(no subject)
Skyler is still one of the most controversial topics of conversation for Breaking Bad and viewers seem to either fall into loving her and Skyler being the best and most flawlessly badass character of the whole show, or being the worst ever and a total bitch of a wife. I'm frustrated though that some of her actual morally ambiguous acts are never even considered and taken seriously. All that the criticism mostly seems to come down too are accusations of her being a terrible wife, and so there's this perception that you might be misogynistic and a total Walt stan if you do have problems with Skyler as a character
Well for me the character really bothered me over the whole car wash deal when she came up with an elaborately clever deal to force the man to sell his life's work to her. But it wasn't enough for Skyler that she was conning him out of a business that he was obviously proud of and had spend most of his life building up from where he started off as a poor immigrant, just because he disrespected her husband when she tried to make him a fair offer she deliberately decided to punish and humiliate him by dropping the offer to a much lower amount and relished in her new-found power over him. I was cringing when she seemed so smug and awful when she telling Walt that oh he'll call. I thought that her attitude there was meant to be similar to Walt's similar reactions to any perceived slights against him. Ditto with Saul and the money-laundering where Skyler brings up her book-keeping experience as a reason for why she has to personally handle the money-laundering and they have to follow her insistence on it being a car-wash, leading to the hilarity of her looking up "money laundering" on google to show us that she really doesn't know as much as she thinks. That all reminded me of Walt arrogantly thinking that his chemistry skills meant that he could handle making meth, even though he had no idea how to handle the criminal underworld and got him and Jesse in over their heads time and time again because of that
But those questionable characters flaws of Skyler's never seem to get brought up and discussed, it's ALWAYS just about what an awful wife Skyler is to Walt and how she nags him too much. I've seen her sleeping with Ted brought up soooo often as to why viewers can't stand her, yet hardly ever does the actual manipulation that Walt pulled on her in season 3 get discussed. She specifically slept with Ted because Walt broke back into the family home after she requested a divorce, called her bluff with the police, and forced her to play happy families with him. I was cheering when she threw that awkwardness right back in Walt's face by telling him that "I.F.T" right before joining Walt Junior and his friend for dinner. But so many audience members acted like a separation should only happen in Walt's terms, so if he forces Skyler to let him back in the family home then that means that they're still together no matter what and Skyler cheated on him. Being a bad wife will forever be the worst crime of all in the eyes of many of the fans. (And some argue that Skyler is considered worse by viewers only because her actions directly hurt her husband and family supposedly and Walt only hurt criminals and people that were already in the meth business, yet you never see the scene of Walt trying to force himself on Skyler getting the same amount of discussion as any of Skyler's perceived slights against him)
Fandom in general seems to divide into either seeing Skyler as an unsupportive bitch to Walt, or as some kind of faultless Goddess who wants nothing more than to protect her children, but really both sides are just as extreme with their views on women. I saw so much insistence that Skyler was this complete battered wife in late season 5 and would never have come back to Walt if she wasn't forced into it, and IMO it's really not as black and white as that. She did get lured back to Walt and tempted by the money in seasons 3/4, and it's okay to acknowledge that! Both of them were enjoying their newfound power a little bit too much, i.e Skyler was coming up with stories for the rest of the family and writing a script of what an unimpressed Walt should say and how many "sorry's" she wanted him to use in the story. IMO it wasn't Gus's shooting, but it was really Ted's injury that was her breaking-point when she found herself secretly enjoying the power that came with saying "good" when he swore to her that he wouldn't tell anyone what she did to him. That was what made her take a long look at the person that she was becoming and say enough. Was she ever as bad as Walt? No. Was she a blameless victim? No
Still in fandom neither side seem to want to recognise the times when Skyler did help Walt and when they worked together as a team, it's either she was always an unsupportive bitch wife full stop, or people only looking at her characterisation from season 5A and insist that she was always a domestic abuse victim trying to protect her children. And she was a far more interesting character than either side want to simplify it down too. Interestingly Vince and Anna also seemed to very much fall into the category of defending Skyler as always the one in the right, even though Vince's writing and Anna's performance made it clear that Skyler was in a lot deeper than that and that, after her initial protestations at Walt dealing drugs, she did end up working alongside Walt. She could absolutely be a very flawed character, but it's like people are afraid to say that out loud about a female character without appearing to be bashing them?
