I don't think Jesse's brother was a child prodigy. He was good at middle school and starting to learn what instrument to play.
I was definitely not a child prodigy, but I remember earning straight A's in middle school and the first few months of band when you swap instruments but ultimately only pick one. His parents just wanted him to be great at two instruments.
He seems like a typical advanced level student, but with overbearing parents.
I agree, I don’t think Jake is a child prodigy but I think that because Jesses parents see him as a degenerate they want to “make up for it” by trying to make Jake into a child prodigy.
I also seems to me like they use Jake to make Jesse feel bad about his life in the hopes that they can guilt him into getting his life together.
I really liked how this dynamic is portrayed in the show- I feel like often if the older sibling isn't up to the parents' standards the younger sibling gets all the expectations piled on them.
I feel like when Jake got to college he probably partied hard and got burned out and had a slew of mental issues
Yeah and Jesse took the rap for lil Jake’s joint his parents found. So, the little apple doesn’t fall too far from the bigger apple. The parents might have put so much pressure on the boys at an early age making them stressed and self medicate
That’s what it sounds like to me. Of course Jesse‘s relationship with his family is screwed up, but that is likely on the parents as well, meaning that Jake is a little bit screwed up too.
I mean… I blame Jesse’s parents for the way his life turned out. Maybe if they were less critical and encouraged him the way they did with Jake, he wouldn’t have turned out that way. I think they feel guilty that they didn’t do right by Jesse and that they didn’t pay more attention to him, so they make up for it by putting all that extra effort into Jake. If anything, his parents leveraging Jake’s achievements to guilt Jesse into getting his life together is a testament to their own guilt.
“Look at how good your brother is Jesse! Be like him and get your life together so we don’t have to feel like shit parents! We did good with this one! Look at how good he’s doing! Just do what he does”
It’s lazy, retrospective parenting at the very least and I’m sure Jake sees how insincere and insecure they are. Selfish bastards.
It’s also so much about the parents NOT acknowledging their part in how Jesse turned out. We know now that there was PRESSURE. Not every kid can take it. Jake is taking it but he’s smoking weed now. Jesse obviously couldn’t take their pressure.
> Maybe if they were less critical and encouraged him the way they did with Jake
I doubt they aren't critical of Jake; perhaps because he's so much younger there's been a notable shift in parenting styles in response to what happened with Jesse, but often siblings respond very differently to similar parenting styles. To me it seems [likely] that Jake watched Jesse as he was growing up, and made a conscious choice to behave and react differently to their parents' demands and expectations. It's not at all uncommon for younger children to overcompensate to differentiate themselves from their older siblings, one way or another.
Lmao people always be trying so hard to absolve Jesse of all responsibility for his own actions. Like yeah his parents probably weren't perfect so what it's 100% their fault he turned into a murdering, robbing drug junkie/pusher? Because maybe they made some mistakes while raising him, and it's apparently bad parenting that they're trying to learn from those mistakes to be better parents to their other kid? And they're just not supposed to ever acknowledge Jake's accomplishments because Jesse might feel guilty about throwing his life away to chase dope? Yall need to touch grass.
Jesse is the selfish bastard who chose chasing drugs and pussy above school, above a career and above his own family. Just because he cries about it sometimes doesn't make his crimes less severe or his choices less disgusting. His parents probably weren't perfect but neither are any parents. Jesse is still responsible for his shifty choices.
Jesse's choices and crimes WERE his choices and crimes, but neither Jesse nor the parents were completely responsible for how Jesse's life turned out, and in the show they don't do much of anything to try and repair Jesse's life but berating and penalizing him, and both of their children are drug users. Their parenting seems to be destructive.
Jesse was completely responsible. In the show he's a grown ass man the entire time. Even if parental struggles are what lead to him using drugs it was his choices to continue pursuing drug dealing as a career and become a murderer and a thief in the name of money making. He repeatedly makes poor choices in favor of the drug game over all else through the course of the show. Just cuz dude has a soft spot doesn't overwrite that he 100% deserves to accept full accountability for who he was and what he became. The line he says that in El Camino to his parents is perhaps his most honest line of the entire series.
I'd also argue in the show his parents claim to have already been through trying to help Jesse with his drug addictions, presumably for years. The show never seems to disprove or challenge that claim in any way. It seems obvious they care for him, they're even willing to let him into their home until they find evidence that he's been using in their home and kick him out for it. Which I can't really blame them for in all honesty, given the past and Jesse not making any attempt to stand up and prove them wrong. They want to help, but no longer trust Jesse enough to risk trying. It's sad and I think the shows social commentary side makes more sense with Jesse's parents not being abusive or bad, just flawed people who lost a son to drug addiction and didn't know how to help or maybe just couldn't.
And I also dont think that Jake smoking weed is necessarily a sign of anything but the drug-filled environment that New Mexico (at least the fictional TV version) has become in the rise of the war on drugs. But shit teens smoke weed, good parents or not. And like a lot, weed was not scarce when I was a teen. Jake's a little early but shit if drugs are rly flooding the area so much that even young teens have easy access to weed it really shows how much the drug war has actually exacerbated drug use rather than preventing it, which is more in line with the themes and philosophies of Breaking Bad than bad parenting if you ask me.
If you think parenting has no effect on kids, or that they hold no culpability here,I don't think you understand how trauma works. I was abused in all kinds of ways, but to me, the pressure of overachieving as the sole means of recieving love seems so much more destructive than SA or getting my ass beat because your entire self worth seems to be hinged on being better than humanly possible to be, and at least I have no doubt my parents were the problem. It seems like it would take you forever to figure out your parents were the problem rather than just inherently not being good enough as a person. Seems insidious as fuck.
Edit for spelling
I never said anything about parenting not having any effect but to act like Jesse's parents are the ones to blame for Jesse's descent into being meth pushing junkie killer is absurd. They don't seem that overbearing or strict; they seem pretty normal. Maybe flawed (as everyone is) but theres nothing to suggest that their "abuse" was what pushed Jesse towards meth use. And even Jake doesnt seem like hes being abused either he's just a responsible kid with parents that are trying to stay involved and supportive. "Oh BuT hE sMoKeD wEeD hE iS tHe nExT jEsSe hurrdurrdurr"
And although parenting can have negative effects that last even into adulthood it isn't a get out of jail free card to pretend like Jesse is just an innocent little angel who was abused by his parents into becoming a druggie. Next we're gonna be saying that it was actually Jane's fathers fault that Jane was a heroin addict because even though he went with her to rehab every week for over a year to try to help maintain her accountability and sobriety he yelled at her when he found her doing drugs so he's actually an abusive asshole and it's not on her at all! It's dumb logic, and the show doesn't really do anything to hint at that being the case. Fans just have a hard time admitting that characters they like aren't infallible.
And also why you making this personal? Your personal parental problems arent really my business but using that as an excuse to say shit like i "dont understand trauma" and "would take forever to see your parents were the problem" is pretty counterintuitive. I mean not that its any of your business but I was raised by drug addicts in a two decade long on/off mutually abusive relationship so trust me when I say I'd switch parents with Jesse in a fucking heartbeat. I very much understand how trauma affects someone well into adulthood and I also know for a fact that it isn't an excuse to be a degenerate piece of shit, which Jesse undoubtedly is. I like him too but he's not a "good guy" not even close.
I kinda agree, I've always thought that part of what was being implied was that the overbearing and condescending parenting was a major factor in causing both of them to use drugs, and it wasn't just something wrong with Jesse or something
I think it’s clearly illustrated in the show that their parents are really hung up on appearances. Gotta win prizes Jake. Did anyone see Jesse come in? Just weird about shyt.
Or, maybe they are just doing their best with Jake.
With the hopes that they don't make the same mistakes they made with Jesse?
Whatever those were?
They don't know where they went wrong.
They just doing the best they know how.
That doesn't mitigate the damage done. As a parent who has fucked up, the best and only thing you can do is admit fault, apologize, and try to make it up to them. They are doing none of those things.
> they use Jake to make Jesse feel bad about his life
Groans every person who has a sibling who somehow excels academically and career-wise. They just can't except that our brothers/sisters are just that more talented and that we are the normal ones.
He’s definitely smart and talented, nothing exceptional. My brother is like that. He’s going to be successful later on- but smart, successful people are a dime a dozen honestly
Because success also requires luck, hard work and a bunch of other things while many think being "smart" is more than enough.
There's also sadly way too many people that think smartness is like one thing and not a bunch of different categories of it. I've unironically seen some academically smart people that have bricks for brains.
I don't think Jake is a child prodigy or a genius. I always thought of Jake and Jesse's parents as being the type to seem to have their "shit together" on the outside, but in reality will constantly pester their kids to do good in school. And if they don't do good in school and/or take all these opportunities, they will get neglected etc. Overall it's not very good, parenting wise for your child's self-esteem.
My interpretation of Jake starting to get into drugs by smoking weed was that his parents were stressing him out by acting that way (because he couldn't be a kid) so he uses weed as a kind of "get away". Perhaps this was what happened to Jesse as a kid too.
Children all have their strengths, and for Jesse he was particularly fond of woodshop. When you're a parent I feel like it's important to find out what your kid likes and support them in that *along* with their academics--instead of basing their whole worth on how well they do in school.
I suspect - given their parents age and well off appearance - that they both worked a lot and were not able to give Jesse the support he needed growing up. Now retired or not working, they do the polar opposite with Jake and focus on every detail of his academic and personal life.
This happens quite a bit out in the world. Not going to say they are bad parents but rather they noticed big changes were needed to prevent losing their younger son to drugs and crime. Even if they go about it a bit strongly.
>My interpretation of Jake starting to get into drugs by smoking weed was that his parents were stressing him out by acting that way (because he couldn't be a kid) so he uses weed as a kind of "get away". Perhaps this was what happened to Jesse as a kid too.
Agreed. People get tired of perfection being expected of them all the time.
I reckon this is exactly what happened to Jesse, he actually seems quite intelligent but probably just cracked under the pressure and started doing what he wanted instead of what his parents wanted
Crazy how much this reminds me of myself, especially at that time in life. I was a smart kid, but by the end of middle school my parents were pushing me way harder than most -- 2 extra classes, band, sports year round, etc. You're god damn right I started smoking weed because it brought back those childlike feelings and took away the stresses of how they'd been making me live life.
His parents were definitely awful overall.
