The way I always saw it, Walt wasn’t secretly a brutal drug lord the whole time, but from the beginning of the series he had that tiny seed of pride in him. Maybe at one point, during the business with gray matter and his engagement to Gretchen it was grown a bit more, but through whatever events in his life since then, that pride had been beaten down and retreated into the recesses of his character. And then just that tiny seed just slowly grows and grows as the show goes on until it envelopes him. That’s what both BB and BCS are about to me. The protagonist starts off as a completely normal person with a normal set of flaws in their character sheet same as every other imperfect human. But there’s just one flaw, one trait, that they give into a few too many times and it begins to spread throughout who they are and change them like a sickness.

@andrew1699

Жыл бұрын

Well said, it just bothers me when people just view a narcissistic psychopath all along. They don't see the complexity of the character.

@wyattE415

Жыл бұрын

@@andrew1699 Exactly. They place the principle of "hindsight is 20/20" which is an adage which may often be true in reality, but not in fictional characters. There has to be a compelling plot arc and even sub arcs within the main arc to make it good. Both BB and BCS have these attributes, which is what made them so interesting to watch for me.

@jordanpotter1237

Жыл бұрын

I agree, 100% 👏🏻

@cucabeludo3596

Жыл бұрын

Bcs and bb are all about character development. That’s why there is that “that is the moment walter white became heisemberg” meme. People kept trying to find a single point of the story where his personality simply changed, but that wouldn’t exist. It was small, but constant decisions and changes that led walter white and jimmy mcgill to the ending they eventually got.

@Guyvermectin

4 ай бұрын

He wasn’t a brutal drug lord lol

Heisenberg was born when he successfully "negotiated" with Tuco. You could see the thrill and power he feels on his face when he returns to his car. This was where the addiction for power started. He immediately feels pride and feels himself by getting down to business with Skyler soon after. He feeds off creating a one of a kind product, deceiving others, having control, and outplaying his competition or anyone that stands in his way.

I always felt the “I am awake” line made this question pretty clear. Episode 1 is the beginning of the transition into some perceived “untapped potential” of himself, which is also why he takes Jesse on as a ward-which ultimately leads to his pride and ego that he has decided to embrace destroying him and all around him in the end.

@MrNinjaTube

Жыл бұрын

Walt's scene in El Camino kind of corroborates this.

@DailyLifeSolution

Жыл бұрын

He had potential. Unfortunately, he wasted it at school when he was healthy. So, he had to use illegal ways to tap the potential.

Excellent point.

As Brian said himself, Walter doesn't know who he is. He wants both to be seen as morally upstanding as Walter White but also feared, respected and valued as Heisenberg.

@stairwaytoheaven8

9 ай бұрын

In his mind he's a good person who is "forced" to do evil things for the reasons he thinks are noble and righteous. He's more of an example of anti-villain than anti-hero.

@dehistoriapisciumfish7639

8 ай бұрын

@@stairwaytoheaven8In season five he kinds of just owns being a villain though

Walter White is most people. Most people have seeds of resentment inside them and with the right environmental factors, they’ll become monsters.

@deepaknair9768

2 ай бұрын

I agree

I was on Walt’s side from the beginning to the end. It wasn’t until I watched it a second time that I realized that he became a terrible person. That’s how good the writing is. Like a cult member I just needed him to succeed.

@Xavier28200

Жыл бұрын

I hated him from the beginning and was sided with hank

@Kingbenford

Жыл бұрын

@@Xavier28200 every person Walt killed was just to spite you as the viewer

@misswiss278

Жыл бұрын

same and also watching it for the second time made me realise how bad he actually was from beginning on...

@eyunseville1310

Жыл бұрын

im with walt,but when he start angry at Jesse because jesse not collect enough drug money (season 2 i believe) i start questioning him. Walt rarely take it easy on Jesse. in season 5 when Jesse refused to join walt cooking. walt mocking Jesse. that when im start to hate Walter.

@maskedmarvyl4774

Жыл бұрын

The cult of Walt White. The first requirement is that you shave your head. Or maybe that's the cult of Vince Gilligan. Because he seems to Love bald characters....

