The fact that in a show full of drug dealers, murderers and other criminals, the most hated character is a manipulated pregnant woman is simply hilarious
I see two things here. She was a bit of a controlling nag, and that automatically gets under everyone's skin because we've all met someone like that, and we saw things through Walter's eyes. She thinks he's cheating, we know he's not, so she looks bad for accusing the protagonist of something he's not doing even though he's doing something much worse. Tony Soprano was a terrible person and yet we cheered him on because we also saw things through his eyes. I actually understood her point of view much better when I watched the show a second time.
Or, some people are manipulated, while others understand reality, and as such are rooting for him up until that shit with Jane. The series is literally about how capitalism and prohibition are bad.
Breaking Bad is actually so funny. Walter White was so toxic that seasoned drug lords were like I cannot work with this man I have to put my mental health first
I will never be over how much he made Jesse suffer. Jesse is not an innocent baby but until the very end, he never wanted to hurt anyone and he was a lost guy who needed a dad figure. Walt did care for him but he manipulated and hurt him to get what he wanted. It broke my heart to see him so torn up and then being sold into slavery… so messed up. I was so happy when he got away
It's so satisfying but sad when Jesse clocks onto his schemes and manipulation techniques towards the end. Like Walt's fake 'Dad' speeches. It shows Walt didn't realise that Jesse developed so much as a person over their time together. The disrespect was palpable.
@wellthisisinteresting4912 Jesse made himself suffer. Jesse was a POS and a rat. Walter saved Jesse numerous times. Jesse was an ungrateful POS and junkie.
@@goodmorningandgoodluck8613 Nah. Walt only killed Jack and his gang for killing Hank which was hypocritical since Walt was also responsible for his death by calling them to stop Hank arresting him.
Skylar is scum. The whole series is about how capitalism and prohibition are bad. She supports prohibition. She is scum. Walter becomes a bad person when he does what he does to Jane and Brock.
This! Amazing how the same audience can fall over themselves with sympathy for Saul who was fully capable of defending himself both physically and legally, and still have absolutely none for pregnant and vulnerable Skylar.
we just hate Skyler cuz she's inconsistent. one episode, she is supporting Walt's meth business, then the next episode she does a complete 180 and hates it again.
Yet that isn't actually true. Her "inconsistency" makes perfect sense in-context to the show. It's why she does things like smoking when she's pregnant. Certainly not good, but it makes sense as to why she did it. She joins Walt for a number of reasons, which make sense. It's not just some random retcon or inconsistency that came out of nowhere. The way her character is developed is consistent throughout the story She's hated on because she's literally opposing Walter and feels "naggy" along with feeling like a hypocrite@@iguessimhere1
Fun Fact: Samuel L. Jackson showed up unannounced during filming on the Pollos Hermanos set one day, dressed in his Nick Fury outfit from The Avengers (2012). Both productions were happening on the same studio lot, and Jackson wanted to be an extra during the scene being filmed. The producers denied his request to appear as Nick Fury on the show.
He clarified this later in an Instagram post, he “just wanted to go into Hermanos & buy some chicken in the background of a scene as myself, but never got the time to do”
Listening to the portion on Jesse just breaks my heart. It was never more clear that he was trying to manipulate Jesse than the moment he wanted to leave the business. The worst part of that dialogue for me was when he tells Jesse, “to do what? Oh that’s right. Video games and go karts.” Not only does it imply that, to Walt, those are fruitless and meaningless activities, but Walt held onto those instances as future ammunition against Jesse. Jesse invited Walt to do those activities with him when they were still working for Gus. Jesse wanted to do something fun outside of work with his partner, of which he refused, only to be attacked for wanting to do those things at all.
@@npineapple3077 walter literally poisoned a child to manipulate him and that's okay because he sold drugs? Also it was Walt who got Jesse to kill people. Jesse has done terrible shit as well, but it's a case of lesser vs greater evil.
It's truly showing the ruthlessness of Walt, and how I think that he always had this in him to some extent. To use genuinely friendly gestures and intentions as ammunition confirms this.
This is probably the best, most thought-out discussion on Walter white I’ve seen, putting real words and labels on previously abstract feelings. We knew he was manipulative, but it was hard to put a finger on his exact tactics. Well done.
@@movieman6456 yea abstract. Correctly labeling the blow-fish idea as a tactic of his was really well done, same with "completing the loop". It all happens subconsciously, but being able to label these tactics and point them out is a really great contribution I haven't seen done before in all the Walter white videos I've seen. Many other's stop at just calling him "manipulative" and nothing much deeper than that.
One of my favourite aspects of Walt's character is that he's an awful liar; it's always obvious *when* he's lying, but never entirely obvious to the other characters *why* he's lying. I remember reading that Cranston wasn't told that Walt did poison Brock until after filming the confrontation scene with Jesse, meaning that Cranston played that scene as if Walt was genuinely innocent. This was a brilliant move; Jesse had in fact figured Walt out (just getting the motivation wrong) and Walt finally managed to convincingly lie to Jesse at the very moment his life depended on it.
What is the most fascinating is that Walt is, while being an expert manipulator, actually a terrible liar. More times than Skylar or Jesse did not fully believed his lies, but they had to go along because they didn't have all the information and because of Walt's manipulation tactics as described they were described in this video. Skylar, on the other hand, is a master class in lying and coming up with a believable narrative, so much so, even Walt is deeply impressed by it. Which later he sees as an useful tool, of course.
Skylar isn't a 'good liar', she just has high social intelligence and actually knows, understands, and empathizes with the people they needed to lie to, namely her sister and brother in law, better than Walt understands or empathizes with most of the people he lies to. Agree that he's made to look like an awkward liar which tricks the audience into believing he must still be a 'good' person, because difficulty lying is usually associated with being a person of integrity. I think, in Walt's case, his awkwardness with lying is just indicative of his pathological self-centredness and lack of empathy rather than him having some kind of moral difficulty with lying.
@@a.r.8954 You said that "his awkwardness with lying is just indicative of his pathological self-centeredness and lack of empathy rather than him having some kind of moral difficulty with lying", which is true, but I'm fairly certain the comment was talking about being a "good liar", which has very little to do with integrity. Being a good liar only refers to possessing the skills necessary to lie effectively, like the "high social intelligence", "sympathy", and the "lack of social awkwardness" you ascribe to Skylar.
the utter genius of the writing team to create such a deep and rich story is really incredible, this should be the standard that television should be nowadays. I cant wait to see what the next Breaking Bad will be.
If this becomes the standard, you wouldn't see more than few shows. Not everyone can make shits of these levels like how walter was the only 1 who could make 99.1% pure meth
25:26 I never noticed, but this scene showing each of their faces obscured by shadows subtly showing that Walt and Gus are two sides of the same coin. Beautiful cinematography and subtle story design. Love it
Fantastic breakdown of Walt's manipulation. I would 100% watch a video detailing Mike's understanding of Walt as a manipulator since he is the only main character who never truly gets on board with any of Walt's behavior. It ultimately doesn't save Mike, since Walt is uncompromising when the coercion he's selling isn't being bought.
This is my own personal interpretation but Mike understood Walter because he knew that they where similar individuals, in the sense that they where both older men who got involved in the drug game for the sake of their families. The main difference being that Mike never forgot what he was doing and why. He was working exclusively for his granddaughters sake, so he was selfless despite that fact that he was technically committing crimes. Whereas Walter completely lost the plot and became increasingly selfish, and as someone who was in a similar position to him and could’ve gone down the same path, Mike saw that in Walter and actively tried to check it.
@@cannakage7114 Also has never been pridefull or ambitious in that sense, he literally just was traumatized by the murder of his son and wanted to secure the future of his remaining family at any cost, but he never did it for showing it off or to feel superior.
@@Burning_flames9999 and that’s what made Mike a superior man to Walter. Honestly both gus and Mike where perfect foils to Walter. Gus represented the ideal that walt aspired to, while Mike represented the kind of person Walter could’ve became if still got into the drug game but didn’t give into his greed, another ideal that I feel Walter initially aspired to.
@@cannakage7114 Actually yeah, as Gus was not your typical "tough guy" like Hank (which Walt felt inferior to for this and other reasons) but he was a serious and respected business man. And well, Mike is evident when you compare how his actions affected his family vs Walt´s lol. Jesus, the fact that we can talk about them as characters in a book or a videogame and that matches the perception of what Walt would´ve like to have from them makes his narcicism more evident, as he mostly wanted status for the status itself, not for what was happening behind the scenes, "the EMPIRE" lets say.
One of the most fun parts about Breaking Bad and Walter's character as a whole is watching him lie so effortlessly yet so believably, and how it only prolongs his inevitable downfall.
