History Characters / BreakingBadWalterWhite

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/BreakingBad'' | ''Series/BetterCallSaul''[[note]]Flashbacks only[[/note]] | ''Film/ElCamino''[[note]]Flashback only[[/note]]

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/BryanCranston

* TheChessmaster: Attempts it several times, with varying results. [[spoiler:He finally became one in "Felina".]]

* VillainousParentalInstinct: By the end of the series, Walt [[spoiler:has let Jane die and shrugged off Brock's death.]] He's devastated when his son Flynn turns on him, though. While he briefly kidnaps his baby daughter Holly, he returns her to Skyler when she asks for her mother. His last act is ensuring that Gretchen and Elliot set up a fund for Flynn, even though it means going back on his pride, which was his FatalFlaw all along and resulted in him getting into the drug trade.

* SmugSnake: When his Heisenberg persona comes into play, Walt likes to think of himself as threatening and intimidating, but in reality, it's just his massive ego. Much like other fictional high-functioning smug snakes, Walt can be [[EvilGenius very smart and cunning]], but his pathetic {{Freak Out}}s, [[PsychopathicManchild childish tantrums]], extreme arrogance and overconfidence can and do cost him the sympathy of many, as well as potential victory. All these attributes prevent him from qualifying as a [[invoked]]MagnificentBastard. [[spoiler:Marie]] described him very accurately:

** Walt really didn't [[spoiler:murder Hank]], but by then he has alienated his loved ones so much that not even Skyler and Walt Jr believe him.

* TheyLookJustLikeEverybodyElse: Walter White is a bald, middle-aged white man living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state where multiple men (including some other main characters) match that exact description. Tellingly, it takes Hank a ''very'' long time to finally figure out who Heisenberg really is as a result, even when the answer is right under his nose.

* UnPerson: On the verge of becoming one in ''Granite State'': [[spoiler:his legal identity is erased, his character as a father and husband is denied, his contribution as a scientist in Gray Matter is discredited, and his reputation as the legendary Heisenberg is steadily diminished as his signature blue meth remains on the market despite his disappearance.]] This is what drives his actions in the finale. The tagline of the final season says it best: ''Remember My Name''.

* BadassBaritone: Walt develops a very deep, raspy voice, which is especially noticeable as Heisenberg.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: To Gus in Season 3, and Jesse and Tuco before that: His behavior is erratic and he sometimes threatens to stop working if he doesn't get what he wants, but the meth he cooks is so pure that his bosses are willing to accommodate him. Walter White loves to weaponize this trope. However, [[DeconstructedTrope it eventually backfires]] when Gus tires of Walt's antics (cumulating in the deaths of two of his street dealers) and tries to have him killed when his would've-been replacement Gale Boetticher was good enough to cook his formula. In response, Walt orders Gale's execution through Jesse, forcing Gus to keep them for the time being. Then he tries to train up Jesse to become Walt's replacement, and which leads to Walt assassinating Gus with a pipe bomb.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: To Gus in Season 3, and Jesse and Tuco before that: His behavior is erratic and he sometimes threatens to stop working if he doesn't get what he wants, but the meth he cooks is so pure that his bosses are willing to accommodate him. Walter White loves to weaponize this trope.

** {{Envy}}: Walt is clearly annoyed at his son's hero worship of Hank, and is utterly resentful and bitter towards Gretchen and Elliott over their success with Gray Matter.

* DitzyGenius: The conflicts with the kingpins make clear that although Walt is a brilliant chemist, engineer, manipulator, and short term tactician, he's also very naive about how the criminal underworld works compared to experienced criminals like Mike and often makes stupid strategic mistakes such as attacking Ted's office or trying to off Mike's guys or leaving Gale's Walt Whitman book. Hank marvels at how Heisenberg is smart enough to use homemade thermite to break into a chemical warehouse but stupid enough not to roll the barrel to his getaway car.

* GeniusDitz: Criminal version. Walter is way out of his depth in navigating the underworld business, and Krazy-8 even says that this line of business does not suit him. Walter's ego and pride doesn't help either, and ultimately he's just an exceptional cook with a good network - a network that can easily turn on him because they know he's powerless. That being said, every so often he pops out an insane scheme that works, and takes down actually powerful underworld figure like Gus Fring.

* BigBad: In Season 5. [[spoiler:For the first half and most of the second half, he's [[HeroAntagonist Hank]]'s main target after he discovers that ''he is'' Heisenberg.]]

* BeneathNotice: In Season 1 of ''Series/BreakingBad'', Hank is able to trace a stolen gas mask to Walt's school, but it never crosses his mind that it was Walt who stole it because he knows him personally and thinks him too meek to be capable of such a thing. Instead, he keeps working under the assumption that it was Walt's ''students'' who stole it and never seriously questions him.

* InformedKindness: Several characters have a tendency to say that Walter White is nice, a good, decent person, etc. If you pay attention, however, from the beginning, you'll notice that all of Walt's kind-seeming actions are either forced for the sake of manipulation or for that of a facade or [[MoralSociopathy him trying to fulfill his role as a parent.]] Never does he go out of his way to do anything nice for anyone. As the series advances, he goes downhill from there, both retroactively as we discover his backstory, and by JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.

** In spite of all the evil he's done, Walt makes it very clear that he would never, ever, dare ''physically'' hurt his family.
** He's disgusted by Tuco's brutal and senseless murder of No-Doze.
** In the season 2 finale, he is shocked and horrified at the plane crash he witnesses outside his house.
** He arguably takes this too far when he insists on a pure product and can't go through with cooking when there's a fly in the lab.
** Non-lethal poison may not be off the table, but he never kills anyone who isn't already a part of the criminal underworld.
** Despite how unfathomable his hatred of [[spoiler:Jesse]] becomes by the finale, he still can't bring himself to [[spoiler:let him die when he sees just how horribly Jack and his gang have been treating him, so he tackles Jesse to the ground and takes a bullet instead]].
** For all of his ego and pride, Walt instantly regrets [[spoiler:killing Mike for insulting his ego after not wanting to reveal the names of his imprisoned men who holds sensitive information about them. Even if Mike had attempted to kill Walt several times before, Walt admits he crossed the line for killing Mike for such a petty reason.]]

* BigBadWannabe: For most of the series, Walter is ''not'' as threatening or powerful as he thinks he is, being beaten by more experienced villains like The Juarez Cartel, Gus and Mike. He bumbles through the process and lands on his feet through cunning, dumb luck and his partner Jesse but he's not as threateningly respected as he likes to think he is.