History Characters / BreakingBadJessePinkman

* ActionSurvivor: [[spoiler:By the time of ''El Carmino'', Jesse has been through ''a lot'' through his involvement with Walt. He has experienced the death of two girlfriends, been forced to kill an innocent man, having to help cover up the murder of a child, having been on the receiving end of several severe beatings, and gone through six months of living hell as the slave of Jack's gang.]]

* BookDumb: Jesse did poorly in Walt's chemistry class and doesn't always know the scientific name for the chemicals and processes used in meth cooking (as when he can only identify a certain chemical by the honeybee label on the barrels he and Walt use), and [[spoiler: in a flashback during ''El Camino'', Walt is legitimately surprised to discover Jesse had actually managed to get his high school diploma [[note]]Much to Jesse's annoyance, Walt was actually on the stage during Jesse's commencement ceremony, but he completely forgot about it[[/note]]]]. Yet he's highly intelligent and seems to have a genuine talent for the knack-driven, practical side of chemistry. Notably, he's the only person other than Walt and Gale who can consistently produce meth at 90% or higher purity, even under very trying conditions, and he's the only other person who seems to ''understand'' Walt's cooking methods instead of just following the recipe by rote.

[[Characters/BreakingBadWaltsFamily Walt's Family]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadHeisenbergsEmpire Heisenberg's Empire]] ('''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]] | -]]]]]

** ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' reveals he's this to Saul thanks to the events of ''Film/ElCamino''. [[spoiler:Because Jesse successfully eluded the Feds and escaped to Alaska (with them mistakenly thinking he's in Mexico thanks to Skinny Pete's plan), Saul has become the Feds' number one target in their investigation into Heisenberg's empire as he's the only major figure who is still alive and unaccounted for.]]

* DesperatelyCravesAffection: As a result of his strained relationship with his parents, Jesse has a tendency to remain incredibly attached to anyone who shows him the slightest amount of care or respect. As a result of this, Walt and later Gus are able to manipulate him into saving their lives on two different counts, and earlier than that, Jane is able to convince him to blackmail Walt for his share of the money.

* ActionSurvivor: [[spoiler:By the time of ''El Carmino'', Jesse has been through ''a lot''. He has experienced the death of two girlfriends, been forced to kill an innocent man, having to help cover up the murder of a child, having been on the receiving end of several severe beatings, and gone through six months of living hell as the slave of Jack's gang. At the end of it all, he has become quite a bit confident and determined and a force in and off himself to be reckoned with, as Neil and Casey finds out a bit too late.]]

->''"For what it’s worth, getting the shit kicked out of you... not to say you get used to it, but... you do kinda get used to it."''

* BaldOfEvil: In 2009, after Victor's death and essentially replacing him, Jesse shaves his head. Much later after escaping Jack's compound, he shaves his head again after being a disheveled wreck for half a year. Downplayed in that Jesse isn't particularly evil during either of those phases.

----

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: In Season 3, Jesse protests that some of Gus' dealers are using kids as fronts to conduct business safely, and demands that they stop. This begins a chain of events that directly and ultimately leads to [[spoiler:Walt and Gus turning on each other, Walt killing Gus, the destruction of Gus' drug empire, and the rise of Heisenberg's empire in the power vacuum]]. In ways he couldn't possibly have foreseen, Jesse's well-intentioned complaint about children being endangered causes the entire second half of the series.

* YouRemindMeOfX: In Series/BetterCallSaul, he gets a downplayed version of this from both [[spoiler: Jimmy and Kim, as the latter is made uneasy by Jesse/Walt’s fighting, reminding him of his fights with Chuck, and Kim sees him as a sad kid on the same bad choice road she went on.]]

* ExtremeDoormat: Despite the machismo Jesse attempts to project, this is ultimately his dynamic with Walt. Despite his life spiraling out of control throughout the series (manily due to Walt's actions), Jesse always finds a way to justify working under Walt, if only because he DesperatelyCravesAffection and Walt, no matter how callous he is, gives him just enough of it to get hooked. Mike eventually tells Jesse that, should he stick around, Walt will eventually drag the two of them down.
** Taken to an extreme and disturbingly literal level when he was [[spoiler:imprisoned and enslaved by the Neo-Nazi gang. His prison was a cage underground covered by a taff. [[VisualPun They were literally walking all over him.]]]]

