Reading some of this thread for the first time now that I'm caught up and don't have to avoid spoilers, and I'm really sort of surprised by the venom towards WW. To me BB is the story of a suburban sissy man who made a really bad decision and immediately found himself in WAY over his head, and from that point on was constantly acting out of desperation. It seemed like Walt was constantly being put in a position where he had to choose between crossing some moral line that he'd set for himself or having it all come crashing down on him and his family. And every time he chose to cross the line, as I probably would too, which both helped him out in the short term, but also put him even further in over his head.
I'm not saying that he's a good guy, but I am saying that I can relate to the choices he made as he made them, and I'm entertained to watch a guy gradually digress from school teacher to Darth Vader without every having a true "turn to the dark side" moment. He doesn't see himself as a villain. It's very relate-able.
I have to say that no matter how long I watch this show, I'm consistently amazed at how people just simply fail to see all the obvious signs about Walt's true character. I mean, they're not even hiding it.
There's interpretation and then there's interpretation; without being too unkind, there's literally no room at all for your view of Walter White. The show continually shows Walter White for who he is, a monster whose pride has consumed him to the point where he's willing to risk his family for some sense of power. What's worse, though, is that you suggest you would have done the same thing in his shoes. Is this really how people view the world? When you see a horrible monster with multiple murders on his hands, do you say 'well he was doing it to secure a financial future for his family?' Of course not. It's just a monster complicit with his monstrosity.
There may have been some extremely tiny period where Walt was doing it for his family, but I do mean EXTREMELY tiny period. He had multiple legitimate opportunities to leave the meth cooking world for good, to secure a financial future for his family and for his disease, and he refused. Because of his pride. Even though he has repeatedly been shown just the type of risk the life is to his family, he doesn't care. On MULTIPLE OCCASIONS he would rather allow someone to get closer to 'uncovering his secret' then allow some other person to take credit for his work. Hank thought he had well and truly solved the meth cook case; Walt was so prideful that he couldn't let it go. He had to literally put Hank back on HIS trail so that he wouldn't have to suffer the indignity of someone else getting credit for his 'genius' meth formula.
And as to the Walt doesn't see himself as a villain, I'm not even sure THAT's true anymore. When Walt was masculating himself, "I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS", it was implicit in his tone and words that he IS taking the mantle of the villain. He was saying the Skylar: "I am the one with balls, I am the one who people should fear."
Breaking Bad is not the story of an 'urban sissy man.' It's the story of someone whose pride was allowed to fester until it became its own sort of disease; a man who needed cancer to unlock the monster he always truly was.
It is possible to 'relate' to him, perhaps, but the point people are making about Walter White's horrific character... the fact that he IS a villain and he IS a monster... is 100% correct.
And let it be known that this is OK. That's what makes the character fascinating. You call it 'venom', but it's not. If Walter White was any other way, he wouldn't be interesting. But a monster he is.
What worries me is that some people say they would have done the same things he did. Which just tells me we have true sociopaths on GAF.
