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It seems like this has died down a bit with diehard fans, although I still see a lot of Skylar hate in the wider word e.g. social media comments.
What was it about the show that primed people to hate her so viciously? Was it something to do with the specific demographic of the audience?
Honestly it's spelled out so clearly in the show's first two seasons. Yes Skylar is depicted as annoying and shallow. But this is meant to be emblematic of Walt's failure to secure what he wanted in life, not taken literally as Skylar being a bad person. Out of insecurity, Walt tanked his relationship with the woman he really wanted, and then has spent 20 years with a woman he doesn't really want because he's weak and lacking emotional intelligence.
You rightly understood the dynamic here. The writers show us Walt’s failure in dim-light. Walt’s cancer makes us sympathise more with him than see his failures. Even though Skylar was pregnant, we don’t sympathise with her as much we do with Walt because cancer is terrible. We ignore her mood swings, motherly instincts etc. How does a pregnant woman feel when her husband just disappears! But what we see is how Walt is working hard for his family and for yet to be born child. We are meant to sympathise with Walt throughout the show. Even when Walt was at peak of his Heisenberg mode, we still have sympathy for him because of the Nazis. Only few people can see beyond what’s being shown and it happens during rewatching.
Walt's failures are always either cool, exciting, or comical. It makes him super entertaining. Skyler's are ANNOYING lol. As annoying as humanly possible. In the real world, I think more people would side with Skyler and want nothing to do with Walt. Some things Skyler did though like smoking while pregnant and cheating were sort of like trying to fix a problem with another problem. Just made her look like even worse of a person.
Skyler did not cheat. She had presented Walt with divorce papers
If a spouse engages in sexual relations with someone else while still legally married, it is considered adultery. Sure, this is the internet where you're probably going to argue with me on this. A judge would see it as adultery. She is still married and has sex with another man. That is called cheating. They were not yet divorced.
from google: When Walt defiantly moves back in, Skyler retaliates by initiating an affair with Ted and coldly informing her husband that she cheated on him. Even as her marriage crumbles, Skyler permits Walt to take care of Holly and defends some of his actions to her lawyer, who advises that she leave Walt immediately.
also from google: Skyler's decision to cheat on Walt with her boss Ted caused plenty of fan outrage even though Walt was no saint. She probably would never have done it if she didn't already have a history with Ted.
So yeah, the rest of the world sees it as cheating. I don't know why people on the internet insist on constantly disagreeing me on the dumbest things but thanks for making me feel like a genius lately for knowing the most basic common sense like this.
Dude. I cannot even begin to unpack this comment. Like I’m at a loss what to say.
If you think that it constitutes infidelity/cheating/adultery in any meaningful sense of the word if a woman fucks someone as a last-ditch effort to get her violent, criminal, emotionally abusive, and demonstrably dangerous-to-be-around husband, who had FORCED HIS WAY BACK INTO THE HOME, to sign the divorce papers THAT SHE HAD ALREADY PRESENTED HIM, I genuinely pray for any women in your life.
And given that criminal adultery laws are shameful, embarrassing, and almost never prosecuted at all in the few US states that actually still maintain them, I do not give a shit what the letter of the law states if you care to quote that at me. And you really think I’m gonna care what two random GOOGLE quotes have to say???
Imagine taking two whole sentences written by some stranger on the internet as an excuse to try to position yourself as more intelligent than, again, internet strangers. I’m embarrassed for you. Honestly, I wrote the above mostly to have a cut-and-paste reply to Skyler White misogyny, so you really do not need to bother replying to me.
If one person wants to break up it's over lol wtf is this comment even
By the middle of the show I started thinking what an absolute little Piece of shit walt is. Not one episode went by without me thinking about how the fuck did someone as nice as pre-cancer Walt become such a hateful garbage of a lowlife. I love the acting sooooo much. Bryan Cranston nailed the role so hard. Oscar-worthy performance every damn episode.
I remember the first time I watched the show hating Skyler because that was what I knew everyone else who watched the show seemed to do. But as of my second rewatch, Skyler might quite be in my top 3 characters, as there is just so much depth and so many levels to her character. You can sympathize with her in almost every scene, especially in the earlier seasons where she has no idea what is going on, and is simply worried about her husband and her family, and you can clearly see throughout the entire show that she is not trying to be the nagging bitch that many people try to make her out to be. And in the later seasons its so interesting to see the shift in her mentality, like opening the carwash to launder Walt's money, manipulating Bogdan with Saul's henchmen into selling the carwash, and you can kind of see her gradually becoming more and more like Walt up until the very end which I just find is just such a cool dynamic of the show.
