Why Do You Hate This? Skyler White
A character must be absolutely terrible if they’re the most hated character on a show where meth is being made, destroying lives is overlooked (along with murdering innocent people), and everyone manipulates everyone else. Skyler White falls into the “Most Hated Character on a Show” category, but for absolutely no reason other than “She doesn’t like the murdering, manipulating, and meth cooking husband!” She’s not even sided with or understood, she’s completely hated.
Granted, Breaking Bad doesn’t have many characters that abide the law and are morally sound (Holly is probably the only character who hasn’t done anything wrong yet, but she’s just an infant), so for Skyler to get more hate than anyone who is legitimately killing other people and not caring much about it is just flabbergasting. It’s understandable that the audience just wants to side with Walter White, her husband, because he is the main character after all and that’s just what audiences are used to. Nobody rooted for Darth Vader against Luke Skywalker and nobody rooted for Voldemort against Harry Potter, and that’s what makes Breaking Bad so different today. It goes against that formulaic storytelling.
Now the show certainly isn’t the first to have an anti-hero as a main character, and Skyler isn’t the first wife to get unfathomable hate for going against their actually-horrible-husbands. Carmela Soprano was hated exponentially for disagreeing with her mob boss husband Tony Soprano, and that’s the closest comparison one can make for Skyler vs. Walter. Walter has actually killed people, he’s poisoned an innocent child, he’s made bombs to go off in a nursing home, he’s ordered his partner Jesse to kill an innocent man, he illegally makes meth that destroys thousands of lives, creates an abusive relationship with Skyler, and he even blames himself for two planes colliding mid-air. Yet his wife Skyler is hated because of what? She gave him veggie bacon on his 50th birthday and doesn’t like being lied to about Walter’s illegal activity?
“That’s not all she’s done,” said the hateful fans “She cheated on Walter! What a BITCH.” Well, no, she didn’t cheat on him. They were separated at the time so that argument is invalid. But if, for some reason, the audience doesn’t agree with that fact then how about agreeing on disliking Walter for manipulating Jesse, the most loved character on the show?
For an audience that hates Skyler so much and loves Jesse so much, it doesn’t make sense considering that Walter has put Jesse through so much Hell and poor Jesse doesn’t even see it. Whenever he gets close to viewing the real Walter White, he’s lied to again. With that in mind, wouldn’t the Jesse-lovers enjoy Skyler’s standing up against her husband because of the shit he’s done to Jesse? Wouldn’t that actually make some sense to side with someone who has a point?
Skyler White is the audience surrogate, quite honestly. She asks questions the audience is asking and is the voice of logic. All she’s doing is trying to protect her family from the danger (pun-intended) that Walter has put them in. She can’t go to the police or talk to anyone about her situation. She’s trapped.
This article could have gone into a sexism talk, or about how the audience is watching Breaking Bad for the crime show, not the family show, but Breaking Bad speaks for itself so the facts are all laid out. There’s nothing that Skyler is doing that is unwarranted and not understandable. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with liking Walter as a character, but one most keep in mind that he’s a sociopath and is not coming back. Since season three, the situation has changed drastically and so has Walter. Skyler doesn’t recognize the man she married anymore, and it’s only going to get worse from here on out.
JustTV wrote a very detailed, very well written article on Skyler’s Story overall. I would recommend a read.
I hate Skyler for many reasons. Not only did she cheat on Walt (they were not LEGALLY separated), she did it purely for revenge to hurt him. It was not that she is in love with Ted, it was a ploy to use against Walt.
Second, she is the biggest hypocrite. I understand that she didn’t like being lied to, but he told her that he was trying to protect her and the family, which in itself is reason enough to keep her uninformed in his dangerous and illegal activies. But then when she needs his filthy drug money, she has no problem throwing it around. “Sure, Hank can have all he needs. Sure, Ted can have $620,000!” She’s even more of a hypocrite because Ted was engaging in tax fraud and she poo-pooed it but ultimately went along with it, and then just gave him all the money to fix his problems.
She involves herself in Walt’s money laundering, and then constantly throws it in his face, like he’s forcing her to be his “partner in crime”. He never wanted her to be involved at all!! Like he said in the show, the less she knew, the better the argument of plausible deniability.
