Skyler White Puns

I just rewatched the series a decade later, and there is SUCH a difference watching this show in my 30s. Wow. Walt is written so convincingly as a terrifying domestic abuser from the very first season, and by season 5 it is heartbreaking watching her go through what so many people have gone through - being trapped in one's own life, facing the shame of realizing that they made the choice to dismiss the red flags back when they still had the opportunity to get out safely, and now they are past the point of no return due to their own caring nature and optimism.

EDIT: Upon reading these comments it's become apparent to me that defining a woman as a "bitch" is still something that people are doing? Seriously?? Please cut this word out of your vocabulary, unless you are quoting Jesse or talking about a female dog for breeding purposes.

I imagine that this is a common question but I seriously would like to know aside from the generic reasons that I find sympathetic when it comes to Skyler.

Rewatched the series recently with full knowledge on how most people feel about each character. And I know that Skyler is one of the most universally disliked characters ever but,, why????

The most common reason is "she's annoying" or "she's a hypocrite" when I don't blame her for being "annoying" - and nothing she does is NEARLY as bad as the shit Walt pulls or multiple other characters pull in the show.

I can understand not liking her in season one? Maybe? Because she tells Walt what to do? Which is stupid anyways but whatever.

But the most complaints that I've seen about her are shit she does after season one - keeping his family from him, having an affair, etc. All of which I can't blame her for, considering the situation that she's in. Everything she does is understandable to me aside from one thing and that was her smoking.

She also has one of my favourite lines in the series and I can't help but feel serious sympathy for her where she wants to leave but feels trapped out of fear. It's sad because there are a lot of women out there who are in similar situations where they feel trapped but can't leave because they're scared, worried what it could do to their family, worried about their financial situation without their partner, etc. It's just upsetting that some people hate her for that and I don't understand why. Other reasons aside from she's annoying, she tells him what to do or she's a hypocrite would be nice.

Now, I understand Skyler was a character that was made to be hated. I know that she was nosey, cold, and manipulative at times.

HOWEVER, when you consider the situation she was in and the stress she was under, she was a saint. She was living in constant doubt with a husband that was acting very mysterious, and constantly lying.

She even came around to help walt launder money for the sake of her children. She was quite literally a hostage in a lose lose situation, and she made the best of it.

She had extremely valid concerns for her safety and was rightfully pushy in that regard. I just don’t see how people give her so much shit.

I’m a few episodes into Season 3, and I’d like to state that I’ve never liked Walter because of how he treated Jesse along with other reasons. On to Skyler, when she FIRST found out that he cooked drugs, she didn’t try to hear him out. Yes, he lied about what he had been doing, but he knew how’d she react. They clearly needed the money. Not only that, when she initially found out, he immediately stopped cooking. While he was trying to fix his wrongdoings (cooking behind her back because she didn’t know about any murders initially), she was off having an affair with Ted. Ted is also a criminal. I completely understand her being upset about the lying, but why was cheating the first thing on her mind? Why did she want their kids to never see Walt again? The “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” song that she sang Ted was also uncalled for. I knew she’d eventually cheat. I just think that people defending Skyler forget that when she FIRST found out about him cooking, he immediately stopped cooking, she had no knowledge of murders or her family being in danger, and they desperately needed the money. Keep in mind that Walter didn’t want the expensive treatment, she did. Thoughts? I love this show and I’d love to hear what you all think!

Why is Kim so loved by audiences while Skyler's so despised? Although I didn't particularly like Skyler so much the first time I watched not I don't don't dislike her less now that I'm watching BB again; I do love Kim, however.

Imo, the difference is that Kim is an accomplice and a moral compass, while Skyler's more of an antagonist. I wouldn't appreciate appreciate my husband taking off for long periods of time or admitting that they buy drugs from a dealer (keep in mind characters considered pot to be a "gateway" drug), I'd probably enlist the help of our closest relatives if I thought he were doing drugs. She's reacting like a concerned wife would. Hell, if I found out my husband's some drug lord, I'd probably act like Skyler too.

Why the hatred towards Skyler and the opposite reaction towards Kim?

I think Peggy Hill was the original annoying wife that our generation hated. I am re-watching KOH and Peggy is annoying AF. Then Skyler came along and took all the annoying wife limelight

My first run through I despised her as most of us did whilst vouching for our antihero, Heisenberg. But after rewatching the show, you start to look at things from different perspectives and honestly, she put up with so much and got a lot of hate for protecting herself and her children from Walter who is essentially the devil. Walter becomes less and less likable after every rewatch but also such a brilliant actor at the same time.

