Breaking Bad: Is Walter the good guy or the bad guy? (obvious spoilers_

[Sean Hollyman]

So this is something that has bugged me for a while.

So the show follows Walter as he does his business. He's the protagonist.
Is he really a good guy though? He does some pretty fucked up stuff like letting Jane die, poisoning Brock, and forcibly moving back into the house. Is he justified though? I mean yeah Gus was bad and so was Tuco, but Walt has began to spiral down even furhter. I wonder how much lower he can sink. He'll probably murder Walt Jr or something..

 

[Calibanbutcher]

So this is something that has bugged me for a while.

So the show follows Walter as he does his business. He's the protagonist.
Is he really a good guy though? He does some pretty fucked up stuff like letting Jane die, poisoning Brock, and forcibly moving back into the house. Is he justified though? I mean yeah Gus was bad and so was Tuco, but Walt has began to spiral down even furhter. I wonder how much lower he can sink. He'll probably murder Walt Jr or something..

Well, isn't that kind of the whole point of the series?

 

[TheIronRuler]

I haven't seen the whole show (season 1) and I won't be reading people's posts so far. As I see it, we slowly see his decline and we the viewers must confront the change in his character. I talked with a few friends of mine that were courteous enough to not spoil things and told me that each had a point in the show where they said "No, fuck him. He's the bad guy here".

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Someons isn't getting the point of the series.

Heck, I even think Breaking Bad means the passage to the dark side or something.

Yeah but how badder is he going get. He's already broken it.

 

[Dr Pussymagnet]

Yes, Walter is the good guy.

Heisenberg is the bad guy.

 

[Esotera]

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is the big clue - after watching up to the 4th season, it seems pretty evident to me that he seems to be all at once, and collapses into a good guy or bad guy whenever he is observed. It says that anyone has the potential to do good/evil - or at least that's what I take from it.

 

[Nieroshai]

Being the main character doesn't necessarily guarantee that a character will be a paragon of virtue. There are movies and games out there that follow the villain. Kratos is a villain, you just get to play him.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

He's broken bad.

The jolly good times of laughter and amusement are clearly over.

Walter White is now Ben Baal Behemoth Black.

Do you remember how it all began, how we felt his despair, his pain and how we clearly rooted for him, even though he ended up cooking crystal meth? Oh, those were the times.

The Heisenberg persona pretty much took over, if only temporarily in the past, it's his default state of being at the moment. He's turned, like young Gus eventually turned.

We were allowed to feel relief when he choked and strangled a well nasty man in the basement. Didn't it feel good when he got revenge and saved Jesse by running over not too friendly competitors? How about when he came up with a plot to get rid of Gustavo Fring? Even looking back, I know I felt good about all these things, and I also felt good about the improbable other various achievements and little victories of Walter White. Letting Jane die could be regarded as a fluke, a momentary lapse. He could probably even get away with it in court. Poisoning Brock was bad, but the first half of the fifth season reason really made me wonder about how low Mr. White is willing to go. I think he's well infernal already.

 

[Frontastic]

The show has pretty much been the creation of a villain. Walter was the good guy but by season 5 definitely and arguably season 4, he is the bad guy. Power corrupts and all that.

Essentially the way you can see the shift is when Skyler stops being a character you want dead and becomes probably the most sympathetic character in the show; Walter stopped being a good guy.

 

[Rubashov]

He'll probably murder Walt Jr or something..

Given the events of the most recent episode, I'd say it's almost certain that Walt is going to murder Hank, at least.

Anyway, yeah, Walt's the villain of the piece. Almost everyone else--Hank, Jesse, Skyler, hell, even Mike--is/was a good guy by comparison.