How Walter White Manipulated Everyone in Breaking Bad

This video essay analyzes how Walter White (Bryan Cranston) psychologically manipulated every character in Breaking Bad. Vince Gilligan and his writing team wrote an incredibly complicated evil character that lies, deceives, manipulates, gaslights, leverages and coerces everyone over the course of five seasons of Breaking Bad. This is Walter White's manipulation tactics explained.

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Music used:
Tumbleweed Texas by Chris Haugen
Vespers by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
Zodiac Structures by NoMBe
Nevada City by Huma-Huma
Falling Rain by Myuu
Imagine A New Darker You by The Tower of Light
Eureka by Huma-Huma
The Attraction of Evil by Hainbach
&
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
&
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:20 Keeping Secrets
3:18 Lies
7:42 Gaslighting
11:28 Close the Loop
13:37 Keep Opponent 2 Steps Behind
16:55 The Blowfish
18:27 Threats and Intimidation
20:08 Use Weakness Against You
22:05 Leverage
26:10 Controlling Jesse
29:45 Manipulating Jesse
32:37 Walt's Evil Mind Games
37:16 Coercing Jesse
40:15 Poisoning Brock

#breakingbad #walterwhite #jessepinkman

[thereccher]

Walt was so manipulative he even managed to manipulate the fanbase into rooting for him.

[xdlucky]

The fact that in a show full of drug dealers, murderers and other criminals, the most hated character is a manipulated pregnant woman is simply hilarious

[hienoan]

Vexoner contains all the secrets of forbidden manipulation books; they changed my life

[HatsuneTku]

Can't believe you didn't even mention when Walt refused to go go-karting with Jesse

[chedder]

Episode 1 is meant to make you sympathize with walter. The rest is a test of how long you're willing to stay with him

[sackedpotatoes]

Walter white was so manipulative and such a well written character, that he had his fan base rooting for him and calling the trapped pregnant wife the bad-guy. Amazing stuff really, love this show.

Edit: To add, I think Skyler is guilty in that she gave all the money away to Ted, and that she helped Walt. Her “affair” occurred after she made it clear she wanted to leave, but Walt wouldn’t let her leave or take the children away. Many would say leaving and especially taking the kids is wrong in itself, but if Walt was anyone else or if this was rl. It’s exactly what a mother should do, and would be advised to do. Her further actions, aiding Walt/ giving away the money, was in actuality for the family. It just adds to how great the show is. Walt constantly claims to be “doing this for the family” but, it was Skyler actually trying to save the family from Walt. Walt evens admits it at the end, that this was all for himself.

[_The_Archive_]

Fun Fact: Samuel L. Jackson showed up unannounced during filming on the Pollos Hermanos set one day, dressed in his Nick Fury outfit from The Avengers (2012). Both productions were happening on the same studio lot, and Jackson wanted to be an extra during the scene being filmed. The producers denied his request to appear as Nick Fury on the show.

[arcticpanda]

Listening to the portion on Jesse just breaks my heart. It was never more clear that he was trying to manipulate Jesse than the moment he wanted to leave the business.
The worst part of that dialogue for me was when he tells Jesse, “to do what? Oh that’s right. Video games and go karts.”
Not only does it imply that, to Walt, those are fruitless and meaningless activities, but Walt held onto those instances as future ammunition against Jesse. Jesse invited Walt to do those activities with him when they were still working for Gus.
Jesse wanted to do something fun outside of work with his partner, of which he refused, only to be attacked for wanting to do those things at all.

[ApertureAce]

I've had inklings of Walter's manipulation tactics bouncing around in my head, but I've never been able to completely grasp the language and philosophy of it until this video. Really good analysis on this video!

[wellthisisinteresting]

I will never be over how much he made Jesse suffer. Jesse is not an innocent baby but until the very end, he never wanted to hurt anyone and he was a lost guy who needed a dad figure. Walt did care for him but he manipulated and hurt him to get what he wanted. It broke my heart to see him so torn up and then being sold into slavery… so messed up. I was so happy when he got away

[Adrianicsk]

One of my favourite aspects of Walt's character is that he's an awful liar; it's always obvious *when* he's lying, but never entirely obvious to the other characters *why* he's lying. I remember reading that Cranston wasn't told that Walt did poison Brock until after filming the confrontation scene with Jesse, meaning that Cranston played that scene as if Walt was genuinely innocent. This was a brilliant move; Jesse had in fact figured Walt out (just getting the motivation wrong) and Walt finally managed to convincingly lie to Jesse at the very moment his life depended on it.

[EzaneeGires]

The wardrobe color choices in addition to the themes explored in this video make so much more sense and feel that much more deliberate and trenchant

[wellhowtheturntables]

Walt was gaslighting, gatekeeping, girlbossing ahead of his time.

[CrispySenpai]

This is probably the best, most thought-out discussion on Walter white I’ve seen, putting real words and labels on previously abstract feelings. We knew he was manipulative, but it was hard to put a finger on his exact tactics. Well done.

[phibie]

Skyler and Jesse are the two who my heart broke for most, Skyler just wanted to protect her family... and she was constantly punished for it. I literally cant belive the fanbase turned on her so hard. But Jesse on the other hand... jesus, even if hed just been left as a junkie he'd be better off. Walt literally ruined every opportunity for happiness Jesse had, and by the end of the show and hes finally free... how can he be happy again after all the trauma? And not to mention, the helplessness, because at the end of it, Jesse had nothing. Its really tragic

[bboyhoyack]

What is the most fascinating is that Walt is, while being an expert manipulator, actually a terrible liar. More times than Skylar or Jesse did not fully believed his lies, but they had to go along because they didn't have all the information and because of Walt's manipulation tactics as described they were described in this video. Skylar, on the other hand, is a master class in lying and coming up with a believable narrative, so much so, even Walt is deeply impressed by it. Which later he sees as an useful tool, of course.

[imaginationgirl]

Breaking Bad is actually so funny. Walter White was so toxic that seasoned drug lords were like I cannot work with this man I have to put my mental health first

[crazyscienceguy]

Your terminology is brilliant and storytelling is magnificent. "Weaponized" and "Twisted" are some of the best uses of these words I've seen in a while. It all fit perfectly. Well done. I feel like Walter White and Emperor Palpatine have identical similarities.

[LordBaegel]

I still can't believe that Walt committed such terrible crimes. Especially not going Go-Karting with Jesse

[DeadCardinal]

It's cool how Walter also managed to gaslight the vast majority of the audience watching the show to turn on Skyler