Is it a downfall though? In season 1, he thinks he’s going to die, and wants to leave money for his family. By the end of season 5, he’s accomplished that before he dies, and even took all his enemies with him. Seems like more of a win than a loss
Even before the events of the show, Walter lied to Skyler and said the reason he left Grey Matter and made their lives and their unborn son's future life more financially difficult and more financially insecure was because Elliot and Gretchen cut him out, rather than the real reason which was that he left because he felt inadequate around Gtetchen's family's wealth because he has a superiority/inferiority kind of complex and because he is a narcissist who can't stand not being the most capable person in the room in order to get sympathy, understanding, and zero judgment and zero chance of protestation from Skyler. He was always manipulative and selfish even long, long before his cancer diagnosis. Even when he was a mere 6 years old he believed his father to be weak, pathetic, miserable, and deserving of his slow, suffering, painful death for being weak for being incapable of ensuring he wasn't born with wonky genes. Even as a 6 year old facing down the death of his own father through no fault of his father's he looks at any signs of weakness with disdain. That is his true self coming out. We think that he is a decent but overly passive person at the start of episode 1, but very early on we learn of his spiteful envy towards Elliott and Gretchen and we realise he has always been spiteful, envious, manipulative, and selfish, he just became passive due to becoming apathetic due to his life going nowhere and becoming disinterested and losing any future prospects. He basically only initially decided to not just give up and die to provide for his family until he got into it too much and started doing it for himself for selfish reasons. Every single time he gives an overly windy long speech we initially think he is just giving people a pep talk in order to psych them up and give them the motivation that they need to do what must be done, but then we eventually come to realise that he withholds a lot of information and lies to people, and that he is actually just behaving totally manipulatively. The way he uses Skyler's fear of him to manipulate her in the first half of season 5 is just downright sickening and nauseating. Same with the way he talks Jesse up in order to get him back into cooking and casually converses with him about his future prospects with Andrea and Brock even after knowing full well he deliberately poisoned Brock, an innocent child, hospitalising him and putting him at risk of potentially dying, without a care in the world just completely detached is also very sickening and vexing. I still felt sympathies for Walter for some of the things that happen to him, but as far as his plight for getting money for his family goes, I quickly lost all sympathy for that plight of his when Elliot offered him a position at Grey Matter before straight up offering to pay for his treatment and Walter turned it down because he said that he was far too prideful to accept "charity" as if charity is a grave sin yet making drugs and killing children like Drew and almost Brock are way better morally. At that point I was fully against Walter. And that was all the way back in season one. Walter isn’t an excellent liar. Everybody calls him out on it. He always constantly gets called out on it. Everybody can tell when he is lying to them. Jesse knows that Walter is manipulating him, and Skyler in the earlier seasons keeps calling him out on his bullshit and keeps demanding to know the actual truth, before eventually finally managing to find out that he is a drug dealer by figuring it out on her own. Every single time he tries to lie, nobody believes him. It almost starts to become a way to have plausible deniability to basically plant your feet and refuse to tell the truth without admitting that is what you’re doing even when both you and the other person knows that’s what you’re doing because being overly open and honest about that would be far too brazen and having plausible deniability at least lets you pretend to play dumb and not know what the other person is talking about or what they’re trying to accuse you of or why they’re accusing you. It’s, like, “swallow my lies even though we both know that I’m lying because I’m not going to give you the truth no matter what, so deal with it.”
The times he was caught lying was more like "you've done this shit so many times before I'm not falling for it" rather than walt inheritly being a bad liar
@sabertoothtooth2572 Walter is good at coming up with lies, but he's bad at selling them. And it's not because Bryan Cranston is a bad actor because when Walter is telling the truth, Bryan Cranston is extremely convincing, it's only when Walter is lying it's obvious. Even the bit when Walter is telling Jesse that Gus is the one who poisoned Brock is obvious lying in hindsight when you go back with the foreknowledge of Walter's lies and deceit. Bryan Cranston is that good that he is able to convincingly act both a character telling the truth and a character lying without their lying being unrealistically over the top, just very realistic, especially for a pathological liar that doesn't bat an eyelid whenever they're telling lies nor even considers manipulating wrong for a single second even before the much worse moral decay over the course of the show.
30:34 this goes into a phrase I use in my own story. "Good can triumph over evil, But. It truly takes a Monster to understand the Monster." This is why Gus and Walter were such great foils for each other, as they were both the same kind of Monster.
@draco747 not anymore, we have created nice padded societies where people can go about their social lives without much concern for their safety or need to hurt others. Most people only hurt others for their own gain or out of their selfishness, people who hurt others for no reason are generally sociopaths/psychopaths and even then a lot of them don't really care to because it makes more problems for them than its worth. You dont have to be a monster to survive anymore, but we still need monsters to keep other monsters away from the door.
@@erickane8163 It ain’t about surviving anymore, like you said, it’s really about trying to live life at its peak & that can birth the same kind of monster in its own right. You see it everyday still it’s just more discrete than usual crime 🤷.
Huh?? Gus was a measured and composed Machiavellian with some genuine compassion while Walt was a raving Narcissist starved for validation. > insert the "we are not the same" meme here.
@@Thriving_in_Exile Man the concept of a foil went over your head there didn't it. Gus and Walt are like batman and the Joker. Cleary there not the same. But at the end of the day Bruce Wayne does dress up like a giant bat and beats up criminals. Thats not sane. The Only thing Gus and Walter have in common is there both Monsters. It took a Monster, Walter. To take out another Monster, Gus.
I never did and never will understand the hate for Skyler. She genuinely loved Walt and was, as explained in this video, completely manipulated and gaslit. I think that people who have been through abuse like this can see where Skyler is coming from and understand her reactions and feelings. She's an extremely strong female character that I really resonated with, because if my spouse was doing those things to me, I know I'd probably have a lot of the same reactions she did.
The only time I really loved skylers character was when she told Jesse to look into a different career besides selling drugs the rest she was kinda mid or outright annoying
If you see ANY interview of Vicent he maintains that he is 100% dumbfounded about people's passion of Walter. They wrote him as unlikable as possible and commits so many crimes and still so many dudes root for him, no matter what. He said that one of the biggest reasons os Bryan Cranston's acting. Bryan is SO good that he was able to charm dudes into thinking that his vicious acts were okay
@@randomusername3873 thats not the point, You can like walters character and still point out his very flawed way of living. My point is im talking specifically about people who idolize him while hating on skylar when hes MUCH worse. It has nothing to do with the way a character or story is written.
I’d like to point out that whenever Walt is telling a lie he also exhibits body language of a liar too for example giving an answer where you would expect him to be nodding his head but instead he’s shaking it. It’s masterful
The scariest thing about Walter White isn't his intelligence or how far he falls from grace over the course of Breaking Bad, but how he was just waiting for the right opportunity (i.e cancer) to act upon his worst impulses which becomes all the more obvious upon a second viewing.
I don’t think he was waiting for a chance to do what he did, but just kind of fell into it. The decades of being disrespected, broke, and powerless caused him to lose faith in the traditional system of morality and law we all follow.He wanted to feel competent, free, and powerful like he used to in his past, and unfortunately that desire led him down one of the worst paths imaginable.
How do you know he was waiting for the cancer to become a bad person? The few flashbacks we see before his cancer (his scene with Gretchen, him buying the house with Skylar) indicate nothing of the sort.
I think the realization that his life was ending combined with his impotent rage to create a truly terrifying monster. Remember a strong man well respected acts with clemency and decency having had their power and their goodness respected all their life. A wicked strong man with means and power acts with it and reveals his true face so for what reason would he have to deceive. A powerful and competent man showing restraint in anger is admirable for he truly has the power to destroy and harm people. A weak man has been questioned ridiculed and held back by the notions of a society that hates weak men and gives them neither respect or honor. A weak man who thinks himself great is the most dangerous of all. For we all have the power to deceive and even a weak man can thrust a dagger true. I fear not the powerful, but the weak for the weak are inclined to bury their grievances, and a grievance planted in the mind only grows to hatred well watered by the transgressions of others. Walt is such a man he has had his grievances and envy and hate grow over time to bear the fruit of cunning and evil. He drinks from the well of power and fairly soon has a taste of power and money. A man familiar with the taste of both would know to sip lightly for fear of drowning, but walt has tasted neither riches nor power although he was once with in sight of them both. He is so parched so denied even a drop of either, lost in a desert of failure tortured by the memory of success squandered that when he first drinks a drop he cannot stop. No power on earth save his death will prevent him from drinking his fill, even when he drinks so deep and so long that he makes himself sick he simply wipes off his mouth and comes back for more.
@@emperortgp2424 Actually if you really think about it, in that house buying scene a few things were already off. His grandiose sense of importance slips out when he tells Skyler they'll need a larger house because he wants to have several children. Watch her reaction closely, it sounds like they had never talked about something like that prior and she didn't seem to want such a large family for herself. Walt already had big dreams, wanted more, and wasn't so much asking his wife's opinion on that as he was subtly hinting that to her. There's some trace if resentment for how he looked down on his life and accomplishments up until that point.
i love that the climax of the entire show was Jesse denying Walt what he wanted, it meant more to him to show Walt and himself that he wasn't going to be manipulated anymore, than to actually be the one to kill him. Amazing show.