The capacity for evil and monstrous behavior is within all of us. Walter White makes a series of decisions that cultivates and magnifies those capabilities. Coupled with his immense intellect and resourcefulness, he finds great success while acting like a monster, which only encourages him further. He's not a monster at the beginning, but he could be, and as he continues to "get away with it," he slowly transforms (or realizes his potential to be) something horrendous. Lots of people go down that path, but few manage to make it as far as Walter does.

@chrispalmer7893

Жыл бұрын

I read a book once that explored the premise that evil is caused by someone's individual self-image being too far out of line with who they appear to be to everyone else. They are constantly confronted by reactions and evidence that the person can't reconcile with who they think they are and that frustration leads to evil behaviours. Whilst the whole idea that something as complex as evil can be boiled down to a single explanation is almost certainly nonsense, I suspect this is one pathway to evil, and it's certainly consistent with how Walt got there. And it happens in the real world, too - with apologies for getting political I'd say it's pretty easy to put a case together that this applies to Donald Trump and Boris Johnson (if you want balance, I'd say it's probably also possible to build a similar case that would apply to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair).

@tkjm94

Жыл бұрын

@@chrispalmer7893 what’s the name of the book, please?

@chrissavage1449

10 ай бұрын

Inside of you are 2 wolves.

Oh no, I was also wrong!

@travisinthetrunk

Жыл бұрын

I disagree

@dswani5372

Жыл бұрын

No, you were actually right. I was the one that was wrong

@dorememe8548

Жыл бұрын

@@dswani5372 Oh no, it was me. You were right all along. I was the one who was mistaken.

@mohmedhassan6875

11 ай бұрын

No one's wrong nor right we're just hungry

I agree!

I hate the idea that Walt was always bad and that his family was never part of his motivation. It removed any and all complexity from the character. Him genuinely starting out with good intentions to provide for his family (whilst also doing kinda doing it for his ego to prove that he could provide for them in his way) and slowly transforming into a ruthless drug lord desperately clinging on to/believing the family excuse makes it a far better watch

@DailyLifeSolution

Жыл бұрын

I had the same thought.

@jonathancampbell5231

Жыл бұрын

He can be both. He thinks of it as wanting to provide for his family, but his ego prevents him from seeing or acting on more mature and responsible solutions to his (often self-inflicted) problems. I don't think Gilligan is saying that Walt was always bad, so much as he always had badness in him. When he wrote the pilot, he envisioned it as a "good guy gone bad", but as the series went on he realised the character he was writing was darker than that, even if it took circumstances to really bring that dark side of him out to the fore.

@somedorkydude6483

Жыл бұрын

To be fair he said it was his opinion and if you notice he kind of says it in a way more so like walt was always just egotistical But it's up to interpretation

@kingclampz6081

9 ай бұрын

If that was the case he would have accepted Elliot’s offer but he did not

bro asked a question then just became the center of attention

Positivity and support to all involved!

This is great !

Excellent point a AGREE 👍💯🙂

@regabrielexv

Жыл бұрын

Oh no, I was wrong!

Walter always had enormous ego. He had to be the smartest person in the room. When he realized he wasn’t the smartest at Gray Matter, he left. He took a job as high school chemistry teacher, something he was way too qualified for, because he knew he’d always be the smartest person in the classroom. He got along with Gale, lots of the same interests, pure love of the science of the cook, but Gale was just as intelligent as Walt, if not smarter. So Gale had to go.

@redrick8900

Жыл бұрын

If Gale was smarter than Walt, he wouldn't have died.

@publiusdos5925

Жыл бұрын

@@redrick8900 Better way to put it is that Gale was more intelligent but Walt had cunning.

@somedorkydude6483

Жыл бұрын

He left Grey matter actually because grechen was rich and he felt imasculated by that and it made him seen like he was just the chemist under her shadow According to vince

@kingclampz6081

9 ай бұрын

@@somedorkydude6483exactly the original comment is clearly of lower iq because he came up with a statement that couldn’t be more wrong

@JamesR1986

Ай бұрын

@@somedorkydude6483 it's hinted at, when they had that sit down at that fancy dinner. The fact that they broke up after "Newport" and how he went straight to the rich girl insult.

For me, I think everyone has the capacity to become monsters. You just need to put them in the right circumstances.

