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Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware

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Due to being an abridged parody, this article assumes you've already seen Breaking Bad, and will contain unmarked spoilers for events in that show. You Have Been Warned.

Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware (Web Video)

Walter White is just your average man with his wonderful wife Skyler and son Walter Jr. when someone crashes their car into his house, his former chemistry student Jesse Pinkman who comes bearing unfortunate news: Walt has cancer. But Jesse has a plan to help get money for his cancer by cooking and selling meth, setting them both on a wild, wild journey...

Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware is a Garry's Mod improv roleplay Machinima by WayneRadioTV and the Radio TV Solutions crew, in a similar vein to their previous series Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware, being a mostly improvised and far more humorous retelling of Breaking Bad using Garry's Mod. It was streamed on December 16th, 2023, with an edited down version released just a little over a year later on December 25th, 2024.


Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware contains examples of:

  • Accidental Misnaming: Five straight hours of improv do a bit of a number on Wayne's ability to distinguish character names; he refers to both Mike and Gus as "Hank" at least once. It probably doesn't help that Hank constantly bombards Walt with his own name.
  • Adaptational Alternate Ending: For a character. In the original, Saul ended his tenure in the show by brushing off Walt's attempts to scare him into working with him, resuming his new cover life as a cinnabon manager. Here, the ghost of Chuck comes back for revenge, chasing him off with lightning from his fingertips as he's never seen again.
  • Adaptational Badass: Magic is seemingly a common happening in this version of Albuquerque, with Jesse in particular using ice magic and Walt possessing a Spirit Bomb-esque attack that uses the power of everyone in Albuquerque to destroy Uncle Jack and his evil circus. Walt in particular is also far more durable, as he sustains a lot of gunfire from Jack's clowns and then Jesse before dropping dead, and even then he's still conscious for a good few seconds to walk into the lab before he dies, while the canon Walt would have likely been shredded to a red mist by that many bullets.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Declan is renamed to “Socket”, and Krazy-8 is now “Crazy EightS” (with emphasis on the “s”).
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • In Breaking Bad, the Aryan Brotherhood were... well, Neo-Nazis. In Breaking Bad VR, they're just a gang of unruly clowns instead, although they're still dangerous enemies to Walter and Jesse.
    • Walter White himself is both more kind and openly affectionate to Jesse, often referring to him as his son, and due to the truncated nature of the stream doesn't commit many of his more questionable acts in the original show, not being responsible to Jane's death with Jesse even pointing out he never met her when he claims to have watched her die and there being no indication of him having poisoned Brock.
  • Adaptational Skill: In stark contrast to the Mike of Breaking Bad, who tended to operate with the conservative efficiency of a veteran hitman, Mike's combat prowess here simply manifests in an astonishing skill at beating the absolute shit out of people. At one point, he punches Walter so fast and hard that Walt flies under a table and out the other side, then clips straight through the table and keeps punching Walt until he's all but a puddle in a corner. This is largely due to almost all perspectives but Walt's being Adapted Out, meaning that every scene where Mike flexes his stealth talents has been cut.
  • Adaptation Expansion: There are a few scenes that have Walt adapted in, thanks to being crucial plot moments yet lacking Walt originally. These include Hank's ridealong leading into the "Hola, DEA" bomb and Gus bringing Walt along with Jesse and Mike to kill the dons before taking him out to threaten his family.
  • Adapted Out: Courtesy of the truncated nature of the stream, most perspectives outside of Walt's and most plot threads not relating to his meth dealing are absent. The story moves as it did before anyway, with Skyler gradually growing more suspicious as usual and Walt even claiming that he watched Jane die despite not even knowing anything about her besides being Jesse's deceased girlfriend, which Jesse points out.
  • Alien Geometries: Due to quirks in the map, the tunnel from Albuquerque to the outside only works correctly about half the time. Sometimes going through it takes people under the map, and at least twice, the car is shot back into Albuquerque at high speed.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Walter admits that he doesn't find his wife hot (although he does love her), awkwardly talks up a guy at a party, and repeatedly compliments Saul's attractiveness. At one point, he even asks Saul if he's gay.