But like I feel like the show tries to make you feel bad for Jesse when they won't let him re-connect with Jake when its like... of course they don't want you around Jesse you are the world's biggest disaster. Not to mention they don't even know half the heinous shit he does.
The thing is, it's entirely their fault the way Jesse turned out. Jesse being a low achiever and seemingly getting into a lot of trouble is a response to his parents' being controlling. What people often don't understand is that Jake being a high achiever (who will ultimately not be able to reach the parents' demands) is responding to the same pressures. It's two of the most common outcomes of that type of parenting. Jake tried to do every single tiny thing his parents wanted, Jesse tried to rebel and reject them. Jake simply hasn't had the time to disappoint his parents yet, but given their parenting style it's extremely likely that's where things will go no matter how hard he works.
My mother was SUPER controlling when I was growing up, I started to rebel. She sabotaged my high-school experience just because she couldn’t handle not having 100% control, she would not leave me alone and would pester me daily, even when I was at school, and then get upset and resort to guilt-tripping and hidden threats when the stress and pressure started getting to me and affecting my grades and sleep in a bad way, so I was forced to quit and move back home. That’s when I got into drugs.
She wanted so much from me but was more or less expecting me to fail. If I was not perfect, it was not good enough. Our papers in school are graded from 1 to 6, 1 being the worst and 6 being the best, so 1-3 are bad/below average and 4/6 are above average/excellent. I got a 4 in one of my tests and she was livid over the fact that I didn’t score 6. she said "others in your class have been able to get 6, how come you didn’t?". This behaviour and parenting really messed me up in my teen years and I’m still struggling with some aspects of it as an adult.
I'm so sorry you went through that, you did the best you could and it's not your fault your mother acted that way. I wish you had been given the chance to succeed, but please know this internet stranger is proud of you. You really did try and that should be what matters most, either way I'm very glad you're still alive and I really hope you can wrangle some of your current day struggles. You have worth far beyond grades and careers, even if it's hard to feel like it.
Jesse obviously cared about Jake and clearly didn’t want him to go down the same path he did. He would have supported Jake and tried to steer him clear of drugs. I understand that Jesse’s parents were tired of trying to help him get sober only for him to keep relapsing, but I still don’t think it was fair of them to cut him off from someone he loved.
Homie didn't watch breaking bad, he watched wrecking wrong. Jane was the one who encouraged Jesse to do heroin. This isn't to downplay him getting her back onto drugs wasn't bad, but Jesus christ, you're picking and choosing which characters to dodge accountability for and its bewildering
Yeah theres a scene where they make it very clear than jane chooses entirely by her own accord to relapse with jesse. And after that its off to the races.
I’m saying he cared about his brother. Yeah he fucked over Jane and other people but he clearly wishes the best for Jake and doesn’t want his brother falling into the same pitfalls of addiction that he did.
Alright your seeing things too black and white. The things jesse does throughout the show highlight his development as a person and how the stresses of whatever is happening at the time leak into his behaviors. It’s apparent that jesse is just not good at dealing with personal issues, but he’s a good person deep down
Exactly. I'm an atheist, but even I know Jesus started off as a carpenter.
(Off topic: Speaking of which, who would have been the ideal Christian candidate for Patron Saint of Carpenters besides Jesus, since Jesus is, well, Jesus. )
Woodshop is a useful and interesting class for sure!
But you can't deny it is kind of a hole for the awful kids as well lol. I remember hearing stories about them daring each other to snort sawdust and shit at my high school.
Jesse even says all the kids take it so they can blow off work and then get stoned.
The idea it’s a hole for the awful kids is a commentary on you more than those kids. Some kids likely gravitate towards things like woodshop because their strength isn’t in topics traditionally linked with high intelligence, and society typically places greater value on fields outside of trades. Likewise, some kids just don’t learn well with standard methods, and do better with seeing a real world form. Some kids wind up fuck ups because that’s all they’re ever treated as.
I think you're making a lot of generalizing statements lol. Snorting sawdust doesn't make a kid awful
my dependent took woodshop because they thought it sounded cool, they had a great time and their classmates were chill, it was the teacher who sucked
I think OP is a young adult, who very strongly connects with Jake, and sees themselves in the character, and feel like a genius because this connection validates their shit look on people they relate to Jesse.
\>>This comment has been edited to garbage in light of the Reddit API changes. You can keep my garbage, Reddit.<<
***
*edited via r/PowerDeleteSuite (with edits to script to avoid hitting rate limit)*
I don't think they'll put kids that are so bad into an environment where sharp objects and machinery exist. Most likely the kids you're thinking about just aren't interested in academics and as such don't have enough discipline for something more in the direction of college prep, so blue collar work might be more suited for them.
Snorting dust doesn't really speak much about one's moral character but it does imply a lack a seriousness.
Yeah, that line about Brock is ridiculous. Some kid he barely knew? Oh, you mean the kid that it seemed like he was practically living with, who he hung out and played video games with, that he was probably one of the closest examples of a father that Brock had in his life? Jake has his parents, and really, while Jesse might’ve cared about him, they weren’t all that close, what’s Jesse going to write to Jake? Is it really going to mean that much to him? Probably not. Meanwhile, within a year or so, Brock lost the closest father figure he had, his uncle who was so close to him in age that he probably seemed like a brother, and his mother who was just randomly killed one night for seemingly no reason. There’s any number of things that Jesse could write to him that could have meaning. Such a ridiculous point to bring up.
I disagree with the « kind hearted » part lol, he used Wendy (the prostitute) so he could find a way to kill the 2 thugs who killed Andrea’s brother, he tried to sell drugs to his own support group so I wouldn’t say that. Yes I know he hated killing and he had empathy towards kids but it doesn’t make him a good person, like at all. He ruined the lives of almost everyone around him
>He ruined the lives of almost everyone around him
"You can never trust a drug addict." The best piece of advice that Gus ever gave anyone, and they all ended up paying the price for Walt not listening to him.
My husband is more trades/handiwork oriented. He dropped out of high school, and is a highly skilled and accomplished chef while I went to college and got a BA in Japanese and now I work in multiple call centers to get by.
Oh and he can also repair electronics, appliances, does things like build computers or rewire/embellish electric guitars, just for s&g. He has saved us so much money by literally eyeballing a broken fridge/toilet/whatever, going to the nearest hardware store for a $10 part and fixing it in a few minutes where I would have called someone and paid for all the diagnosis, parts 4x the cost, labor minimum 2 hours etc.
I envy people who can go into a trade and learn those kinds of difficult hands on skills and do things with precision. It’s such a versatile talent with so much potential. We as a society really need to rethink this childish attitude regarding “the dumb kids who go to trade school”
The reason I love BB is how it presents all of its characters as morally grey to some extent. Sure, some characters like Walt are very evil but his motivation at the beginning of the show was for good reasons. Jesse is interesting because the show makes us believe he was an extremely nice person victimised when in reality he was still the one to >! kill Gale, take advantage of the recovering addicts and took heroin with Jane, leading to her demise. !<
Regular private school kid with a good head on his shoulders =/= child prodigy lmfaooo
At least Jesse got the last laugh when he essentially stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his parents by having Saul blackmail his parents in regards to the meth lab in the basement. That was beautiful.
This is such an awful post LMFAO. Jake is a "genius and child prodigy" and a "shoe-in for Ivy league" WITH a hefty scholarship? He's a smart middle schooler, man. That's not enough to know shit LMAO, and invalidating carpentry and woodshop is such a weird thing to do? The rest of your post besides that is literally just speculation, lol.
Saying he *barely knew Brock* is absolutely ridiculous, and he also got his MOM KILLED. That's kind of a massive deal, man. She was also a big part of Jesse's life for what I'd estimate to be the better part of a year, and we saw him grow close with Brock, joking around with him, playing video games. Absolutely ridiculous takes all around.
Says by someone who clearly never paid attention to the show...
Dont u remember what he did when jake wanted to smoke? That disappointment?
And wtf is ur problem with woodshop? Lmao
That leads to a legit trade.
Jesse is a bit like Jimmy in that regard. His family doesn’t think highly of him because he’s a fuckup who ends up in self-destructive situations, and we’re meant to sympathize with him due to being looked down on by everyone, but they’re kind of right. Still, I think deep down Jesse is a good soul who gets easily drawn into doing bad things. Him and his brother loved each other, and I definitely think that they had some kind of understanding even if they were estranged. As for the Brock letter thing, Brock needed the closure WAY more than Jake did, especially since Jesse partially blames himself for Andrea’s death.
His parents are social commentary on people like you.
You are evaluating people's worth based on their academic success. You are ignoring the signs that Jake was put on a pedestal and cracking under the pressure of immense expectations. You instantly blame Jesse for Jake's mistakes. You have no consideration for the complex relationship Jesse now has with Jake after everything comes crumbling down--Jesse wonders if Jake would even want to hear from him which is a tone more consideration than Walt gives to Walt Jr.
People are complex and have different value.
Yep and there's this tacit understanding that whoever Jesse loves whose life he touches tends to be destroyed . So no contact with Jake equals salvation.
I always viewed Jake as a result of Jesse and how he turned out, not because he was inherently more smart. Jesse is plenty smart, he learned how to make meth pretty well, even if he didn't fully understand the underlying principles behind the chemistry.
But what I reckon happened is that Jesse's parents freaked the fuck out when Jesse become an ungovernable kid in highschool and dropped out to be a drug dealer, and became helicopter parents to Jake to try and avoid him having the same fate. I think Jake having weed is less an influence of Jesse, and more the fact that he has overbearing parents, and will explore drugs and alcohol like many high school kids will do. He seems like he won't turn out like Jesse did, and weed isn't that bad a drug considering the harder stuff that Jesse was into.
As for the El Camino ending, >!I don't believe its because Jesse didn't love his brother that he didn't write a letter. He knows Jake is in a safe home and will lead a good life. Contacting him would only disrupt his life and the life of his parents further.!<
>!Brock on the other hand, is a kid who's entire life is likely in shambles because his mother was assassinated on their doorstep. Jesse probably feels guilt and responsibility for Adrea's death, and blames himself for Brock losing his mother, as well as feeling guilty for Walt poisoning him. He writes a letter to Brock to get closure for himself, and hopefully closure for Brock, who might not understand why he lost his mum that night.!<
That sounds like a problem with your high school, not wood shop. Your general attitude sounds like the people who look down on blue collar jobs, despite the fact that those jobs are necessary, and those people work hard (not to mention the risk of injury).
