We're the Villains Now
On Monday, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth held a pro-war pep rally touting America's ability to make war great again.
I am not “in danger,” Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No…
I am the one who knocks.
— Walter H. White
Anakin Skywalker was once a nice, well-respected Jedi who fought for democracy. Daenerys Targaryen was the Protector of the Realm, Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons, who signed the Unsullied’s Emancipation Proclamation. Before he began working in the Garden of Eden’s produce department, Satan was a literal angel. But when it comes to going to the dark side, there is one fictional character that outranks Darth Vader, the Mad Queen or former musical director Louis C. Fur:
Walter Hartwell White is the greatest hero-turned-villain of all time.
In many respects, as the main character of Breaking Bad, White was the perfect protagonist. The iconic television series begins on the 50th birthday of a broke, meek, down-on-his-luck chemistry teacher with stage-three cancer, a son who’s stricken with cerebral palsy and another child on the way. Under such dire circumstances, the audience was willing to justify White’s illegal, desperate and often immoral choices. He was a good man in a desperate situation.
By his 52nd birthday, Walt was the textbook definition of a villain. Over the course of two years, the hapless high school teacher transformed into Heisenberg, a ruthless drug lord, who was fueled by vengeance, ambition and unrepentant greed, not desperation. His actions threatened the lives of his family, friends and innocent civilians more than cancer or poverty. But because White had been cemented in the audience’s mind as “one of the good guys,” the audience still rooted for the villain.
But when it comes to convincing an audience to root for a genocidal mad king who joined the dark side…
America is the greatest fictional character of all time.