    • Walt's admission that he loves his wife is cut from the edited version, making the implication even stronger.
  • Amoral Attorney: Saul Goodman, naturally. Walt and Jesse go to see him during the first hour of the stream, and he returns for part of the final hour.
  • Anachronism Stew: Walt repeatedly says the present year is 2006note ; this lines up with most of the cars and technology seen throughout Albuquerque, but doesn't account for the presence of Uncharted 3, iPads (even if they look like CRT monitors), Gangnam Style, or Fortnite (Jesse's favorite game).
  • An Ice Person: Jesse is one of these, as he is shown to have "ice magic." This is what he's advertised as when he's sold into Jack's circus.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: When Jesse kills Gale, it is one of the rare times the perspective shifts from Walt's point of view.
  • Artistic License – Chemistry: "Chemistry" seems to be Wayne's go-to Hand Wave for whatever plot-vital action Walt needs to be able to do, up to and including absorbing Mike's memories.
    • Apparently meth can be mined from a massive crystal jutting out from the ground.
  • Big, Bulky Bomb: The bomb that Walt puts on Hector's wheelchair is a bundle of giant sticks of dynamite.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Gus delivers a shortened version of his canon counterpart's speech in "Salud," which is subtitled in Spanish rather than English in the edit.
  • Calling Your Attacks:
    • Skyler does this when she attacks Walt for letting the evil circus execute Hank.
      Skyler: Skyler White grabs a knife and attacks Walter White!
    • Walt shouts "Blue Sky Bomb!" when he channels a Spirit Bomb to destroy Uncle Jack and his evil circus.
    • Hank also does this when unleashing the Schrader Shredder on the Salamanca triplets.
  • The Cameo: Dr. Coomer makes a brief appearance at Denny's while Jesse shows Walt a video on his phone, making an order in the background.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Jack's circus is called Uncle Jack's Evil Circus.
  • Character Signature Song: In this universe, every character has their own ringtone specific to them, and their own radio station that plays songs about them.
  • Color-Coded Item Tiers: Before their first cook, Jesse notes to Walt that he's only smoked common White Meth and that there are likely varieties of different colors and rarities including Rare (navy), Uncommon (green) and Legendary (blue). Walt decides to be a Legendary Meth Cook, and it's implied this is the reason his meth is blue.
  • Combined Energy Attack: Walt utilizes a Spirit Bomb powered by the energies of the people of Albuquerque to take down the circus.
  • The Comically Serious: What little comedy is derived from RTVS's version of Gus Fring comes from two sources: one, that he is audibly played by Baaulp, one of the goofier members of the cast who "cannot voice-act to save his life;" and two, that he remains a reasonably serious portrayal of Gus despite all of reality around him being thoroughly out to lunch.
    Gus: THE HANK, SCH-RADER. HAS FOUND, OUR SPECIAL, METH, CHICKENS! WALTER WHITE, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!? WE ARE GOING TO MEXICO, NOW!!!
  • Compressed Adaptation: BBVRAI takes around sixty hours of TV, comprised of five seasons and sixty-two episodes, and compresses it all into a five-hour stream. The edited version is cut down to about three and a half hours. This means that each episode of the show is, on average, covered in three and a half minutes or less. A lot of scenes end up being removed, moved around or combined so Walt is present to witness them.
  • Death Seeker: After destroying the evil circus, Walt asks Jesse to kill him, which he obliges (though it takes a while for Walt to properly die).
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Skyler's presence is downplayed as most of Walt's life outside of the meth trade is truncated to his relationship with Hank, to the point that she is a literal cardboard cutout. In the original, she was a much bigger presence who acted as a major obstacle to Walt's practices, trying to keep his business secret from her.
    • Hector Salamanca is introduced in Season 2 as the Greater-Scope Villain behind Tuco and the rest of the Salamancas, but with Tuco dying in the explosion before he could abduct Walt and Jesse, he's introduced in the hospital shortly before Walt sets him up as a bomb to take out Gus.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation: Various characters meet their ends differently here than in the original show, with some varying way more than others.