Sorry if this is a repost!

Just started streaming on Netflix and was half considering sticking out for this show, but I'm the type of viewer that likes to read along to threads (old or new, doesn't matter) for things I'm watching just to feel connection to other fans, but the sheer amount of vitriol I've already encountered for Grace has turned me off 100%, to the extent that I can't watch the character on screen without getting nauseous from imagining how people will blow her reactions out of proportion.

Mind you I haven't watched past season 1 but so far the vast majority of her feelings and reactions are entirely normal to me. The sheer emotional, physical, and mental toll of having to deal with both the loss and the subsequent gain of her family means that she's liable to be irrational at times, and even then, she doesn't go off beat much in my eyes.

Like her freakout in the hospital when Ben ran off, of course she'll be mad that he just upped and left. Her son literally looks like he's about to die, and there was a good chance he could have, so it's no freaking wonder she was pissed that Ben left her to deal with such a tense scenario by herself. I mean at least call your freaking father over to keep her company for god's sake, that dude spends most of the season fucking around by his lonesome, at least when he's not actively encouraging his daughter to cheat with a married man (bet there are >!minimal people hating on Michaela for actually cheating later on!< but there sure are a bunch of slut-shamers hating on Grace for moving on after years of her husband being dead).

The Danny situation was troublesome and just the sort of hokey soap-opera nonsense I'd expect NBC to focus on instead of leaning into the sci-fi aspects of this show more but come on. I saw some comments about her not considering Ben's situation after returning from the flight but that's exactly why she hid her new relationship in the first place, precisely because she knew he'd be devastated if she told him right off the bat. And so would Cal, imagine the kind of rift that would cause with his mum if he found out (as far as he perceives) that she "replaced" his dad with a new one in a few days. Some of you would guaranteed hate on her even if she ripped the band-aid off and told Ben immediately that she's with someone else because you'd rather have had her mope around on her own forever. I didn't see anyone taking issue with Ben immediately getting flirty with Saanvi while being butthurt that Gra

The Netflix documentary Tiger King and that bitch Carol Baskin became worldwide memes during the COVID19 pandemic. By now, the dust has started to settle, and a number of critical pieces are questioning the documentary's framing of Carol Baskin.

In the sea of morally depraved characters within the show, Baskin, a globally recognized big cat conservationist with an interesting past, has become the principal target of internet vitriol that has started to spill over into real life, as it often does. An article exploring this situation has hit the front page of /r/television, and some users have drawn parallels between Carol Baskin, Hillary Clinton, and Skyler White (a Breaking Bad character that attracted a perplexing amount of undeserved hate). With misogyny emerging as the common thread between these parallels, some redditors have taken upon themselves to discredit this theory.

The Skyler White comment

The Hillary Clinton comment

As an added bonus, sorting the whole thread by controversial will lead you to a bottomless pit of minor clashes.

I would say enjoy, but this is more of a try-not-to-get-a-stroke-rolling-your-eyes kind of drama.

Nothing. It was on the house

She, like Walt and many characters in the series, are written to be flawed and have no room on their high horse. It doesn't help that's she's in an adversarial relationship with one of the protagonists- but she's also a huge prick throughout the series for her own selfish reasons. Yet there's a lot of pushback whenever people criticize her character.

People say that if the story was told from her perspective we'd be more understanding but not really. There's no circumstance where I can, personally, understand how fucking your boss and helping him commit tax fraud is an equal response to finding out your dying husband lied to you and cooks meth to support his family. And had the nerve to try and hide that so Walt looks likes shit while she only looks like a stuck up mom, oh woe is me. There is love there between them but she's much more concerned with herself than he is with himself.

And that's okay, it wasn't a reasonable response by her. But it also wasn't a moment of weakness it's perfectly in her character to do something spiteful, vindictive and manipulative to sabotage their family and get back at Walt. She's shown throughout the series to be very conniving. All throughout the final season she does things like that to break apart the family and get back at Walt.

She also went out on her own, included herself in the money that she btw had no hand in generating (besides deciding to launder said money- which is equally her and Saul's idea) by giving money to her braindead ex paramore and further complicated the situation. But what's worse is the final season was mostly her running around catatonic throwing a pity party for herself despite the hand she's played- juxtaposed to Walt who has always accepted that it was his own choices that lead things to be the way they were. I mean she casually manipulated Walt into trying to kill Jesse.