** [[spoiler:Walt is able to win him over briefly yet again [[spoiler:after Mike's murder]] by giving him a CooldownHug... but just for the brief period until he finally figures out exactly what happened to Brock, destroying whatever was left of their father-son relationship presumably forever.]]
* WhyAreYouNotMySon: Downplayed in that Jesse is clearly a waster in a lot of areas in his life, and he's not Flynn's friend, but a few incidents make it clear that Walt prefers Jesse and is closer to him. Especially when Walt calls Flynn "Jesse" in [[Recap/Breaking BadS4E10Salud Salud]], breaking his heart.

* TheIgor: Lab assistant, general errand-runner... and, ButtMonkey. Yup: he's an Igor without a hunchback. In fact, [[TheMovieBuff Saul]] outright nicknames him Igor in a flashback scene in ''Series/BetterCallSaul''.

* TheIgor: Lab assistant, general errand-runner... and, ButtMonkey. Yup: he's an Igor without a hunchback.

* BaldOfEvil: In 2009, after Victor's death and essentially replacing him, Jesse shaves his head. Much later after escaping Jack's compound, he shaves his head again after being a disheveled wreck for half a year.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed...bitch!"'']]

* ExtremeDoormat: Despite the machismo Jesse attempts to project, this is ultimately his dynamic with Walt. It goes hand and hand with Jesse also suffering DesperatelyCravesAffection. Despite his life spiraling out of control frequently throughout the series, one way or another Jesse always finds his way by continuing to work under Walt and finds himself struggling to resist getting out of the meth business. Mike even plainly tells him that Walt will drag him down with him if he doesn't finally call it quits.
** Taken to an extreme and disturbingly literal level when he was [[spoiler:imprisoned and enslaved by the Neo-Nazi gang. His prison was a cage underground covered by a taff. He was literally walked over by them.]]

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

The {{deuteragonist}} of ''Series/BreakingBad'', and the main protagonist of the sequel film ''Film/ElCamino''. He's a small-time methamphetamine user, manufacturer, and dealer. In high school, he was an inattentive student in Walter White's chemistry class. Now in his mid-20s, Jesse is Walt's business partner in the meth trade. Jesse is impulsive, hedonistic, and uneducated, but personable and possesses street-smarts as well.

* AddictionDisplacement: Once he starts going to rehab in season 3, he actually leaves drugs behind but doubles down on regular cigarettes. He was already a smoker before the rehab, but his nicotine consumption grows noticeably afterwards.

** Played straight at one point when, flat broke, Jesse turns on the charm to pressure a hesitant gas station attendant (who has previously never done anything harder than pot) to accept meth in lieu of payment. Then he plans on selling Blue Sky to the addicts at his rehab group.

* AllForNothing: In the end, he comes out with literally nothing gained from the drug business (largely due to his impulsiveness). His remaining money (stolen from Todd's apartment) is given to Ed to give him a brand new start for life.

* BeneathTheMask: He projects the image of a fully-intentioned, devil-may-care, hedonistic rebel without a cause using the drug, slacker, and street lifestyles as a fuck you to polite society in general. And, it's not ''entirely'' an act. Underneath all that, however, is a very conflicted, frustrated, self-loathing, escapist, highly sensitive, loving, and intelligent guy with major trust and rejection issues who really doesn't know if anything he wants he should let himself deserve having. BrokenBird and SadClown don't really do him justice, but they're certainly aspects of this.

* BleedEmAndWeep: When he [[spoiler:kills Gale, he's weeping and shaking the whole time, and apparently suffers from PTSD afterwards.]]

* BrilliantButLazy: Jesse is a skilled carpenter, but he'd rather cook crystal meth than put those skills to use as a tradesman. He also has a knack for chemistry, since he becomes able to recreate Walt's formula perfectly (something nobody else could do), but he failed at chemistry at high school, because he didn't apply himself.

* ButtMonkey: The first time we see Jesse, he falls out a window. At this point, it's safe to say that ''that'' particular misfortune has been among the least terrible things that has happened to him during the course of the show.

* CartwrightCurse: In the worst possible way. [[spoiler:Both Andrea and Jane are dead because of their relationships with Jesse. As if that wasn't bad enough, they're also two of only three recurring female characters who die during the show's run (the third being Lydia Rodarte-Quayle)]] .

