#el camino breaking bad

[lttleghost]

okay I'm like complaining again but I wanna hear other ppls thoughts on this because I'm too impatient to wait until I've gone through all the commentary for BrBa and BCS in search of answers to confirm or deny my suspicions but GOD A FEW THINGS ARE DRIVING ME INSANE and I apologize for this ramble being maybe a lil disjointed in advance

so like, first, this scene-

if I look at this realistically it reads as Jake misinterpreting his and Jesse's parents talking about how Jesse's actions reflect back on them as genuine care, he's young, and I can imagine him having some insecurity in his parents care for him since we do know it is conditional, just Jake is currently meeting those conditions, but sensing that instability could've maybe influenced how he understood his parents talk of his older sibling.

but I just am having a hard time convincing myself that was intended when it was written... and this assessment from me could be unfair because - while I'm not quite sure at what point Jesse was no longer planned to be killed at the end of the first season - this does come from that first season, and I've heard there was a change in how Jesse was written after the first season and throughout the rest of the show there is NO evidence that Jesse's parents like, actually give a fuck about him, they actively make his life worse like when they kicked him out of his own goddamn house, and that all seems like those things have to be intended to make you think "wow Jesse's parents are awful!!!"

but then, not for me to complain about these two scenes in El Camino again but I'm gonna complain about these two scenes in El Camino again -

followed by this not too long after

because while if this movies thing of having blame being squared on Jesse's shoulders was just him talking to his parents it'd be easier to say "oh this is just a kid who was abused in a socially acceptable way not recognizing the abuse he went through and how that really did have a major effect on his life trajectory" but when these two scenes are put so close together it makes it really hard for me to not think that it's TRYING to say that Jesse is responsible for where he ended up even if they don't necessarily want bad things to happen to him

cause like I know, I know the writers are sympathetic towards Jesse but I don't think being sympathetic towards a character like him makes you immune to having harmful beliefs about addicts and criminals when they're so prevalent in wider society, like especially the idea that changing actions taken by individual people is the main problem that needs to be dealt with wrt addiction and crime instead of changing the structural problems that result in addiction and crime, like I've seen this mindset present in the fandom as well

I mean I know I have some evidence that at least Vince's ideas on justice aren't great with this bit from an interview about El Camino (also him having Jesse specifically say "I'm no cop killer" when Jesse would definitely know how cops are just another violent gang, like he could've just said "I don't want to kill anyone" instead of having cops on some higher level of innocence)

like I dunno believing at all that there's a good way to end with Jesse in prison (and not as a way to show how awful prison is either, since he talked about the idea of Jesse finally finding some sort of peace in prison sleeping) is kinda fucked up!!! I do want to fight him for this alone!!! even if like glad he changed it but I dunno the fact that he believes this just makes it easy to believe that he really would!! blame Jesse to at least some extent for what he got into, like I think that he understands Walt manipulated Jesse but I just, I dunno!!! things in BCS kinda bother me too irt just general ideas of crime and drug use ect... but I'm much less familiar with that show in comparison to BrBa so I don't feel as comfortable pointing specific things in it

like... do Vince Gilligan and the writers of Breaking Bad see Jesse’s parents as shit parents who were abusive in a socially acceptable way? or do they really think that they really did their best? is it somewhere in-between? like "they were abusive but they still didn't know any better"? or maybe is it as bad as believing Jesse's parents tried their best and them being rich is supposed to show that he had all he needed to succeed and was just a fuckup (instead of it showing that his parents had all the resources they needed to help him and... didn't) am I just overreacting because I am protective of my girl and the people that I know exist like him and am suspicious of those writing about them if I don't know all their politics behind the subject? I know I've talked to some ppl who have vindicated me w/ some of this but please share ur opinions I want to know the wider ideas on this since I feel like I just don't see it discussed that often

[aphicidi0]

i made that one meme lol!!!

me fr like i literally CRIED during the end of brba & el camino but i still recommend it to every person i know HEHEH

[spockvarietyhour]

[kylejsugarman]

like obviously if u didnt know the piece of trivia that jesse was originally supposed to be killed off in season 1 of brba, u probably wouldn't get that impression from the show since he quickly becomes the deuteragonist, but that fact still somehow feels woven into the very fabric of the show. that jesse wasnt supposed to live this long. with the reckless way he lives, the action he gets himself involved in (and eventually dragged into), the disregard he shows for his own wellbeing, u expect him to die in every episode. with every horrible thing that happens, u expect him to die. everyone around him wants him dead. it feels like an inevitability. but it never happens. jesse keeps surviving even as everyone around him dies; he lives longer than anyone, even the audience, ever could have expected. it's something simultaneously horrific and miraculous, that this character who was and is doomed continues living despite everything in the world around him trying to kill him. what's worse than dying?? surviving. what's better than dying?? surviving. that's part of what makes "el camino" so compelling even though the narrative never hides the fact that jesse will successfully escape. it's not a question of whether or not he'll escape. it's a question of what do u do when ur only choice is to keep living??

[jesse-pinko]

We bring up “totally Kafkaesque” as a meme all the time and rightfully so bc it was a classic Jesse-ism but also like?? The thematic implications of bringing up Franz Kafka in the context of Jesse’s characterization? Franz Kafka, whose most famous work was about a man who turned into a beetle, and was abused and denied his humanity by everyone he tried to maintain a human connection with because they perceived him as monstrous and burdensome despite his pure intentions? A book that was written as a projection of Franz Kafka’s difficult relationship with his father, a book in which the father character is the protagonist’s primary abuser? A book about someone with a highly stigmatized condition who is made to feel as though they are undeserving of love??

