Comment on Anyone else?
stevestevesteve@lemmy.world 6 months agoBeing 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
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?
This the kind of surface level interpretation that makes me question people’s ability to reason.
Sorry, I should have said that Skyler, the character, did nothing to deserve being disliked. The show was rigged to make you dislike her, in the sense that the storytelling was solely through Walt’s eyes, even in scenes he wasn’t present for.
But I didn’t say that. Vince Gilligan, creator of the show, said it.
indiewire.com/…/breaking-bad-vince-gilligan-skyle…
I also called it a “power fantasy.” The show’s pitch was to show a man turning himself from “Mr. Chips to Scarface.” It’s not a criticism, I loved the show. It took the power fantasy tropes and subverted them frequently. But at its heart that’s what it is.
If you’re upset that I said that it was about toxic masculinity, then I apologize. That was reductive of me. It explores hegemonic masculinity through the power fantasy trope, and it can be interpreted as either a celebration of or criticism of toxic masculinity depending on how you approach it.
Plenty of more well reasoned people than I could hope to be have written in depth on the subject. Someone even wrote a book in the subject.
If you were reacting to thinking I was putting the show down, which I wasn’t intending to do, then my bad. I could have worded it better. I was trying to make the point that it’s both intentional to not like Skyler, and also the obvious wrong take to not like her.
Alright I love this, thank you!
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.
My point was that the show exaggerates her mannerisms to give Walt motivation rather than to create a fully fleshed out character. She’s not a real woman, but a symbol of how men have become emasculated by their wives’ “wearing the pants” in the family. At least early on that’s her the purpose she serves.
She grows as a character, and ends up having more agency, but only in the confines of Walt’s domination of their lives with his selfishly motivated, and traditionally toxic masculine, choices.
And I don’t think you meant it this way, you can’t really easily separate disliking her from being a woman. I don’t mean to imply that you dislike her because she’s a woman, but that her character’s role is to be a controlling wife. It’s an inherently gendered character that relies heavily on preconceptions of what a woman should and shouldn’t be in a relationship with a man who is a main character in a story.
I think it’s telling that she is considered unlikable enough to even warrant discussing in a show where the main character is a multi-murderer monster who destroyed the lives of everyone he loved, and the main villains include nazis, cartels, lawyers and corporate shills.
That, for anyone, she’s the most hated character in all of that should cause anyone to question their assumptions on her.
The characters role is to be a controlling spouse. If Walt was gay married to a man who behaved the same way Skyler does, they would be just as frustrating to watch on screen. It’s not inherently gendered, you’re putting that on it.
Indeed, I really hated her character, though the actress did a phenomenal job.
glimse@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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
Kedly@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Shit isnt black and white like that. Disliking Skylar does NOT mean you like or agree with Walt. I hated both characters
glimse@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I didn’t imply it was black and white. Why did you hate her?
Kedly@lemm.ee 6 months ago
It’s been a long while since I’ve watched breaking bad, so I cant fully remember the details, but I guess generally she was annoying and I didnt like her personality. The only character of the main two families I liked was Hank.