* ChildrenAreInnocent: A firmly held belief of his. This leads to him plotting the deaths of two drug dealers who are the bosses of Tomás, an 11-year old who murdered Jesse's friend Combo. This situation ultimately leads to the collapse of Walt and Gus' business relationship. Later, when his and Walt's actions lead to [[spoiler:a child being murdered]], he decides to quit the meth business.
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler:By Todd]] in "Ozymandias". We don't see much in detail, but he's left with plenty scars and bruises after, and is clearly traumatized by the experience.

--->'''Jesse:''' They've got this things called banks.

** Third, after [[spoiler:Drew Sharp is killed by Todd at the end of the methlyamine heist]], which ends up being the point where he loses any remaining enthusiasm for staying in the meth business.

* DesperatelyCravesAffection: As a result of his strained relationship with his parents, Jesse has a tendency to remain incredibly attached to anyone who shows him the slightest amount of care or respect. As a result of this, Walt and later Gus are able to manipulate him into saving their lives on two different counts and earlier than that, Jane is able to convince him to blackmail Walt for his share of the money.

** Spelled out when he tells Walt that he should just shoot Tuco the next time they meet, requiring Walt to remind him that Tuco always has back-up, and that Jesse's revolver has a limited number of bullets. Jesse is then unable to open his revolver to check how much ammo he has.
** [[spoiler:Jesse's attempted escape from Jack's gang falls under this. Despite knowing that Andrea and Brock are at risk if he doesn't cooperate, he still attempts to escape his prison. However, it's implied that Jesse's mental state has degraded to the point that he's trying to escape with the knowledge that he'll either get out in order to warn Andrea and Brock, or be put out of his misery by the Nazis (hence his daring them to shoot him). The biggest miscalculation that Jesse makes is his assumption that he's disposable to Todd.]]

* DitzyGenius: By Season 4, his meth making skills rival Walt's and he contributes a lot of good ideas throughout the show, but he's often sabotaged by his idealism, ChaoticStupid tendencies and impulsiveness.

* TheDragon: Is this to Walt. It is only due to him that Walt expanded his cookery from the ordinary streets to men like Tuco and Gus. Also, he murdered Gale, thus securing Walt and himself. His usefulness to Walt has gotten to the point where he is a ''crucial'' part of his meth operation, such as when he comes up with an idea on how to erase the security footage of them burning down the lab with a magnet or when he figures out a way to rob the methylamine train without anyone knowing. [[spoiler:This ends in "Confessions" for good.]]
* DramaticIrony: He left the meth business earlier than Walt and aides in his temporary capture. [[spoiler:He technically ''becomes Heisenberg'' when he is the only person who can successfully cook Blue Sky, and he played a major role in the meth business after Walt being outed as Heisenberg.]]
* DrivenToVillainy: He was a low level street dealer at first, but he was only involved with Walt because Walt blackmailed him into working together.

* DumbMuscle: Often fullfils this role for Walt at the start of the series. He's far from a good fighter, but he's the more experienced of the two and is still in decent shape. As Walt gains access to better criminal muscle and Jesse gets better at cooking, he's promoted to being Walt's assistant instead.

* EnemyMine: With [[spoiler:Hank]] as of "Rabid Dog". The two clearly struggle to get along, but their mutual hatred of [[spoiler:Walter White]] manages to keep them working together.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: {{Invoked|trope}}, although "evil" is a bit of a stretch. Jesse refuses to kill his longtime friend Badger who got caught selling his meth. Even though killing him would be the simplest solution, which Saul points out at first out of confusion, Jesse clearly protests and instead has him and Walt pay Saul to set up an expensive scheme to get Badger out of prison.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: At least compared to Walt, Jesse has a far stronger moral compass. He has a [[NeverHurtAnInnocent strong distaste for attacking regular law-abiding people]], and feels [[WouldntHurtAChild especially protective towards young children]].
** While Jesse has sold meth to plenty people without much thought, he is appalled when he realizes that children may be negatively impacted by it. He's disturbed when he sees how much Spooge and his wife neglect their little boy, and he refuses to sell meth to Andrea after finding out that she too has a young son.

