Breaking Bad/YMMV: Difference between revisions

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** {{spoiler|The extremely moving music as Gus walks to his death reminds you that he was once a similar guy to Walt, and he'll die failing to get his final revenge on the people who killed his "brother".}}

** Simlarly, the sheer amount of anger and sadness in {{spoiler|Hector's}} face as he looks at {{spoiler|Gus}} before {{spoiler|setting off the bomb that will [[Taking You with Me|kill both of them]]}} makes you almost feel sorry for him.

** Skyler, good woman who's acting poorly due to her husband's action? Simple human frailty? Control freak who ran the family up until Walt's Break Bad and is now looking for any method to put him under her thumb in some form of twisted love?

** Jesse, [[Book Dumb]] [[Anti-Villain]] or [[Villain Protagonist]] who's been using Walt?

** The [[Bloody Hilarious|bathtub incident]]? Walter's fault, not Jesse's. Did it never occur to Walter to explain to Jesse ''why'' he absolutely needed to use plastic? Especially since the idea of an acid that eats through rock, glass, metal, and ceramic, but not plastic, is kind of counter-intuitive. Granted, using ''his own'' bathtub was kind of dumb, but only in that you wonder how he planned to rid of the slurry afterwards.

** Jesse's parents: Long-suffering, well-intentioned people who just came to the end of any human's thread with their screwup son? Or faux-caring, shallow people obsessed with image who arguably caused his behavior by treating him as [[The Unfavorite]]?

* [[Because I'm Good At It]]: What ultimately keeps Walt cooking, his pride and ego from realizing that he has a unique skill that has created an empire that would rival that of Steve Jobs both in its value and impact on the meth industry. He's not a failure anymore and has become "the one who knocks."

* [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]]: Averted. The [[Villain Song]] "Negro y Azul" is not actually a BLAM. It is a music video for a narcocorrido, a Mexican drug ballads. Though it might seem strange at first, music glorifying and talking about dealers or the Cartel is part of Mexican culture, and makes perfect sense in-story.

** Over [[Bottle Episode|"Fly"]]. Much of the fandom seems to think that it's either the best or the worst episode of the show. It's either a brilliant character study, or a pointless [[Filler]] episode.

** The {{spoiler|plane crash}} at the end of season 2 is either a [[Contrived Coincidence]] that's a [[Cliffhanger Copout]] after all the vague flashforwards and build up or its a great metaphor for how Walt's actions have consequences he can't imagine.

* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: It was really only the 50th worst crash in aviation history.

** Tied for 50th in fact.

** Hank and Saul. Especially Saul, he even has his own spinoff now!

** Mike is starting to show shades of this as well if his increased role and AWESOME monologue during the last two episodes of season 3 are any indication of things to come.

* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: The title of the final episode of season four, 'Face Off', suggests a direct confrontation between characters. It isn't until you've seen the episode that you realise the title means {{spoiler|blowing Gus's face off}}.

* [[Genius Bonus]]: Heisenberg. If you paid attention in chemistry, this would bring to mind the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

** Many people agree that while it was tightly plotted, compelling and contained an incendiary performance from Bryan Cranston, Season 1 suffered from having its run truncated by the Writers' Strike. Season 2 picked up at exactly the point Season 1 left off and went on to exceed all viewer expectations, not only developing Walt and Jesse as characters, but giving ostensibly ancillary characters (from [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Hank]], [[The Scrappy|Skyler]] and even [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|Tuco]]) an unexpected depth. Add to this the addition of [[Mr. Show|Bob Odenkirk]] as [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Saul Goodman]], and [[Breaking Bad]] became must-see television.

** The pace of the show markedly picks up from the beginning of season 2, with every episode feeling like an 'end of season cliffhanger'. While season 1 was great, season 2 onwards is as addictive as, well...crystal meth.

** Season 3 and 4 have both been improvements on the previous seasons. Lets just say that this show has grown more beards than ZZ Top.

* [[Hell Is That Noise]]: I'd like to thank Breaking Bad for ruining the simple call bell. Now I can't play Pit anymore!

* [[Jerkass Woobie]]: Both Jesse and Walt qualify.

