Resumo

The present work seeks to analyze the construction of Walter White / Heisenberg in Breaking Bad (2008-2013) created by Vince Gilligan. The premise is that the character presented in the first episode transforms radically and in a unique way, losing its original characteristics.
Unlike other contemporary series, in which a character evolves, matures or adds new attributes to his composition, it can be said that Walter White, an honest and humble family father and chemistry’s teacher, becomes a Heisenberg, a producer of methamphetamine and international trafficker. His values and goals are being changed so significantly that the codename used by him to difficult for the police his recognition, ends up naming a kind of new character.
This transformation is one of the main narrative arcs of the series, which confers a rare feature to Breaking Bad. The majority of audiovisual works end up creating protagonists with great emotional complexity, but with fixed and immutable constructive characteristics. This option allows turning points, false leads and other strategies, precisely by rescuing the character’s original attributes.
The elements to be analyzed are:
• The presentation of the character in the first episodes - its role in attribution to fixation of original attributes;
• Physical attributes and their evolution;
• Emotional attributes, personality and values and their evolution;
• Actions that determine the character’s construction.
Still, other series will be cited to demonstrate the difference between Walter White / Heisenberg and other protagonists.