Incredible analysis of such a dark, manipulative, and complex character. And yet despite how terrible a human being Walt/Heisenberg is, he’s so manipulative that you, as the viewer, are still somewhat behind him. By the time the end of the 5th season rolls around, you’re meant to cheer Walt on as he takes out the neo-Nazis. Such an incredible show. Bravo to your analysis!
LOL. I mean, of course you are, they're neo-Nazis. Also, the show is about how capitalism and prohibition are bad. Nota single mention of this in the whole video. It's such a bad analysis I'm thinking of unsubscribing.
To be fair, I think that has more to do with the fact that THEIR Neo-Nazis. The writers basically do the same trick with The Salamanca & Gus (intentionally pitting Walt against someone whose more immoral than him, so he ends up looking like the "good guy"). BTW, writers originally considered having Walt mow down a bunch of cops at the end, before realizing it went too far.
Bravo Vince, a once in a lifetime screenwriter. So glad he invented New Mexico and chicken, plus the colour purple so Marie could put all them purple blouses on her scrawny ass.
The audience think they have been manipulated into rooting for Walt. In reality people have been intentionally manipulated and gaslighted on a much deeper level. Most people see these stories as just harmless Hollywood entertainment, but it is not. It is well thought-out, deliberate social engineering and it's been going on since forever. Entire societies, even the entire world is shaped and moulded generation after generation by these evil spellcasters and everyone remains spellbound and totally oblivious of how every thought they have, every opinion and worldview has been purposefully implanted in their minds.
the dude's a masterclass liar in all except one major thing: *actually building back trust*. it's a long-term failure caused by a lack of real emotions and real empathy for people that ends up losing him everything. Walt fully understands manipulation and using people's emotions, but ironically it's his lack of humanity that ends up coming back to haunt him the most. he can never properly gauge the actual damage he's causing and just the sheer rate at which he's losing people's trust and love for him with each consecutive lie. when's a time you actually remember Walt taking Skylar out to eat or for a vacation or literally anything when it isn't directly following a lie? when's a time you actually remember Walt appreciating Jesse and caring for him in a meaningful way outside of the confines of his endless manipulation? the reason everyone eventually turns on him is because they can see he's a compulsive manipulator even when he has these amazing elaborate stories anyone logically "should" believe.
Never understood why people hated Skyler so much. Sure, she was annoying and bothersome, but then we have people like Tuco, the Salamanca twins, Héctor, Gus Fring, the one who tortured Jesse and killed Andrea (I believe Todd was his name?), etc. Watching people hate her so much when I pitied her powerlessness most of the time was interesting. But at least Anna was hella praised for her role.
Normal fans of the show find Walt an interesting character but don't justify his actions. But some of the fanboys think they have to defend him to find his character interesting.
The evil characters you listed were presented as obvious evil characters, no explanation or justification need, and that means there is no need for a discussion where people can be very opinionated and emotional. On the other hand, Skyler is somewhat of a gray character. She was against Walt cooking meth which is a reasonable response to a socially shunned illegal activity, but on the other hand she refused to recognize Walt's equally reasonable response to what is essentially a death sentence, which is to secure the future of his family, at least financially. This fact is made worse by her hypocrisy helping Ted commit tax fraud and sleeping with him at the same time. She also smoked when she was still pregnant with holly. Skyler is not a consistently good person, and in some fucked up way that is worse than being a consistently bad person.
@@excalibro8365 Cooking meth isn't a reasonable response to getting cancer. Walt became a drug dealer for the money for himself, the power and because he liked being feared as Heisenberg. The "I'm doing it so my family's OK when I die" was an excuse.
@@excalibro8365the tax fraud was specifically to keep the IRS at bay; she was Ted’s accountant and they would have investigated her which would put her family at risk. And she did not have some hot and heavy affair behind Walt’s back. She had filed for divorce and he refused to leave. She slept with Ted in order to push Walt away which is why she TOLD HIM IMMEDIATELY! Yes, she smoked while pregnant. Holly was still born healthy. Skyler is not inconsistent. She was only ever motivated to do as much damage control as possible and did the best she could with the information she had, which was constantly changing and never included the full facts of the situation. A situation she didn’t choose to be in; had she had a choice, none of it would have ever happened in the first place. It is odd how tightly people hold onto the “sins” that you mentioned, disregard the context of her actions, and try to stretch them into something that resembles a villainy that is “almost as bad” as Walt’s. How much people minimize the fact that Walt forced her into the situation but get butthurt anytime she tries to cope and/or problem solve in ways that aren’t centered around Walt’s preferences. How high people’s standards are for the level of perfection she has to attain in order to be considered a victim. How people can watch every episode, see exactly what she was put through, and and get so annoyed (or even enraged) that she isn’t somehow “being better.”
I'll never understand the arguments that people like villains more than her Like of course, the crazy druglords are more interesting than skylar. They are also presented as clearly evil and obstacles to overcome And people generally enjoy villains more
Honestly, Jessee is the best character in the show I felt so bad for him throughout the entire time Walter ruined not only Jessee's life, but also EVERYTHING he held dear to him throughout the show
So great that you're back ! We surely missed your astuteness. Awesome video, i can't even Begin to imagine the amount of work (and rewatch) behind it. Congrats !
@@iloveyoubigmantyrone5609 Oh for sure, every time he uses that slimey fake caring tone of voice when manipulating Jesse I just wanted to punch him in the mouth. That's good acting lol.
I thought Walter was the shit at first , but I was younger and appreciated how clever he was. Now that I’m older and watching the series 2-3 times , Walter is really disgusting. His manipulation tactics are brilliant yet psychotic
@@iloveyoubigmantyrone5609 he doesn't need to gaslight anyone. just the fact that he makes redditors like you go mad would be enough to love him. everything else (like forming a drug empire) is a bonus
Same, I watched it in 2021 and I was sympathetic to Walt, but I completely understood where Skylar was coming from. And that was the first season lmao. It's baffling to me that so many people idolize Walt and demonize Skylar when that's clearly not what the show was going for...
Thank you for calling emotional manipulation viz Walter and Skyler for what it is - abuse. Unless you have been on the end of someone who can lie and manipulate like this, it's difficult to understand the impact it has on the victim's psyche. You begin doubting your own instincts, your memory, and your ability to defend yourself. You don't know which way is north on your moral compass. You begin to think your entirely justified anger and suspicion is actually YOUR character fault, rather than a healthy and normal reaction to the abusive behaviour of someone you trust. Eventually you begin to question if you're actually going crazy, they can be so effective at convincing you that something you can see with your own two eyes, isnt' really there. When there are no physical marks left behind, other people can even start to think YOU actually the problem - while the abuser stands by looking sane, saying "see how she is?", neglecting to mention everything leading up to your "overreaction". To deliberately manipulate someone who trusts you into doubting what they can see in front of them, is one of the most insidious and evil abuses there is. Sometimes they're so good at it, that the victim's ability to trust others AND trust their own gut never fully recovers. I would never have believed this level of psychological trauma and lying was possible until it happened to me and we really need to talk more about this. WW is an excellent tool for that!
Also having to keep telling them obv things like we can't use that Mastercard when there is a very good reason for not doing so and dismissing it as nagging is just tiring. You feel like you're babysitting instead of having a partner in life.
@@ariesa9751 I read that there's a term for that: weaponised incompetence. They're knowingly reckless but play it off as unconscious impulsivity to avoid taking responsibility, when they know full well they shouldn't be doing it.
I've had inklings of Walter's manipulation tactics bouncing around in my head, but I've never been able to completely grasp the language and philosophy of it until this video. Really good analysis on this video!
Good job covering so many things without spoiling, covering seasons without ruining curiosity for those who may not have seen it yet. Thank you, Just an Observation. Well done.
Great Video! I just found your channel today and subscribed! BB is one of my all-time favorite shows, mainly due to how truly fascinating Walt's character is from a purely scientific standpoint. Your ability to empathize with him from a human perspective in order to illustrate his motivations was very well done! I look forward to checking out more of your vids!
THAT is soooo right, yep, very very manipulative!!! Yeah I must say I was not on Walt's side for very long myself, and I had a LOT of arguments with my husband and friends who all kept defending him for many seasons even, whereas me I started hating him long before the end of the first season... hating him but LOVING the character that is!!!