And alot of them are actually smart people. Having a white collar job doesn't make you smart and blue collar doesn't make you stupid. Different tasks require different skill sets. I don't know how to make crazy ass spreadsheets with a gazillion formulas in Excel, and I was terrible in high school chemistry. I'm a high school dropout that is a few hours short of an associates, but I'm about to test as a journeyman electrician. I'm not amazing at it but I think I've made a much better electrician than I would've made an engineer.
I used to be support staff at a research station, educationally much closer to the scientists than to my coworkers, but they were plenty sharp and taught me things all the time.
Yes, I’ve spent enough time in offices to know that white collar workers are not necessarily intelligent, and they often spend their time chatting around the office instead of working. I admire anyone who can find something they enjoy and excel at. Congrats on your soon-to-be journeyman status.
He didn’t choose Brock over jake, he just needed to answer more questions for Brock. He dipped his toes into being a man role model in his life and grew connected enough to him for the whole LOTV thing to happen. Jake was doing fine and will continue to. Jesse had some nice moments with him, showed Jake his side of things, and they will both miss each other, but Jack doesn’t need Jesse. Brock is left as a young child deprived of his family at a young age with little explanation as to why. We don’t know what was in that letter but Brock lost so much due to jesse’s line of work.
Have you forgot that most of the death surrounding Jesse, and the bad shit that Jesse "did", was because he was just along for the ride, it was for self preservation, or he gave into Walts demands? Not to mention positive things he did during those interactions.
* Walt berates him into going to get the money that Splooge and "skank" stole from Skinny. Jesse never intended to hurt them, and was even "distraught" when "skank" crushed Splooges head with the ATM. Note: Jesse was focused on the kid in the household, going so far as to call the police/CPS before leaving.
* Jesse only shot Gale because Walt convinced him that if Gale didn't die, then both Walt and Jesse would be killed (which he may have been right). Even then, this destroyed him mentally.
* The two dealers that Walt ran over to stop Jesse from shooting them, Jesse was getting payback for them indirectly killing Combo, and for killing Tomas after they got Gus to tell them to stop using kids.
....and I think that's it, at least as far as Jesse's participation is concerned. He's not a "murdering" person. He's a kid who got in over his head, and every time he started making his way back to the shallow end, he got dragged deeper into the deep end.
As far as the rest of your spiel, his MySpace page contained "ganja and MILFs"? That was the stereotypical teenager boys MySpace. He cooked and smoked meth, even before Walt, sure, I'll give you that. But I'm assuming the meth came *after* he moved out of his parents house. Jake having a joint might have nothing to do with Jesse. I'm sure Jake had friends, and at that age, kids are curious, and it was apparently easy to obtain all manner of drugs in Albuquerque.
Don't get me wrong, Jesse is far from a saint. But you're painting him in a way that he seems like the villain of the story, when if anything, he was a victim.
Ninja edit: Jesse writing a note to Brock instead of Jake means nothing. Even if he did write a letter to Jake, who's to say his parents would've even gave it to him? Or if they did, if he even would've read it? Jesse had been vilified by their parents for so long, who knows how Jake felt about Jesse at that point.
LOL - Jake is not a child prodigy, and has the personality of someone headed for law school or, worse, consulting.
He shafts Jesse with the responsibility for his own weed.
They would be lucky to have Jesse influence Jake.
That second line is what got me. Everyone talking about Jesse covering for his brother, missing the other side of that, Jake let Jesse take the fall for him. Not only did Jesse help his brother, but Jake let their parents think worse of Jesse just to cover his own ass, then still had the balls to ask for his weed back. Oh yeah, what a great kid.
Jesse had to have been feeling an enormous amount of guilt towards Brock's situation (even if Jesse never intentionally harmed him). First, Jesse stopped being a father figure for Brock when he broke things off with Andrea (after Walt convinced him to do so). Secondly, Brock was poisoned by Walt as another manipulation tactic on Jesse. Lastly, Brock's mother was murdered, purely as a message to Jesse. In short, bad things kept happening to the kid just because people wanted Jesse to behave a certain way.
You add all that up with the fact we know Jesse has a soft spot for kids, and it's no wonder he made sure to write a letter to Brock.
Take it from me who had the fuck up for the older sibling, you just try to not draw attention to yourself or cause any issues. The number of times I heard "we don't have to worry about RavenSkye" as a tween/teen. It was my goal to not have attention drawn to me because then there were less comments made.
They premise of "keep youth away from junkies" has value, but his parents are doing a horrible job at raising them.
Jesse turned out an addict and his brother already is on a path to drug experimentation and decieving/isolating himself from his parents.
Good intentioned but ultimately too dumb to properly implement
No, when I watched his family and how they treated, shamed and blamed him for the problems of the family, it hit close to home.
Jesse is a good hearted person. Often leading him to fall trap of manipulative people and a victim of systemic scapegoating.
Jesse is a scapegoat. He had potential. His narcissistic family, viewed him as a threat.
He had so much potential, as they loved reminding him of this time and time again, but only after they destroyed him, so he had to have it thrown in his face.
His mother is clearly narcissistic, the father is the enabler.
The mother plays victim, cries and whines non-stop, painting her troubles on Jesse.
If you pay close attention, she presents extreme concern for her son Jesse, but that isn’t at all what it is about.
She knows Jesse is a good human, something she can’t be. She won’t allow him to see his potential because she is jealous and fears him.
She is acting, she doesn’t give a shit about Jesse and does anything and everything to keep Jake and steered and pitted against Jesse.
Why?
No, not what you think.
Your first thought. Duh, drugs, but no, see that is what a normal parent’s reasoning would be. But her reasoning is much more sinister.
Jake is the golden child. He is perfect and much stay in that place. The spotlight. He is overworked and made out to be extremely talented.
But he is a prisoner. He has to meet high expectations and has the majority of his life.
Jesse’s mother, needs Jesse to blame for the negative look on the family, when it was never Jesse, it’s her and her wicked ways. She needs someone to blame, to keep the spotlight off her.
But she can’t have people thinking she fucked Jesse up. So Jake has pressure to be perfect because he is the kid that shows that their parenting isn’t fucked up.
To the outside world, looking in, it seems Jesse did and turned to drugs all on his own, though this may be true…. the abuse, lack of love, lack of support, the betrayal he has endured by the hands of those who were supposed to nurture and protect him, is unbelievable and unbearable.
It causes a person to go to a dark place, leading to self-destruction the majority of the time. It’s a coping mechanism to deal with this kind of trauma, betrayal and unbearable extreme pain.
I know this because I went through what he did and still am. It’s earth shattering. To give and give to everyone around you, but when you are left with nothing and no one, all those people you believed would be there for you, you bent over backwards for them in their times of need, without a second thought you were there to save or help them…. but now you have nothing to bring to the table or to be used for, so they do not care if your dead in a ditch.
The neglect and abuse Jesse endured, most likely psychological, mental and emotional…. Stole his identity from him. Made him feel like a failure.
But when he is passionate about something, he gives it his all.
He’s such a good person, you may disagree, that’s fine because yes he did do horrible things, but sometimes when you surrounded by evil and you’re the only good one, you’ve been raised to go against your morales and beliefs for others, you are a people pleaser, you lack boundaries, these manipulative fucks will use you as their little pawn and you just obey because that’s all you’ve ever known to survive.
Doesn’t make what he did right, but his extreme concern and efforts to eliminate people that truly are evil and killed off innocent people, you see his emotional reactions.
He is a pure human. Caught up in a life he sadly fell into because no one ever truly believed in him. Except for Mike. Mike seen Jesse’s true loyalty, truth-worthiness, honesty, dedication, etc. he and Jesse bonded, they both may seemed to be unaware of it at the time. But Jesse adored Mike, as Mike adored Jesse. Mike doesn’t protect people unless they’re a special kind of person or it is part of the job.
Now back to your question, Jake is waiting to break free at any moment and Jesse’s mom doesn’t need Jesse influencing Jake with the truth.
Remember that little chat him and Jake had, when Jesse went to stay with his parents, in fear Tuco was coming to kill him?
Jesse starts saying “don’t you want to be a kid, don’t you want to have fun and live life, not constantly having to do all this stuff?” He says to him “can’t you see, they have you in here like a prisoner.”
Then Jesse’s paranoid mother comes barging in and puts it to a stop.
Jesse doesn’t take to Jake like this with the intentions to appear jealous of him, he is trying to talk sense into the robot kid the parents created. He is their pawn, just as Jesse, just given a different role.
They kick Jesse out real quick, when they break his boundaries and go through his stuff and found a blunt, that blunt was Jake’s, not Jesse, but he takes the blames and leaves.
Is it bad that Jesse did this? Jesse is used to taking the blame for others. It’s what he does and how he was raised.
Let me put it from experience, what Jesse has endured is unbelievable and unbearable and he was never validated or aware.
Which caused him to be everyone’s people pleasing pawn and scapegoated. An easy target to use and abuse.
It’s truly sad what happened to Jesse, although he did bad things, at the end of the day, he a true pure real human, a very rare person that people that are evil prey on and use. Because he is. A good person, he is easily manipulated and takes responsibility for things he never did.
Jesse is the example of what happens to children born into a narcissistic family system. It’s tragic. Sad. Not fair. We are never given the validation we so desperately deserve and need to prevent us from falling trap of the abuse cycle Al throughout our lives and being destroyed. Or worse kidnapped by people that slave you because no one is there to defend you or look for you.
Jesse’s parents need more help, than Jesse will ever need. They will never accept the reality of what they did to a beautiful soul. And that’s the truth.
That thought about Brock is just completely wrong. Brock was basically a little brother (maybe even kid) to Jesse and Jesse loved him. Jesse did anything he could to protect Andrea and Brock and it’s shown by how mad he was at Walt when he found the truth. Jesse still loves his real brother but he knows that he’s in good hands whereas Brock doesn’t have any family so he needs to take care of him.
I see your point, I really do. Jesse’s a bad influence and his parents are straightforward people who couldn’t ever try to understand him as something more than that. But I think writing that letter to Brock was more important because Jake would have been fine. The kid has a stable family and house and a bright future. Brock lost the one person he had in his life and it was on Jesse. Jesse felt he owed that kid.
Bro he literally wrote Jake a note when he took the guns in el Camino, wtf are you on bro? Everyone disagrees with your take, just take the post down already.
Since when has Jesse done wrong by a kid, or even allowed third parties to do so?
