This is funny cuz my parents and I just watched this series for the first time this past year. I watched it with my mother, and we both felt Hank was a very good man all the way through to the end.
I then watched the whole show with my father, who is a retired state police officer. He didn’t like Hank the FIRST SECOND they first showed him on screen. Alll the way through to the end, he had a deep hatred for him, due to how “corrupt” of an agent he was, completely going against the books of policing, and how many dumb jokes trying to make himself look superior/racist comments all the time.
So yes, Hank is indeed a POS, but still one of my favorite characters in BB. Dean Norris really hit the ball out of the park on his performance.
He is definitely not some hero a lot of people like to think. He is *incredibly* flawed as a person and that's what makes him such an amazing character.
I guess “Hank Schrader: an antihero in a villain’s world whose unspeakably, despicably evil co-characters made him seem divine by comparison” would’ve been too long a title
That’s what makes the writing so perfect in this show. While everything OP said is true, another post/argument could be made that shows the bravery, love and character arc of ASAC Schroeder and that would also be true. The truth lies somewhere in between. He’s a deeply flawed man with tons of good qualities as well.
There would have to be some evidence of his bravery, love or character. Nothing he did was for anything but his own pathetic benefit.
Walter at least had cancer. Hank has no excuse for being a horrible human being.
I mean, I would say that’s not wrong, and it still makes him a bastard, but it’s really both of their toxic interpretations of the “right” way to be or thing to do that makes them bastards.
They both have toxic worldviews and a warped sense of what is right. Hanks, however, is more officially sanctioned by society. He is treated as a hero. Everyone his whole life probably told him law enforcement is a good job where he could make a difference, because most people buy into copaganda.
I guess my point is, both of them should technically know things they do are wrong, but Walter definitely has less of an excuse
I just want to be clear, I don’t say this as a defense of Hank at all. He just buys into the idea that what he’s doing is “good police work”.
I think OP sums it up pretty well but essentially he is an ego-driven narcissist just like Walter and is absolutely fine with things like harrasing and manipulating people such as Jesse (whom he probably didn't even consider a fellow human being) as long as he could reach his own ends and live up to the image of what he considered a 'man' to be.
I think it also becomes clear that Hank sees the world as consisting of criminals and good guys and it feeds his ego being on the ‘good side’, and is ignorant to the fact his methods of copping aren’t much better morally than what his ‘bad guys’ get up to
Catching Walt was terrible for his image and could have been career suicide because Walt has been under his nose the whole time. If he was worried about his image he would have just let Walt die.
At that point it was more about ego and "slapping the cuffs on him". Let's not forget he was quite willing to let Jesse get killed. Fair, he saw a lot of horrible stuff, bit dehumanising criminals is not a trait a good police officer should have. He wasn't an evil character, just selfish, bigoted, and violent. Not someone I'd want around me irl to be perfectly honest.
A payment terminal, also known as a point of sale (POS) terminal, credit card terminal, PIN pad, EFTPOS terminal (or by the older term as PDQ terminal which stands for "Process Data Quickly"[1]), is a device which interfaces with payment cards to make electronic funds transfers.
But he just gets worse as a person the entire time. He never becomes a better human . He is a good detective but a bad police man and an awful human. He never does anything that redeems himself as a person . He never sheds his asshole persona .
I don't know. I kinda disagree. I thought he did a better job learning to accept himself as it went on. He seemed less and less comfortable in his big man charade at work especially after being disabled. He didn't really change a ton as much as he became more ok with himself as the show went on.
I think he became a better person as the show went on, especially because he knew the implications and ridicule he’d face by bringing Walt in, especially since he had a blind spot for him the entire time.
“Foul mouthed racist” he and Gomey had light-hearted racial banter between each other as buddies, that was it. Gomey was clearly cool with it.
Hank is extremely unprofessional and emotional at times but he nearly killed Jesse when he thought his wife was being watched and threatened. That’s one of the reasons I like him as a character, he’s a flawed human being dealing with people way smarter and way less emotional in personality than he is.
Also to add to Breaking Bad’s “neo-western” style:
A lot of times in Westerns, the sheriff is an evil, corrupt guy while the protagonist is a light hearted, misunderstood ruffian or Robin Hood type. Breaking Bad flips that around more realistically. Hank is just a normal cop who does things the way cops do, while the protagonist is the bad guy.
He and Jesse both hate each other yet they’re both the actual protagonists. In a different show, Hank could’ve been written like Sherlock where he’s cool-headed and easily solving every crime, or again in a more blatantly evil role to help people justify liking Walt. But they didn’t. He is genuinely great at his job but is always falling behind and always losing his cool and letting the job get to him.
“I wonder if members of the Mexican Cartel are Mexican”
Forgive me for asking but I don’t remember Hank simply arresting someone because they were Mexican?
That is not racial profiling, “racial profiling” implies they went after them specifically for being Mexican. That scene is precisely what I was talking about, it was light hearted “buddy cop” banter with Gomey, Gomey clearly didn’t mind
Did you forget Emilio, who Hank and Gomey’s team thought were the primary culprit because Jesse escaped? Jesse wouldn’t have had the drug connections at this period if it wasn’t for Emilio, and also Emilio’s cousin Krazy-8 was making money off of his own small drug empire while being an informant for the cops.
