Was I Wrong About Skyler White?

[@LackingSaint]

WATCH THE OLD VIDEO ⭐ kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpLac516fKyCebM WATCH THE NEW VIDEO 🦀 kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5e3lKh3m853qZI I noticed the old Skyler White video had a bump in views. I'd just finished a Better Call Saul binge. I reflected Join this channel to get early access to videos and other perks (inc. exclusive community server): kzbin.info/door/dQKvqmHKe_8fv4Rwe7ag9Qjoin 💰 PATREON | www.patreon.com/jacksaint 👛 KO-FI | ko-fi.com/lackingsaint ✍ TWITTER | twitter.com/lackingsaint 🎥 TWITCH | www.twitch.tv/lacksaint 👥 DISCORD | discord.gg/BjVfT4JR66

[@shakin5959]

The links to the videos seem to be broken.

[@scibus2593]

Both the Old and New video links don't work oof

[@LackingSaint]

@@shakin5959 Thanks for letting me know! I always forget youtube descriptions break if you try to copy+paste

[@vintheguy]

When you said patrons would get the vid early, I thought it would be like a week before it came out

[@fusionspace175]

I, for one, really reconsidered my opinion of her because of your video, and softened a lot more towards her perspective, and that was borne out by future viewings of the series. Guess I'm a weirdo.

[@cydneywilliams6737]

The episode where Skyler called the police and Walter manipulated them made me realize that she was in an abusive relationship. Walter gaslighted her, sexually assaulted her, alienated her son from her, and threatened her. He painted her in a corner and took away all her choices until she felt like the only thing she could do was minimize the damage he was causing. She should have cut her losses sooner but I don't think she could have imagined how evil Walt would become after 16 years of marriage with a mild mannered man.

[@seansean3659]

Holy shitWhen did he sexually assault her I didn't remember that. That is crazy

[@skumomcbee9280]

Yepers. That was kinda the tipping point for me too.

[@buggyking2523]

@@seansean3659 premiere of season 2.

[@SebastianDingleswitch]

I mean, when someone you love goes through as traumatizing as cancer, particularly in a country without nationalized healthcare, you're going to be sympathetic to changes in their personality from the stress, she put up with the changes for too long, but you can't blame her for chalking it up to the cancer before she knew what was actually up. If it happened to me, i'd hold on longer than i would otherwise too.

[@aislinnrossi]

@@seansean3659 the first episode of season 2, and also late in the series around when she says "I'm not your wife I'm your hostage", he is shown being physical with her even though she isn't responding, and even though shes been nothing but terrified and horrified of him since his whole "I am the danger" speech, she later says something like "I can't keep you out of my house I can't even keep you out of my bed."

[@Catzbe]

I'm pretty sure I didn't like Skylar either my first time watching the show, but I recently went through it again, and wow! Walt is gaslighting, and terrifying. Her line where she says "I can't even keep you out of my bed" really hit me this time around. I'm definitely a Skylar defender now.

[@Catzbe]

@@kylie8486 right?? I totally agree. I didn't remember that either.

[@SH-mt2xo]

i'm rewatching the show rn and I agree alot, every time Walt tries to assert himself over Skylar or anyone else with his toxic masculine macho bullshit its cringey (in a good way lol), every time Walt tries to prove himself to others that he is the "danger" he gets put in his place by someone who has to deal with his bullshit lmao

[@elspethtirel]

I was full "omg Skyler is such a bitch" when I watched the show in 2012. Watching it now, it's hard for me to even see the show as taking Walt's side against her like a lot of people say. I watched "IFT" last night, and it felt so solidly set within Skyler's perspective that the whole episode felt terrifying.

[@alucamon]

i had the same experience! i watched the show in my freshman yr of high school and hated skylar, but i rewatched it again a month ago and i’m .. horrified that i ever hated her THAT much. i feel more sorry for her than anything else i feel about her.

[@blaba2639]

The line where she says "I can't even break your bad" made me actually cry

[@JKenjiLopezAlt]

Jack. Glad to see you back. I haven’t watched it yet but as much as Im excited to see it, I just hope you’re doing well.

[@LackingSaint]

and I just tried your Aglio Olio recipe - incredible stuff!! Great to hear from you, hope we can get back in touch :D

[@injeraenjoyer4570]

J kenji what do I do if I burnt my toast

[@miaumiau679]

@@injeraenjoyer4570 you can use a knife to get rid of the burnt parts :)

[@injeraenjoyer4570]

@@miaumiau679 hmmm thanks... how to make beef wellington the ocky way?

[@DEFxRECON]

Woah it’s Kenji

[@silentverity4975]

Breaking Bad is a really interesting example of how attempting to capture snapshots of relationships can lose so much of the context of how things got to where they were. Skylar is a bit toxic towards Walt when the show begins, micromanaging his life and leaving him little room to assert himself. That doesn't at all seem to be what their dynamic was like when they met; in a lot of ways Walt seems as though he swept Skylar off her feet. The show doesn't really fill in the gaps though, which either leads to deeper consideration about the characters and how they changed over time, or just taking what we're given at face value, which unfortunately is going to be what the majority of the audience will do.

[@DeathnoteBB]

@Fundamentally Unorthodox Well the first part of your comment isn’t necessarily true. You can emphasize with someone without hearing a hyper-specific backstory

[@fini5294]

It’s a bit like being friends with a couple you don’t see that often. First you get the impression they complete each other, then you don’t see them for some time and all of a sudden it’s just snappy remarks between them and you’re kind of like ‘what happened ?’ When I write couples and relationships I try to only take inspiration from my own or the one I intimately know most about like my best friend who tells me all the important emotional moments. Otherwise you forget to connect the dots and the reasoning behind all the turns. “She became a nag” or “ he became distant” is bad writing but the fact it’s so accepted in writing shows how much we’re okay with not understanding each other’s emotions. We’re more interested with our partners social performance than with their intimate feelings and needs sometimes.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

@@DeathnoteBB I don't think they meant to say you _can't_ empathize with someone without a backstory, but rather than it becomes significantly harder to _not_ empathize with someone when you know a lot about them. When you know more details about someone, they become more "human" in the mind, more fleshed out. In turn, that makes it harder and harder to view them as some sort of humanity-free abstraction: you are almost _forced_ to see them as a full-featured human being with desires and fears and hopes for the future!

[@KeinAzzlack]

@Fundamentally Unorthodox why did everyone love mike when we literally didn't knew shit about him. Your first claim is not correct

[@moxieinfinity9453]

Skyler is actually willing to do what was necessary to protect her family. Walt said he had it under control but never ever did. Skyler’s real “immoral” turning point is when Walt finally agrees that she can turn him in to the police if she promises to keep the money, and it’s Skyler who points out that Hank is out on his own without a case.

[@moxieinfinity9453]

There are also some delicious parallels in Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul, one of which is the criminal partnerships between Walt and Skyler / Saul and Kim…

[@gengarvenom1180]

Exactly. She was would do anything to protect her family. Except go to the police because that might make her look bad.

[@moxieinfinity9453]

@@gengarvenom1180 I think it's less about looking bad, and more about destroying the lives of her kids.

[@Face6099]

@@moxieinfinity9453 Holy shit!! Never noticed that. Bravo Vince.