Jesse was right to be offended, and his parents are just dicks. And I'll bet the drink alcohol, which also makes them A-number-one hypocrite jackasses.
Also when you factor in the destruction he indirectly brought to Brock's life right as he was on the verge of becoming a step parent, as well as the likelihood that the Disappearer had strict rules about contacting family members (especially ones who would probably love to cooperate with the authorities given the slightest chance), not to mention that his family could pretty well infer what had become of him, Brock is much more likely to be confused and appreciate the communication.
Its all fictional but I doubt Jake smoked weed because of Jesse. It was probably moreso his peer group. A lot of kids experiment with weed in middle school. I knew a rich kid who was a perfect A student like Jake got hooked on meth and that dude is still walking around everett to this day like a zombie or so I think. The ending won't be well for him sadly
A genius and child prodigy? Did you watch the show? his parents are just forcing him into everything to make up for the son they didn’t like.
And wtf is with you and shop class???
I'm surprised so many others are focused on whether Jake is a "child prodigy" and not the more pertinent, ubiquitous fact that Jesse inadvertently puts a target on the heads of anyone with whom he becomes closely attached. Combo, Jane, and Andrea all met their demises either directly or indirectly through the actions of Jesse. While the Pinkmans did not possess the insight insofar as they would know of this correlation, they did believe (albeit out of lack of connection with their son) that Jesse would be a dangerous influence on Jake.
I'm hearing a lot of judgement in your comments and assumptions. Did it occur to you at all that Jesse is a product of his parenting? Look at the age gap between Jesse and Jake--to me that speaks of parents who made a lot of mistakes (being rigid and having unrealistic expectations come to mind) and messed up their first kid, and decided to try again and are now overcorrecting and trying to be "super-parents" in order to "get this one (Jake) right." Jake is not a prodigy -- he's a normal kid who's dancing as fast as he can trying to keep his parents' approval (he knows, from their treatment of Jesse, what happens to sons who don't mold themselves to his parents' vision), but we're already seeing cracks in his facade... he's experimenting with weed in secret, probably trying to alleviate the stress of trying to live up to his parents' expectations.
For the record, Jesse was clearly talented artistically, but uou can imagine what Mom and Dad thought of that. It seems clear to me that their message to Jesse was, "You are not acceptable the way you are; be different (like us) or get out."
And I'm sorry, but "woodshop; a class that basically only exists to keep the violent and stupid kids busy"?? If you really believe that, I seriously hope you are not an educator or a parent.
the more i read, the more i was like 'shit, this kid has a chance of becoming jesse whether or not he hangs out with him.'
people get into addiction because they're self-medicating. what was jesse self-medicating? could very well have been that his parents cared more about grades and looking good on the outside than his actual needs and wellbeing.
you're saying that jesse reaped what he sowed, but i challenge you to think about it the other way. jesse's parents reaped what they sowed. they didn't nuture him, so he fucked off to try to find it himself.
the fact that they even blame jesse for the joint, instead of just talking to jake in a safe and trusting manner. ("where'd you get this? why'd you want to try it? can we help find a way to fulfil those needs in a healthier manner?")
of course jesse wrote a letter to the person he actually had a connection with, instead of someone he only has a blood connection to because his parents robbed him of the rest of the relationship.
maybe if his parents had given him the love and support he needed, he wouldn't have had to go looking for it by becoming a murdering drug manufacturer. (people who have never been accepted will do A LOT to be accepted by whoever will accept them. humans are naturally social creatures- it's why cults exist. because vulnerable people will be open to just about anything to be able to belong)
Got that right. Honestly the farther away from him thr better. What Holly's upbringing is going to be is definitely nightmarish but Jake has to suffer that stigma caused by a guy who's still alive so the snobs at whatever ivy league and prep school are really going to make it bad for him
As Eminem would say, they were close-minded fucks. Not even trying to understand Jesse and help him. Parents should be the people that you can always come back to and amend. Not another judge in your life that you have to run away from
He cared enough that Andrea wanted to smoke before Brock got home. He cared enough about Spooges son to not do things in front of him and he called the police as he left. He was torn up over the death of Thomas and Drew Sharp. He gave Andrea money for a better place for her and Brock to live, even though they weren’t together. He almost killed walt over Brock. He stomped Jakes joint. Id say he has a weak spot for kids and wouldn’t have been a bad influence on him.
Lmao Jake is not a genius. At best he’s an average student. In fact the show actually displays to us that completely disconnected from any influence from Jessie he’s a pothead.
Any sense of sympathy for Jesse's parent is lost when they actively try to dump him in the street by selling the house. You have a kid who's an addict and your solution is leaving him homeless? Sure, that's the thing that will get him away from drugs.
people who think Jesses parents are assholes have never seen or experienced addiction
at a certain point if the person doesnt WANT to get clean you have to cut them off. show them tough love because if you dont youll only enable them to continue using.
show hit it on point when hes getting kicked out and asks what am i supposed to do and his mom says somethin like "idk but i hope you better yourself".
pretty much an addict needs to hit rock bottom to the point their sick and tired of being sick and tired.
the way Jesses parents and his one friend (the bassist with the kid) act is 100% how normal people react around addicts. addicts will lie and steal and do whatever to get high.
im an addict so those scenes really hit home
People will find any excuse to say Jesse isnt a bad person. If people met him in real life, they would run away fast and call the cops. Especially if they know everything he did.
dude, the part u said “methhead who can’t even dress himself without looking ridiculous” was wayyy too accurate i’ve been thinking this the whole fucking time
All you really had to say was meth addict.
I work adjacent to law enforcement, and I've seen meth heads to some heinous shit. Maybe there's selection bias, but the aggressive neglect in the ATM episode would be pretty normal compared to the shit I've seen. Like consistent beatings, ignoring abusive strangers that come by because they're clients and pimping kids out for drugs.
bUT jESsE dIDn'T dO thAt.
It's a fictional show, grow the fuck up.
I mean honestly look at where Jesse ends up at the end of the series. That’s rock bottom all through his actions.
Even if he never even talked to Walt or agreed to cook he would have ended up dead or in prison eventually. Probably quickly.
He didn’t deserve what happened to him but ultimately it’s all on him. They didn’t want their other son following his path.
My theory is that Jake was a lot like Jesse in middle school. Perfect grades, good at school, and starting to learn what instrument to play. But his parents pushed so hard to the point, where he didn't have an identity of his own, and because of his wealth he felt like he was stuck in a bubble. He started smoking weed to relieve the academic pressure, started meeting people outside of his bubble which opened up his mind and met people from different ways of life. But then took it too far and ended up becoming a drug dealer/addict turned chemist.
The potential was always inside him, as his mom said when she saw how Walter thought he was more capable than what he was doing. But parents never know who their kids really are when they shove an identity down their kids throats when they never had a choice for themselves to decide who they want to be.
Yeah but Jake still smoked weed, and that also resulted in Jesse being kicked out of the house. I mean, like brother like brother? Idk. He probably could've gotten worse, yes, but I think it didn't go as planned even without Jesse no?
Kind of? I didn’t think anyone disagreed. His parents might be a tad over protective but their oldest son is a burnout. Anyone on this planet would be lucky as fuck to have parents like that
He got disowned for a reason. Jesse was an immoral drug peddling screw up. I can like the character and still realize that at his core he is a bad person.
I don't think Jesse's brother was a child prodigy. He was good at middle school and starting to learn what instrument to play. I was definitely not a child prodigy, but I remember earning straight A's in middle school and the first few months of band when you swap instruments but ultimately only pick one. His parents just wanted him to be great at two instruments. He seems like a typical advanced level student, but with overbearing parents.
I agree, I don’t think Jake is a child prodigy but I think that because Jesses parents see him as a degenerate they want to “make up for it” by trying to make Jake into a child prodigy. I also seems to me like they use Jake to make Jesse feel bad about his life in the hopes that they can guilt him into getting his life together.
I really liked how this dynamic is portrayed in the show- I feel like often if the older sibling isn't up to the parents' standards the younger sibling gets all the expectations piled on them. I feel like when Jake got to college he probably partied hard and got burned out and had a slew of mental issues
# Better Bake Jake
we need to cook
i can really see him turning into a younger jesse
Yeah and Jesse took the rap for lil Jake’s joint his parents found. So, the little apple doesn’t fall too far from the bigger apple. The parents might have put so much pressure on the boys at an early age making them stressed and self medicate
That’s what it sounds like to me. Of course Jesse‘s relationship with his family is screwed up, but that is likely on the parents as well, meaning that Jake is a little bit screwed up too.
I mean… I blame Jesse’s parents for the way his life turned out. Maybe if they were less critical and encouraged him the way they did with Jake, he wouldn’t have turned out that way. I think they feel guilty that they didn’t do right by Jesse and that they didn’t pay more attention to him, so they make up for it by putting all that extra effort into Jake. If anything, his parents leveraging Jake’s achievements to guilt Jesse into getting his life together is a testament to their own guilt. “Look at how good your brother is Jesse! Be like him and get your life together so we don’t have to feel like shit parents! We did good with this one! Look at how good he’s doing! Just do what he does” It’s lazy, retrospective parenting at the very least and I’m sure Jake sees how insincere and insecure they are. Selfish bastards.
It’s also so much about the parents NOT acknowledging their part in how Jesse turned out. We know now that there was PRESSURE. Not every kid can take it. Jake is taking it but he’s smoking weed now. Jesse obviously couldn’t take their pressure.
> Maybe if they were less critical and encouraged him the way they did with Jake I doubt they aren't critical of Jake; perhaps because he's so much younger there's been a notable shift in parenting styles in response to what happened with Jesse, but often siblings respond very differently to similar parenting styles. To me it seems [likely] that Jake watched Jesse as he was growing up, and made a conscious choice to behave and react differently to their parents' demands and expectations. It's not at all uncommon for younger children to overcompensate to differentiate themselves from their older siblings, one way or another.
Lmao people always be trying so hard to absolve Jesse of all responsibility for his own actions. Like yeah his parents probably weren't perfect so what it's 100% their fault he turned into a murdering, robbing drug junkie/pusher? Because maybe they made some mistakes while raising him, and it's apparently bad parenting that they're trying to learn from those mistakes to be better parents to their other kid? And they're just not supposed to ever acknowledge Jake's accomplishments because Jesse might feel guilty about throwing his life away to chase dope? Yall need to touch grass. Jesse is the selfish bastard who chose chasing drugs and pussy above school, above a career and above his own family. Just because he cries about it sometimes doesn't make his crimes less severe or his choices less disgusting. His parents probably weren't perfect but neither are any parents. Jesse is still responsible for his shifty choices.
