People that hate Skylar are idiots. If they hate the actress, they’re even worse.
Nah, that lacks nuance. People who hate Skylar for just crushing Walt’s vibe or being unlikeable are idiots. I have watched the show in its entirety three times, and my opinion on all the characters has evolved - my opinion of Skylar is more negative than it used to be. If you believe that Skylar is just a victim, you are denying her character agency. She is highly intelligent and capable and simultaneously intends to benefit from Walt’s actions while being arrogant enough to assume she can control the situation, outsmart the authorities, and get off scott free - much like another main character.
Skylar made certain choices to support Walt because she thought it was in the family’s best interest (including hers), then she later reneged on those choices when things didn’t turn out like she expected and ultimately forced Walt to take the blame for choices she willingly made. Skylar is as relatable and flawed as she is unlikeable: just like we would in her circumstances, she lacks the courage to do what is necessary to stop Walt and protect herself and her family.
She did not have to support Walt in the first place but instead did so even when given many opportunities to get out of the situation with minimal consequences. She may have paid a price for doing so as time went on (asset seizure if she went to the cops, social ostracization, her kids disliking her, etc), but the consequences were initially fairly trivial - divorce from a criminal who was putting the family at risk, embarrassment, harming her relationship with Marie, etc. And, while Walt obviously was callous/cruel/self-righteous/arrogant/and even evil, maybe - as was the point of his whole character, Skylar chose to support Walt in his criminal enterprise when she didn’t have to - going so far as to come up with money laundering ideas, encouraging him to expand his operations to an extent early on, helping him come up with cover stories, etc. and only later turning on Walt when she felt like she could no longer benefit from assisting him and would benefit more by betraying him - going so far as to physically assault him with a knife and threaten to kill him, lying to the police about his treatment of the family and also giving them his location which put his life in further jeopardy while he was trying to get the family to safety since he was being pursued.
In fact, Walt saw a way to use Skylar’s betrayal to protect the family and takes the blame for Skylar’s actions, goes along with Skylar’s lie that he was physically assaulting the family, threatening them with death if they didn’t comply, etc. all to take the heat off Skylar for the sake of the family. That doesn’t mean Walt is a saint. He should’ve stopped long before that and did many things that put the family in danger. But, his taking the blame for Skylar’s part in the operation shows that she did have a real part in it - he had to lie to say he forced her to be a part of the operation to put her in a better light and get her off the hook.
When Skylar initially began to support Walt, she was not under significant duress. There was a significant degree of duress later, with Walt acting intimidating, Meth Damon coming to “talk” to her at her house, etc. But you could say that just like the situation got away from Walt and was out of control, the same happened for Skylar. She thought she could control things and continue to benefit from Walt’s operation to provide a better life for the family. Then, when things got out of control, she flipped on Walt. The difference between Walt and Skylar is that Skylar got dragged into the situation by Walt, but remember, he really did try to keep her out of it. At a certain point, she chose to insert herself into it rather than leave the situation.
People dislike Skylar because she lacks courage. Courage to get out early when she had the chance, courage to report Walt to the police despite having many allies to help her and numerous opportunities, courage to stick to her moral convictions about what Walt was doing, courage to ensure her family’s safety before doing things that jeopardized her chances of full custody, courage to tell her kids the truth about Walt, or alternatively courage to stick with Walt since she had committed to doing so and was (at first) a willing accomplice. But, most importantly, the courage to face the consequences for her part in the whole ordeal - except at the very end when it was already too late. She lacks courage and is self-interested, wanting to benefit from Walt’s dealings while bearing none of the risk or responsibility for her part in them.
Meth Damon cracked me up. But this is an amazing essay on Skyler and have me a lot of perspectives I had not considered. Nice job.
How is she criticized for not having courage to report Walt but also not having courage to stick with him?
Nope read again, I said alternately for that second bit. You couldn’t think both of those at the same time, but thinking them separately is valid. Either she sticks with Walt or not, those are her two possible endings.
But, these should be different groups of people criticizing her for different reasons then, right?
Like, having courage to report Walt is specifically because reporting Walt is the right thing to do.
And, having courage to stick with him is because of a belief that loyalty (or submissiveness) matters more than one’s obligation to the social good.