[@reshirman]

yes honey, giving away all of your blood money to the guy I cucked you with is 100% what our family needs

[@fruitcake6372]

ig im just built different but i hated walt the entire way through the series, like i understand on a technical level how it was supposed to be his perspective and make you sympathetic towards him but i just literally couldnt do it he is such a rancid and foul man

[@knowledgeanddefense1054]

According to VG, the intent was that he was supposed to START OUT sympathetic and then slowly lose that sympathy gradually throughout the show

[@PassionWagonYT]

I feel this way seeing him after watching BCS. I imagine if BB came out AFTER BCS, people would find the character of Walt to be very grating and hard to root for when compared to the cast of BCS. Seeing some fumbling school teacher result in the deaths of all the professional criminals that BCS built up would no doubt add to that.

[@mothcub]

I didn't watch that much of BB but same I hated Walt immediately

[@Joe90h]

I think when you get backstory on why he stepped down from the company he founded with his friend and him turning down the offer of money to pay for his treatment is a good example of you knowing he's doing the wrong thing, but appreciating where he's coming from. I don't think, objectively, anybody should ever support his actions though. It's possible to wish the villain had a better lot in life while still wanting them stopped.

[@Peasant_of_Pontus]

Skylar gave me serious nagging gf flashbacks. She didn't like my hobbies/how I spend my time but wouldn't leave me, just hung around and poisoned the air with her incessant complaining. I had to break up with her because I had enough.

[@jonsmith9838]

people don't dislike Kim because she really rarely actively goes against Saul and sometimes encourage and drives the law breaking

[@grahamstrouse1165]

Kim’s a much more complex character than Skylar ever was. She’s an active, dynamic part of the story in a way Skylar never was.

[@heathercalun4919]

Plus she’s not a mom… yet.

[@hardcorebatmanfan7591]

It makes her a more interesting character but also a far worse person

[@heathercalun4919]

@@hardcorebatmanfan7591 I dunno, was any of what she did _immoral_ tho? PS I think the way the writers handle her is kind of condescending at times tbh. That is, when they're not objectifying her... Like I have a lot of personal attachment and I will fight you on it, but the ending kind of made me mad, to the point I question whether Vince and Peter are even trying to be feminist.

[@heathercalun4919]

@@hardcorebatmanfan7591 She may be a monster, but she's the monster the world needs right now.

[@AcolytesOfHorror]

Love these thoughts! I’ve been thinking about Kim vs Skyler a good bit too. Something I’d add to this is that Skyler is almost always written as an obstacle for Walt to overcome, while Kim is written as more of an ally to Saul. Their conflicts aren’t always between each other, they get to join forces and commiserate. Easier to get an audience onboard for an ally than an antagonist, I think

[@grahamstrouse1165]

Exactly!

[@OneLorel]

REAL SIGMAS DON'T BURP, EVEN WHEN THEY FEEL LIKE THEY SHOULD. STAY ON YOUR GASTROGRINDSET.

[@lyndonwesthaven6623]

Um, actually, it's *alphas* who don't burp. Sigmas are so assured in their gastrointestinal supremacy that they don't care who sees them burp.

[@PankoBreading]

GASTROGRINDSET JSJSJDKFLFKJAJDJF girl I-

[@scytheslash]

A lot of people keep calling Breaking Bad a very dark comedy but most (not all) of the dark comedic elements were in S1. This includes framing Skylar as a "Karen" archetype, (though the term didn't exist back then). It's part of the same package as Marie being a kleptomaniac. They were put in the plot early to be useful hindrances later on, for plot purposes where the show was more about Walt being a guy on a rampage with and against drug dealers after Jesse died or whatever. Neither Marie's tendency to steal or Skylar's nosiness became very relevant to the plot after S1, except in brief character moments. Of course Vince kept Jesse around and the dynamics of the show started to revolve more and more around family and were cemented as such by the end of S2. The writing uses a lot of stuff to be a hindrance to the plot and the plot has a lot to do with a man struggling with his mid-life crisis and his perception as a "provider"/"boss"/"man". For comedic purposes, throwing a woman standing in the way for such a character to butt heads with works very well. A very good example of this is when in S4 WW is desperately trying to kill Gustavo and runs into Francesca after breaking through the door, who outrageously bribes him for her help. She really is a spanner in the works there and Walt's reaction-heel-turn when he runs to get the money is pretty funny. But keeping Francesca around to do this every time would guarantee a very hostile audience reaction to her character because the writing keeps pace with Walt's emotions at nearly all times. I don't think the writing is wrong but the audience just doesn't seem to care for anyone else. So naturally when Skylar correctly butts heads with him and actually does the thing he pretends to care for (his family) she isn't seen as comedic relief which the writing intended at one point but as an antagonist to the thrill ride which is Walter White.

[@digdug1489]

very well put.

[@charmander466]

Karen was a term back then. White people just hadn't found it yet.

[@scytheslash]

@@charmander466 yeah i guess another way of putting it was - hadn't gone mainstream

[@quadling3521]

This changing of “Karen” to mean “white woman who annoys me” is misogynist. “Karen” is a white woman who uses the fact that she is white to use authority figures against black people or people from a lower socio-economic class than she is (ie calling the cops or asking to speak to the manager over minor grievances). It’s about people without power in some situations abusing the power they do in others.

[@SaberRexZealot]

I don’t know how a person can watch the entirety of BB and think it was a comedy lol. S1 certainly has a different tone with some goofy moments but it fully commits to crime drama by the end of S2, with most of the characters suffering from trauma and deep in sunken cost fallacy. Whoever finishes the show and thinks Walt was in the right missed the whole fucking point haha.

[@-tera-3345]

I get the feeling that there are a lot of people have trouble shifting their initial viewpoint on a character. If someone starts out being framed as the hero, they will always view that character that way. Similarly, if someone starts out framed as the villain, then lacking some drastic redemption arc they'll always be viewed that way.

[@sylviahoward1065]

Season 6 ends with Saul having finally earned Lalo's respect and they both drive off into the sunset after exchanging a knowing look and Jimmy saying 'well if you need me again, you know...' and Lalo replying 'haha yeah Better Call Saul'

[@CrabExposedToDeltaP]

I thought he said "it's Sauling time!" And then lawyered all over the place

[@SacredDaturaa]

"What are we, some kind of B-" and then it cuts to credits

[@hinasakukimi]

saul and lalos slow burn romance is the best thing i have ever seen on television. vravo bince

[@caligulacorday]

i guess i had a weird experience with breaking bad, because i immediately identified with skyler. it was like some part of my brain identified her as the protagonist, so her perspective became my perspective. the first time she became suspicious of walt, i turned on him; the first time he yelled at her i was ready to sign his death warrant. during the hаndjоb scene, i assumed they just had i kind of dull sex life, but not at the fault of either party. by the time of the „i fuсkеd ted“ scene, i was ready to throw her a parade.

[@Amazatastic]

legit same

[@Megan-ii6vj]

i couldn’t stand walt from basically the get-go, skyler was always in the right for me

[@FrancisCastiglione]

Personally, i agree with everything but the "i fucked Ted" part doesn't sit right with me. I don't know, cheating just always seemed like a dick move to me even when from a completely justifiable point of view and when the one being cheated on is a total dickwad themselves. Of course, i'd say Walt did an equally bad thing by cheating on Skyler with the blue meth. He fell in love with cooking up drugs more than he did his own family, and i'd say that's a bigger dick move (not in a good way, of course).

[@dayoldbaguettes]

@@FrancisCastiglione only commenting to say I love the idea of Walt cheating on skyler w the meth. 1 bc its funny, and 2 because I completely agree and that's precisely what I thought when I finished a rewatch recently. Esp with the song choice at the end.

