pacificpikachu | (no subject)

So, as I said before, I've been watching Breaking Bad to pass the time before X/Y. This was an excellent strategy, as it made the time fly by when previously it felt like everything was going at a crawl. I finished it tonight! I'm feeling kind of emotionally drained. It was quite a ride, and it ended pretty much how I felt it needed to from the beginning.

I think one of my favorite aspects of the show was the bond between Walt and Jesse. Disclaimer: I do not ship it romantically at all. Their friendship was so intense and ultimately tragic. I found their chemistry as friends interesting and moving, with Walt as the father figure that Jesse lacked, but also perhaps a little more equal than a father/son relationship. I'm glad that Walt died in the course of protecting Jesse; perhaps a final gesture of that loyalty they had to one another for so long. I'm also glad that he gave Jesse the chance to kill him (though to be fair, he was already mortally wounded), and that Jesse declined. The last thing Jesse needed was another death at his hands to haunt him, justified though it would have been. In that final scene between them, I felt like there needed to be some acknowledgement of that care, that bond, but ultimately the friendship did break down pretty spectacularly after all, and Jesse had all the right in the world to hate Walt. Their friendship hurt my heart, though, and I hated seeing it disintegrate, necessary as it was. Walt manipulated Jesse in terrible ways as the show went on, and of course did many terrible things in general. There was something special about the loyalty they had to one another for much of the show, though, and that will stick with me for a long time. I feel like Jesse was more of Walt's family than any of his real family ever was.

Jesse as a character just made me incredibly sad in general. He was certainly not completely innocent and made his fair share of terrible decisions, but man did he go through a lot. I just wanted to hug him through most of the show.

I loved how basically all of the characters were in complex moral grey zones. The whole series is an elaborate morality play with no easy answers. There was no one to root for entirely. The writing was so great that characters I hated at the beginning grew on me over time as more of their selves were revealed. Basically all the deaths in the show, aside from maybe Tuco, Gus, and Jack and gang made me sad to some degree or another. The most traditionally likable (i.e., less morally complex) characters in the series practically had targets on their backs, and usually died pretty quickly--leaving only the complicated characters to work through the mess.

It bothers me that there are apparently people who are Walt apologists, fully and completely. I saw one post where a man referred to Walt as "A TRUE AMERICAN HERO" complete with caps. I think that's completely missing the point of the show. I believe in everyone having their own interpretation, but when you're ignoring the entire crux of the series and wholeheartedly defending a character who acted as Walt did, I just...lose faith in people a little bit. Of course Walt always had a little humanity in him, even up to the very end, and a small piece of you is always rooting for him. But ultimately, he got what he deserved, and the show couldn't have ended any other way.

It's funny, but my brother explained a little of the plot before I saw the show, and well before the show concluded. I kept telling him, "Walt has to die at the end. I barely know anything about the show, but I know that Walt has to die at the end."

It was definitely one of the best-written shows I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Practically every aspect of the show was superb, from the writing to the acting and casting to the music and photography and characters. There were so many subtle and complex things to appreciate in the show and I'm sure it will be discussed ad-nauseum forever. It had moments that made me laugh and smile and swear at the screen and I even had to look away at some parts because it was so brutal (and I'm pretty TV-violence hardened). It didn't make me cry, but then again not a lot does. (Though the last few years I seem to cry at stories, usually anime, more frequently than I used to.) It did move me greatly, nonetheless.

I could write about it forever, because there's just so much to discuss, but I gotta stop sometime.

Really, an utterly fantastic show. If you haven't seen it and can handle intensity and violence, I highly recommend you give it a shot.

On another note...

TWO DAYS!