She needed to get off her ass and get a job in episode 1.
My two cents. The first watch through people are rooting for Walt, you don’t really think about the awful things he’s doing just enjoying the ride and skylers protestations etc are a detriment to that. As time goes on and with the rewatch you realise she’s being more than reasonable
Skylar being more than reasonable? What exactly does that even mean?
She smoked while being pregnant, asked her divorce lawyer if she could use Walts drug money, started a money laundry, that whole blackmail tape etc.
I was more talking about what she did to try and get Walt to leave, generally being difficult, doing anything she could to help repel Walt, like fucking Ted etc. Smoking whilst pregnant is absolutely awful but could speak to the desperation and loss of control she’s suddenly suffered since her run of the mill boring husband started making and selling hard drugs. It could also be argued that she was finally influenced and corrupted by Walt who wouldn’t leave or play any type of ball but I don’t blame her for those choices (bar smoking) I blame the murderous drug dealer
I get where you are coming from, but I disagree. It seems like you get that she was under a lot of emotional stress, and you know what people under emotional stress do? They make unreasonable and stupid choices.
You know what would have been reasonable when you find out your husband is a meth dealer? Going to the police, asking your DEA brother-in-law for help, making sure he does not have contact with the children anymore, making sure he is not a high school teacher anymore.
Being difficult and messing with Ted? Not reasonable, definitely not "more than reasonable."
And I completely hear that and In an ideal world where one is removed from the situation it’s easy. However, add years of marriage to man she loved, two children and a now skewed moral compass and it simply isn’t that easy. Do you think you could turn on your husband/wife on a dime? If you’re not married, imagine a mother or father/brother or sister. It’s very easy to imagine what you’d do, it’s another to be in that situation and do it. I’ll also retract the more than reasonable, she did those things in desperation/to regain control, are the reasonable? It’s grey but let’s not pretend we’re perfect, let alone in a situation like that
If people actually cared about Skyler smoking while pregnant, they’d include Walt and the meth fumes on his clothes in the criticism.
That is such a dumb take lol.
A: How would that make Skylars smoking any better? B: Walt cooking in his underwear to avoid exactly that is pretty iconic. C: You think he would smell like a meth lab sitting right to Hank?
She literally asks him about the smell in the show….
You should also show me where I made claims that meth fumes make smoking better
Pretty simple, Walt is the main character and she goes against that main character
Most of these people don't understand that the main character is the villain too.
Yes! How do people not see this?
Some of them do, they just think he's cool. I don't think really anyone thinks Skylar is a villain, just annoying.
yes
I found skylar to be annoying at first (marie really, really annoyed the fuck out of me), but I always knew she was written to be that way. As the series went on, I loved her character development. Not to mention Anna Gunn’s performance was always absolutely amazing.
i honestly hate the way everyone (the men basically) downplayed her contributions, especially with the whole car wash thing, and they treat her like some silly obstacle of a housewife when she's literally an accountant lmfao. also, in what world would someone not go ballistic if their spouse was out for days at a time, was secretive about it, and had a secret second phone in addition to her other stressors? literally after she learns about everything that's going on she's relatively rational.
So much this. Yes Skyler was a bit naggy for my tastes in the beginning season. No argument there. But I stand firmly in my belief that had she been apprised of the situation from the start this would have been a rags to riches story instead of a tragedy tale. She was an accountant, she was resourceful, she was rational, and she got shit done without the hindrance of the Heisenberg ego standing in the way.
Every time I see the Skyler hate it inevitably gets reduced down to "I fucked Ted" and I feel like there's a heavy dose of built-in misogyny there. For all her contributions, a certain demographic of viewers can't get past her sleeping with Ted. The car wash doesn't matter, it doesn't matter that she orchestrated the gambling cover, it doesn't matter that once she found out she covered for him and stuck with him to the very end, even going so far as to be disowned by her sister. All they know is she fucked Ted.
When I read those arguments there's never any acknowledgement of the fact that she hung around month after month while Walt lied to them and disappeared for days on end. She begged him to tell her the truth and was only met with more lies. Even when it dawned on her that he orchestrated an entire naked fugue state in a grocery store she still didn't leave. I'm not sure how much certain viewers expect a spouse to tolerate before they give up, but she stayed wayyyy longer than I would have.