    • Since Tuco’s kidnapping of Walt and Jesse isn’t adapted, Tuco is killed by the explosion at his hideout instead of being shot by Hank.
    • In much the same manner, Crazy EightS dies in Walt's explosion of the RV, exiting the plot in the same scene as he entered it.
    • In Breaking Bad, Gus killed Victor by slicing his throat with a box cutter and letting him bleed out. In BBVRAI, he stabs him various times with a combat knife.
    • In the aftermath of the Aryan Brotherhood being gunned down by Walt's machine gun, Jesse strangles Todd with his handcuffs before breaking his neck. In BBVRAI, Jesse uses his ice magic to kill him instead.
    • Walt ends up bleeding out from a bullet wound he sustained from the machine turret he used to execute the Aryan Brotherhood. Here, while he still ends up bleeding out from gunshot wounds, he sustains a lot more than just one from both the clowns as he's charging up the Blue Sky Bomb and from Jesse after the fact shooting him with various different weapons.
  • Dramatic Irony: Hank constantly asserts two things: How much he loves his brother Walt and how much he hates those in the drugs business. Walt, on the other hand, recently joined the trade of cooking and selling meth. Needless to say, he's rather pissed when he figures it out.
  • Dull Surprise: Walt Jr.'s voice rarely ever goes above a semi-disinterested tone, even when Skyler accuses Walter of fucking Hank.
  • The Dying Walk: The stream ends with Walter walking into Jack's meth lab after destroying the circus with the Blue Sky Bomb, admiring the equipment as he dies.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Chuck appears in a clip from Better Call Saul played on an in-universe television and as a walking corpse attacking Saul with electricity from his fingertips.
  • Enhanced on DVD: In the original VOD Huell disappears in view of Walt while talking to Gus, while the official release, it is edited so Huell slowly fades with a voice saying "Cloak: Engage".
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Saul is confronted by the ghost of his brother Chuck in the desert, who chases him off with lighting from his fingertips. He is never seen again.
  • Flanderization: For comedy and Adaptation Distillation purposes, just about every character gets at least a minor dose of it.
    • Walt himself, despite being a lot more caring to Jesse specifically, also seems not to care very much about anyone else. A standout moment is his final confrontation with Mike- in the show, Walt shoots Mike in a moment of passion and immediately expresses guilt and horror for fatally wounding Mike, and it shakes him for a while afterwards. In this version, Walt shoots Mike and then goes to look for more ammo, calms down just long enough to give a whining, victim-blaming non-apology to the man he's murdered, and then (when he's certain nobody is looking) immediately absorbs Mike's memories of his connections in prison so he can have them assassinated, before promptly stealing his car and driving home while laughing about what a good day he's having.
    • Gale in the TV show was an Ambiguously Gay Lovable Nerd who had some hints towards crushing on Walt and was too submissive for his own good. As played by Log, he's a strikingly idiotic Camp Gay who spends what little screentime he has practically licking Walt's boots a la the Blue Gnome. Gus outright calls him a cuck.
    • Poor Skyler and Walt Jr. are reduced to literal cardboard cutouts. Skyler describes everything she's doing in a cheery Machine Monotone, whereas Jr. spends nearly the entire plot sounding nothing more than bored and disaffected.
    • Skinny Pete is Badger and Combo's friend, but above all he is Jesse's best friend. Other than that, most of his appearances involve driving through the background of unrelated scenes while blaring his Character Signature Song. In the movie he ends up getting an El Camino as part of a broader plan, but here it's exaggerated into a major character trait.note 
    ♪ My name is Skinny Pete. Jesse is my Best Friend, doin' illegal things with my friend Badger, and I love my El Camino! Give my keys to Jesse when it feels right, my best friend till the end, we never fight. Oo yaa... PETE! (Pete) ♪
  • Foreshadowing: BBVRAI assumes that the audience is already familiar with its source material, and therefore excuses itself to make an absolute mockery of foreshadowing.
