Walter White

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## Entertainingly Detestable

### Powers / Skills

Genius-level intelligence
Expertise in chemistry
Psychological manipulation
Deception
Intimidation
 Marksmanship
Strategy and planning
Mechanical engineering
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 and his gang to avenge Hank and free Jesse (all succeeded).

### Most Entertaining Features

Bryan Cranston's performance.
Genius-level intelligence
Deep and complex characterization, sympathetic qualities and usually understandable motives for his actions.

### Most Detestable Traits

Egotism, arrogance and pettiness
Sexually assaulting his wife, Skyler.
Willingness to harm innocent people.

### Type of ED

Egotistical Mastermind

**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 both *El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie* and the sixth and final season of *Better Call Saul*.

He was portrayed by Bryan Cranston.

## His Qualities

### What Makes Him Entertaining?

* He has an extremely complex characterization, which explores his sympathetic qualities and transformation from a mild-mannered chemistry teacher to a ruthless drug lord as the series progresses.
* 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 and thinks out of the box and on his feet, which allows him to outwit his enemies and defeat them single-handedly.
	+ 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.
	+ After learning of the feud between Gus and Hector, he orchestrates a bombing that kills both of them.
	+ 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's gang with this contraption.
* 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.
* 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 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.

### What Makes Him Detestable?

* As the series progresses, he gradually loses many of his redeeming and sympathetic traits and increasingly becomes more ruthless and willing to harm or kill innocent people if it benefits him.
* He is extremely egotistical and arrogant, displaying his narcissistic traits throughout the show, ranging from turning down Gretchen and Elliott's offer to pay for his cancer treatment and inadvertently cluing Hank on him being Heisenberg.
* He sexually assaults his wife Skyler out of frustration from his situation with Tuco.

## External Links

* Walter White on the Villains Wiki
* Walter White on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
* Walter White on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki