127 points

You actually have to be a dumb cunt to hate Skyler, I remember hating her when I first watched BB, because she was the bitch wife messimg with badass Walter, now that I rewatched it as I am older and damn, walter is a proper cunt the whole way through and she is trying navigate a really fucked up situation, I just felt bad for her the whole way through

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42 points

Nah man, I hated Walter from the get go and still hated Skylar. Basically the only characters I liked ended up in Better Call Saul, outside of Hank and Jessie

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37 points

Hank was a douchebag, and it took Jesse a good while to become somewhat of a decent person.

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3 points

Hank was pretty much the only character who wasnt doing anything wrong (or at least for the most part, I havent watched Breaking Bad in a really long time) the entire show

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35 points

Yeah, she fucks up but like damn give a girl a break her husband got cancer and keeps lying about where he is and what he’s doing.

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41 points

Her husband becomes a psychopathic mass murderer and drug manufacturer

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19 points

Yeah, but most people start hating her in season 1/2 where she’s kinda a bitch or when she cheats.

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3 points

Bro! Spoilers!!

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9 points

you dont have to be a dumb cunt to hate skyler, she is there to disrupt the part of the show that is the most fun to see (walt’s rise to kingpin)

like no shit people are going to hate that

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1 point

I could have just said immature cunt, but those kinda go hand in hand, but kinda good on you come on here and prove my point, so thanks for that.

Nothing more fun then ruining the lives of your Wife, her Sister, your children and getting your Brother-in-law killed, not for money, because he could have made all the money he wanted with gus and got out, no, because of his fucking ego, because he liked it.

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3 points

i didnt say it was fun watching him ruin his family, i said it was fun watching him rise in the criminal underworld

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7 points

The entire reason I couldn’t get through the show the first time I tried to watch it was because I despised ALL the characters.

It was years before I was able to get through the first season and on to the rest of the show which was amazing.

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75 points

Kai Winn

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57 points

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22 points

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35 points

And Nurse Ratched! Louise Fletcher is the best at being the worst.

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23 points
*

I was gonna mention this character as well! I was really surprised that Louise Fletcher wasn’t in the photo.

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11 points

Nurse Ratched legit fucked me up, and it’s a fictional character! Louise Fletcher was in the elite league that is basically her and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh. Incidentally, both got an Oscar for these roles.

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5 points
*

Grammy Gallagher on Shameless (US) too!

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10 points

I was having a good day, and then you uttered her name -_-

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8 points
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Kai winn and nurse ratched, if you ain’t on louise fletchers level you just playing

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5 points

We don’t speak of the unspeakable in this sub mister.

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67 points

I never hated Skylar, but I get why she’s in the meme. Anna Gunn does severe so damn well.

I also don’t mind Dolores Umbridge’s actress because I hated her in the book far, far more.

Jack Gleeson should come back and give it a shot again. And I can’t tell who the other one is.

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45 points
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Jeffery Dean Morgan as Neegan (sp) in The Walking Dead.

I think his role as the Comedian in The Watchmen was more hatable, at least the character was pretty awful in a grounded way instead of the silly over the top Walking Dead kind of way.

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28 points
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That character was so well done (The Comedian, I don’t remember Walking Dead well enough). He’s more tragedy than contemptable depending on your sympathies, but that was kinda’ the point. It’s almost the point of ANY “good” bad character. Give them motivations that are understandable by non-psychos, just make the character make poor (poor, not stupid) or mean decisions.

… and his acting helped round out the character instead of flatten. He genuinely seemed like a good guy that got insanely jaded and went off the deep instead of just a bad guy.

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9 points

He was contemptible as Neegan. Very well played.

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4 points

Good-looking bad people are always liked no matter how badly behaved their characters are.

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2 points

The Comedian was my favorite character from Watchmen. Not because I think he was good, misunderstood, or any kind of role model. I just found him very compelling.

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1 point

That movie is so fucking good and Jeffrey Dean Morgan absolutely killed it as the comedian.

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3 points

I never watched that show, thank you.

