Breaking Bad/Characters: Difference between revisions

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Thinks he's this and does pull off a pretty round of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] against Gus in the season 3 finale but is at a loss for what his next move is. {{spoiler|Until the season 4 finale, that is.}}

* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: Of Mike's monologue in "Half Measures".

** {{spoiler|Also in "Salud" to Walt Jr. - he lies that he's back into gambling to explain his injuries.}}

* [[Consummate Liar]]

* [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]]: Inverted. He made barely anything legally, holding a job at a high school.

* [[Dare to Be Badass]]: To Jesse. "Jesse, look at me, you are a blowfish."

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Sometimes to excess.

* [[Justified Criminal]]: Possibly a deconstruction as it's slowly being shown that his actions have far reaching consequences that he couldn't imagine.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|Letting Jane die and arguably ordering Gale's death though that was for survival. The way he treats Jesse in Season 4. Using his neighbor as potential hitman fodder. Poisoning a little boy. The [[Kick the Dog]] moments are coming far more frequently as the show goes along.}}

* [[Laughing Mad]]: An epic instance at the end of "Crawl Space".

* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: Walter's brain seems to work best when he is in mortal danger. Practically every brilliant gambit he comes up with is created when (sometimes literally) looking into the barrel of a gun.

* [[Playing Sick]]: His {{spoiler|fugue state}} in season 2.

* [[Pride]]: Walt's biggest failing. The whole source of this mess even beyond his cancer. If not for his pride, he would have been a rich and successful, award-winning chemist, and none of the events of the show would ever have happened.

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: In season 4. He deduces a lot of things around Jesse's work with Mike, but he's too unhinged to use the clues to his advantage, though.

* [[The Quiet One]]: Walt starts out as a man of few words and even fewer actions, but subverts this later on when he becomes comfortable with his new lifestyle.

'''[[Secret Identity|Heisenberg]]:''' Fulminated mercury... a little tweak of chemistry. }}

* [[Secret Identity]]: His Heisenberg persona that he uses to sell meth.

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: What the title of the series refers to though he doesn't really make it all the way there until the end of season 4 when {{spoiler|he out gambits Gus.}}

* [[True Companions]]: With Jesse, despite the fact that they have sometimes violent disagreements and {{spoiler|at least one major rift in season 4}}.

* [[Hidden Depths]]: Is surprisingly kindhearted.

* [[The Igor]]

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Subverted. Was originally supposed to die in episode 9, but has sticked around for the rest of the series.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: He can be either depending on the relationship, as he acts as the blue oni to Badger and Skinny Pete and the red oni to Walt.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: "It's totally Kafkaesque, yo."

* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Becomes one once he makes catching the elusive "Heisenberg" his goal; unusually for this trope, he's unaware that the [[Villain Protagonist]] he's pursuing is [[Hidden Villain|right under]] [[Devil in Plain Sight|his nose]].

* [[Hidden Depths]]: For the first season Hank seems mostly to be a textbook [[Boisterous Bruiser]] but in season 2 {{spoiler|after he kills Tuco}} we begin to see that Hank secretly feels a lot of anxiety and fear about his job.

* [[Nice Guy]]: By Season 4, He has evolved to be possibly the only genuinely likeable main character on the show.

* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: {{spoiler|Gives one to Jesse in season 3.}}

* [[N-Word Privileges]]: Tends to assume he has them with his Hispanic colleagues, which is one thing that makes him [[Jerkass|so obnoxious]].

* {{spoiler|[[Critical Existence Failure]]: One can be pretty sure getting half of your face blown off counts.}}

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: He's consistently at least one step ahead of Walter throughout season 4, anticipating and countering every attempted power play Walter makes. {{spoiler|In the end he finally [[Genre Blind|slips]] [[Out-Gambitted|up]] however}}.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Invoked in "Full Measures" when he insists he would never order the death of a child. {{spoiler|Subverted. He later threatens to kill Walt's entire family including his son and his infant daughter.}}

* [[Evil Gloating]]: Generally he's too [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|cautious and smart]] to indulge in it; the one exception is his propensity for psychologically torturing the mute and crippled Hector. {{spoiler|This proves to be [[Fatal Flaw|the weakness]] that allows Walter to [[Flaw Exploitation|finally get the better of him]].}}

* {{spoiler|[[Facial Horror]]: Walks away after an explosion and straightens his tie with ''half his face blown off'' right before he dies.}}

* [[Fake Nationality]]: The character at least claims to be from Chile; Giancarlo Esposito is half African-American, half Italian, and though his Spanish is very good he doesn't sound like a native speaker.

* [[Gut Feeling]]: Has a very good sense for when he's in danger, occasionally bordering on [[Spider Sense]] territory. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for him it fails him at the worst possible time, resulting in his death.}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Possibly his ordering the death of {{spoiler|Tomas}} though its never explicitly said that he did. Definitely his threat to Walt that {{spoiler|he would murder his entire family including his infant daughter}} should Walt interfere with {{spoiler|Hank's murder.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}

* [[Machiavelli Was Wrong]]: Gus refuses to use the threat of the Cousins coming after Walt in order to scare him into working for him stating that "I don't believe fear to be an effective motivator." {{spoiler|Subverted in season 4 where he's not above doing things like brutally murdering his own henchman or threatening to kill Walt's family in order to keep Walt in line.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Perfect Poison]]}}: Uses the same bottle of tequila {{spoiler|to dispatch Don Eladio and all his captains at once}}.

