Analyzing Evil: Gustavo "Gus" Fring From Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the 94th episode of analyzing evil featuring gus fring from better call saul and breaking bad one of the classiest and most ruthless villains in television history gus fring is the man we all hate to love a suave and sophisticated gentleman wielding enormous power who will stop at nothing to achieve his dark aims and in this video we're going to cover everything from his origins to the extensive amount of crimes committed by this meticulous monster so we might discover just how deep the evil of gustavo fring runs now there are plenty of great characters to cover in the breaking bad universe but there are three that i haven't gotten to yet that really stand out above the rest as far as deserving an analysis goes those being of course gus but also saul goodman and lalo salamanca so with that in mind the next two videos following this one are going to be about saul and lalo respectively and at least for the foreseeable future i won't be covering any more characters from either one of these series so i hope that these next three videos give you all the breaking bad and better call us all fix you've been craving since the video on walter was released over a year ago but before we begin it's finally time for us to talk about the sponsory as sponsor to ever sponsor eyes the sponsored raid shadow legends with hundreds of artifacts to equip and over 600 champions with their own set of unique skills to collect raid offers you engage gameplay with hundreds of hours of replayability and if i had to pick the top three reasons to play raid it'd be the visuals which are above and beyond what you'd expect a mobile game to have the story which is pretty in-depth and fun to explore and of course the over 600 champions available to unlock and this month raids just released a new feature awakening and a brutal new dungeon the iron twins fortress take down the iron twins and you'll be able to awaken your champions which lets you choose a powerful 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gus and you're probably familiar with the disclaimer i'm about to give but for those of you who aren't there's a couple things i'd like to address before we continue with this video the first of those things being drugs i'm not here to comment on the morality of using drugs or whether or not they should be illegal i'm aware that plenty legitimate businesses do terrible things in this world and opinions on this subject are varied but i think we can all agree that meth isn't exactly the greatest thing in the world and whether legitimate or not the world would probably be a much better place without it in this video we're examining gus and although meth and other drugs are a large component of his business it's only a vehicle gus uses to accomplish his other nefarious goals the second thing i'd like to touch on is crime which can be a nuanced subject depending on the circumstances for example robbing a bank may not seem like it's too terrible a crime to commit after all as spooj attempts to argue in breaking bad it's a victimless crime if nobody's hurt as the banks are insured so what's the harm but there are so many other factors that you need to consider in such a scenario when you rob a bank you're not just taking the money but you're also putting the lives of civilians and officers of the law at risk and that includes the tellers bankers customers and pedestrians if there's a chase following the robbery and so on and so forth the same could be said for murder that's committed as the result of or in service two criminal enterprises nobody joins the mafia and assumes that it's going to be all daisies and roses everyone participating in these activities knows the rules of the game so to speak and in that way some of the murders a person may commit while partaking in criminal activity may be more forgivable in a sense as the only people you may be hurting are other criminals however as with robbing a bank there are many facets to crime that cause horrible repercussions for people who aren't involved in these endeavors and the act of upholding a culture and business that deals in the harm or endangerment of individuals whether they be willful participants or not is something that shouldn't be taken lightly or encouraged i will be pointing out the crimes he commits in this series that are understandable and perhaps forgivable in a sense but i wanted to make these two notions clear before proceeding with this video now without further ado let's begin gustavo fring's past is largely a mystery born april 26 1958 in chile gustavo grew up incredibly poor stating to hector at his sick bed that his family barely had anything to eat on a daily basis and that they were always hungry here gus explains that in his desire to lift his family out of poverty he tended to a wasting lucuma tree that his family considered a lost cause eventually reinvigorating it and using its fruit to both keep his family fed in the short term and to make a living selling the fruit to keep his family out of poverty now aside from this story and another part of it that we'll be talking about a bit later on we know precious little about gus's life from the time he was a child until his escape from chile in 1986 but there are a few inferences we can make about his background that might shed some light on how he became who he is and why he had to flee and it all starts with his german influences during his tenure as the chicken man gus's chain of restaurants were not solely owned by him they were a subsidiary of the madrigal electromotive corporation a german conglomerate that oversaw numerous business endeavors initially it seems quite strange that a fast food chain based in new mexico and operated by chilean would be owned by a german company but in episode 7 of season 5 we learned that the head of madrigal's restaurant division peter schuller was a long time associate of gus's stretching all the way back to his time in chile and he seems to have been a close one at that considering gus consoles to distraught peter during