History BreakingBad / TropesEToL

* FaceHeelTurn: The whole series is one big one for Walt himself. From {{Everyman}} to AntiVillain to VillainProtagonist to BigBad.

* FaceHeelTurn: The whole series is one big one for Walt himself. From Everyman to AntiVillain to VillainProtagonist to BigBad.

* FaceHeelTurn: The whole series is one big one for Walt himself.

** A rare non-food example. The meth cooking scenes play out in loving, delectable detail that apparently hits home for [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elissa-bernstein/blue-meth-cake_b_3762191.html?ref=topbar bakers.]]

* ForeignRemake: ''Met'''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic As]][[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalum Ta]]'''sis'', set in Colombia, will follow the misadventures of Walter Blanco, his wife Cielo, assistant Jose Rosas, and narcotics agent brother-in-law Henry Navarro, but without the iconic motor home (a refurbished [[RuleOfSymbolism white and blue]] school bus is used instead) because "motor homes aren't common in Colombia".
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[Foreshadowing/BreakingBad Has its own page.]]

* HarsherinHindsight: while the series doesn’t gloss over the fact that dealing in the illegal drug market is fraught with life-threatening and life-changing danger it also doesn’t hide the fact that those who participate in it can make more money than even the President of the United States! One could even say that the show is truthful about the “rewards outweigh the risks”as if one could avoid being enslaved or offed by rivals or arrested by the FBI, IRS, and the Secret Service (their original and primary job is protecting the nation’s currency, protecting people like the President is their secondary job) they could end their days as rich as Elon Musk or Oprah Winfry!

* Harsher in Hindsight: while the series doesn’t gloss over the fact that dealing in the illegal drug market is fraught with life-threatening and life-changing danger it also doesn’t hide the fact that those who participate in it can make more money than even the President of the United States! One could even say that the show is truthful about the “rewards outweigh the risks”as if one could avoid being enslaved or offed by rivals or arrested by the FBI, IRS, and the Secret Service (their original and primary job is protecting the nation’s currency, protecting people like the President is their secondary job) they could end their days as rich as Elon Musk or Oprah Winfry!

* Harsher in Hindsight: while the series doesn’t gloss over the fact that dealing in the illegal drug market is fraught with life-threatening and life-changing danger it also doesn’t hide the fact that those who participate in it can make more money than even the President of the United States! One could even say that the show is truthful about the “rewards outweigh the risks”as if one could avoid being enslaved or offed by rivals or arrested by the FBI, IRS, and the Secret Service (their original and primary job is protecting the nation’s currency, protecting VIPs like the President is a secondary job) they could end their days as rich as Elon Musk or Oprah Winfry!

* HandshakeRefusal: When Skinny Pete introduces Jesse to Tuco, Pete tries to go for a fist bump. Tuco doesn't oblige.

** Subverted; in the episode where he starts coughing up blood, he panics, but it turns out that his cancer is going into remission and that was just a relatively minor secondary condition.

-->'''Walt:''' ''Does it have be dirty laundry?!?\\

* GainingTheWillToKill: Walt’s first two kills are done in self defense in season 1, although in Krazy-8’s case it wasn’t quite as cut and dry. His next direct kill comes in defense of Jesse. His rather senseless and unnecessary killing of [[spoiler:Mike]] is to show just how far he’s gone off the deep end.

** In "Fly", they're trapped in the lab, unable to cook until they manage to decontaminate the lab (which is to say, kill the one of the most daring fly in television history). They're stuck there until they can kill the fly and cook the batch.

** Jesse is genuinely appalled at how the addicted couple has neglected their young son in a house where he goes to forcibly repossess the drugs and money which the addicted man had robbed from Badger.

** The conflict between Gus and the Cartel. Both sides have well-proven how morally terrible they are, and despite Gus' organization being presented in a ALighterShadeOfBlack around the time the conflict hit its apex, [[spoiler:Gus then threatened to kill Walt's entire family, including his baby daughter. This after the audience had been given the impression he didn't want to use children for nefarious purposes or harm them in any fashion]].

* FaceOfAThug: Jesse's assumptions about this regarding a random stranger causes his relationship with Walt to permanently sour in season 5. They've both retired from the drug business at this point but Jesse is working with the DEA to bring Walt down, whom he suspects is trying to have him killed to tie up loose ends. They agree to meet in a public space, but Jesse notices a man dressed like a Neo-Nazi skinhead standing close to Walt. He assumes this man to be a hitman and calls off the meeting, but it turns out the guy was just there to pick up his daughter.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler: Gus won't stop even a second trying to understand why Walter would ever want to save the life of a despicable junkie like Jesse, at the cost, no less, of putting his drug-dealing operation at risk. From that moment on, he will consider Walter an unreliable liability and conspire to replace and then kill him, or at very least, to outrageously fire him]].

* KillingInSelfDefense: DEA Agent Hank Schrader ends up killing most of the Salamanca crime family in self-defense situations.

* KitschyLocalCommercial: Saul Goodman's ads. "Better Call Saul!" Also when Walt is talking to Domingo he brings up the commercials that used to air for the furniture store Domingo's father owns.

* LeaveNoWitnesses: A few times. In "Dead Freight," Mike points out that in his experience, "there are two kinds of heist; those where the guys get away with it, and those that leave witnesses." They eventually come up with a way to do the job without being seen by the train's crew, [[spoiler:but they don't count on InnocentBystanders.]]

* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}} for Walter, even before the series began:
** Led to his breakup with Gretchen and subsequent departure from Grey Matter, which eventually grew into a billion dollar company.
** Leads him to reject Elliot's offer of employment with Grey Matter, with great pay and benefits.
** Leads him to reject Gretchen's offer to pay for his cancer treatment outright.
** Leads him to reject Walter Jr.'s donation website as the perfect setup to launder his money.
** Leads him to reject Hank's theory that Gale was Heisenberg, as he doesn't want anyone else taking the credit for his work.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There's Walt's family, Jesse and his friends, the DEA, the Salamanca family, Saul and his employees, Los Pollos Hermanos... and those are just the ones introduced in the first two seasons!

* KinkyRolePlaying: In the first minisode, Marie cuffs Hank to the bed and shows up in a sexy policewoman's uniform. It goes well at first until Hank gets caught up in making sure her arrest details are right, then suggests switching to a "terrorist and interrogator" scenario. A frustrated Marie leaves him cuffed and storms out.