This isn't to say she's a bad character. She's so hated because she's so well written. Whereas her sister is outwardly self-centered and callous, Skyler pretends that she's not. Just like Walt. And by the end of the series, most of us hated Walt and his narcissistic, self-serving goals in some capacity while loving his characterization. Nobody cheered for him or his actions. But he's still a beloved, well written character. So why can people not hate Skyler without being sneered at when she's clearly not a very good person, despite her self-righteousness?

It isn't a sin to dislike a character that's written to be unl

I listened to a podcast ages ago with Vince Gilligan who created Breaking Bad (and therefore Skyler White). He said it genuinely took him by surprise how much Skyler was hated by fans, and it was never his intention for her to be disliked. But he did have a theory why Skyler (and Carmella Soprano) were not well received by some fans.

He thinks they are disliked because they are both essentially powerless to their husbands (the protagonists of their respective shows). They both try to do what they can to grab a little bit of power, or rather, take their lives into their own hands, but in the end their husbands (Tony Soprano and Walter White) hold most, if not all, the cards, and their wives just end up having to go along with their bullshit as much as they try to resist at times.

So he theorises that for whatever reason, audiences just don't like seeing central characters who have no power. Whether that only applied to females I'm not sure.

In the follow up to Breaking Bad (Better Call Saul), it is interesting that Carmella and Skyler's equivalent, Kim Wexler, does have much more power, although she is again in a relationship with the show's protagonist, she is independent, she has worked her own way up, and she is in a more equal relationship with Saul Goodman. I'm pretty sure that was deliberate, and it seems to have worked, as Kim Wexler is generally very well liked by the show's fans.

Shiv is interesting, because she was forging her own career path, and although Succession doesn't have an obvious protagonist in the traditional sense, she was independent of Logan Roy to a certain extent (at least at first). But all that changed when she accepted Logan's offer to be the successor. And it was at this precise point she ironically became powerless, this time not to her husband (like Skyler and Carmella), but to her dad.

It will be interesting where they take her in the next season. I would theorise from past shows, if they take her in a direction where she remains helpless to her own dad, then she won't be liked. But then, I'm not sure if we're supposed to like any of the characters!

I wrote this for my Tumblr about 7 years ago. It still gets notes sometimes, so I am going to post it here, verbatim. I have so, so much more to say about why I think she is a phenomenal character and how fans continuing to hate her is such a disservice to the writers and Anna's portrayal, but I'll leave it at this, for now.

"I feel like one thing that most analyses of Skyler White - both positive and negative - tend to gloss over, is the fact that, for the first two seasons, the woman is heavily pregnant. Pregnancy is a physically exhausting, emotionally turbulent experience, and it is relatively late in her life for her be dealing with one that is unplanned. At one point, states that she wants to get a C-section because her previous labor was prolonged and extremely difficult, so that also has to be something that's weighing on her mind. It's not like her family is in the greatest financial situation, either, and so that's just another issue that she has to deal with. It's a good thing that she has her husband by her side, a loving, supportive man who is always there, ready to help her with any of the emotional or physical distress that may arise from her situation, right?

So now we have this pregnant woman thrown into a situation where her loving, supportive, husband suddenly begins to pull away and distance himself from her, just as she is about to give birth to their second child, and she dares to ask "Why? Where were you last night?" God, what a bitch. Skyler is made out to be an incredibly perceptive woman, so it's not like she's being completely paranoid (and take the that she's ultimately correct; her husband is up to something) or a controlling housewife to wants to keep her husband whipped. When she finds out that he is perhaps distancing himself because he has cancer, she has the audacity to ask that he seek treatment (so that he can live longer and spend more time with his family... unheard of), to request that he stop turning to marijuana (which is illegal, by the way, whether you agree with that or not) to help solve his problems, and open up to her, his wife, and perhaps attend a support group. Walter opts for option D, which involves lies and deceit and cooking crystal meth.

Not that Skyler can fully know what he's up to at this point, but she is a highly intuitive person, who will not be played and knows when she is being lied to. So an unexpectedly pregnant woman find herself with a terminally ill husband who refuses to open u

I know I’m gonna be chased out of this sub with pitchforks but I’m rewatching and need to shout out some love for the most hated character on tv!

She’s so plucky (when she tracks down Jessie to tell him to stop selling Walt weed LOL “I’m Skyler White, yo”), she’s not afraid to stand up for herself and her family (when Walt is getting made fun of in the clothes store, she was about to say something to the bullies before Walt completely lost it).

She calls Walt out on all his shit. She calls Marie out on her shit.