[@cabbage-soup]

@@FrancisCastiglione i feel like, when you're working towards a divorce and have communicated that you want an end to this relationship, it isn't really "cheating" anymore. i could be wrong though about the show though, i've an absolutely horrible memory xD

[@pissqueendanniella4688]

You got naturalized as an American citizen? I'm so sorry, I hope your condition gets better soon 💯💜

[@jeffersonclippership2588]

At this point it's like a rat jump onto a sinking ship that's also on fire

[@justme0910]

I'm one of the few people who have always genuinely loved Skyler and was actually really surprised to see the extreme amount of hate leveled towards her when I was getting into the show for the first time. On paper, she's objectively a really good and likable character: Her relationships with the other characters were nuanced and interesting, she has a strong moral compass, and she's smart, resourceful, protective and realistically flawed, being a major perfectionist and rather judgmental towards those who don't live up to her standards. I think it's mainly the latter that rubs people the wrong way. We've probably all had a Skyler in our lives at some point, and now instinctively find that personality type grating, but as someone who's been through emotional abuse at the hands of my parents and now struggles with some of the same perfectionistic tendencies, I see them as the coping mechanism they really are and it's difficult for me NOT to emphasize with that (especially since I was never really rooting for Walter). And yes, it's absolutely undeniable that there is a gendered element to it all. I feel like if Skyler hadn't been positioned as a "threat" to Walter's newfound rugged (and very, very toxic) masculinity, people wouldn't have come after her as viciously as they did. If there's one thing in this world that people don't want to see challenged, it's the male ego.

[@chaossmith3864]

Eh personally if a woman or non-binary person was the main character I'd have had the same annoyances. It's pretty much along the lines of what you said at first mixed with don't want the show to stop kind of thing. Walt is the main character, stop him and stop the show we've been watching even if you don't entirely stop the show. Edit: oh the comment above mentioned the stopping the show thing lol

[@tramarthomas6105]

​@@chaossmith3864 you aren't most people, and a ton of the characters were against Walter with no where near the hate. Even though we have a better picture into the life Skyler has to deal with, she's still the most hated by these weirdos

[@cajunking5987]

@@tramarthomas6105you’re the one not in the majority. You’re the weirdo

[@cajunking5987]

Do Skylar of Marie ever demonstrate toxic femininity?

[@nevercommentnotevenonce9334]

Cringe

[@officialprozac]

I think the argument that people disliked Skylar bc that's what the show led them 2 believe/was framing Skylar in an antagonistic light is flawed and falls apart on further scrutiny. Why is it that its easy for people to accept complicated nuanced depictions of male characters in breaking bad and acknowledge their less than moral/good aspects but with female characters like Skylar they cannot help but hate her after she's less than 100% good all the time? The show could have had the absolute best character writing in the world for Skylar and undoubtedly audiences would have reacted the same because the problem is still that they possess limited and uncompromising ideas of what womens roles should be in media and would have rathered Skylar been the devoted wife and mother. Like not 2 ramble on but we gotta be more critical of our unconscious biases, we were all raised in a misogynistic society and absolutely nobody was untouched by sexist rhetoric. Its troubling that instead of trying to unpack the reasons for certain feelings and beliefs people keep falling back on watsonian level analysis as for why they Just Feel Like She Was Meant To Be Disliked. Is acknowledging that sexism played a factor really such a bitter pill to swallow?

[@maxwellstefan8868]

you are correct which is why Jack's entire original video that this video is adding onto was mostly about the misogyny with which people treat Skyler's character

[@ADavidJohnson]

There is definitely some misogyny, but it’s more fundamental than that: if we want more Breaking Bad stuff, we need Walter White to keep cooking meth and doing murders. When someone is getting in the way of that, they’re a meta-antagonist. Skyler, with the birthday non-sex, and the credit card tsking, and the nagging, is absolutely tipping the scales in an unfair way to make you dislike her. A similar thing happens with Krazy-8 where it’s not just that Walt missed one of the broken plate pieces, Kraft-8 actually is homicidal and actually is trying to kill Walt. The show wants you on Walt’s side and doesn’t want to lose you. But in Better Caul Saul, Kim Wexler helps Jimmy McGill “become” Saul Goodman and is a meta-ally, but also she offers this vision of another path (we know is not going to happen) where Jimmy uses his skills some other way. We LOVE when Saul Goodman does his schtick, but I at least also loved when Jimmy McGill helped retirees. Kim serves the purpose of these competing desires. We know she doesn’t appear in Breaking Bad, and we know Jimmy turns into Saul. Tragically, we want a different outcome than we know is coming.

[@krombopulos_michael]

Sure, but couldn't you say those same biases could have applied to the writers and directors of the show in a way that made Slylar appear less likeable than she logically should be? I still think it's a combination of misogyny, and the fact that Walt is the main character of the show, which almost universally tends to bias viewers in their favour, and will bias us against anyone who gets in their way. I actually think that, despite us generally believing that audiences are smart enough to understand that main characters can actually be the bad/wrong characters in stories, it's still very underestimated how large a segment of the adult audience defaults to liking a main character and wanting them to succeed even when they shouldn't, especially when a show or film is more mainstream.

[@magical571]

@@krombopulos_michael oh, for sure, that's why so many people don't get ex-machina and just hate ava.

[@cmegan06]

What I find kinda funny about this is that the way they fixed this in better call Saul was to make Kim literally 100% good all the time. She is always right, she always says what the audience is presumably yelling at Saul through the TV, and she has a strong moral compass she sticks to fiercely. Barely anyone hates her, but mainly because the writers gave people's misogynistic impulses absolutely nothing to latch onto.

[@mothcub]

ok don't read jack i'm doing saul spoilers: it was soooo crazy in season 9 when saul fought logan paul in the ring and then also the dragon from shrek flew in and caused the building to burn down. i was like omg woah

[@HandmadeGoose97]

And there was that time when Saul said "It's Sauling time" and Saul'd all over the place

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

@@HandmadeGoose97 That was just a blatant copy of the famous Breaking Bad scene where Bad said "it's breaking time".

[@burningflurber]

Skyler as a "watchdog" character is kind of interesting. When I rewatched recently she came across mostly as a middle class housewife essentially filling her "station" and the kind of stances she takes early on and ways she talks about rules and authority feel like rote ways of interfacing with the world that she does because it's what she's supposed to do. Like she's kind of existing in a not entirely present state until Walt's diagnosis and everything else start to snap her into reality. It could just be the nature of writing a TV show where you discover more of who the characters actually are as it goes on but it definitely felt like she was becoming more of an agent in her own life as the stakes changed.

[@iamandyFEARME]

honestly i can understand the impulse to want to go back on your delivery in the prior video. i didn't look at the comments but i'm sure it was full of people who were highly critical. i just went back and rewatched it and i have to say i don't think there's any backpaddling necessary, you did a fantastic job at meeting Skylar's critics in the middle and provided a very strong case illustrating how Walt pushes Skylar to rebel against him, ultimately making her the hero that triumphs over the life of terror he is bringing about to the family. I think for the last videos critics, with the time that has passed i'd be really interested to know if they still feel the same way. I think it reflects more poorly on them and their insecurity in their own perception of the show. It's like saying, "well i was wrong and you are right but i didn't like the way you said it!" and truly i can't see where they could see that other than Americans typically being overly critical towards GNC people and maybe your british accent feeling condescending to us when it's just how your fucked up voices sound. Anyways, ty for the follow up video, i'm loving these uploads so much.

[@LackingSaint]

ty, and for the record I do still agree with my old video, I just wanted to use the opportunity to emphasize another aspect of the show that was also worth covering while I was on the subject. when times line up just right I'll be doing things like this occasionally!

[@LuxsorFlare]

@@LackingSaint Will you make a video on better call saul?