I think it’s mostly related. People see her behavior as hypocritical. She says she cares about the moral aspect, but never follows through. She says she cares about her family’s safety, but doesn’t really act consistently with that. And she starts to manage Walt’s business (willingly at first) but turns on him even when it might put the family in danger (like giving all their money to Ted).
She’s inconsistent/hypocritical because she lacks courage and conviction
I am extremely confused by this.
The Ted situation had to be handled. Like, not handling it was not an option. Isn’t trying to handle it, then, to keep the family’s secrets out of the IRS’s eyes, an example of her acting in the interest of the family’s safety? Are there different examples of her being callous and reckless?
That’s fair, I didn’t put much thought into my response. I never said she was callous or reckless, though. The main thing is that she acted hypocritically and in a way that is inconsistent with her stated values. I think that’s a big reason she is disliked other than just being an “unlikeable” character
I want to add that an annoying character can act morally totally OK but still be disliked. That is because the annoyance is real and their actions and their consequences are not.
You could have a saintly character that always does the “right thing” but if they have an obnoxiously annoying way of speaking (extrem high pitch, extremely slow or fast or something) I would still dislike them.
That is because I actually get annoyed watching the character while I do not react that harshly even to a drug kingpin as the consequences of their action is fictional.
I have that kind of feeling of annoyance for skyler. I really do get annoyed at her controlling and arrogant way to handle things as it reminds me of real people. I do believe that this was intentional to make her unlikeable on first glance.
No matter how moral or “normal” her choices are the consequences are still fictional while my annoyance is real.
Edit: irl the situation is of course reversed. The consequences are real and the annoyance temporary.
Kai Winn
And Nurse Ratched! Louise Fletcher is the best at being the worst.
I was gonna mention this character as well! I was really surprised that Louise Fletcher wasn’t in the photo.
The more I hate a character, the more respect and admiration I have for the actor/actress. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with people who can’t differentiate between fiction and reality.
Look around. People are idiots.
David Tennant’s performance in Jessica Jones stuck with me for a while. It took a while for me not to assume his characters would be evil after that, and I was already familiar with his run as The Doctor.
Funnily enough, he’s also a good psychopath in Harry Potter, but he hardly has any screen time. He has impressive range of being able to easily portray the most good characters and the most vile.
The girl who tried to seduce Jim on The Office has said she gets a ton of hate IRL.
Louise Fletcher is the Goat of making you utterly despise them.
Nurse Ratched.
Kai Winn…
I just ruined a whole bunch of people’s days with 2 names.
People need to get some emotional intelligence.
I hated Laura Linney for her portrayal of Meryl in The Truman Show
Well, she REALLY made it clear she was out of her depth when it spun out of control.
Just watched it with my kid and they loved it and were actually treating it like a scary dystopian flick, which I did not see until through their eyes. Fascinating.
Hey,
Thank for posting here! Just a warning that you might get downvoted, we usually don’t have that much memes in this community, we’ll see how the members receive it.
That fuck head in Spartacus. Fucking Ashur. I hated his name so much I can’t hear that name without getting mad.
Yes I will still watch this if it ever gets made.
I just scrolled quickly and didn’t see it but the guy who played Peck ( William Atherton) in Ghostbusters the first one. Evidently he was not well received after the movie, least for awhile. He was a great at playing asshole characters in the 80s.
Hart Bochner because of his character Harry Ellis in DIE HARD.
Paul Reiser because of his character Carter Burke in ALIENS.
Obnoxious douchebag characters were definitely a thing in 80s #movies.
I liked Joffrey and I say this as someone who did not enjoy GoT as much as the rest of the world seemed to.
I don’t know anything about Richard Kind in real life, whether he’s chill or an asshole, or whatever.
But in the TV show Stargate Atlantis, he plays a man named Lucius Lavin (pronounced lovin’) who is by far and away the most annoying antagonist to grace the show. He appears in two episodes, named similarly as he basically does the same thing in a different way. Great small time “villain” who has sinister potential, but is just starting out.
Absolutely made me hate the actor, and I refused to watch some things because he was in them.
Incidentally, he surprised me in a few shows as side characters, also annoying.