* ExtremeDoormat: Despite the machismo Jesse attempts to project, this is ultimately his dynamic with Walt. It goes hand and hand with Jesse also suffering DesperatelyCravesAffection. Despite his life spiraling out of control frequently throughout the series, one way or another Jesse always finds his way continuing to work under Walt and finds himself struggling to resist getting out of the meth business. Mike even plainly tells him that Walt will drag him down with him if he doesn't finally call it quits.
** Taken to extreme and disturbingly literal level when he was [[spoiler:imprisoned and enslaved by the Neo-Nazi gang. His prison was a cage underground cover by a taff. He was literally walked over by them.]]

* FatalFlaw: His impulsiveness is the most prominent one earlier on, and it leads to a lot of trouble for Walt and him. Although Jesse is smart in a logistical sense he doesn’t fully comprehend the possible conseqeuences of ideas until they play out. As he gains emotional maturity this trait fades away but it never totally vanishes. In later seasons, that quality was downplayed and replaced with his desire for approval and his perpetual self-loathing, which Walt fully exploits.
** [[spoiler:His impulsiveness comes back with a vengeance in "Granite State" when he tries to escape from Todd and the Aryans despite knowing what the consequences might be for Andrea and Brock. Granted, his situation was pretty dire and probably was taking a toll on his ability to reason.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:As of "Ozymandias," he was sold into slavery by his former partner, with the knowledge that said partner let Jesse's girlfriend die, tortured and made to cook meth, with his current girlfriend and her son's lives hanging in the balance, depending on his cooperation, and his life may already be forfeit, even if he cooperates.]] In fact, Aaron Paul explicitly calls it this trope name in the behind the scenes of [[spoiler:"Ozymandias".]]

** To Walt. Their emotional arcs over the course of the series have run pretty much parallel, with Jesse starting out as a seemingly callous criminal to Walt's kindhearted milquetoast everyman. As Walt has sunk lower and lower into moral decay, Jesse has become more and more troubled by his criminal dealings and how they can affect those around him. Examine how Jesse [[spoiler:breaks things off with Andrea instead of letting her know more about what he does for a living to protect her, right around the time Skyler becomes basically Walt's prisoner and the subject of many a KickTheDog moment because he refuses to believe he is a danger to her or the kids.]]

* GainingTheWillToKill: Jesse learns firsthand how difficult it is to plan and execute a murder. He becomes very reckless attempting to kill the two drug dealers who murdered Tomas at the expense of the partnership with Gus and his own safety. Once he has to shoot Gale, for his and Walt's benefit, he has an emotional breakdown and spends much of the next season in a HeroicBSOD.
* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: Starting off, Jesse is shown being just as fond of smoking meth as he is of making money off of it. He eventually stops and gets himself clean around the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3 [[spoiler:after Jane's overdose on heroin]].

* {{Greed}}: Usually averted, but played straight in one instance, where he attempted to [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} sell meth to recovering addicts with Badger and Skinny Pete]] because he felt like he wasn't making enough money, even though he was a millionaire.
* GuiltComplex: Granted, a good amount of things are his fault, but Jesse has a self-destructive tendency to blame himself for practically everything, even if he isn't the one who deserves the majority of the blame. This tendency manifests itself in a big way on three separate occasions: He believes that Jane's death, along with the Wayfarer plane crash, is entirely his fault, and doesn't quite get over his guilt until meeting Brock. Later on, [[spoiler:he breaks down in tears and berates himself over the fact that he nearly killed Walt after correctly suspecting him of poisoning Brock.]] And finally [[spoiler:his reaction to the deaths of Drew Sharp and Mike are so extreme that he makes a naive attempt at giving away his money in order to gain a sense of absolution.]]
** In a series littered with people willing to pull NeverMyFault, that Jesse's default is "Always[=/=]Likely My Fault" is a notable inversion. However, if he can find instances where it wasn't his fault and can clearly see where else the fault lies... cue RoaringRampageOfRevenge as he turns that churning, well-oiled guilt complex into explosive anger instead.
* TheHeart: Becomes this in [[spoiler:Season 5's Walt/Mike/Jesse partnership]]. He's there to keep both of them together and in check, making sure they don't do anything unnecessarily drastic, and is the most morally conscious of the three at this point. Driven home in the episode ''Say My Name''. The one time [[spoiler:Mike]] has a disagreement with Walt when Jesse isn't present ends with [[spoiler:Walt shooting Mike fatally.]]

