Jesse Pinkman: Character Meme

[sunclouds33]

pickamix asked me to do my Character Meme for Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman. I told her that I'd hold off until I finished Breaking Bad. Well, DUNZO!!! So, I'm doing the meme. It's a little surprising that my first true BB meta is about Jesse. I liked Jesse OK- but he wasn't a fave of mine. My top four characters on the show were Walt, Hank, Skylar, and Gus

Comments

[frelling_tralk]

I do think Jesse was written somewhat manipulatively in the later seasons to emphasize the the Audience Must Sympathize With Him

Hmm yeah, if I'm honest by the time of season 5 I was becoming a little impatient with his character, just because it felt like the show (and the fandom) started pushing the kicked puppy aspect of his character a little too heavily, even the actor seemed to fall into that trap whenever he spoke about Jesse. But then my personal favourite Jesse period is early season 3 when he was arguably the most screwed up and going through the stage of convincing himself that 'I'm the bad guy'

Even though I liked Jesse best in S4, my favorite ship is Jesse/Jane. I thought Jane was more lively and original instead of Poor Good (FORMER!!!!!!) Addict Mom.

Yeah I definitely agree with that, I thought that Jane was a really interesting character, Andrea seemed to hold appeal to Jesse mostly only because of the family life that she represented for him. He only changed his plans on using her as an easy meth target after finding out about Brock, he continued supporting them financially because of concern for Brock, I got the impression that he wouldn't have thought twice about Andrea if not for her coming as part a package deal with the cute little kid for Jesse to bond with

I think Jesse's best relationship with Mike, although that kind of left me a little cold.

I think that Mike was the healthiest option for Jesse next to Walt because he had no interest in personally manipulating Jesse, but Mike was such a cold and ruthless character that I don't see him as being a great support system for Jesse either. I never got the impression that Mike would ever have been interested in any kind of long-term relationship with Jesse, or that he was super invested in him. It was more just exasperation and hoping that Jesse would someday rid himself of Walt's manipulations, but once he got his money and they split the partnership and all went their separate ways, I wonder how much time he would really have devoted to worrying about Jesse's well-being...

Jesse latched on to him a little bit towards the end because Jesse has that need for mentor figures to praise and guide him, but Mike was such a hardened loner that he was never going to want to take that on, if anything his concern for Jesse seemed mostly mixed-up with his loathing for Walt IMO and his need to put Walt in his place, although there was also genuine care for Jesse there too obviously

[sunclouds33]

I agree with all of this- except early S3 Jesse was too heavy on repetitive angst to be a FAVORITE TIME. I like S4 Jesse's ingenuity.

I really agree that Andrea's appeal to Jesse was Brock and a family life. However, you know, one of the hypocrisies in Jesse's character is that he was falling all over himself trying to be a major figure in Brock's life. Meanwhile, he had an adorable little brother who idolized him at home who Jesse ignored because he didn't want to abide by his parents' decent, law-abiding values. I think the show clearly dissects why Walt's FAMILY IS EVERYTHING AND THE REST OF THE WORLD CAN GO TO HELL IF IT BENEFITS MY FAAAAMMMMILY is evil. And I loved the show's dissection of Doing Everything For Your FAAAAAMMMILY because that's atypical for fiction but it's unexplored territory that should be explored because Walt's and Uncle Jack's philosophies are fucked up and IMO, common in reality. However, Jesse doing everything he could to run away from his blood relatives wasn't great. He didn't need to run around to find any substitute father figure and substitute little brother figure on the streets. And that played its part in really hurting him.

I also agree that a lot of Mike's fondness for Jesse was Mike's loathing of Walt. However, at least, there was some complete element of just looking out for Jesse's best interest. Walt had that element to but it was so twisted by a Walt's permanent desire to twist and manipulate Jesse into whatever Walt needed at any time- healthy substitute son, Luca Brasi, sacrificial lamb, etc.