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People admire characters like Walter White because they are blind to all the lives he has destroyed and they see only the desire to be great at something. It is

People admire characters like Walter White because they are blind to all the lives he has destroyed and they see only the desire to be great at something. It is the same with any capitalist. Any great enterprise looks a lot less amazing once you read the expose.

mercer 11y ago
Breaking Bad did not avoid showing the damage Walter While caused. I think the reason we still watch and (to a degree) root for him has more to do with 'living vicariously through' rather than 'identifying with' or 'admiring'. Whenever I play GTA, there are times where I just go out causing as much mayhem as possible. It's enjoyable precisely because it's not something I would do in real life. In a similar way, I love watching Kevin Spacey on his sociopathic power-trip, Walter White and his seat-of-the-pants improvisation, Gus Fring and his controlling-but-hidden-in-plain-sight-masterminding, Tony Soprano in his violent and erratic leadership, and so on. It's a guilty pleasure, and knowing the damage these characters only heightens the pleasure. Whether this is good or not is another question, but the reasons seem pretty obvious to me.
TheCondor 11y ago
"Admire" is a bit of a leap. We are blurring the lines between fiction and reality a little. Watching a film or tv program doesn't imply any approval or admiration of the content, it means it is entertaining to watch. People do enjoy the romantic mobster world Mario Puzo created, they don't go out of their way to promote the growth of organized crime syndicates in their towns. Nobody offers to pay protection money... ("...if only Salt Lake City had a crime family I could pay protection to....") The fiction and its interest is interesting, I mean by the end of The Sopranos, I found myself wanting Tony to not get killed or go to jail but also knowing full well that he was a sociopath. It probably has to do with the writing and how they humanized him. You get to view this very different world and lifestyle and then you see some human properties and some similarities to things you know. The difference is what draws you in, but I could relate in ways to Tony the father and Tony the husband. Maybe it is even more simple, I liked watching the stories and I knew if something happened to Tony, the stories would end. I enjoyed Sopranos, Breaking Bad, all those Godfather movies and more but in no way do I endorse or encourage that lifestyle or those activities.
- electricblue 11y ago
  People admiring Walter White was definitely a phenomenon (does not mean it was universal among the show's fans, just that it existed), and in some ways there are aspects of Walter's personality that are admirable in an individualist society: making money based on your own talents, being extremely competent or the best, self reliance in difficult situations. They didn't care about the horrible stuff he did and the lengths the show went to to explain to you that this is not a good guy.
  - lifeformed 11y ago
    Well, people did care about those horrible things. That's the main theme of the story. The viewer is supposed to feel uncomfortable with the dissonance of admiring a man they know they shouldn't.

mercer 11y ago

Breaking Bad did not avoid showing the damage Walter While caused. I think the reason we still watch and (to a degree) root for him has more to do with 'living vicariously through' rather than 'identifying with' or 'admiring'. Whenever I play GTA, there are times where I just go out causing as much mayhem as possible. It's enjoyable precisely because it's not something I would do in real life. In a similar way, I love watching Kevin Spacey on his sociopathic power-trip, Walter White and his seat-of-the-pants improvisation, Gus Fring and his controlling-but-hidden-in-plain-sight-masterminding, Tony Soprano in his violent and erratic leadership, and so on. It's a guilty pleasure, and knowing the damage these characters only heightens the pleasure. Whether this is good or not is another question, but the reasons seem pretty obvious to me.

TheCondor 11y ago

"Admire" is a bit of a leap. We are blurring the lines between fiction and reality a little. Watching a film or tv program doesn't imply any approval or admiration of the content, it means it is entertaining to watch. People do enjoy the romantic mobster world Mario Puzo created, they don't go out of their way to promote the growth of organized crime syndicates in their towns. Nobody offers to pay protection money... ("...if only Salt Lake City had a crime family I could pay protection to....") The fiction and its interest is interesting, I mean by the end of The Sopranos, I found myself wanting Tony to not get killed or go to jail but also knowing full well that he was a sociopath. It probably has to do with the writing and how they humanized him. You get to view this very different world and lifestyle and then you see some human properties and some similarities to things you know. The difference is what draws you in, but I could relate in ways to Tony the father and Tony the husband. Maybe it is even more simple, I liked watching the stories and I knew if something happened to Tony, the stories would end. I enjoyed Sopranos, Breaking Bad, all those Godfather movies and more but in no way do I endorse or encourage that lifestyle or those activities.

electricblue 11y ago
People admiring Walter White was definitely a phenomenon (does not mean it was universal among the show's fans, just that it existed), and in some ways there are aspects of Walter's personality that are admirable in an individualist society: making money based on your own talents, being extremely competent or the best, self reliance in difficult situations. They didn't care about the horrible stuff he did and the lengths the show went to to explain to you that this is not a good guy.
- lifeformed 11y ago
  Well, people did care about those horrible things. That's the main theme of the story. The viewer is supposed to feel uncomfortable with the dissonance of admiring a man they know they shouldn't.