** In the season 4 premiere, he has one after killing Gale; he's so shocked at what he's done that he can't even seem to drive away from the apartment complex. Afterwards, he sits in stunned silence for most of the episode. This particular BSOD is so bad that Jesse essentially stops caring about what happens to himself, and Gus has to employ him in order to snap him out of it.

** In "Felina", Jesse's practically a walking BSOD until [[spoiler:Walt]] shows up.

** A recurring problem, especially in later episodes, is that Jesse attempts to do the right thing without fully thinking it through. [[spoiler:In "Blood Money", for example, he plans to leave half his five million to Mike's granddaughter, but Saul points out that with Mike being investigated, that much money would raise suspicion no matter how he tries to get it to her, and if Jesse just leaves a sack of millions on a doorstep, it will be even more suspicious.]]
** Jesse also personally puts a high value on personal honor, and assumes others do as well. He repeatedly seals verbal agreements with "[[ArcWords Your word is your bond?]]" and during ''El Camino'' [[NoHonorAmongThieves asks Neil for $1,800, out of a million dollars,]] "as a favor." Neil instead [[ComicallySmallDemand challenges him to a duel to the death over it.]]

* IgnoredEpiphany: A few times Jesse recognizes just how dangerous and bloodthirsty Walt is (sometimes more than Walt himself realizes). Unfortunately Jesse decides to still associate with Walt in spite of this.

** His parents all but disown him after he gets into drugs, evicting him from his aunt's house in Season 2.

* InnocentBlueEyes: Jesse would definitely qualify as this, with his large, expressive, and puppy-like blue eyes. Given his woobie characteristics they're often front and center too.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Obviously him and Walt. Develops a bit of one with Mike in season 4, after Gus partners them up. Possibly him and Brock, too.

* KickTheDog: Not as frequently as Walt does, but he does more than his fair share of morally reprehensible things over the show's five seasons, the most notable being his attempt to peddle meth to a support group of recovering addicts. Granted, he doesn't get far in his attempt before he gives up on it, but the fact that he even attempted it qualifies as nothing less but this.

* LastNameBasis: Even though they go through a lot together, Jesse still calls Walt "Mr. White", as if Walt was still his teacher. [[spoiler:[[UnstoppableRage Until he discovers his role in poisoning Brock, anyway.]]

* LastNameBasis: Even though they go through a lot together, Jesse still calls Walt "Mr. White", as if Walt was still his teacher. [[spoiler:Until the end of "To'hajiilee"]].
* LoveInterests: Jane in season 2, and Andrea in season 3 and after.

* MadeASlave: [[spoiler:Jesse is taken by Jack's crew to cook meth for their operation because of Todd in "Ozymandias".]]

** He leaves the keys in the ignition in "4 days out," and unknowingly leads Hank to the RV in "Sunset."

* MirthlessLaughter: [[spoiler:Starts laughing hysterically and joyously out of relief, while also crying tears of joy, as he drives away at top speed out of the Neo-Nazi compound towards the end of "Felina".]]
* MoralityPet: To Walt. For all the abuse and belittlement that Walt directs at Jesse, he does truly care for him, as evidenced by the face that Walt has saved Jesse's life on multiple occasions, sometimes against his own best interests. [[spoiler:It gets to the point that he refuses to even consider killing him until Pinkman outright declares himself to be his enemy.]]

* PayEvilUntoEvil: Justified when he [[spoiler:strangles Todd after the gunfire stops.]]

* PluckyComicRelief: He provides a good deal of the comic relief early on... [[FromBadToWorse it]] [[TraumaCongaLine doesn't]] [[HeroicBSOD last]].

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In an early scene, he jokes about Walt dressing up like a "faggot." Granted, [[ValuesDissonance he was a delinquent teenager from 2008 at the time.]]