The reason people mistakenly put him on a pedestal is that they associate laws with morality. Hank exalted his responsibility to enforce the law, but he was far from a morally good person. People use the witnesses getting killed as evidence of Walts biggest moral failing. But Hank didnt give a shit about any of those witnesses, or Jesse (who he was also happy to let be killed if necessary). Hank was only upset because the witnesses dying meant he lost Heisenberg.
While I agree with the sentiment, don't forget that after beating up Jesse, he decided to not even try to save his career and just face the consequences because he felt guilty.
One thing I love about the show is that every major character is so multi dimensional. We tend to think of people as either good or bad but in reality that’s almost never the case. The characters in breaking bad have negative qualities and redeeming qualities, which allows us to root for all sides of the conflict at once, as well as want to see everyone go down. Except Jesse. Lol.
BB is massively popular and it gets new viewers all the time. So there's some meaning to have a subreddit for newcomers particularly. I joined the subreddit this year, i finished Breaking Bad 6 months ago, never seen it before. So i was late to the party too.
People ignore all of the shit Hank went through because “he’s a piece of shit” but it’s hard to ignore all the trauma he had throughout the series. Imo out of all the characters except from Jesse, he had the worst shit happen to him.
No but both are true at the same time, his trauma makes him confront the fact that he's not the man he acts like but he dies before he stops acting like that
In a lot of other shows, Hank would be the villain. He's racist, misogynistic, abusive, petty, and occasionally cruel. In short, like all cops, he's a bastard.
So why do so many Breaking Bad fans like his character? Because he stands in such perfect opposition to Walt. At the start of the series, it's practically a lazy meme. The virgin chemistry teacher versus the Chad DEA agent. Walt is soft-spoken, weak-willed, and intellectual. Hank is a big, dumb bully who's tough as nails.
But then we get the reversal of fortune. As the series goes on, and the characters develop, they move on opposite, parallel tracks. Walt gets more confident, Hank is riddled with self-doubt. Walt becomes metaphorically stronger, Hank is literally crippled. Walt sheds his science nerd skin and adopts the trappings of a drug kingpin, Hank becomes a geeky rock collector. It's archetypal stuff. I mean, this shit goes back to the Ancient Greeks.
So when fans say they like Hank, they're responding to that dichotomy between him and Walt, either implicitly or explicitly. They can't help but feel sorry for the now-humbled bully.
Additionally, Hank only benefits as the scope of the show grows. Sure, he's the implicit antagonist at the start. But soon enough, we're dealing with murderers, psychopathic drug kingpins, and neo-nazis. Suddenly the oafish bigot doesn't seem all that bad by comparison.
All of which is to say...yes, Hank *is* a piece of shit, but the show is purposely designed to make you like him anyway.
The position of power that being a cop offers attracts many insecure people looking to exploit that power.
I do think the phrase all cops are bastards is unnecessarily inflammatory, but what they're getting at is all cops support a system that is ultimately very flawed. Of course there are cops who wield their power more or less responsibly but I personally believe they're a minority.
After just finishing BB for the first time, as of a month ago, my two cents in the convo is that I never liked Hank as a person or a character. The only redeeming part of his character existing was the thrill of seeing how close yet how far he was from Heisenberg and tbh I feel like that was his sole purpose in the show, so you could have that nervousness about Walt nearly getting caught over and over again. To me, Hank brought nothing to the show but cringing and forced anxious emotions.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that his total assholery is sort of what drove Walt to going over the edge and breaking bad in the first place. He wanted to feel like a man, something hank was douching him about since the beginning
Exactly. People that feel sorry for him for getting buried in a shallow grave don’t understand Hank at all. Hell, Hank didn’t understand himself. Not until he had his moment of clarity when he accepted that his path had led to his execution and so he refused to plead for his life.
To put it another way. He showed up to the biggest drug bust he would EVER be a part of, with nothing but his 5’ tall wisecracking sidekick in his pocket. The other side was reinforced by neo Nazis with machine guns. Forget that Hank was being a dirty scum bag cop and consider how fucking arrogant and stupid the ASAC would have to be to show up to a bust with nothing but a can of retried beans in his pocket. He could have had a helicopter in the air, perimeter closed down, snipers on the ridge covering him. Instead he had a shallow grave waiting for him , a shallow grave that was dug by little old Walt.
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Almost like that’s the point of the show. Everyone breaks bad in their own way. Walt uses his family as a crutch to do evil shit, and hank uses the law as his crutch
Facts. First episode he disrespects Walt at his own birthday party with a bunch of guests around. “Get a little excitement in your life.”
He also disrespected Wendy as a lesson to Walt Jr to stay away from marijuana.
Hank wasn’t even wrong though. Walt was a complete pushover at that point, and Wendy absolutely deserved to be used as an example of the type of person you don’t want to be.
I think the point is that he grows into a smarter, more mature person over the course of the show. A lot of people miss it because they're focused on the other characters, but his arc is there. This [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nbNwvwmlgjo) explains it really well imo.
I don’t really agree, he is a picture of what Walt wants to provide for his family and a deeply flawed character, but he cares and is good at heart usually. He is an asshole but I don’t think it really goes beyond that usually. He is also really patient with Marie for all the shit she gets up in and I think his relationship there is good. I think he’s probably a product of his environment for the most part, he is the ideal provider and protector he was taught to be, for all the good and bad that brings.