I totally get that Walt has changed. His ego took over, he’s not satisfied with just providing a large chunk of money for the family, etc, etc.. But through it all, he still loves Skyler and his family. He even said he forgave her for the crap with Ted. I totally believe he would do anything for them. I even believe he would’ve quit all the meth crap if Skyler hadn’t push him away and helped turn him into the “monster” that everyone is so quick to see in him. A wife’s love (or lack thereof) can go a long way in determining a man’s overall attitudes and behaviors. Not to mention the fact that his family was the only thing he had to live for, and she took it all away. He’s a loving and attentive father, and for 16 years was a loving and committed/attentive husband. The second he started going through a hard time, and admittedly, doing bad things, she dropped him like nothing and ripped his family out of his grasp. He even says in the show, that now that his family is lost to him, all he has left is the business.
So yes, I truly hate her and hope she either has a sudden and sincere change of heart, or…DIES.
I completely agree with JohnF’s reasons for hating her. But, on top of those, I hate her for a much more basic reason. She slows the show down. Her character actively takes away from the show. She’s the Jar Jar of Breaking Bad.
ARE YOU RETARDED SPENSER? THAT IS NOT THE ONLY REASON PEOPLE HATE HER. SHE IS A HUGE SELF SERVING HYPOCRITICAL TWO FACED SELFISH DUMB LYING CHEATING WHINING BACK STABBING ASSHOLE. AND THAT’S PUTTING IT MILDLY.
I’d use the same adjectives (save “cheating”) to describe Walt. Hm.
Yes, Walt is a horrible person now. However, when he started everything, it was out of love for his family. Skyler’s ungrateful attitude and childish behavior is what drove him to madness, and for thay, i hate her most of all.
I don’t understand why it isn’t crystal clear why many people (mostly men) don’t like Skyler.
She is extremely bossy, disrespectful (to the point of having sex with another man) and blind to
Walt’s world while he never mistreated her once. The only thing he did is lie, but any
reasonable person could understand why he did that. He has done bad things to other people but
for Skylar and his family he has shown nothing but immense love.
At the same time Skyler is so self-absorbed she cannot even try to see things from his
perspective. No, instead she kicks him out of his own house to live in a lonely apartment while
she gets to live in his house with his kids and has sex with someone else. The fact he has to
break in in his own house is ridiculous to start with but no, Skyler is shocked when he does
that. How could he be so disrespectful to ME?!?!?
Knowing all this, isn’t it extremely easy to understand why people don’t like her?
I love Skyler. She`s beautiful and strong – fighting like a lion for the kids. Walter is the cheater. He actually “prostituted” himself for money: He lied to his beloved family, he made them worry, he cheats on his partner jessy, he kills people. For what? Money… how cheap is that…
When you have cancer (and you just have a few months at best) and you have no clue as to how your family is going to make their living after you are gone, any underachieving person will go through exactly what Walter went through. He found a way to make things good for his family – an illegal way, a way that hurt a lot of people – but this was a man obsessed with his family and all he wanted to do was for them. Cheap! Cheap! Honestly, do you have even have kids?
They’re Skyler’s kids too, you know.
I’ve just finished 4.10 and I was almost crying. I still don’t understand WHY Walter is still sticking around her… So, my energy now needs an outburst and hereby I’m listing the reasons why I hate Skyler White.
1) First and foremost – I won’t start describing what a bitch she is. I’ll just state that she’s the biggest failure of the whole show in terms of being realistic. I absolutely adore the two main characters, with all their countless flaws and mistakes – because that’s what makes them so real, so true, so deep. But I could never really understand how the same people who invented White and Pinkman could come up with something so absurd as Skyler – since she’s absolutely what is called Mary-Sue, or an ivincible and impeccable superwoman. Just have a look at her story from the beginning:
- The woman is unemployed, pregnant, having a disabled son and thousands of dollars of debt. She learns her husband is dying from cancer. After a while, she starts to suspect him of something more. And what are her actions?