@Mak7even

10 ай бұрын

Same

@speedking7224

9 ай бұрын

One bad day is all it takes lol

@roddydykes7053

3 ай бұрын

Ordinary Men

All of this... Under our noses! ❤️

excellent point

‘Reverse purge’ Can you only imagine… Maybe one day tho

@cheesedip1

Жыл бұрын

That was hilarious. XD

@181cameron

Жыл бұрын

excellent point

@DennisNeijmeijer

Жыл бұрын

basically what people think Canada is like

@jonathancampbell5231

Жыл бұрын

That's called "Christmas".

He was a person with great intellectual potential who didn’t achieve a lot and others used his research making fame and fortune and that drove him become what he later became

@diegocanale1124

Жыл бұрын

in addition to that people often underestimated (professionally and later in the underworld) and underappreciated him (family life with wife)..cancer played a factor in that too and propelled things much faster

@alec8904

Жыл бұрын

He wasn't used. He was way too prideful. He willingly sold his share and ghosted Gretchen just because she came from a rich background. He wanted to earn his money, not marry into it. In the end Walt just wanted to call something his and his alone

@redrick8900

Жыл бұрын

There is no evidence of his great intellectual potential.

@Mak7even

10 ай бұрын

​@@redrick8900sure, Walt is dumb

He was resentful that he almost had something incredible and let it go. He was dying for the opportunity to put that right, even while he was too depressed to act on it. That's my take anyway.

Well said. Love you all and hope life treats you, and those you care about, well.

Excellent point, I agree!

We did it boys.

Bravo Vince

Viewing Walter White as a psychopath all along just removes completixity of the character. Sadly, so many people especially the reddit users see that way, which downgrades the show by a lot. How i view it is that It's a show about a decent (not saint) middle age man breaks bad under environment inputs and his flaws in personality.

@diegocanale1124

Жыл бұрын

couldn't have said it better myself

@dipson282dp

Жыл бұрын

I don't think a lot of people say he was a psychopath. He was an insecure, prideful, frustrated, regretful, envious narcissist, that is kind and considerate as a member of society. The cancer unshackles him from the societal moral impediments, while he justifies himself with a good cause that ends up being just an afterthought. Putting the blame on the enviroment actually makes him ten times less complex, as "decent guy turned bad by the conditions around him" just takes all the blame away from him. As far as i can see, the only external trigger is the cancer that makes him a dead man walking and puts the focus on those feelings he no longer has any reason to bottle up.

@nonno1124

Жыл бұрын

Gus Fring was a sociopath, Walter was a narcissist, and Todd was just insane.

@Gabo2oo

Жыл бұрын

I don't think "psycopath" and "complex" are mutually exclusive concepts though. You can identify traits he had early on as indicative of a psychopath and still view him as a multi-layered character.

@andrew1699

Жыл бұрын

@@Gabo2oo He is not psychopath at the beginning that's my point. But he has the seeds of Heisenberg. He has flaws like all human beings do, which is far from a psychopath. This show is about breaking bad. A average middle age man turns evil.

Reverse purge would be Pay It Forward.

I was wrong

I think the core of who Walter White is not so much his story but his anchor as an outline is fascinating the fact that Vince conceived this character personified as ‘starting the series as Mr Chips and ending it as Scarface’ to me is brilliant and a true testament to Gillian as both a writer and creator

Imo I think years of not feeling like he had control of his life and feeling so much pain of regret and especially with the Cancer diagnosis just made him implode and changed him forever. And whatever darkness there was in him took over. It just seemed like life kept on hurting him more and more then he went nuts.

I like it, this is good!

It all goes to show, unassuming people can make abhorrent decisions when cornered

@roddydykes7053

3 ай бұрын

They don’t even have to be cornered, just enabled

Oh no, I’m the asshole!

Is this a recent clip/interview?

@felynecomrade

6 жыл бұрын

I believe so. It's officially been 10 years since the show originally aired in 2008, so there's a bit of fuss over it again.

@181cameron

Жыл бұрын

not anymore

Walter was a good guy who embraced his bad side, Jesse was a bad guy who realized he wasn’t such a bad person after all

To be fair, we ALL are capable of becoming a monster. The key point here is whether we are also capable of taming our dark side.