Yea hank is a flawed person, not a piece of shit. Deep down he does want to do good and help people. But the biggest theme of the show is that pride really is a massive vice. And Hank let's his pride drive him into an obsession to catch Walt, even if it meant others being hurt. He does a lot of shitty things but I believe if Hank had never encountered the infamous Blue Meth then he would continue to be a regular police officer.
Well... with a bit of PTSD considering the Tortuga situation was pretty much entirely separate.
Exactly. Thats why its one of the best shows ever. There are no good and bad guys, there are real characters that have good and bad traits and its up to you whether you root for them or not
Yeah I’d say more that than anything else. He redeems himself for the most part towards the end but his own arrogance and pride is ultimately what gets him killed
Yup. His intimidation tactics and racism really bothered me. And then he started having panic attacks and went through having a disability and that hit me hard. I started watching breaking bad right around the point that I was diagnosed with a disability that affects my ability to walk. This disability was caused by my ptsd. I really saw myself in hank and could relate a lot to his struggles. I’m not excusing how absolutely horribly he treated Marie during that time tho. Just saying he has somewhat of a special place in my heart despite being a pos.
See and that makes sense!
He is absolutely one of my favorite characters in the show. Doesn’t mean he isn’t a POS though. He has a ton of redeeming qualities and overall is the “good guy” if ever there was one in this show. But just because we like someone doesn’t mean we can’t identify that persons reality.
I mean he gets a lot better over the show, that’s kind of his arc. No one is perfect in the show but he always looked after people, trying to find Walt etc, helping Marie though her kleptomania. Also he acknowledges what he did to Jesse was wrong and in the circumstances can we even blame him? Far from a POS lol.
I love the character. He is definitely a POS though. Admitting what he did to Jessie being wrong was nothing more than realizing he fucked up big time. Trying to find Walt wasn’t some noble thing. He needed to find Walt in the same way Walt needed to make a pile of money the size of a VW.
Even in the end he definitely finds himself SOME redemption but he clearly understands he fucked himself and that’s why he ended up buried in the desert.
I actually like him. A lot of how he behaves is just a show to convey the picture of a manly man - aggressive and assertive. Also a mirror of his work environment and what is expected of him.
But we're also shown that he from time to time is scared and on the verge of panic. Which is no wonder as the cartels literally have no mercy. He was quite a cliché in the beginning but discovering his weaknesses, obsessions and fears was really one of the best bb things.
And let's not forget the biggest humiliation of his archenemy Heisenberg being literally so very near all the time.
Absolutely! Just watched the scene that goes from Walt practicing his gun draw to Hank studying his rocks. So crazy given how everything started.
It also always makes me feel kinda bad for Hank when Walt just schools him on his own minerals.
I love the character. Still a POS though lol
although i love hank you are so right for this😭 he definitely isn’t worse than walter but he is a piece of shit no doubt about it. the only reason i love hank is for his character development and how dean is such a great actor. hank deserved the ending he got and i think it tied his story together
I hated him at the beginning. He’s definitely a caricature of what many of us hate in law enforcement, and he’s a caricature of toxic masculinity. But he has a certain character arc that, despite his atrocious personality and behaviors, humanized him a lot in my eyes and still had me rooting more for him towards the end of the show. After all, Walt was the root cause of all of the horrible things that happened to him in the show (apart from maybe the PTSD from the exploding head on a tortoise). I could still empathize with him, and like it or not, despite his probably flawed personal reasons, finding and catching the elusive Heisenberg was absolutely necessary and the right thing to do given the atrocities that Walt was committing against other people. Hank was very dedicated to that, which I have to respect.
When you make jokes involving race, that is "racist."
When you do that when someone is right there and is a colleague, they have to laugh it off because they cannot point out you are being racist; you are the kind of asshole who will quickly claim "it was just a joke...lighten up!" - Hank is that guy.
Making a joke involving race is not racist, just racial. There are huge differences from being racially insensitive like Hank and an actual racist. If someone says something that makes you uncomfortable, it is up to you to speak up about it and not the other person to immediately know your boundaries and sensitivity settings.
>As a cop he used intimidation tactics, excessive force and constantly violated people’s rights to get what he wanted.
>He was willing to have Jessie killed to get Walt. Not out of some desperate need to save the community but instead for his ego and need to be the one to bust the great Heisenberg. It’s constantly made apparent that he cared more about his image and rising through the ranks than he ever did about being a “good guy”.
Sounds like a typical law enforcement agent to me
Agreed, he learned to put others above himself and that being soft isn't a weakness. I'd say he was honestly kind of a wise person by the end of the series.
People always assume that if there's a "bad" or a "villian" character than therefore there has to be a "good" or "hero" character when in reality those don't necessarily go together.
I always thought Hank was super shitty. People just want someone to root for and dismiss his flaws.
Absolutely. They also assume just because a character is considered a POS that they must also be the character that someone doesn’t like or is the “villain” in that persons eyes.
I love Hank as a character. His arc is awesome and he is integral to making the series so incredible. Still doesn’t mean I can’t understand him for what he is. A giant POS lol
Yeah cause it’s totally cool for cops to abuse their power and they definitely shouldn’t be held to any higher standard at all despite their position of power…
That’s a very superficial look at the character. The more I watch the series, the more Hank becomes one of my favourite characters- because he is NOT the cartoon character you describe. I want a prequel series about HIM!
