesse is the only reason it escalated to the level it did. He forced Walt to kill those two dealers which perpetuated the conflict with Gus. He should have took Gus’ advice from the start and dropped Jesse.
Yes if Walter had of let Jesse had be killed by the two dealers Gus and Walter relationship would of stayed good until Walter ether retired or died what would of mean lots of people still being alive like Hank, Mike, Gus, Brock’s mom and many more
Jesse was partner again, because saving Hank and insecurities because of Gale which could lead to death as soon Gale master 99 purity recipe.
I remember even Vince saying that he was always this way. It was what I concluded too after I finished the show. Walter from even the titbits we get from flash backs, and how he dealt with his mother could show the viewer it was always there.
Like chemistry it took a set of circumstances for it to come out and cause the distraction that it did.
I disagree that Walter couldn't stand working under Gus. He was fine with it, but he wanted to protect Jesse (i.e., keep him alive), who insisted on cooking independently. So, Walt chose him over Gale as his assistant. Also, when talking about Elliot, you didn’t mention that Walt co-founded Gray Matter with him and Gretchen, which definitely influenced his refusal of their money. Good video nonetheless.
He choose to kept teamed up with jesse because he couldn't live up with the idea of some other genius in the same room as he is.
I really like how clear it's made throughout the show that Walt's falling into a pit of his own making.
He had so many opportunities that would've let him down a better path. Staying with Gray-matter and Gretchen early on, accepting Elliot's job offer, letting Hank carry on thinking Gale was Heisenberg, letting all the money go into Walt Jr's fundraiser... The world gave him so many chances at a better life, his own ego and selfishness ruined it every time.
Elliott's job offer is the best example of both. Of course there's no doubt that Walt's diagnosis had at least influence on Elliot's actions. However, Walt is also a genius scientist who's very much unqualified for his current job, Elliot of all people would know that. Also, his party might've been the first time in years where he properly interacted with Walt. While charity may have had some role in the offer, Elliot still would've seen a great deal value in Walt's scientific expertise.
Even if it had been a purely charitable gesture, so what. It's not just Walt that would benefit, his family would. At that point, a decent person would've put aside their ego.
Best dialogue "a man provides. And he does it even when he's not appreciated, or respected, or even loved. He simply bears up and he does it. Because he's a man"
His ego cause him once a great damage, when he was in grey matter... Walter breaks in that moment and Heisenberg just take the place when he sees himself near the end... But he never learned the lesson about his ego in first place... So Heisenberg was doomed from the beginning
Walter White is terrible. I watched the whole series years ago. I remember liking it but ir wasn't a top show for me. I'm older now and my kids are older now and watching the show the 2nd time I stopped rooting for him in season 2 especially letting Jane die and stopped watching after season 3 episode 1 or 2. I probably won't watch the show again. I liked the premise and season one was great but he becomes an irredeemable character that I just can't root for. It's strange because I like mob movies but I think of him as a family man so I detest his actions more for some reason.
it’s a fictional show, brother
@@delayingsit’s art; art is meant to instigate emotions. His feelings are valid
You're not meant to root for him, to be fair. It's more interesting to look at it as when is he going to inevitably get caught and how long can he keep this up? How much damage will Walt do to everyone in his life?
So it was okay for Jane to blackmail Walt but Walt is evil for using Jesse in the same way? Jane deserved to die because she was doing something harmful to herself regardless of if Walt could’ve saved her or not.
@@jstun2318she deserved to die because she had a sickness? (Yes, addiction is a sickness)
If anything the show is an argument for socialized medicine. You shouldn't be driven to extremes to fight cancer.
If we are made to feel alone, we become lone wolves
Excellent video! I fully agree with all of your insightful points.
13:47 wow you completely missed the point of this scene. Walt was proud BECAUSE JESSE GOT THE COOK COMPLETELY RIGHT TO HIS STANDARDS.
The argument over "the moment Walt became Heisenberg!" is hilarious to me...
He literally changes apparence by shaving his head & wearing the Heisenberg hat.
It isn't some vague, indecipherable point. They made it shockingly obvious when he transitions. 😂
i always thought it was clear that walt was almost purely ego driven, he felt slighted by life and owed a prestigious life due to his (admittedly incredibly high) intellect. he had to be the smartest in every room and bitterly resented the lack of notoriety and accolades he received for his work.
I would say that Walt wasn't always evil per se, but I feel like he was always kinda just a casually bad person, due to his pride and ego. He never seemed to be truly honest with anyone, maybe even himself, feeling spite for other purely because of pride, ego and envy. His criminal activity embraced and magnified all these negative traits to the extreme, allowing them to fully take over Walt's mindset, getting rid of the noble and positive traits, making him truly evil.
