Summary

• The most hated Breaking Bad characters were those whose villainy surpassed Walter White's, while others were seen as distracting from the main story.
• Characters like Declan and Don Eladio earned the ire of viewers due to their arrogance and slimy behavior.
• Some fans couldn't get behind Walter White Jr. due to his one-dimensional portrayal and lack of satisfying resolution compared to other characters.

Walter White's shocking arc took him from mild-mannered family man to cold-blooded killer, but he was still not the most hated character in Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is one of the most acclaimed TV shows of all time, and its cast of characters ranks among the ensembles of the greatest crime sagas ever. Many of its characters have become TV icons, with fans loving them even with their complicated arcs. However, some of the characters are absolutely detested by the show's fanbase, making an interesting collection of the most hated Breaking Bad characters.

While Walter White killed many people on Breaking Bad, including innocents, he was a fascinating character who was impossible to hate as a result. The Breaking Bad characters fans actually hated were those whose villainy even surpassed Walt's evil deeds. Others were supporting characters that fans felt were distracting from the more interesting elements of the series. Not all the most hated Breaking Bad characters deserved that level of disdain, but the opinions towards them are certainly too strong to ignore.

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15 Declan

Played By Louis Ferreira

Declan (Louise Ferreira) is a Breaking Bad character who is almost too forgettable to have strong feelings for, but he managed to earn the ire of viewers in his short time on the show. Declan is a drug dealer who looks to set up his own operation when Gus Fring is killed. Walt, Jesse, and Mike agree to meet with Declan to make a deal to sell their operation to him and his crew.

Unfortunately for Declan, he comes in with far too much confidence, acting like he is the big shot in town. Watching Walt shrink Declan's ego and make him refer to him as Heisenberg is one of the most memorable scenes in the series and makes Declan into a feeble player in the meth business who is quickly taken out.

14 Don Eladio

Played By Steven Bauer

The truly great villains of Breaking Bad do a great job of making the audience fear them or hate their actions, yet enjoy watching them too much. Both Gus and Hector are good examples of evil characters who the audience can still root for to get their revenge. In Hector's case, his revenge against Gus was satisfying, but Gus's revenge against Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) was even better.

Don Eladio is a perfect slimy villain as he greets everyone with a smile and the mask that they are all friends. The fact that Eladio dons this friendly persona before having Gus's partner Max killed in front of him makes him immediately more disdainful than Gus. He carries himself in a carefree way as if he is the most untouchable man in the world and it is a lot of fun to see Gus prove him wrong.

13 Walter White Jr.

Played By RJ Mitte

Despite being Walt's son, a lot of fans couldn't get behind Walter Jr. for a variety of reasons. Some people thought he was annoying and whiny, perhaps showing the writers' struggles with writing the show's only teenage character. Some thought he was too one-dimensional to be interesting (eating breakfast seemed to be his primary motivation) and some thought that actor RJ Mitte wasn't given enough material to work with compared to the rest of the ensemble. He seemed to be pushed to the background in later seasons and didn't get the satisfying resolution other key characters received.

12 Skyler White

Played By Anna Gunn

For a character so expertly written and so wonderfully performed by Anna Gunn to be considered the most hated character in Breaking Bad by some fans is hard to believe. The fan backlash to Skyler is complicated and some of it comes from a toxic corner of the fandom who will cheer on Walt murdering people but condemn Skyler as a hypocrite for laundering money.

However, that is not to say there weren't some who had legitimate criticisms of the character, from her less compelling storylines in the early seasons to her baffling decisions like using Walt's drug money to pay off Ted Beneke's tax issues. She is also far from innocent as Skyler learned about Walt's crimes and was a willing participant to a degree. Though she is a character who made the show better, she just didn't click with some viewers.

11 Gretchen & Elliott Schwartz

Played By Jessica Hecht & Adam Godley

Gretchen (Jessica Hecht) and Elliott (Adama Godley) are among the most hated Breaking Bad characters because the viewers see them through Walt's point of view. For much of the series, Walt clearly holds contempt for their accomplishments, their shared history, and their seemingly selfish behavior. They're both easy characters to dislike from just knowing them on the surface level.

They offer to help Walt when learning of his health issues, but as audiences learn more about the history of the trio, it feels like this is more about them trying to rid themselves of guilt over what they did to Walt. After publicly lying about Walt's role in their company, it was an oddly triumphant moment when Walt threatened them in the finale and forced them to provide for his family.

10 Lydia Rodarte-Quayle

Played By Laura Fraser

Lydia (Laura Fraser) is a late-stage addition to the show, but she still managed to make an impact and become one of the most disliked Breaking Bad characters. Lydia wasn't introduced until season 5, as she and Madrigal were the suppliers of Gustavo Fring's methylamine. Once Gus' empire collapsed because of Walt, she transitioned to his empire.

The hate for Lydia falls into two categories. Some hate her as a villain, as she goes straight to murder as an option just as often as the most violent gangsters in the show whilst never doing the dirty work herself. Others hate her because she was a late addition to the show and needed to fill the shoes of the mighty Gus Fring and she was certainly no Gus.

