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I Just Finished Breaking Bad Last Night, Can't Fathom The Skyler Hate (Spoilers)

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Fuchsdh

Member
None of his actions were reasonable the very second he turned down that job/payment for his cancer from Grey Matter, which was extremely early in the show. Not even one single action. But HIS PRIDE, ya know...

This is why I never got into the show. They give the character an easy out in the second episode, and he doesn't take it... he became a completely irredeemable character from that point for me and I barely got two episodes further. No point for me to watch a show full of characters I hate.

The fact that people continued and continue to see him as some hero is either willful ignorance or completely missing the core point of the show.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
People not liking Skylar doesn't bother me, but if they cheer on Walt while hating her it seems kind of fucked up. Walt is killing people and worse all under the false delusion he's doing it for his family, yet when offered the money by his old colleagues he turns it down because of his pride. From that moment on, I can't justify anyone saying Walt is doing the right thing.

Walt is crazy entertaining.
Skylar is a buzzkill.
It has nothing to do with "good\bad person", it's about "entertaining\annoying".
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
This is why I never got into the show. They give the character an easy out in the second episode, and he doesn't take it... he became a completely irredeemable character from that point for me and I barely got two episodes further. No point for me to watch a show full of characters I hate.

The fact that people continued and continue to see him as some hero is either willful ignorance or completely missing the core point of the show.


You should watch it. It is so good. You will hate Walt way more than you already do but it is super entertaining.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
I think some people are forgetting season 1. Skylar ticked every box of a poorly written, poorly developed caricature often used for plot convenience.

Skylar is a pretty difficult character to square rationally or have much sympathy with from the get go outside of her sister at the surprise party. They do better in the last couple season but not much before then. I won't go season by season but here:

Most of our early exposures to Skylar are her in part being cold and controlling, speaking down to people, dishonest in her own ways, often self absorbed, lacking empathy and overreacting. Crying about lack of communication then berating, shutting Walter down and pushing him away every time he tells the truth creating a vicious cycle of encouraging more dishonesty due to her constant negativity and lack of empathy.

Even if it was covering up for much worse crimes, Skylar takes Walters perceived admitting of marijuana to use as a soap box to berate him, shut him down and then goes to Jesse like a crazy controlling person. Same with the credit card rant with a distraught Walter after the cancer announcement and the losing of his job. The show establishes in the pilot she thinks early on he may be having a crisis but its nothing to worry too much about and knows something is wrong but then drops or heightens that empathy when it creates convenient drama for Walt.

Then the cancer reveal and from hence forth, even though it is deeper then that due to Walter being a shit himself, Skylar never once seems to take any personal responsibility, see the obvious parallels that should offer even a false sense of sympathy at points or see the hypocrisy in some her actions and judgements.
 

Tigress

Member
This is why I never got into the show. They give the character an easy out in the second episode, and he doesn't take it... he became a completely irredeemable character from that point for me and I barely got two episodes further. No point for me to watch a show full of characters I hate.

The fact that people continued and continue to see him as some hero is either willful ignorance or completely missing the core point of the show.

I enjoyed the show. I hated Walt for pretty much the same reason you did but I'll argue the show even gave a little hint of him not being so good even before that point. Just it did it in a way that one could argue it was understandable how he reacted... but how he reacted was kinda disturbing to me even if understandable and I think they did that on purpose (to me it actually shows how well the writing on the show was and the acting was).

But it was an interesting show even if I kept wanting Walt to get caught or even die. It was well done and just interesting to watch how he would get out of things.

But I agree with you fully on your last paragraph. It really disturbs me that people see him as a hero honestly. That's way more disturbing than him, who is a fictional character that they purposely made not to be a good guy. That some how people actually think he was a good guy or a hero. Or even just admire him. Weird thing is I did like characters like Gus, but Gus seemed more honest to me. He never tried to act like he was a good guy or that everyone should see him as a good guy. The fact that Walt did and viewed stuff he did as justified and that he really was just a normal/good guy underneath and that people actually do view him that way is what bothers me I think about Walt's character. I think that's why I even have more respect for House of Card's main character cause once again, he's not thinking of himself as the good guy or even insisting others see him that way (unless it suits his means).