The time it takes for a person to realize that Walter White is an evil person can show you what kind of person they really are. For me, it took to Jane's death to realize he was evil
I feel like it's hard to just call him evil because he's so much more than that. Evil is like Judge Holden or Eric Cartman. Many of Walt's worst actions are too complex when it comes to his motives behind it to be truly "evil" or make him some devil in human clothes. Things like him poisoning Brock are terrible but aren't pure evil because we know of the stakes there if he doesn't. Him letting Jane die is horrific, but we get his thought process, flawed as it may be. Many things he does are out of a mistaken form of self-preservation that he takes to the most ridiculous levels possible. So I'd say he isn't evil throughout the show, which is precisely what the final 3 episodes of the series offer. A glimpse into Walt's humanity once more@@chedder3390
what gets me is that according to the wiki, walt and gus only knew each other for around 75 days. may 1st 2009 was the day walt agreed to start cooking for gus, may 20th was gale’s death and the boxcutter scene (btw how fucked is victors death in retrospective) and gus dies july 15. 75 days. gus spent over 20 years building his empire and plotting his revenge and in little over 2 months its completely gone. walt spent more time on his own cooking in tents and houses than he did in the lab and he was only on gus’s good side for like 20 days before literally being on his shit list for the remainder.
at first I was like why would jesse switch up on gus after gus was actually starting to like jesse especially after jesse was indispensable during his revenge on the cartel? and why did mike never like walt? its because gus was only nice to jesse for like a month and like jesse said before all that, he was gonna get wasted in the desert cuz he was junkie garbage. mike just never liked walt but after only really knowing the guy for a a couple months and the guy blows up your entire secret operation that you had going for years all for what? pride? give me a break. the more the show is put into context as a 50 year old man with an enormous ego going on a 2 year bender and ruins everyone involved’s life.
Your terminology is brilliant and storytelling is magnificent. "Weaponized" and "Twisted" are some of the best uses of these words I've seen in a while. It all fit perfectly. Well done. I feel like Walter White and Emperor Palpatine have identical similarities.
I'm happy to see work from you again.. You always bring quality to it and it's a blast to listen to. 🤝 Great video about one of tv's most compelling creations.
Dude these videos are masterpieces. Every video (Especially the Breaking Bad ones) you do it's just an absolute amazing analysis and I love every second of it. I've re-watched Breaking Bad at least 5 times and 2 of those times were directly cause of your amazing videos.
I think it depends on the age/maturity of the audience (particularly the male audience). I was early 20s when the show came out and I could draw a chart of how my positive view of Walt declined over the subsequent years. At 37 now, I perceive him for what he is, and feel bad for Skyler especially. Back then, it was the opposite.
The audience think they have been manipulated into rooting for Walt. In reality people have been intentionally manipulated and gaslighted on a much deeper level. Most people see these stories as just harmless Hollywood entertainment, but it is not. It is well thought-out, deliberate social engineering and it's been going on since forever. Entire societies, even the entire world is shaped and moulded generation after generation by these evil spellcasters and everyone remains spellbound and totally oblivious of how every thought they have, every opinion and worldview has been purposefully implanted in their minds.
I disliked Walter from the start. It only es escalated as the show went on. The thing was even as awful as he was you still kinda were routing for him. Ultimately Jesse's journey to me was what the show was really about.
Great video! It blows my mind how far some people will go to defend Walt, but I have to wonder if some of those people have been manipulated in kind by real people in their lives, perhaps making it impossible for them to see the differences here.
It blows my mind, too. It's so often immature people who also think Skylar was in the wrong for her feelings surrounding all of Walts behavior while they root for Walt and justify his horrific behavior. Adults with the experience and social/emotional capacity of children.
I think people are mistaking defending morally terrible decisions for just liking him. You can like characters who do bad shit. He is very cool in his evil ways. Besides, he isn't a complete sociopath, he has humane parts of him even if its destroyed and overshadowed by ego. Remember... this is a tv show... it's meant to be enjoyed. And I enjoy seeing Walter manipulate people, cook meth, and combat people who are so much more experienced and healthy. I enjoy watching normal family stuff much less so.
I'm new to this channel and I love everything about it. And one of my favorite shows of all time. You broke everything about it down brilliantly and spot on! Thank you so much, this was awesome! xo
![รุ่นใหญ่ EP.2 บุกบ้าน เสรีพิศุทธ์ ระหว่าง บิ๊กต่อ กับ บิ๊กโจ๊ก อา รักใครมากกว่า ?? l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/j2inUqhN__0/mqdefault.jpg)
Walt was gaslighting, gatekeeping, girlbossing ahead of his time.
This deserves to be pinned, idc
Yeppers
None of those should be words.
wopsie
if you are describing girlboss as being a spiteful narcissistic POS, then yes. I agree.
The fact that in a show full of drug dealers, murderers and other criminals, the most hated character is a manipulated pregnant woman is simply hilarious
She was the final villian. Noticed she the only one that survived
Skyler became more sympathetic to me as the series progressed.
Well the most vile and inhumane scene of the show was her singing happy birthday 😂
I see two things here. She was a bit of a controlling nag, and that automatically gets under everyone's skin because we've all met someone like that, and we saw things through Walter's eyes. She thinks he's cheating, we know he's not, so she looks bad for accusing the protagonist of something he's not doing even though he's doing something much worse. Tony Soprano was a terrible person and yet we cheered him on because we also saw things through his eyes.
I actually understood her point of view much better when I watched the show a second time.
lmao never thought about it that way but honestly, in modern American Society, this doesn't surprise me AT ALL!!
Episode 1 is meant to make you sympathize with walter. The rest is a test of how long you're willing to stay with him
Copypaste
Episode 1 is meant to make you sympathize with walter. The rest is a test of how long you're willing to stay with him
Episode 1 is meant to make you sympathize with walter. The rest is a test of how long you're willing to stay with him
Episode 1 is meant to make you sympathize with walter. The rest is a test of how long you're willing to stay with him
Episode 1 is meant to make you sympathize with Walter. The rest is a test of how long you’re willing to stay with him
Walt was so manipulative he even managed to manipulate the fanbase into rooting for him.
Americans are very easily manipulated though. Look at trump
Bravo, Vince???
Or, some people are manipulated, while others understand reality, and as such are rooting for him up until that shit with Jane. The series is literally about how capitalism and prohibition are bad.
@@AholeAtheistdumbest analysis of Breaking Bad I've ever heard
@na6733starting to think these comments calling out bots are bots
Can't believe you didn't even mention when Walt refused to go go-karting with Jesse
The ultimate dick move
"Disgraceful!" "Disgusting!" "Despicable!" -Gordon, James, and Henry. Tidmouth Sheds, Tidmouth, Sodor, 1954
@@JustanObservation didn't he really have a meeting tho ? I think he did, the one with Saul and skyler about the carwash.
Breaking Bad is actually so funny. Walter White was so toxic that seasoned drug lords were like I cannot work with this man I have to put my mental health first
LOLLLLL right??
Sorry but thats a dumb take
@@m00nbutter7it’s a joke
@@MrGFloyd i dont believe you
Its a joke, and its funny, dont take everything serious on a constant information stream like the internet @@m00nbutter7
I will never be over how much he made Jesse suffer. Jesse is not an innocent baby but until the very end, he never wanted to hurt anyone and he was a lost guy who needed a dad figure. Walt did care for him but he manipulated and hurt him to get what he wanted. It broke my heart to see him so torn up and then being sold into slavery… so messed up. I was so happy when he got away
It's so satisfying but sad when Jesse clocks onto his schemes and manipulation techniques towards the end. Like Walt's fake 'Dad' speeches. It shows Walt didn't realise that Jesse developed so much as a person over their time together. The disrespect was palpable.
Jesse didn’t get away. Walt saved him.
He went back for him.
@@Dilmahkana
Jesse was a POS and a rat.
@wellthisisinteresting4912
Jesse made himself suffer.
Jesse was a POS and a rat.
Walter saved Jesse numerous times.
Jesse was an ungrateful POS and junkie.
@@goodmorningandgoodluck8613 Nah. Walt only killed Jack and his gang for killing Hank which was hypocritical since Walt was also responsible for his death by calling them to stop Hank arresting him.
It's cool how Walter also managed to gaslight the vast majority of the audience watching the show to turn on Skyler
Skylar is scum. The whole series is about how capitalism and prohibition are bad. She supports prohibition. She is scum. Walter becomes a bad person when he does what he does to Jane and Brock.
This! Amazing how the same audience can fall over themselves with sympathy for Saul who was fully capable of defending himself both physically and legally, and still have absolutely none for pregnant and vulnerable Skylar.
we just hate Skyler cuz she's inconsistent.
one episode, she is supporting Walt's meth business, then the next episode she does a complete 180 and hates it again.
Yet that isn't actually true. Her "inconsistency" makes perfect sense in-context to the show. It's why she does things like smoking when she's pregnant. Certainly not good, but it makes sense as to why she did it.
She joins Walt for a number of reasons, which make sense. It's not just some random retcon or inconsistency that came out of nowhere. The way her character is developed is consistent throughout the story
She's hated on because she's literally opposing Walter and feels "naggy" along with feeling like a hypocrite@@iguessimhere1
"erm actually that isn't true"🤓 @@hairyballs123
Fun Fact: Samuel L. Jackson showed up unannounced during filming on the Pollos Hermanos set one day, dressed in his Nick Fury outfit from The Avengers (2012). Both productions were happening on the same studio lot, and Jackson wanted to be an extra during the scene being filmed. The producers denied his request to appear as Nick Fury on the show.