* [[The Quiet One]]: Is very soft spoken, calm and collected even in the most stressful situations.

* [[Rule of Cool]]: {{spoiler|His death scene is this trope in full force.}}

* [[The Stoic]]

** Taken to [[Up to Eleven]] when {{spoiler|he calmly walks away from an explosion with half his face blown off and even straightens his tie before falling over dead.}}

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Suffers a brief, almost non-verbal one when it dawns on him that {{spoiler|Hector has drawn him into a trap. Esposito [[Incredibly Lame Pun|goes out with a bang]] by conveying Gus' rapid transition from [[Evil Gloating|triumph]] to [[Didn't See That Coming|confusion]] to [[Oh Crap|shock]] to [[Despair Event Horizon|terror]] with nothing more than facial expressions and a single scream.}}

* {{spoiler|[[You Have Failed Me]]: Initially he appears to be a nicer, stabler person than other druglords Walt and Jesse have encountered, but when Victor screws up and is seen leaving Gale's apartment after possibly leaving evidence there, he shows himself to be just as willing as Tuco to violently dispose of an employee who has become a liability.}}

** {{spoiler|He almost recites this trope word for word when he fires Walt, who (albeit unwillingly) led Hank to the laundromat.}}

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Frequently makes brief appearances in episodes and his lengthy monologue in "Half Measures" is definitely this trope.

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]

* [[Start of Darkness]]: Described to Walt in the episode "Half Measure". Mike used to be a cop. He once gave a repeatedly abusive husband an intimidating warning rather than killing him. Later on the man beat his wife to death and that's when Mike decided to never take a half measure again.

* [[The Stoic]]: Mike's too world-weary to get worked up over anything. He reacts to most problems with mild irritation.

* [[Antagonistic Offspring]]: Its revealed he stole and sold his mother's RV to Jesse. She knew and didn't report it to the police.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|His death comes back in a big way at the end of season 3.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}

* {{spoiler|[[We Hardly Knew Ye]]}}

* [[Book Dumb]]: He manages to misspell the word ''street'' ("streat").

* [[Catch Phrase]]: His use of "church" as slang for "true."

 

 

* [[Large Ham]]

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: {{spoiler|Tuco was apparently supposed to be on the show a bit longer but actor Raymond Cruz didn't enjoy playing such a disturbed character for so long and asked to be written out.}}

 

 

* [[The Speechless]]

* {{spoiler|[[Suicide Attack]]}}

* [[You Killed My Father]]: {{spoiler|Killed Gus' "brother" Max.}}

 

* [[An Axe to Grind]]

* [[Axe Crazy]]

* [[Bald of Evil]]

* [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]: In season 3. {{spoiler|For half a season.}}

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]

* [[Dogged Nice Guy]]: Towards Skyler.

* [[Foil]]: For Walt.

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: There's hints of this; Gale likes Mexican opera music and his apartment is well decorated, but it's never really explored further than this so he may just be [[Camp Straight]].

* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: {{spoiler|"You don't have to do this."}}

* {{spoiler|[[Bolivian Army Cliffhanger]]}}: The last scene of season 3 is this for him.

** {{spoiler|the creator has stated categorically that this was unintentional; there was no intended irony in the final scene, they just wanted to concentrate on Jesse's reaction.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: The season 4 premier reveals in a [[Flash Back]] that {{spoiler|his dedication to making the best meth possible in Gus' lab is what inspired Gus to hire Walt. Which didn't work out to well for him in the end}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Sacrificial Lamb]]: Exists primarily to provide an innocent victim to show how much Walt has had to compromise his morals.}}

 

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Is disgusted by Walt keeping him locked in a basement.

* [[Hidden Depths]]: He attempts to invoke this to get Walt to release him but it was merely a ruse so he could stab Walt as soon as he got out.

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}

* {{spoiler|[[The Informant]]: For the DEA.}}

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Was supposed to die in the pilot but the actors and crew enjoyed working with him so the character was kept {{spoiler|for two more episodes}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Sacrificial Lamb]]}}: Serves this purpose by being {{spoiler|Walt's first murder victim}}.

 

 

* [[Affably Evil]]: Is obviously a pretty despicable guy but we mostly see him lounging around, listing off Sky Mall items he would like in return for informing on the Cartel.

* {{spoiler|[[Alas, Poor Yorick]]}}

* [[The Informant]]: The DEA's in the Mexican cartel.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: He says so; his name means "tortoise" in Spanish, which he claims is reflective of his way of getting things done - slow, but successful. {{spoiler|1=When the Twins murder him, they deliver his head to the DEA on the back of a tortoise.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Anticlimax Boss]]}}: For Gus.

* [[The Cameo]]: Steven Bauer isn't terribly famous but it counts since creator Vince Gilligan has ofter referred to the show as taking Walter from being a teacher to becoming [[Scarface]].

* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}

* [[Smug Snake]]

* [[The Danza]]

* [[Hot Teacher]]: Seriously, how many high school principals do you know that look like her?

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Is quite helpful to Walt, at least at first.

 

 

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Ultimately subverted; she reappears in season 3 as part of {{spoiler|Jesse's plot to kill the dealers who murdered Combo}}, but doesn't end up going through with it.

* [[Once a Season]]: So far has shown up to play a small but somewhat crucial role in one episode of every season.