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What TV show are you watching?


Melty Mark

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53 minutes ago, Kay said:

What's actually hateable about her? 

 Her character the antithesis and a threat to Walt's anti-hero story arc. Walt isn't a hero in this story, the entire point of this show was the loss of morality and the blurring of lines of what becomes acceptable in society when faced with an impossible choice. Walt goes into his way of life as a means to ensure the survival of his family in a future that, because of his diagnosis, he would not be a part. Hank is also the antithesis to Walt but his character is sympathetic in the way that he is the righteous character of the show to a fault (as it would and should be portrayed as in a story like this) and he stays that course, even up to his last scene when he stands against Walt despite Walt's begging of him to give in. 

Skylar's character is great in the beginning, she's a sympathetic and loving wife who is oblivious to what Walt is doing. The change is when she finds out and takes the moral high ground while holding Walt Jr. and their family over Walt's head. Which ... fine, whatever but this is the story of an anti-hero ... it's not a traditional herculean tale. It's flipped on it's head, the story is meant to be right is wrong and wrong is right. In the end, despite still putting herself up on a moral high ground and preaching, she becomes complicit to Walt's criminal activity. She willingly accepts the benefit from Walt's enterprise and even furthers it. She has every opportunity to turn Walt in but she shows her true colors and accepts her role. Its this back and forth which is meant to be grating and turn you against her. It's not about her being a woman, it's about how the character is written. She isn't the story's main character, she isn't the hero. She is meant to show that, despite our best intentions, humans are capable of being corrupted.

She is written to be hated, that's her character arc and, honestly, Anna Gunn played her fucking brilliantly ... I think to say she is hated because she is a woman is a little fucking insulting to the work that Anna Gunn put into the character. The nature of the story is meant to turn the table on conventional story telling ... which is why it focuses on Walt and glorifies his misdeeds in the first place.

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Walt isn't glorified though. There are some parts of the series where he wins, of course, and it is crafted in a way to make people root for him, for the most part, but by the end, he's completely pathetic and he ruined the lives of the people he was trying to protect.

 

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She was actually a great writing exercise in how to make a character who can be hateable but who is also mostly morally correct and arguably the moral center of the show. The reality is that she represents how most rational people would have reacted in her situation. She perfectly portrays the lack of control that she felt in the situation, but BB fanboys hate her because she creates obstacles and stress for the main character they blindly root for.

Let women characters be complex assholes just like their male counterparts without being subjected to misogynistic tear downs (I'm still waiting for something like this but it hasn't happened yet).

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2 hours ago, thongrider said:

Wait people sympethize with Walt over Skyler?

I think Walt became such an anti-hero that he became an icon for edge lords. 

1 hour ago, Nasa said:

right? lmao. before i started watching the show, a friend told me she was the most hated character by a lot of fans. a few episodes in i was like, well damn, misogyny strikes again.

It goes even farther than this. The actress who plays Skyler was getting hate mail and death threats. Absolutely absurd people can't even distinguish fiction from reality. 

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1 hour ago, Patient #48273 said:
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Walt isn't glorified though. There are some parts of the series where he wins, of course, and it is crafted in a way to make people root for him, for the most part, but by the end, he's completely pathetic and he ruined the lives of the people he was trying to protect.

 

I would argue he was glorified in the context of the story. Especially when he hit his stride in the criminal underworld. There was a time in the middle of the show's run when Walt had lost his naivete, before everything started crumbling when he was all power ... he was "the one who knocks"! Sure, it's fucked but that's the point.

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33 minutes ago, Cum said:

It goes even farther than this. The actress who plays Skyler was getting hate mail and death threats. Absolutely absurd people can't even distinguish fiction from reality. 

People are fucking dumb.

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1 hour ago, I am vegan said:

I think to say she is hated because she is a woman is a little fucking insulting to the work that Anna Gunn put into the character.

i haven't seen the entire series yet, relax. from what i've seen so far, Skyler is a great character, and Anna Gunn is a brilliant actress. 

i was more referring to me reading through reddit discussion threads after watching episodes and seeing sexist comment after sexist comment, from Breaking Bad fans who seem less into the complex moral themes the show explores / asks questions about and more into idolizing Walt as a hardened badass and hating on anyone who gets in his way.

the hate mail and death threats Casey mentioned are what i was talking about, not the choices she makes in the show that lead to discussions about her character in relation to Walt.

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1 minute ago, Nasa said:

i haven't seen the entire series yet, relax. from what i've seen so far, Skyler is a great character, and Anna Gunn is a brilliant actress. 

i was more referring to me reading through reddit discussion threads after watching episodes and seeing sexist comment after sexist comment, from Breaking Bad fans who seem less into the complex moral themes the show explores / asks questions about and more into idolizing Walt as a hardened badass and hating on anyone who gets in his way.

the hate mail and death threats Casey mentioned are what i was talking about, not the choices she makes in the show that lead to discussions about her character in relation to Walt.

I'm pretty relaxed. I'm sorry I didn't know the context you didn't give in which you were referring, I'll do better next time?

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2 minutes ago, I am vegan said:

I would argue he was glorified in the context of the story. Especially when he hit his stride in the criminal underworld. There was a time in the middle of the show's run when Walt had lost his naivete, before everything started crumbling when he was all power ... he was the man who knocks!

I can see that argument if you focus on individual episodes or maybe even individual seasons, but if you look at the story as a whole, I don't think that was the case at all.

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11 minutes ago, I am vegan said:

I'm pretty relaxed. I'm sorry I didn't know the context you didn't give in which you were referring, I'll do better next time?

i /think/ you might've been the only one who failed to understand what i meant, but sure!

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16 minutes ago, Cum said:

It became more about the former and less about the latter as the series went on. He craved the power and adrenaline and clearly the money wasn't an issue at a certain point, yet he kept going. 

Yeah, it kept getting worse and worse until the very end, when he realized and admitted he has been doing it for his own ego

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Whatever walt did i always seemed to root for him 😆

Its the son i couldnt stand! Even tho the kid had his ovbious reasons for being a dick lol

With skyler, i never really felt she loved walt, she always thought she could do better, walt basically wasted his life being with her and being a family man and teacher.. 

Thats why when he becomes successful he loves it because hes done nothing with his life and now hes important.

Its been so long so i cant remember much but didnt she cheat on  him with someone? 

 

Hank basically bullys him and embarrassed him in front of his kid making out walts not man enough too which in turn makes walt want to outsmart him right under his nose

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3 minutes ago, prankerd14 said:

Whatever walt did i always seemed to root for him 😆

Its the son i couldnt stand! Even tho the kid had his ovbious reasons for being a dick lol

With skyler, i never really felt she loved walt, she always thought she could do better, walt basically wasted his life being with her and being a family man and teacher.. 

Thats why when he becomes successful he loves it because hes done nothing with his life and now hes important.

Its been so long so i cant remember much but didnt she cheat on  him with someone? 

 

Hank basically bullys him and embarrassed him in front of his kid making out walts not man enough too which in turn makes walt want to outsmart him right under his nose

You just hate women!

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