    • Walt Jr and Jesse frequenly mention how glad they are that Walter loves his family and will never hurt them.
    • About half of all conversations with Hank include allusions to his impending death- in his very first appearance, he declares that anyone who deals meth deserves to "fall down in the desert alone". It's even referenced several times in his Character Signature Song.
    • Saul at one point says out of the blue that he'll "never work at a Cinnabon!" This is made even more absurd by his actual exit from the improv, which can in no way be linked to his eventual fate in Better Call Saul.
    • While having sworn off cooking meth, Walt still yells out of frustration that he'll go "die in a fucking meth lab".
  • Fun with Subtitles: Wayne's Signature Style of editing. Every character has a different color and font of subtitle to distinguish them, and every verbal tic, mumble, and connection glitch is meticulously transcribed.
    • Even without audible speech, Hector's steel drums are translated into on-screen dialogue.
    • When the "Walter White" audio sample from his song is used in dialogue, it is represented in the subtitles as a promotional image of his face.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Walter and Jesse are introduced to Saul Goodman through his ad... which then cuts to Chuck berating Jimmy over not being a real lawyer. Walt grows very doubtful but reluctantly accepts Saul as their only lead, while Jesse and Skinny Pete just seem more convinced that Saul is the best choice.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Almost every word out of Walt's mouth, but in a particularly incisive incident, he speeds down the road in his car in order to stop Jesse from killing someone... then proceeds to run over said person splattering them further down the road.
  • I Have No Son!: Although Walt is generally nice to Walt Jr. in person, he seems to forget about him pretty quickly in the presence of Jesse, whom he repeatedly refers to as "my only son".
  • Intelligible Unintelligible: Hector Salamanca only communicates with Walter through steel drum wowozela noises, but Walt can understand him perfectly. The edited version adds subtitles to show what he's saying.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Gus Fring. Compared to the rest of the cast, who at least have some level of goofiness in their portrayals, Gus is played almost completely as he was in the original series.
  • Lame Last Words:
    • Socket:
    • Todd:
    (in the flattest, most Scorpy monotone imaginable:) Jesus, Mister White.
    • And of course, Hank:
    You're the stupidest guy... I ever met. [long, contemptuous sniff] ...And you're stupid.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Hector is initially completely cordial to Walt until he mentions Tuco, indicating he has no idea his son died, or at least doesn't know that Walt killed him. He also doesn't seem to realize that Walt's plan entails Hector suicide bombing Gus when he comes to execute him.
  • Manchild: Huell is rendered this, playing with (and accidentally killing himself with) a lightsaber while Walt and Saul discuss hiding the former's money and having a song about how dependent he is on his iPad to the point he considers it his mom. Jesse also has some tones of this as he asks for said iPad so he can play Doodle Jump.
  • Medium-Shift Gag: A couple of gags use clips from the series:
    • Walt and company learn about Saul by seeing his commercial from the series (as well as the “you’re not a real lawyer” scene from Better Call Saul) on TV.
    • In the edited version, after Skyler reveals to Walt that she used their money to “augment Ted Beneke’s body”, the video briefly cuts to a clip of Ted in his halo brace.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Todd (as portrayed by Scorpy) is a PlayStation 3 fanboy with poor voice quality who swings wildly between Dissonant Serenity and frothing, incoherent rage, referencing Scorpy's previous role as Benrey.
    • Walt has a GameClam console in his living room.
    • Socket uses the same Vin Diesel model seen at the end of HLVRAI.
  • Never My Fault: During Walt and Skyler’s final interaction, instead of admitting that his actions were done for his own gain like he did in the series, Walt simply says he “didn’t do anything” before running off.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: While the majority of characters are portrayed using low-poly 3D models, Skyler and Walt Jr.’s models are just cardboard cutouts of promotional images for their respective characters.
  • The Nose Knows: Jesse uses smell to diagnose Walt's cancer and figure out Gus's involvement in the meth business. He might not be the only one with this ability, since he wants to cook in the desert so "no one can smell [them]".