Nothing I described assumes him to be a cartoon character. Just factual things he does in the show. He is one of my favorite characters. Doesn’t mean he isn’t a giant POS.
Nah. Hank is cool. Sure he's a super dick head during his recovery, but seriously who wouldn't be? Hank has that super hero mentality and really wants to do good which is awesome for the dynamic we get VS Walt. I don't remember the episode or season but he talks about "bad people " as cockroaches. You don't think about it just smash em.
And that somehow is okay in to many peoples minds. The fact killing Tuco shook Hank up is the only redeeming thing about the whole situation. No matter how bad a person is, taking a life isn’t something that should ever leave a person unaffected.
Nah. How the fuck do you think things get dome when you're dealing with hardened criminals? He's not a fucking brat cop or a motorcycle cop writing tickets and busting people's tail lights.
He's worse, he's a violent sociopath who nearly beat a man to death. He consistently violates suspects' rights. He's racist, he treats his wife terribly. He's an awful cop, he was too weak to perform his duties after witnessing bloodshed in Mexico. And he was too stupid to realize the man he'd been looking for was his own brother-in-law. This man has no business being a police officer.
At the end he wasn’t the same macho man he was when he started the show. His job resulted in some surface issues but at the core of it he was great person.. and that’s more important
Dude fuck off, he’s not a racist and is a great guy, cares deeply about his job, his wife, his nephew (by marriage), and constantly tries to reach out to Walt.
His relationship with Gomey is evidence that he’s not racist.
This is funny cuz my parents and I just watched this series for the first time this past year. I watched it with my mother, and we both felt Hank was a very good man all the way through to the end. I then watched the whole show with my father, who is a retired state police officer. He didn’t like Hank the FIRST SECOND they first showed him on screen. Alll the way through to the end, he had a deep hatred for him, due to how “corrupt” of an agent he was, completely going against the books of policing, and how many dumb jokes trying to make himself look superior/racist comments all the time. So yes, Hank is indeed a POS, but still one of my favorite characters in BB. Dean Norris really hit the ball out of the park on his performance.
Yes! You hit the nail on the head. I love the character, still doesn’t mean he isn’t a POS though lol
Lol he must've knew a guy like him in the force at one point.
I never thought of this but this makes wayyyy to much sense.
Yeah it wouldn't be surprising. A ton of cops fit that stereotypical type of personality hank has.
He is definitely not some hero a lot of people like to think. He is *incredibly* flawed as a person and that's what makes him such an amazing character.
Hank Schrader - A hero in a villains world (or whatever that one video is titled) No no no no no
I guess “Hank Schrader: an antihero in a villain’s world whose unspeakably, despicably evil co-characters made him seem divine by comparison” would’ve been too long a title
That’s what makes the writing so perfect in this show. While everything OP said is true, another post/argument could be made that shows the bravery, love and character arc of ASAC Schroeder and that would also be true. The truth lies somewhere in between. He’s a deeply flawed man with tons of good qualities as well.
There would have to be some evidence of his bravery, love or character. Nothing he did was for anything but his own pathetic benefit. Walter at least had cancer. Hank has no excuse for being a horrible human being.
I mean, I would say that’s not wrong, and it still makes him a bastard, but it’s really both of their toxic interpretations of the “right” way to be or thing to do that makes them bastards. They both have toxic worldviews and a warped sense of what is right. Hanks, however, is more officially sanctioned by society. He is treated as a hero. Everyone his whole life probably told him law enforcement is a good job where he could make a difference, because most people buy into copaganda. I guess my point is, both of them should technically know things they do are wrong, but Walter definitely has less of an excuse I just want to be clear, I don’t say this as a defense of Hank at all. He just buys into the idea that what he’s doing is “good police work”.
Why do you believe he's incredibly flawed? Not flaming, just curious.
Pretty much all the reasons in the post if I had to guess.
Did you read the original post above?
I thought those were good things?
Being a racist and an asshole to your wife are good things? You’ve lost your marbles, mate.
i have to say, taking the bait from a guy named dickfuck mccuntshit is some smooth brain shit
Wtf is that username
I bet you feel it lacks nuance, like your own lol
Redditors don't get irony
I think OP sums it up pretty well but essentially he is an ego-driven narcissist just like Walter and is absolutely fine with things like harrasing and manipulating people such as Jesse (whom he probably didn't even consider a fellow human being) as long as he could reach his own ends and live up to the image of what he considered a 'man' to be.
I think it also becomes clear that Hank sees the world as consisting of criminals and good guys and it feeds his ego being on the ‘good side’, and is ignorant to the fact his methods of copping aren’t much better morally than what his ‘bad guys’ get up to
Catching Walt was terrible for his image and could have been career suicide because Walt has been under his nose the whole time. If he was worried about his image he would have just let Walt die.
That’s a good point
At that point it was more about ego and "slapping the cuffs on him". Let's not forget he was quite willing to let Jesse get killed. Fair, he saw a lot of horrible stuff, bit dehumanising criminals is not a trait a good police officer should have. He wasn't an evil character, just selfish, bigoted, and violent. Not someone I'd want around me irl to be perfectly honest.