He wasn't evil because he was an emotionless psychopath but because he decides to embrace all the evil traits, leaving cpmpassion, empathy and other good traits that Walt did have behind. Dude wasn't a monolith, he was multifaceted and definitely TOXIC and conflicted but chose evil over self-improvement
Exactly. Walt might've been a liar, or a tad bit manipulative. But Marie herself was a compulsive thief. And Hank also wasn't an honest to god policeman.
And THAT'S OK. It's part of being human. But saying that alone means Walt has "always been" Heisenberg is at best a blatant misunderstanding or at worst a stupidly gross oversimplification of his character.
I agree... people who "change" really don't. There's a core to everyone that's unchanging, and the range of behavior attached to that core can be quite wide, depending on the circumstances. That behavior might change, but the core person usually doesn't.
Near the end of the series, Walt says that he's always been watching Grey Matter's stock price, and you can hear the envy and resentment in him.
His rejection of Elliot's money was more than just pride. It was spite, and envy, and ego. It's the same thing that made him walk away from Grey Matter in the first place, because he was disgusted at leveraging startup money from Grechen's wealthy family. Walt wanted to be great on his own terms, through his own genius.
As soon as he got that cancer diagnosis he became a man about to die, so he felt he could take crazy risks and prove himself. This is what got him started.
Bro they really melted a kid’s body because of how shit they were at heisting a train.
The problem wasn't the heist--it was his own greed. Rather than cutting it off at say 300 gallons, or right at the cap of 900, or even 850, that kid's life could've been 100% prevented. It was only after that he stretched his own greed out, and made a mistake that it ended up costing the kid his life.
@@ardynamberglow3124 I'd say it was more them not thinking on their feet long enough to think of an explanation. The kid knew nothing and had no reason to suspect any wrong doing. They could have just come up with some bullshit excuse about what they were doing and had Mike and Saul monitor the kid to make sure there wasn't a loose end while coming up with a convincing alibi for what they were doing out there.
Instead they sat there and gawked which is probably why Todd thought he needed to kill the kid. That was just a lack of thinking on their part and not really attempting to stop Todd.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins Hence why if they cut off at 300 or 900 gallons they would've been fine. But instead, Greed got the better of Walter.
a lot of things in the show could've been prevented if Walter was more careful, but he wasn't and it cost him, and everyone else.
@@ardynamberglow3124 they still would’ve been in the area when the kid got there regardless.
@@MrRyan-wu4jx I don't think so, Say they cut it off at 300 gallons, They'd've had time to screw things back on, get the truck out of the way, cover up their tracks, and get away, well before the Kid could've reasonably been there, and thus avoided Drew's death.
I think it goes to show how far a desperate man will go to get what he wants then he ends up enjoying what he does. I think he was fearless at the start because he had nothing to lose it was either pay for his medical bill or die . Think when he got that offer from Elliott he was too far gone and didn't accept it because of pride
It was in Grey matter when he sits up on his bed. U can see him contimplating and bang enter Heisenburg
This is the business, he is not selling roses !
I mean "pure evil" is simply untrue. Most of the people walt interacts with are significantly more evil than he is.
He is tho, because unlike most of the other villains, Walt did what he did for an entirely selfish reason. Gus did what he did for revenge, Tuco did what he did for family and Todd was just a complete psycho influenced by the people around him. It's not just the sadism that makes a villain pure evil, it's the reason and Walt only did it for himself and nothing else
What? Walter white is like the 3rd most evil character in the entire show. The only ones that are worse are Tuco and some of the Neo Nazis
@@theewking4692
Eh, Todd’s family aka the Neo Nazi gang did what they did out of pure pleasure. Sounds pretty evil to me
@@Josama0214 I also think you should include gus as at least walt cares about his family.Gus just views everyone as tools or obstacles
@@theewking4692 Oh please, like Tuco, Todd, and Gus's actions had no self-interest behind them.
“This video contains spoilers”
Me, who was already spoiled: 😮
I just finished season 4 and found out the "lily of the valley" thing, and my freakin gut was telling me Walter is the villain of the story. And it's right.
Pure evil was always dormant until cancer emerge
I never understood why Walter White settled as a high school science teacher? Why didn't he start his own pharmaceutical company? Or use his genius intellect of chemistry to become a high level chemical engineer/scientist? To attain a job that would have provided him and his family with a high level of income. That he could have used to pay for his disabled son's medical bills and his own cancer treatment. Thus not having to resort to illegal activities to fund those bills. He gave up on fulfilling his potential far too soon just because he had a child and gave his rights to company which he co founded before it took off. He has the ambition to be high end drug maker and drug dealer!! But to never do anything else? That didn't make sense to me as a viewer.