    Todd: I didn't attend a pardstegious high school like Jesse, but I haven't been inside a lab before. Thus I have no idea what most'a the chemical compounds you use in Breaking Bad smell like.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Holly as Hank, Mira as Tuco, and Gir as Mike are the only cast members attempting impressions of their respective characters, resulting in such hilarities as:
    • Jesse's iconic dudebro voice is swapped with Erarg's laid-back deadpan, interspersed with occasional "yo"s or "Mista White"s.
    • Baaulp delivers his lines in the appropriately measured and ominous inflections of Gus Fring, but without any disguise to his naturally high-pitched, cheerful voice.
    • EVERY character voiced by Scorpy, from Todd Alquist to Skinny Pete, audibly just consists of Scorpy leaning closer to and farther away from his mic.
    • And of course, The Big Guy Huell Babineaux is played by Lauren.
  • Not Quite Dead: While Walt and Saul discuss hiding the former's money, Huell accidentally kills himself while playing with a lightsaber. After his soul ascends to Heaven and a grave spawns where he died, he reappears outside totally fine.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: In Breaking Bad, where characters are played by actors who actually stand on set while squibs explode in their shirts, a death by shooting can be sold just by wincing and falling over. In BBVRAI, where characters are indestructible puppets piloted by improv comedians, "falling over" entails punching in the ragdoll command on the fly, and most of the time, it would be funnier for the character to keep standing for a bit anyway. Consequently, every single character in the improv is damn near Immune to Bullets, but are not immune to the excruciating pain of being shot, resulting in characters being pumped head to toe full of bullets, screaming and wailing for several moments, and then standing up and going about their day again.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Played for Laughs. Skyler, who has been talking in a chipper yet robotic demeanor the entire time, breaks down into realistically upset tears when she thinks she's figured out why Hank is missing:
    Skyler: You... you... you fucked Hank!
  • Platonic Declaration of Love: Many characters make these, with Walt in particularly constantly declaring how much he loves those around him. Gus even says he loves him after accepting Walt's offer to work for him.
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Chuck's corpse delivers one right before he chases Saul away with blasts of electricity from his fingertips.
    Chuck: HEY, JIMMY! REMEMBER ELECTROMAGNETISM? WELL, YOU BETTER GROUND YOURSELF!
  • Psychic Link: Jesse handwaves Combo and Badger's silence to Walt as the latter not having established a telepathic link with them yet, which probably has something to do with smoking meth if Jesse's response is anything to go by.
  • Random Events Plot: Due to the extreme degree of Adaptational Compression that the RTVS crew are working with, BBVRAI less resembles a retelling than a highlights reel of memorable and memeable events from across the series, with the barest layer of plot-connective tissue linking them together. Consequently, characters will occasionally reference and react to things that didn't or can't happen in the scope of the improv- a notable example is Jesse celebrating a successful train heist with Walt, Mike, and Todd, despite that entire scene having been cut.
    Walt: Jesse... I have something to tell you. I watched Jane die.note 
    Jesse: NOOOOOO!!! NOOOOOOOO........ wh- What the Fuck- no, No..? No, you didn't know her. What......
    Walt: ...well, I did. Take him away, Jack.
  • Rasputinian Death: Suffering increasingly from his cancer and having lost everything he loves, Walt faces his end charging up a Genkidama to wipe out Uncle Jack's Evil Circus. In the several seconds before he fires, he is riddled with a half-dozen rifles' worth of bullets. Jesse attempts to Mercy Kill him, but manages to unload two pistols, a shotgun, an assault rifle, and a bolt of lightning into Walt without finishing him off completely. Walt stumbles into Jack's meth lab, collapses, and is found by special forces raiding the circus... who proceed to unload all their rifles into him at once, in the last shot of the improv proper. But thanks to The Stinger, we technically can't even be sure that that killed him.
  • Recursive Canon: The actual Breaking Bad show (as well as its spinoffs) makes some in-universe appearances, with different characters showing varying degrees of awareness about it.
    • Jesse decides to hire Saul after watching a clip from Better Call Saul.
    • Saul figures out Walt's identity by searching "Breaking Bad" online.