And just a sidenote regarding Ted: She didn't cheat with Ted. They were divorcing, he moved out, it's not her problem if he breaks back into the house. Once you split you're free to go your separate ways. Walt couldn't force her to remain married/faithful to him. She was free to do whatever the hell she wanted, as was he.
Anyway, rant over.
Misogyny accounts for a lot of why Sky gets disproportionate hate... But the point isn't that Skyler is good, actually, it's that Walt is evil. Everyone on the show has questionable morals at best. Hank is a corrupt cop who abuses his power. Mike is a mass-murderer. Jesse tried to sell meth to recovering addicts for pure ego. Everyone is bad. Yes, it's not just "I fucked Ted" (also I agree that's not even bad, they were separated), Skyler also smoked while pregnant, didn't attend to Walt's feelings in S1, etc., not to mention... I think it's interesting that nobody scrutinizes her decision to protect Junior's innocence at the expense of going along with Walt's criminality. Like, obviously she had to for the plot to continue, but she could've just said, "shit, I need to have this incredibly sad and difficult conversation with my son because the alternative is to become complicit in this criminal enterprise." That's selfish. She totally has blood on her hands.
And yet... She was put in an impossible position by Walt, who is truly a monster and a domestic abuser. I agree it is a useful exercise to call out the bias and inconsistency in those who hate Skyler, but it's also important to remember that this is not a show about "good guys and bad guys"; as in life, that binary distinction is far too simplistic.
Not calling her a good guy. Nearly every character in the show breaks bad in some way.
Totally agree, I guess I was more adding than disagreeing w your comment
Hold up. Hank is not a corrupt cop. He is not on the take, doesn't even break laws, except when beating the shit out of Jesse.
Or that shit with the RV couple
So "except" for the minor detail of giving a suspect a premeditated beating that sent him to the hospital, here are some of Hank's other misdeeds over the course of the show:
He broke multiple laws and police protocols in the last season (and earlier) to catch Walt (BCS references that Huell walked because he was illegally detained),
was willing to let Jesse get killed if it helped him catch Walt; it's also implied that his 'I'm trying to protect you' spiel to Skyler was at least some percent bullshit,
bullied Walt on his birthday in front of all of his friends,
constantly objectifies women (uses Wendy as a prop to teach Jr. a "lesson", "ass like an onion" comment, etc.),
is casually racist to Gomey,
probably uses excessive force in season one (it's played as a joke but he's pretty aggressive during the "SHUT UP SIT DOWN yeah honey I'll be home for dinner" phone call bit... I definitely remember him shoving someone to the ground)
is mildly hypocritical (Cuban cigars, getting Marie, Flynn, and Walt out of legal trouble on multiple instances)
treats Marie like absolute dog shit when he's depressed after his injury
sucks as a leader/administrator after his promotion, not only blowing off paperwork but deliberately defying the orders of his boss (doesn't matter that he was "right" about how to get the Hazard pay, police hierarchy is important because police need to be accountable to elected officials so they don't go rogue)
Nah, Hank sucks. He might be a better man than Walt in the same way that Mike is, and if you want to pick nits he might not be a "corrupt cop" in the classic sense of wanting to enrich himself, but he's still a dick and a bully who thinks rules don't apply to him.
To be fair, its his house so
Not relevant to the larger issue under discussion but ok. He broke back into his house. That better?
I think people at the time were used to TV wives being kinda dumb and ignorant of their criminal husbands' wrongdoings. Skyler wasn't like that, she was actually sharp and paid attention, and started calling Walt out pretty early on. It's actually pretty refreshing and realistic, like how else would anyone react to their husband acting as sketchy as he did. But people just saw her as an obstacle to Walt doing cool stuff and not a 'real' person reacting in a normal way.
Fact is, if the roles were reversed, those same people would still direct hate towards Skyler for lying to Walt.
It's just misogyny, not much more to say about the weirdos.
This right here
lool so much cherrypicking and ignoring all her faults
The show didn't want us to like skyler and they succeeded. Starting from the first episode she gives the crappiest handjob ever wtf was that.
However, Walt is evil but by making skyler annoying and unlikeable the show is able to get us to root for walt even more. By season 5 we should all be team skyler though.
Team Skyler? Why not team Neither?
It is very telling that you chose to learn about Skyler from the handjob, but not Walt.
That scene also wanted to tell you about Walt, but you were too disgusted by Skyler to notice that Walt was an equal participant.
During my 4th rewatch that I just finished on Monday, I, for the 1st time, actively disliked Walt, and empathized with, and even liked, Skyler and Jesse.