[@gungun5845]

@@LackingSaint sir you believe these things because of your political beliefs and not the actual show

[@RaLeTiNo]

@@gungun5845 duh, everyone's ideological perspective influences their consumption of popular culture.

[@collectivecommentary123]

If anything, I was mad that Skylar didn't go far enough. At the point when Skylar found out that Walt was a violent drug dealer and then decided not to go to the police, it made me feel like a previously well-written character was being diluted in order for Walt to continue to get away with what he was doing for the next 2 seasons.

[@Mokum1961]

Thank God for that! Otherwise we wouldn't have had those amazing seasons.

[@batti591]

The worst thing a caracter can be in a fictional story is not evil but annoying, an active hindrance to "fun".

[@Sashakawaiicat]

I always find these types of statements interesting because I do wonder if people who justify their hatred of a particular character with "their just so annoying" understand why they find the character annoying in the first place, and wether it's coming from a place of bias or not. The thing is you have characters that are purposefully written to be annoying like Ronaldo from Steven Universe, and then you have characters like Sakura from Naruto who was constantly seen as useless and annoying by the fandom even though she isn't necessarily written to be that way, people find her annoying because she's a just a poorly written female character, but most people aren't even aware of that fact. So instead of criticising the writer they shit on the character while some are not even able to fully articulate what they dislike about her without sounding like a complete hypocrite. Skylar is an interesting case because I feel like early on she was purposefully written to be viewed as annoying but later on people were meant to sympathise with her as she became a victim being forced to be in a relationship with an abusive man. But instead of realising this people just kept hating her and continuously rooting for Walt, even as his character progressed into a truly horrible unlikeable man.

[@cajunking5987]

@@Sashakawaiicatall opinions “come from a place of bias.”

[@cajunking5987]

@@Sashakawaiicatlike the OC says. Walt is the main character, Skylar is a victimized person trying to stop him. We all love Hank despite him being against Walt.

[@blueoutrun]

You're way too hard on yourself. That video was released when misogyny on KZbin was a big topic and that interpretation of Skylar was still the norm. It made sense that you had to be direct and harsh about the treatment of the character. That said, I love this addendum years later. It's a great summary of how the shows differ.

[@Kain59242]

How about the fact that none of Walter White's story would have happened if we just had Medicare for All.

[@CarrotConsumer]

They went to one of the best specialists in the country. I doubt Medicare for all would cover that.

[@johnjohnsonf739]

I'm all for universal healthcare but this is missing that part of walt's reasoning is that he wants to leave behind enough money for his family to live off until his kids are in college which no teacher's salary would ever come close to covering.

[@gur262]

@@CarrotConsumer eh. It would. Like actual medicare for all.

[@Pinkie3Point14159]

Actually the show gets around this issue because Walt's rich ex girlfriend immediately offers to pay for his entire treatment, but his pride keeps him from accepting her offer. So even from day one he was driven by greed/power and not simply saving his own life. (That said, I'm also a big universal healthcare supporter as a Canadian :))

[@Kain59242]

@@Pinkie3Point14159 I don't think that's a successful dodge of that problem. So his pride motivates him, and? It shouldn't have to be that way in the first place. It still means that it was caused by our nation's lack of a proper health service.

[@nemotoad9315]

Better Call Saul Season 6 Spoilers: Saul was called.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

But was he called better?

[@andrewdavis9041]

I've finally properly gotten into Breaking Bad recently - just finished series 2. I was on Skylar's side from the moment she starts questioning his lies and he repeatedly gaslights her, but the moment I really stopped being able to understand why anyone thinks she's the bad guy in the relationship is when Walt sexually assaults her in the series two premiere. Like, that's pretty clearly the point where people should stop blaming her for the problems in their relationship if they hadn't already stopped.

[@charlieni645]

Breaking Bad comparing to Better Call Saul does feel kind of misogynist on hindsight. The show is mean spirited in nature a lot of the time but female characters distinctively got the short straws. Besides the show is clearly written in the way for viewers to not sympathize with Skyler's experience, Marie pretty much stayed the privileged suburban Karen right up until Hank's death with not much depth to her. The two rather three dimensional love interests of Jesse were both killed off to set up future development for Jesse. Hmm I think there's a term for that. Kim feels like an alternative to Skyler that addresses the backlash against her. The writers pretty much said what if the love interest is 100% on board with the lead man's shinanigans and even sinks deeper than they are? The result is the heartbreaking but sobering split in 609 that forces viewers to rethink the entire show when we were rooting for Jimmy and Kim when they pull scams.

[@dandavis8300]

Marie was a hell of a woman. She was a medical professional. She supported Walt's decision not to bankrupt the family searching for a miracle cure. And when when her husband lost his job due to temper tantrum and became wheelchair bound she was 100% loyal and supportive throughout. The BJ bet was the act of a really great wife. She was even loyal to Skylar as a sister, who BTW was as responsible for Hank's death as Walt since she encouraged Walt to kill Jesse. The kleptomania? Think that might have had something to do with not being able to have kids though she loved children? Dismissing Marie as a "suburban Karen" is just dumb and misogyny on your part. Or is it racial prejudice?

[@Cube-xm6vt]

I don't think that BrBa is written in a way that makes it hard to sympathize with Skyler at all. I mean, she is always portrayed as the victim (at least up until she becomes Walt's accomplice), and even Vince Gilligan, the director of the show, said that the unreasonable hate Skyler was getting could only be the result of misoginy in an interview. IMO the "the show wants you to make you symphatize with Walter and hate Skyler" thing is just kind of a cope. Althought you're supposed to understand Walter, BrBa always spells out that he is the bad guy (sometimes even when it's unwarranted, like Mike's "we had a good thing" speech), and even is Skyler is portrayed as flawed, she is always portrayed as symphatetic. Althought it's very true that there is some pretty bad misogniny in these shows, for example the way that Jimmy and Marco raping those two women in 1-10 is treated like a joke.

[@dandavis8300]

@@Cube-xm6vt --Raping? You mean convincing them Jimmy was Kevin Costner?

[@Cube-xm6vt]

@@dandavis8300 yeah. It's also implied that they were drunk.

[@dandavis8300]

@@Cube-xm6vt --Oh, geez. She remembered he was supposed to be Kevin Costner didn't she? Why do you think they get drunk in bars and go home with men? Are they going to play Parcheesi?

[@stevenclubb7718]

Something I noticed after the Skyler hate train got going... a lot of anti-hero shows set up the wife in opposition to what's entertaining on the show. Skyler existed to keep Walt from doing what we wanted to watch (see also The Shield and Mad Men to a lesser degree). Where Kim succeeds (also the wife characters on Sons Of Anarchy) is they're moving the show into the entertainment. You like them even if they're objectively horrible people because they entertain us. Skyler wasn't hated because she's was a bad person, she was hated because she was an entertainment speed bump. She wants Walt to clean the gutters, not get in a drug shoot-out.

[@SacredDaturaa]

Another recent example is Wendy in Ozark.

[@grahamstrouse1165]

@@SacredDaturaa Wendy & Marty both devolved into monsters. By the end of the show I so wanted to see them both go down, particularly after they betrayed Ruth.

[@daniellewillis2767]

That's death penalty stuff right there. I mostly fast forward through Walter's family drama scenes except when Hank was involved.

[@daniellewillis2767]

​@@SacredDaturaa Wendy is a female Walter White.

[@koomoori]

I think it's a weird argument point saying she's a horrible person because she's controlling, when I feel in comparison it is obvious Walt is miles worse. Sometimes I feel I didn't watch the same show as some of these people who have these takes. A scene I don't see anyone bring up and honestly forget so much is when he attempts to sexually assault her in the kitchen. I feel at that point I really grasped the concept of the difference between their desire for control, and that there really was no redeeming this man.

