Advertisement
Help Keep Boards Alive. Support us by going ad free today. See here: https://subscriptions.boards.ie/.
https://www.boards.ie/group/1878-subscribers-forum

Private Group for paid up members of Boards.ie. Join the club.
Hi all, please see this major site announcement: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058427594/boards-ie-2026

How has your opinons on characters changed?

245

Comments

  • #32
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    SweepTheLeg wrote: »
    The show is in no way a gimmick. I can't remember the last tv show which revolved around a serial killer as a main character.

    I don't think you understand what a gimmick is. 'Dexter' is gimmicky, kinda like how 'How I Meet Your Mother' is. Two totally different shows, but both hugely contrained by their gimmicky premises. It has nothing to do with the show being about a serial killer.
    SweepTheLeg wrote: »
    I take it you hate all crime movies like Casino/Goodfellas where bad guys are the main characters :P

    Nope, because they're not cartoonish. Tony Soprano is compelling to watch. He's also a total scumbag. Ditto Walter White. You can find a character compelling and hate them simultaneously. The two aren't mutally exclusive.


  • #33
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Jamez735 wrote: »
    To be honest, I've moved from loving Walter to laughing at him, I don't "support" him per se, but bigger his ego the funnier it is - at least for me. I nearly pissed myself at the whole "thread lightly" scene, it's just incredible to see how much he has changed.

    My BF and I laughed at that "Say my name" scene. It was great to watch, but it was difficult not to imagine Walt creaming himself over what a badass he was while the confrontation was going on. :D


  • #34
    The One Who Knocks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,301 ✭✭✭The One Who Knocks


    April O Neill wrote: »
    My BF and I laughed at that "Say my name" scene. It was great to watch, but it was difficult not to imagine Walt creaming himself over what a badass he was while the confrontation was going on. :D

    Yeah agreed, I mean there is a slight "badass-ery" aspect to him, and part of me wants to just see how far he can push it, but it's comical more than anything really.


  • #35
    Grimebox
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,997 ✭✭✭Grimebox


    It pains me to hear people say they hated Skylar throughout, especially with the reasons given. Her actions are more than understandable


  • #36
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Grimebox wrote: »
    It pains me to hear people say they hated Skylar throughout, especially with the reasons given. Her actions are more than understandable

    In normal life, I wouldn't be that gone on Skylar. In normal life. But I can't fathom people hating her for her actions on the show, bar maybe the pregnancy smoking. (What would Skylar-dislikers do without the pregnancy smoking. "B-b-but the pregnancy smoking", they opine. :pac:)


  • Advertisement
  • #37
    snausages
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,225 ✭✭✭snausages


    Jamez735 wrote: »
    Yeah agreed, I mean there is a slight "badass-ery" aspect to him, and part of me wants to just see how far he can push it, but it's comical more than anything really.

    To me it's not so much comical as it is a faintly absurd moment that stands in stark contrast to the scene in the same episode how he shoots an old man in the back who had just wounded his ego and apologises afterward. What is the viewer supposed to make of that? That everyone still thinks Walt is an awesome badass just doesn't make sense to me. I think those scenes are deliberately staged that way but it's something that people seem to have missed out on.

    It's always been about his ego imo. The season 4 episode where Mike takes Jesse out to the desert is one where Walt is at his most disempowered and also the episode where he goes on his drunken rant at Hank's about Gale being nowhere near the genius of Heisenberg or whatever. He's constantly out for ways to validate himself. Same with "I am the danger". A lot of these scenes feel cringey in retrospect but when you look at it perhaps that's how they're supposed to be.


    All of that makes Walt a richer character though. I think if he just transformed from a meek doormat type character into Tony Soprano it would have felt cheap.


  • #38
    The One Who Knocks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,301 ✭✭✭The One Who Knocks


    April O Neill wrote: »
    In normal life, I wouldn't be that gone on Skylar. In normal life. But I can't fathom people hating her for her actions on the show, bar maybe the pregnancy smoking. (What would Skylar-dislikers do without the pregnancy smoking. "B-b-but the pregnancy smoking", they opine. :pac:)

    Personally, I don't "hate" her, I just dislike her. While everyone might not agree, she's an obstacle to Heisenberg. Breaking Bad would be boring if it was just "happy families." It's about breaking bad, so I really want to see how far Walt will go. When he went from cooking in a RV in the middle of the desert to this state of the art underground lab - my mind was blown! ..but when Skyler convinced him to stop cooking - not so much.

