I think it's the ol' Ricky Morty problem. In a value system as sick as the US', satire is defanged by constant contradictions
Even in cases like Breaking Bad and Ricky Morty where the creators make multiple decisions to unambiguously show their protagonist as miserable and destructive to everyone around them, that message doesn't reliably reach the audience. Randy shit is so mainstream that it's not really out of the ordinary for an intended message to be, "This guy may be a terrible person, but look how strong and skilled and cool and cruel funny he is. That's what's really important, others just don't understand him." So as ever in US media, the creator's intent is made secondary to the viewers' predispositions
Heres an article on critique, which might illuminate why so many people can say "well Walter is written as a bad person," over and over again while others can't read it that way
"Now the fact that this is a story about a process of change might make us think that it can’t fetishize. After all, Walter’s transformation isn’t invisibilized or made opaque, but centered and explained: Walter isn’t born an emperor of methamphetamine; he becomes one. However, from the opening credits it’s understood that breaking bad is the only transformation possible for him. The show bombards us with elements that railroad us into accepting that there were no alternatives. In this way, Walter’s process of change is itself fetishized. Though it is explainable and situated in time, it isn’t avoidable. Moreover, Walter never understands the laws of his own development. He’s passive and blind with respect to his own motives. He’s eternally condemned to a process of change that he can’t understand or control. Whereas in Marx the project of observing the enemy is subordinated to the goal of defeating him, in Breaking Bad observing Walter’s transformation is an end in itself. It’s not about empowering the audience to fight this villain, it’s about getting to know him as a person so that we can, in the final analysis, accept him."
![[Extreme spoilers] Finally finished Breaking Bad. Here's my only thoughts](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/LelQD7l2AP.png){kind=link}
I think it's the ol' Ricky Morty problem. In a value system as sick as the US', satire is defanged by constant contradictions
Even in cases like Breaking Bad and Ricky Morty where the creators make multiple decisions to unambiguously show their protagonist as miserable and destructive to everyone around them, that message doesn't reliably reach the audience. Randy shit is so mainstream that it's not really out of the ordinary for an intended message to be, "This guy may be a terrible person, but look how strong and skilled and cool and
cruelfunny he is. That's what's really important, others just don't understand him." So as ever in US media, the creator's intent is made secondary to the viewers' predispositionsHeres an article on critique, which might illuminate why so many people can say "well Walter is written as a bad person," over and over again while others can't read it that way
"Now the fact that this is a story about a process of change might make us think that it can’t fetishize. After all, Walter’s transformation isn’t invisibilized or made opaque, but centered and explained: Walter isn’t born an emperor of methamphetamine; he becomes one. However, from the opening credits it’s understood that breaking bad is the only transformation possible for him. The show bombards us with elements that railroad us into accepting that there were no alternatives. In this way, Walter’s process of change is itself fetishized. Though it is explainable and situated in time, it isn’t avoidable. Moreover, Walter never understands the laws of his own development. He’s passive and blind with respect to his own motives. He’s eternally condemned to a process of change that he can’t understand or control. Whereas in Marx the project of observing the enemy is subordinated to the goal of defeating him, in Breaking Bad observing Walter’s transformation is an end in itself. It’s not about empowering the audience to fight this villain, it’s about getting to know him as a person so that we can, in the final analysis, accept him."
https://redsails.org/algunos-recursos/
That's a good point I hadn't thought about. No notes