the initial trouble with lalo by reassuring him that the strength he once held when they had their backs to the wall in chile is still alive and well within him now initially you might think that gus and peter became associates later in life when they were both involved in whatever their professions were at the time but there are a lot of possibilities to be found in this scenario for example germany and chile have had a long history of relations stretching back almost two centuries and there are many ways in which gus could have come in contact with a german diaspora in chile the area he lived in could have had a sizable german population he could have had business dealings with them selling his lakuma fruits or perhaps he might have mingled with german students at the university he likely attended regardless of how he came into contact with his german friends what matters most here is what happened in chile in 1973 the coup d'etat against president salvador allende that was orchestrated by augusto pinochet and his military junta during this time many chileans chose to flee from chile and 7 000 of those refugees chose to find asylum in germany and many of them form solidarity groups that would endeavor to bring down the pinochet regime from afar now with this information comes a few more possibilities and we need to keep in mind that at the time of pinochet's ascent to power gus was only 15 years old which limits these possibilities to a certain degree so it could be that gus and his family were amongst the seven thousand who fled to germany because of their already established german contacts and from there he joined one of these resistance groups and climbed quite high in the ranks eventually reaching the point where he was able to return to chile as a saboteur in the chilean government working with his friend peter schuler to do what they could to topple pinochet from the inside or perhaps gus after becoming a successful lakuma salesman remained in chile and eventually managed to put himself through school where he met peter schuler after which with assistance from his german contacts he joined the pinochet government in order to again bring it down from the inside however what we're missing here is motivation perhaps fighting for freedom against an oppressive regime was enough motivation for gus to take action against pinochet but that seems unlikely as gus doesn't exactly seem like the freedom fighter type therefore i think we can find all the motivation gus needed for going against pinochet by examining the piece of the story he told the hector of his childhood that i haven't mentioned yet which is the greatest insight we've ever been given into what kind of man gustavo fring is during this tale gus informs hector that not long after he had begun to cultivate his lakuma tree a kawati which is a small animal in the raccoon family native to south and central america ate much of the fruit off of his tree so gus built a snare to capture the kawati to rid his family's livelihood of this interloper only the kawati thresh so hard that it broke free from its snare and hid beneath gus's house so gus waited for it into the night not making so much as a sound as he concentrated all of his energy on capturing this creature which he eventually did afterwards keeping it as a pet until it died remarking that the merciful thing would have been to kill it now this story tells us two very important things about what kind of man gus is first is that gus is the kind of man who will never suffer any slights against this person in this situation it's telling that gus rather than taking preventative measures to protect his tree in the long run he instead chose to set a trap for the specific kawate and teach it a lesson by keeping it as a pet and lording over it as its triumphant master taking measures to eliminate the specific pest in this instance by trapping it isn't exactly an unheard of thing but within gus it adds that extra bit of personal touch that we come to expect from him over the course of this series the second thing to note here is gus's tenacity and will to see any vision he might have through to completion no matter the odds stacked against him specifically his unwavering dedication to exacting his revenge upon those who have wronged him rather than simply setting another trap for the kawati gus watched for this creature like a hawk all through the night in order to ensure that he could deal with it in the most sadistically satisfying way possible these two aspects of gus drive his entire character and they serve as fuel for the one thing that is gus's motivation for everything he does revenge the most crucial aspect of his character that i'll be referring back to often as we progress through this video with that in mind it would make sense then that gus decided to become a part of the chilean resistance out of a desire to exact revenge against the pinochet regime as again i don't think a man like us would be too interested in fighting for freedom for freedom's sake so then in this instance who was he trying to avenge i believe the answer to that is his family aside from this conversation with hector we never hear a word about gus's family throughout this series and though that could be because they disowned him because of his sexual orientation which we'll touch on a bit later i think it's possible that gus's family might have perished in one way or another at the hands of the pinochet regime perhaps his brothers fought in the army and met their end there or maybe his family was involved in a resistance effort and they were rounded up and executed by pinochet secret police the dina the direction de intelligencia nacional or as it was known after 1977 the cni or central nacional de informaciones so considering that gus was only 15 years old at the time of pinochet's ascent to power i think it's possible that gus's family suffered injustice at the hands of the regime over the course of many years perhaps gus attended college in chile germany or both and over the years the members of his family were gradually murdered by the regime or died fighting