Ur telling me this is truly the moment Walter white became Heisenberg?

This is what makes Walt so compelling. Had the circumstances been different, it’s unlikely that Heisenberg would have ever fully revealed himself. He would have gone on being a chemistry teacher. A bit pompous and still somewhat self loathing, but mostly functional.

I have a question if someone can answer me because i don’t find any answers on internet, what happened between Walt and Gretchen/Elliot when they founded Grey Matter, why did Walt leave ? In the show he said for personal reason but it’s never clear about why he did that

@m4zzystar

Жыл бұрын

walt and gretchen talk in season one or two, and she reveals they were engaged and walt left her

@Baldwin-00

Жыл бұрын

@@m4zzystar yeah we understand that he was with her, but still that’s not the real reason why he left grey matter, he could just left her and still working

@erin_3569

Жыл бұрын

he felt insecure because Gretchen was from a rich family

@EncryptedLiberty

Жыл бұрын

Right, Walt had some complex over Gretchen's family's money. We see throughout the show that Walt always wants to be the one bringing money into the house, he never wants it to be Skyler--that would have extended to Gretchen, too. So Walt leaves Gretchen for a stupid reason, which implies that they weren't going to be able to continue running a start-up together. That part is just implicit, but I think it's pretty reasonable to say that would be the reason--creating a brand new business with your ex, who you dumped for no good reason is just gonna be pain. So Walter took the money and went off on his own.

@Baldwin-00

Жыл бұрын

@@EncryptedLibertyif only he didnt have such ego, before et after breaking bad events, his life would be so different 😣

So... There were both things! His own personality/trauma, and the enviroment!! Like in psychology!!!

Ofc this fly over the fanboys head, ofc cheating a criminal husband it's worse than making everyones life arround you a living hell

@thomasfevre9515

Жыл бұрын

Walter is clearly a bad person, but he is also the character we relate to as the audience. Skylar is not a bad person per se but she isn't as relatable and, maybe because of the writing, she is perceived in a bad light. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, she just isn't the protagonist. In Desperate Housewives, on of the ladies starts of the show being unfaithful to her husband but she doesn't find herself being hated by the audience because the show is written from her point of view. That's just the nature of the medium.

@redrick8900

Жыл бұрын

@@thomasfevre9515 What kind of psycho relates with Walt?

@thomasfevre9515

Жыл бұрын

@@redrick8900 most people who watch the show apparently, to the point some think Walt is actually pretty cool.

@redrick8900

Жыл бұрын

@@thomasfevre9515 This show draws a lot of ignorant psychopaths. The same idiots think Gus is good at being a crime boss.

'He could lie better than anyone else'. What? Walter was the most obvious and pathetic liar ever.

@archivesoffantasy5560

2 ай бұрын

Sometimes yeah but he was convincing in making watchers (can’t speak for them all) think it was Gus who poisoned Brock.

I once commented that Walt rarely cared about Jessie if at all and got hundreds of hate comments disagreeing which just goes to show how well the show wrote the downfall of WW

My interpretation of breaking bad is that its a story about walt learning to accept who he is. Walt always kept lying to everybody including himself he needed to prove to himself he could of done it all himself or that it was actuslly selfless. The reason he changed so much is because he couldnt accept his need for greatness. Walt felt disgusted when he killed krazy 8 somebody who was despicable and manipulated walt. But his last kill lydia he was cold. It shows he did change but the pride and ego kind of showed he always had it in him to change for the worst. Walt only did it for the family when he accepted that he did it for himself.

they litterally spent a quarter of the vid talking about toxic comments and theres non to be seen lmao

And people still argue and look up to Walter White as a character.

@KartovOndulevitch

4 жыл бұрын

Yes. Simply because Vince.Was.Wrong. Simple as that.

@christhefiend

3 жыл бұрын

Dude, it’s all subjective. Why are y’all so fascinatied with hating the MC? 🤡

@PiratesRock

3 жыл бұрын

@@KartovOndulevitch Lol. I guess Walter being Okay to work with Neo Nazis wasn’t obvious enough for you guys.