And yeah, like you I usually can't stand watching shows about people I absolutely detest. But the show was well done and interesting even while hating him.
 

Calvero

Banned
Also he raped her. So.

this is looked over too much whenever this show is talked about.

My first post on Gaf and I get to say FUCK SKYLER?!

So good .

Fuck Skyler indeed. I don't remember the details,it's been a while since I watched BB but GOD DAMIN IT SON I remember my feelings towards her and her actions.

Fucking hell just nagging and whining and complaining and making Walt miserable.

Fuck that shit.

holy shit. only one post and banned.
 
I always took it as people saw Skyler getting in the way of Walt, which tended to make people not like her.

The problem is that Walt, as fantastic of a character as he is, is a total piece of shit and shouldn't be rooted for at all. It's the Vic Mackey Conundrum.

Skyler basically has natural reactions to having to deal with quite possibly the most evil person she'll ever have the displeasure of dealing with.
 

zma1013

Member
This is why I never got into the show. They give the character an easy out in the second episode, and he doesn't take it... he became a completely irredeemable character from that point for me and I barely got two episodes further. No point for me to watch a show full of characters I hate.

The fact that people continued and continue to see him as some hero is either willful ignorance or completely missing the core point of the show.

I would like to ask, does a character have to have redeemable qualities for you to enjoy them? Do you like any outright villians in shows or movies? I really am just curious as I'm wondering if some people's dislike for certain characters on certain shows comes from just disliking characters because they're bad people or if it's actually something else specific to a particular show, like the perception of bad or unconvincing writing or acting or whatever.
 

vikki

Member
I thought Skyler was good until the final season. I still don't get the hate, but she was bad the last season.
 
I really think you could make a case that she's in a domestically abusive relationship and that she legitimately tried to end things with Walt at multiple points, but he's stalks and manipulates those around him to make it extremely hard for her to live without him. She gets more criminally immoral as the show gets on, but I also chalk that up to Walt's almost supernatural influence on her others. He possesses an ability to turn everyone and everything around to shit.


Why do people jump to the terms nagging or whining when a woman expresses dissatisfaction with a horrible husband, and he was by all means a horrible husband right from the start.

I agree. She is the way she is because of Walt, not because she's nagging and complaining because that is her character flaw or anything.
 

pelicansurf

Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
Skyler wasn't bad, more of a wet blanket with no redeemable features. Sure she was trying to do the morally right thing sometimes, but as a part of a program meant for entertainment, she was not very fun. She also cheated on Walt and kind of rolled over and started to help him launder money, so there was totally a lack of backbone there.

Overall, I think she was kinda lame, I liked Walt until near the end, when he became full blown super villain. Jesse Pinkman is the dude that I liked and kept liking throughout the show.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
people tend to identify with the main character and she was an antagonist to him. it's not as as simple as that because they didn't develop her character enough either but they were in a position where what Walt was doing was more exciting so family life scenes in general tend to get slagged as annoying and even more so because it was used to reflect negatively back on Walt to show his character and the reality of what he was doing
 

PaulBizkit

Member
I hated her at first because all she did was complaining about everything. But by the third and fourth season, she started cooperating with walt and the money laundring and started to like her better.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I would like to ask, does a character have to have redeemable qualities for you to enjoy them? Do you like any outright villians in shows or movies? I really am just curious as I'm wondering if some people's dislike for certain characters on certain shows comes from just disliking characters because they're bad people or if it's actually something else specific to a particular show, like the perception of bad or unconvincing writing or acting or whatever.

I have to enjoy watching a show, and usually that means there are characters I can sympathize with or care about. I don't think it's really correlated to whether or not they're morally good or bad, I just don't see the point in spending a half hour or hour every week with characters I don't care about or don't enjoy.
 
I hated her at first because all she did was complaining about everything. But by the third and fourth season, she started cooperating with walt and the money laundring and started to like her better.

So the the point where she's forced to partake in his insane husband's meth empire is the part where you liked her better.

