u/bigtownhero
bigtownhero
bigtownhero
Play stupid games.
bigtownhero
For a "no half measures" guy he sure did take a lot of them. Keeping Walter around for one. Not killing Lydia for two. Keeping Jesse around. Keeping the hazard pay guys around.
bigtownhero
96% accurate
bigtownhero
"He doesn't pretend to be a good person"..
I would say this is more than likely an accurate statement by how we see his character portrayed, however it's more nuanced than that.
The issue I have with Mike isnt that he believes he's a good person, but how he perceived himself juxtaposed to other individuals in the same sphere.
Mike is similar to Walter as they both operate within the framework of a corrupted sense of utilitarianism. The difference here is Walter's is fueld by the sense of ego and Mike's is fuled by the sense of atonement.
This is what ultimately makes me dislike Mike. With Walter we can see his hubris, his need for power and at least it's apparent and it's somerhing that Walter at least externally admits. Mike on the other hand has this quality about him where he genuinely believes that he is "better" than the other criminals. Again, Walter is at least transparent later on that he's doing this for his ego and power, because he cpuld have easily walked away had it have been for money. Mike on the other hand is just this smug guy that is still acting like he's just doing this for his granddaughter and he has some kind of more righteous code than everyone else.
"We had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had Gus! We had everything we needed, and it all ran like clockwork!"
Mike didn't care that Gus was killing people, that meth was killing people, that Gus was insane, that he enslaved people, that children were murdered under his command.
No. All Mike cared about was that Gus' operation ran smoothly and it provided him what he needed.
Walter at least never decieved himself. Mike was a self deceptive asshole that operated like he had the moral higher-ground.
bigtownhero
So... This is my take.
We want to watch the show, furthermore we want the show to go the route of maximum entertainment. Maximum entertainment is only achieved through Walter succeeding in the drug trade.
This, and I cant stress this enough, (I've praised Vince multiple times on this sub) is simply brilliant writing by Vince.
Skyler acts, because she is written as such to be a foil for Walter. As such, she isnt just an obstacle for Walter to have to maneuver around, she is by proxy an obstacle we have to maneuver around.
This manieving isn’t entertaining though in the traditional sense. It's mundane, and it's something that perhaps on a much smaller level we have had to deal with. "Why cant our loved one just see what we are trying to do and support us".
Hank doesn't have to be seen as such as he has a deontological duty to stop Walter. It's his job, and it's much more entertaining because it plays out as a long cat and mouse game where Walter's charcater grows more entertaining through the dynamic than less (with Skylar).
See, the writing with this corrupted Utilitarianism of Walter (ends justify the means, I'm doing this for my family) has us naturally rooting for our main character. We don't want this lawful good anchor in the show that comes off as unappreciative and "nagging".
Since we want the entertainment and the thrill, and she is standing in the way of this we end up disliking her. From this we take on Walter's ego, we take on Walter's need for power and control, and Skylar opposes that.
By hating Skylar (I would argue this could have been intentionally done) we as the audience has been corrupted by Walter and we've bought into his belief that although he may be doing a bad thing, its for a good reason.
"The only thing she did wrong was sleeping with Ted"...
That's an interesting take, because her reasoning for doing so we could take as the exact reason Walter is doing ehat he is doing. A "bad" thing for a "good" reason. She slept with Ted to get Walter to divorce her and get him out of the house. So, we see Skyler succumbing to Walter's corruption as well and utilizing his means of justification for actions.
I suppose the shortest answer here is "she is stopping the main character from driving the show in the most entertaining way for the audience, and the audience does not like that".
Now, by the end of the show, one should probably understand that Skylar was Walter's greatest victim. Someone cpuld argue it's Jesse because of the sheer physical suffering he endured, but Jesse was a willing participant of this all the way through (could argue later he wasn't but he agreed to the terms and Walter didn't owe him what he owed Skylar).
Walter completely destroyed every area of her life, and again if by the end someone doesn't recognize this, then I would say "I dont get" why they hate her.
We are all selfish, which might be something to take from the show as well. We want Walter to succeed because he promised us entertainment, he promised us power. We don't care how we got the entertainment, at what cost, we just wanted it.
Make no mistake though, Skylar is his greatest victim. The saddest moment in Breaking Bad was seeing her at the end in that apartment and still allowing Walter to hold Holly. A truly tragic character who's only fault was not turning Walter in sooner, which eould have only made us hate her more.
bigtownhero
She's at times uptight and jumps to conclusions, but she isn't depicted as being retarded. She wouldn't have bought that he has a second cell phone, dissappears right after it rings, is missing for days, turns up naked in a grocery store, all of his medical tests turn nothing up (no drugs in his system) and marijuana was the reason.
bigtownhero
It's like an Amish cosplay.
bigtownhero
You went full retard man.
bigtownhero
That nut noise ko'd him.
bigtownhero
Rude is having multiple people over months tell you in nice ways that your feet smell and not doing anything about it. Rude is making people smell your feet. These people seem like the opposite of rude.
bigtownhero
None of these CEOs actually eat the food.
Just laughing in our faces.
bigtownhero
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bigtownhero
I watched the movie again, fairly recently (last few months) and this scene i provided below really stood out.
The scene starting off with music, bells ringing, people talking chaotically, and the camera goes up the stairs of the temple through the crowd and stops on Liu Kang talking to his grandfather with no cuts.
We see a shadow of Raiden with eeire music, wind chimes, and candles blowing out.
Then we hear Raiden talk and the camera cuts to Raiden walking through the crowd and all the monks bowing to him
It's weird scene because it's (imo) very high quality in a movie that later in has a four armed monster get punched in the balls.
bigtownhero
Progressive
bigtownhero
It was a nice little karma farm.
bigtownhero
This is what the power structure has been wanting to do since this started.
You went full retard man.