Facts! He's a white male living in America which means he has the home field advantage, highly educated, very high IQ, Nobel prize recipient and he's teaching high-school in da hood smdbh...
Even if he sold his shares (Another missed opportunity) he could've started another company or go work for a competitior or become a college professor at some snazzy university earning tenure writing journals for the scientific community even a book etc etc...
In short he had options rather than becoming a drug dealer...
I feel like Walter settled as a highschool teacher for a couple reasons. He wanted to still be in the chemistry business but he didn’t have as much trust and confidence in himself as he did after the relationship between him and grentchen fell through( presumably by elliot.) I think that mental block of a rather weak looking man like elliot took his woman away, he felt emasculated and scared. I think he didn’t want to start another chemistry business probably bc he still knew he was a genius so he pridefully thought his best work was in grey matter. So he chose a job where he could still feel like a total genius but not still be the “king” of his classroom.
@@malikkimanimaasai3703bro what? Way to dismiss your entire point in the first few words. Dogshit mentality
He could have worked for the DEA or for a Pharmaceutical company or for DuPont. They hire chemists, don't they? Hank could have told Wal-Turd about the DEA's need for people who know what Walt does about chemistry. Someone like Hank would also know about other police departments who could use Walt's expertise in their crime labs and those jobs would have paid him more and respected him more than high school teaching.
He liked being the smartest man in the room. We see how uncomfortable he is with gale-a man that matches his intelligence. Instead trying to use the opportunity of having a partner on equal footing he ran back Jesse because Jesse made him feel superior. He probably entered teaching as a temporary solution to some other dilemma he was facing and kept with it due to the insane ego trip being completely overqualified in his field gave him.
Yes. 100% and it's how I've always felt about ole Heisenberg.
Walt wasn't Heisenberg all along. Heisenberg isn't about losing your cool for a bit nor standing up for yourself.
Heisenberg is being toxicly alpha, "eat or be eaten", forcing your truth to be reality. Heisenberg wouldn't let himself get bullied by teenagers. He would argue his use of the family creditcard instead of meekly apologizing. Heisenberg wouldn't ruin his source of income at the carwash, he'd plan a way to force Bogdan to do his bidding. Heisenberg is in no way the "beta male" at a gathering.
Heisenberg is so dour and dark, that you need Jesse "the angel" Pinkman to even withstand Heisenberg's hopeless numb selfishness. Walt was not remotely close to that in the beginning. He was perfectly sympathic and enjoyable at the start.
I like Water Wite
Pure evil? No. Walt is not pure evil. He becomes twisted and unsympathetic as the series progresses but his mix of good and evil qualities is what made him such a compelling antihero character.
He has almost no good qualities, he is about as unlikeable and self-involved as they come.
I genuinly saw no good qualities in Walter aside from his genius.
Maybe he has a little bit of morality and stuff that kept him from certain depravity but he poisoned a child, ruined Jesses entire life, broke Skylars soul, got his brother in law killed and all of that for no greater purpose than him wanting to feel powerful.
He is just a terrible pr*ck all around but thats just my opinion
@@mathiasstrom7790 You’re overlooking a lot of nuance in his character’s overall moral complexity due to what sounds to me like a strong personal dislike towards a fictional character. But that’s also just my opinion…
He’s not pure evil, but he’s like 80% or something
this guy deserves more subribers and hell of a lot more views
Other ways to solve the problem ? Even if there was no cancer, tg3 family was not in a good financial situation for years. Don't you think Walt thought about those other ways before the show ? Remember there are years before the first episode. If it was so easy, why do poor people exist ? Why can't everybody be rich ? It is not true to say that meth was the first thing he thouvght about whether we see him thinking about other ways or not. Walt had no other ways to get out of this. This is why people become homeless or go broke and if what you were saying was true, homelessness and poverty would not exist. Dealers in the hood, especially with records, either don't get jobs or do not get a good paying one. You make it sound sooo easy to make money. You think a brilliant guy like Walt hasn't thought this through ?
Especially as he was working a second job in a car wash, presumably earning minimum wage.
I can understand why he didn’t take the job, I’d probably also rather make drugs than work for them but you are insane if you genuinly believe that choosing drugs over the job was justified in any way
Gabe made good coffee.
9:18 who is gabe lol
Here’s what it is Heisenberg was born when he blew up tucos hide out Heisenberg took over in the episode fly
The honest route ? What was that ? 😂
I disagree, I don't think any of his stuff in the beginning had to do with him wanting to save his life
He isn't evil lol, Walter is a great guy who just believes anything good for him must be good for others that he likes and if they don't get it then they are simply wrong.
But even if you think that's "evil" just look at every other character that's either a criminal or his wife or Hank's Karen of a wife, they are worse, they are bigger opportunists and even more self centered.