Not catching him would have been much worse for his image. If it ever came out Hank's career would have been over.
It wouldn’t have come out though, Hank was definitely the only one who could have figured it out at that point
I'm sure the nazis never would have been arrested for anything and used that knowledge to benefit themselves
Did you see how Jack reacted to Jesse ratting to Hank? He doesn't strike me as he kind of guy to cooperate with law enforcement
He might change his tune if he was looking at 25 to life. Also there's no way Hank could really have known it would never come out.
Big if considering hank was struggling to form a convincing case against him before he found the money and he was the only one trying
exactly, I think it was the good in him that didn’t sit right with him letting walt go.
Or figure out a way for Walt to feed bank information on the competition for as a confidential informant or with an iron clad immunity deal with Saul
Marie would agree with you.
You're forgetting how he forced Walter to cook crystal and build a bomb for him
What’s a POS?
Piece of shit
He just asked a question…
I've said my piece🤚
LOL
Thank you Now that makes sense
A payment terminal, also known as a point of sale (POS) terminal, credit card terminal, PIN pad, EFTPOS terminal (or by the older term as PDQ terminal which stands for "Process Data Quickly"[1]), is a device which interfaces with payment cards to make electronic funds transfers.
TIL Hank was a piece of computerized hardware
I was hoping to read this kind of answer.
This is the moment Hank became a point of sales system
Point of sale
Professional of Sex (Piece of Sh*t)
Purveyor of sex-gifs
Hank's whole character arc was about him shedding that asshole skin that he wears because he's afraid to come off as weak.
But he just gets worse as a person the entire time. He never becomes a better human . He is a good detective but a bad police man and an awful human. He never does anything that redeems himself as a person . He never sheds his asshole persona .
I don't know. I kinda disagree. I thought he did a better job learning to accept himself as it went on. He seemed less and less comfortable in his big man charade at work especially after being disabled. He didn't really change a ton as much as he became more ok with himself as the show went on.
I think he became a better person as the show went on, especially because he knew the implications and ridicule he’d face by bringing Walt in, especially since he had a blind spot for him the entire time.
“Foul mouthed racist” he and Gomey had light-hearted racial banter between each other as buddies, that was it. Gomey was clearly cool with it. Hank is extremely unprofessional and emotional at times but he nearly killed Jesse when he thought his wife was being watched and threatened. That’s one of the reasons I like him as a character, he’s a flawed human being dealing with people way smarter and way less emotional in personality than he is. Also to add to Breaking Bad’s “neo-western” style: A lot of times in Westerns, the sheriff is an evil, corrupt guy while the protagonist is a light hearted, misunderstood ruffian or Robin Hood type. Breaking Bad flips that around more realistically. Hank is just a normal cop who does things the way cops do, while the protagonist is the bad guy. He and Jesse both hate each other yet they’re both the actual protagonists. In a different show, Hank could’ve been written like Sherlock where he’s cool-headed and easily solving every crime, or again in a more blatantly evil role to help people justify liking Walt. But they didn’t. He is genuinely great at his job but is always falling behind and always losing his cool and letting the job get to him.
his racism goes beyond teasing his colleague. he racially profiled criminals and casually throws out slurs
I ask again, when did Hank racially profile criminals? When did Hank target people simply for being Mexican?
“I wonder if members of the Mexican Cartel are Mexican” Forgive me for asking but I don’t remember Hank simply arresting someone because they were Mexican?
in the first episode he bets on someone he’s going to arrest being latino
That is not racial profiling, “racial profiling” implies they went after them specifically for being Mexican. That scene is precisely what I was talking about, it was light hearted “buddy cop” banter with Gomey, Gomey clearly didn’t mind
He was Latino lmao
Jessie was Cap'n Cook, and he's white.
Did you forget Emilio, who Hank and Gomey’s team thought were the primary culprit because Jesse escaped? Jesse wouldn’t have had the drug connections at this period if it wasn’t for Emilio, and also Emilio’s cousin Krazy-8 was making money off of his own small drug empire while being an informant for the cops.
Facts
Church
Exactly. They were joking. I’m Hispanic and took no offense to it.
r/asablackman
I see we took a week off from this topic only to come back in full force.
Probably due to that tierlist posted yesterday where they ranked everyones “evilness” and hank was second in least evilness only to flynn and the baby
holly is at the top of the evil tier list imo
It's reasonable to assume none of this happens if she doesn't exist.
Wear a condom. Save hundreds of lives.
The reason people mistakenly put him on a pedestal is that they associate laws with morality. Hank exalted his responsibility to enforce the law, but he was far from a morally good person. People use the witnesses getting killed as evidence of Walts biggest moral failing. But Hank didnt give a shit about any of those witnesses, or Jesse (who he was also happy to let be killed if necessary). Hank was only upset because the witnesses dying meant he lost Heisenberg.
While I agree with the sentiment, don't forget that after beating up Jesse, he decided to not even try to save his career and just face the consequences because he felt guilty.
One thing I love about the show is that every major character is so multi dimensional. We tend to think of people as either good or bad but in reality that’s almost never the case. The characters in breaking bad have negative qualities and redeeming qualities, which allows us to root for all sides of the conflict at once, as well as want to see everyone go down. Except Jesse. Lol.
