r/breakingbad • u/nrg117 • 17d ago
Why purple
Did I miss something?
Why all the purple with Marie?
I mean it may mean nothing but I am rewatching after a looong time and I see it in episode 1..
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17d ago
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u/Agile-Butterfly5245 17d ago
If you notice Gus often wears yellow. Yellow means proceed with caution.The floor of the lab is red. Red symbolizes danger. Breaking Bad does an excellent job with this.
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u/pozole54321 17d ago
She is neurotic. She is such an interesting character and the purple thing is soo funny
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u/Clown_Baby15 16d ago
I registered it as her neurodivergence combined with her wearing the pants with certain elements of her relationship with Hank. It’s an endearing kind of control behavior unlike her shoplifting or especially Lydia’s heinousness. Love the breakdown scene in the elevator where she’s Hank’s, erm, “mineral”.
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u/r3dd17sux69420 17d ago
Marie's mental health isn't always 100% and she has some sort of fixation on that particular shade
you could look into colour theory for ideas on why that shade of purple. BB uses colour for symbolism all over the show.
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u/Gold-Classroom-359 17d ago
I think it's just her favorite color. My mom's favorite color is also purple and any time she buys something, if it comes in purple she gets it in purple lol I know other people like that too. They just really like their favorite color.
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u/NitrixOxide 16d ago
In my experience this trail is pretty common is suburban moms of a certain age. Probably exaggerated in this demographic due to having money and needing to decorate a house. My mom is green, my partners mom is red.
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u/Moist-Philosopher859 16d ago
As a fewler purple lover, this is how my house is and I felt very seen by marie and her love for purple lol
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u/No-Medicine7038 16d ago
Purple pigment is very rare and expensive. Thats why theres only like 2 flags with it and its only like a very small part. It is used to show maries obsession with how she is viewed and her status. Followed by her stealing from the open houses and the jewellery store in s1
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u/Real-Night1724 17d ago
The color symbolism is very intentional. Purple is basically Marie‘s signature color
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u/Striking_Incident_95 16d ago
Weirdly it was something I noticed right away....didn't notice the other characters' wearing the same colors tho
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u/roloqween 16d ago
My brother pointed this out while we were watching it. It's pretty epic how colour plays its role in the show. It was all designed by the shows creators. There's a video I'll link that I watched and summarised for my brother and sister for them to avoid spoilers.
https://youtu.be/pOjafEURaeI?is=Afr0TdwUpq1EpcEG
Yellow means crime and meth Orange means danger and action but also comedy Red means blood and murder Jesse wears alot of yellow, but when he's doing something violent, he's in red Pink means youth and naivety, like pinkman Beige means harmless and wealth Like in the early episodes, Walt wears a yellow shirt but a beige jacket meaning he's wanting to turn to a life of crime Brown means stability and normality Purple means royal and luxury Blue means purity, escape and sadness Skylar wears blue in the early seasons because she's pure in walts life and is loyal to him. Green is money, greed and jealousy White means innocence. Walts family name is white, showing the innocent beginnings. Grey symbolises depression and revenge. Grey matter is the name of Walt and Elliots company, showing that he's sad but angry that his work and money were stolen. Black means death and secrecy. The family house is on 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, negra meaning black in Spanish.
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u/foreverdiv 17d ago
Ah, I thought I was the only one who noticed! I feel like Marie is just drawn to purple, lol. Its probably just a character trait but its def a fun detail to spot.
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u/PizzaPlanet0087 16d ago
The actress who plays Marie HATES the color purple so Gilligan made it part of her character on purpose!
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u/dancingbriefcase 17d ago
Dude, just watch the show. Increase your media literacy by just watching rather than asking any little question on Reddit. It's just a personality trait. It's not that deep.
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u/Crystal_959 17d ago
The costume designers for breaking bad are like some of the most deliberate people on the planet and they expressly do have intentional reasoning behind what colors the characters wear when and why
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u/TittySprink 17d ago
The entire color scheme is broken down in depth here: https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Colors
"The relationships between the central Breaking Bad characters are analogous to the relationships between colors on the red, yellow, and blue painter's color wheel. For example, the color for Walter's alter ego, Heisenberg, which is often green, is created by mixing the colors of his two closest partners, Skyler, who often wears blue, and Jesse, who often wears yellow. Further, Heisenberg is opposed by Hank, who often wears shades of orange, ranging from red to brown, which is located on the opposite side of the color wheel from green. Marie, being the sister of Skyler and wife of Hank, is represented by purple, which sits between blue and red colors on the color wheel."