Yeah OK.

hqdefault.jpg

And here I thought this scene was too on-the-nose and spelled out what didn't need to be spelled out.

Little did I know not only was this necessary, but people actively ignore it.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Most of it is probably from misogynists who think Walter White is "cool"

I hate when these threads turn into this shit. Do you really gotta start calling people misogynists for disliking a character in a TV show?

Not long until people start insulting fans of Walter and insinuating that it's immoral to enjoy his character.
 
I don't get the hate either. I didn't particularly like Skyler, but a lot of her actions were at least understandable considering her situation.

Her sister was the one I hated, but she seemed like she was written like the audience should hate her.
So the the point where she's forced to partake in his insane husband's meth empire is the part where you liked her better.

Yeah OK.



And here I thought this scene was too on-the-nose and spelled out what didn't need to be spelled out.

Little did I know not only was this necessary, but people actively ignore it.
Honestly its not that hard to understand. Not everyone watches shows to take in characterization and examine the plot. Some people just watch shows like Breaking Bad to watch bad ass shit happen. And for a good portion of the show Skyler is the main character standing in the way of letting Walt do bad ass shit.

The most interesting part of the show for a lot of people is watching Walt run and build a drug empire, and Skyler combats that for a lot of the show.
 

Stat Flow

He gonna cry in the car
I watched the show to be entertained. She was an obstacle to that entertainment. In other words, a buzzkill. Beyond that I didn't like her nor dislike her.
 
I hate when these threads turn into this shit. Do you really gotta start calling people misogynists for disliking a character in a TV show?

Not long until people start insulting fans of Walter and insinuating that it's immoral to enjoy his character.

People can enjoy his character as him being an evil piece of shit and seeing how low he can sink, but if they root for him all the way through to the finale yeah they kinda have issues.
 

Stat Flow

He gonna cry in the car
Most of it is probably from misogynists who think Walter White is "cool"
This is an awesome parody post.

People can enjoy his character as him being an evil piece of shit and seeing how low he can sink, but if they root for him all the way through to the finale yeah they kinda have issues.
This is such a load of shit. This is a fantasy world, one that I can separate from reality. I can root for a character I like without having "issues."
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
People can enjoy his character as him being an evil piece of shit and seeing how low he can sink, but if they root for him all the way through to the finale yeah they kinda have issues.

Why? It's a show called Breaking Bad, it's fun to watch him break bad. Like, you say it's fine to enjoy him do bad things but then at the same time I can't root for him? Enjoying it is okay since it's a show but rooting for him means I'm a psychopath in real life?

I really don't get the logic here.
 

ZangBa

Member
I wasn't a big fan of her character because of the attitude she has with everyone right from the beginning, especially how she treated Walt when she found out he had cancer, basically trying to force him to do things her way when it's his choice to make. She's pretty unlikable to me for a few reasons. I found her pretty hypocritical for supporting Ted with his illegal activities as well. Fucking Ted doesn't, and helping him illegally doesn't really help support the family.

We all know at some point Walt does it more for the ego than the money, at which point this starts is debatable. However, despite this fact he is still technically supporting the family. Of course, what Walter is doing reprehensible, and Skyler certainly has reason to be angry and upset, I just don't think some of her actions were very sensible.

My other issue is with the actress herself. I felt she was overacting often, making strange faces. I don't think this is misogynist, I was OK with the other actresses on the show. I rewatched the series with my sister recently, and she felt the same way about her character and the acting. She was definitely not a fan of Skyler at any point, lol.

Of course, nothing is as bad as Walt throwing thar pizza on the roof. What an asshole.
 
If it were real life I'd be on Skyler's side. But this is a piece of entertainment and she was always there to dampen the "fun". She's just an annoying character, simple as that.
 
I remember thinking she was really annoying the first couple of seasons, and really by the end of it she was pretty much in it with Walt. I don't think it was until shit really hit the wall that she bailed.
 

MUnited83

For you.
I don't think she was bad at all, and the only time she was actually "annoying" was when she tried to actively participate and help Walt on his criminal business.