Walter is very jealous of others, overly proud and angered at how life is easy for others.
Walter believes (and is mostly right) that him doing the right things by the book and being responsible is how he ended up with nothing.
The world just insists on proving him right time and again rewarding him again and again for ambition and violence and trampling others.
He is still to the very end a way more decent person than Gus or the Salamancas, arguably more decent than Jessie.
People have a one in a quintillion chance of being born or something, you get one life, not two or more. Walter still decided that him being able to work with Jesse was more important than Jane’s life, now is that something a great guy would do? Would a great guy rather make drugs and ruin people’s lives than take a job from wealthy friends. And no, his ego is not more important and you are insane if you even thought sbout using that as justificatiom
@@Oskir_Schlickarsson Oh no! He chose not to help a drug addict who he thought will ruin the life of his best friend Jesse?
He told him exactly what will happen and if he wasn't there she'd be just as dead, so she did it to herself.
Take a job from wealthy friends..? Did you ever quit a job and then came back for a much lower salary? It's not like they were going to let him be their partner again, but he contributed to that as much as they did, so why should he work for them?
Did him cooking drugs ruin anyone's life? Not really, they were already consuming a much lower quality product which is far more dangerous to them and if anything Walt contributed to the USA itself by being part of the reason a violent Cartel lost all its members AND their internal distributor, think about how much safer the border became!
Thanks Walt! For stopping KFC-ripoff from smuggling drugs into the states from Mexico!
Your perspective is juvenile at best.
@@blueplayer6197 are you a psychopath?
@@blueplayer6197 also no when he tried to wake jesse up by shaking him he accidently pushed her onto her back so she would probably survive if it wasn’t for him
one question: do you think skyler is morally a worse person than Walt. Dont go by how annoying she is
i don’t really agree with this video. i think at first walt did genuinely just want to leave behind money for his family and then never cook again. the meth was simply just an opportunity, he wasn’t in it for the crime or the power but to leave money behind for his family. but then he got addicted to the thrill and the power he felt after being so powerless for so long, and he couldn’t let that go, not even for the sake of his family.
early on into their partnership with tuco, walt is calculating how much money his family needs and how many more sales with tuco they need to make, this strikes me as nothing more than a man wanting to provide for his family and leave. he was not particularly enjoying the work he was doing. however near the end, the opportunity to give up his methylamine for $5,000,000 shows up & he doesn’t take it because he wants to keep being a criminal, he enjoys it. this is imo proof that walter white did transition or “break bad” into heisenberg, and i don’t think it was a “the moment he switched from walter to heisenberg” kind of thing, it was a slow and gradual change from innocent chemistry teacher to blood-hungry drug lord and it’s impossible to find a certain point that is the actual transition.
Who tf is Gabe? Lol
Gale
Yhe only thing he did that I objected to entirely was poisoning Brock.
Both that and the attempted rxpe of Skyler (the one time that I cheered for Sky)….. besides that i like him
@@kainlives7958 I don't recall that, or maybe I didn't see it that way.
@@ImYourOverlord after he got back from being captured by Tuco….. Skyler also had that green mask stuff on her face
@@ImYourOverlord Walt 🍷 fan 🤝
@@kainlives7958 Gonna have to rewatch that scene.
No, this characterization is distorted. It suggests an already questionable character within Walt, and a craving for power and respect that blinds him to how wrong certain actions can be, as well as encouraging a disregard for the well-being of others. He wasn't a bad person at the start, and throughout the stoey, he found himself either grappling with those things about the world he go himself into that were necessary to survival and success. He wasn't chasing anything as greatly as his initial interest in providing for his family after his expected demise. He did end up so compromised that he essentially became a different person, but even at the end, there was a shred of the person he started as. If not, things would have gone differently, and more bodies would have been piled up in his wake.
walter.. gone he is. consumed by heisenberg
I love how the video glosses over the fact that Walt messed his relationship with Gus because of saving Jesse's life and how after he saved Jesse's life Gus literally was looking to murder Walt and Jesse.
Also glosses over the fact Gus threatened Skyler, Walter Jr and his infant daughter... and not only threatened them but was going to kill Hank as well.
Walt didn't kill Gus because he needed him out of the way, Walt killed Gus because he threatened Walt's family... heck Gus betrayed Walt first by sending the salamanca twins to kill Hank...
Actually, the twins wanted to kill Walter but Gus stopped them, but offered them Hank instead. Then set the twins up for a fall by warning Hank with that phone call...resulting in Hank offing the twins. Remember, Gus was at war with the cartel.
@@tobiasdog100 He still betrayed Walt by sending the twins to his brother in law. Gus didn't have to do that, he did it because he wanted to kill the Salamanca.