I’ll venmo $2 to the first person to spell her name right
Sckaelër Wytt
Her name is Skyler White, yo.
Her husband is Walter White, yo. Uh-huh.
Seriously. This has not died down. This sub has a huge problem with her name.
I flinch every time I read “Jessie” too
I just finished the show and I don’t get it. I was expecting much worse. She’s honestly a worse character in Deadwood.
Again? We have this topic every week!
To make a long story short: Skyler at the beginning narratively is an antagonist to the main character of the play, Walt, and she puts obstacles in the way of cool things Walt wants to do and the viewer expects. She's like the police in a series about thieves, of course people don't sympathize with her.
On top of that, the character is a hypocritical Karen who does nothing to make people love her. Are we forgetting the hysteria that grips her when she thinks her cancer-stricken husband is getting high? She practically freaks out more over that than over all the drug dealing that follows. And of course her first response is to go and threaten a 20-year-old boy with jail time for a damn joint.
Then, what a surprise, when she sees the flow of money coming in with the drugs she is much less shocked, in fact she can't wait to take revenge on the car wash owner and use the money laundering to take a leadership role in the operation.
Skyler is mirroring Walter for much of the series and ready to follow him into the abyss, except when it proves too deep.
In the end you feel sorry for her, as you do for much of the cast overwhelmed by Heisenberg's increasing cruelty, but she is not a positive character.
100%. Using the car wash for money laundering was even her idea.
I think she thought Walt would quit when the car wash was close to making a profit.
Her lung cancer-stricken husband SMOKING POT and he wouldn't get treatment? They worry about fifteen bucks on a credit card? She's pregnant, has a handicapped teenager, a husband with terminal cancer and seems to live an isolated life apart from her family and a once a year gathering at her house. Oh, and there's little hot water in the house. She should just shut up and smile. Walt groomed her. He should have decked Saul for his rude comment to her. The only person who showed her genuine respect of all the baddies was Jesse. Marie was jealous of her, but just a little. Walt finally breaks her. She holds on to the fantasy long after she should of because she was happy with her family, even though there were challenges early on. Interesting post.
YES! Someone else sees her hypocrisy!!!!! I don't hate her character, she's just irritating with the hypocrisy. No, she's not the only character with the trait. She just seems to have a bigger share of it!
First, you have the fearless warrior-mother who will protect her children from the evils of the criminal world at all costs, but as u/unholymanserpent pointed out, once she sees the cash coming in by the barrel, she's not only ok with it, she masterminds the laundering operation!
That's why she's so easy to dislike. It's not "because she's a woman." It's because she was written to be disliked. Let's not forget that most of the characters in this show are intended to be disliked at some point or other. Walt's the main character, but I enjoyed seeing him facing his consequences!
You discount her as a warrior and a mother and then say “it’s not because she’s a woman.” Lol
Well, she's not a warrior father! (Neither is Walt) And I didn't "discount" her for that. If anything, I discount her for being a meth money launderer. That's what made her a hypocrite.
It’s weird how you don’t see that Walt, Walt Jr., Marie, and Hank deeply love Skyler.
And?
Just bad analysis. That’s all
I'm equally curious about the phenomenon of spelling her name incorrectly.
Its misogyny. The do it on purpose cuz she's a woman. 🙄
Nah genuine mistake for me. It's because it's an uncommon name and the main other point of reference is Skylar Grey (singer who had very brief popularity in 2011) who spells it with an 'a'.
Pretty cool that her last name is also a colour
And also has an alternate spelling with an A lol
Lol!
Thanks for the tip, Beg Traffing 1984
More likely, it's because it's the internet and no one can spell.
In-universe, she's made to look bad from her first scene. For pretty much every scene she's in for the first several episodes, she's established to be overbearing and controlling. By the time she's the one who "deserves" sympathy, it's too late.
Out-of-universe, she's obnoxious and boring. Even if the writers intended for her to be disliked, there's still a problem; it's the wrong kind of dislike. Wrestling has traditionally done it very well. There are wrestlers the audience is supposed to hate. However, importantly, the audience still wants to see those wrestlers in the ring because they are entertaining. They have fun personalities, and they get the audience invested in the storyline. Skylar is the complete opposite.
Theres more to this and your explanation is great. But I also think this is a matter of maturity. I remember disliking her back on 2013, when I was 15yo. Now I can understand why she is the way she is. Ofc theres different taste in people but I think the deeply cares for her children and her morals dont just disappear like Walts did
Yeah, the disparity between critically thinking fans and fans that don't get any kind of subtlety at all is HUGE.