[admireforever]

El Camino

[yyshcul]

fanart for a very obscure show called "breaking bad". i wouldn't blame you if you've never heard of it before it's pretty niche and indie

[sunsbleeding]

Should I watch Better Call Saul??? My breaking bad hyperfixation is taking over and I need more of that world, but if anyone’s watched it would you actually recommend it?

[thatcjacket]

I drew a bunch of alaskan, post el camino jesses (or mr driscolls, I guess (I always headcannoned his new first name as kent :)) and his dog cause he needs a dog. :)

[conkreetmonkey]

I love how everyone can agree on Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. It's a rare piece of media enjoyed by teenagers, middle aged people, and old folks, loved by cishets and the gayest/transest people you'll ever meet alike, men and women and everything else. What's the target demographic? Who the hell knows. If a demographic exists, it's a player in the brba fanbase. It's really one of those things that *truly* has something for everyone.

You like gritty crime dramas? Goofy character-driven comedy? Character studies? Tragic, soul-crushing sobfests? Uplifting stories of hope and growth and resilience? Cute romances? Tumblr sexymen? Blorbos? Gory gruesome murders? Metaphors and allegories to be dissected? Complex mysteries? Atmospheric vibefests? Awesome action? The brba cinematic universe has *all* of that and I am not exaggerating.

[declan-castle]

“Would you just, for once, stop working me?”

Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)

[ziracona]

Love that everyone in Breaking Bad gets fucked. So funny. Like every single montherfucker is in jail, dead, or if let slightly off the hook or incidentally involved (Skyler, Walt Jr,), life ruined. All of them. 87 years jail for the looney tunes lawyer, Stoic Dad 2 is dead, the gay classy bitch got Harvey Dent’d fatally, Walt doesn’t even get to die on screen, Marie loses everything, it’s a tpk. Every bitch in the show straight up Hayes Code’d.

Except Jesse

Who gets to go live free and start over in Alaska.

Unreal. And like god bless if anyone ever deserved to be a creator’s pet, like straight up earned it, to such a degree it is “We’re going to kill you in S1 Mr. Paul” to S5 “You can kill me off but everyone will quit watching” Jesse Cap’N Cook Pinkman. The acting Oscar worthy, the breakdowns, the range, climbing into a box to see if a body would fit, go-karting sadly, ‘Yeah bitch! Magnets!’ to the revenge killing, truly, he had it all.

Kid went through enough in s1 to last a lifetime and then Walt just kept on happening again and again after. Even the ethics rules of the show’s universe unmatched by the power of a pathetic little guy literally everyone is rooting for. God bless enjoy Alaska bitch you earned it.

[aphicidi0]

faking bad lyrics stuck in my head (also i LOVE the first D.E.A song it's so catchy 😭 AND JESSE'S RAP !!! i need to draw accurate faking bad jane & jesse (yk with jane as a guy and jesse as a girl and all))

[theqhreator42]

There's something to be said about how every single shootout in the Breaking Bad setting is profoundly pathetic. Shots are almost never well-aimed, the combatants rarely have time to take cover or consider their tactics, people die in grotesque, absurd ways, and everyone always loses.

For me, the exemplar of this style is the final shootout in Breaking Bad (not counting Walt's machine gun gambit in Felina), where Hank and Steve confront Jack Welker's gang alone in the desert. On paper, it seems like a typical heroic climax: Hank and Steve stand up to the gang with no hesitation and prepare for the fight of their lives. The actual outcome, though, is more prosaic: totally outnumbered and outgunned, they are mortally injured without grazing any of the Nazis, and Hank dares Jack to execute him as Walt begs in vain to spare his life. The agents' desperation to preserve their honor by apprehending Walt alone becomes their doom.

Meanwhile, the closest the setting gets to a traditional "final badass duel," the confrontation between Gus and Lalo in Point and Shoot, ends with Gus tripping a circuit breaker, awkwardly ducking behind a bulldozer to pick up his hidden revolver, dumping all six shots at Lalo's general direction, and then collapsing under his own injuries. Lalo's final living act is to cackle at the sheer dumb luck of the situation as he drowns in his own blood, before Gus's minions bury him in the same pit as Howard (in case anyone believed that Howard, Sylvia, Mateo, Fred's family, Cheryl, or any of the other people bereaved by Lalo got a grain of justice here).

Even the final combat scene of the entire setting, the El Camino duel, has little heroism: Jesse wins the duel against Neil by breaking the rules and firing a second gun hidden in his jacket, then frantically dodges Neil's colleague's gunfire, picks up Neil's gun, and shoots wildly at the colleague, who takes a bullet straight in the head and comically falls face-first into a glass display case. We are happy to see Jesse live, but he doesn't improve himself by surviving this fight — he simply survives.

It's one of many elements of the Breaking Bad setting's cinematography that I really admire: the refusal to glorify violence. Every protagonist becomes an accessory or perpetrator of murder at some point, but none of them are improved by it, and it is never pretty, gratifying, or righteous. In a strange way, the rejection of violence as a positive act feels deeply humane.

[kylejsugarman]

todd breaking bad kind of sounds like a guy invented for a tumblr post. like "ill be sitting at home and then be like 'ahhh fuck i forgot to feed my guy who i keep chained up in a hole in the ground today 😭'" is both a perfectly suitable modern tumblr post and a real experience that todd probably had multiple times

[jesse-pinko]

Every other aspect of Jesse’s trauma makes me go oh no poor blorbo :( but his relationship w his parents and thinking ab it in the context of the series aftermath actually makes me unwell… they never even knew him they only ever saw the worst in him and now they’ve had that validated by his own actions and they’ll never know how sorry he is and that he was a good kid at heart and they didn’t imagine it and they still love him but how can they have loved him if they never even knew him and only ever saw the worst in him *flatlines*