And Gus had no idea Hank would kill the twins, he just bet with Hank's life. There were 3 possibilities...the twins killed Hank and they were fine. The twins killed Hank but they were injured or one of them died or Hank killed both, and Gus had no way of predicting which scenario would happen.
This video provided NOTHING to the conversation 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Honestly, the Fring-White relationship here is analysed horribly.
Walter White was only doing the best with the cards he was dealt.
In the fifth episode he was dealt the card of a high paying job, but he still decided drugs was the better option
If you think that Walter White is pure evil, you have missed the whole point of Breaking Bad. It was the earnest intention of the writers of Breaking Bad to wrestle with moral complexity. ALL GREAT LITERATURE WRESTLES WITH MORAL COMPLEXITY, the dilemma of the human condition. Black and white "morality" (e.g., "pure evil") is for simple-minded children. Breaking Bad is a story of layered motives (admirable and not), moral compromises, hypocrisy, and, woe is me, the slippery slope. It is about the road of good intentions leading to Hell. Even the sympathetic characters have deep flaws and sins to be regretted, AS INTENDED BY THE WRITERS.
At the beginning, Walter White is a broken, humiliated man, with buried, justifiable rage. His chief weakness is wounded pride, his chief flaw is an inability to transcend his embittered pride. A flawed human being. Throw the first stone if you can. The writers would be dismayed. We watch as, trapped by one appalling crisis after another (as well as by one surprising success after another), Walt's decency is eroded. Yeah, we hate to watch him manipulate Jesse, use Jesse...just as Gus Fring coldly manipulates and uses Jesse. But Walter White's moments of compassion for Jesse, his choices to take a stand to protect Jesse, have layers of motive, mixed motives. If you don't see that, you are missing the whole point of the show.
He's not pure evil but he is evil. All the horrible things he did solely for his pride and ego, having so many ways out of the criminal life he rejected. So many times he could have got his money and treatment or got out of the game but he refused because he wanted to feed his ego.
When you're poisoning children and melting them, you're evil.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins "solely for his pride and ego" Dostoevsky would disagree: "Don't let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them." As a matter of self-discipline, I keep this quotation in my mental back pocket. It's an antidote to (so tempting) simplistic judgments which would condemn a person for being "pure evil". The quote tacitly advises us to condemn actions, not the person. I think that the writers had the depth of intellect to invest themselves in the point-of-view inherent in the quote from Dostoevsky.
Actually, Walter White embodies the saying of Heath Ledger's joker in the Dark Knight: "In their last moments, they will reveal who they truly are." And when Walter White got cancer, he revealed who he truly was.
@@sabhishek9289 Yeah, lots of people keep saying that Walter White was an evil man all along. But thank you for the quote from the Joker. Me, I prefer the quote from Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky vs. Joker. Hm. To each their own. ;-)
In any case, Walt's life pre-meth was entirely lacking in dignity, joy, and beauty. His life was a living hell of suffocating banality and emasculating humiliation, not to mention justifiable embitterment. A living hell. Trapped. Forced to pretend that he was content. Poor Walt. So...one could say that he gradually allowed himself to express his anger and embitterment, knowing that he had less than a year to live. Is it evil to be angry and embittered? As for his actions, Walt was a complex human being stumbling down a slippery slope that was fraught with dire danger to himself and his family. When he killed Crazy Eight, it left him in a state of anguish (though Crazy Eight would have killed Walt and his family). It seems to me that his anguish revealed "who he truly was" at that point on the slippery slope. Even as he descends that slippery slope, there are moments when he acts with decency and honor. For example, when he and Jesse are held hostage in Tuco's house, Walt saves Jesse's life, saying "You don't get me without him.". Or when the white supremacists intend to kill Hank, Walt offers them his entire fortune in exchange for Hank's life and weeps when they kill Hank anyway. So, decency is an element in "who he really is". An element in a panoply of elements. Walt is a complex human being, as are we all.
"At the beginning, Walter White is a broken humiliated man, with buried, justifiable rage."
Hmm, the humiliation is actually self inflicted here. If he wanted, he could have stayed at Grey matter technologies and could have become a billionaire like Elliot. But because of his Ego, that he is not in the center of Gretchen's life, he leaves the company. So really, the "beginning" here happened because of Walter's ego.
And yes it is truly awful about how the way he is treated by everyone around him considering that he is an overqualified genius. But really much of the blame falls on Walter here because it is self inflicted by his own ego.
I think what people fail to understand is walters intelligence. The show is called breaking bad, it’s about what it takes to break bad and be successful in that business. I know most of y’all don’t know much street stuff, but all I saw was a man that understood the role he needed to take to be successful, and what was simply a tough guy ruse at first to gain the respect he needed to not be robbed and killed, turned into a real persona. Yeah you can talk about his ego at some points, but fake it til you make it so long you end up becoming who you’re faking. And that was Heisenberg.