for it in unjust wars and conflicts and while all of us would be justified in our anger at a despotic regime's destruction of the lives of our families gus being gus took it to the next level and decided to concentrate his efforts on exacting ultimate revenge against the pinochet regime peter schuler might have been in the same boat as gus as again chilean german relations go back a long way and though it's still possible that gus might have met peter in germany it's far more likely that gus met peter in chile during his childhood or when he attended university and upon meeting peter he found in him a kindred spirit who had also suffered injustices at the hands of the pinochet regime during this time period there was a notorious cult active in chile that was comprised of german immigrants known as the colonia dignidad or dignity colony a hyper-religious group led by a man named paul shaffer a former nazi and child abuser this cult was responsible for numerous horrendous crimes during this time including the aforementioned child abuse but they were also a glorified wing of the dina as several political prisoners were imprisoned and tortured at the colonia dignidad perhaps peter's family were members of the colony and he bore witness to the atrocities they committed and with the help of gus chilean resistance efforts and perhaps even the west or east german governments peter likely followed a similar path that gus did maybe his own family met their end at the hands of the dina and the colonia dignidad in a similar fashion to gus's family and supporting this idea might be the fact that peter shuler and paul shaffer share similar names which could be a nod to peter being involved in colonia dignidad though admittedly this might be a bit of a stretch whatever the case may be i believe the most likely scenario that brought us and peter together were shared traumatic experiences and a desire to exact revenge on the pinochet government for their crimes against them personally so in what way were peter and gus involved with or in the pinochet government that afforded them the ability to operate as saboteurs well for gus we have the comment made by hector in a flashback where he refers to gus as the grand generalissimo which could indicate that gus was a high-ranking member of the chilean army before he was forced to flee the country now this might be the case but i think this was more of a jabbit gus than anything and knowing thus i think it's far more likely that he would have chosen to enter the aforementioned secret police the dina so he might be able to personally deal with the man who wronged his family as what better way is there to kill and perhaps torture your enemies than to break them apart from within i imagine that gus may have worked his way through the ranks of the dina and was given the opportunity to explore the more brutal side of his person by of course performing his duties as a dina officer but also by setting up his compatriots to be dealt with by his own hand perhaps making sure that these agents would be found out as traitors so he could quote unquote interrogate them or maybe some of them at their untimely end while out working a case with gus unfortunately perishing at the hands of whoever their targets were deaths that of course couldn't be traced back to gus as for peter shuler he could have also been a member of the dina who had his hand in the nefarious dealings at colonia dignidad his own front used to take revenge against the cult supported by the chilean government that had wronged him and his family if this is true i believe this leads us to a better understanding of how a very important event in gus's life came to occur that being his flight from chile if we can pin gus's service in the dina as the method he would use to exact his revenge against the pinochet government it would make sense then that his efforts would culminate in his involvement in the assassination attempt made on pinochet's life on september 7th 1986 this assassination attempt was made by the urban guerrilla group called the manuel rodriguez patriotic front who were actively engaged in an insurgency against the pinochet government on the appointed day members of the mrpf ambushed pinochet's motorcade in cuesta de la sachipayas a bottleneck road along mountainous terrain between santiago and cajon del maipo now it wouldn't make sense to claim that gus was directly involved in the attack as a member of the dina shirley wouldn't be able to place himself in the middle of the action here but it would make sense that gus with the help of his friend peter schuler gave the information concerning the whereabouts of pinochet's motorcade on that day to the mrpf and perhaps they were involved in providing the mrpf with some of the arms they would need for the attack and they might have even helped them plan the whole thing as well but unfortunately this attack was unsuccessful and with that in mind i think we have an idea of how gus and peter found their backs against the wall in santiago now a meticulous and pragmatic man like gus would have been well prepared for this eventuality and i imagine in the ensuing chaos following the assassination attempt gus scrambled to destroy any and all records pertaining to his and peter's existence in order to save himself from being fingered in this plot by any of the mrpf members involved that were likely tortured for information after this event that likely failed to some degree considering that he had to leave the country following this event from this unfortunate position he fled to mexico with his close friend and lover max arseniega a place where they had already opened a chain of los polo cermanos restaurants and peter likely made his way to germany with the help of the german government where he would become an employee of madrigal this was obviously a turning point in gus's life but now we need to discuss the event that completely eliminated whatever path he might have been on following his escape from chile one that turned his life irrevocably towards the concept that he had so far dedicated most of his life to revenge