Well for me the character really bothered me over the whole car wash deal when she came up with an elaborately clever deal to force the man to sell his life's work to her. But it wasn't enough for Skyler that she was conning him out of a business that he was obviously proud of and had spend most of his life building up from where he started off as a poor immigrant, just because he disrespected her husband when she tried to make him a fair offer she deliberately decided to punish and humiliate him by dropping the offer to a much lower amount and relished in her new-found power over him. I was cringing when she seemed so smug and awful when she telling Walt that oh he'll call. I thought that her attitude there was meant to be similar to Walt's similar reactions to any perceived slights against him. Ditto with Saul and the money-laundering where Skyler brings up her book-keeping experience as a reason for why she has to personally handle the money-laundering and they have to follow her insistence on it being a car-wash, leading to the hilarity of her looking up "money laundering" on google to show us that she really doesn't know as much as she thinks. That all reminded me of Walt arrogantly thinking that his chemistry skills meant that he could handle making meth, even though he had no idea how to handle the criminal underworld and got him and Jesse in over their heads time and time again because of that
But those questionable characters flaws of Skyler's never seem to get brought up and discussed, it's ALWAYS just about what an awful wife Skyler is to Walt and how she nags him too much. I've seen her sleeping with Ted brought up soooo often as to why viewers can't stand her, yet hardly ever does the actual manipulation that Walt pulled on her in season 3 get discussed. She specifically slept with Ted because Walt broke back into the family home after she requested a divorce, called her bluff with the police, and forced her to play happy families with him. I was cheering when she threw that awkwardness right back in Walt's face by telling him that "I.F.T" right before joining Walt Junior and his friend for dinner. But so many audience members acted like a separation should only happen in Walt's terms, so if he forces Skyler to let him back in the family home then that means that they're still together no matter what and Skyler cheated on him. Being a bad wife will forever be the worst crime of all in the eyes of many of the fans. (And some argue that Skyler is considered worse by viewers only because her actions directly hurt her husband and family supposedly and Walt only hurt criminals and people that were already in the meth business, yet you never see the scene of Walt trying to force himself on Skyler getting the same amount of discussion as any of Skyler's perceived slights against him)
Fandom in general seems to divide into either seeing Skyler as an unsupportive bitch to Walt, or as some kind of faultless Goddess who wants nothing more than to protect her children, but really both sides are just as extreme with their views on women. I saw so much insistence that Skyler was this complete battered wife in late season 5 and would never have come back to Walt if she wasn't forced into it, and IMO it's really not as black and white as that. She did get lured back to Walt and tempted by the money in seasons 3/4, and it's okay to acknowledge that! Both of them were enjoying their newfound power a little bit too much, i.e Skyler was coming up with stories for the rest of the family and writing a script of what an unimpressed Walt should say and how many "sorry's" she wanted him to use in the story. IMO it wasn't Gus's shooting, but it was really Ted's injury that was her breaking-point when she found herself secretly enjoying the power that came with saying "good" when he swore to her that he wouldn't tell anyone what she did to him. That was what made her take a long look at the person that she was becoming and say enough. Was she ever as bad as Walt? No. Was she a blameless victim? No
Still in fandom neither side seem to want to recognise the times when Skyler did help Walt and when they worked together as a team, it's either she was always an unsupportive bitch wife full stop, or people only looking at her characterisation from season 5A and insist that she was always a domestic abuse victim trying to protect her children. And she was a far more interesting character than either side want to simplify it down too. Interestingly Vince and Anna also seemed to very much fall into the category of defending Skyler as always the one in the right, even though Vince's writing and Anna's performance made it clear that Skyler was in a lot deeper than that and that, after her initial protestations at Walt dealing drugs, she did end up working alongside Walt. She could absolutely be a very flawed character, but it's like people are afraid to say that out loud about a female character without appearing to be bashing them?