Hey remember when he assaulted his pregnant wife?
Am I the only one who thinks Walter is a good man?
Yes
Walter is a dislikeable, arrogant and evil coward.
He has no warmth, no charm, no sense of humor, no charisma and no presence.
He isnt as imposing or commanding as he believes he is.
He is almost like the Joker in the way he completely ruins everything and everyone that ever comes in contact with him.
He respects no one and he likes no one but himself.
His behavior is insufferable and he loves destroying people for his own amusement.
He is a close to heartless as they come, the only redeeming quality he has is his genius intellect and at the end he kind of shows that he sort of understood how terrible he had become and humbled himself.
He loved his family but not in the same way most people think of as love, they were more like possessions to him.
The fact that he knew all along that he was only out for himself makes him objectively worse in my opinion
@@mathiasstrom7790 He is many things, but he is definitely not a coward
He assaulted his pregnant wife, kidnapped his daughter, poisoned his community, melted a child, and bombed a nursing home. He is not a good person.
@@cerdic6586 Eh arguable, he uses people to further his own goals instead of facing them head on.
I see what youre saying though since he had the balls to do stuff even the worst of the worst were shocked by.
So yeah he might not be a coward all the time but his manipulation of Jesse and everyone else is definitely cowardly. Its complicated
But I saw that other video that said hes based and did absolutely nothing wrong
No one in their right mind would have ever taken Elliot’s offer with how smug he was and how demeaning he was towards Walt while offering… that isn’t spoken about enough
I think most people would accept Elliot's offer to save their lives from cancer for free while also earning a wage; no matter how smug Elliot was.
@@argenisjrg there was no saving his life, just prolonging his life while costing him a good livelyhood, everyone knows chemo makes your life worse but makes you live longer, some people don’t feel the side affects are worth living a few extra years, me included, that’s why during the intervention scene I was on Walt’s side and found skyler unbearable that she won’t even let her own husband decide that he doesn’t wanna go through the side affects of chemo…
That’s why I believed he went through route he did in the series because there was no way of surviving so he done horrible things knowing he would die anyway
@@jackhowes8530god forbid a mother with a disabled son and a newborn baby wants her husband to fight as hard as he can to stick around…
@@j.c.jeggis1818 god forbid a man that doesn’t want to be remember by his family as useless and the way in which chemo would make you… some people think living longer isn’t worth it when you ruin the quality of life… plus she wasn’t listening to him, chemo or not wasn’t going to make a difference on how long he lived so what’s the point in getting it
@jackhowes8530 Walter worrying about how he will be viewed after his death is egotistical. In the end, he got the exact opposite of what he wanted. He was viewed as a terrible person. And even more so by his own son. Skyler's worries are more valid cause she genuinely had the family in mind. While Walter claimed he did all the things he did was for his family, it actually wasn't. He even admits it in the last episode.
People condemn Walt for his pride. Just try living without pride. Just you try it.
Walt's pride made him enter into a highly dangerous and criminal profession when he had other legal options. The reason he's not rich is because his pride made him dump Gretchen because her family is richer than his. Several times he could have gotten his money and been done with his criminal lifestyle but kept at it solely for his pride.
That is worthy of condemnation. Pride by itself doesn't make people do bad things because people also tend to have enough rationality as well as emotional maturity to hold back their pride in moments where it is needed. Walt lacked that which is why he's in the situation he is in at the start. He had the opportunity of a lifetime founding Grey Matter and he threw it away over his pride then threw what little time he had left endangering himself and everyone around him.
That's not just pride, that is toxic pride that has routinely ruined his life. His pride is so toxic he shoots Mike just for calling him out. He was fuming over that and immediately went to murder him. If you think that's a normal way people should live and act, you have issues.
@@MysteriousTomJenkins Thank you for your reply. Let's start with the "job" offer from Elliott.
Gray Matter would never have existed without Walt's brilliant research. After Gray Matter took off, Elliott and Gretchen acted out of greed, not ethics. An ethical person would have returned Walt's $5,000 and restored him to his rightful place in the partnership. They retained sole ownership on a legal technicality, not ethically. When people take refuge in a legal technicality rather than face their ethical obligation...well, that's lousy. So there is justice in Walt's embitterment.