    This is tv after all, the one place your imagination can run wild, without fear of consequences. Obviously if this was real life, and walt was making real meth I would hate him for it - but there's no real consequences here - so yes, let's see how far he can push it.

    It's not like I'm supporting him because I like watching people get killed, I like watching his ego grow. It's humorous to watch some old chemistry turn into a monster at the top of a huge criminal empire - at least to me.
    snausages wrote: »
    To me it's not so much comical as it is a faintly absurd moment that stands in stark contrast to the scene in the same episode how he shoots an old man in the back who had just wounded his ego and apologises afterward. What is the viewer supposed to make of that? That everyone still thinks Walt is an awesome badass just doesn't make sense to me. I think those scenes are deliberately staged that way but it's something that people seem to have missed out on.

    Did not laugh at him shooting Hank by the way, I always liked Hank, and hated Walt for quite some time after that...that's when I stopped caring about who lives and dies. As the man himself once said “Everyone dies in this movie.”

    Ending Spoiler - Aaron Paul when asked about the possibility of a Breaking Bad movie.
    TMZ's cameras caught up with Paul on a street corner and asked him if a "Breaking Bad" movie were possible once the series ends this fall. Paul said no, and the reporter then asked why.
    "'Cause everyone dies in the ending," Paul said with a smile."


  • #39
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Jamez735 wrote: »
    Personally, I don't "hate" her, I just dislike her. While everyone might not agree, she's an obstacle to Heisenberg. Breaking Bad would be boring if it was just "happy families." It's about breaking bad, so I really want to see how far Walt will go.

    Indeed it would be boring if it was all happy families.

    It would also be boring if there were no obstacles in Walt's way.


  • #40
    The One Who Knocks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,301 ✭✭✭The One Who Knocks


    April O Neill wrote: »
    Indeed it would be boring if it was all happy families.

    It would also be boring if there were no obstacles in Walt's way.

    True, but there's a difference between an obstacle like Gus who stands in the way of his empire growing, and Skyler, who wants him to stop cooking completely.
    (Thankfully it doesn't last!)


  • #41
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Jamez735 wrote: »
    True, but there's a difference between an obstacle like Gus who stands in the way of his empire growing, and Skyler, who wants him to stop cooking completely. (Thankfully it doesn't last!)

    Spoiler alert!

    I dunno, I don't find the domestic obstacles dull, if anything they are more compelling to me.

    Kinda like all Tony's domestic stuff in the Sopranos, and his being torn between his two families.


  • Advertisement
  • #42
    The One Who Knocks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,301 ✭✭✭The One Who Knocks


    April O Neill wrote: »
    Spoiler alert!

    I dunno, I don't find the domestic obstacles dull, if anything they are more compelling to me.

    Kinda like all Tony's domestic stuff in the Sopranos, and his being torn between his two families.


    Yeah I did enjoy the sopranos...I guess I'm just looking for something different this time. Like Aaron Paul said, the final 8 are set to be the darkest of the entire series, “It’s just so raw and it doesn’t allow the audience to breathe because we don’t have time to do that”. ..and I for one can't wait!


  • #43
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,165 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    The only character my opinion has really change on is Saul.....initially I thought he was a bit of a cartoon, but he has turned out to be quite an impressive guy.

    Walt......ever since he let the Native American security guard take the rap for stealing the lab equipment in Season One, its always been clear that he doesn't have much of a conscience.


  • #44
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,165 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    Can I just throw this in there......one character who has never come into it in a big way, never really played a role, except to facilitate the plot moving forward....is Hanks wife....Marie I think her name is.

    The one story that focussed on her was the shop lifting.....what was the point of that? How did that fit in to the storyline.....