@PiratesRock

3 жыл бұрын

@@christhefiend No? You thinking Walter is a person to look up to, is a literal misreading of Breaking Bad. Dude literally worked with Neo Nazis and killed Mike because he was a greedy fuck.

@christhefiend

3 жыл бұрын

@@PiratesRock No one looks up to him dude, we just don’t hate him & appreciate his character. 🤣🤡

When you look at Walter White, I see a man who strangles himself and those around him. Most intellectually gifted people destroy the benefits of their own gift. Walter created a whole world where the existence of himself became less important. Even in the drug trade, Mike said it best 'You and your ego...." . The benefits of intelligence is to help others. Walter is the person who should get, ask and want help. I've watched the show a million and sometimes foolishly think 'why doesn't this guy try something else?'

@smith1008

Жыл бұрын

interesting

@archivesoffantasy5560

2 ай бұрын

Walt had a pretty huge ego problem, but Mike’s speech was bs.

Right, but could this not be said about any human being? There are very few people who wouldn’t become “evil” give the right chain of events and the right circumstances. That untapped evil is there somewhere within all of us, but most people are doing their best. I don’t understand the moral preening of modern society. Why is it so difficult to have compassion? Would that undermine your own sense of moral superiority?

So, why did Walter let Jesse live when Jesse could be threat to Walt´s family?

@timadeusart

9 ай бұрын

The White familiar was being watched 24/7. If Jesse got anywhere near them, he’d be caught within a few minutes.. just a theory

Here is the way i see it. We dont really know what walter’s life between the age of ____ to his rather awkward 50th birthday but there are certainly a few clues ….. we know that they move into the house when he is about 34ish and that’s roughly when he started teaching at the high school. But we also know he wasnt teaching when he met skyler but working in some lab…… So we can track a downward spiral where he has been tracked OUT of the scientific community and is peering in from the outside. We see the reaction when he has to tell people at his former friend’s birthday that he is not a college professor but a high school teacher. This leads me to conclude that his Heisenberg personality existed BEFORE but had been suppressed under a blanket of responsibility Breaking bad did CREATE Heisenberg , its released it from the lamp

I was pretty much fully on his side until he run over the drug dealers. I didn’t hate him but at that point i realized he wasn’t as calculating as I thought he was. (as gus put it, not a cautious man at all) Walt lost me completely when he poisoned Brock. I don’t care how you try to spin it, in no way was that okay.

Totally disagree Vince!

I don think the guy on the right knows what he’s talking about

I disagree with everything in this video.

Genesis 4:7 7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

thumbs down -- the interviewer thinks this stage is his own stand-up special, overshadowing Gillian

I thought Walt was a good person but a writer made him bad

Walter White did nothing wrong

I still believe that Walt was a good person that became bad. His problem was that he had issues with feeling like he was allowed to be ambitious when he was young and into adulthood. I feel like his family life was not good growing up and his parents were not good role models (from what we learn of them through his POV reflections in the show). On the other hand he was extremely talented intellectually. When he was given a death sentence he found a way to allow himself to be ambitious, to give money to his family on the way out. But once his meth product became recognized as superior; first from Jesse in the beginning, he became addicted to that feeling of validation. That he was talented, deserved recognition, and all within a situation that presented opportunities to be more and more ambitious (climb the status hierarchy of the drug world). When people see Walt becoming more and more monstrous throughout the show, people like Chris Hardwick wonder if that monster had always been there. I don't think it was a monster that was in Walter naturally, like someone who is a psychopath and has a screwed up brain. I think he became a monster and escalated his crimes; in order to maintain the drug like euphoria of being high status in the drug world. That if "Walter White" would never be recognized as a force to be reckoned with, at least "Heisenberg" would

@praesidium4278

2 жыл бұрын

People still think Walt is heisenburg… over,time I believe he developed personality disorder and his Walt personality is revealed again at near the end where he talks to Walter jr but heisenburg won even when he lsot

@donaldb93

2 жыл бұрын

His pride got the best of him and ruined everyone’s life especially the ppl that love him his pride and who destroyed everything

@Michael-McCollum

2 жыл бұрын

@@praesidium4278 that’s not how personality disorder works

@god8348

2 жыл бұрын

@@Michael-McCollum It definitely can work like that under circumstances

I was wrong