I didn't hate Skyler as such, but I just couldn't like her. As mentioned already, she's a buzzkill. Walt only started cooking meth to earn money to look after his family in the event the cancer killed him. Yet, for some reason, he was looked upon as an evil, scumbag husband for lying to his family. Yes, he did lie, but did so to protect them. And what does Skyler do? She treats him like shit. Walt should've left her to scrape on by with what they had.

Lol, did you miss the whole point of the show? It was never about the money. Fucker never needed to cook meth to get money for his family, if that was true he would just have took the Grey Matter job. It was all about his ego, and he even admit it so in the end.
 
This is such a load of shit. This is a fantasy world, one that I can separate from reality. I can root for a character I like without having "issues."

Why? It's a show called Breaking Bad, it's fun to watch him break bad. Like, you say it's fine to enjoy him do bad things but then at the same time I can't root for him? Enjoying it is okay since it's a show but rooting for him means I'm a psychopath in real life?

I really don't get the logic here.

Not saying you can't separate life from fiction, and like I just said in the previous post you're quoting you can find him an enjoyable character and be perfectly fine so long as you're enjoying him being a shitty person. But there's a difference between enjoying an evil character and genuinely sympathizing with him.
 

BibiMaghoo

Member
She was awesome before even saying a word in the show because Legacy of Kain. I don't get the hate at all. People make mistakes, and most did in the show. Walter however was in a different league altogether. He makes Tony Sopprano look like a nice guy in comparison, and he was a bastard.
 
I don't think Walt actually rapes Skyler. He seemingly tries to, but relents when she declines more forcefully, and that she is able to shut him down almost immediately suggests he didn't really have it in him and was just trying to play out some weird macho fantasy he had in his head.

Anyway, I think Skyler got a lot of hate because she's not that interesting of a character, and existed primarily as the "real-world" anchor for Walt and all of his over-the-top crime antics that were the main drawing points of the show, commercially.
 

Tigress

Member
Not saying you can't separate life from fiction, and like I just said in the previous post you're quoting you can find him an enjoyable character and be perfectly fine so long as you're enjoying him being a shitty person. But there's a difference between enjoying an evil character and genuinely sympathizing with him.

This pretty much. It disturbs me when I see people actively arguing for him and excusing what he did as if they don't see that he is evil. It's one thing to enjoy an evil character and watch them out. I really liked Gus and Mike though I don't think Mike was inherantly bad rather than just unlawful and pragmatic and willing to do bad if that is what it took to protect him and his). And I'm pretty sure no one will disagree that Gus was evil and Mike is more arguable but the fact he was willing to do that stuff still makes him evil really. Hell, I mostly enjoy watching House of Cards and seeing how that character manages (and I think if it was him vs. Walt, he'd win. Walt's too emotional. He has most of Walt's good traits but is a lot better at keeping his emotions in check. THough last season it's interesting to see him come more undone).

It's another to actually start acting like they were the good guy and blaming Skyler cause how dare she oppose him. And a lot of the Skyler hate I saw did exactly that (most of it I saw on reddit to be fair). This thread doesn't have it as much and actually has some more thought out reasons why they didn't like it but you still see it some... like the guy who got banned's comments.

And some of the skyler hate really does come off as misogynists (mostly the ones that are pissed off cause how dare she stand in Walt's way and hate her just for that. Or the she's bitchy and whiny and acting like Walt was the big saint and she should just cowtow to him).
 
Re: Grey Matter, it's strongly implied that Walt threw away his relationship with Gretchen because of how rich her family was, and his pride couldn't take even imagining that they maybe looked down on him a little. Gretchen doesn't seem to harbor any ill will toward him, but decades later, he still tells her to go fuck herself within five minutes of starting a conversation. In his mind, he "settled" for a "mere" waitress in Skyler, presumably because he thought in his mind that he would always be above her and have the power by virtue of his intelligence, the irony being that A) she eventually became the dominant force in the relationship, and B) she was by far a more grounded and moral person (though still quite imperfect, especially compared to Walt Jr., who is the only person in the whole series who instantly does the right thing when confronted with Walt's evil).
 
