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

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kcp12304

Banned
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.

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Kornflayx

Member
Most people disliked Skyler because they identified with Walter. He's someone who thinks that, if he's given the chance, can be the smartest and most successful guy but gets "screwed over" by his colleagues, who get rich screwing him over. The cancer just gives him the chance to act out his power fantasies recklessly. That's what people want. They want to live their little power fantasies where they are the greatest thing that ever happened to their little world. Of course they hate the person who tries to ground them in reality.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
she "kicked' him out however he then realized he has just as much right to live there much like her. This was not a domestic issue it was a , my husband makes meth, however in his mind at first it was "im making meth to make money for my family when i die so they dont struggle". When he gets back in the house things are fine for a little while then she cheats on Walt

Haha, their relationship was "fine?"

And cheating is a really weird place to draw the line. So you can cook all the meth you want, launder money, kill a dude's GF because she's a distraction, poison a kid because he's a distraction, murder people, kidnap your own kid, etc. But cheating, how dare she!
 

ApharmdX

Banned
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.

No, he didn't. That was the show's point. He did it for himself, because he felt cheated out of success in life. Walt was a megalomaniac. He had zero moral scruples.
 
Never had an issue with her, and certainly never "hated" her. She was put in incredibly difficult positions by Walt and he basically puts her in a position to raise the kids and trying to maintain a somewhat stable household for them while he is off on his ego-fueled adventures. I see Walt's story as a tragedy, not a heroic journey, and she has to deal with a lot of shit.
 
Never understood the hate either. How dare she not be okay with her husband being a massive drug dealer and endangering her family!
 

HiResDes

Member
Mike actually isn't as evil as Walt. He's loyal, he has boundaries, and by all means he really believes he's doing what he's doing for his granddaughter.
 

HabeeNo

Member
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.

Sheesh, RIP lol

OT: off the top of my head, I hated Skyler because she fucked and gave all of Walt's money to Ted, and started smoking when she was pregnant
 

stupei

Member
Walter White was a peice of shit.

I will say that female characters who spoil the 'fun' seem to come under a lot of fire from certain types. Another female character that got put on the hate train was Margaret from Boardwalk Empire. I remember some of the ott hate towards her in the gaf threads.

Also again another female character who had an affair at some point. Which was seen as one of the most evil acts imaginable. Despite Nucky fucking prositiutes regularly.

Some people who write about television have even started to call this "The Skyler White Effect," although it obviously goes back much further than her. It's meant to describe when a female character is shown to make totally rational judgments about the male lead's behavior and is hated for it.

People also hated on Rita on Dexter, who displayed a really reasonable amount of suspicion for the weird shit her boyfriend was doing and would be called a nag for doing so.

And since Carmella comes up, it should be noted that she was often referred to as a nag that fans wanted to have killed off as well. It's almost like the only standard need be that they're women who spoil the immoral man's fun by behaving reasonably.

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.

He did what he did for his own ego. At the end of the show, he admits this.
 

Courage

Member
Most people disliked Skyler because they identified with Walter. He's someone who thinks that, if he's given the chance, can be the smartest and most successful guy but gets "screwed over" by his colleagues, who get rich screwing him over. The cancer just gives him the chance to act out his power fantasies recklessly. That's what people want. They want to live their little power fantasies where they are the greatest thing that ever happened to their little world. Of course they hate the person who tries to ground them in reality.

Pretty much. I think those are the same people Gilligan tried to appease with the finale. Walt deserved much worse.
 

kavanf1

Member
Some of the comments here are seriously making me express mild disbelief by exhaling slightly more air out of my nose than usual. If I read much more of this I am probably going to tut.
 

ApharmdX

Banned
I think a lot of it too was the scale of Walt's infractions versus hers. Most of us can't really fathom murdering dozens or running a hundred million dollar drug enterprise. That's far-off TV stuff. But your wife cheating on you with her boss? "Oh shit, that I can really feel, and it grinds my gears!"
 
I hated Walt, but I loved watching him do stuff.
I didn't hate Skyler but I did find her generally boring.

I definitely felt bad for her as the show went on, her best moment was when she pulled the knife on Walt.
 