9 Jack Welker

Played By Michael Bowen

The problems with Jack (Michael Bowen) in Breaking Bad are largely the same problems with Lydia. That said, Jack is more of a traditional villain than Lydia and holds more villainous qualities. He directly murders various people, he holds Jesse prisoner at his compound, and he is the leader of a white supremacist gang. He doesn't have many redeeming qualities but therein lies the problem.

For a show as complex and rich in characterization as Breaking Bad, Jack Welker was a little too one-dimensional for some fans' tastes, and they didn't enjoy him as a primary antagonist. Yet he serves his purpose as someone worse than Walt who the audience wants to see taken down in Walt's final blaze of glory.

8 Kenny

Played By Kevin Rankin

As one of Jack Welker's most trusted men, Kenny (Kevin Rankin) has all of Jack's worst qualities whilst also coming off as even less refined. He's a cold-blooded killer and an eager participant in some of the show's worst acts, including Jesse's imprisonment and Hank's death. The character left such an impression on fans that he made an appearance in the follow-up movie, El Camino, where he's confirmed to be as sadistic as the worst members of his murderous gang. Once again, a ruthless neo-Nazi was an easy villain to root against in Breaking Bad's final season.

7 Ted Beneke

Played By Christopher Cousins

When Ted (Christophert Cousins) disappeared from Breaking Bad in season 5, many viewers sighed with relief as many felt two seasons of him was more than enough. The fans hated Ted for two primary reasons, his stupidity and his subplot. Ted's reluctance to pay the IRS got on many fans' nerves, adding seemingly contrived tension to the show.

Unfortunately, his storyline was also intrinsically linked to Skyler, and many people found it boring. The IRS part of the plot was engaging enough (and gave fans the fantastic ending to "Crawl Space"), but that whole "will they won't they" aspect with Skyler was a little too conventional for such an outstanding show.

6 Leonel and Marco Salamanca a.k.a. The Cousins

Played By Daniel Moncada & Luis Moncada

The Salamanca cousins certainly made for an imposing duo and were at the center of some of the most intense moments in Breaking Bad. However, there are also a lot of fans who felt the characters didn't fit well in the tone of the show. Breaking Bad is often nuanced and complex, whereas the Cousins (Daniel and Luis Moncada) were like characters straight out of a corny action movie.

The Cousins are among the most hated Breaking Bad characters because they have zero personality and rarely speak, making them seem like twin versions of a Terminator. However, this also helped make the sequence in which they attack and are subsequently defeated by Hank all the more thrilling and shocking.

5 Ken

Played By Kyle Bornheimer

Some of the most hated Breaking Bad characters managed to annoy fans with even a small appearance. Ken (Kyle Bornheimer) is perhaps better known as The Bluetooth Guy and is one of the sleaziest characters in Breaking Bad's fictional universe, which is an accomplishment in itself. Ken was seen in the first season episode "Cancer Man," and he was such a successful character to hate that the character returned in Better Call Saul to further fulfill his role as an loathed antagonist.

4 Spooge

Played By David Ury

A lot like Ken, Spooge (David Ury) is just a thoroughly unlikable human being who the Breaking Bad audience is supposed to be put off by. He's a small-time criminal who robs the beloved Skinny P at knifepoint, causing Jesse to track Spooge down at Walt's behest to get back the money that was taken and send a message.

Spooge is a grotesque character in appearance and behavior with the audience feeling unclean just from watching him. While putting Jesse in danger through his own greed and ill-fated crimes, the conditions he leaves his young son to live in are enough to make Spooge's grisly demise feel earned.

3 Marie Schrader

Played By Betsy Brandt

Marie (Betsy Brandt) is certainly a well-meaning person deep down, but she often comes off as an overbearing Breaking Bad character who shares all the most negative qualities of her sister, Skyler White. In the early seasons of the show, she is particularly meanspirited towards Skyler, insulting her and unwilling to be happy for her.

While she softens in time and is shown to be a genuinely caring person, she never gets the worthwhile subplots that the other supporting characters in the series get. The storyline in which Marie is revealed to be addicted to shoplifting is particularly baffling and feels like the show didn't know how to use her.

2 Mr. & Mrs. Pinkman

Played By Michael Bofshever & Tess Harper

Jesse Pinkman's parents were the kind of characters who did things that made them easy to dislike in Breaking Bad, even if it was also easy to see their reasoning. Before the events of the show, it is clear that Jesse betrayed the trust of his parents with his drug lifestyle to the point that they felt they could not believe anything he said.

However, when the audience only sees Jesse struggling and in need of help only to get rejected by his parents, they seem cold and uncaring. Jesse may have hurt them in the past, but the audience loves Jesse and won't stand for anyone who mistreats him.

1 Todd Alquist

Played By Jesse Plemons

Breaking Bad had many antagonists throughout its run, but none were as repulsive as Todd (Jesse Plemons). Many fans found Todd a compelling character in no small part thanks to Jesse Plemons' brilliant performance. However, his actions were completely reprehensible and unforgivable, like imprisoning and torturing Jesse and murdering innocent people with no willing participation in the criminal underworld.

Todd murders a young boy and the single mother whom Jesse was dating without hesitation. Yet he is also so disturbed that he doesn't really see these actions as wrong, just regrettable. Even the most immoral characters on the show had some kind of code and knew where to draw the line, but Todd comes off as a shell of a human who isn't afraid to cross them at all.