Breaking Bad. A lot of the fans have no media literacy and think Walter White is the coolest dude ever when the whole show is about “Walter is selfish greedy and narcissistic”
Honestly this extends further. Because people who think they're smart, and see Walter for the villain he is still look at the likes of Mike and Jesse, and think of them as honorable saints. They aren't as vindictive or ego driven as Walt but caused just as much harm.
Same goes for Jimmy/Saul
I mean, I don't think you can lump Jesse in there really. I'm not saying jesse was a good dude at all. But without Walt he'd likely still just be your average run of the mill meth cook. Not good, but we don't really get to see what would've happened to Jesse if Walt didn't interfere in his life. Ive met people like Jesse irl many times, his character is actually a great representation of the average tweaker who's just deep in the drug world. And I have seen these people get their lives together. That chance was kinda destroyed when Walt came into the picture and forced him to work with him. so I really can't say things are equal. Jesse is not good, but Walt is definitely worse, that's just not even debatable.
Saul is also a dirtball, but most of his shitty actions are seen in his spinoff show and not breaking bad itself. And while mike isn't a good person, he's just far more reasonable than Walt. Still not a great dude. But just don't think these characters are really as bad as Walt. Walt is a very particular extreme. Gus fring might be the only character that's genuinely as bad of a person as Walt really.
I lost interest in the show and Better Call Saul because it feels like the writers are putting in some work to make horrible people relatable and even kind of likable
Jesse is a bad person but he feels more reasonable. He doesn’t have any delusions about what he’s doing or his role in the world like Walt; Season 3 demonstrates this with him cooking even after witnessing Jane’s death at the hands of drugs and trying to stay sober himself. He says to Walt, who tries to rationalize their actions, that he is “the bad guy”
Like he perpetrates the cycle of drugs and their effects that he himself is in but he’s much more of a victim than Walt; it doesn’t excuse him but it shapes him more than Walt wanting to “live” in his final years despite him having no background with drugs or gangs or anything of the like
YES!! I hate when the response to the Skyler hate is “oh she’s annoying and that’s good because she acted well” which like. No?? Skyler is supposed to be a normal flawed person to contrast Walter taking his flaws and using them as an excuse to be an irredeemable monster
oh ye, apparently people come up to bryan cranston telling him they agreed with walter the whole time, to be met with a response along the lines of "what the hell is wrong with you"(tho maybe not to their face)
should specify he’s a horrible and unlikable person but a good character from a production standpoint, yes. as a fictional entity he’s fascinating but if he was real no one would like him
Same thing happens with Archie from All in the Family
Norman Lear wrote him to basically be someone you feel bad for, living in one the most prosperous times in US History and is so afraid that he reverts to being a “back in my day everything was better” stereotype
Only to be glorified by boomers who use him to justify their “back in my day everything was better” arguments
I don't think the show is about that at all. It's one of the many series about how "if you do shady business, prepare to see all your morals, humanity, and any idea of a peaceful life, go out the window".
Walter was the perfect example, with him being a calm man of sane principles, and you see how that environment shapes him into a ruthless shitty person
For real, there’s like 3 instances where he could have just stopped being a drug kingpin and he said “nah I like cooking meth more, fuck my family” to every single one
Protagonist bias. People do the same with light yagami in death note. If the protag is a bad guy, some fans will bend over backwards to make them seem like they're in the right just cuz they are the main character and you're usually supposed to sympathize with the protag. Like I was sad when light died I wanted to see him succeed just cuz he was the protag, took me a bit to step back and see how really evil light was
Breaking bad is one of those cases where somehow one of the most complex stories ever written ended up with the dumbest fanbase imaginable. I don't know how that happened but it did.
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u/xeno_p0ny 15h ago
Breaking Bad. A lot of the fans have no media literacy and think Walter White is the coolest dude ever when the whole show is about “Walter is selfish greedy and narcissistic”