That would’ve been stupid I’m ngl
He clarified this later in an Instagram post, he “just wanted to go into Hermanos & buy some chicken in the background of a scene as myself, but never got the time to do”
Samuel L Jackson should’ve played Tyrus
@@benbleyendaal4636 he definitely could've played the part at least as well as the actual actor but I think his fame would betray the role
We would have a half hour youtube video connecting the 2 universes
Listening to the portion on Jesse just breaks my heart. It was never more clear that he was trying to manipulate Jesse than the moment he wanted to leave the business.
The worst part of that dialogue for me was when he tells Jesse, “to do what? Oh that’s right. Video games and go karts.”
Not only does it imply that, to Walt, those are fruitless and meaningless activities, but Walt held onto those instances as future ammunition against Jesse. Jesse invited Walt to do those activities with him when they were still working for Gus.
Jesse wanted to do something fun outside of work with his partner, of which he refused, only to be attacked for wanting to do those things at all.
@@npineapple3077 walter literally poisoned a child to manipulate him and that's okay because he sold drugs? Also it was Walt who got Jesse to kill people.
Jesse has done terrible shit as well, but it's a case of lesser vs greater evil.
@@npineapple3077you obviously didn’t watch the show with a critical lense, yea man Jesse motivation was to play video games bro you nailed it 😂
It's truly showing the ruthlessness of Walt, and how I think that he always had this in him to some extent. To use genuinely friendly gestures and intentions as ammunition confirms this.
Wow. Even reading that made me feel for Jesse.
Sounds like my ex.
This is probably the best, most thought-out discussion on Walter white I’ve seen, putting real words and labels on previously abstract feelings. We knew he was manipulative, but it was hard to put a finger on his exact tactics. Well done.
Abstract?
@@movieman6456 yea abstract. Correctly labeling the blow-fish idea as a tactic of his was really well done, same with "completing the loop". It all happens subconsciously, but being able to label these tactics and point them out is a really great contribution I haven't seen done before in all the Walter white videos I've seen. Many other's stop at just calling him "manipulative" and nothing much deeper than that.
Wait this isn't a tutorial?
kid named finger
finger?
One of my favourite aspects of Walt's character is that he's an awful liar; it's always obvious *when* he's lying, but never entirely obvious to the other characters *why* he's lying. I remember reading that Cranston wasn't told that Walt did poison Brock until after filming the confrontation scene with Jesse, meaning that Cranston played that scene as if Walt was genuinely innocent. This was a brilliant move; Jesse had in fact figured Walt out (just getting the motivation wrong) and Walt finally managed to convincingly lie to Jesse at the very moment his life depended on it.
Wow that’s so cool I never knew that
he convinced me too
Even more, the video shows that is implied that Walt planned it to be like this
What is the most fascinating is that Walt is, while being an expert manipulator, actually a terrible liar. More times than Skylar or Jesse did not fully believed his lies, but they had to go along because they didn't have all the information and because of Walt's manipulation tactics as described they were described in this video. Skylar, on the other hand, is a master class in lying and coming up with a believable narrative, so much so, even Walt is deeply impressed by it. Which later he sees as an useful tool, of course.
Skylar isn't a 'good liar', she just has high social intelligence and actually knows, understands, and empathizes with the people they needed to lie to, namely her sister and brother in law, better than Walt understands or empathizes with most of the people he lies to. Agree that he's made to look like an awkward liar which tricks the audience into believing he must still be a 'good' person, because difficulty lying is usually associated with being a person of integrity. I think, in Walt's case, his awkwardness with lying is just indicative of his pathological self-centredness and lack of empathy rather than him having some kind of moral difficulty with lying.
@@a.r.8954Is Skyler a good liar or not? Because you say she's not, but then list like 3 attributes that should make of her an objectively good liar.
Exactly.@@Winter-Alpha-Omega
@@a.r.8954 You said that "his awkwardness with lying is just indicative of his pathological self-centeredness and lack of empathy rather than him having some kind of moral difficulty with lying", which is true, but I'm fairly certain the comment was talking about being a "good liar", which has very little to do with integrity. Being a good liar only refers to possessing the skills necessary to lie effectively, like the "high social intelligence", "sympathy", and the "lack of social awkwardness" you ascribe to Skylar.
@@a.r.8954so in other words she's a good liar.
I still can't believe that Walt committed such terrible crimes. Especially not going Go-Karting with Jesse
yea what an absolute asshole
the utter genius of the writing team to create such a deep and rich story is really incredible, this should be the standard that television should be nowadays. I cant wait to see what the next Breaking Bad will be.
not necessarily my favorite, but objectively maybe the best tv show ever made
it’s Succession
Better Fuck Chuck
If this becomes the standard, you wouldn't see more than few shows. Not everyone can make shits of these levels like how walter was the only 1 who could make 99.1% pure meth
BCS was the new BB which was the new Sopranos. The bar is set so incredibly high, I think we’re gonna’ be waiting a long time.
25:26 I never noticed, but this scene showing each of their faces obscured by shadows subtly showing that Walt and Gus are two sides of the same coin. Beautiful cinematography and subtle story design. Love it
... also forshadowing how gus will end
wow, that is a genius discovery. very cool.
@@ROCKLIKEACOBB More like genius filmmaking and cinematography lol but appreciate the comment 😊
But how do we know it's a coin. Why can't it be a mirror? Why can't it be a reflection from a bus window?
@@Levicandoit Wait until you think closer about the colors in Breaking Bad
Fantastic breakdown of Walt's manipulation. I would 100% watch a video detailing Mike's understanding of Walt as a manipulator since he is the only main character who never truly gets on board with any of Walt's behavior. It ultimately doesn't save Mike, since Walt is uncompromising when the coercion he's selling isn't being bought.
This is my own personal interpretation but Mike understood Walter because he knew that they where similar individuals, in the sense that they where both older men who got involved in the drug game for the sake of their families. The main difference being that Mike never forgot what he was doing and why. He was working exclusively for his granddaughters sake, so he was selfless despite that fact that he was technically committing crimes. Whereas Walter completely lost the plot and became increasingly selfish, and as someone who was in a similar position to him and could’ve gone down the same path, Mike saw that in Walter and actively tried to check it.
@@cannakage7114 Also has never been pridefull or ambitious in that sense, he literally just was traumatized by the murder of his son and wanted to secure the future of his remaining family at any cost, but he never did it for showing it off or to feel superior.
@@Burning_flames9999 and that’s what made Mike a superior man to Walter. Honestly both gus and Mike where perfect foils to Walter. Gus represented the ideal that walt aspired to, while Mike represented the kind of person Walter could’ve became if still got into the drug game but didn’t give into his greed, another ideal that I feel Walter initially aspired to.
@@cannakage7114 Actually yeah, as Gus was not your typical "tough guy" like Hank (which Walt felt inferior to for this and other reasons) but he was a serious and respected business man. And well, Mike is evident when you compare how his actions affected his family vs Walt´s lol. Jesus, the fact that we can talk about them as characters in a book or a videogame and that matches the perception of what Walt would´ve like to have from them makes his narcicism more evident, as he mostly wanted status for the status itself, not for what was happening behind the scenes, "the EMPIRE" lets say.
One of the most fun parts about Breaking Bad and Walter's character as a whole is watching him lie so effortlessly yet so believably, and how it only prolongs his inevitable downfall.
He lied really badly, especially to his wife.
Is it a downfall though? In season 1, he thinks he’s going to die, and wants to leave money for his family. By the end of season 5, he’s accomplished that before he dies, and even took all his enemies with him. Seems like more of a win than a loss
@@kendawgthemasterdude Having your brother in law murdered, your wife and son hating you, yeah, real winner.
It's actually scary how many people identify with Walt and think he's the good guy of the series.
