Why Jesse Pinkman Is Breaking Bad's Most Tragic Character (Video Essay) 

What’s crazy is that Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston are some of the best friends around. All because of this show. Paul considers Cranston as a mentor. Either way, Aaron absolutely KILLED this role.

combo's death was the first tragedy for jesse. The disastrous chain of events all come from his friend's death.

jeez louise this devils senate guy is insane

The point of my previous comment is just that I feel like I always hear people say Jesse got into the life of drugs and murdered one person under Walt's orders, but other than that he was morally sound, but Jesse had more moral issues than that. Also his first big tragedy for him was when his parents kicked him out of his house because of the meth lab in the basement. While you can say it was his fault for allowing it to happen and forgetting the real estate appointment, it can still be blamed on Walt for being the one to insist on cooking meth while the RV is not working. He was also refusing to give him his money, or even listen to him while he desperately needed some sort of help while going homeless.

walt saved jesse from overdosing with Jane!!!!

Jane would have killed Jesse, spent all the money if they made it that far. Walt wasn’t responsible for Jane’s death.

Great Vid

Technically Jesse was blackmailed by Walt into helping him cook meth; otherwise he would've never done it. I know it's easy to overlook sometimes but Jesse never chose to be Walt's meth cook partner, which makes his fate even more tragic.

this video legit got my playlist deleted by youtube lmao

I feel like that was already obvious

I don’t think a video essay needed to be made on this topic 💀🤣

All sympathy for him died when he became a rat.

Really hate how you commentate

The title of this video does not lie. Seeing Jesse be traumatised for many episodes and being depressed from tragedy shows how tragic of a character he is. One scene that makes me think of Jesse being a tragic character is that one scene where he is spinning on that carousel at night while staring into the sky.

Walter deserved all of this, because he chose a life of crime 😡 Jesse deserved none of this, just because he chose a life of crime 😢

Walter didn't really taunt Jesse. Walter felt betrayed by Jesse and lashed out at him and tried to hurt him in the worst way possible by confessing about Jane.

"He just wanted to make money with his old chemistry teacher." That line being played over a highlight reel of tragic events hits hard.

I'm not arguing that Jesse deserved the amount of suffering he got. But I think too many people overlook how bad some of Jesse's actions really were. He definitely has more good traits to him that make him deserve some redemption, but he was worse than just "some good person who fell into the life of crime". 1. He understood what drugs did to people, he hates to see kids involved in any of this. Then why the hell does he pick rehab centers as his meth market in seasons 3 and 4? Not to mention this was all after he was recovering himself. Skinny Pete and Badger are uncomfortable with how morally unethical this is(to sell drugs to people who are TRYING TO CHANGE LIKE HOW WE WANT TO SEE JESSE CHANGE), he was like "stop being bitches and just do it" This is how he met Andrea, he was just gonna try to push a meth sell on her until he saw she is raising a boy. But as for the rest of the rehab group? They're still nothing but potential customers to him, he still wants his friends to push the sells. He probably did feel bad about this, but he still burned bridges in his final meet. He wasn't apologizing to anyone, he confessed his intentions as a way to try to win an argument, he thought the "self acceptance" teachings was a bunch of B.S, and that was the point he was trying to prove during his confession. To recap, he didn't apologize, he basically disappeared for a long time, showed up one last time to say "your teachings are crap, you were all worthless customers to me". 2. Before all this rehab stuff, he also pushed meth onto a gas station cashier who was clear that she was uncomfortable with meth. These 2 things show that while he clearly understands the harm of drugs from what he's witnessed, and first hand experience, once someone is an adult, he could not care less about what harm comes their way(unless he respects & knows the person, or learns they have a kid). He feels bad about the things he does, but it's more like Bojack Horseman's cycle of feeling bad, and repeating bad actions(which Aaron Paul's character Todd called him out on in season 3 of the show) You mentioned it yourself he was gonna burn Walter's house in the last season, does Walt deserve pain and suffering, the loss of his house or other properties belonging to him? Yes absolutely, but what about Skyler, Flynn and Holly?? He would have harmed them "just as a move" and "ends justify the means" kind of thing, which is exactly why he is out for blood with Walter, Walt did that to Brock, and Jesse was about to do the same to his family which is way more innocent than him. You could say he wasn't thinking clearly because he was emotionally broken, but we don't accept that for Walter with all his insecurities.

it’s such bullshit that everyone looks at Jesse like such a delicate little innocent flower throughout the series, when meanwhile hes the one ‘CAPT COOK’ that the DEA was looking for months earlier because his Meth was so famous for having the chilli powder in it.. Jesse was the original Heisenberg.. just small time.. people remember what they choose to remember Life is 1000000% about making YOUR OWN choices, that’s why he calls & tells his parents in el calmino “I made my own choices, you guys did you best with me. Walt tells Gus at one point in the Lab “I’ve made a series of very bad choices .. and I cannot make another one”. Simple as that. Jesse is completely accountable for his actions by the end of the universe of EL Camino and that’s why he’s so sad, he knows he’s responsible. He got Jane addicted to drugs again, he caused a plane crash, he sells meth to a whole city for his own benefit, he kills kids, he kills Gale, he hates himself. But he keeps doing it because at the end of the day he really doesn’t care about himself anymore. He doesn’t have anyone left. At least Walt is CONSISTENT about what he is. He knows what his goal is and what he needs to get there, same as Gus. If someone gets hurt dammit it was for my family. Jesse has no reason for doing these things .. he has no family to support.. no children.. no wife.. .. he could’ve easily said this is too much for me man, nah he got greedy and enjoyed the ride. Just look what he did with the extra money Walt gave him for the RV, he took it and went to a strip club. Jesse is a little scumbag

Jesse's worst mistake was letting Walt enter in his life and never leaving his side until it was too late. Walt cared about Jesse, the show puts emphasis on that, but not because he liked him, but because Jesse was his favorite puppet. The most useful chess piece. If you analyze the show, Walt never does anything good for Jesse if there's not at least some ulterior motive behind it or some way he could manipulate him even further. Even at his best, Walt always used Jesse and he is the main catalyst for Jesse's life going downhill.

i agree a lot. jesse is a absolutely tragic character, by the time breaking bad ended, he was broken. but he still had redemption. but still, all have the trauma he’s endured is heartbreaking. he genuinely tries to be a good person but walter ruins it. and by the end of the season, hes free from walter. and can live a happy life.