[@cabbage-soup]

I think the scariest part of Skyler's story, to me, was that she was fitting into a female archetype: the mother who protects her children and family. And yet, for some reason, society seems to believe it's more important to be a doormat wife than a good mother.

[@kristajones7202]

I feel that society both puts the burden of nurturing and primary parenting on mothers, and treats mothers like if men don't reign them in and control how they parent, mothers will destroy their children. Specifically, boys. It is really, really odd and disturbing.

[@stargate4625]

well that's not really true, while she is a objectively good person and most of the bad things she does are justified, she just so happens to come off has a nagy bitch and that just kinda hits to close to home for some people

[@34thw]

what? she's just the absolute Karen and I don't get how ppl could actually like her

[@nerdcastproductions5778]

Skyler is my favorite character. Not because she is the best person, or even a good one for most of the show, but everyone in the show is really flawed. She is a fascinating, compelling, and sympathetic character. And Anna's performance is probably the best in the show besides Bryan and Aaron as Walter and Jessie respectively.

[@Mokum1961]

But Hank is the best.

[@xxProjectJxx]

I think what made me dislike Skyler early on was when she set up this whole family intervention to get Walt to deal with his cancer the way she wanted. Like, he has a terminal disease. He has maybe a year left to live. Let the man go out on his own terms. Walt does convince her to at least drop it at the end of that scene, but it did not need to be a whole intervention. Felt like she was not supporting him at what was probably the most difficult point in his life. I never hated Skyler, but I was annoyed with her, and it wasn't until season 3 that I started to turn my opinion of her around.

[@novafm8928]

This was what the writers were trying to protray in my opinion. I think you nailed it on the head

[@jaeydec]

it's selfless and selfish at the same time. she didn't care about what it might do to her or her finances, she just wanted her husband to live no matter what. I felt bad for her but also saw where Walt was coming from. She thought supporting him would be forcing him to take treatment. I honestly had the same opinion as Marie: at first, I thought the intervention was a good way to deal with Walter but as he explained his stance, I moved to his side.

[@thalesanastacio760]

Fuck, i'll spoiler. White and his friends start the series in the quest to see who would become the breaking bad. Walt, in a final fight against Gus during the tournament arc, gives up his dream of achieving Breaking Bad status, and give all his power to Jesse that finally defeats gus and becomes the true Breaking Bad, as Walt rides into the sunset, with a smile in his face, looking at jesse as a proud father. I cried with that ending

[@Cow-Moth-With-A-CRT-Head]

Holy heck welcome back! KZbin didn't notify me when you uploaded your last vid, so thanks for letting us know about it.

[@marsalwin5101]

I actually learned something about the way I view media from watching this video. I barely root for characters. I definitely get emotionally invested but im more interested in seeing what happens next.

[@jeffersonclippership2588]

Right? This kind of analysis feels like a superpower when you're only able to immediately focus on where the plot goes and if the writing/acting are good, like I am.

[@VinchVideos]

Yeah I don't really get mad at characters for their actions I just try to understand them

[@SaberRexZealot]

@@VinchVideos if you consume a lot of media then it gets easier to stay impartial

[@krombopulos_michael]

I'm kind of the same. Always found the sort of "team" attitude to scripted TV a bit strange. It was especially big with the likes of Game of Thrones where the series was literally pitched as a sort of competition from the beginning.

[@BKSF1]

I'm enjoying these more conversational and relaxed videos nearly as much as I enjoyed the more produced (and presumably far more taxing) past videos. I hope you continue making stuff at your own pace and workload tolerance, I'll definitely keep watching.

[@tovbyte]

Ok look. Here’s my take: Walt is not in the right for committing his crimes, and it is not skylers fault. He becomes a monster in the end, and she doesn’t deserve what happens to her. BUT before Walt becomes a criminal, she’s a pretty toxic and uncaring partner. She doesn’t seem to care much for Walt’s opinions, well being and independence. She bodies him at every point, and Walt is completely shrunken away from the marriage. I think Walt should’ve just gotten a divorce instead of becoming a meth cook. That being said, I think it’s intentional on the writers part to make her dislike-able

[@CocTheElf]

Yup. Even Hank treated him like shit.

[@hermaiamoira1064]

Honestly, there were few characters I didn't find insufferable in Breaking Bad. Skyler seems miserable and controlling from the very first episode (the veggie bacon, the glowering, the constant scolding and needling). I only made it to season 3 and then gave up. Better Call Saul is a huge improvement, focusing on the best side characters from BB and bringing in some new, compelling characters (such as Kim).

[@prod.adebimpe]

Respect the opinion but I disagree. Walt still actively lies, wanders off for long hours, and sexually assaults her before the major shift into a drug kingpin. She actively tries to support him to get chemotherapy and tries to get him access to medical care as a result of his cancer, She clearly cares about his well-being. It is a direct result of Walt's crimes that she starts becoming what you would describe as uncaring. Also, she was not intentionally written to be disliked, Gilligan even confirms this. It's only a matter of perspective. It's easy to see Skyler as uncaring and toxic because we follow the protagonist (Walt) and only adhere to his perspective.

[@lessevilnyarlathotep1595]

@@balloonfiesta15 yes! their marriage is a sham and they resent eachother so much. but as soon as walter gets a taste of domination and power, all his previously toxic and petty behaviours, his prejudice, his bitterness at being "denied" a life of wealth after he sells his share of the company that skyrocketed into stardom and left him with a shitty house and an empty, mediocre, purposeless life. all these feelings he has held in for so long, he can now let go of, in a calculated explosion of violence. and when he goes home, he doesnt tuck this away. he turns it on skylar, and no matter how much you may dislike someone, nobody fucking deserves that

[@piccolo9365]

She’s also selling Walt’s shit without his permission

[@ayumu_osaka]

I think the reason why people dislike Skylar, and also Chuck is, because their only purpose real purpose in the story is to create problems for the main character in a way that usually calls into question their morality. Even if a viewer can acknowledge that Walt/Jimmy are bad people and that Skylar/Chuck are right they are still percieved as somewhat of a killjoy. For Skylar and to a lesser degree Chuck theres also that they are written in a way that makes it seem like they have no life outside just "annoying" the main character of the show.

[@1Hawkears1]

I think anyone who still thinks Walt was justified at all just needs to rewatch breaking bad. That'll be it I think

[@RaptorJesus]

I think he had justification in the earliest stages, when it was genuinely just a desperate man trying to make some money for his family before he dies. Had he stopped at various points early on, when he'd made enough that he could go to his grave without worrying about their future, he would've remained a fundamentally decent man who did a few bad things. Instead, he died a monster who finally saw himself for what he was that happened to have also done a few good things.

[@RaptorJesus]

@@Kalsimir That's...that's an extremely good point. Yeah. Everything up to that point is more or less "not good, but understandable as he didn't know what he was getting into".

[@eirawalch2593]

I never hated or disliked her and I don’t understand why people do, I think if you hate her you just lack a sense of perspective

[@juand1rection]

“I fucked Ted” is the moment I started aggressively rooting for Skyler lmao

[@versena]

It was queen shit, he refused to leave so she hit him square in the ego and it was amazing.

[@juand1rection]

@@versena Fr, fr. I was in the fuck Walt wagon since at least Season 2 lmao

[@versena]

@@juand1rection I only got into BB during the last season since I was putting off watching it, but I'm so glad I had a female fandom space to talk about it in, we were definitely pro-Skyler.