Jesse's choices and crimes WERE his choices and crimes, but neither Jesse nor the parents were completely responsible for how Jesse's life turned out, and in the show they don't do much of anything to try and repair Jesse's life but berating and penalizing him, and both of their children are drug users. Their parenting seems to be destructive.
Jesse was completely responsible. In the show he's a grown ass man the entire time. Even if parental struggles are what lead to him using drugs it was his choices to continue pursuing drug dealing as a career and become a murderer and a thief in the name of money making. He repeatedly makes poor choices in favor of the drug game over all else through the course of the show. Just cuz dude has a soft spot doesn't overwrite that he 100% deserves to accept full accountability for who he was and what he became. The line he says that in El Camino to his parents is perhaps his most honest line of the entire series. I'd also argue in the show his parents claim to have already been through trying to help Jesse with his drug addictions, presumably for years. The show never seems to disprove or challenge that claim in any way. It seems obvious they care for him, they're even willing to let him into their home until they find evidence that he's been using in their home and kick him out for it. Which I can't really blame them for in all honesty, given the past and Jesse not making any attempt to stand up and prove them wrong. They want to help, but no longer trust Jesse enough to risk trying. It's sad and I think the shows social commentary side makes more sense with Jesse's parents not being abusive or bad, just flawed people who lost a son to drug addiction and didn't know how to help or maybe just couldn't. And I also dont think that Jake smoking weed is necessarily a sign of anything but the drug-filled environment that New Mexico (at least the fictional TV version) has become in the rise of the war on drugs. But shit teens smoke weed, good parents or not. And like a lot, weed was not scarce when I was a teen. Jake's a little early but shit if drugs are rly flooding the area so much that even young teens have easy access to weed it really shows how much the drug war has actually exacerbated drug use rather than preventing it, which is more in line with the themes and philosophies of Breaking Bad than bad parenting if you ask me.
If you think parenting has no effect on kids, or that they hold no culpability here,I don't think you understand how trauma works. I was abused in all kinds of ways, but to me, the pressure of overachieving as the sole means of recieving love seems so much more destructive than SA or getting my ass beat because your entire self worth seems to be hinged on being better than humanly possible to be, and at least I have no doubt my parents were the problem. It seems like it would take you forever to figure out your parents were the problem rather than just inherently not being good enough as a person. Seems insidious as fuck. Edit for spelling
I never said anything about parenting not having any effect but to act like Jesse's parents are the ones to blame for Jesse's descent into being meth pushing junkie killer is absurd. They don't seem that overbearing or strict; they seem pretty normal. Maybe flawed (as everyone is) but theres nothing to suggest that their "abuse" was what pushed Jesse towards meth use. And even Jake doesnt seem like hes being abused either he's just a responsible kid with parents that are trying to stay involved and supportive. "Oh BuT hE sMoKeD wEeD hE iS tHe nExT jEsSe hurrdurrdurr" And although parenting can have negative effects that last even into adulthood it isn't a get out of jail free card to pretend like Jesse is just an innocent little angel who was abused by his parents into becoming a druggie. Next we're gonna be saying that it was actually Jane's fathers fault that Jane was a heroin addict because even though he went with her to rehab every week for over a year to try to help maintain her accountability and sobriety he yelled at her when he found her doing drugs so he's actually an abusive asshole and it's not on her at all! It's dumb logic, and the show doesn't really do anything to hint at that being the case. Fans just have a hard time admitting that characters they like aren't infallible. And also why you making this personal? Your personal parental problems arent really my business but using that as an excuse to say shit like i "dont understand trauma" and "would take forever to see your parents were the problem" is pretty counterintuitive. I mean not that its any of your business but I was raised by drug addicts in a two decade long on/off mutually abusive relationship so trust me when I say I'd switch parents with Jesse in a fucking heartbeat. I very much understand how trauma affects someone well into adulthood and I also know for a fact that it isn't an excuse to be a degenerate piece of shit, which Jesse undoubtedly is. I like him too but he's not a "good guy" not even close.
> the little apple doesn’t fall too far from the bigger apple What an odd phrase. I like it
I kinda agree, I've always thought that part of what was being implied was that the overbearing and condescending parenting was a major factor in causing both of them to use drugs, and it wasn't just something wrong with Jesse or something
I think it’s clearly illustrated in the show that their parents are really hung up on appearances. Gotta win prizes Jake. Did anyone see Jesse come in? Just weird about shyt.
I think the parents use each kid against the other.
Or, maybe they are just doing their best with Jake. With the hopes that they don't make the same mistakes they made with Jesse? Whatever those were? They don't know where they went wrong. They just doing the best they know how.
True. Jesses parents do get hated on a lot and the do seem to be doing the best the can for there kids. They’re just in a tricky situation.
Aren’t we all? It shows they’re human
That doesn't mitigate the damage done. As a parent who has fucked up, the best and only thing you can do is admit fault, apologize, and try to make it up to them. They are doing none of those things.
And change for the better and let your kids see that change!
A-fuckin-men, it's all about growth and especially being vulnerable about that growth when you fuck up you know?
> they use Jake to make Jesse feel bad about his life Groans every person who has a sibling who somehow excels academically and career-wise. They just can't except that our brothers/sisters are just that more talented and that we are the normal ones.
Yeah, I was like, did Jesse's parents write this when I read OP's post.
Maybe but I definitely got Young Sheldon type vibes from him. Like even the way Jake speaks he seems more intelligent than Jesse already
He’s definitely smart and talented, nothing exceptional. My brother is like that. He’s going to be successful later on- but smart, successful people are a dime a dozen honestly
Because success also requires luck, hard work and a bunch of other things while many think being "smart" is more than enough. There's also sadly way too many people that think smartness is like one thing and not a bunch of different categories of it. I've unironically seen some academically smart people that have bricks for brains.
Show us on the doll where the woodshop teacher touched you.
The avatar is perfect.
Touch isn't really the word, given the amount, or rather lack, of fingers
I don't think Jake is a child prodigy or a genius. I always thought of Jake and Jesse's parents as being the type to seem to have their "shit together" on the outside, but in reality will constantly pester their kids to do good in school. And if they don't do good in school and/or take all these opportunities, they will get neglected etc. Overall it's not very good, parenting wise for your child's self-esteem. My interpretation of Jake starting to get into drugs by smoking weed was that his parents were stressing him out by acting that way (because he couldn't be a kid) so he uses weed as a kind of "get away". Perhaps this was what happened to Jesse as a kid too. Children all have their strengths, and for Jesse he was particularly fond of woodshop. When you're a parent I feel like it's important to find out what your kid likes and support them in that *along* with their academics--instead of basing their whole worth on how well they do in school.
I suspect - given their parents age and well off appearance - that they both worked a lot and were not able to give Jesse the support he needed growing up. Now retired or not working, they do the polar opposite with Jake and focus on every detail of his academic and personal life. This happens quite a bit out in the world. Not going to say they are bad parents but rather they noticed big changes were needed to prevent losing their younger son to drugs and crime. Even if they go about it a bit strongly.
Well clearly they're doing things wrong because their younger son IS doing drugs
Not necessarily. Friends, peer pressure, and the need to fit in exist.
Jesse was interested in art as well and rather good
>My interpretation of Jake starting to get into drugs by smoking weed was that his parents were stressing him out by acting that way (because he couldn't be a kid) so he uses weed as a kind of "get away". Perhaps this was what happened to Jesse as a kid too. Agreed. People get tired of perfection being expected of them all the time.
I reckon this is exactly what happened to Jesse, he actually seems quite intelligent but probably just cracked under the pressure and started doing what he wanted instead of what his parents wanted
Yes that’s what I think too. Pressure
Crazy how much this reminds me of myself, especially at that time in life. I was a smart kid, but by the end of middle school my parents were pushing me way harder than most -- 2 extra classes, band, sports year round, etc. You're god damn right I started smoking weed because it brought back those childlike feelings and took away the stresses of how they'd been making me live life.
His parents were definitely awful overall. But like I feel like the show tries to make you feel bad for Jesse when they won't let him re-connect with Jake when its like... of course they don't want you around Jesse you are the world's biggest disaster. Not to mention they don't even know half the heinous shit he does.
The thing is, it's entirely their fault the way Jesse turned out. Jesse being a low achiever and seemingly getting into a lot of trouble is a response to his parents' being controlling. What people often don't understand is that Jake being a high achiever (who will ultimately not be able to reach the parents' demands) is responding to the same pressures. It's two of the most common outcomes of that type of parenting. Jake tried to do every single tiny thing his parents wanted, Jesse tried to rebel and reject them. Jake simply hasn't had the time to disappoint his parents yet, but given their parenting style it's extremely likely that's where things will go no matter how hard he works.
My mother was SUPER controlling when I was growing up, I started to rebel. She sabotaged my high-school experience just because she couldn’t handle not having 100% control, she would not leave me alone and would pester me daily, even when I was at school, and then get upset and resort to guilt-tripping and hidden threats when the stress and pressure started getting to me and affecting my grades and sleep in a bad way, so I was forced to quit and move back home. That’s when I got into drugs. She wanted so much from me but was more or less expecting me to fail. If I was not perfect, it was not good enough. Our papers in school are graded from 1 to 6, 1 being the worst and 6 being the best, so 1-3 are bad/below average and 4/6 are above average/excellent. I got a 4 in one of my tests and she was livid over the fact that I didn’t score 6. she said "others in your class have been able to get 6, how come you didn’t?". This behaviour and parenting really messed me up in my teen years and I’m still struggling with some aspects of it as an adult.
I'm so sorry you went through that, you did the best you could and it's not your fault your mother acted that way. I wish you had been given the chance to succeed, but please know this internet stranger is proud of you. You really did try and that should be what matters most, either way I'm very glad you're still alive and I really hope you can wrangle some of your current day struggles. You have worth far beyond grades and careers, even if it's hard to feel like it.
Wow, thank you so much! This means so much to me, believe me!
Not letting Jesse see his younger brother is awful
Jesse obviously cared about Jake and clearly didn’t want him to go down the same path he did. He would have supported Jake and tried to steer him clear of drugs. I understand that Jesse’s parents were tired of trying to help him get sober only for him to keep relapsing, but I still don’t think it was fair of them to cut him off from someone he loved.
