"Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros"--yes, Walt routinely kills hookers just to watch them die. Good Lord.

I agree with you 100% that he was never a hero (I got a workout in IO9's "hero gone bad" thread, and I dislike the term anti-hero because of how the internet uses it.), that the relationship with Jesse was negative and abusive and vicious as soon as we saw it, not something that turned sour, that he was in this for himself, etc, but does GRRM not read what he writes?

emilyn's take on the finale: [link]

HAHAHAHAHA, how did I miss that a couple weeks ago? Dude Walter White is not even the worst person in Breaking Bad (HELLO NAZIS).

Apart from admitting he was doing it for himself, it reminded me of Ten's regeneration

Me too!

The finale wasn't what I expected, but I found it very satisfying. Heisenberg was a monster, but I always felt for Walter White the person, so I liked seeing a bit of both of them.

In retrospect, "Ozymandias" was the climax of the series. The life of Heisenberg killed Hank, Mr. Doing It All for His Family ended up getting family killed, and the last two episodes are Walt trying to make up for it as best he can. He can't fix everything, but he can try to get things in order.

Also, Jesse lives, thank God. And to my surprise, even though I've been pulling for a Jesse-kills-Walt ending, when it came to that point, I didn't want it anymore, and I loved that Jesse didn't do it because it would just be doing what Walt wanted, yet again, and he was done with that.

'Breaking Bad': Creator Vince Gilligan explains series finale:

There was a version we kicked around where Walt is the only one who survives, and he’s standing among the wreckage and his whole family is destroyed. That would be a very powerful ending but very much a kick-in-the-teeth kind of ending for the viewers.

I guess our gut told us that it would feel satisfying for Walt to at least begin to make amends for his life and for all the sadness and misery wrought upon his family and his friends. Walt is never going to redeem himself. He’s just too far down the road to damnation. But at least he takes a few steps along that path. And I think more importantly for him than that is the fact that he accomplishes what he set out to accomplish way back in the first episode: He leaves his family just a ton of money.

emilyn's take on the finale: [link]

That is AWESOME. I am definitely choosing to believe this version.

I am with emilyn too.

I prefer the actual ending to emilyn's.

I don't think Walt deserved redemption, or gained it. But Jessie laid it out a few episodes ago; Walt's not just smarter and more devious, but he's also lucky.

He's fortune's chosen monster. And that will happen in a show as plot driven as this. They highlight it because Walt could have more credibly hotwired the car instead of having the keys fall into his lap. And if that allows a reading that it was all his dying revenge fantasy (ala, John Boorman's Point Blank) I'm sure they were cognizant of that as well.

I don't have a problem with the word anti-hero. It just means a protagonist who is not a good person. So it is with Walt. In the end, he was the one who knocked.

And it would have been unendurable for Jessie to be left in the hands of the Nazis.

In the end it was a story about a man who when faced with death deluded himself about helping his family and enacted his scientific competence and innate ruthlessness on the world. It was an act of will and pride and ego. And he was the smartest guy in the room. And he was lucky.

I'm a bit minded of the end of The Wire with Marlo Stanfield who after he has all the money and can leave the game has to go down on the street to reaffirm his name. Walt was driven by similar pride in Heisenberg.

There's the also that element of Omar's name being passed down after his death. Being legendary, having a reputation, earning your name (even through your bad deeds) was more important than money or power.

I think the way the finale was constructed allows emilyn's reading, but I don't think that's what Gilligan intended. I think he just followed the story to its conclusion and allowed Walt to die "when he says so."

Maybe you don't think Walt deserved to get what he wants, but the entire series follows his character consistently and logically to this end. And they took great pains to show how monstrous he became by acting on his will.

It just means a protagonist who is not a good person

I'm assuming you didn't click on the link.

And they took great pains to show how monstrous he became by acting on his will.

And to not have him go out monstrously.

I'm assuming you didn't click on the link.

...Sam and Dean Winchester what.