RDreamer

Member
It's definitely weird to me how people seemed to continue on loving the power trip Walt has rather than going on an arc and finding other ways that the show is changing the dynamic like I did. I started out rooting for Walt and thinking Skylar was a tiny bit iffy, but by the end of it Walt is so fucking evil it's ridiculous and you should really feel for Skylar. By the end of it I was rooting for Jesse and hoping Walt had quite the downfall.

The Skylar hate is just ridiculous. Almost everything she does is completely understandable. Walt is a piece of shit.
 

BigAT

Member
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.

Did you skip the final episode?

I mean, even if you did, the fact that you're incredibly wrong is still spelled out throughout the entire series.
 
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
Like, I'm kind of at a loss here. How can anyone watch this show and think this is true? Not only does he literally say otherwise in the finale, it's pretty clear by like Season 2 that he wasn't doing it for his family
 
Pretty ignorant statement.

Sorry,
Same people that irrationally hated Skyler are the same people that hate the new Ghostbusters movie.

It's definitely weird to me how people seemed to continue on loving the power trip Walt has rather than going on an arc and finding other ways that the show is changing the dynamic like I did. I started out rooting for Walt and thinking Skylar was a tiny bit iffy, but by the end of it Walt is so fucking evil it's ridiculous and you should really feel for Skylar. By the end of it I was rooting for Jesse and hoping Walt had quite the downfall.

The Skylar hate is just ridiculous. Almost everything she does is completely understandable. Walt is a piece of shit.

Indeed it is ridiculous, it's either willful ignorance or just a lack in understanding.
 

Symphonia

Banned
No he didn't.

It was obvious throughout, but he finally admits it in the final episode
But I don't think he ever did it for himself. At every point of continuing the meth manufacturing, there is always a threat to his life (he needs to be alive for some time to earn money) or his family member's lives. He always thought of his family rather than the meth. I believe the whole "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really - I was alive..." line was a lie to convince Skyler.
 

HiResDes

Member
There are several instances where he completely manufactures a threat to his livelihood or someone close to him just to make his way to the top of the meth world easier.
 

kavanf1

Member
But I don't think he ever did it for himself. At every point of continuing the meth manufacturing, there is always a threat to his life (he needs to be alive for some time to earn money) or his family member's lives. He always thought of his family rather than the meth. I believe the whole "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really - I was alive..." line was a lie to convince Skyler.
Explain then why he turned down the Schwarz's offer to set him up for the rest of his life?
 
Some people who write about television have even started to call this "The Skyler White Effect," although it obviously goes back much further than her. It's meant to describe when a female character is shown to make totally rational judgments about the male lead's behavior and is hated for it.

People also hated on Rita on Dexter, who displayed a really reasonable amount of suspicion for the weird shit her boyfriend was doing and would be called a nag for doing so.

And since Carmella comes up, it should be noted that she was often referred to as a nag that fans wanted to have killed off as well. It's almost like the only standard need be that they're women who spoil the immoral man's fun by behaving reasonably.

I'd love for a new show to subvert this with a female lead that behaves similar to Walter White with a "nagging" husband. It would be illuminating to see what the reaction would be.
 

zma1013

Member
I feel all the hate should be directed at Walter. He wasted a perfectly good pizza. There is no redemption for such a crime.
 
But I don't think he ever did it for himself. At every point of continuing the meth manufacturing, there is always a threat to his life (he needs to be alive for some time to earn money) or his family member's lives. He always thought of his family rather than the meth. I believe the whole "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really - I was alive..." line was a lie to convince Skyler.

Lmfao. I'm in disbelief. You had to have missed a bunch of episodes.
 

Rembrandt

Banned
Mike actually isn't as evil as Walt. He's loyal, he has boundaries, and by all means he really believes he's doing what he's doing for his granddaughter.

he was a bodyguard and hitman to a crystal meth dealing kingpin. he was pretty fucking evil. if he was less evil than walt, it was by a small amount.

Same people that hated Skyler are the same people that hate the new Ghostbusters movie.

if you say so.
 

Symphonia

Banned
Explain then why he turned down the Schwarz's offer to set him up for the rest of his life?
He'd already established connections within the meth industry. He knew people who needed his product. Those people, should he fail to provide the goods, would more than likely kill him. I feel like he had to continue cooking meth to stay alive.
 