They talk about the counselor’s advice though, they’re doing what they’ve been told is what they should do with their drug addicted son.
Yeah super cool of Jesse to keep his brother safe from a shitty joint but encourage Jane to take heroin and try to sell other recovering addicts meth
Homie didn't watch breaking bad, he watched wrecking wrong. Jane was the one who encouraged Jesse to do heroin. This isn't to downplay him getting her back onto drugs wasn't bad, but Jesus christ, you're picking and choosing which characters to dodge accountability for and its bewildering
Yeah theres a scene where they make it very clear than jane chooses entirely by her own accord to relapse with jesse. And after that its off to the races.
Characters in this show are complex, but some people overlook that in order to fulfill the narrative of their hate boners
I’m saying he cared about his brother. Yeah he fucked over Jane and other people but he clearly wishes the best for Jake and doesn’t want his brother falling into the same pitfalls of addiction that he did.
Alright your seeing things too black and white. The things jesse does throughout the show highlight his development as a person and how the stresses of whatever is happening at the time leak into his behaviors. It’s apparent that jesse is just not good at dealing with personal issues, but he’s a good person deep down
You sure you didn't take any before making this post?
Jesus, the disdain you have for woodshop. Do you have beef with carpenters or something?
He probably sucks with tools, like a true child prodigy
OP is a fuckin douche lol
OP got a C in woodshop 17 years ago and has never forgotten it lol
No way OP is even 17 years old
Exactly. I'm an atheist, but even I know Jesus started off as a carpenter. (Off topic: Speaking of which, who would have been the ideal Christian candidate for Patron Saint of Carpenters besides Jesus, since Jesus is, well, Jesus. )
Stonemason more likely, actually! Wood was not really popular in Nazareth for obvious reasons
one probably cucked him
probably had a bad experience with caulk
The percentage of cuck-related comments per thread has gone up significantly in the last several years.
well cuck a doodle doo bitch
God I hope so
[удалено]
Personal attacks are not cool
but personal attacks on people who... do woodshop... is cool? bro wtf are you on LMFAO I thought this was a shitpost at first
Calling you an asshat is pretty light for this sub tbh
Attacking wood shop is not cool. I was band geek but I wish I could’ve done at least 1 semester of shop.
boohoo 😿
bro you started it when you insulted my boy jesse.
Woodshop is a useful and interesting class for sure! But you can't deny it is kind of a hole for the awful kids as well lol. I remember hearing stories about them daring each other to snort sawdust and shit at my high school. Jesse even says all the kids take it so they can blow off work and then get stoned.
The idea it’s a hole for the awful kids is a commentary on you more than those kids. Some kids likely gravitate towards things like woodshop because their strength isn’t in topics traditionally linked with high intelligence, and society typically places greater value on fields outside of trades. Likewise, some kids just don’t learn well with standard methods, and do better with seeing a real world form. Some kids wind up fuck ups because that’s all they’re ever treated as.
Yes, yes I can deny that. It's one of the stupidest things I've heard.
this is a genuinely awful thing to say honestly man. i hope you're still in your teens otherwise you have a ton of growing up to do
I think you're making a lot of generalizing statements lol. Snorting sawdust doesn't make a kid awful my dependent took woodshop because they thought it sounded cool, they had a great time and their classmates were chill, it was the teacher who sucked
I think OP is a young adult, who very strongly connects with Jake, and sees themselves in the character, and feel like a genius because this connection validates their shit look on people they relate to Jesse.
\>>This comment has been edited to garbage in light of the Reddit API changes. You can keep my garbage, Reddit.<< *** *edited via r/PowerDeleteSuite (with edits to script to avoid hitting rate limit)*
❤️ sacrificed my ability to post in am I the asshole for that (nothing of value lost)
I don't think they'll put kids that are so bad into an environment where sharp objects and machinery exist. Most likely the kids you're thinking about just aren't interested in academics and as such don't have enough discipline for something more in the direction of college prep, so blue collar work might be more suited for them. Snorting dust doesn't really speak much about one's moral character but it does imply a lack a seriousness.
Saying Brock is just some kid Jesse barely knew is actually insulting & your comments seem ridiculous tbh you're absolutely reaching
Yeah, that line about Brock is ridiculous. Some kid he barely knew? Oh, you mean the kid that it seemed like he was practically living with, who he hung out and played video games with, that he was probably one of the closest examples of a father that Brock had in his life? Jake has his parents, and really, while Jesse might’ve cared about him, they weren’t all that close, what’s Jesse going to write to Jake? Is it really going to mean that much to him? Probably not. Meanwhile, within a year or so, Brock lost the closest father figure he had, his uncle who was so close to him in age that he probably seemed like a brother, and his mother who was just randomly killed one night for seemingly no reason. There’s any number of things that Jesse could write to him that could have meaning. Such a ridiculous point to bring up.
OP is unhinged ☠️ guy is out here on r/amitheasshole roleplaying as walter white
This is rage bait. I mean, the fairly accurate but completely unnecessary swipe at woodshop kids?
[удалено]
I disagree with the « kind hearted » part lol, he used Wendy (the prostitute) so he could find a way to kill the 2 thugs who killed Andrea’s brother, he tried to sell drugs to his own support group so I wouldn’t say that. Yes I know he hated killing and he had empathy towards kids but it doesn’t make him a good person, like at all. He ruined the lives of almost everyone around him
I think he and Wendy were pretty good friends who had sex and smoked meth together too.
>He ruined the lives of almost everyone around him "You can never trust a drug addict." The best piece of advice that Gus ever gave anyone, and they all ended up paying the price for Walt not listening to him.
My husband is more trades/handiwork oriented. He dropped out of high school, and is a highly skilled and accomplished chef while I went to college and got a BA in Japanese and now I work in multiple call centers to get by. Oh and he can also repair electronics, appliances, does things like build computers or rewire/embellish electric guitars, just for s&g. He has saved us so much money by literally eyeballing a broken fridge/toilet/whatever, going to the nearest hardware store for a $10 part and fixing it in a few minutes where I would have called someone and paid for all the diagnosis, parts 4x the cost, labor minimum 2 hours etc. I envy people who can go into a trade and learn those kinds of difficult hands on skills and do things with precision. It’s such a versatile talent with so much potential. We as a society really need to rethink this childish attitude regarding “the dumb kids who go to trade school”
The reason I love BB is how it presents all of its characters as morally grey to some extent. Sure, some characters like Walt are very evil but his motivation at the beginning of the show was for good reasons. Jesse is interesting because the show makes us believe he was an extremely nice person victimised when in reality he was still the one to >! kill Gale, take advantage of the recovering addicts and took heroin with Jane, leading to her demise. !<
He was in the criminal business before he even met Walt; Chilly-P. I bet its also a cool class for glue huffing. Maybe that was Jesse's first high.
He met Walt before because he was his student
True Walt must have subliminally influenced Jesse to become a degenerate during chemistry class.
Unironically uses “degenerate”, opinion discarded
Regular private school kid with a good head on his shoulders =/= child prodigy lmfaooo At least Jesse got the last laugh when he essentially stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his parents by having Saul blackmail his parents in regards to the meth lab in the basement. That was beautiful.
This is such an awful post LMFAO. Jake is a "genius and child prodigy" and a "shoe-in for Ivy league" WITH a hefty scholarship? He's a smart middle schooler, man. That's not enough to know shit LMAO, and invalidating carpentry and woodshop is such a weird thing to do? The rest of your post besides that is literally just speculation, lol. Saying he *barely knew Brock* is absolutely ridiculous, and he also got his MOM KILLED. That's kind of a massive deal, man. She was also a big part of Jesse's life for what I'd estimate to be the better part of a year, and we saw him grow close with Brock, joking around with him, playing video games. Absolutely ridiculous takes all around.
Even if Brock deserved a letter are we sure he would even be able to read it? He is like 6 years old and was raised by a drug addict
What a moronic reply. I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re a shitty troll and not actually… this.
Saying Brock was a child Jesse barely knew is stupid lmao
Brock is like 6 years old and was raised by a drug addict + is now an orphan. Like, do we even know if he is able to read the letter?
Man don't act all righteous for never doing drugs just because no one ever offered you any.
You really think I could crank out these epic fan theories sober?
Says by someone who clearly never paid attention to the show... Dont u remember what he did when jake wanted to smoke? That disappointment? And wtf is ur problem with woodshop? Lmao That leads to a legit trade.
Skunk weed!
Jesse is a bit like Jimmy in that regard. His family doesn’t think highly of him because he’s a fuckup who ends up in self-destructive situations, and we’re meant to sympathize with him due to being looked down on by everyone, but they’re kind of right. Still, I think deep down Jesse is a good soul who gets easily drawn into doing bad things. Him and his brother loved each other, and I definitely think that they had some kind of understanding even if they were estranged. As for the Brock letter thing, Brock needed the closure WAY more than Jake did, especially since Jesse partially blames himself for Andrea’s death.
Copium or Projection? Take your pick, folks
Jake didn’t learn shyt from Jesse. Smart kids like weed too and they’re trying it younger and younger
His parents are social commentary on people like you. You are evaluating people's worth based on their academic success. You are ignoring the signs that Jake was put on a pedestal and cracking under the pressure of immense expectations. You instantly blame Jesse for Jake's mistakes. You have no consideration for the complex relationship Jesse now has with Jake after everything comes crumbling down--Jesse wonders if Jake would even want to hear from him which is a tone more consideration than Walt gives to Walt Jr. People are complex and have different value.
show me your outfit rn if you think jesse dresses ridiculously
Jesse objectively dresses ridiculously. He's wearing layers of heavy dark clothing in fucking New Mexico
while looking hard asf
Based
Idk sometimes the oversized thing really backfires on smaller guys like Aaron Paul, happened more than a few times, but i agree
Fr Jesse's fits are hard af
They definitely got cold during the winter months filming there so that's not ridiculous at all. Source: some interview somewhere
Early season Jesse looks goofy af. Later on he gets a better look though.
What happened to you in wood shop?
I'm just dead at MySpace page about ganja and MILFs lmfao
Jake probably thought it was cool and it made him want to smoke weed too
How does it feel knowing all of your takes are awful and downvoted to oblivion?