People that are emotionally immature. I used to think he was cool when I was 19. 10 years later I think hes miserable
Even before the events of the show, Walter lied to Skyler and said the reason he left Grey Matter and made their lives and their unborn son's future life more financially difficult and more financially insecure was because Elliot and Gretchen cut him out, rather than the real reason which was that he left because he felt inadequate around Gtetchen's family's wealth because he has a superiority/inferiority kind of complex and because he is a narcissist who can't stand not being the most capable person in the room in order to get sympathy, understanding, and zero judgment and zero chance of protestation from Skyler. He was always manipulative and selfish even long, long before his cancer diagnosis. Even when he was a mere 6 years old he believed his father to be weak, pathetic, miserable, and deserving of his slow, suffering, painful death for being weak for being incapable of ensuring he wasn't born with wonky genes. Even as a 6 year old facing down the death of his own father through no fault of his father's he looks at any signs of weakness with disdain. That is his true self coming out. We think that he is a decent but overly passive person at the start of episode 1, but very early on we learn of his spiteful envy towards Elliott and Gretchen and we realise he has always been spiteful, envious, manipulative, and selfish, he just became passive due to becoming apathetic due to his life going nowhere and becoming disinterested and losing any future prospects. He basically only initially decided to not just give up and die to provide for his family until he got into it too much and started doing it for himself for selfish reasons. Every single time he gives an overly windy long speech we initially think he is just giving people a pep talk in order to psych them up and give them the motivation that they need to do what must be done, but then we eventually come to realise that he withholds a lot of information and lies to people, and that he is actually just behaving totally manipulatively. The way he uses Skyler's fear of him to manipulate her in the first half of season 5 is just downright sickening and nauseating. Same with the way he talks Jesse up in order to get him back into cooking and casually converses with him about his future prospects with Andrea and Brock even after knowing full well he deliberately poisoned Brock, an innocent child, hospitalising him and putting him at risk of potentially dying, without a care in the world just completely detached is also very sickening and vexing. I still felt sympathies for Walter for some of the things that happen to him, but as far as his plight for getting money for his family goes, I quickly lost all sympathy for that plight of his when Elliot offered him a position at Grey Matter before straight up offering to pay for his treatment and Walter turned it down because he said that he was far too prideful to accept "charity" as if charity is a grave sin yet making drugs and killing children like Drew and almost Brock are way better morally. At that point I was fully against Walter. And that was all the way back in season one.
Walter isn’t an excellent liar. Everybody calls him out on it. He always constantly gets called out on it. Everybody can tell when he is lying to them. Jesse knows that Walter is manipulating him, and Skyler in the earlier seasons keeps calling him out on his bullshit and keeps demanding to know the actual truth, before eventually finally managing to find out that he is a drug dealer by figuring it out on her own. Every single time he tries to lie, nobody believes him. It almost starts to become a way to have plausible deniability to basically plant your feet and refuse to tell the truth without admitting that is what you’re doing even when both you and the other person knows that’s what you’re doing because being overly open and honest about that would be far too brazen and having plausible deniability at least lets you pretend to play dumb and not know what the other person is talking about or what they’re trying to accuse you of or why they’re accusing you. It’s, like, “swallow my lies even though we both know that I’m lying because I’m not going to give you the truth no matter what, so deal with it.”
thank god.. someone with a brain
The times he was caught lying was more like "you've done this shit so many times before I'm not falling for it" rather than walt inheritly being a bad liar
@sabertoothtooth2572
Walter is good at coming up with lies, but he's bad at selling them. And it's not because Bryan Cranston is a bad actor because when Walter is telling the truth, Bryan Cranston is extremely convincing, it's only when Walter is lying it's obvious. Even the bit when Walter is telling Jesse that Gus is the one who poisoned Brock is obvious lying in hindsight when you go back with the foreknowledge of Walter's lies and deceit. Bryan Cranston is that good that he is able to convincingly act both a character telling the truth and a character lying without their lying being unrealistically over the top, just very realistic, especially for a pathological liar that doesn't bat an eyelid whenever they're telling lies nor even considers manipulating wrong for a single second even before the much worse moral decay over the course of the show.
@@sabertoothtooth2572 he breaks the cardinal rule of convincing lies: spare unnecessary detail. his long ramblings give him away
TLDR
30:34 this goes into a phrase I use in my own story. "Good can triumph over evil, But. It truly takes a Monster to understand the Monster."
This is why Gus and Walter were such great foils for each other, as they were both the same kind of Monster.
If you aren’t a monster you’re food, anybody who gives 2 💩 about themselves is a monster
@draco747 not anymore, we have created nice padded societies where people can go about their social lives without much concern for their safety or need to hurt others. Most people only hurt others for their own gain or out of their selfishness, people who hurt others for no reason are generally sociopaths/psychopaths and even then a lot of them don't really care to because it makes more problems for them than its worth. You dont have to be a monster to survive anymore, but we still need monsters to keep other monsters away from the door.
@@erickane8163 It ain’t about surviving anymore, like you said, it’s really about trying to live life at its peak & that can birth the same kind of monster in its own right. You see it everyday still it’s just more discrete than usual crime 🤷.
Huh?? Gus was a measured and composed Machiavellian with some genuine compassion while Walt was a raving Narcissist starved for validation.
> insert the "we are not the same" meme here.
@@Thriving_in_Exile Man the concept of a foil went over your head there didn't it.
Gus and Walt are like batman and the Joker. Cleary there not the same.
But at the end of the day Bruce Wayne does dress up like a giant bat and beats up criminals. Thats not sane.
The Only thing Gus and Walter have in common is there both Monsters. It took a Monster, Walter. To take out another Monster, Gus.
I never did and never will understand the hate for Skyler. She genuinely loved Walt and was, as explained in this video, completely manipulated and gaslit. I think that people who have been through abuse like this can see where Skyler is coming from and understand her reactions and feelings. She's an extremely strong female character that I really resonated with, because if my spouse was doing those things to me, I know I'd probably have a lot of the same reactions she did.
No Skyler didn’t love Walt. If she did she wouldn’t have continually been a bitch to him and wouldn’t have cheated on him.
The only time I really loved skylers character was when she told Jesse to look into a different career besides selling drugs the rest she was kinda mid or outright annoying
i like skyler and i think shes a great character, but shes also a pretty fucking bad person, obv not as bad as walter but shes still pretty bad
@@bitterman7258Walt Jr. called it straight she’s just as bad if she went along with it
You'd fuck Ted?
Breaking Bad already was my favorite series of all time, yet videos like these always surprise me with how much nuance and quality there is
If you see ANY interview of Vicent he maintains that he is 100% dumbfounded about people's passion of Walter.
They wrote him as unlikable as possible and commits so many crimes and still so many dudes root for him, no matter what.
He said that one of the biggest reasons os Bryan Cranston's acting. Bryan is SO good that he was able to charm dudes into thinking that his vicious acts were okay
hes a man so hes “badass” him good skylar bad is all those idiots can come up with lol
you ever hear of the joker? travis bickle? eric cartman?
Not just dudes, womens too
People like an incredibly well written character with a great story? What a shocker
@@randomusername3873 thats not the point, You can like walters character and still point out his very flawed way of living.
My point is im talking specifically about people who idolize him while hating on skylar when hes MUCH worse. It has nothing to do with the way a character or story is written.
I’d like to point out that whenever Walt is telling a lie he also exhibits body language of a liar too for example giving an answer where you would expect him to be nodding his head but instead he’s shaking it. It’s masterful
Love how this is organized w the “ladder” image. Makes it really fun to watch.
The scariest thing about Walter White isn't his intelligence or how far he falls from grace over the course of Breaking Bad, but how he was just waiting for the right opportunity (i.e cancer) to act upon his worst impulses which becomes all the more obvious upon a second viewing.
I don’t think he was waiting for a chance to do what he did, but just kind of fell into it. The decades of being disrespected, broke, and powerless caused him to lose faith in the traditional system of morality and law we all follow.He wanted to feel competent, free, and powerful like he used to in his past, and unfortunately that desire led him down one of the worst paths imaginable.
He was always an arrogant ass
How do you know he was waiting for the cancer to become a bad person? The few flashbacks we see before his cancer (his scene with Gretchen, him buying the house with Skylar) indicate nothing of the sort.
I think the realization that his life was ending combined with his impotent rage to create a truly terrifying monster.
Remember a strong man well respected acts with clemency and decency having had their power and their goodness respected all their life. A wicked strong man with means and power acts with it and reveals his true face so for what reason would he have to deceive. A powerful and competent man showing restraint in anger is admirable for he truly has the power to destroy and harm people.
A weak man has been questioned ridiculed and held back by the notions of a society that hates weak men and gives them neither respect or honor. A weak man who thinks himself great is the most dangerous of all. For we all have the power to deceive and even a weak man can thrust a dagger true. I fear not the powerful, but the weak for the weak are inclined to bury their grievances, and a grievance planted in the mind only grows to hatred well watered by the transgressions of others.
Walt is such a man he has had his grievances and envy and hate grow over time to bear the fruit of cunning and evil. He drinks from the well of power and fairly soon has a taste of power and money. A man familiar with the taste of both would know to sip lightly for fear of drowning, but walt has tasted neither riches nor power although he was once with in sight of them both. He is so parched so denied even a drop of either, lost in a desert of failure tortured by the memory of success squandered that when he first drinks a drop he cannot stop. No power on earth save his death will prevent him from drinking his fill, even when he drinks so deep and so long that he makes himself sick he simply wipes off his mouth and comes back for more.