that event being the death of max arseniega but before we go over that horrific occurrence in gus's life we first need to talk about who max is and what his relationship to gus is max was said to have grown up in the slums of santiago and though we don't know how max and gus met we do know that gus funded max's education at the universidad de santiago de chile where he majored in chemistry so it's likely that just like peter schuler gus met max while he was a student at the university perhaps an elder student serving as a mentor who developed a close bond with him or he might have known him since his youth or bonded with the young max after meeting him whilst he was a denizen of the streets but regardless of how they met the two would eventually fall in love as they developed their friendship and their business that business being selling a strain of meth that max had developed that would allow them to open up their signature los poyos hermanos restaurants to use as a front and i imagine with gus's contacts at the dina this endeavor was all the more easy to accomplish following the assassination attempt max escaped to mexico with gus where they would continue their operation through the chain they had already established there business dealings that eventually achieved the desired result and got them noticed by donald vuente the man whose influence they could use to potentially expand their meth business exponentially however this blessing proved to be a curse as don elario was not too pleased that gus and max had been dealing drugs in his territory under his nose and at their first meeting with don elario and because of gus's past rather than punishing gus with death on ellario's orders hector salamanca executed max in front of gus a moment that perhaps more than the destruction of his family broke gus's heart beyond repair now what's interesting about this situation is ellario's willingness to keep gus alive because of his past as if my theory about him being a member of the dina holds up it seems odd that a drug lord would be fearful of the consequences of murdering a disgraced former member of another country's secret police perhaps the most likely explanation here is that gus being the man he is would have probably put in place a few fail-safes prior to meeting with elario to ensure that in the event of his death it wouldn't be in vain and elario may have feared the retaliation that would follow or it could be that ellario knew how useful gus would be to his operation when he learned of his talents and connections and chose to keep him alive for that reason whatever the case may be from this moment on just like his run-in with the kawati in his youth and the death of his family at the hands of the dina rather than wishing to rid himself of the horrid business that killed the man he loved gus chose to ingrain himself in this world in order to one day utterly destroy the lives of the men who wronged him here and after this occurrence what is there to say about what kind of man gustavo fring is starting with his appearance there isn't much to say here say for the fact that gus is always dressed in immaculate casual or formal business attire his hair is always neat and his face clean-shaven however his appearance does give us a good starting point for discussing his personality as there's a condition that gus suffers from that defines it along with his actions and mannerisms obsessive-compulsive disorder or ocd now in breaking bad we're given a few glimpses into how orderly and neat gus is namely in the infamous scene where he neatly prepares protection for himself before he murders victor and cleans himself thoroughly after the murder and when he makes sure to fold his jacket remove his glasses and place a towel down in front of the toilet at donnellario's house as he prepares to throw up the poison he just ingested but in better call saul we're shown that his meticulous nature isn't just another component of his personality but a full-on disorder one that's always present in his neatness but one that manifests itself more severely when gus is in distress and we're given two examples of this behavior the first is when lalo and nacho are attempting to outmaneuver hank and steve when crazy 8 starts informing them about gus and lalo's dead drops taking nacho's advice gus chooses to allow this sting operation to occur planning to let the dea take 700 000 in cash after one of his subordinates gathers the money from the dead drop and in order to ensure that none of this can be tied back to gus he had victor post up close to the target area where he would recover the associate after he made his escape from the dea's pursuit this operation was successful but obviously if the associate hadn't managed to make it to victor that would have still put gus at risk anyway and it takes such a calculated risk brought gus immense anxiety to the point where his ocd manifested in his mistreatment of one of his most loyal employees lyle here we see gus commenting on the state of an impeccably clean deep fryer asking lyle if he believes this is an acceptable level of cleanliness and though lyle like all of us assumed it was he got the cue and began needlessly scrubbing the fryer to satisfy his boss gus proceeds to force him to repeat this task several times all because in that moment he was incredibly anxious while he waited to hear what his fate might be a nervous compulsion that he would have acted out himself had he not had a person handy to order to take this action on his behalf which ends up being a mixture of his tendency to exert absolute control over a situation which he did not have here and his disorder the other instance where we get to see these symptoms come out is when he's trying to figure out what to do when he's realized that lalo has survived the hit he put out on him gus is perhaps in more danger here than he had been since the death of max as even the previous example of his disorder's manifestation pales in comparison to how much peril gus found himself in here as not only was he anxiously waiting to see when and where lala would emerge but he