History BreakingBad / TropesAToB

** Gale worships Walt and gives him a copy of ''Leaves of Grass'', by the famously AmbiguouslyGay Walt Whitman, that he signs "To my other favorite W.W." The rest of his tastes and personality, especially in his home, brush against some gay stereotypes, although there is never any confirmation either way.

-->'''Walt:''' Let me clue you in. I am not ''in'' danger, Skyler. [[IAmTheNoun I am the danger.]] A guy opens his door and gets shot, you think that of me? No! I am the one who ''knocks!''

** In the opening sequence, the electronic configuration for barium is wrong. It is actually [Xe] 6s2, but the electronic configuration of bromine (2-8-18-7) is used. This also occurs with Chromium (whose electronic configuration is [Ne] 4s1 3d5) in the "Created By" screen. This error was fixed in the later episodes, as well as modern versions.

** In the opening sequence, the electronic configuration for barium is wrong. It is actually [Xe] 6s2, but the electronic configuration of bromine (2-8-18-7) is used. Chromium, meanwhile, is shown with the electronic configuration for barium instead of [Ne] 4s1 3d5. This error was fixed in the later episodes, as well as modern versions.

* ArtisticLicenseExplosives

** Gus is a cold-blooded, FauxAffablyEvil Bad Boss. Kind of. He slits a mook's throat just to make a point (and incidentally to punish him for carelessness in being seen at the scene of a crime). On the other hand, he seems to be grooming Jesse for a more responsible position and the show implies that Jesse makes the wrong choice when he picks Walt over Gus. Creator/GiancarloEsposito has an interesting take on this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnk0JuZs1w here]]: Gus treated [[spoiler:Victor]] as a member of his "family", but had to kill him because he jeopardized it.

** In the episode "Peekaboo", after Spooge repeats his claim that the ATM theft was a "victimless crime", the scene cuts away to show the actual crime scene, which includes a dead body, lots of blood, and a baggie of Jesse and Walt's signature blue meth. Nothing ever comes of this, and it is not mentioned again; it seems to only serve the point home that the Heisenberg meth has gained a violent following.

** In the second to last Episode, when [[spoiler: Walter is prepared to turn himself in, he watches Gretchen and Elliot on TV diminish his accomplishments in Grey Matter. And this time, for once, Walter's pride actually ends up driving him to do some good, as he coerces the two into providing a nest egg for his family, and avenges Hank's death by massacring Jack's gang. And, notably, he also manages to let go of his pride in two important ways; his plan of laundering his money through the Elliots ensures that no one will ever know it came from him, and he finally admits to Skyler that he ultimately did what he did for himself.]]

** Mike explains his StartOfDarkness to try to talk Walt out of a half measure attempt to save Jesse. Walt references it again after killing the two men Jesse wanted dead, and Mike is less than pleased.

* AnyoneCanDie: Any character that dies on the show stays dead. Throughout the entire show, the list includes: [[spoiler:Emilio, Krazy-8, Tuco, Tortuga, Combo, Jane, the Cousins, Gale Boetticher, Victor, the Cartel bosses, Héctor Salamanca, Tyrus, Gus, Drew Sharp, Mike, Declan and his crew, Gomez, Hank, Andrea, the Nazis, Todd, Jack, and ''WALT.'']] [[spoiler:Lydia]] ends the series with, at most, a few days to live. Needless to say if you took on this show you should have kept your resume current.

** A rhetorical question backfires ''badly'' on Jane's dad, Donald when it does this to Walt in 'Phoenix'. He tells Walt, 'You can't give up on [family]. What else is there?' This results in Walt going to see Jesse one more time to try and get through to him. [[spoiler:Where he sees Jane choking on her own vomit, chooses to let her die, and ruins Donald's life in the process.]]

** In "Granite State", Walt realizes it really was AllForNothing when Walt Jnr. screams at him "Why are you still alive?" although it's a rhetorical question as he follows it up with "Just die already."

** During the heist, Walter mentions that the methylamine has 9/10th the density of water, meaning that water is more dense and therefore would sink to the bottom. This happens rather quickly, and the water being added to displace the stolen methylamine would likely drop to the bottom within maybe 10-15 seconds. Since water is being added more or less directly above where the methylamine is being siphoned, they would be significantly diluting their own haul.

** Mike, who starts out as a OneSceneWonder in the season two finale, becomes a regular in season three and is one of the show's most central characters by season five.
** Todd worked his way up this ladder in Season five, starting out as just an underling in Vamonos Pest. Two episodes later, he [[spoiler:helps the guys in their train heist]], and two episodes after that, [[spoiler:he becomes Walt's new lab assistant]]. In the second part of the season, [[spoiler:he becomes Lydia's new primary cook when his uncle's crew massacres Declan's]].
** Hector Salamanca starts off as a seemingly minor character in two episodes towards the beginning of season two, but returns in season three and four in arcs that gradually reveal him to be not only an important player in the Mexican cartel, but in the {{backstory}} of one of the main characters.

** A non-fatal example in the form of [[spoiler:Ted Beneke, who embezzled at his company; slept with a married woman and then while facing a major audit from the IRS that Skyler helped him with, chooses to refuse to pay them off and instead put both himself and Skyler at risk. This results in her having Kuby and Huell strong-arm him into signing the check. He tries to flee to save himself, only to trip and slide into a counter with devastating force and end up paralyzed from the neck down]].
* AsYouKnow: Subverted. In season 2, Gretchen and Walt have a discussion regarding their past, where both of them bring up Walt's exit from Grey Matter. This should be an example of two people talking about something they already know, except Walt delusively skews the events in his favor by suggesting that they cut him out and profited off of him; Gretchen has to correct him by pointing out that that's not how it happened, giving the actual story, and then asking if Walt genuinely believes that his version of the story is how it actually went down. This begins the process of Walt becoming an UnreliableNarrator regarding his backstory and misfortunes.

** Jesse in the later seasons, after being increasingly driven to kill and seeing the fallout of his products first hand. [[spoiler: Later the murder of Drew Sharp gives Jesse the out from the business.]]

* ATeamFiring: In season five, [[spoiler:the episode "To'hajiilee" ends with a shootout where none of the people involved seem to hit anything]]. This is cleared up in the next episode.

* AwesomeYetImpractical: Tuco Salamanca's drug empire fortress is really cool and is heavily armoured enough to withstand even the heaviest of criminal attacks (even going as far as having guards outside the fort search people before entering), but it has three major issues:

** The second issue is that the guy running it is [[AxeCrazy Tuco]] [[TheDreaded Salamanca]], there is no way in hell a petty criminal or rival gang is going to risk attacking his personal den; so any would be attackers would have to be heavily armed and very determined.......