Breaking Bad & Evangelion

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dragon1604
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Breaking Bad & Evangelion

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Postby dragon1604 » Tue Sep 03, 2013 2:48 pm

(What would Vince Gilligan do?)


Not sure how many fans of NGE and its universe are also fans of Breaking Bad, but if there is a sizable and vocal amount out there, voice your opinion!

Does anyone else get an NGE vibe from Breaking Bad? Obviously BB is live-action and NGE is animated, but the cinematography, omission of plot developments and heavy-heartedness all seem to ring parallel to me.

There are many shots of the characters over the course of BB that illustrate their tense emotions, similar to those in Eva. Although many are done in Eva simply for the sake of production value or lack thereof, it is done for artistic and symbolic effect in BB.

Also, there are parallels drawn between many disparate characters in both series. For example, Walt and Jesse are the protagonists/antagonists of BB. Their relationship echoes Gendo and Shinji's, in many ways. First off, Walt is to Jesse as Gendo is to Shinji; but at some point, they each realize that the other is the one with actual power. They also become more similar to each other as more plot is revealed to them.

That being said, do you think Vince Gilligan would do a good job of bringing the NGE universe to (literal) life?

[Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I didn't feel it fit in the "Movies that remind you of NGE" thread as BB is a tv show and this is slightly more specific]
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Postby Ornette » Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:03 pm

I watch Breaking Bad and am up to date, but I have found nothing in the show that remotely reminds me of NGE, other than being generally pretty good shows.

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Postby Guy Nacks » Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:14 pm

I obviously am a big fan of Breaking Bad given my avatar. I actually just recently got into it, marathoning every episode up to last week's in about a week and a half.

My response to this is basically what Ornette said....I wasn't reminded once of Evangelion the entire time.

The things that remind me of Evangelion generally are:

Introspective scenes/mindscapes
Depressed young protagonists/characters with mental issues that are explored throughout the series
Giant mechas
Diverse monsters from another dimension
Soundtrack dissonance


Not one of these happened with enough potency in Breaking Bad for me to really think "wow that feels like evangelion!"

The series finale of House on the other hand......well that felt very EOTV inspired in certain parts. With House being accosted by various people he knows/knew in hallucinations debating whether or not he should live or die in that burning building.
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Postby NemZ » Tue Sep 03, 2013 5:28 pm

True, though it was a glaring weakness of the House finale that they couldn't get more former cast members back for the hallucination scenes. Kuddy, Cutner and Amber being obvious.

The only thing Breaking Bad reminds me in relation to Eva is maybe a parallel between Walt and Gendo totally losing themselves to their new endeavors, but even that's a hell of a stretch. Though the idea of pairing Gendo up with Jessie as his second in command... "Get in the robot, bitch!"
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Postby dragon1604 » Tue Sep 03, 2013 7:54 pm

Hmm, I guess when people think of NGE they generally think of the mindfuckery and battles, if not the relationships between the characters.


Idk, I guess it's mostly from a cinematography standpoint. There is very deep-rooted symbolism in both NGE and Breaking Bad. In fact, Breaking Bad is probably the only show that has written in so much symbolism that it's flat-out spells out the plot.

I guess my TL;DR explanation is: both shows use artistic framings of the characters in their respective environments, doing something outwardly trivial, but subtextually representative of their situation.

Also, both make heavy use of colors assigned to characters, or situations. Maybe there's nothing at all in common between the two, other than what a previous poster said: they're both well-written and well-executed shows, which generally implies good in-depth writing of scenes and dialogue.

TL;DR;TL;DR: Both shows have way more going on under the surface than almost anything on both the small and silver screens.
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Postby Ænimal » Tue Sep 03, 2013 9:14 pm

Breaking Bad is about change; Evangelion is about hope (or the absolute lack thereof)

at least that's the way i see it

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Postby Quiddity » Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:43 pm

Breaking Bad is an excellent show and I would agree with those who consider it the best show on television. I will miss it greatly once it is off the air. But I am happy they are ending it on their own terms. Vince Gilligan really developed in the industry through The X-Files, and that show is the perfect example of a show that went on far longer than it should have and didn't really go out on its own terms. I am happy to see that unlike Chris Carter, he is not letting that happen.

Anyway, I think you're really grasping at strings with the Evangelion comparison. I think you could argue at times that Jesse has a desire for approval from his 'father figure' Walt, similar to the way that Shinji so desperately wants approval from his actual father. But that's to a much smaller extent than it is with Shinji. Frankly I find very little in their relationship that parallels the Shinji-Gendou one. The illustration of the character's 'tense' emotions is very common in the entertainment medium.
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Postby Ornette » Wed Sep 04, 2013 12:18 am

View Original Postdragon1604 wrote:Hmm, I guess when people think of NGE they generally think of the mindfuckery and battles, if not the relationships between the characters.

I wouldn't say any of that is the real reason for any lack of connection, as I don't think of neither battles nor mindfuckery when it comes to Evangelion. A lot of the the things that are similar between the two are simply way too universal for there to be a "Oh, this is definitely Evangelion right here". Can probably think of a dozen of other things, anime or whatever, before I even think of Evangelion.


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