Elliott's "job" offer is demeaning and self-serving. It would have put Walt subordinate to Elliott, keeping Walt in his place. It was an offer of a phony (i.e., demeaning) "job" that, oh so conveniently, would have served as a expense to be deducted in the books (Elliott the calculating business man!). It would have served to alleviate Elliott's guilt at little cost to Elliott. If Elliott had been honorable, instead of offering a phony job, Elliott would have given Walt half of Elliott's equity in Gray matter. In his angry exchange with Gretchen, Walt snarled, "A rich girl just adding to her millions." The implied question in that statement is, "Gretchen, how much money is enough? How much is enough?" The Schwartz's sit on top of their billions like Scrooge McDuck sitting on top of a pile of gold coins. They choose greed over ethics.
(I think that people would do well to ask themselves the question, "How much money is enough?" The question challenges rationalization, such as "justification-by-legal-technicality". It is a critically important question in one's perception of our current society.)
Why do people want Walt to swallow his pride and submit to this indignity? Walt's pre-meth life was a living hell of indignity and humiliation. A living hell. People who want Walt to humbly accept Elliott's demeaning "job" offer want Walt to continue to live without dignity. They want Walt to be a pathetic, dependent, emasculated sad-sack IN HIS FINAL MONTHS, right up to his miserable death. I ask you, in such circumstances, is pride such a contemptible sin?
@@MysteriousTomJenkins Further thoughts, Tom.
"his pride made him dump Gretchen because her family is richer than his." I don't think that you are putting yourself in Walt's shoes. Is it not possible that he broke the engagement because he was uncomfortable? I myself would never want to marry into an uber-rich family, not for one New-York minute. I've been acquainted with people who have done so. It's almost always a very uncomfortable life. The ordinary person can't fit in. The term "culture-clash" doesn't come close. The uber-rich live on a different planet than the rest of us. They have unquestioned priorities that would make me very ill-at-ease. And enmeshed in the unavoidable tension of class disparity, the ordinary person married into an uber-rich family must live in a state of perpetual self-censorship. It's icky.
The question of whom to marry is fraught with complications. It is simplistic to reduce it to a motive of pride. "Marry and you'll regret it. Don't marry and you'll regret it." Yes, indeed, Mr. Kierkegaard.
@@zeitgeist5134 To quote the interview where Vince revealed what really happened between Walt & Gretchen,
"In my mind, the interesting thing here -- and I always kind of hate to nail it down so explicitly -- but let's put it this way, most viewers of 'Breaking Bad' assume Gretchen and Elliott are the bad guys, and they assume that Walt got ripped off by them, got ill used by them, and I never actually saw it that way."
Gilligan explained that the truth is more nuanced. It all stemmed from White's feeling of inferiority while spending time with Gretchen's family.
"I think it was kind of situation where he didn't realize the girl he was about to marry was so very wealthy and came from such a prominent family, and it kind of blew his mind and made him feel inferior and he overreacted. He just kind of checked out. I think there is that whole other side to the story, and it can be gleaned. This isn't really the CliffsNotes version so much. These facts can be gleaned if you watch some of these scenes really closely enough, and you watch them without too much of an overriding bias toward Walt and against Gretchen and Elliott," said Gilligan" (Bradley Huff Post.com).
And Walt literally says, in the episode Peekaboo, "... To build your little empire on my work [...] Little rich girl just adding to your millions."
So While part of his motivation for leaving Gretchen might have been due to being uncomfortable with marrying into a rich family, it is also undeniable that another one of Walt's reasons for leaving Gretchen was his insecurity that his work would just be seen as another part of Gretchen's family's fortune. Yet another instance of Walt's pride ruining things for him, and everyone around him.
@@zeitgeist5134My, my. We've got someone who prefers "Eat the Rich" 😅
Gale is Gale not Gabe
The idea that this is who he was the whole time is ridiculous and short sided. We all have this within us and Walter was operating off of fight or flight all along. Most of his actions were very machiavellian. Jordan Belfort says it’s best “when you cross the line, the line keeps moving”.
Or it could be a weird mix of both. There is no such thing as good, only pacified evil. Everyone has some level of ego, everyone has some level of pride, of lust, of greed, of dogma, of desires of control and/or power, of ignorance, of bigotry, of complete unwillingness to back down even when we know we’re in the wrong. What it be outrageous to at least consider the possibility man is inherently evil?
Don't forget that he tried to SA Skylar on to occasions. First time in season two, I think. Nobody talks about that. So i dot ThinkPad Waltz a family man at all...
Also in season 5 ep 3 I believe
1:37 nope well actually half right imho he turns into Heisenberg by flipping a switch sometimes on purpose othertimes necessity, kinda like BB/Hulk.... you can literally see it happen when heisenberg takes over
The only truly evil things Walt did were not helping Jane, poisoning the kid, and killing Mike, everything else were it's me/us or them situations, or to save Jesse from his own mistakes.
You spoiled me. Next time do a spoiler alert thing dude.
@@kerhabplays You shouldn't be watching these videos then.