@@emperortgp2424 Actually if you really think about it, in that house buying scene a few things were already off. His grandiose sense of importance slips out when he tells Skyler they'll need a larger house because he wants to have several children. Watch her reaction closely, it sounds like they had never talked about something like that prior and she didn't seem to want such a large family for herself. Walt already had big dreams, wanted more, and wasn't so much asking his wife's opinion on that as he was subtly hinting that to her. There's some trace if resentment for how he looked down on his life and accomplishments up until that point.
i love that the climax of the entire show was Jesse denying Walt what he wanted, it meant more to him to show Walt and himself that he wasn't going to be manipulated anymore, than to actually be the one to kill him. Amazing show.
the amount of relief and happiness just seeing this thumbnail brought me so much happiness
Incredible analysis of such a dark, manipulative, and complex character. And yet despite how terrible a human being Walt/Heisenberg is, he’s so manipulative that you, as the viewer, are still somewhat behind him. By the time the end of the 5th season rolls around, you’re meant to cheer Walt on as he takes out the neo-Nazis. Such an incredible show. Bravo to your analysis!
LOL. I mean, of course you are, they're neo-Nazis. Also, the show is about how capitalism and prohibition are bad. Nota single mention of this in the whole video. It's such a bad analysis I'm thinking of unsubscribing.
To be fair, I think that has more to do with the fact that THEIR Neo-Nazis.
The writers basically do the same trick with The Salamanca & Gus (intentionally pitting Walt against someone whose
more immoral than him, so he ends up looking like the "good guy").
BTW, writers originally considered having Walt mow down a bunch of cops at the end, before realizing it went too far.
Them all dying together was fitting. They were versions of each other.
Bravo Vince, a once in a lifetime screenwriter.
So glad he invented New Mexico and chicken, plus the colour purple so Marie could put all them purple blouses on her scrawny ass.
The audience think they have been manipulated into rooting for Walt. In reality people have been intentionally manipulated and gaslighted on a much deeper level. Most people see these stories as just harmless Hollywood entertainment, but it is not. It is well thought-out, deliberate social engineering and it's been going on since forever.
Entire societies, even the entire world is shaped and moulded generation after generation by these evil spellcasters and everyone remains spellbound and totally oblivious of how every thought they have, every opinion and worldview has been purposefully implanted in their minds.
the dude's a masterclass liar in all except one major thing: *actually building back trust*.
it's a long-term failure caused by a lack of real emotions and real empathy for people that ends up losing him everything.
Walt fully understands manipulation and using people's emotions, but ironically it's his lack of humanity that ends up coming back to haunt him the most. he can never properly gauge the actual damage he's causing and just the sheer rate at which he's losing people's trust and love for him with each consecutive lie.
when's a time you actually remember Walt taking Skylar out to eat or for a vacation or literally anything when it isn't directly following a lie?
when's a time you actually remember Walt appreciating Jesse and caring for him in a meaningful way outside of the confines of his endless manipulation?
the reason everyone eventually turns on him is because they can see he's a compulsive manipulator even when he has these amazing elaborate stories anyone logically "should" believe.
You're not just analyzing this you're a freaking genius bro.
Never understood why people hated Skyler so much.
Sure, she was annoying and bothersome, but then we have people like Tuco, the Salamanca twins, Héctor, Gus Fring, the one who tortured Jesse and killed Andrea (I believe Todd was his name?), etc.
Watching people hate her so much when I pitied her powerlessness most of the time was interesting.
But at least Anna was hella praised for her role.
Normal fans of the show find Walt an interesting character but don't justify his actions. But some of the fanboys think they have to defend him to find his character interesting.
The evil characters you listed were presented as obvious evil characters, no explanation or justification need, and that means there is no need for a discussion where people can be very opinionated and emotional. On the other hand, Skyler is somewhat of a gray character.
She was against Walt cooking meth which is a reasonable response to a socially shunned illegal activity, but on the other hand she refused to recognize Walt's equally reasonable response to what is essentially a death sentence, which is to secure the future of his family, at least financially. This fact is made worse by her hypocrisy helping Ted commit tax fraud and sleeping with him at the same time. She also smoked when she was still pregnant with holly.
Skyler is not a consistently good person, and in some fucked up way that is worse than being a consistently bad person.
@@excalibro8365 Cooking meth isn't a reasonable response to getting cancer. Walt became a drug dealer for the money for himself, the power and because he liked being feared as Heisenberg. The "I'm doing it so my family's OK when I die" was an excuse.
@@excalibro8365the tax fraud was specifically to keep the IRS at bay; she was Ted’s accountant and they would have investigated her which would put her family at risk. And she did not have some hot and heavy affair behind Walt’s back. She had filed for divorce and he refused to leave. She slept with Ted in order to push Walt away which is why she TOLD HIM IMMEDIATELY! Yes, she smoked while pregnant. Holly was still born healthy.
Skyler is not inconsistent. She was only ever motivated to do as much damage control as possible and did the best she could with the information she had, which was constantly changing and never included the full facts of the situation. A situation she didn’t choose to be in; had she had a choice, none of it would have ever happened in the first place.
It is odd how tightly people hold onto the “sins” that you mentioned, disregard the context of her actions, and try to stretch them into something that resembles a villainy that is “almost as bad” as Walt’s. How much people minimize the fact that Walt forced her into the situation but get butthurt anytime she tries to cope and/or problem solve in ways that aren’t centered around Walt’s preferences. How high people’s standards are for the level of perfection she has to attain in order to be considered a victim. How people can watch every episode, see exactly what she was put through, and and get so annoyed (or even enraged) that she isn’t somehow “being better.”
I'll never understand the arguments that people like villains more than her
Like of course, the crazy druglords are more interesting than skylar. They are also presented as clearly evil and obstacles to overcome
And people generally enjoy villains more
This is a very impressive and nuanced analysis that is beautifully constructed. Really top work!
Honestly, Jessee is the best character in the show
I felt so bad for him throughout the entire time
Walter ruined not only Jessee's life, but also EVERYTHING he held dear to him throughout the show
walter didnt ruin jesses like.
sayingthat is completely ignoring the entirety of jesses ark
Brian Cranston. Love him in Breaking Bad and Malcom in the Middle. What an actor! I will watch anything he is in.
A great Lyndon Johnson in All the Way
Try Your Honor and the Upside, he was great in those as well
He's back! 🎉 Missed your vids dude!
So great that you're back ! We surely missed your astuteness. Awesome video, i can't even Begin to imagine the amount of work (and rewatch) behind it. Congrats !
I came into Breaking Bad late and never saw Walt as a "badass". I'm glad this reading is becoming much more common.
Same, and it's not fair on Bryan's acting chops. He played the gaslighter SO well it's eerie how it swayed that original fanbase
@@iloveyoubigmantyrone5609 Oh for sure, every time he uses that slimey fake caring tone of voice when manipulating Jesse I just wanted to punch him in the mouth. That's good acting lol.
I thought Walter was the shit at first , but I was younger and appreciated how clever he was. Now that I’m older and watching the series 2-3 times , Walter is really disgusting. His manipulation tactics are brilliant yet psychotic
@@iloveyoubigmantyrone5609 he doesn't need to gaslight anyone. just the fact that he makes redditors like you go mad would be enough to love him. everything else (like forming a drug empire) is a bonus
Same, I watched it in 2021 and I was sympathetic to Walt, but I completely understood where Skylar was coming from. And that was the first season lmao. It's baffling to me that so many people idolize Walt and demonize Skylar when that's clearly not what the show was going for...
Thank you for calling emotional manipulation viz Walter and Skyler for what it is - abuse. Unless you have been on the end of someone who can lie and manipulate like this, it's difficult to understand the impact it has on the victim's psyche. You begin doubting your own instincts, your memory, and your ability to defend yourself. You don't know which way is north on your moral compass. You begin to think your entirely justified anger and suspicion is actually YOUR character fault, rather than a healthy and normal reaction to the abusive behaviour of someone you trust. Eventually you begin to question if you're actually going crazy, they can be so effective at convincing you that something you can see with your own two eyes, isnt' really there. When there are no physical marks left behind, other people can even start to think YOU actually the problem - while the abuser stands by looking sane, saying "see how she is?", neglecting to mention everything leading up to your "overreaction".
To deliberately manipulate someone who trusts you into doubting what they can see in front of them, is one of the most insidious and evil abuses there is. Sometimes they're so good at it, that the victim's ability to trust others AND trust their own gut never fully recovers. I would never have believed this level of psychological trauma and lying was possible until it happened to me and we really need to talk more about this. WW is an excellent tool for that!
Also having to keep telling them obv things like we can't use that Mastercard when there is a very good reason for not doing so and dismissing it as nagging is just tiring. You feel like you're babysitting instead of having a partner in life.
@@ariesa9751 I read that there's a term for that: weaponised incompetence. They're knowingly reckless but play it off as unconscious impulsivity to avoid taking responsibility, when they know full well they shouldn't be doing it.
Thanks for this comment.
Always feels reassuring to hear it put into words.
