Walter Analysis by Mugen

“I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. I was alive” It’s easy to simplify Walter’s character as just an egomaniac on a power trip in retrospect but I’m going to try looking deeper into the core of Walter’s psychology and what drove him to a lot of his decision making throughout the story. One of the core aspects of any kind of psychological analysis is how much of a person’s behavior is defined by inherent traits and how much of it is from their surrounding environment, and trying to connect those pieces together to create a more complete profile. Walter is a pretty good example of this, exploring concepts of nature vs nurture pretty fluidly throughout the 5 seasons of the show. By the nature of his concept, he should be a “good -> bad” character, seemingly being all nurture, but there’s clearly much more than that going on here. Throughout the first 3 - 4 seasons, the source of Walter’s pride is constantly subverted and explored. Is it just a part of him that’s been repressed and if so what’s the source of it? How else has it been depicted. A lot of his bitterness can be connected to his past with Gray Matter, but his pride stems far before that, being implied to being exactly why Walter left in the first place, being insecure about his place and worth when compared to how rich Gretchen’s family was along with Elliot, feeling like he couldn’t contribute the same, and instead of communicating this, he leaves. Now obviously you could just say it’s ego but there’s …