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13 points

I stopped when he showed up, not because of him as I enjoyed him in other roles, but because it was when two of the last three characters I enjoyed watching were killed off. One character wasn’t enough to keep me interested, and it was looking like they were just going to be doing the Governor 2.0 with how much they were playing him up.

He was also great as the Winchester’s dad in the early seasons of Supernatural.

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2 points

The Comedian somewhat repented though. He hated himself for all the evil he’d done. He was awful, but at least he realized how awful he’d been in the past and felt bad about it.

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15 points

Skylar wasn’t even evil or anything. Just a normal good person. Walter was an absolute piece of shit who chose to reject legitimate help and support, and instead do illegal villainous things.

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12 points

But that’s also the mark of a well written show, when you’re compelled to take the side of a man making the wrong choices, to walk that line with him. And then be yanked the fuck back by the writers at the end.

“I did it for me. I did it because I was good at it.”

Masterful.

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1 point

Do good people fuck Bob?

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4 points

Jack Gleeson is acting again. I saw him pop up in the last season of Sex Education in a small role.

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60 points

The more I hate a character, the more respect and admiration I have for the actor/actress. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with people who can’t differentiate between fiction and reality.

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22 points

Look around. People are idiots.

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52 points

People that hate Skylar are idiots. If they hate the actress, they’re even worse.

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34 points
*

Being hateable doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Obviously Skyler was acting in her family’s best interest and walt was a psycho POS but she played such an unlikeable character.

There are plenty of likeable “evil” characters and plenty of unlikeable “good” ones. People act like if you hate Skyler you somehow don’t get the show, but no, I understand her character just fine, it’s just that she’s insufferable about everything.

Regardless, hating the actress for the character is smooth brain shit

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13 points

I empathized with Skyler more than anyone else on the show. I was constantly asking myself what I would do in her position.

I feel like if someone found her insufferable, it was because you either agreed with Walt or were pissed that her character prevented shenanigans you wanted to see. I’ll admit I fell into the latter category in the first season or two but by the end, she rocked. If neither describes you, feel free to explain why you thought she was insufferable

I think she was one of the most realistic and best-written characters in the entire show. I also don’t think she got/gets nearly enough hate to even be a part this meme

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4 points

Shit isnt black and white like that. Disliking Skylar does NOT mean you like or agree with Walt. I hated both characters

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1 point

Indeed, I really hated her character, though the actress did a phenomenal job.

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-2 points
*

In the realm of toxic masculinity power fantasies there is no room for a woman who acts kind of like a normal person.

The show was written to make you root for Walt and dislike Skylar because of that, but is she really that unlikeable if you step back and look at her actions and motivations?

Edit: Sorry for being terse and using charged language in this comment.

I’m a fan of Breaking Bad. I wasn’t trying to put it down or to say that people disliker Skyler because she’s a woman.

Upthread I clarified things a bit, hopefully.

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5 points
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This the kind of surface level interpretation that makes me question people’s ability to reason.

Edit: I was being harsh, ignore me lol

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2 points

My whole point was that her motivations and actions are reasonable and she is mostly in the right (ie she is “good” not evil), but her character’s mannerisms are still extremely hate-able.

It’s not about acting like a normal person and it’s certainly not about being a woman.

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26 points
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Nah, that lacks nuance. People who hate Skylar for just crushing Walt’s vibe or being unlikeable are idiots. I have watched the show in its entirety three times, and my opinion on all the characters has evolved - my opinion of Skylar is more negative than it used to be. If you believe that Skylar is just a victim, you are denying her character agency. She is highly intelligent and capable and simultaneously intends to benefit from Walt’s actions while being arrogant enough to assume she can control the situation, outsmart the authorities, and get off scott free - much like another main character.

Skylar made certain choices to support Walt because she thought it was in the family’s best interest (including hers), then she later reneged on those choices when things didn’t turn out like she expected and ultimately forced Walt to take the blame for choices she willingly made. Skylar is as relatable and flawed as she is unlikeable: just like we would in her circumstances, she lacks the courage to do what is necessary to stop Walt and protect herself and her family.