I’ve seen people comment that she’s a nag and doesn’t give Walt any privacy. Well, I’d be exactly the same if my husband of 15+ years suddenly started acting out of character.

Also manipulating him into getting chemo - she’s planning a future to raise a second baby with her husband, suddenly she has to face the prospect of raising a kid alone. Forget the financial difficulties of that situation, the emotional toll... I can’t even imagine going through something like that.

And before anyone even mentions Ted... Walt is a LITERAL murderer. I’m not justifying cheating but if you can forgive or at least sympathise with Walts (and Jessie’s, and Saul’s, and Fring’s) criminal activity, you can’t justify hating a character simply because she cheated on her husband.

Anyway, I just had to give Skyler (and Anna Gunn) a bit of love. We need more Skyler White’s on tv in my opinion, yo!

Everybody either says “Skyler is the worst” or “Skyler is mostly the victim but her affair with Ted was still crossing the line”

But I disagree that she had an affair AT ALL.

Notice that Skyler does not have sex with Ted until AFTER she tried to serve Walt divorce papers and had him move out. Skyler has already made it clear she wants the marriage to end. Walt, however, manipulates her into staying with him by using her desire to protect the children from the truth.

She even called the police on Walt to make him leave the house because she was afraid of him bringing danger into the home or being a danger himself. He manipulates her by making her look like a maniac in front of the police because he knows she won’t admit he is a meth cook in front of Junior and uses her desire to shield the children from the truth in order to force her into allowing him in the home. Divorce papers, kicking home out, calling the police... How much clearer could she have been that she wanted out? That the marriage was over?

By that point it’s not an affair anymore. Being held against your will through manipulation after already trying to divorce the person does not mean you are still morally bound to not have sex with somebody else. That’s like saying the employee who quit their job last week should be held accountable for not showing up to work.

Skyler is 100% the victim in this specific circumstance and her sleeping with Ted is an act of rebellion for how Walt has imprisoned her. If he is going to force her to be in that marriage and pretend to have the perfect family life HE ruined, she’s at least going to make it sting.

As a long time Breaking Bad junkie I was shocked to find that to this day there is a complete lack of understanding of Skyler White's character. Please, I'm begging you, PLEASE read Anna Gunn's op-ed regarding her portrayal of Skyler White. I Have a Character Issue

Trust me, I used to hate Skyler just as much as you do. Watching the series with a different perspective after reading Gunn's article made me develop an entire new appreciation for the character and a better understanding the show itself. How on earth do you think we're able to sympathize for Walter? A pathetic, tiny-dick, arrogant, murderous ASSHOLE??? Skyler is the key. She was written (especially in the earlier seasons) to be unlikable. But she's not a "bitch wife". WALTER is the bitch. Just rewatch the damn show.

I am currently in the middle of watching Breaking Bad, and like what seems to be a lot of other viewers, I FUCKING HATE SKYLER. This is a top I've seen argued over countless times on reddit and wherever else. She is not letting Walter have any sort of private info and constantly making decisions for him. In S1E2, she fucking checks the phone and TRACES THE NUMBER. That is fucking disgusting. And then shortly after Walt goes missing, she checks his phone records. Here it might be a bit more acceptable but its still isn't her business. And then the intervention. She REFUSES to let Walt have his own opinion on the cancer treatment and tries to bring his sister and brother in law to further manipulate him. Admittedly, I am currently on S3E2, but still, she seems like a shitty human being. And then, when she steals Walt's house that she didn't shell in a single dime to pay for. I get taking custody of the kids (but not letting Walt see them is still wrong, drug dealer or not, he is their father and he truly loves them), but she should move the fuck out. He paid for that house, and it is not hers to take. And before the show ever started, she knew the family was low on money but wasn't working, even though she wasn't needed around the house at all. So yeah, I think she's a selfish, insecure, manipulative piece of shit who uses "reason" to justify being a horrible human. And yes, I get that Walter is not exactly a model citizen, but he has morals. He is cooking meth strictly for his family, and refuses to get involved in the violence and crime of actually selling speed on the streets. He is made out to be bad, but not THAT bad. He truly loves his family and hates what he is doing, but knows its the only way he can get so much money that fast. Anyways, feel free to get mad and tell me I'm an asshole who hates women.

She really wasn't that bad. Sure, there are times that she could be annoying, but she wasn't as bad as I thought she would be when I first wanted to watched breaking bad. Closest I got to hating her was when she pulled the knife on Walter, but that easily fizzled later on. And I think that Anna Gunn played Skyler really well. Sure, she's no Edie Falco, but she was pretty good with the role.