- Just a month before giving birth, she DIVORCES her dying husband who’s basically the only income source now, and goes to her old JOB. Then she has a baby, and in a couple of (weeks?) she gets back to working fulltime, while settling down all the matters with her drug-dealing husband by going round everywhere with this newborn daughter, who NEVER ever cries, gets ill, have stomach problems – come on, ANYONE who’d ever dealt with a baby knows how damn difficult it is! So, basically we assume that while working, having sex with her boss and staying impeccably well-groomed, the woman is also a perfect mom – no after-birth depression or whatever it’s called, no falling out of her schedule – nothing. And THEN this truly super-powered woman buys a CARWASH – a totally new business for her, and, as far as we see, she’s THE ONLY one in charge of it (Walter always hanging out in the lab). So, besides charming every man she meets, Skyler is a perfect mom for two kids, one of them being a disabled teenager and another one a newborn, a great professional accountant, AND a perfect businesswoman who manages the whole thing while working there a couple of hours a day as a (attention please) CASHIER. And during all this time,while learning such horrible things about her husband, taking care of children, working on two jobs and getting involved in love affairs, this incredible woman NEVER dropped a tear, never appeared on the screen with her hair unbrushed, never felt tired or sleepy or hungry or unprepared for something – NOT A SINGLE failure.
All I can conclude is that she’s either a robot or an alien. Or a ridiculously undeveloped scriptwriter’s mistake.
2) Well, after explaining my first and foremost reason for hating Skyler, I move to my own personal opinion about her. Honestly, I so wanted her killed the moment she told Walter she gave all the money to Ted. JUST LOOK at the situation. Walter is risking his life, ready to be killed any minute, trapped in this horrible business (the fact that it is his own fault is widely known and accepted by me, but it does not justifies Skyler’s following actions), and his wife just takes ALL the money he’s earned (or at least the biggest part of it) and gives it to her fraudy boss/ex-lover WITHOUT EVEN TELLING HIM! Now people, tell me, could you ever picture yourself doing that? What a complete, unconscious, innate bitchiness should there be! Walt was making this money for kids to grow up, go to college, whatever – and now she just gives it all AWAY, and not just gives, but MAKES Ted accept it – of course, by reffering to allmighty Saul (what an underestimated character! Really, how long will he be saving everyone´s a**es and still be treated as a clown?).
Really. I can understand Walt. I can understand Jesse. I can understand Hank. Come on, to some extent I can even undertsand Marie (although I still don’t understand the very reason for her presense in the show). But I will never ever understand Skyler.
Keep watching.
okay, is everybody conveniently forgetting that walt tried to rape skyler in season 2? No one seems to be mentioning that, and that’s troubling.
I just started watching the show on Netflix, and I gotta say: From the moment I saw Skyler, it was painfully obvious that Walt’s married life had to suck. She was constantly nagging, highly controlling, self-absorbed and seemingly very bitchy and uptight. Also, as I learned more, I found out that she cheated on Walter with Ted, even before she went back to the bookkeeping job. Furthermore, she has no problem spending all the illegal money Walt is piling up, even while berating and insulting him for putting their family at risk. Even the way she reacted to his diagnosis was the worst possible way one could act in that situation. Instead of respecting the fact that he had no desire to be weak and sickly before the end (keep in mind, even with treatment, he was expected to only live another year or two at best – which dovetails with the future episode at the beginning of the season) She only thought of herself, and not the man she claims to love.
What a bitch.
Before someone comments on this, I’d like to clarify something: I’m not rooting for Walter White. I personally feel the character is totally irredeemable and has done despicable things, and I don’t condone any of them.
She is really unattractive . That is why I can’t stand her
While I can definitely understand a few of the reasons that Skyler is hated, I am also baffled as to why the hate is so widespread and intense. To use the cheating excuse is lame, as people cheat all the time on TV, and they aren’t so reviled. Unless, of course, it’s worse because she’s a woman? Hmm.
As far as her supposed hypocrisy because she spends the money, everything she’s spent the money on has been for her family (her reasons for giving Ted the money were not to save Ted, but to save her own family from the scrutiny of an IRS investigation).
And no, Walt never wanted Sky to be his “partner in crime,” but her goal, again, was to protect her family. She saw how things could go wrong the way things were going, and she used her expertise to help. And yes, she’s pissed at Walt for everything. But it’s not just the cooking meth, it’s the lying and putting the family in danger. I can’t fault her for that.