** Hank, whose private pain is concealed by a willfully ignorant and obnoxious public personality.

** Walt even figures out Gus is using Walt to break free of the Cartels to the point he's planning everything for his own advantages including Hank and the Cousins.

** Walt himself has his moments of this, namely in the latter two seasons. He fully becomes one in the series finale.

** Jesse displays some measure of this when he screws his parents over to get his aunt's house back. (How much of this was magnificent and how much of it was bastardy probably depends on what you thought of his parents' earlier actions.)

* [[Misaimed Fandom]]: Feminists attempted to rally to Skyler's defense against her growing [[Hatedom]], claiming that her detractors were simply a bunch of sexists hating on a strong woman standing up to her [[Card-Carrying Villain]] of a husband. Of course for this to work, you have to ignore the fact that Skyler never really demonstrates ''any'' kind of strength at any point. She spends the series swaying between berating and trying to hurt Walter, accepting Walter's money and trying to help but still treating him like crap, or cowering in fear of him. Holding up Skyler as an icon of feminist strength is sort of like [[Rooting for the Empire|holding up Emperor Palpatine as an icon of a fair and just head of state]].

** Several conversations between Walt and Jesse indicate that they felt completely justified in their actions right up until {{spoiler|Jane's death}}, which they consider (for different reasons) to be the worst thing they've ever done.

** Saul, Tuco, and Gus each have several things that could be considered this.

** If there was any [[Moral Event Horizon|even horizon]] left for Walt or Jesse to cross it was all but obliterated when {{spoiler|Walt has Jesse kill Gale to ensure their survival.}}

** Even ''Skyler'' is subject to this. {{spoiler|Taking up smoking whilst pregnant}} is the first step to making her completely unsympathetic.

** While Gus Fring is the presumed [[Big Bad]] of the show, [[Even Evil Has Standards|he draws the line]] at [[Infant Immortality|killing children]] to Walt. However, some episodes later Gus crosses it when he {{spoiler|tells Walt that he plans to kill Hank, and will kill his family, including his infant daughter, if he tries to interfere.}}

** Walt {{spoiler|is the one who actually poisons a kid, though.}}

** And also {{spoiler|uses his completely innocent elderly neighbor to see if anyone's waiting in his house to kill him.}}

** The Cartel. "What's the matter Schrader? You act like you never saw a {{spoiler|severed human head on a tortoise}} before! Then {{spoiler|KABOOOOOOOM}}.

** Walt strangling Krazy-8 with a bike lock.

** The last five minutes of ''[[Wham! Episode|Crawl Space]]''. Oh, God, [[Laughing Mad|that laughter...]]

** Gus {{spoiler|calmly adjusting his tie with ''half his freaking face blown off.''}}

** The couple who rob Skinny Pete in ''Breakage'' and own the creepy, disgusting house in ''Peekaboo''.

* [[Replacement Scrappy]]: Gale for Jesse, briefly. Ultimately subverted in that Walt really likes Gale and probably relates to him better than Jesse but decides he has to take Jesse back to keep him under control. As such, to get rid of him, Walter treats him like this.

** Skyler for a lot of fans in season 3.

** Hank starting in season 2 {{spoiler|after he shoots Tuco and slowly starts to have a nervous breakdown.}}

** Oh lord do people hate Skyler...

* [[So Cool Its Awesome]]

* [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped]]: [[Drugs Are Bad]], [[South Park|m'kay.]]

** And for that matter, {{spoiler|Jane's death}}.

** The entirety of "ABQ" is pretty depressing. But two things in particular stand out. {{spoiler|The first is the scene where Walt finds Jesse in the drug den and Jesse breaks down in tears over Jane's death. The second is the utterly devastated look on Donald Margolis's face when he see's his daughter's corpse.}}

* [[Too Cool to Live]]: {{spoiler|Tortuga}}

* [[Wangst]]: Skyler at times. Marie seems to be following suit as of recently.

** Ted. "I just received a mysterious inheritance equivalent to the amount of back taxes I owe. What should I do with it? I know! Buy an expensive car and 'hold out for a better deal.'"

** Gale. {{spoiler|What kind of moron leaves his notes for cooking meth lying around in his apartment?}}

 

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[[Category:YMMV]]