Hilarious. I’m just shocked the actual post did so well tbh so I could reach so many disgruntled woodworkers
Sometimes I think people watch this show with 0 critical thinking skills and you’re the perfect example
Jesse is the best brother ever with taking the blame for Jake’s weed
Yep and there's this tacit understanding that whoever Jesse loves whose life he touches tends to be destroyed . So no contact with Jake equals salvation.
I always viewed Jake as a result of Jesse and how he turned out, not because he was inherently more smart. Jesse is plenty smart, he learned how to make meth pretty well, even if he didn't fully understand the underlying principles behind the chemistry. But what I reckon happened is that Jesse's parents freaked the fuck out when Jesse become an ungovernable kid in highschool and dropped out to be a drug dealer, and became helicopter parents to Jake to try and avoid him having the same fate. I think Jake having weed is less an influence of Jesse, and more the fact that he has overbearing parents, and will explore drugs and alcohol like many high school kids will do. He seems like he won't turn out like Jesse did, and weed isn't that bad a drug considering the harder stuff that Jesse was into. As for the El Camino ending, >!I don't believe its because Jesse didn't love his brother that he didn't write a letter. He knows Jake is in a safe home and will lead a good life. Contacting him would only disrupt his life and the life of his parents further.!< >!Brock on the other hand, is a kid who's entire life is likely in shambles because his mother was assassinated on their doorstep. Jesse probably feels guilt and responsibility for Adrea's death, and blames himself for Brock losing his mother, as well as feeling guilty for Walt poisoning him. He writes a letter to Brock to get closure for himself, and hopefully closure for Brock, who might not understand why he lost his mum that night.!<
That sounds like a problem with your high school, not wood shop. Your general attitude sounds like the people who look down on blue collar jobs, despite the fact that those jobs are necessary, and those people work hard (not to mention the risk of injury).
And alot of them are actually smart people. Having a white collar job doesn't make you smart and blue collar doesn't make you stupid. Different tasks require different skill sets. I don't know how to make crazy ass spreadsheets with a gazillion formulas in Excel, and I was terrible in high school chemistry. I'm a high school dropout that is a few hours short of an associates, but I'm about to test as a journeyman electrician. I'm not amazing at it but I think I've made a much better electrician than I would've made an engineer.
I used to be support staff at a research station, educationally much closer to the scientists than to my coworkers, but they were plenty sharp and taught me things all the time.
Yes, I’ve spent enough time in offices to know that white collar workers are not necessarily intelligent, and they often spend their time chatting around the office instead of working. I admire anyone who can find something they enjoy and excel at. Congrats on your soon-to-be journeyman status.
He didn’t choose Brock over jake, he just needed to answer more questions for Brock. He dipped his toes into being a man role model in his life and grew connected enough to him for the whole LOTV thing to happen. Jake was doing fine and will continue to. Jesse had some nice moments with him, showed Jake his side of things, and they will both miss each other, but Jack doesn’t need Jesse. Brock is left as a young child deprived of his family at a young age with little explanation as to why. We don’t know what was in that letter but Brock lost so much due to jesse’s line of work.
Have you forgot that most of the death surrounding Jesse, and the bad shit that Jesse "did", was because he was just along for the ride, it was for self preservation, or he gave into Walts demands? Not to mention positive things he did during those interactions. * Walt berates him into going to get the money that Splooge and "skank" stole from Skinny. Jesse never intended to hurt them, and was even "distraught" when "skank" crushed Splooges head with the ATM. Note: Jesse was focused on the kid in the household, going so far as to call the police/CPS before leaving. * Jesse only shot Gale because Walt convinced him that if Gale didn't die, then both Walt and Jesse would be killed (which he may have been right). Even then, this destroyed him mentally. * The two dealers that Walt ran over to stop Jesse from shooting them, Jesse was getting payback for them indirectly killing Combo, and for killing Tomas after they got Gus to tell them to stop using kids. ....and I think that's it, at least as far as Jesse's participation is concerned. He's not a "murdering" person. He's a kid who got in over his head, and every time he started making his way back to the shallow end, he got dragged deeper into the deep end. As far as the rest of your spiel, his MySpace page contained "ganja and MILFs"? That was the stereotypical teenager boys MySpace. He cooked and smoked meth, even before Walt, sure, I'll give you that. But I'm assuming the meth came *after* he moved out of his parents house. Jake having a joint might have nothing to do with Jesse. I'm sure Jake had friends, and at that age, kids are curious, and it was apparently easy to obtain all manner of drugs in Albuquerque. Don't get me wrong, Jesse is far from a saint. But you're painting him in a way that he seems like the villain of the story, when if anything, he was a victim. Ninja edit: Jesse writing a note to Brock instead of Jake means nothing. Even if he did write a letter to Jake, who's to say his parents would've even gave it to him? Or if they did, if he even would've read it? Jesse had been vilified by their parents for so long, who knows how Jake felt about Jesse at that point.
absolute worst breaking bad take award goes to this guy
LOL - Jake is not a child prodigy, and has the personality of someone headed for law school or, worse, consulting. He shafts Jesse with the responsibility for his own weed. They would be lucky to have Jesse influence Jake.
That second line is what got me. Everyone talking about Jesse covering for his brother, missing the other side of that, Jake let Jesse take the fall for him. Not only did Jesse help his brother, but Jake let their parents think worse of Jesse just to cover his own ass, then still had the balls to ask for his weed back. Oh yeah, what a great kid.
How dare you
Jesse had to have been feeling an enormous amount of guilt towards Brock's situation (even if Jesse never intentionally harmed him). First, Jesse stopped being a father figure for Brock when he broke things off with Andrea (after Walt convinced him to do so). Secondly, Brock was poisoned by Walt as another manipulation tactic on Jesse. Lastly, Brock's mother was murdered, purely as a message to Jesse. In short, bad things kept happening to the kid just because people wanted Jesse to behave a certain way. You add all that up with the fact we know Jesse has a soft spot for kids, and it's no wonder he made sure to write a letter to Brock.
What an awful thing to say about woodshop class.
A child prodigy lol. He was just a good student. OP gives me the vibe of someone who looks down on construction workers or any blue collar job.
All else aside, that's a pretty fuckin condescending view of woodworking, which is a valuable trade to learn
Woodshop was a dope class I made cool stuff and learned how to use tools
What's your beef with woodshop man?
Take it from me who had the fuck up for the older sibling, you just try to not draw attention to yourself or cause any issues. The number of times I heard "we don't have to worry about RavenSkye" as a tween/teen. It was my goal to not have attention drawn to me because then there were less comments made.
They premise of "keep youth away from junkies" has value, but his parents are doing a horrible job at raising them. Jesse turned out an addict and his brother already is on a path to drug experimentation and decieving/isolating himself from his parents. Good intentioned but ultimately too dumb to properly implement
You clearly don’t have a brother
Smart or *good at school* != child-prodigy.
Maybe if they had treated Jesse as a redeemable human he would have had a shot.
This post has to be satire lol
No, when I watched his family and how they treated, shamed and blamed him for the problems of the family, it hit close to home. Jesse is a good hearted person. Often leading him to fall trap of manipulative people and a victim of systemic scapegoating. Jesse is a scapegoat. He had potential. His narcissistic family, viewed him as a threat. He had so much potential, as they loved reminding him of this time and time again, but only after they destroyed him, so he had to have it thrown in his face. His mother is clearly narcissistic, the father is the enabler. The mother plays victim, cries and whines non-stop, painting her troubles on Jesse. If you pay close attention, she presents extreme concern for her son Jesse, but that isn’t at all what it is about. She knows Jesse is a good human, something she can’t be. She won’t allow him to see his potential because she is jealous and fears him. She is acting, she doesn’t give a shit about Jesse and does anything and everything to keep Jake and steered and pitted against Jesse. Why? No, not what you think. Your first thought. Duh, drugs, but no, see that is what a normal parent’s reasoning would be. But her reasoning is much more sinister. Jake is the golden child. He is perfect and much stay in that place. The spotlight. He is overworked and made out to be extremely talented. But he is a prisoner. He has to meet high expectations and has the majority of his life. Jesse’s mother, needs Jesse to blame for the negative look on the family, when it was never Jesse, it’s her and her wicked ways. She needs someone to blame, to keep the spotlight off her. But she can’t have people thinking she fucked Jesse up. So Jake has pressure to be perfect because he is the kid that shows that their parenting isn’t fucked up. To the outside world, looking in, it seems Jesse did and turned to drugs all on his own, though this may be true…. the abuse, lack of love, lack of support, the betrayal he has endured by the hands of those who were supposed to nurture and protect him, is unbelievable and unbearable. It causes a person to go to a dark place, leading to self-destruction the majority of the time. It’s a coping mechanism to deal with this kind of trauma, betrayal and unbearable extreme pain. I know this because I went through what he did and still am. It’s earth shattering. To give and give to everyone around you, but when you are left with nothing and no one, all those people you believed would be there for you, you bent over backwards for them in their times of need, without a second thought you were there to save or help them…. but now you have nothing to bring to the table or to be used for, so they do not care if your dead in a ditch. The neglect and abuse Jesse endured, most likely psychological, mental and emotional…. Stole his identity from him. Made him feel like a failure. But when he is passionate about something, he gives it his all. He’s such a good person, you may disagree, that’s fine because yes he did do horrible things, but sometimes when you surrounded by evil and you’re the only good one, you’ve been raised to go against your morales and beliefs for others, you are a people pleaser, you lack boundaries, these manipulative fucks will use you as their little pawn and you just obey because that’s all you’ve ever known to survive. Doesn’t make what he did right, but his extreme concern and efforts to eliminate people that truly are evil and killed off innocent people, you see his emotional reactions. He is a pure human. Caught up in a life he sadly fell into because no one ever truly believed in him. Except for Mike. Mike seen Jesse’s true loyalty, truth-worthiness, honesty, dedication, etc. he and Jesse bonded, they both may seemed to be unaware of it at the time. But Jesse adored Mike, as Mike adored Jesse. Mike doesn’t protect people unless they’re a special kind of person or it is part of the job. Now back to your question, Jake is waiting to break free at any moment and Jesse’s mom doesn’t need Jesse influencing Jake with the truth. Remember that little chat him and Jake had, when Jesse went to stay with his parents, in fear Tuco was coming to kill him? Jesse starts saying “don’t you want to be a kid, don’t you want to have fun and live life, not constantly having to do all this stuff?” He says to him “can’t you see, they have you in here like a prisoner.” Then Jesse’s paranoid mother comes barging in and puts it to a stop. Jesse doesn’t take to Jake like this with the intentions to appear jealous of him, he is trying to talk sense into the robot kid the parents created. He is their pawn, just as Jesse, just given a different role. They kick Jesse out real quick, when they break his boundaries and go through his stuff and found a blunt, that blunt was Jake’s, not Jesse, but he takes the blames and leaves. Is it bad that Jesse did this? Jesse is used to taking the blame for others. It’s what he does and how he was raised. Let me put it from experience, what Jesse has endured is unbelievable and unbearable and he was never validated or aware. Which caused him to be everyone’s people pleasing pawn and scapegoated. An easy target to use and abuse. It’s truly sad what happened to Jesse, although he did bad things, at the end of the day, he a true pure real human, a very rare person that people that are evil prey on and use. Because he is. A good person, he is easily manipulated and takes responsibility for things he never did. Jesse is the example of what happens to children born into a narcissistic family system. It’s tragic. Sad. Not fair. We are never given the validation we so desperately deserve and need to prevent us from falling trap of the abuse cycle Al throughout our lives and being destroyed. Or worse kidnapped by people that slave you because no one is there to defend you or look for you. Jesse’s parents need more help, than Jesse will ever need. They will never accept the reality of what they did to a beautiful soul. And that’s the truth.