    • Walt worries that he would be incriminated if Hank saw his face on the Breaking Bad poster.
  • Related Differently in the Adaptation: Marie Schrader is only mentioned offhand and never appears onscreen. Consequently, Hank is now Walter's direct brother rather than brother-in-law (most of the time).
    • Although it only comes up for a moment, Tuco is Hector's son here, not his nephew.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Some characters' gradual recurring appearances from the original show are omitted and replaced with a sudden introduction once it's their turn to join the main plot. Walter didn't even know about Hector until running into him at the hospital, and Todd is brought into the operation just because he came included with the base Mike bought.
    Mike: If I don't get my 80%, who gonna pay Todd?
    Walt: Who the fuck is Todd?
    Walt: ...Is that Todd?
    Todd: Hey.
    Mike: Yeah, he- that's Todd.
  • Running Gag:
    • Jesse getting so excited or high that he begins to run, jump and sound like Super Mario 64.
    • A Breaking Bad poster randomly waddling around in the background or into the scene, particularly in scenes when revealing that Walt has broken his bad would be incriminating.
    • Mike beating up Walter.
    • Walt going into the crafting animation from Dead Rising 2 whenever he cooks meth or builds something.
  • Sequel Hook: In-universe; after Jesse is done shooting Walt, Skinny Pete drives in and Jesse announces that they will "go have an El Camino Story".
  • The Stinger: Two of them.
    • The first one immediately after the ending montage has Jesse run up to Walt, who is still (barely) alive to show him the trailer for Half-Life 2 VR but the AI is Self-Aware on his phone, followed by the actual trailer for HL2VRAI.
    • The second one, after The End graphic, which is a short clip of Dean Norris congratulating Wayne and RTVS on breaking bad and the trailer, before telling Wayne that he's finished for not including Benrey in the trailer.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Smurfing: About a third of the sentences Hank speaks use his own name as an adjective, verb, or exclamation.
    Hank: YEAH, HANK!
  • Stylistic Suck: Unlike its predecessor, BBVR doesn't even try to hide the fact that it's in Garry's Mod. Characters are constantly appearing, disappearing, summoning objects from thin air, hurtling about bonelessly, and in general making full use of GMod's plethora of bugs and physics jank for comedy.
  • Take That!: The Aryan Brotherhood are portrayed as a bunch of clowns in this adaptation as a none-too-subtle jab at neo-Nazis.
  • Taking You with Me: Like in the series, Walt gives Hector a bomb that he uses to blow himself and Gus to bits. This time, however, Walt is in the same room as Hector and Gus, though he is unharmed in the explosion.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: See Rasputinian Death for Walt's own absurdly drawn-out demise.
    • How Walter gets rid of Crazy EightS: by exploding the RV, and the immediate area, to the point where Jesse is momentarily ignited as well.
    • Hector blowing up Gus with a ton of rapid-fire explosions, lasting far beyond his actual death. And then Gus walks out and explodes one last time for good measure.
    • The Circus executes Hank with a flurry of gunfire, rather than just a single headshot from Jack.
  • Third-Person Person: Skyler's dialogue is mostly rendered as if Holly is reading off the stage directions verbatim.
  • Tranquil Fury:
    Gus: Did you know, Hector Salamanca killed my husband? I just thought that was interesting.
  • Villainous Harlequin: Uncle Jack's Evil Circus, a campground of clowns located just outside Albuquerque, fulfill the role that the Aryan Brotherhood did in the show (albeit in a more comical way).
  • Warm Place, Warm Lighting: The edited version adds a very blatant yellow filter whenever Walt and company cross the border into Mexico.
  • Wham Shot: Near the end of the stream, Walter is driving through the desert to intercept Jesse when the Breaking Bad poster that's been haunting him for the entire improv suddenly leaps in front of his car. Walt plows right into it and it gets stuck on his hood, whereupon it immediately transforms into a skeleton.

I see Meth of Blue, and Walter of White
Better Call Saul, on AMC, Tonight
And I think to myself,
What a Breaking Bad world

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