History Characters / BreakingBadWalterWhite

* {{Hate Sink}}: Walt becomes in the first half of Season 5 after fully embracing his Heisenberg role. He proceeds to {{Kick the Dog}} several times an episode, loses any moral grayness and being even more of a smug manipulative asshole than before. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: In the second half of Season 5 as he goes into more of a {{Anti-Villain}} role.]]

** Of the InsufferableGenius: Make no mistake, Walt is brilliant... at chemistry, engineering and IndyPloy schemes. At pretty much everything else, he's totally inept. He has no social skills, no sense of patience, limited combat abilities and absolutely zero desire to get along with anyone on his road to becoming kingpin. While Walt is brilliant, he is a huge liability to Gus's operation, and the two of them clash multiple times. If Walt could reign in his ego he and Gus would probably be unstoppable, but since Walt wants to be the one on top, he ends up causing a huge amount of problems for the cast.

** Although Saul sees Walt as nothing more than a human gold mine, it doesn't change the fact that Walt repeatedly dismisses him as a "two-bit lawyer", even though Saul has been consistently and insanely useful to Walt throughout the series.

** Although Saul sees Walt as a walking gold mind, it doesn't change the fact that Walt repeatedly dismisses him as a "two-bit lawyer", even though Saul has been consistently and insanely useful to Walt throughout the series.

** Speaking of Saul, Walt repeatedly dismisses him as a "two-bit lawyer", even though Saul has been consistently and insanely useful to Walt throughout the series.

** Played completely straight with Saul Goodman with Walt yet again being the taker. Yes, Walt is paying Saul a percentage, but that is mostly so Saul has an incentive other than not getting caught. In truth, their relationship is almost completely one-sided for the majority of the series, with Saul being forced to cater to every last one of Walt's demands (even going out of his way to protect Walt in some cases) while risking his own life in the process. In return, Walt never shows any concern for Saul's safety and almost never actual thanks Saul for any of his risk, even going so far as to threaten Saul when the latter wants to break ties with Walt.

* VillainKiller: Walt is directly responsible for the deaths of Gus Fring, Hector Salamanca, [[spoiler:Mike Ehrmantraut, Jack Welker and his gang (minus Todd, who is killed by Jesse), and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle.]]

** [[spoiler: This makes the contrast of the one time he was a positive example of this when he tried his hardest to save Hank by being willing to give up 80 million and yet tragically failing to do so, simultaneously karma *and* managing to make him a {{Jerkass Woobie}} in the last few episodes.]]

** [[spoiler: This makes the contrast of the one time he was a positive example of this when he tried his hardest to save Hank by being willing to give up 80 million, hit that much harder into making him a {{Jerkass Woobie}} in the last few episodes.]]

[[spoiler:** This makes the contrast the one time he was a positive example of this when he tried his hardest to save Hank by being willing to give up 80 million, hit that much harder.]]

** This makes the contrast the one time he was a positive example of this when he tried his hardest to save Hank by being willing to give up 80 million.

* {{Hate Sink}}: Walt becomes in the first half of Season 5 after fully embracing his Heisenberg role. He proceeds to {{Kick the Dog}} several times an episode, loses any moral grayness and being even more of a smug manipulate asshole than before. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: In the second half of Season 5 as he goes into more of a {{Anti-Villain}} role.]]

* {{Hate Sink}}: Walt becomes in the first half of Season 5 after fully embracing his Heisenberg role. He proceeds to {{Kick the Dog}} several times a episode, loses any moral grayness and being even more of a manipulate jerk than before. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: In the second half of Season 5 as he goes into more of a {{Anti-Villain}} role.]]

* DitzyGenius: 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 and scientist 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. Throughout the show, the conflicts with the kingpins make clear that although Walt is a brilliant chemist, engineer, manipulator, and short term tactician, he's consistently 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.

* BaldHeadOfToughness: In the sixth episode of the series, Walter's hair starts falling out from chemotherapy. He [[ImportantHaircut shaves it all off]] later on in the episode right before [[TookALevelInBadass Taking a Level In Badass]] by adopting the hardened, ruthless drug kingpin persona he names "Heisenberg", who he'd slowly [[BecomingTheMask morph into]] over the course of the show. Lampshaded by his son who reacts to seeing his dad's new look with "Badass, dad!"

* JekyllAndHyde: The difference between Walter White and Heisenberg is pretty much night and day and the entire theme of the series is Walt turning into Heisenberg

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Now has a [[SelfDemonstrating/WalterWhite self demonstrating page.]]

* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: The flipside of him increasingly viewing and treating Jesse [[LikeASonToMe like a son]], is that he has somewhat of this trope going on towards Flynn. While Walt does love Flynn, it is also clear that he at the same time he at least subconciously views him as somewhat of a disappointment, being especially frustrated by his son's independent streak, which his lowkey irriation of him rejecting his birthname name of "Walter Junior" and some incidents, such as his dogged insistence that Flynn drives a car "the right way" rather than a way that allows him to compensate for his handicap, bears witness to. In a nutshell, it is frequently implied that the main reason why he favoritizes Jesse, is because of Jesse's whole WellDoneSonGuy complex, which makes more him more obedient and dependent towards Walt and allows Walt to act as a more "traditional" father figure, a relationship which he cannot have with his more strong-willed and free-spirited biological son.

[[Characters/BreakingBadWaltsFamily Walt's Family]] ('''Walter White'''), [[Characters/BreakingBadHeisenbergsEmpire Heisenberg's Empire]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadJessePinkman Jesse Pinkman]], [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadDEAAndPolice DEA and Police]], [[Characters/BreakingBadJuarezCartel Juarez Cartel]], [[Characters/BreakingBadSalamancaFamily Salamanca Family]], [[Characters/BreakingBadLosPollosHermanos Los Pollos Hermanos]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]], [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadMadrigalElectromotive Madrigal Electromotive]], [[Characters/BreakingBadAryanBrotherhood Aryan Brotherhood]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCriminals Other Criminals]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCivilians Other Civilians]]-]]]]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: He orders a pizza and tries to have a family dinner with Skyler. When Skyler refuses, Walt throws the pizza on the roof out of anger.

* HairTriggerTemper: Veers between this and TranquilFury on a whim. Early on, Walt's angry outbursts were restricted to [[TranquilFury restrained shows of force]] and only occasional shouting matches with Jesse. But as the series progresses, his quickness to anger is only matched by his ego's sensitivity, as shown by his arguments with [[spoiler: Michael.]] [[spoiler:Notably, he returns to having a much colder temper in "Felina", where he has become the Atoner.]]

!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/BryanCranston

* TookALevelInBadass: What the title of the series refers to, though he doesn't really make it all the way there until the end of season 4 when he outsmarts Gus. However, it's also a {{Deconstruction}} as, the more badass he gets, the more human he loses.

* TheCameo: [[spoiler:Has a ~5 minute flashback scene in ''Film/ElCamino''. Also appears in ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' in the episode, ''Breaking Bad''.]]

!!Walter Hartwell White, Heisenberg