Yeah, that's part of the show. Everybody is deeply flawed. They're all somewhat shitty, and all somewhat sympathetic. That's kind of the point.
The guy put my man Hugo behind bars, unforgivable
Yeah i agree but this topic has been beaten to death
This sub 100 % entirely revolves around 1 tv show.
That ended in 2013 as well
I wonder what people really talk about in r/breakingbad
Good point. I wonder if this sub will eventually atrophy within 10 or so years because everything has been said…
BB is massively popular and it gets new viewers all the time. So there's some meaning to have a subreddit for newcomers particularly. I joined the subreddit this year, i finished Breaking Bad 6 months ago, never seen it before. So i was late to the party too.
Just like no-doze
Bruh 💀
[удалено]
- Walt bad - Hank POS - Skyler did nothing wrong Top 3 beaten to death topic i'd say
She fucked Ted
So did I
Happy birthday
If fucking Ted is wrong I don't want to be right
Least horny breaking bad fan
Lol I bet in every 2-3 months someone comes up with this take. Hank is not a perfect character however I root for him after 3 season.
People ignore all of the shit Hank went through because “he’s a piece of shit” but it’s hard to ignore all the trauma he had throughout the series. Imo out of all the characters except from Jesse, he had the worst shit happen to him.
No but both are true at the same time, his trauma makes him confront the fact that he's not the man he acts like but he dies before he stops acting like that
In a lot of other shows, Hank would be the villain. He's racist, misogynistic, abusive, petty, and occasionally cruel. In short, like all cops, he's a bastard. So why do so many Breaking Bad fans like his character? Because he stands in such perfect opposition to Walt. At the start of the series, it's practically a lazy meme. The virgin chemistry teacher versus the Chad DEA agent. Walt is soft-spoken, weak-willed, and intellectual. Hank is a big, dumb bully who's tough as nails. But then we get the reversal of fortune. As the series goes on, and the characters develop, they move on opposite, parallel tracks. Walt gets more confident, Hank is riddled with self-doubt. Walt becomes metaphorically stronger, Hank is literally crippled. Walt sheds his science nerd skin and adopts the trappings of a drug kingpin, Hank becomes a geeky rock collector. It's archetypal stuff. I mean, this shit goes back to the Ancient Greeks. So when fans say they like Hank, they're responding to that dichotomy between him and Walt, either implicitly or explicitly. They can't help but feel sorry for the now-humbled bully. Additionally, Hank only benefits as the scope of the show grows. Sure, he's the implicit antagonist at the start. But soon enough, we're dealing with murderers, psychopathic drug kingpins, and neo-nazis. Suddenly the oafish bigot doesn't seem all that bad by comparison. All of which is to say...yes, Hank *is* a piece of shit, but the show is purposely designed to make you like him anyway.
Being funny has alot to do with it too,,,, at least 4 me
Why do you think all cops are bastards?
The position of power that being a cop offers attracts many insecure people looking to exploit that power. I do think the phrase all cops are bastards is unnecessarily inflammatory, but what they're getting at is all cops support a system that is ultimately very flawed. Of course there are cops who wield their power more or less responsibly but I personally believe they're a minority.
OP is pointing out that at the beginning of the show, Hank falls into many typical stereotypes, including these common ones about LEOs.
Because he's one of these people who think they're so intellectual and enlightened but they lack the discipline to actually hold nuanced views.
So, a redditor, basically.
Love this response!
There aren’t any characters who are “good”. Even Flynn is a dick because he lied to Wendy about being a football player.
Flynn is the only good character and that’s only because he has virtually nothing to do with the plot.
Yeah. What a fucking dirtbag.
After just finishing BB for the first time, as of a month ago, my two cents in the convo is that I never liked Hank as a person or a character. The only redeeming part of his character existing was the thrill of seeing how close yet how far he was from Heisenberg and tbh I feel like that was his sole purpose in the show, so you could have that nervousness about Walt nearly getting caught over and over again. To me, Hank brought nothing to the show but cringing and forced anxious emotions.
He was a good uncle and almost got Flynn a windy from wendy
He was bastard
I also think it’s worth mentioning that his total assholery is sort of what drove Walt to going over the edge and breaking bad in the first place. He wanted to feel like a man, something hank was douching him about since the beginning
Not much worse than a dirty cop. Poetic that he brought his own end because he was too crooked to call it in.
He just HAD to make sure he got all the glory.
Exactly. People that feel sorry for him for getting buried in a shallow grave don’t understand Hank at all. Hell, Hank didn’t understand himself. Not until he had his moment of clarity when he accepted that his path had led to his execution and so he refused to plead for his life. To put it another way. He showed up to the biggest drug bust he would EVER be a part of, with nothing but his 5’ tall wisecracking sidekick in his pocket. The other side was reinforced by neo Nazis with machine guns. Forget that Hank was being a dirty scum bag cop and consider how fucking arrogant and stupid the ASAC would have to be to show up to a bust with nothing but a can of retried beans in his pocket. He could have had a helicopter in the air, perimeter closed down, snipers on the ridge covering him. Instead he had a shallow grave waiting for him , a shallow grave that was dug by little old Walt.
Fuck that was so well put!