Most of it is probably from misogynists who think Walter White is "cool"

People can enjoy his character as him being an evil piece of shit and seeing how low he can sink, but if they root for him all the way through to the finale yeah they kinda have issues.
I notice this a lot too. People who play through evil routes in video games or enjoy villain protagonists are usually amoral people.
E8dR7VC.gif

Seriously though, Walt's arc, along with his encounters with his antagonists, and his relationship with Jesse, are the strongest points in the show. Skyler's not a bad character, but the writing kind of leaves her by the way side at a lot of times.
 

DocSeuss

Member
I enjoy the show because I enjoy watching Walter White do crimes.

Skyler threatens Walter's ability to do crimes.

Skyler therefore interrupts the thing I like about the show.

Also it's easier, for me, at least, to rationalize Walter initially doing crimes for his family's sake (and his own ego) than it is to accept Skyler's revenge cheating against him. Like, dude's got cancer, so it's somehow a little bit okay for him to do this, even though rationally, no it's not. Hard to explain, really.

Skyler's like Chi McBride in the first season of House. House is doing Bad Things, but we like watching House DO Bad Things, so Chi McBride's character is seen as bad, even though he's really NOT. She's that. Real-world interpretation makes perfect sense, but TV fun interpretation makes them nuisances.

I'm going to go back to my fever now.
 

zma1013

Member
I enjoy the show because I enjoy watching Walter White do crimes.

Skyler threatens Walter's ability to do crimes.

Skyler therefore interrupts the thing I like about the show.

Also it's easier, for me, at least, to rationalize Walter initially doing crimes for his family's sake (and his own ego) than it is to accept Skyler's revenge cheating against him. Like, dude's got cancer, so it's somehow a little bit okay for him to do this, even though rationally, no it's not. Hard to explain, really.

Skyler's like Chi McBride in the first season of House. House is doing Bad Things, but we like watching House DO Bad Things, so Chi McBride's character is seen as bad, even though he's really NOT. She's that. Real-world interpretation makes perfect sense, but TV fun interpretation makes them nuisances.

I'm going to go back to my fever now.

If only House had a sidekick to yell "Yeah, Science Bitch!" everytime he cured people in an illegal way.
 

Skeyser

Member
I enjoy the show because I enjoy watching Walter White do crimes.

Skyler threatens Walter's ability to do crimes.

Skyler therefore interrupts the thing I like about the show.

Pretty much this, she's totally justified in a lot of things she does, but BB is a show, not real life and that's why people find her annoying.
 

DocSeuss

Member
Pretty much this, she's totally justified in a lot of things she does, but BB is a show, not real life and that's why people find her annoying.

Skyler's presence threatens walter's ability to shout THIS? IS NOT METH. She's normalcy in a sea of surrealism.
 

VoxPop

Member
A blast from the past.

Not sure who I hated more..

Jesse or Skylar..

Skylar on one hand is a whining, narcissistic, hypocrite, adulterer and in general a terrible wife but Jesse's baby back bitching, constant crying, and idiotic decisions all the time take the cake. Cancer was probably the best thing to happen to Walt to open his eyes.
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
She epitomizes boredom and stagnation for me.

Every scene she is in I just feel like taking a deep siiiiiiiigh. Especially the cringeworthy hand job scene.
 

The Beard

Member
This is such bullshit.

If he was so concerned about his family, he would have started working for Grey Matter and tried to get money from them.

Walt was always a bad person. And the things he did had shit to do with his family.

In the beginning Walt's heart was in the right place, he needed a way to provide for his family because he thought he'd soon be dead and his family would be fucked with no money. Walt wasn't always a bad person. His pride kept him from taking the job at Grey Matter. Later on, the success and accolades got to his head and he became an egomaniac which prevented him from walking away from the meth world.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Most of the Skyler hate is misogyny, that much is plainly obvious.

People say no, it's because they found Walt's schemes interesting and exciting and she was the "buzzkill", but really... even if you consider that angle, there would be very little, or at least far less, tension without a foil like Skyler, so it doesn't make sense.