No idea what he’s like for real though, so maybe he is annoying and unlikeable.
He was in the original movie Stargate as well. Also Spin City.
He’s also in a Psych episode as a similar character, he says he “has the gift of gab.” I love it everytime haha
What about “actors you were actually fuckin scared of because they played the role so well”?
Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast 😳
The dude who plays Homelander
Yeah he goes there for homelander role too.
Also the woman who plays the nazi chick in The Boys
Ah Stormfront, I gotta admit, they had me fooled with that one. I thought she was going to turn out to be one of the good guys… Then we see her not merely being negligent, but actively destructive with the justification being that the culprit wasn’t white and he was in an area with people who weren’t white.
Then the internet gets reminded that Stormfront is Nazi Slang and the name of a White Supremacist Forum that’s existed forever, meaning it was telegraphed from the start.
Especially since in the original comic, Stormfront is a guy (and does not have a love affair with Homelander) and was made a woman as a commentary on modern media gender bending or race-lifting characters solely for inclusion purposes without really caring about how it effects the work or if it’s even appropriate for the circumstances.
I realize that’s a divided take and could get me downvotes, so I’ll specify that that’s acccording to the guy running the show, this is not my personal take, he came out and said “This is why Stormfront is a woman”
Also the imagery of a guy dressed like the American Flag boning a Nazi Chick really says everything about White Nationalism being the courting of Fascism and Conservative ideology.
Actually that whole season had a lot of “Inclusiveness for the sake of inclusiveness” is bad, and done in a surprisingly progressive way. About how a lot of it is shallow, forced, and is more harmful to the groups in questions because such characters serve only to be mascots instead of actually authentic… with how Maeve is bisexual for example, but Vought forces her to pretend to be a lesbian because “Bisexuals are too confusing!” and was forced to only be with girly girls because “Two women both in a masculine role sends the wrong message, there needs to be a clear indicator of which one’s the woman in the relationship!11”, that DEFINITELY hit and I’m not even in show business or against inclusiveness in media… especially as a pansexual trans woman who’s been told she’s not allowed to “Pan” because “That’s just bi with a colorful descriptor”, not allowed to be bi either because “That’s not a real thing”, and worst of all… earlier in my transition I ran into a lot of the “Can’t you just be gay? Does it really have to THIS far?” that I’m sure TONS of trans babes have ran into.
God I started this just wanting to talk about Stormfront, but… FUCK, I just really love how the political commentary in The Boys is handled and how shockingly relevant and real it all is. It’s such a great pile of evidence to the fact that counter-culture is officially not dead and it makes the show such a compellingly scary thriller…
I get chills anytime Homelander is alone with a character, I geniunely never know if the other person is gonna walk out of their alive, even if they’re in the main cast. Just… God I gotta finally watch Season 3, that’s been on my to do list forever, and with Homelander coming to Mortal Kombat I finally have an excuse
Edit: One last thing, I just wanted to say that what I REALLY love about The Boys that doesn’t get enough credit it, is that although it’s based on a comic book series that long concluded… It’s based on a TERRIBLE comic book that never had a wide audience. I like that, instead of ruining something good with a shitty remake or reimagining like Big Media always did, they improved something terrible with a wonderful remake or reimagining (Homelander isn’t even really evil in the comic, he’s just sorta ignorant to how fragile humans are, and isn’t a major threat until Black Noir gaslights him into thinking he’s going insane and having psychotic blackouts by using fake videos of Homelander doing evil shit, that… in the show Homelander actually does for realsies)
Nice rant
Anyways, you had some good points there about The Boys show, agreed totally. And I hope whatever external annoyances you’ve had in your PERSONAL life are long gone <3
Sorry, I searched that and couldn’t find anything. What’s it from?
Homelander is the main antagonist of The Boys on Amazon Prime, adapted from a pretty mediocre comic book that was just “90’s edge for the sake of 90’s edge”, but unlike the comic, the show is actually great.
Homelander’s basically “What if Donald Trump had super powers and the media was covering up every bad and dumb thing he ever did… Also he knew how to fucking talk and wasn’t senile.”, and turns out what you get is the scariest motherfucker in all of fiction