[@juand1rection]

@@versena I actually watched it on Netflix with my dad in 2020 and we would watch a couple of episodes a night and we pretty much shared the same opinions about Walt and Skyler. I was surprised to see the vitriol aimed at Skyler when I looked up stuff about the show online.

[@versena]

@@juand1rection never underestimate how much women can be hated unfortunately. Vince Gilligan was on our side though. Just goes to show how men get the benefit just for existing when the show is called Breaking Bad and literally about Walt becoming a drug kingpin but Skyler is apparently the worst, like lmao way to miss the point, people.

[@RhianKristen]

I don’t think I ever really felt empathy for Walt. Maybe in the first episode, but beyond that he just showed that he was kind of a shitty person. He had cancer. That sucks. It doesn’t give you the right to become a drug dealer or a murderer or a generally shitty person. It just doesn’t.

[@yours235truly]

it's so good to see you back. im really overjoyed. as an film/animation graduate, i enjoyed the depth and insight of your videos. as a person recently diagnosed with adhd, i guess i could imagine how life-changing and shaking-to-the-core that diagnosis is. sorry for getting personal here in the comments. but i really enjoy your work. Thank you

[@hdervish2497]

Skyler was a self righteous and judgemental person from the start, just like her sister and brother in law, but absolutely no one ever deserves what happened to her

[@mintjaan]

Immgration is weird and doesn't make sense, I was stateless for about a year because of a change made of how laws were inforced during the Trump administration.

[@yamii3281]

crazy that a majority of these crazy-xenophobic, needlessly convoluted immigration laws were put into place as post-ww1 security measures and were meant to be temporary... then we just never got rid of them (and actively made them worse over time)

[@carolineboon5647]

Welcome back! I remember when I first discovered your channel I binged all your videos and shared your work. I love your perspectives and editing style. I hope you're doing well in life

[@renaigh]

the scene in which Mike tells Pryce that being a Criminal doesn't necessarily make him the Bad Guy is probably my favourite so far.

[@lifeiswonderful22]

The first time I watched breaking bad, I was 21 and thought Walt's actions could be justified. I watched it again 10 years later and thought, "Wow, Walt was just a narcissistic POS the whole time. "

[@jannehansen-haug3375]

I allways thought that the show obviously was following Walters perspective where Skyler was in the wrong, untill he realized whit the audience how abusive and bad Walter really is. I thought this was the obvious take on it but perhaps it really wasn't.

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

When I saw the thumbnail said, "No longer a male feminist?" for some reason I thought, oh congratulations on coming out as trans too. A lot can happen in two years. Then I was disappointed.

[@flask223]

Aw

[@Dumpsterhuggies]

You would have to be really stupid to actually assume that

[@tobiasmeerdink5023]

Castlevania spoilers maybe I think Isaac in the castlevania series is a very strong version of the walter character type, who is actually doing something to change society around him. He's someone who was terribly hurt by society, and came to reject its teachings. And then his place on Dracula's court was similar to Walt's decent into the criminal world, where he became the worst version of himself. Simply destroying whatever was around him because of his pain, and ending up being puppetted by a larger power anyways because that destruction didn't actually grant him meaningful agency in his life. So that's why i'm greatly enjoying second-half-of-season-four isaac. Haven't quite finished it yet, but his recognition that he's been being used as a tool, and that his destruction was just a recreation of the dynamics that ended up hurting him in the first place, is really cool. And also his recontextualization of violence as that tool, which is morally neutral before considering the intent behind the violence, and the outcomes of it, is such a beautiful spit in the face of neoliberal pacifism.

[@PankoBreading]

Based Castlevania fan and Isaac enjoyer

[@lessevilnyarlathotep1595]

i dont think law is moral by itself (i certainly feel that it is inmoral a lot of the time). lawfulness certainly isnt indicative of good character, or compassion or even basic decency. to me what makes someone a bad person is much more complicated and not clear cut at all, and can become less or more damning depending on context. and my view on it is also affected by who i am as a person! hypocrisy, double standards, unexamined bias, malicious ignorance, cognitive dissonance. these are all things i detest, in others and myself. if i feel like someone is dishonest in those ways, it colors my entire perspective on them as a person, no matter how they present themselves. i liked walter the most in his last stretch of life, when he stopped lying to himself and everyone around him. i found his death scene to be quite striking and beautiful. on the other hand, hank was always honest. i just detested him, because i found who he was and what he did to be abhorrent. i cheered when he died. skylar wasnt in it because she liked it and said so many times, but damn if she wasnt good at it. walter was a "tough man makes tough choices that didnt need to be made" kinda guy. but skylar had to deal with the shitstorms he left behind on his path to conquest. honestly, sometimes i wish she had killed him. and jesse, my poor jesse. i just wanted him to stop suffering 😭

[@Corium1]

agonna spoil season six, so uh Saul Goodman is actually a lawyer and commits massive chicanery

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

spoiler alert for season six: Saul is cursed by God for failing to completely wipe out the Amalekites, and is killed in battle against the Philistines. His son-in-law David inherits the throne afterwards

[@d.f.4830]

Right at about the 4 minute mark, bam: Mad Men! “Basically it’s about what you want versus what’s expected of you.”

[@thinBillyBoy]

I binge rewatched Breaking Bad recently and I'm softer on Skyler now than I was before. I started liking her a lot faster this time than before however Skyler in season 1 is a hypocrite, selfish and judgemental and those are attributes you see in your day to day life and imo hits harder. The second she broke bad I was on her side. Because it was more fun. She fucked Ted? Good for her! As long as she doesn't sing for him we are more than good. It's the same with Lydia. Do we hate her for the drug stuff that poisons millions of people or that you know she is the way she is. Somewhat reminding you of someone you don't like in your own life. Same with Jesse's parents and idk whenever Flynn is being a teenager with capital T. It's like Voldemort and Umbridge. Not to compare Skyler to Umbridge but y’know.

[@themixofthegull7498]

I believe People like Kim more than Skyler because every bad quality about Kim (morally) is explained on the plot on her upbringing, Kim is an extremely more complex character than Skyler in comparison. Because the show doesn't really give her much character beyond her being a family wife... I can't really separate Skyler from Walt in that sense.

[@hushthecipher]

I honestly never really disliked Skylar up until she started directly working with Walt, to me here reactions to whats happening with her husband were mostly justified and understandable, whereas after Jane's Death i lost ass sympathy and understanding for Walter White.

[@Horatio787]

Something I genuinely don't like about Breaking Bad, especially early on, is that if you're a "normal" person there's always something wrong with you. Everyone in Walt's family is unhappy or insane other than Walt Jr, because he's had to live his whole life getting bullied and has risen above it a little bit. It portrays American lower middle class as everyone just living in this mutual hell of self loathing (kind of like a Michael Bay movie making everyone stupid), while the criminals are the ones who have any amount of happiness in their daily lives and interactions with each other. At least Mad Men has that scene where Don looks at another couple who are living through the same times he is and they're genuinely happy.

[@CarrotConsumer]

Hank is fine before he gets ptsd. I don't think Skyler is particularly unhappy either at the start.

[@JoeNoshow27]

I have somewhat of a particular perspective in that I agree Walt is a villain who, while I found sympathetic for a time, was ultimately selfish, a compulsive liar, and dangerous to his family. I don't see Skylar as a bad person, and I can empathize with her behavior, but I still don't like her. That said, there's no mystery to this conflict. Simply put, I have a mother who has a lot of the same passive-aggressive traits as Skylar, which really fucked with me growing up. So case and point, it boils down to mommy issues.