  • #45
    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,554 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    there was nothing walt could have done once they'd done the background check on him. now he didn't immediately jump up and admit he stole the lab equipment but he couldn't have known about what would be found if the authorities checked up

    on topic. hated skylar the first time, hate her on the rewatch too. cant say that my opinion on any of the characters has changed too much. walt maybe as the first time around in s2/3/4 you're always thinking "well he has his reasons, he might pull it all around and do right by everybody in the end" but as we're coming to the close now you just know that's not likely to happen and you look at his actions in a different light.

    feel worse for jessie the second time around too, for similar reasons. can't see his story ending well :(


  • #46
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    Can I just throw this in there......one character who has never come into it in a big way, never really played a role, except to facilitate the plot moving forward....is Hanks wife....Marie I think her name is.

    The one story that focussed on her was the shop lifting.....what was the point of that? How did that fit in to the storyline.....

    Surely the shoplifting storyline shows the opposite of her just being there to move the plot forward?

    I think that subplot was perhaps to depict with her anxiety over Hank's line of work.


  • #47
    Grimebox
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,997 ✭✭✭Grimebox


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    Can I just throw this in there......one character who has never come into it in a big way, never really played a role, except to facilitate the plot moving forward....is Hanks wife....Marie I think her name is.

    The one story that focussed on her was the shop lifting.....what was the point of that? How did that fit in to the storyline.....

    I never liked her. Her whole kleptomaniac storyline didn't do anything for me nor did it seem to serve any purpose. I think she's possibly the weakest character in the whole show.

    This was funny though. Context: Hector Salamanca has reached out to the DEA saying he wants to speak to Hank personally

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XCxupBwuuU


  • #48
    D.Q
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,054 ✭✭✭D.Q


    Walt is definitely meant to be taken as a bad ass. Look at any of the pictures/promos for this season or 5p1. "Return of the king" etc etc.


  • #49
    Rosy Posy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    Suryavarman wrote: »
    He was planning on releasing Crazy-8 until he realised that Crazy-8 planned to stab him and possibly kill him upon release. When pretending to unlock the bike lock Crazy-8 stabs him in the leg. Walt then chokes him to death in self-defence.

    From then he had to dispose of the body somehow.

    What was he supposed to do, leave Crazy-8 kill him? Or leave him starve to death in the basement? Or maybe he kills Crazy-8 but decides to hand himself in at the police station? Thereby leaving his family without a breadwinner thinking their father/husband was a cold blooded murderer.

    His murder of Crazy-8 is surely one of his most understandable actions in the entire series. It was hardly an evil act considering he really only did it out of self-defence.

    The really interesting thing about this imo is that Walt seemed to feel genuine remorse or at least some kind of anguish over Krazy8's murder and yet had he released him Walt would have been finished before he even began- Jesse had told Krazy8 where Walt worked and about Walt Jr's disability, and Krazy8 was a DEA informant. When Walt learns this (Hank drops it into conversation, possibly about the missing lab equipment, some of which was found near Krazy8's abandoned car) it's a turning point for Walt in which the murder is justified.


  • #50
    Rosy Posy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    Can I just throw this in there......one character who has never come into it in a big way, never really played a role, except to facilitate the plot moving forward....is Hanks wife....Marie I think her name is.

    The one story that focussed on her was the shop lifting.....what was the point of that? How did that fit in to the storyline.....

    I think that in the first season they put in a few storylines as character sketches to show that everyone was capable of moral failure. So we had Skyler's smoking, Marie's shoplifting, I'm sure there was something with Hank but I don't remember exactly. To my mind it was creating a world populated by flawed human beings who may judge Walt and Jessie for their actions but are not perfect themselves.


  • #51
    Rosy Posy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    On topic, I think my opinion of most of the main characters has changed.

    Hated Skyler in season one but I've come to appreciate her strength and also have sympathy with her powerlessness.

    I pitied Walt at first, now I despise him. His arrogance, greed and ruthlessness disgust me.

    Jesse seemed like a happy go lucky wannabe bad ass in the first season but he's actually incredibly sensitive and fragile. I like how they develop his character through his interaction with children.

    I thought Hank was a boor at first but he's actually pretty smart and also a genuinely good person, IMO.

    Marie was a pain in the a$$ to begin with and she's a pain in the a$$ now. I quite enjoy disliking her.

