Walter White

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Entertainingly Detestable

Full Name

Walter Hartwell White Sr.

Alias

Heisenberg

Walt
Mr. White
White
The Devil
Mr. Lambert
David Lynn
Two-Faced Poisonous Bastard

Origin

Breaking Bad

Powers / Skills

Genius-level intelligence

Expertise in chemistry
Psychological Manipulation
Deception
Intimidation
Marksmanship
Strategy and planning
Mechanical engineering
Strength
Wealth

Goals

Provide for his family by leaving behind a large sum of money accumulated from distributing crystal meth when he dies from cancer.
Avoid incarceration at all costs.
Establish his own drug empire and cook meth for his own satisfaction.
Kill Gus Fring to ensure his and his family's safety.
Kill Jack Welker and his gang to avenge Hank and free Jesse (all succeeded).

Most Entertaining Features

Bryan Cranston's exceptional performance.

Genius-level intelligence.
Deep and complex characterization, sympathetic qualities and sometimes understandable motives for his actions.

Most Detestable Traits

His egotism, arrogance and pettiness.

Sexually assaulting his wife Skyler.
Willingness to harm innocent people.
Killing Mike simply because he criticized him for his egomania.
Kidnapping his own daughter after his family turn on him.

Type of ED

Egotistical Mastermind

“	Who are you talking to right now? Who is it, you think you see? Do you know how much I make a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly decided to stop going into work? A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up. Disappears! It ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to, so let me clue you in: I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No... I am the one who KNOCKS!	„
	~ Walter White's famous speech to his wife, Skyler.

“	Walter White: Now... say my name. Declan: You're Heisenberg. Walter White: You're goddamn right.	„
	~ Walter White's famous quote as he declares himself "Heisenberg."

Walter Hartwell "Walt" White Sr., also known by his alias Heisenberg, is the main protagonist of the crime drama series Breaking Bad and a minor character in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul. He is a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and cooks and sells meth to provide for his family.

He was portrayed by Bryan Cranston.

His Qualities[]

What Makes Him Entertaining?[]

Bryan Cranston does a magnificent job portraying Walter White's humble beginnings as a disaffected middle-aged man to his descent as a hardened criminal and drug lord, to the point Walt in the beginning and Walt during his peak of power seem to be completely different individuals.
He has an extremely complex characterization, which explores his sympathetic qualities and transformation from a mild-mannered chemistry teacher to a ruthless drug lord.
He often uses his chemistry expertise to his advantage. Notable examples include cooking 99.1% pure methamphetamine, producing phosphine gas against Emilio and Krazy-8, blowing up Tuco Salamanca's headquarters with fulminated mercury, building a battery to jump-start the RV (which saved his and Jesse Pinkman's lives when they were stranded in the desert for several days), and building a bomb to kill Gus Fring.
He is a master strategist who devises numerous clever schemes which often utilize the Batman Gambit and thinks out of the box and on his feet, which allows him to outwit his enemies and defeat them single-handedly.
- Before he is about to release Krazy-8, he realizes the possibility that Krazy-8 plans on killing him and has stolen a piece of the plate he broke. After discovering this is true, Walt kills him instead.
- He tries to poison Tuco with a dose of ricin, which would have worked had it not been for Hector's interference.
- When he sees a TV news report on the murder of Tomás Cantillo, he realizes Jesse will try to kill the rival dealers in retaliation and timely saves his life by killing the dealers.
- He tricks Jesse into siding with him instead of Gus.
- After learning of the feud between Gus and Hector, he orchestrates a bombing that kills both of them.
- He meets with Lydia Rodarte-Quayle and Todd Alquist under the pretense of offering a business deal and kills Lydia by secretly pouring ricin into her glass.
- He connects a machine gun to a pivoting turret in the trunk of his car and has it activated by a car remote control, killing Jack Welker's Neo-Nazi gang with this contraption. Before eliminating the gang, he takes advantage of Jack's ego and prompts him to bring Jesse, whom Walt protects from the gunfire.
Through his brilliant strategy and quick wit, he also manages to elude suspicion from his brother-in-law Hank Schrader and the DEA for over a year.
- When he and Jesse are trapped inside their RV and Hank has arrived to inspect it, Walt has Saul Goodman's secretary Francesca call Hank and trick him into leaving the junkyard.
- When Hank asks him to drive to the laundromat that serves as a front for the superlab, Walt instead drives past it and deliberately causes a car accident to divert Hank's attention away from the laundromat, even at the risk of their own lives.
Many of his heinous actions still had understandable and at times noble intentions. For example, he let Jane die of an overdose to save Jesse from the same fate, and as for poisoning Brock, it was done to convince Jesse that Gus had to be killed for their safety.
Despite his evil deeds, he is a tragic character in general and deeply cares about his family and Jesse.
He obtains partial redemption during the finale, where he ensures his family's future, avenges Hank by killing Jack and his gang, and frees Jesse from slavery.

What Makes Him Detestable?[]

As the series progresses, he gradually loses many of his redeeming and sympathetic traits by becoming one of the most hated characters in the series and increasingly becomes more ruthless and willing to harm or kill innocent people if it benefits him. For instance:
- He chooses not to save Jane and watches her die. While he initially grieves over her death, he cruelly confesses this to Jesse after they turn against each other.
- He has Jesse kill Gale Boetticher (after failing to do it himself), one of the friendliest and least malevolent characters in the series' drug world, to prevent himself from becoming expendable to Gus.
- He poisons Brock, a six-year-old child.
- He fatally shoots Mike Ehrmantraut for no other reason than damaging his overinflated ego. While he did show immediate remorse for this, it still does not change anything.
- He has Jack's associates slaughter ten prisoners to prevent them from testifying against him.
- He puts a hit on Jesse and hands him over to the Neo-Nazis, allowing them to enslave him.
- He kidnaps his daughter Holly when his family turns against him.
He is extremely egotistical, arrogant and petty, displaying his narcissistic traits throughout the show which range from turning down Gretchen and Elliott's offer to pay for his cancer treatment to inadvertently cluing Hank on him being Heisenberg. Due to his ego, he also cannot take criticism; a good example is when he kills Mike for calling him out on being responsible for the downfall of his own drug empire.
He sexually assaults his wife Skyler out of frustration from his situation with Tuco.
In several cases, he fails horribly in his goals or overreacts to minor things: he tries to confront Ted Beneke without success, carries a barrel that was supposed to roll on the floor, is bothered for no reason by the presence of a fly in the laboratory and tries to hit Jesse only to be severely beaten by the latter.