I think what’s most important to realize here is just how little time has passed. We’re in the fifth season, and it’s only a little been about a year since the first episode. So many of Sky’s responses have been reactionary, and she’s still dealing with a lot. We’ve had time to process things; she hasn’t.
I’m not 100% convinced that the reason for the near universal hatred of Skyler is gender-based (for the record, I’m a man), but I strongly suspect it is. I’m wondering how all this would play out if the roles were reversed. It’s a shame there’s no way of knowing.
One other thing I forgot to mention–Walter is repugnant. I love the show, but Walter ain’t no nice guy. His reasons in the beginning for cooking meth may have been altruistic. A few of his decisions in the beginning were questionable, but he was still arguably acting with this family’s best interests at heart. But anyone who things that is his motive to keep this business going is deluding himself. It’s not about keeping his family in money; it’s not about the money at all. Walter’s only reason to keep cooking is his to inflate his ego. He knows he’s a great cook, and he thinks he’s smart enough to keep everything in line (even though it’s proven in virtually every episode that he cannot). He keeps cooking to prove this.
If the genders were reversed, everybody would start magically noticing the following in order to hate the (now female) version of Walt:
* Attempted sexual assault in the kitchen
* Hitting on his boss (the principal) with the intent of cheating
* Not communicating for weeks, alternatingly glowering uncommunicatively and lying the moment you might face some actual consequences. Seriously, if Skyler lied to Walt for weeks while getting her family in trouble with the mob, we’d never hear the end of it.
* Refusing to accept financial help for his treatment which could have avoided much of the need to deal drugs in the first place (Walt also has all sorts of situations in which he could give up having made the money he needed, and in which he continues because of his ego. He also makes himself a target for the DEA again because he can’t stand Gale getting the attention)
* Getting involved (as I said earlier) with the mob and all sorts of murderous characters, and really making very little precaution to actually protect the family he supposedly loves so much
Seriously, anybody who identifies with Walt is absolutely missing the point – here’s a man who’s largely incapable of self-examination, incredibly thoughtless and insensitive in his interactions with others, defined almost entirely by deception. But Skyler cheats on him during a time in which they’re separated, questions his horrible decisions and withdrawnedness, and smoked a couple of cigarettes, so she’s a “bitch.” Right. And after she decides to help him, everybody hates her FOR doing it, even though she’d be culpable for keeping the money anyway and is just trying to help her family in the exact same way that Walt is, but in a way that actually doesn’t put them into any further danger. The main mistake Skyler makes is not turning Walt in the moment she finds out what he’s doing. God help any female character in a TV show given the tide they have to push against if they don’t fulfill the same function as walking, talking sex dolls with no personality or strength of their own.
I fucking hate skyler white. I mean can she not be more of an understanding person. Stick it the fuck up skyler. If i were married, no im not saying i am, but if i were married with a husband who has cancer and found out he was cooking meth so that he was able to support my kids and I? i would be a little understanding. I wouldn’t make his life hell, especially for the sake of my kids, I’d push the whole drug thought out of my mind until he would, sadly pass away. Skyler White is a class A bitch, i mean sleeping with beneke and teling him she did to his face. That is so loww of her. SKYLER WHITE, YOU ARE MY MOST HATED CHARACTER OUT OF ANY TV SERIES OR MOVIE.
I can’t stand Skyler…
I think everyone else just about summed everything up in the other comments… cheating, being self absorbed and refusing to consider Walt’s situation etc.
What makes me dislike her most is her irrational fears. Maybe its because she reminds me of my ex who ended a long term relationship to leave for greener pastures. She separated me from my family (two beautiful puppies) systematically before ending the relationship… knowing full well that she would have more leverage with them out of the picture. (hilarious comparison right?)
Sure, she does have some cause for concern but her fears are irrational and it’s because she refuses to ask questions or try to understand the reality of the situation. She works on pure emotion… and it drives me insane. To her Walt is extremely dangerous for the family, which could not be further from the truth. She allowed her fear and insecurity to change her view of her husband to something a million times worse than it should have been. In fact she embraced that fear… rather than remembering her commitment to her husband and talking things through.
waiting for “the cancer to come back”
“I will count every moment that the children are away from you a victory”
Urgh!