    Saul has a lot more integrity than I first credited him with.


  • Advertisement
  • #52
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,165 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    April O Neill wrote: »
    Surely the shoplifting storyline shows the opposite of her just being there to move the plot forward?

    I think that subplot was perhaps to depict with her anxiety over Hank's line of work.

    But that was the only part of the plot that revolved around her.....and if she was anxious about Hanks work.....then (i) it wasnt about her, it was about Hank and (ii) so what if she was anxious about Hanks work, why wouldnt she be, why do they need to have her stealing shoes to show it.

    Marie is (going to make an outrageous statement here) the hardest character to figure out because of all the cast members who have been there since the first episode, she is the only one that you think "what is she there for?" I dont get it........I can get my head around all the other characters. What is the point of Marie?


  • #53
    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,554 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    to quell any rumours about hank being gay?


  • #54
    trashcan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,482 ✭✭✭trashcan


    I agree with the comments about Maries role being underdeveloped. The shoplifting thing never really went anywhere. it seems shes just there to be the link between Walt and Hank, as Skylars sister. they could have had Hank as just a buddy of Waters at the start, but it wouldn't really have rung true, would it ? Mild mannered chemistry teacher with a pal in the DEA ? And with no Hank, or no personal link between himsself and Walter that whole (essential in my view) strand of the plot would have been lost.


  • #55
    snausages
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,225 ✭✭✭snausages


    Marie and Walt Jr. are just two characters that I think the writers never really figured out what to do with.


  • #56
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,165 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    snausages wrote: »
    Marie and Walt Jr. are just two characters that I think the writers never really figured out what to do with.


    I think Walt Jr is a bit of a moral compass for the rest of the characters...

    He is the one who genuinely tries to do the best for people. eg the charity website for his dad.


  • #57
    SweepTheLeg
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 712 ✭✭✭SweepTheLeg


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    I think Walt Jr is a bit of a moral compass for the rest of the characters...

    He is the one who genuinely tries to do the best for people. eg the charity website for his dad.

    Then nothing else for 4 seasons. Same with Marie, they've had like 2 storylines between them.


  • #58
    Sinfonia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,854 ✭✭✭Sinfonia


    D.Q wrote: »
    Walt is definitely meant to be taken as a bad ass. Look at any of the pictures/promos for this season or 5p1. "Return of the king" etc etc.
    Yeah, but the point is to hold a vague irony within that; same as the 'Say my name' bit.
    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    I think that in the first season they put in a few storylines as character sketches to show that everyone was capable of moral failure. So we had Skyler's smoking, Marie's shoplifting, I'm sure there was something with Hank but I don't remember exactly. To my mind it was creating a world populated by flawed human beings who may judge Walt and Jessie for their actions but are not perfect themselves.
    Exactly. If everyone else in the show was incorruptible, Walt's descent into crime would seem very much out of place, and would also turn the show into a hardline "Good guys vs. Bad guys" kinda deal.
    The lines are always blurred in Breaking Bad, which is part of what makes it great.


  • #59
    April O Neill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,305 ✭✭✭April O Neill


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    and Krazy8 was a DEA informant.

    I totally missed that.


  • #60
    cloudatlas
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,713 ✭✭✭cloudatlas


    trashcan wrote: »
    I agree with the comments about Maries role being underdeveloped.

    I think all the female roles are underdeveloped in breaking bad. Skyler doesn't have a character arc, jane died before she had a chance, lydia is one dimensional. Marie never really went anywhere. They are there to play second fiddle to the men.


  • Advertisement
  • #61
    Rosy Posy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    April O Neill wrote: »
    I totally missed that.

    They had his picture up on a board at the DEA in S01. He dobbed in Jesse and Emilio in the very first bust that Walt went on a ride along to. Later when Hank was talking to Walt about the missing school equipment he said they found the mask when they tracked down the car of one of their informants (Krazy8) to a cook site in the boondocks. Hank went on to say Krazy8 was missing presumed killed once he'd been outed as a snitch. The look on Walt's face as he processes this information while trying to remain aloof to Hank is classic.

    The benefits of doing a full rewatch prior to each season (except this one :()!


Advertisement
Advertisement