[@TheWonkster]

Walt ends up a horrible narcissistic criminal murderer who poisons poor communities to make money far beyond the "good" reason he needed it for originally. Skylar is a normal everyday pretty bad irritating person who is also an empty narcissist but in a way that is pretty normal. You aren't really supposed to like either of them, but Walt is objectively the protagonist of the story.

[@SacredDaturaa]

The thing that struck me with rewatching the other video earlier (that you also allude to here) is that these shows often seem to actively want us to dislike this kind of character by giving them what TVTropes would refer to as "kick the dog" moments. I think it's kinda disingenuous on the showrunners' part to then go all "surprised pikachu" when it turns out that audiences do end up dislike characters that are set up to be dislikable. YOU put her under that bus Vince! Like I haven't watched BB for years, but one moment I remember so vividly was a pregnant Skyler smoking in the car and defiantly sneering at the lady who disapproved. I had a viscerally negative reaction to that, and it cemented in my mind that this was not a character I was supposed to root for. Was that not the intended audience reaction to that scene? It's been a while, so admittedly I may be misremembering how it was portrayed. There's definitely an element of toxic masculinity in the way many people don't seem to cotton on to how shitty and pathetic Walt is from the start, as well as the intensity of anger people felt towards Skyler, and that is a conversation worth having. But I don't think it follows from that that Skyler was a good person, actually. She is also awful.

[@daniellewillis2767]

Skyler smoking and sneering while pregnant made me like her for a minute 😊

[@coreyrachar9694]

Bro, Skyler is a despicable character. Who cares if she banged ted!? That's a terrible argument. Listen, she was peachy and moral until walt showed her the money and she suddenly flipped the tables on her morality and willingly agreed effectively partner with him and launder his money. She, like him, had so many opportunities to get 'out' but never took them and it's only once the situation becomes inconvenient for her does she suddenly start pretending to be victimized. There's also the gigantic double standard I never see anyone mention, of her being totally ok with rich, white-collar, business crime (in the form of cooking teds books) but apparently not ok from making money from meth. You know a lot more people die in poverty and destitution and lack of proper healthcare because of the greed and crime of gigantic business's than do from meth abuse, or meth related gang conflicts. Criminalization of these drugs to begin with arguably causes further still more unnecessary deaths and destruction of lives and families. What is right is not necessarily what is law and what is law is not always moral. She blames walter for killing hank, but that's tantamount to saying skyler white created hesinberg by feeding walter veggie bacon and is therefore guily of all of heisenbergs misgivings.

[@jacksonellis5865]

I don't know about most people but for me, when I recently watched Breaking Bad for the first time, I lost sympathy and trying to justify Walt's actions when he rejected Gretchen and Elliot's offer to pay for his treatments

[@nickpoenisch4563]

To your point about the expiring visitors visa, that's why all the "we have to tighten our immigration system to keep the illegals out!" is so stupid to me, because most illegal immigrants ARE people who came in legally and then just let their visas expire, so tightening the immigration system is a pretty stupid solution

[@justabingus8006]

Walt: “I REJECT MY HUMANITY, SKYLER!”

[@GillamtheGreatest]

what about camp "none of these characters are likable or relatable, and i never finished the series because of it"

[@fruitcake6372]

honestly the only main character i was rooting for was jesse

[@GillamtheGreatest]

@@fruitcake6372 Jesse had at least a few redeaming qualities. This series was one of the last ones I tried watching. I've since given up on shows being worth my time.

[@PaigeSinclaire]

I feel like Saul is way more sympathetic then Walter White. I also feel like they’re trying to fix the mistakes they made in breaking bad. That’s why Kim is so liked (I love Kim) lol

[@GamerSlyRatchet1]

Saul is the genuine story of a flawed but well-meaning man breaking bad, while Walter was always a proud and bitter man whose true nature comes out when he starts his meth empire.

[@PaigeSinclaire]

@@GamerSlyRatchet1 I agree 110%

[@stealth11]

By the end of Breaking Bad I hated Walt. But I disliked Sklyer too. There's nothing heroic about her actions. She's even involved at one point in Walter's operations. Mike is sort of the moral conscience of the whole Breaking Bad/BCS universe but even he's done terrible things. In the end the world we're presented is filled with is a lot of bad people, who still have some humanizing qualities. Even Walt, for as evil as he was, saved Jesse at the end.

[@iloveyoubigmantyrone5609]

Breaking bad unironically needs a recommended age limit. Not because of the meth cooking but just because the media literacy required to fully love it. TeamSkyler

[@Dumpsterhuggies]

If you had "media literacy" you would realize Skyler is blatantly written to be unlikable and a bad partner in seasons 1-3 then proceeds to lose her right to any victim status by literally aiding in Walter's crimes and becoming a criminal herself, albeit a white collar criminal.

[@anjoliebarrios8906]

​@@Dumpsterhuggies"lose her right to victim status" wtf. White collar crime and rape are two different categories of things, they have no bearing on each other. "perfect victim theory" my ass.

[@GuelermeDias]

I think it's perfectly reasonable to think Walter was completely in the wrong in the way he treated Skyler and his family after breaking bad (hey that's the name of the show), and also see Skyler as a very flawed person that was quite unlikeable in many moments of the series -- especially early on, when we're not sure how far Walt is willing to go or how noble his motives actually were. That's also something that escapes a lot of analyses, by the way: Walt is painted as a GREY character from the get-go, one that only gets darker as the show goes on, but you ARE supposed to empathize with his situation and you only get the full picture of his psyche after his partnership with Gus has been established. You know it's probably not gonna end well, but maybe this guy gets away from all of it scot-free and all that's left from his escapades is the money for his family! That's good, right? (I don't think it's an accident that Walt uses gambling as a metaphor/cover-up for his drug trade shenanigans, his relationship with the business is very much that of a man that decided to bet his life savings on red) There's a pretty interesting theme of control and emasculation going on in the series with Walt and his relationships. I think a lot of the hatred Skyler gets is because you can (and I argue you are supposed to) sense how the way she treats Walt is a catalyst for the events of the series. That resonates with a lot of men that feel inadequate as "men" and are constantly reminded of that by society. However, Walt's final descent into paranoia starts when he can't deal with feeling emasculated by Gus, and it becomes very clear that it was never about being a "hard man making hard decisions" for his family. Walt just wants to lash out and take control by force, the well-being of those around him be damned.

[@RonTheAnarchist]

So I closed this video, then opened it back up to make sure I gave it a thumbs up. It's always really interesting going back over some of your older content; I've been doing that a lot recently, and it kinda surprises me what does and does not hold up.

[@CC-qx7hk]

Saul dies at the end. The guy in Breaking Bad is the last person who hired him, who then killed him and took his place after getting plastic surgery to look like him

[@kayyeti3422]

Imagine having a disabled child and another child on the way with a man who’s dying of cancer and now discovering he leads a double life as a dangerous dr*g dealer. Most people would be lose their minds.

[@Demonsta]

Tbh I think the "Skylar as a metaphor for society" argument is a bit too generous to the haters. The show has been done long enough that any reasonable viewer should have grown up a little and changed their views - as I can see many people in the comments admitting to. I don't think the framing of the show, even with the obvious pov bias, really frames Skylar as bad, in fact the framing is more sympathetic to her with each season. I may be making this up but I remember reading an interview where the creators said something to the effect that they were purposely framing the show in a way that proves Skylar right, that they intended for many scenes to be framed with Walt's bias while at the same time showing that he is obviously in the wrong, thus forcing the viewer to stop and think about the way narratives mislead us. Honestly, I didn't watch breaking bad while it was airing, but I was exposed to the anti Skylar/Walt worshipping discourse via so many Facebook rants and posts about the previous nights episodes... Just knowing what people had been saying at each point in the story, I felt such a distaste for the audience that it ruined my binge of the series, and I came out the other end feeling so angry and depressed even though it was objectively a good show, I hated it. I want to rewatch it someday but I feel like I'll just be angry again knowing that people still hold these opinions. Maybe it is just my bias and the morality wasn't framed as skillfully as I thought, but come on, even if people hated Skylar because she's a woman, how could they not stop and reexamine her role after all the shit Walt does to Jesse?? It blows my mind.