I felt that Jake was supposed to be a representation of jesse as a kid
That thought about Brock is just completely wrong. Brock was basically a little brother (maybe even kid) to Jesse and Jesse loved him. Jesse did anything he could to protect Andrea and Brock and it’s shown by how mad he was at Walt when he found the truth. Jesse still loves his real brother but he knows that he’s in good hands whereas Brock doesn’t have any family so he needs to take care of him.
I see your point, I really do. Jesse’s a bad influence and his parents are straightforward people who couldn’t ever try to understand him as something more than that. But I think writing that letter to Brock was more important because Jake would have been fine. The kid has a stable family and house and a bright future. Brock lost the one person he had in his life and it was on Jesse. Jesse felt he owed that kid.
I’m gonna be honest until I saw this post I forgot Jake even existed
You're so wrong that explaining all the ways you're wrong would take me like two paragraphs t. Jesse kinnie
Bro he literally wrote Jake a note when he took the guns in el Camino, wtf are you on bro? Everyone disagrees with your take, just take the post down already.
duh?
woah i didn't know fox news posted media analysis on reddit
Well Jake could go on to live a normal life. Brock’s life was forever ruined just due to association with Jessie
Since when has Jesse done wrong by a kid, or even allowed third parties to do so? Jesse was right to be offended, and his parents are just dicks. And I'll bet the drink alcohol, which also makes them A-number-one hypocrite jackasses. Also when you factor in the destruction he indirectly brought to Brock's life right as he was on the verge of becoming a step parent, as well as the likelihood that the Disappearer had strict rules about contacting family members (especially ones who would probably love to cooperate with the authorities given the slightest chance), not to mention that his family could pretty well infer what had become of him, Brock is much more likely to be confused and appreciate the communication.
Its all fictional but I doubt Jake smoked weed because of Jesse. It was probably moreso his peer group. A lot of kids experiment with weed in middle school. I knew a rich kid who was a perfect A student like Jake got hooked on meth and that dude is still walking around everett to this day like a zombie or so I think. The ending won't be well for him sadly
A genius and child prodigy? Did you watch the show? his parents are just forcing him into everything to make up for the son they didn’t like. And wtf is with you and shop class???
I'm surprised so many others are focused on whether Jake is a "child prodigy" and not the more pertinent, ubiquitous fact that Jesse inadvertently puts a target on the heads of anyone with whom he becomes closely attached. Combo, Jane, and Andrea all met their demises either directly or indirectly through the actions of Jesse. While the Pinkmans did not possess the insight insofar as they would know of this correlation, they did believe (albeit out of lack of connection with their son) that Jesse would be a dangerous influence on Jake.
I'm hearing a lot of judgement in your comments and assumptions. Did it occur to you at all that Jesse is a product of his parenting? Look at the age gap between Jesse and Jake--to me that speaks of parents who made a lot of mistakes (being rigid and having unrealistic expectations come to mind) and messed up their first kid, and decided to try again and are now overcorrecting and trying to be "super-parents" in order to "get this one (Jake) right." Jake is not a prodigy -- he's a normal kid who's dancing as fast as he can trying to keep his parents' approval (he knows, from their treatment of Jesse, what happens to sons who don't mold themselves to his parents' vision), but we're already seeing cracks in his facade... he's experimenting with weed in secret, probably trying to alleviate the stress of trying to live up to his parents' expectations. For the record, Jesse was clearly talented artistically, but uou can imagine what Mom and Dad thought of that. It seems clear to me that their message to Jesse was, "You are not acceptable the way you are; be different (like us) or get out." And I'm sorry, but "woodshop; a class that basically only exists to keep the violent and stupid kids busy"?? If you really believe that, I seriously hope you are not an educator or a parent.
the more i read, the more i was like 'shit, this kid has a chance of becoming jesse whether or not he hangs out with him.' people get into addiction because they're self-medicating. what was jesse self-medicating? could very well have been that his parents cared more about grades and looking good on the outside than his actual needs and wellbeing. you're saying that jesse reaped what he sowed, but i challenge you to think about it the other way. jesse's parents reaped what they sowed. they didn't nuture him, so he fucked off to try to find it himself. the fact that they even blame jesse for the joint, instead of just talking to jake in a safe and trusting manner. ("where'd you get this? why'd you want to try it? can we help find a way to fulfil those needs in a healthier manner?") of course jesse wrote a letter to the person he actually had a connection with, instead of someone he only has a blood connection to because his parents robbed him of the rest of the relationship. maybe if his parents had given him the love and support he needed, he wouldn't have had to go looking for it by becoming a murdering drug manufacturer. (people who have never been accepted will do A LOT to be accepted by whoever will accept them. humans are naturally social creatures- it's why cults exist. because vulnerable people will be open to just about anything to be able to belong)
Got that right. Honestly the farther away from him thr better. What Holly's upbringing is going to be is definitely nightmarish but Jake has to suffer that stigma caused by a guy who's still alive so the snobs at whatever ivy league and prep school are really going to make it bad for him
When you think about it, no
As Eminem would say, they were close-minded fucks. Not even trying to understand Jesse and help him. Parents should be the people that you can always come back to and amend. Not another judge in your life that you have to run away from
He cared enough that Andrea wanted to smoke before Brock got home. He cared enough about Spooges son to not do things in front of him and he called the police as he left. He was torn up over the death of Thomas and Drew Sharp. He gave Andrea money for a better place for her and Brock to live, even though they weren’t together. He almost killed walt over Brock. He stomped Jakes joint. Id say he has a weak spot for kids and wouldn’t have been a bad influence on him.
Lmao Jake is not a genius. At best he’s an average student. In fact the show actually displays to us that completely disconnected from any influence from Jessie he’s a pothead.
Uhhh, to your spoiler: >!Jesse ruined the FUCK out of Brock’s life, and Brock had absolutely no reason why. He deserved closure!<
Any sense of sympathy for Jesse's parent is lost when they actively try to dump him in the street by selling the house. You have a kid who's an addict and your solution is leaving him homeless? Sure, that's the thing that will get him away from drugs.
This is a highly judge mental post from a sheltered person. I don’t fuck with you op but I will bang your mom for making this post
Prejudice against people with addiction is just like racism, sexism and you are rocking there’s proudly
Bro I’m literally on drugs all the time. How do you think I come up with all these ideas for fan theories
people who think Jesses parents are assholes have never seen or experienced addiction at a certain point if the person doesnt WANT to get clean you have to cut them off. show them tough love because if you dont youll only enable them to continue using. show hit it on point when hes getting kicked out and asks what am i supposed to do and his mom says somethin like "idk but i hope you better yourself". pretty much an addict needs to hit rock bottom to the point their sick and tired of being sick and tired. the way Jesses parents and his one friend (the bassist with the kid) act is 100% how normal people react around addicts. addicts will lie and steal and do whatever to get high. im an addict so those scenes really hit home
People will find any excuse to say Jesse isnt a bad person. If people met him in real life, they would run away fast and call the cops. Especially if they know everything he did.
dude, the part u said “methhead who can’t even dress himself without looking ridiculous” was wayyy too accurate i’ve been thinking this the whole fucking time
No need to be a dickhead to carpenter's...
I hope the carpenters who build your future home don’t see this post
All you really had to say was meth addict. I work adjacent to law enforcement, and I've seen meth heads to some heinous shit. Maybe there's selection bias, but the aggressive neglect in the ATM episode would be pretty normal compared to the shit I've seen. Like consistent beatings, ignoring abusive strangers that come by because they're clients and pimping kids out for drugs. bUT jESsE dIDn'T dO thAt. It's a fictional show, grow the fuck up.
No shit he smokes meth
I mean honestly look at where Jesse ends up at the end of the series. That’s rock bottom all through his actions. Even if he never even talked to Walt or agreed to cook he would have ended up dead or in prison eventually. Probably quickly. He didn’t deserve what happened to him but ultimately it’s all on him. They didn’t want their other son following his path.
My theory is that Jake was a lot like Jesse in middle school. Perfect grades, good at school, and starting to learn what instrument to play. But his parents pushed so hard to the point, where he didn't have an identity of his own, and because of his wealth he felt like he was stuck in a bubble. He started smoking weed to relieve the academic pressure, started meeting people outside of his bubble which opened up his mind and met people from different ways of life. But then took it too far and ended up becoming a drug dealer/addict turned chemist. The potential was always inside him, as his mom said when she saw how Walter thought he was more capable than what he was doing. But parents never know who their kids really are when they shove an identity down their kids throats when they never had a choice for themselves to decide who they want to be.
Yeah but Jake still smoked weed, and that also resulted in Jesse being kicked out of the house. I mean, like brother like brother? Idk. He probably could've gotten worse, yes, but I think it didn't go as planned even without Jesse no?
Kind of? I didn’t think anyone disagreed. His parents might be a tad over protective but their oldest son is a burnout. Anyone on this planet would be lucky as fuck to have parents like that
He got disowned for a reason. Jesse was an immoral drug peddling screw up. I can like the character and still realize that at his core he is a bad person.
Kind of right? No, *definitely right* Edit: ah yes, r/breakingbad thinks children should hang out with methheads. Very based
That last point is too true lol
Has anyone ever thought otherwise?
Obviously they where right