It reminds me of the hate Rita got in Dexter. That shit was crazy too, because Rita was actually a sweet, caring, good person. Skyler was a bit more "grey" and flawed, though still a much better person than Walt, but Rita was almost a saint really. And yet she got hate because she'd "nag" at Dexter and question him (100% rightly so) and "get in the way" of his serial killing.

And yet, Doakes served a similar purpose (albeit in a different way) in S2 of Dexter. He was the foil, he was the one who was there to create the tension for Dexter. Did people hate him? Nope, he was a popular character in my experience. Because he was a badass male, not a "nagging girlfriend/wife".

I saw a lot of internet hate against Jessica Brody in Homeland too, despite her being a far better person than her piece of shit husband. (Now the Brody family subplots just sucked in general, especially when the kids got involved, but that's different, I'm talking about the hate Jessica got just for being "the wife").

Someone else brought up Boardwalk Empire. I stopped watching that some time into S2 or 3, but I'm sure there's that double standard again.

One "annoying wife" character that deserved the hate she got, IMO, was Lori in The Walking Dead. But it's because her decisions were actually stupid and irrational most of the time, and she was not written in any believable way, unlike Skyler, Rita and Jessica.

I don't really get the Skyler hate either. Her actions make sense in the context of the show, plus I found her character development to be interesting.

The character I didn't "get," was Marie. She didn't add much to the show and it felt like her kleptomania never went anywhere.
Yeah Marie was a bit weird, not sure how I felt about that character.

I didn't hate Skyler as such, but I just couldn't like her. As mentioned already, she's a buzzkill. Walt only started cooking meth to earn money to look after his family in the event the cancer killed him. Yet, for some reason, he was looked upon as an evil, scumbag husband for lying to his family. Yes, he did lie, but did so to protect them. And what does Skyler do? She treats him like shit. Walt should've left her to scrape on by with what they had.
That's what I said, yes. Argue it as much as you want, Walt did what he did for his family, to ensure his family were looked after if he died. He cooked meth, he killed people, he blew people up, he threatened people, he destroyed lives - all for his family. It seems like a really fucked up thing to do, but he did it all out of desperation to provide for the ones he loves. He literally put his life on the line to make sure Skyler and Walt Jr were looked after after his demise. And, yet, that's not enough for Skyler. She constantly treats him like utter shit. As I said, I would've left her with nothing out of spite.
I never called him a hero or a saint. I know full well that Walt is, in fact, evil. But he did what he did for his family.
Holy shit. Wow. Never have I seen someone miss the point so badly.

I hate it when writers write that a woman will "get back" at her piece of shit husband /boyfriend by doing something equally as shitty. To me, that undercuts any character that we're supposed to have sympathy for immediately.

Gunn herself is amazing in the role, she sells Skylar's emotional plight incredibly well, but Skylar did some dumb shit and went back and forth on being cool with Walt's activities and being against it too often to be a consistent character I could understand. After a while, I just wrote off the character and got behind Hank.
So Skyler being a flawed human being means she's badly written? No. A lot of otherwise decent human being will sometimes resort to petty, shitty behaviour when they are hurt. It doesn't make their pettiness "right" or "good" but it's not necessarily evil either, especially when it's tame compared to the hurt they received. If Skyler, say, poisoned her child (heh) as retaliation to something Walt did that pissed her off, then she'd be a complete monster and you'd have a point. But nope, Walt is the one who poisoned kids, and not even as a lashing out after being hurt, but simply to manipulate Jesse into doing what he wanted. The hate Skyler gets for her flaws is disproportionate.

As for Skyler's so-called inconsistency, I don't see it. She was not okay with the drug dealing, but at some point she resigned herself and decided to make the most of it, and got exasperated when Walt kept screwing up.

Vince Gilligan was asked about this by Vulture. Here's his response.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/vince...aking-bad.html
Completely agree with Gilligan there. Of course it's no surprise he'd get his own character. ^^

If Skyler had let her husband function as a normal human being maybe he wouldn't have done any of it at all. It's her fault more than his, imo.
....
I'm speechless.

She was awesome before even saying a word in the show because Legacy of Kain.
Yesss. Glad someone else remembered her from LoK! :) Anna Gunn is a great actress.
 
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