She’s a hypocrite. She hates how her husband illegally makes money, yet she has no problem having an adulterous fair (yes it is cheating, they are still legally married) with a man who is stealing money from his company. How does she justify between the two?
I had to chime in on this, i’m in the middle of Season 3, so i won’t comment much on future episodes, but i will list the obvious reasons why Skylar is the villain of the show. Very simple.
1.) Hypocrisy
2.) Inconsiderate
3.) Selfish
4.) Condescending
5.) Unfaithful
6.) BackStabbing
7.) Insensitive(implied)
8.) Untrustworthy(when your husband doesnt trust you enough to tell you he cooks Meth, its a Reason, and any Right minded person wouldve done some self reflecting to try and see why)
9.) Nagger(yes i put that there simply because, anybody should know how irritating it is to have someone always monitoring and questioning you and your decisions, especially if its someone thats suppose to support them)
10.) Shallow(much like her sister)
11.) etc etc.
Now, granted, Walt is no angel, but his decisions are based on reason, not emotional ignorance and unavailability. If anyone wants to create a statement discrediting Walt’s behavior, i guarantee, i can create 1 to justify it, now Skyler on the other hand? I can not justify intentional ignorance. Skyler is probably the biggest cancer to walt the entire show, Hell i liked Jesse’s parents, the two junkies who robbed Pete, even the F***ing Psycho Tuco more then i like her, she makes me not even want to watch thew show at times, just due to how disgusting and careless she is with her supposed loved 1s. its appalling how anyone could defend her or see her as anything but a villain of the show. its clear to me when a writer has a wife walk over to her husband, who has cancer and has been struggling to get her approval, and tells him she F***ed her boss(with his newborn child with her, and the considering Ted was there to deliver the baby, and that they had a previous relationship) its clear the writers intend for her to be a villain. you can disagree all you want, but no matter what argument you have, i guarentee you would not say, i f***ed Ted to a man that could die any day, that sentence alone could drive a man to insanity. i’m so disturbed i dont even want to watch the next episode, lol but seriously, thats the most cold hearted thing you can do to a man. And Walt has done nothing intentionally to hurt her. Anyways, my rant is over,
Eh, I’m never going to have a common ground with you people. It’s like you aren’t even watching the same show that I am, or the same show that Vince describes in interviews. If the worst thing you can imagine is “cheating” on a guy who you’ve separated with because of his endangerment of your family and serial dishonesty, but who refuses to take no for an answer and leave you out of it, then I don’t know what to say. Walt had multiple attempts to get out without subjecting his family to this nonsense – accepting the job offer and medical care from Gretchen and Elliott, taking the half million and leaving at the end of Season 2, and frankly not leaving Gray Matter in a huff because of his own ego as it’s implied happened – but his ego pushed him back in every time. His family was nearly killed several times by sociopathic murderers, and Skyler’s the bad guy? Right. Walt glowers around the house for two seasons, only “communicates” when making up stories to explain his behavior, only makes the slightest effort to try to smooth things over and come clean when his lies finally catch up to him, and Skyler’s the one making life hard for him. Right. This argument has all the subtlety of yelling “bitch!” at your mom for taking the Xbox away for a few days after you set fire to the garage.
I think it is funny that fans of this show get so worked up about skyler’s character and voice their hate as if she were a real life person and not a t.v character. Vince gilligen who created b.b stated himself that skylers actions are valid due to what he put her through and defends her actions in b.b. I think fans dislike her because Walter white’s character is so loved and sympathized by the audience since Cranston does such a amazing job captivating his audience emotionally no matter if his actions are wrong or right. Even though he is almost emotionless by the end of season 5 part one, most people still perceive him as a innocent person no matter how many people he hurt, lied to or killed! Also, the show is mostly showed by walters point of view, so us viewers understand his motives and emotions firsthand. I think that has a majority to do with why people hate skyler white. The audience was told the whole breaking bad story mostly through walter white’s point of view and the audience hates skyler since she doesn’t see, get his p.o.v all the way. I would bet if this show was told through skyler whites eyes, there would be more sympathy……but the show would be very boring!!!!!
P.s I agree clumpy! I read your comment after posting mine. Please read mine and see if you agree with me on why maybe the audience hates skyler white so much.