Breaking Bad/YMMV: Difference between revisions
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** It's hard to decide if Walt's "cooking" is retaliation for a world that never cut him a break or a genuine desire to provide for his family. Not that they're necessarily mutually exclusive.
*** The series finale has Walt himself give the answer, and {{spoiler|it's neither! He did it all because he enjoyed it, was good at it, and it made him feel truly alive.}}
** Skyler
** Jesse, [[Book Dumb]] [[Anti-Villain]] or [[Villain Protagonist]] who's been using Walt?
*** Or neither. His actions make people's sympathy for him swing like a pendulum. In some instances he's actually shown to have one of the higher moral standard of anyone in the show (in regards to certain things, like kids).
** 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]]?
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* [[Complete Monster]]: Jack Welker, leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. And Walt himself may have crossed the line into becoming one towards the end of the show, committing illegal atrocities purely because it makes him feel alive. If not for his concern for his family and [[Villainous BSOD]]-inspired atonement in the finale, he'd have been 100% far gone. But as it stands, he only made it 99% of the way.
* [[Crowning Music of Awesome]]: The music that plays when {{spoiler|1=[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b6sDY7hiB4 Gus walks into the nursing home in ''Face Off''] }}. It manages to convey the emotion of that scene perfectly.
* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: Walt rationalizing that the airplane crash he inadvertently caused wasn't his fault... ''by hijacking a school assembly and making it all about himself.'' "It was really only the 50th worst crash in aviation history."
** "Tied for 50th in fact."
* [[Draco in Leather Pants]]:
** No matter how badly the scale of his crimes escalate, plenty of fans will bend over backwards to make excuses for Walt's actions. Endangering innocent people? Manipulating and gaslighting Jesse? Murder? {{spoiler|Poisoning children?!}} [[Sarcasm Mode|It's not his fault, it's everyone else's for never cutting him a break!]]
** While he's more sympathetic than Walt and has clear lines he'll never cross, Jesse's often painted as an innocent angel who can do no wrong instead of the ''deeply'' flawed and troubled criminal that he really is.
* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]:
** Hank and Saul. Especially Saul, he even has his own spinoff now!
** Mike's stone cold badassery, intelligence, and [[Hidden Heart of Gold]] made him a fan favorite. {{spoiler|Even some of Walt's most ride-and-die supporters were soured on him when he killed him over what was basically a petulant fit of rage.}}
** Jesse oddly enough fits a certain definition.
** Badger gets quite a lot of love thanks to being a big, lovable dope responsible for some of the show's funniest moments. His buddy Skinny Pete also gets plenty of love for being just as funny, as well as having some mad piano skills.
** Huell and Kuby, Saul Goodman's hired flunkies. Thanks to Lavell Crawford and Bill Burr's hilarious performances, their rare appearances are always a treat to watch.
* [[Epileptic Trees]]: For some reason this series seemed to inspire a lot of pretentious attempts to reframe it as something else. Everything from the relatively mild "Most of the last episode takes place in Walt's mind as he succumbs to his cancer" to the ludicrous "The entire series is Hank's daydream about what his boring brother-in-law might get up to in his off time". This all despite the series never really giving any indication that what you see isn't exactly what you get.
* [[Fashion Victim Villain]]: Good god, just look at some of Saul's suits.
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* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: ''Gus.'' The owner of Los Pollos Hermanos chain of chicken restaurants, and now the biggest Meth dealer of them all. Uses his chain as a cover, never been caught, and organizes anti-drug fun runs that means he associates with DEA agents that tell him all about their work. The Cartels respect him enough that he's able to call off a hit with but a single text message to two killers seeking personal vengeance. The only reason Walt is still alive is Gus can use him. Walt even figures out Gus is using him 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
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Heisenberg is the quantum physicist who came up with the 'uncertainty principle': Walt's diagnosis with cancer means his future is uncertain (and that of his family). Also, his nefarious activities and constant lies to Skyler indicate that his character is uncertain, even to those closest to him.
* [[Misaimed Fandom]]:
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** Feminists attempted to rally to Anna Gunn's (Skyler's) defence 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 becomes complicit in her husband's crimes and very rarely displays strength when there's risk to herself. She spends the series swaying between berating and trying to hurt Walter, accepting Walter's money and trying to help him in his illegal activities, 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]].
* [[Moral Event Horizon]]:
** Depending on your view of Walt's morality and the severity of his actions, there are a ''ton'' of potential moments where he crossed this. For some, it's him {{spoiler|letting Jane die by choking on her own vomit}}. For others, it's him nearly raping Skyler in a fit of adrenaline-fueled mania. Then there are those who think his entire treatment of Jesse constitutes as an ongoing MEH crossing due to all the verbal and mental abuse he subjects him to, as well as a healthy dose of manipulation and gaslighting for good measure. Some also site the murder of {{spoiler|the harmless Gale Boetticher}} as well as {{spoiler|using his elderly neighbor as bait to see if any of Gus' men are waiting in his house to kill him}}. But for all but his biggest defenders, him {{spoiler|poisoning and almost killing Brock, a ''little'' boy so he could get Jesse to turn against Gus}} is absolutely ''the'' point of no return.
*** But even then, one could argue that the very act of [[Title Drop|breaking bad]] itself was when there was no turning back for Walt. Ignoring all the lives ruined by the meth he creates, Walt venturing into the dark and dangerous world of drug trafficking instead of accepting Gretchen and Elliot's offer to pay for his cancer treatments causes an untold amount of misery and suffering for everyone around him, all out of wounded pride.
**** TL:DR - If cooking meth is bad, and murder is worse, then the MEH is crossed in the pilot.
** Several conversations between Walt and Jesse indicate that they felt completely justified in their actions right up until
** If beating Jesse so badly that he had to be hospitalized wasn't bad enough, Tuco definitely crosses this when he beats his loyal henchman No-Doze to death ''[[Disproportionate Retribution|over showing his support the wrong way]]''.
** Jesse comes dangerously close to crossing it when he {{spoiler|starts trying to peddle meth to his addiction support group.}} While he isn't able to go through with it, those less sympathetic towards him feel that he ''actually'' crosses the line for even considering it in the first place.
** 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
*** While Gus may not be willing to hurt children {{spoiler|unless he's pushed too far}}, two unnamed drug pushers working for him have no such scruples and {{spoiler|kill 11 year old Tomas when Gus orders them to stop using him to sell drugs}}.
▲** 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.}}
** As long-established cartel bosses, Don Eladio and Hector Salamanca undoubtedly crossed this at some point in the distant past. But in terms of on-screen actions, there's {{spoiler|Eladio's callous murder of Gus' partner Max, and Hector forcing him to look the dying Max in the eye while he slowly bleeds out}}. From this point on, you'll be cheering on {{spoiler|Gus}} in hopes of him getting his revenge, even if he ''is'' the show's current [[Big Bad]].
*** Honestly, Hector could have crossed it even further in the past with his awful parenting. A flashback to the Cousins' childhood shows him almost drowning one of them just to prove a point to both boys, which is a mere ''snapshot'' of the abuse that would mold two innocent children into remorseless, sociopathic [[Fan Nickname|Mexican Terminators]].
** Todd guns down {{spoiler|an innocent child}} in cold blood. ''Without even hesitating''. That's your first big sign that there's something ''deeply'' wrong with this guy.
▲** Even ''Skyler'' is subject to this.
* [[Nightmare Fuel]] (and possibly [[Truth in Television]]):
** 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}}.
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* [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap]]:
** Skyler for a lot of fans in season 3.
** Hank starting in season 2
* [[The Scrappy]]:
** Oh lord do people hate Skyler...
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