[@meursault7030]

I don't think she was so much in the wrong as just annoying. After season 2 I start to empathise with her more, though.

[@usedhalfcart]

agree.

[@KeinAzzlack]

Everything walt says to justify his meth business was given him in the dialogue with crazy eight in pinkmans basement in the first season. Eight was the first one knowing of walts cancer and he assumed that walt is cooking meth to make money for his family. Therefore I assume skylar never believed walters lie why he does it. She felt he did it to cope his hurt ego and later in the series she admits that she doesn't know walt anymore but still she's been forced to let him see their children and sleep in one bed with him. Walts hate towards skylar breaks out in one of the first episode when both are at the gynaecologist.

[@anjoliebarrios8906]

yup, I never believed walter was doing it "for his family". Eight made that assumption and my dad did too. He loves his kids and money is very much a tool to help the family, not an achievement or glamorous thing. So although Walt never reaffirms this good motivation, for himself, by himself, my dad's logic is: "why would a guy in his position want all this money if it WASN'T for his family"? Walt is so immoral that the truth (Walt is selfish) seems to be illogical.

[@AJFilms14]

If you hate Kim, I just don’t know what to tell you because that’s not the opinion of a sane person lol

[@ghostestwiththemostest]

You’re back! Can’t believe how many new vids I’ve already missed.

[@chelscara]

“The show tells you to hate her!” Y’all just love to miss to rape scenes I cant

[@thornowl6368]

i finished watching breaking bad yesterday, found your old skyler video and have been binging your other vids all day. seeing this update right now is kinda wild lmao

[@Iris-oh9zx]

The "coffin with spikes" is called an iron maiden.

[@casscunningham9139]

Hell yeah I'm in the twitter screenshot! Happy to have you back!

[@heathercalun4919]

Well, Jack. I've listened to what you had to say... I've taken a lot of time to think about it... and to put it in the politest terms possible... *AIR HORN* You were less wrong the first time! Like people can have different interpretations of art, I respect that, but comparing Skyler to the panopticon? Are you high? Yeah, where does she get off breathing down Walt's neck like that; it's not like they're _married_ or something! I think this fanbase has a really insidious misogyny problem, to the point where it makes me angry to think that their input had anything to do with toning down Kim's aggression in the final season. The decision to have the morality play amount to a sermon on nonviolence (specifically against people like Howard)... the same month Roe was overturned... strikes me as either catastrophically bad timing... or just plain insulting! But if my berating hasn't scared you off so far, maybe you'd be interested in my fanfic "Sheepdog"; it's on Deviantart. It deals more directly with the question of whether Kim Wexler can be called a feminist icon than the actual Season 6 did, and I realize I'm biased, but I think it's pretty damn good.

[@unnamed9482]

You lost me at the misogyny part

[@heathercalun4919]

@@unnamed9482 (Citation: See original "Why do people hate Skyler" video)

[@unnamed9482]

@@heathercalun4919 (Citation: saw original “Why do people hate Skyler White.”)

[@heathercalun4919]

@@unnamed9482 Ok, then which parts do you disagree with? I will die on this hill, bro. This is the only debate I've been interested in having for the past 2 years. Even compared to other fans, I take discussions on how to interpret Kim (or Skyler's) character personally. Because the archetype of the love interest in these Dexter-type crime dramas is evolving. And I consider it a matter of feminist national security WHAT that archetype is mutating into. There's an elephant in the room... and her name is Love Quinn...

[@ChardBothamYT]

I haven't watched your Half-Life 2 vid yet (bc spoilers for a game I'll finally get around to playing in 2027) but I enjoyed this a lot and it's great to see you back!! Now pls make a retrospective on "our response to mauler's response to my response to mauler's videos part 2" or whatever

[@FaustianBargainBin]

this was really helpful and interesting to me, because i watched breaking bad for the first time fairly recently and i kept waiting to see why people didnt like skyler and never really seeing it. i think a part of it is while i think walt is very interesting, he's really not relatable to me at all. so i never saw skyler as indicative of the expectations of society or as my wife im unhappy with or whatever she was just like, a lady.

[@thewalrus511]

I hate skylar white because infidelity is never justified. If you don’t want to stay with your partner, break up before you fuck around. That’s it.

[@agogobell28]

Excellent video!! I’m glad you were able to explore this topic a bit more.

[@Polygonyall]

i feel like with a lot of characters similar to skyler the red flag is in the reaason one would dislike her than actually just disliking her

[@Polygonyall]

it was like with the second black christmas remake where it was pretty unaminously agreed on to be not very good, the divide was WHY it wasnt good.

[@tjswanson7577]

The final scene of Better Call Saul is a him starring in a large production of a parody video of the Ghostbusters theme ("Who'd you better call? Saul Goodman!") Why no, I've never seen an episode, why?

[@Alresu]

13:16 - Without having watched 'Better Call Saul' yet: I am pretty sure, that's a big part. Skyler never seemed like she got anything that was outside of her small world. And while she was often in the right, she always seemed like the person who always thinks, they are in the right while also having a very limited view.

[@Molly-ml1wn]

I know these videos take time to script and record and edit and upload, But it's kinda funny hearing you talk about how you haven't finished BCS a week and a day before it finishes airing.

[@middaymeds]

Spoiler: Lalo is creepy and hot at the same time

[@FinetalPies]

I literally have notifications enabled for this channel why I am only seeing this 5 day old video now while having no idea there's apparently another new video

[@lemonynora]

god that season six finale WOW WHAT AN EPISODE. i can’t believe kylo ren kills his own FATHER hand solo. absolutely mental. and omgg is finn a jedi. and omggg what is luke doing on that random island, why is he on that cliff edge. i do hope he’s not suicidal

[@chainey4387]

Jack God (like saint, ig Idk). missed ur videos/streams glad ur back

[@grahamstrouse1165]

I think the big problem with Skylar as a character, particularly in season 1, is that she’s really more of a plot device than a fully-fleshed character. If Season 1 of Breaking Bad had been released in the 2020s there would not be such a thing as Karen memes. There would be Skylar memes. I love BB and BCS and I adore Vince Gilligan but I think he kinda dropped the ball when he wrote Skylar. She was annoying, prissy, passive & self-righteous. They may not publicly acknowledge their Skylar Problem but I think Vince & Co. became aware of it. When it came time to write the female lead for Better Call Saul they created Kim Wexler, a wonderful, complicated, dynamic character. Kim is a perfect match for Jimmy. She’s not an anchor around his neck-She’s his partner-in-crime. Quite literally. Incidentally, if Rhea Seahorn doesn’t get an Emmy for Season 6 I will be a very unhappy camper. She’s overdue.

[@justinhanna9152]

I think this is actually a pretty good comeback for a channel that's been dead for 2 years, good job Jack

[@BradsGonnaPlay]

Missed you, Jack! Love your work and will be a supporter, the algorithm be damned.

[@acg3934]

I didn't get a notification about your half life 2 video but I did check your videos when I loaded this and I assumed it was a stream highlight reel lol