He also destroyed Jesses life with zero care in the world. He ruined his wife and his family and showed no signs of regret or remorse until the game was up.
Walter is evil, he is just sympathethic because he is the protagonist
@@kerhabplaysyou seem like the type of person to go to a kid’s channel in tv and complain about it being too childish
@@Oskir_Schlickarsson that was fking month ago dude. I literally finished the whole freakin triology within this time.
Vavo Brince
so you just recap key moments and say he was always been like this? ok, i disagree
really no need to explain the basics of the shows premise. we know walter white is a chemistry teacher. we know he partners with jessie. we know gus fring is not as innocent as he seems. you said at the top of the video that the video will contains spoilers. everyone still watching has already seen the show
I've been on the anti-Walt train ever since I first watched the show when it first came out, but I find this analysis to be way too simplistic and lacking in nuance.
You lost me at worse
This is not very good.
you stated he wants to save his life at the start and that’s wrong he only wanted to leave money for his family
I strongly disagree with your perspective.
Walt is a villain. As of season 4, finale.
You don't understand. Waltuh is just based.
It blows my mind how people see Walt as such a narcissist for feeling heartbroken that finally after all these years the job offer he got was only because he had cancer and was gonna die soon. Imagine the happiness he felt at first just to then find out “hey yeah ur gonna die soon so come work with us so we can all look better meanwhile you’re gonna die soon so it’s not like it’ll hurt us at all”. Makes me wonder if the viewers of this show actually like go outside and experience life
I have a theory that the writers wrote Breaking Bad with the idea that the characters were all re-living a past life. Sort of like a video game. Certain characters are able to recall things that happened in their past life, leading them to make better decisions in certain situations. The more intelligent characters make better decisions and are able to be more successful at “the game”.
whalter white did everything right at least at the end of his life and left existence like a fucking legend.
But left a terrible legacy, which was the exact opposite of what he desired.
@@tobithetabby6376 why did he left a terrible legacy. he died like a fucking legend
@@Mire_Klicksee it from Flynn’s pov: Your psychopath dad killed your idol and has been a kingpin for two years and came back to commit a mass murder
@@Oskir_Schlickarsson fucking legend
@@Mire_Klick cant tell if you’re being serious or not
Why are your clips pop locking? One minute louder, next lower than your voice? Didn't you watch your video BEFORE you posted this? Narration was on point. We already know this, man. If l had balls like you. I would do Lydia or Jack. People who don't get as much attention. Do Walt Jr. without getting preachy. You know how he's good and honest. Or, Hank the hypocrite. Good luck. You almost got it.
I didn't have a problem with the audio at all...
GREAT video in my opinion
He can't stand the power dynamic ? He had to save Jesse. He would have been happy continuing working for Gus. There is a video on this subject TH-cam.
Crazy 8 was self defense, the big teenagers were dumping on his palsied son, the others were criminals, and the only undeserving victims were Jesse's girlfriend's kid whom Walter poisoned with berries and Gus' chemist, who Walter had Jessie kill to make Gus Fring exclusively dependent on them.
The rest deserved it.
If you have Inoperable cancer, you can't get a new job or increased coverage then your legal choices are non-existent.
His pride did get in the way of putting up with the ridicule of his partners family so he took a buy out from the Gray Matter. IPO.
He may have been strapped the time and NEEDED THE 5K.
[BUT WHY DUMP ON HIM TO BEGIN WITH.?]
His pride DID get in the way when he turned down a job offer [maybe including equity] with benefits from his former partner--- interpreting it as pity..
This channel is worse than you thought
You're forgetting a very important fact here that's been the cloud and egg-timer over Walt's head the entire time - he HAD no time to spare, he was chronically ill.
There's not much in the way of options when you're given literally less than a year to live, what is a 9-5 job going to do in that time? The family were broke, he had no health insurance, so in short, he needed a small miracle to ensure that his family had enough money for the remainder of their lifetime after he died.
A 9-5 job is NOT going to take care of that in one year, doesn't matter what your chosen field is. The black market was Walter's only hope of accumulating the sort of money needed with the time remaining.
To add to that, the company that offered him the job was his own idea, his own IP, so of course he's not going to take that up.
When you consider Walter was nothing more than a former chemistry teacher, the show actually demonstrated tremendous courage on his part to step into a world he really had no business being in. That took alot of bravery, most people would not be cut out for.
He was not Heisenberg the entire time, no, he grew into that hands on, on the job.
You're hilarious! 😂
I find it hard to see his family as ''broke'' when they have a decently sized house and TWO cars.
@@legrandliseurtri7495 You do understand right that most people who flaunt the house, the cars, the clothes are some of the most broke people amongst us?
You do know what debt is right?
Very Poor Read.