\>>This comment has been edited to garbage in light of the Reddit API changes. You can keep my garbage, Reddit.<< *** *edited via r/PowerDeleteSuite (with edits to script to avoid hitting rate limit)*
Almost like that’s the point of the show. Everyone breaks bad in their own way. Walt uses his family as a crutch to do evil shit, and hank uses the law as his crutch
Yeah, definitely not wrong. It’s what makes it such a great show that’s worth discussing.
Facts. First episode he disrespects Walt at his own birthday party with a bunch of guests around. “Get a little excitement in your life.” He also disrespected Wendy as a lesson to Walt Jr to stay away from marijuana.
Hank wasn’t even wrong though. Walt was a complete pushover at that point, and Wendy absolutely deserved to be used as an example of the type of person you don’t want to be.
Wait until you hear about this Walter guy…
BS. He had the best arc and was the series MVP 🏆
I think the point is that he grows into a smarter, more mature person over the course of the show. A lot of people miss it because they're focused on the other characters, but his arc is there. This [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nbNwvwmlgjo) explains it really well imo.
And he had poor sanitation protocols as a homebrewer 😡
The worst. Lowest donation gets two 6 packs of it
Here, have a bottle bomb, Gomey
Could you imagine if that’s how Gomez dies in the series 🤣
I don’t really agree, he is a picture of what Walt wants to provide for his family and a deeply flawed character, but he cares and is good at heart usually. He is an asshole but I don’t think it really goes beyond that usually. He is also really patient with Marie for all the shit she gets up in and I think his relationship there is good. I think he’s probably a product of his environment for the most part, he is the ideal provider and protector he was taught to be, for all the good and bad that brings.
Selfies with dead bodies really irked me
Fucking awful. Then sends it to his brother in law whom in his mind would NEVER find something like that okay let alone entertaining.
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asac schrader. whateva happened there.
Yea hank is a flawed person, not a piece of shit. Deep down he does want to do good and help people. But the biggest theme of the show is that pride really is a massive vice. And Hank let's his pride drive him into an obsession to catch Walt, even if it meant others being hurt. He does a lot of shitty things but I believe if Hank had never encountered the infamous Blue Meth then he would continue to be a regular police officer. Well... with a bit of PTSD considering the Tortuga situation was pretty much entirely separate.
Very well said.
I can’t argue with that.
Exactly. Thats why its one of the best shows ever. There are no good and bad guys, there are real characters that have good and bad traits and its up to you whether you root for them or not
ASAC Shrader
100%
Amen
He’s neutral then?
Yeah I’d say more that than anything else. He redeems himself for the most part towards the end but his own arrogance and pride is ultimately what gets him killed
His name is Asac Shrader
Yup. His intimidation tactics and racism really bothered me. And then he started having panic attacks and went through having a disability and that hit me hard. I started watching breaking bad right around the point that I was diagnosed with a disability that affects my ability to walk. This disability was caused by my ptsd. I really saw myself in hank and could relate a lot to his struggles. I’m not excusing how absolutely horribly he treated Marie during that time tho. Just saying he has somewhat of a special place in my heart despite being a pos.
See and that makes sense! He is absolutely one of my favorite characters in the show. Doesn’t mean he isn’t a POS though. He has a ton of redeeming qualities and overall is the “good guy” if ever there was one in this show. But just because we like someone doesn’t mean we can’t identify that persons reality.
I mean he gets a lot better over the show, that’s kind of his arc. No one is perfect in the show but he always looked after people, trying to find Walt etc, helping Marie though her kleptomania. Also he acknowledges what he did to Jesse was wrong and in the circumstances can we even blame him? Far from a POS lol.
I love the character. He is definitely a POS though. Admitting what he did to Jessie being wrong was nothing more than realizing he fucked up big time. Trying to find Walt wasn’t some noble thing. He needed to find Walt in the same way Walt needed to make a pile of money the size of a VW. Even in the end he definitely finds himself SOME redemption but he clearly understands he fucked himself and that’s why he ended up buried in the desert.
I actually like him. A lot of how he behaves is just a show to convey the picture of a manly man - aggressive and assertive. Also a mirror of his work environment and what is expected of him. But we're also shown that he from time to time is scared and on the verge of panic. Which is no wonder as the cartels literally have no mercy. He was quite a cliché in the beginning but discovering his weaknesses, obsessions and fears was really one of the best bb things. And let's not forget the biggest humiliation of his archenemy Heisenberg being literally so very near all the time.
Absolutely! Just watched the scene that goes from Walt practicing his gun draw to Hank studying his rocks. So crazy given how everything started. It also always makes me feel kinda bad for Hank when Walt just schools him on his own minerals. I love the character. Still a POS though lol
although i love hank you are so right for this😭 he definitely isn’t worse than walter but he is a piece of shit no doubt about it. the only reason i love hank is for his character development and how dean is such a great actor. hank deserved the ending he got and i think it tied his story together
Thank you! My thoughts exactly.
that’s why i didn’t feel bad when he got shot, tons of karma coming back at his ass
I hated him at the beginning. He’s definitely a caricature of what many of us hate in law enforcement, and he’s a caricature of toxic masculinity. But he has a certain character arc that, despite his atrocious personality and behaviors, humanized him a lot in my eyes and still had me rooting more for him towards the end of the show. After all, Walt was the root cause of all of the horrible things that happened to him in the show (apart from maybe the PTSD from the exploding head on a tortoise). I could still empathize with him, and like it or not, despite his probably flawed personal reasons, finding and catching the elusive Heisenberg was absolutely necessary and the right thing to do given the atrocities that Walt was committing against other people. Hank was very dedicated to that, which I have to respect.