* PoisonousFriend: Skyler initially confuses him as being a ToxicFriendInfluence for Walter, with quite some cause. And, ordinarily, you'd agree that an impulsive drug dealer who constantly needs his bacon saved by "more reasonable" adults would count in most people's books. [[SubvertedTrope Nope, sorry,]] [[PlayingWithATrope not that simple]]: predominantly, it's the other way around. Jesse may enable Walt, but Walt outright manipulates and uses him and his relationships with others in return. Repeatedly. However, it's played rather straighter (if unintentionally) with others, like Jane: he did influence her rather... negatively during one of his downward spirals and got her off the wagon she'd been successfully on (although Walt's insistence on expanding to foreign territory lead Jesse into depression, and by extension, drug use). Badger and Skinny Pete also found bumps put in their paths thanks to the same basic issue. Jesse doesn't go out to be a negative influence for others. It just kind of happens, thanks to his problems, lapses of concentration, and inability to fully think things through biting him and those around him in every way imaginable.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In an early scene, he jokes about Walt dressing up like a "faggot".

* ProneToTears: Jesse is very emotional and spends a lot of time on screen crying, and is cruelly mocked by the Neo-Nazis for crying in his taped DEA interview. The effect of this is to humanise him, especially as it stands him in stark contrast with the unemotional and sociopathic Walter White.
* ARealManIsAKiller: A SubvertedTrope. There are plenty of people that Jesse wants to kill throughout the first three seasons, and his reasons are at least noble in a macho, street honor sense. Nevertheless, he doesn't actually get to end a life until the very end of Season 3, when he kills Gale. Jesse does not issue a PreMortemOneLiner and obviously doesn't want to pull the trigger, weeping uncontrollably right before he does. Not to mention that the event appears to completely shatter him, and for the entire episode afterward, [[HeroicBSOD Jesse barely speaks because he's still in shock.]]
* RealMenWearPink: One wouldn't describe Jesse as being particularly feminine, but underneath his loud and tough exterior lie his two biggest passions: caring, familial relationships... and arts-and-crafts. Neither of which are typically considered "manly". In his childhood room he has lots of failed homework assignments ''covered'' in amazing drawings and doodles. Incidentally, he is also considered decidedly the unfavorite of the family; meanwhile, to throw this into relief, his younger brother is beloved by their parents for his interests in sports and academia. In Granite State, the neo-Nazis laugh and mock him for crying while recounting all the horrible things he's witnessed. Both of Jesse's love interests in the show allowed him to channel his artistic or domestic side, which Walt repeatedly tries to stamp out to prevent him from wanting to leave the drug life.

** After he [[spoiler: learns Walt poisoned Brock, he abandons skipping town for a safer life and tries to burn Walt's house down. Later his insistence to ''directly'' hurt Walt results in him being captured, Walt telling him he let Jane die so that she can't hurt his operations, and ForcedToWatch Todd kill Andrea]].

* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: [[spoiler:He decides to leave the meth business despite Walter persistently trying to persuade him otherwise and refusing to give him his share of the money nearing 5 million dollars. Later, after Walter gave Jesse his money, Jesse decides he doesn't want his "blood money". He first tries to have it sent to Mike's granddaughter and Drew Sharp's parents, but Saul and Walt refuse to arrange this, so Jesse starts driving down a poor neighbourhood and tossing his money away.]]
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Walt's Manly Man. While Jesse isn't effeminate, he possesses significantly more compassion and empathy than the cold and calculating Walt, and has no problem showing his emotions and crying openly.

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:After Walt's death, he becomes the only living person who knows how to cook blue meth, and one of the 2 survivors of Gus' empire, the other being Dr Barry Goodman.]]

* SympatheticMurderer: His TearsOfRemorse and HeroicBSOD afterwards make him just as tragic and sympathetic as Gale.

* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: As [[WebVideo/HonestTrailers a Juggalo without the makeup who prefers the formal term for female dog]], Jesse likes to adds "bitch" to the end of every insult.

* TooDumbToLive: For all his clever ideas, he also has big moments of this, ''in spades''. Gosh, what a brilliant idea to dispose bodies with hydrofluoric acid in a cast iron bathtub... and extinguish a burning generator with the last supplies of potable water!

** Played straight and subverted. He started as a common, immature street thug. Now he's a top-notch meth cook, who's killed two people. Neither of these things bring him anything but misery.

##Not much later, Tuco kidnaps him and Walt, and makes them sit in the trunk of a small car for at least a few hours. Then he beats up Jesse again and very nearly shoots him in the head.