Here's the thing: Most people never gets over first impressions. It doesn't matter if the first impression was subjective or biased or intentionally warped, it doesn't matter if the first impression was the starting point for an arc in which the character meaningfully changes and gets over every single thing that caused the first impression, it doesn't matter if the first impression was from an AI generated fan video. They decide their opinion on a character upon meeting them and they'll go to their graves without reconsidering it even if that opinion is blatantly contradicted by the entire rest of the source material.
There are a lot of interesting things you could say about the psychology of the mass Skyler hatred, but most of that is about dissecting the rationalizations of people who hate her because she's depicted very unpleasantly in season 1 and then only later decided to cobble together some post-hoc arguments for an opinion that solidified in the first couple of episodes.
The god damned talking pillow, followed by the silent treatment. Walt was given no autonomy in the decision of his own life and death. No wonder he chose to follow a path that made him feel empowered.
I mean I understand Walt's perspective but he was a father and was about to be the father of a newborn. He wasn't thinking rationally when he made that choice
No doubt Skyler is annoying but compared to what others are doing it's ridiculous that she's the most hated character on the show
I’ve always seen her faults as more relatable. Not many of us know a Walt-type egomaniac but many of us have an aunt or something who we dislike because they behave like Skyler.
I think some people misunderstood Skyler's character in "Breaking Bad." Sure, she had her flaws, but they were integral to the story. She wasn't meant to be universally liked, but rather a reflection of Walt's complexity as a character. Walt's actions and choices influenced how viewers perceived Skylar, often unfairly. She was more than just Walt's wife. She was a character struggling with her own challenges and flaws, just like everyone else in the show.
Yeah I don't get why people think they have to "like" characters. They are there to move the story forward. And a completely virtuous character would be boring IMO.
Exactly :)
First impressions are what matters most to people. She was insufferable early on and Walt's biggest obstacle for the first 2 seasons. She got better but by then a lot of people made up their minds
For me it was how she treated him early on after learning of his cancer. If my spouse had cancer I'd let them go on walks any time they wanted without a shred of suspicion. There's more obviously but that's what really made me hate her initially.
He only brought up walking at the therapy session. He kept telling her he was going "out." He disappeared for long periods of time and came home after midnight. His personality changed. Then the second cell phone. These are usually signs there is an affair. Yes she was ridiculous about it. But she wasn't trying to prevent him from going on walks.
It was the lazy handjob for his birthday.
That's it.
😂😂💯
She nitpicks the low-hanging fruit in others while glossing over her own glaring character defects. She has a heavy sense of entitlement and refuses to be truthful in any situation where she doesn’t feel like it. She manipulated Gretchen and Elliott into offering to pay her family’s medical bills in the first season, then denies that it was her intention. She then shames her sister for stealing a tiara. She’s a first rate hypocrite… a devil who hides in the details.
we all wanted walter to succeed and in the mid seasons skylar was the only true threat to his success. in the middle of a series theres a lot more tension around wanting skylar to just let off and let walt do his thing.
in context of the whole show since we know what happens there is less tension and we dont have as much to ask of skylar as a character because we know exactly how walt caused all this himself (and how she low key became a full on accomplice)
I disagree. I think she was written and directed to seem like a dull, square nag, but as the show progressed they have her more realistic dimension.
Idk she’s annoying the first watch through but I still liked her character and I think the hate she gets is insane.
My brother is watching it for the first time and he likes skyler lol he’s probably one of the only people to like her during the first watch through
I was very disappointed in her around season 2 (for obvious reasons), but she came around significantly. By season 4, I was rooting for her, and season 5 had me horrified for her.
I loved Skylar, hated Walt. I think it was a demographic thing. I'll bet when BB first started out, it skewed heavily on male viewership numbers. I think women who watched this show were in the minority. Do most men really think their partner in life is bringing them down? I need to do more research on these numbers.
I just finished my very first watch of the show, and sure, Skylar can be annoying, but I’ve never hated her character. During season 1, she appeared insufferable, but if you really think about it, she was pregnant AND her husband was having a mid-life crisis (essentially). Her reaction to discovering that Walt is a meth cook, she showed a strong desire to protect her kids. Her reaction was very realistic. Then she joined him in the business of money laundering, and she showed how intelligent and business savvy she could be. I like how the show progresses, the evolution of her character. By the end, I actually liked her. She’s a realistic character and she’s flawed, but she isn’t able to manipulate the audience (and because of this, I think that’s why people dislike her more).