How Breaking Bad Created the Most Terrifying Villains on Television

I would argue that what makes Todd so terrifying is that he DOESN’T enjoy tormenting people, but he’s so disconnected from anything resembling empathy or kindness that he just doesn’t understand why it’s so wrong. It’s like his day job

Gus didnt kill his henchman because he was angry, Gus doesn't act on emotion. He killed him because he showed his face at the crime scene. Todd doesn't kill for fun, there's no fun in it. He kills the kid because he saw what happened, he kills Andrea to keep Jesse in line. He feels nothing, he's empty. When his whole family is gunned down he doesn't even care.

imagine making a character so good, the actor doesn't want to play as him anymore because it hurts his mental health, truly terrifying yet amazing

Gus wasn't just motivated by wealth and power, he was motivated by revenge as well. He's such an excellent villain.

I always liked and respected the character of Gus. He's cold and calculated but he's entirely logical. He gave Walt and Jessie a fair deal and was more than patient with them

Gus Fring really saves the show, I think 4 seasons of Tucco beating people to death constantly would have dragged the show down, but by fate, he stepped off the show at the exact right time

Part of what makes Todd killing Drew Sharp so shocking is it comes right after the train heist. Up until the end this had been a really fun, and somewhat whacky episode. They carefully weighed all the factors to safely get the methylamine without hurting anyone.  Kuby has some comedic dialogue with the engineers. Everything is going well, and there's exciting rush for them to finish up. For a moment everything had gone well, and they revel in their success. Now there's this kid on the scene. I had expected this to be setting up for a funny ending where they have to quickly explain what they are doing there. Instead, Todd changes the direction of the whole episode in its final moment. It immediately goes from one of the lightest to one of the darkest.

You completely misunderstood Todd’s character. He’s a psychopath who does things out of necessity. I think he actually thought off Jesse sorta like a friend, which is why he gave him ice cream. He literally just took the spider because he thought it was cool, not out of some hunter’s mentality. He killed the kid because a witness, killed Andrea to keep Jesse in line and tortured him to get information.

I think Todd was pretty much the scariest one. What he turned out to be was so unexpected and he was so chill about everything he does.

Tuco is actually the nicest guy in the Breaking Bad universe. Look how he takes care of his abuelita in Better Call Saul.

The most interesting thing about it all is that Walter White manages to have the personality of these three villains together, that's amazing

I think that they showed another kind of evil in Lydia, who is the kind of evil that lies to themselves and can’t even see what they have done.

What's terrifying about these characters is how realistically they're portrayed. I've known men and women like Tuco who would fly off the handle at a short notice, or people like Gus and Todd who act friendly at one point only to do horrible things the next. Props to these actors for their incredible work. Especially Giancarlo Esposito because Gus was just a force of nature at times.

I feel real confused about this interpretation of Todd. Undoubtedly the dude's a psychopath, but he was presented as killing for fun as if he was just killing whenever he wanted. In the series, with exception of keeping Jesse as a pet, each action was done in direct response as a cold answer. Killed Sharp to eliminate any witnesses. Killed Andrea to keep his cook in line like he promised. Killed his housekeeper because she found his money. Those aren't the crimes of someone killing because they enjoy it, those are of someone who doesn't care for human life beyond their objective use. Anyone who could pose a real threat was taken out immediately. He's also one of the few characters to really show pretty much no emotion. Gus has empathy, Tuco has empathy, Todd is unchanging and cold - no happiness, no fear, no empathy, at best he has an attraction to Lydia

What made Tuco initially terrifying was his instability, but once Walt figured out his weakness (his ego and weak drug-fried brain) he became much less of a threat. Todd was terrifying because in my opinion he embodied a serial killer very well. The calm collected nature, the cold almost robotic reaction to traumatic or catastrophic events, his charm and likable false kindness. But Gus was on a league of his own. In my opinion he embodied both of what they did with Tuco and Todd in one character. He was kind, giving and caring and believable, but then changed on a dime and was unpredictable. On top of that having significant intelligence and planning, it was insane how well written his character was, he was truly terrifying.

You seem to forget that the main motivation for Gus is revenge, his main motivation in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was always revenge for Max, when he was shot he was clearly heartbroken. He is very cold and calculating, but it is all in service of revenge, he clearly enjoys telling Hector about when one of his family members have died, or the rest of the cartel. And as others have pointed out, he didn't just kill Victor because he was angry, he killed him both to send a message to Walt and Jesse, and because people saw him at the crime scene at Gale's death.

Something this video highlighted that I love are the plain sight introductions that Gus and Todd are given. When they’re first introduced you don’t really notice either them because the show doesn’t give you a reason to. But then it turns out that these guys you wouldn’t look twice at are actually very disturbed and cunning individuals with more bodies behind them than we, or the people in their world with them, could have imagined. This is especially pronounced considering the last big player, Tuco, was introduced with open intimidation and violence. Tuco is the guy you know to watch out for. Todd and Gus are the guys you find out about on the news.

Actually, Gus killed his henchmen because he became a liability when people saw him at the crime scene. This is proven further when they show a very detailed wanted poster for him later in the show, hinting at how easily he'd be recognized and caught if still left alive.

Damn, it’s amazing how smart this guy sounds while getting so much blatantly wrong, both about the show and about the psychology of ASPD. I’m kind of impressed you can make such astoundingly false statements seem so believable

Gustavo didn't kill Victor because he was angry. One of the main reasons that he killed him was that he was possibly spotted at the scene of the crime of Boetticher's murder.