##He's later left at the mercy of two drug addicts after he attempted to reclaim the money that was stolen from his friend and distributor. During this time, he witnesses Spooge's wife crush her husband's head with an ATM. That had to give him nightmares for a while.

##His girlfriend's son, Brock is poisoned, leading for him to correctly suspect Walt of the crime, and comes incredibly close to killing him. After the fact, he feels completely torn up by guilt over doing so (since Walt tricked him into thinking his suspicions were wrong).

* UndyingLoyalty: Deconstructed and [[spoiler:subverted by the end]]. Walt vouches for Jesse that he has this early in the show. Mike even lampshades this when he describes this as Jesse's best quality. As the series continues, Jesse's relationship with Walt evolves from a strained -- having been forced to work with him -- to a trusting one, believing they have survived by having each other's safety in mind while forming a cooperative business. In the 5th season, Jesse gives Walter a watch for his birthday and he shares personal feelings with him at that time. [[spoiler:By the end of the first half of Season 5, it's finally subverted when Jesse becomes terrified of him learning he killed 10 witnesses in prison and most certainly, Mike. And when he figures out that Walt poisoned Brock, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge well... it's not pleasant to say the least.]] Jesse is taken in by Hank to help arrest Walt, and Jesse cooperates fully. After Walt saves Jesse from Jack and hands him a gun, Jesse isn't willing to do what he desires anymore and leaves.]]

* UnstoppableRage: [[spoiler:Especially when he assaults Saul's office.]]

* [[VillainProtagonist Villain]] {{Deuteragonist}}: He is Walter White's right hand man, even though he is far less ruthless than him.

** [[spoiler:Walt is able to win him over briefly yet again in "Confessions" by giving him a CooldownHug... but just for the brief period until he finally figures out exactly what happened to Brock, destroying whatever was left of their father-son relationship presumably forever.]]
* WhyAreYouNotMySon: Downplayed in that Jesse is clearly a waster in a lot of areas in his life, and he's not Flynn's friend, but a few incidents make it clear that Walt prefers Jesse and is closer to him. Especially when Walt calls Flynn "Jesse" in "Salud", breaking his heart.

** The first time Jesse calls Walt on his first name is in "Breakage" (till then he'd always been "Mr. White") when he's telling Walt that Walt needs him more than he needs Walt. It's a clear message that the balance of power has shifted in their relationship.
** He does it again [[spoiler:in "To'hajiilee", showing that he has absolutely no respect for Walt anymore.]]

For the main page, see [[Characters/BreakingBad here]].

[[WMG:[[center:[-'''[[Characters/BreakingBad Breaking Bad]] | [[Characters/BetterCallSaul Better Call Saul]]'''\\
| '''Individuals:''' [[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]], Jesse Pinkman, [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]], [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]], [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulKimWexler Kim Wexler]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulHowardHamlin Howard Hamlin]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulChuckMcGill Chuck McGill]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulNachoVarga Nacho Varga]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulLaloSalamanca Lalo Salamanca]] | -]]]]]

!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/AaronPaul

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In an early scene, he jokes about Walt dressing up like a "f*ggot".

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: {{Invoked|trope}}; Although "evil" is a bit of a stretch. Jesse refuses to kill his friend Badger who got caught selling his meth. Even though killing him would be the simplest solution, which Saul points out at first out of confusion, Jesse clearly protests and instead has him and Walt pay Saul to set up an expensive scheme to get Badger out of prison.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Compared to Walt, Jesse has far stronger moral boundaries that he refuses to cross. He has a [[NeverHurtAnInnocent strong distaste for attacking regular law-abiding people]], and feels [[WouldntHurtAChild especially protective towards young children]].

* EveryoneHasStandards:
** He is established as being book dumb, but even he is disappointed to see that Skinny Pete can't spell 'street' correctly.
** He's disturbed when he sees how much Spooge and his wife neglect their son.
** He refuses to sell meth to Andrea after finding out that she has a young son.
** [[spoiler:After Todd kills a kid in season 5, he decides he can't live with all the bodies he and Walt have left in their wake and desperately wants out of the business, eventually deciding that he doesn't even care if Walt gives him his fair share of the money.]]

* MrFanservice: It's pretty undeniable, actually. This is especially telling since AMC and Vince himself were, at first, reluctant to hire Aaron Paul for the part since they found him too attractive.