It's definitely weird to me how people seemed to continue on loving the power trip Walt has rather than going on an arc and finding other ways that the show is changing the dynamic like I did. I started out rooting for Walt and thinking Skylar was a tiny bit iffy, but by the end of it Walt is so fucking evil it's ridiculous and you should really feel for Skylar. By the end of it I was rooting for Jesse and hoping Walt had quite the downfall.

The Skylar hate is just ridiculous. Almost everything she does is completely understandable. Walt is a piece of shit.

It always seemed pretty clear to me that the viewer is supposed to sympathize with Walter in the beginning when it seems like he's a good man who gets caught up in a situation that spirals out of control because he's trying to help his family but that as the show goes on the viewer learns just how reprehensible Walt really is and how helping his family is secondary to feeding his ego. However, it seems that there are a lot of viewers who continued to sympathize with Walt, whether it was clinging to the initial impression of him or latching on to his few redeeming qualities. I don't think this fully explains negative reactions to Skyler, but it's surely a factor.
 

whitehawk

Banned
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.
This. It's impossible to overlook. The show tells you right at the end when even Walt admits it to himself.
 

Skilletor

Member
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.

If this was true, he would have stopped when Skyler asked him to, after she showed him the bunker full of money and asked him what he planned to do with it.

There were multiple points when he could have stopped, but no, it was always about him, his pride, his formula, his product. Being the best meant more than his family. He didn't give a shit about his family until the end.
 

TheOMan

Tagged as I see fit
But I don't think he ever did it for himself. At every point of continuing the meth manufacturing, there is always a threat to his life (he needs to be alive for some time to earn money) or his family member's lives. He always thought of his family rather than the meth. I believe the whole "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really - I was alive..." line was a lie to convince Skyler.

Can't tell if serious.
 
he was a bodyguard and hitman to a crystal meth dealing kingpin. he was pretty fucking evil. if he was less evil than walt, it was by a small amount.



if you say so.

It's a broad and silly statement that's meant to be a bit provocative, I admit. But some of the silliest arguments made for the hatred of either one of them fall in line with each other.
 

TheStruggler

Report me for trolling ND/TLoU2 threads
Haha, their relationship was "fine?"

And cheating is a really weird place to draw the line. So you can cook all the meth you want, launder money, kill a dude's GF because she's a distraction, poison a kid because he's a distraction, murder people, kidnap your own kid, etc. But cheating, how dare she!

all of that stuff hadn't happened yet, Im not calling walk a saint what he did was bad he had reasons for his fmaily later then admitting he did it for himself however I feel he came to that realization near the end and not the beginning. Walt was loyal to his wife and family becuse he knew the struggles they would have when he was gone
 

Silvard

Member
I just completely disagree with every word of this. I definitely think negligence and loneliness in a relationship can push a person to cheat, and I also think that Ted is a better guy than Walt, which is really saying something considering how pathetic he was

And yet you accuse others of victim blaming in the OP.

Skyler was extremely unlikeable to me. And I hated Walter White.

Only characters I liked were Gale, Mike and Saul.

What camp does that put me in?
 

Dash27

Member
Anyway, onto Skyler, who I must admit I did not like one bit in the first two seasons. I think there are three key reasons people don't like her. The first being her infidelity, the second being that she gives up on Walt in the end, but I believe the biggest is that she acts as a foil to Walter's frenzied pursuit for infamy.

The first season or two established her character and she was unlikable to say the least. Her infidelity did not bother me nearly so much as the way she treated her husband in the beginning, when he was still Walter White.

She was emasculating and condescending to him, which was a part of establishing the character of Walt as very docile and plain, but it made her look terrible.

As he grew more ballsy, she grew more obnoxious. Eventually of course Walt became a rather dangerous and "bad" person, but Skylar was never really a sympathetic figure to me.
 
He was wrapping it up, making his final amends. I always found it to be more poignant if he was saying it to give Skylar closure, whether or not it's true is still up for debate. He didn't care about being right, or his ego at that point, he just wanted to do whatever he could before the end.
 
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