this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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Walter White was a classic anti-hero. He started out with a just cause, and was ultimately corrupted by the power brought on by his own self righteousness.
I disagree. White had a simple choice; he could go to his old partners at Grey Matters and ask for help or he could get involved with murders. He never had a just cause, just the desire to prove he was smarter than everyone in the world.
There's important context about his old partners though: Walter was in love with one of them when she betrayed him, got with the other guy and then they cut Walter out of the same company that Walter's research turned into a mega success.
Was Walter prideful about their offer to pay for his cancer treatments? You bet. I probably would have been as well in the same situation.
Was he prideful there because he wanted to be a drug kingpin? I don't think that was his primary motivation.
He walked away from her because she was rich and made him feel inferior.
Go back and rewatch. He knows exactly what he's doing from the very beginning. He has chance after chance to get out. Each time he makes the choice to double down, knowing that what he's doing will hurt somebody, and he does it all for his own self aggrandizement.