Walter White's relationship with love and possession. Makes me insane. Like, the way that he conflates caring about someone with needing to control them, and how his desire to protect people equally leads to a desire to have power over them. From episode 1, Walter's stated aim in everything he does is to protect his family, but in his efforts to do that, he also will never skip out on an opportunity to remind them that he has them completely under his thumb. Anything that could be a threat to his unquestioned power over them is something that he has to dismantle. This becomes especially clear in scenes like the party where he forces Flynn to drink until he vomits, ("this is MY son, MY house"), when he reacts like he'd been horribly insulted when he learns that Flynn wasn't going by Walter Jr. anymore, or when he takes away all of Skyler's agency -- in her words, keeping her as his hostage. Still, throughout all this, it's clear that Walter doesn't see the harm this has caused to his family, even going as far as to be shocked when his wife and son cower away from him in fear in ozymandias. His family is a commodity to him, and as long as he has them in his life, regardless of how traumatized and horrified they are, he can internally believe that he has his perfect storybook family, where he gets to be the provider and unquestioned leader. He can still play house with his wife, even if she has lost every shred of love for him, if she has no choice but to stay. He extends this same distorted care towards Jesse, whom he continually treats like a commodity, and seems fixated on controlling throughout the course of the series. Whenever any other characters exert a contrasting influence over Jesse, Walter absolutely LOATHES it. While at first he could potentially internally dismiss this as looking out for Jesse or "knowing what's best for him," by the time that walt is manipulating Jesse not to stay with Andrea, and lashing out at mike for drawing jesse away from the business, it's clear that he's moved beyond protectiveness into a blatant need to be the only influence in jesses life. This is especially blatant when he tells gus that the reason he keeps jesse around is because "he does what I say." Ultimately, Walter treats everyone in his life like a commodity for him to use, caring about their safety and happiness only as far as it benefits him, or improves his image. One of Hank's lines when he's trying to convince jesse that walter cares about him ironically emphasizes this point further, when he says something along the lines of "look at all the lengths he'll go to to convince you he's not such a bad guy." Rather than earning people's trust and respect, walter performs an identity that others can trust, not for their benefit, but for his own. Everyone in his life is an accessory to him, and as long as he has control over them, only then can he love them.
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