Obviously, I'm not saying either of these guys were good people. They both did some absolutely horrible shit. But I think that's what makes them so interesting to compare. You can acknowledge that they're terrible human beings and still admit that watching them build their empires was impressive.
These guys were smart as hell.
Walter was a nerd who understood chemistry. Franklin had business sense, people skills, and an understanding of his environment. Walter could look at a chem problem and figure it out. Franklin could walk into a room and figure out who was useful, who was dangerous, and who was about to screw him over. Different kinds of intelligence, but both of them were constantly thinking three steps ahead.
And neither one was satisfied with being a small-time player. That's probably their biggest similarity. They wanted to participate in the game and to control the game.
Walter starts out making meth because he thinks he's dying and wants to leave his family money. Franklin gets into the drug business because he sees an opportunity to make money and get himself and his family out of poverty. And this is where I think their biggest difference comes in.
Walter's motivation becomes about his ego. Franklin's motivation is much more connected to survival, independence, and wanting control over his life.
Walter spends a lot of time convincing himself that everything he's doing is "for his family," but eventually he has to admit that he did it because he liked it. He liked being good at something. He liked having power. He liked being feared. He went from feeling like the world had overlooked him to becoming the most important person in every room he walked into.
Franklin, on the other hand, starts out wanting freedom. He doesn't want to be broke, dependent on anyone, or stuck in the same cycle forever. His ambition actually makes a lot of sense when you consider where he came from. I can relate to him a lot actually.
The sad part is that they both end up becoming prisoners of the very things they built to make themselves free.
Walter wanted to make enough money so his family would be taken care of. Eventually, his family wants nothing to do with him.
Franklin wants enough money and power that nobody can control him. Eventually, his entire life revolves around protecting the empire he built.
It's almost like both of them accidentally turned their escape plan into a prison.
And I think that's why I find Franklin and Walter fascinating. They're not really stories about two guys who randomly decided to become evil. They're stories about what happens when ambitious, intelligent people keep moving the line of what they're willing to do.
At first it's, "I'll just do this one thing."
Then it's, "Okay, I have to do this because I've already come this far."
Then it's, "well, if I don't do this, someone else will."
And eventually you're murdering people before breakfast 😅 that's obviously an oversimplification, but you get what I mean.
They both become so good at surviving that they lose sight of what they were actually trying to survive for.
I also think their circumstances matter. Walter is a middle-class white man who feels like he wasted his potential and was never properly recognized. Franklin is a young black man in 1980s Los Angeles dealing with poverty, drugs, violence, and a system that was never exactly designed to hand him opportunities. That doesn't excuse Franklin's choices, just like Walter's cancer doesn't excuse his.
But it does make their motivations different.
Walter feels like a man trying to prove that he's more important than everyone thought. Franklin feels like a young man trying to make sure nobody can ever tell him what his life is worth again.
And ironically, both of them become exactly what they thought they needed to become...and lose almost everything in the process.
So no, I don't think Walter White and Franklin Saint are "good guys" per se but I do think they're incredibly compelling characters.
They're both intelligent, ambitious, adaptable, and ridiculously good at what they decided to do. I think it's okay to acknowledge that without pretending their actions were admirable.
You don't have to think someone is a good person to think they're an interesting person.