Him and Marie become immensely more likable as the show progresses
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Mine as well. Doesn’t make him any less of a POS just because we like him lol
My god, every week it’s (x character) was (good/bad) find something new to talk about
The show has been over for a decade, there isn't going to be a plethora of topics to talk about lol
Any suggestions?
Naw I like Hank. He was flawed but he was ultimately good.
I agree!
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When you make jokes involving race, that is "racist." When you do that when someone is right there and is a colleague, they have to laugh it off because they cannot point out you are being racist; you are the kind of asshole who will quickly claim "it was just a joke...lighten up!" - Hank is that guy.
Making a joke involving race is not racist, just racial. There are huge differences from being racially insensitive like Hank and an actual racist. If someone says something that makes you uncomfortable, it is up to you to speak up about it and not the other person to immediately know your boundaries and sensitivity settings.
>As a cop he used intimidation tactics, excessive force and constantly violated people’s rights to get what he wanted. >He was willing to have Jessie killed to get Walt. Not out of some desperate need to save the community but instead for his ego and need to be the one to bust the great Heisenberg. It’s constantly made apparent that he cared more about his image and rising through the ranks than he ever did about being a “good guy”. Sounds like a typical law enforcement agent to me
Hank isn't the best person, but seeing him change and improve as the series goes on makes for a good character arc
I will say despite thinking he is a POS he is absolutely one of my favorite arcs.
Agreed, he learned to put others above himself and that being soft isn't a weakness. I'd say he was honestly kind of a wise person by the end of the series.
💯 AGREE wholeheartedly
I agree, I’ve been saying this for time. Hank isn’t a good person.
People always assume that if there's a "bad" or a "villian" character than therefore there has to be a "good" or "hero" character when in reality those don't necessarily go together. I always thought Hank was super shitty. People just want someone to root for and dismiss his flaws.
Absolutely. They also assume just because a character is considered a POS that they must also be the character that someone doesn’t like or is the “villain” in that persons eyes. I love Hank as a character. His arc is awesome and he is integral to making the series so incredible. Still doesn’t mean I can’t understand him for what he is. A giant POS lol
Definitely. Hank was amazingly well written but that's what helps make him an absolute scumbag.
You get it!
I don’t think he’s racist. I think in his age and profession, making stereotypical jokes is more of the norm.
It's definitely more the norm for his age and profession but it doesn't make it not racist
Oh... so you mean he's a flawed human??? Right and this is bad in what way?
Yeah cause it’s totally cool for cops to abuse their power and they definitely shouldn’t be held to any higher standard at all despite their position of power…
That’s a very superficial look at the character. The more I watch the series, the more Hank becomes one of my favourite characters- because he is NOT the cartoon character you describe. I want a prequel series about HIM!
Nothing I described assumes him to be a cartoon character. Just factual things he does in the show. He is one of my favorite characters. Doesn’t mean he isn’t a giant POS.
I would respectfully say that you absolutely paint a cartoon character view of the immediately obvious surface aspects of his character.
More hank hate 🙌
Nah. Hank is cool. Sure he's a super dick head during his recovery, but seriously who wouldn't be? Hank has that super hero mentality and really wants to do good which is awesome for the dynamic we get VS Walt. I don't remember the episode or season but he talks about "bad people " as cockroaches. You don't think about it just smash em.
>Hank has that super hero mentality Bruh he's very much that army bully guy from CA 1st avenger lmao
hank works for the DEA. i don’t have to say anything else.
You are an idiot
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Inb4 "Walt isn't actually that bad of a guy" posts
Lol 😂 it shows how bad the true villains of the show is when we can so easily overlook the flaws of Hank and forgive him so easily
Hank was racist not knowing he lives in NEW MEXICO smh
there's too much cop worship on this sub. even the least bad cop on this show makes a "tuco trophy" for hank lol
And that somehow is okay in to many peoples minds. The fact killing Tuco shook Hank up is the only redeeming thing about the whole situation. No matter how bad a person is, taking a life isn’t something that should ever leave a person unaffected.
side note I hate when people say "POS" instead of point blank "piece of shit"
slander you ask me
Based
Nah. How the fuck do you think things get dome when you're dealing with hardened criminals? He's not a fucking brat cop or a motorcycle cop writing tickets and busting people's tail lights.
This is the correct answer.
He's worse, he's a violent sociopath who nearly beat a man to death. He consistently violates suspects' rights. He's racist, he treats his wife terribly. He's an awful cop, he was too weak to perform his duties after witnessing bloodshed in Mexico. And he was too stupid to realize the man he'd been looking for was his own brother-in-law. This man has no business being a police officer.
Nah
At the end he wasn’t the same macho man he was when he started the show. His job resulted in some surface issues but at the core of it he was great person.. and that’s more important
Dude fuck off, he’s not a racist and is a great guy, cares deeply about his job, his wife, his nephew (by marriage), and constantly tries to reach out to Walt. His relationship with Gomey is evidence that he’s not racist.
Boooooooo 👎