A master class video of a legendary topic. *Well done sir.* I love deep dives and psychology and you absolutely did an excellent job! ❤
I've never encountered a breakdown so thorough and all-encompassing... well done. Subscribed.
I've had inklings of Walter's manipulation tactics bouncing around in my head, but I've never been able to completely grasp the language and philosophy of it until this video. Really good analysis on this video!
Wow
That’s high quality content.
The narrative, the editing, the analyse…
I’m entertained and impressed
ive been waiting months for the next upload! so happy to see you uploading again, can't wait to watch!!
A NEW VIDEO!!! FUCKING FINALLY!!
Glad that you're back! Your videos are fantastic, without exception.
This is one of the best TH-cam videos I've ever seen. So fascinating, and your editing and choice of clips is inspired!
Good job covering so many things without spoiling, covering seasons without ruining curiosity for those who may not have seen it yet. Thank you,
Just an Observation. Well done.
You really are a brilliant content creator. Every show you cover I end up liking more
I love your video essays so much, it provides different perspectives of the character
Bro just gave one of the greatest comeback
Great video! Love how you used the ladder as a guide to the levels of manipulation
So happy to see that you posted a new breaking bad video. Thanks and greatings from Germany.
Brian Cranston featuring in the ad for this video was just too real for me
the king of character analysis is back
Great content as always. This is the best channel analyzing movies and series and I mean it. Chapeau bas.
I thouroughly enjoyed this breakdown, it's crazy how much thought went into the character development on a psychological level! Great job!
Welcome back, Pete... Thanks for the video 👍
Great Video! I just found your channel today and subscribed!
BB is one of my all-time favorite shows, mainly due to how truly fascinating Walt's character is from a purely scientific standpoint.
Your ability to empathize with him from a human perspective in order to illustrate his motivations was very well done! I look forward to checking out more of your vids!
Wow, welcome back!
Great to see you back. Brilliant work!
Woohoo you're back! Thanks for returning with a great long form video. Excited to see what else you come up with this year.
Amazing video, one of the best on breaking bad. Take a bow sir as i know this must have been a long project.
One of the best videos I’ve seen in a while, greatest yt scrip ever 🙏🙏
What a great video. I applaud you sir for the work you put it making this. Keep up the good work my dude. 👍👍👏
This was REALLY great! Friggin love this analysis, thank you!
THAT is soooo right, yep, very very manipulative!!! Yeah I must say I was not on Walt's side for very long myself, and I had a LOT of arguments with my husband and friends who all kept defending him for many seasons even, whereas me I started hating him long before the end of the first season... hating him but LOVING the character that is!!!
Your husband liked him ?? holy red flag
@@rishaa682 😂😂Ex!! 😂 I'd say he was VERY slow to wake up to Walt, kept believing his bullshit justifications, but so did everyone I know!!🤷🏻♀
The time it takes for a person to realize that Walter White is an evil person can show you what kind of person they really are. For me, it took to Jane's death to realize he was evil
I sincerely hope you got out of that relationship, sounds like he let his mask slip and showed you the real him.
I feel like it's hard to just call him evil because he's so much more than that. Evil is like Judge Holden or Eric Cartman. Many of Walt's worst actions are too complex when it comes to his motives behind it to be truly "evil" or make him some devil in human clothes. Things like him poisoning Brock are terrible but aren't pure evil because we know of the stakes there if he doesn't. Him letting Jane die is horrific, but we get his thought process, flawed as it may be. Many things he does are out of a mistaken form of self-preservation that he takes to the most ridiculous levels possible.
So I'd say he isn't evil throughout the show, which is precisely what the final 3 episodes of the series offer. A glimpse into Walt's humanity once more@@chedder3390
what gets me is that according to the wiki, walt and gus only knew each other for around 75 days. may 1st 2009 was the day walt agreed to start cooking for gus, may 20th was gale’s death and the boxcutter scene (btw how fucked is victors death in retrospective) and gus dies july 15. 75 days. gus spent over 20 years building his empire and plotting his revenge and in little over 2 months its completely gone. walt spent more time on his own cooking in tents and houses than he did in the lab and he was only on gus’s good side for like 20 days before literally being on his shit list for the remainder.
at first I was like why would jesse switch up on gus after gus was actually starting to like jesse especially after jesse was indispensable during his revenge on the cartel? and why did mike never like walt? its because gus was only nice to jesse for like a month and like jesse said before all that, he was gonna get wasted in the desert cuz he was junkie garbage. mike just never liked walt but after only really knowing the guy for a a couple months and the guy blows up your entire secret operation that you had going for years all for what? pride? give me a break. the more the show is put into context as a 50 year old man with an enormous ego going on a 2 year bender and ruins everyone involved’s life.
Your terminology is brilliant and storytelling is magnificent. "Weaponized" and "Twisted" are some of the best uses of these words I've seen in a while. It all fit perfectly. Well done. I feel like Walter White and Emperor Palpatine have identical similarities.
Thank god I was missing a Just an Observation Breaking Bad video for a long time.
This was the first time I've watched your content. Great job, kept me engaged from start to finish, I'll definitely watch again.
He has returned from silence!!! Glad to see a new video after a long time.
I'm happy to see work from you again.. You always bring quality to it and it's a blast to listen to. 🤝 Great video about one of tv's most compelling creations.
Thank you for this amazing breakdown. Fantastic work!
Love this channel, I get so excited when there is a new vid. Another amazing analysis.
This is truly outstanding work! Bravo!
Glad to see you back!!!
loved it! the amount of research you put into making this videos is insane!
Dude these videos are masterpieces. Every video (Especially the Breaking Bad ones) you do it's just an absolute amazing analysis and I love every second of it. I've re-watched Breaking Bad at least 5 times and 2 of those times were directly cause of your amazing videos.
The king of cinema video essays is BACK!
Ive never seen a fanbase thats been so thoroughly manipulated by the protagonist like breaking bad's fanbase.
...That's a pillar of fiction.
@@andrelavandero3041 🙄
I think it depends on the age/maturity of the audience (particularly the male audience). I was early 20s when the show came out and I could draw a chart of how my positive view of Walt declined over the subsequent years. At 37 now, I perceive him for what he is, and feel bad for Skyler especially. Back then, it was the opposite.
The audience think they have been manipulated into rooting for Walt. In reality people have been intentionally manipulated and gaslighted on a much deeper level. Most people see these stories as just harmless Hollywood entertainment, but it is not. It is well thought-out, deliberate social engineering and it's been going on since forever.
Entire societies, even the entire world is shaped and moulded generation after generation by these evil spellcasters and everyone remains spellbound and totally oblivious of how every thought they have, every opinion and worldview has been purposefully implanted in their minds.
I disliked Walter from the start. It only es escalated as the show went on. The thing was even as awful as he was you still kinda were routing for him. Ultimately Jesse's journey to me was what the show was really about.
This is my new favorite channel of the year! You make great content that is an absolute treat to digest.
Great job man, I really enjoyed the whole video
Best in depth Walter White analysis on TH-cam 👍🏻
Love the video. Thank you for your insight.
Long time no see.. and you come back with a banger... Love to see it
Great video bro! This is the best analysis of Walter White I've ever seen!
Happy New Year and welcome back. Great analysis as usual.
Great to see you back !!
I absolutely love this well thought out, detailed analysis, and I absolutely LOVE your channel!!!!!!! Thank you!
Glad you are back
Great video! It blows my mind how far some people will go to defend Walt, but I have to wonder if some of those people have been manipulated in kind by real people in their lives, perhaps making it impossible for them to see the differences here.
It blows my mind, too. It's so often immature people who also think Skylar was in the wrong for her feelings surrounding all of Walts behavior while they root for Walt and justify his horrific behavior. Adults with the experience and social/emotional capacity of children.
@@meowmachine9147Walter is evil , skyler is annoying, I’d rather choose evil than annoying
I don't see people defending Walt. I see more people whining about people defending Walt.
@@emperortgp2424 I see both. But I already understand my perspective 😉
I think people are mistaking defending morally terrible decisions for just liking him. You can like characters who do bad shit. He is very cool in his evil ways. Besides, he isn't a complete sociopath, he has humane parts of him even if its destroyed and overshadowed by ego. Remember... this is a tv show... it's meant to be enjoyed. And I enjoy seeing Walter manipulate people, cook meth, and combat people who are so much more experienced and healthy. I enjoy watching normal family stuff much less so.
bro all your videos slap so good :)... Keep it up... I really appreciate them...
I reallt do love your vids man, thanks for all the hard work
I'm new to this channel and I love everything about it. And one of my favorite shows of all time. You broke everything about it down brilliantly and spot on! Thank you so much, this was awesome! xo
Thank you very much!
Excellent video as always. Keep up the great work.
Man this was a great tutorial, thank you for this 🙏
Really well made video! Slick visuals and great production 🎉
Definitely the best analysis of Walter White's lying and manipulation tactics in Breaking Bad. Keep up the good work!