After watching Better Call saul, I'd pick Howard, Nacho and Mike on par with Jesse. I would even say Howard and Nacho had it worst. Since they never got the second chance Jesse had.

an actually decent video essay of Breaking Bad wow great job!

I disagree with the that the parents are "just innocent" his parents were kinda wierd and they treated Jesse like he is "shittier" person than his little brother just because Jesse is an addict. I dont mean that his parents has no right to be mad at some things Jesse has probably done because his addiction but Jesse needed unconditional love and not the kinda type of parenting that you put your kids on score list that "who is the better one and making me proud" type of way. Ofcourse Jesse was an adult when his little brother was just an little kid but I feel like Jesses parents birthed a another boy just because they wanted to kinda "start over" and have kid that they gonna put on lot of pressure like winning lot of medals, being good at school etc, Jesse's parents probably felt that they have failed on the way have raised Jesse, but instead of they taking the resbonbility of that- they just started to treat Jesse a really harsh way and cutted completly him out them life. This is why Jesse probably felt really bad guilt and has grown up the way that he takes all the blame and guilt of other peoples doings and feels always like he has "made them act that way" and thats why Walter was so good at manipulating Jesse, Jesse was a perfect victim for Walter. Jesse was really insecure, sensitive, emotional, hard to focus on things and impulsive +has really selfharming behaviour that is the drug use. Im not a professional but I feel like he has some kinda type of undiagnozed BPD and propably ADHD that has caused the school learning problems, and ofcourse later in life after Walter he has PTSD

If Walt didn’t let Jane die they both would of die due to an overdose anyways, he saved Jesse’s life by letting Jane die

Ironically, Walter saved Jesse in more ways than one.

I'm disappointed Jesse didnt rip into Walter after he is saved from the Nazis. I wish he told Walter exactly what he thought then left. It wouldve been a gut punch to Walter, and give Jesse some closure before leaving Walter to die

Can we take a second to agknowlege how terrible jesse's parrents are. Recap. So the show never flat out states how jesse got addicted but we are given indicators. Jesse first knew emillio since elementry school and his parrents put high expectatuons on his younger brother so we can infer jesse might of been introduced to drugs as a result of this. Now lets assune for the sake or arguement these arent the causes and agknowlwge why he lives with his aunt well jesse's parrents wanted to protect jesse's younger brother which is a fair reason exept they both are addicted thats right jesse in the episode with his parrents actually took the fall for his brother and both of them are addicts. Now lets give them the benefit of the doubt. Well guess whose house jesse lived in a cancer patient who we later found out is losing her mind. How did they expect a teenager to do well in school if he also is responsible for another persons well being. Plus why didbt they take him to rehab and issolate him from his addictions. They didnt seperate him from emmilio. Like in heinsight is it shocking that when jesse is freinds with people who are lets be honest druggies and they expect him to take care of his dying aunt and he was a jr. Like even if walt didnt ruin his life even more.

I lost respect for Jesse character when he started working with the DEA, if you go into this life you should know the rules, no police NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, he wasn’t built for this life

If you have thoughts or feelings you want to express, the video is worth making. That's all that matters. And yeah i happen to agree with you here. "i liked Jesse until he became a RAT!" Lol gotta love where people draw their lines

While Jesse isn't a good person (most of the adult characters in the show are bad people to certain degrees), he's one of the few characters with a conscience, who doesn't want to resort to killing people for his own gains. After being forced to kill, he really struggles with guilt. This is especially the case when children are killed or injured. Perhaps he was abused as a child and he empathises with children who are made to suffer. Unfortunately he's in too deep with the wrong people.

El Camino has been out for years... Why did you make this video without watching it?

Well, I'd say that he's not as much of a victim as you're painting him to be. After Krazy 8 was killed by Walt was the moment when he could have just ended all the sh*t but he didn't. I mean, even if he was morally fine with selling m*th, an actual casualty could have been the line that he wouldn't cross again, but he stayed, continued playing with matches, got burned. I mean, there's more to the story, but there's that too.

good vid, thanks

Great video

Jane was toxic to Jessie though. Jessie was falling deeper and deeper into drugs. That could have been Jessie OD-ing at any time. And to be fair to Walt, yes, he could have saved Jane. But what if Walt had NOT been in the room at that time? Walt still destroyed Jessie.

‘I didn’t watch el Camino’ bruh why 😭😭😭

I have no respect for him, he chose to be a bum, he chose a crap life

Yes I would agree that Jesse was tragic to a point. He was blackmailed into working with Walt to begin with. People forget this. But he could have left him

Let's not forget he was a drug dealer to begin with

The more I watch breaking bad, the more I hate Jesse. He brought death and destruction onto almost everyone he knew.

Jesse was a victim until he turned into a RAT! Everything that happened to him after he ratted Walt out was deserved. No matter what happens you NEVER turn into a RAT! I felt compassion towards Jesse until he turned states evidence.

Jesse is horrible. How can you like a snitch. Tells me a lot about you

More like the most annoying character ever