She did not have to support Walt in the first place but instead did so even when given many opportunities to get out of the situation with minimal consequences. She may have paid a price for doing so as time went on (asset seizure if she went to the cops, social ostracization, her kids disliking her, etc), but the consequences were initially fairly trivial - divorce from a criminal who was putting the family at risk, embarrassment, harming her relationship with Marie, etc. And, while Walt obviously was callous/cruel/self-righteous/arrogant/and even evil, maybe - as was the point of his whole character, Skylar chose to support Walt in his criminal enterprise when she didn’t have to - going so far as to come up with money laundering ideas, encouraging him to expand his operations to an extent early on, helping him come up with cover stories, etc. and only later turning on Walt when she felt like she could no longer benefit from assisting him and would benefit more by betraying him - going so far as to physically assault him with a knife and threaten to kill him, lying to the police about his treatment of the family and also giving them his location which put his life in further jeopardy while he was trying to get the family to safety since he was being pursued.

In fact, Walt saw a way to use Skylar’s betrayal to protect the family and takes the blame for Skylar’s actions, goes along with Skylar’s lie that he was physically assaulting the family, threatening them with death if they didn’t comply, etc. all to take the heat off Skylar for the sake of the family. That doesn’t mean Walt is a saint. He should’ve stopped long before that and did many things that put the family in danger. But, his taking the blame for Skylar’s part in the operation shows that she did have a real part in it - he had to lie to say he forced her to be a part of the operation to put her in a better light and get her off the hook.

When Skylar initially began to support Walt, she was not under significant duress. There was a significant degree of duress later, with Walt acting intimidating, Meth Damon coming to “talk” to her at her house, etc. But you could say that just like the situation got away from Walt and was out of control, the same happened for Skylar. She thought she could control things and continue to benefit from Walt’s operation to provide a better life for the family. Then, when things got out of control, she flipped on Walt. The difference between Walt and Skylar is that Skylar got dragged into the situation by Walt, but remember, he really did try to keep her out of it. At a certain point, she chose to insert herself into it rather than leave the situation.

People dislike Skylar because she lacks courage. Courage to get out early when she had the chance, courage to report Walt to the police despite having many allies to help her and numerous opportunities, courage to stick to her moral convictions about what Walt was doing, courage to ensure her family’s safety before doing things that jeopardized her chances of full custody, courage to tell her kids the truth about Walt, or alternatively courage to stick with Walt since she had committed to doing so and was (at first) a willing accomplice. But, most importantly, the courage to face the consequences for her part in the whole ordeal - except at the very end when it was already too late. She lacks courage and is self-interested, wanting to benefit from Walt’s dealings while bearing none of the risk or responsibility for her part in them.

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8 points

Meth Damon cracked me up. But this is an amazing essay on Skyler and have me a lot of perspectives I had not considered. Nice job.

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5 points

How is she criticized for not having courage to report Walt but also not having courage to stick with him?

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2 points
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Nope read again, I said alternately for that second bit. You couldn’t think both of those at the same time, but thinking them separately is valid. Either she sticks with Walt or not, those are her two possible endings.

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3 points
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I want to add that an annoying character can act morally totally OK but still be disliked. That is because the annoyance is real and their actions and their consequences are not.

You could have a saintly character that always does the “right thing” but if they have an obnoxiously annoying way of speaking (extrem high pitch, extremely slow or fast or something) I would still dislike them.

That is because I actually get annoyed watching the character while I do not react that harshly even to a drug kingpin as the consequences of their action is fictional.

I have that kind of feeling of annoyance for skyler. I really do get annoyed at her controlling and arrogant way to handle things as it reminds me of real people. I do believe that this was intentional to make her unlikeable on first glance.

No matter how moral or “normal” her choices are the consequences are still fictional while my annoyance is real.

Edit: irl the situation is of course reversed. The consequences are real and the annoyance temporary.

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7 points

Yeah I’m pretty convinced that people who hate Skylar missed the point of the show. Skylar acted like a normal person would.

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4 points

Before I watched the show I thought she betrayed Walt last second because of all the hate she was getting. What the hell.

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