I think my beef with Hank is more the idea that we're meant to see Walt as prideful and arrogant (he is) but 5b showed that Hank was every bit as prideful as Walt. Had he gone to his superiors, much of what happened could have been avoided (and I'm not even sure anything was admissible anyway, given how he collected the info). He was willing to burn down everything to get Walt because Walt got over on him on his turf.
So I'm with Hank up until 5b.
It might not be that way on rewatch. I always wonder how much of my reaction is to other fans. I hate the sort of anti-protagonist privilege that's common now (with writers, even). The message will be that no matter what the impetus for a bad decision, the decision was still Walt's and he's accountable. Yet, this isn't true for Skyler, Jesse, Hank, Gus, etc. They all made decisions to bring about what happened. I've never understood the idea that it's defending a character to basically call them a weak-willed puppet of the main. I'm with Skyler when she said she'd rather be seen as Bonnie Barrett than too stupid to know what was going on.
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rosecarmine
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Date: 2015-01-12 09:10 pm (UTC)I think my beef with Hank is more the idea that we're meant to see Walt as prideful and arrogant (he is) but 5b showed that Hank was every bit as prideful as Walt. Had he gone to his superiors, much of what happened could have been avoided (and I'm not even sure anything was admissible anyway, given how he collected the info). He was willing to burn down everything to get Walt because Walt got over on him on his turf.
So I'm with Hank up until 5b.
It might not be that way on rewatch. I always wonder how much of my reaction is to other fans. I hate the sort of anti-protagonist privilege that's common now (with writers, even). The message will be that no matter what the impetus for a bad decision, the decision was still Walt's and he's accountable. Yet, this isn't true for Skyler, Jesse, Hank, Gus, etc. They all made decisions to bring about what happened. I've never understood the idea that it's defending a character to basically call them a weak-willed puppet of the main. I'm with Skyler when she said she'd rather be seen as Bonnie Barrett than too stupid to know what was going on.