also had nacho to worry about a man who if he fell into the hands of the cartel could implicate gus in a whole slew of treacherous activities losing his composure gus knocks over and shatters a water glass and rather than having one of his associates clean up the mess he proceeds to pick up as many pieces as he can with his bare hands a wholly unnecessary action that could have caused him quite a bit of harm and this action more than his chastisement of lyle shows us just how much of a hold gus's ocd has over his life as any person who wasn't suffering from this disorder would have likely moved to pick up a broom but his compulsion mixed with his anxiety quite literally forced his hand here but outside of adding an extra layer of distress to any stressful situation gus finds himself in his ocd is quite the contributing factor to his success as in tandem with his pragmatism and patience the meticulousness this disorder imposes upon him helps gus become perhaps one of the greatest planners we've ever seen in popular media the plan to capture the kawati bringing the chilean government down via his membership in the dina and his decades-long plan to eliminate the entire salamanca family and the cartel all of these endeavors are accomplished because gus is able to maneuver his way around any of his opponents because he doesn't allow needless emotion to cloud his judgment well most of the time at least as a burning desire for revenge has essentially ruined his life but we'll be discussing that further a little later on in this video in accordance with his farsight regarding his nefarious plans gus maintains an immaculate public persona while in public gus is always kind courteous and well-mannered and his mannerisms can be quite warm and inviting when he's interacting with his employees or other civilians he's essentially the perfect gentleman and as a result in the greater community he's seen as a veritable icon he makes sure to show face as a philanthropist donating to the dea youth development inc and various other charitable causes to ensure that he's seen as a pillar of the community who couldn't possibly do anything wrong however that's nothing but a front and the real gus fring is a different person entirely in private or when he's interacting with people in the criminal underworld gus is an entirely joyless man he puts on the same persona that he does in public when he's interacting with men like walter ellario hector or bulsa but he only does that to keep up the illusion of respect outside of these few interactions gus nearly always has a dour look on his face and along with his stiff and precise mannerisms he projects an aura of seriousness that conveys to us his no-nonsense attitude one that leaves no room for any sort of levity or mistakes whatsoever a cold personality crafted by the many hardships that he suffered over the years the truth of gus fring gives us great insight into his personal relationships or more appropriately his lack thereof throughout this series we are shown only one relationship that gus had that could be considered a close one the one he had with his lover max arseniega and even then we are only given a brief glimpse into their relationship during their meeting with don elario but what's more important than the particulars of their relationship here is the fact that it ended as i said earlier the death of max utterly destroyed gus shattering his heart and taking from him whatever warmth he might have had prior to his death and because of the overwhelming despair he feels over his lover's death gus is now incapable of forming any sort of meaningful relationships with others in breaking bad we're shown that he may have had a wife at some point considering it's hinted at that he might have had children but we're never actually shown any concrete evidence of this notion and gus appears to us as a man entirely apart from the rest of the world only showing any semblance of normal relations with others when he's interacting with the public using his manufactured los polio cermano's business magnate persona or when he puts on airs when acting as the amiable and obedient servant of don eladio when we see gus interact with his subordinates even the close ones like mike victor and tyrus he speaks with them solely on a professional level and never gives them any of the superficial charm that he feels the need to give to others the only time we see the real gus interacting with one of his business associates on a more personal level is when he first invites walter to his house for dinner and then sometime later when he extends the same invitation to jesse during his dinner with walt he speaks with him like he's an acquaintance discussing the traditional chilean dish he's making for them in a friendly tone seemingly letting his guard down in the presence of a man who is in some ways a man just like us and though initially it might seem here that gus is attempting to develop a relationship with a man who might understand him the truth is this event is more akin to his placation of the high-ranking members of the cartel than being a genuine attempt at developing a friendship gus knowing that walt is similar to him in many ways is engaging with him at this level so he might con him into believing that their future together could be one of close cooperation outside of a simple employer-employee relationship an act which gus knows will please walt's inflated ego and hopefully convince him to keep working for him and this is exemplified by gus's attempt at striking at walt's macho provider sensibilities stating to walt that a man bears his responsibilities because he is a man and a man will do what he has to do for the sake of his family because he is a man showing us that gus never truly cared whether or not walt felt their relationship was that of friends but that it was always about baiting him into remaining one of the most valuable components of his operation the only other time that we see gus acting this way towards one of his subordinates is with jesse and gail he gives jessie the same dinner treatment he gave walt for the same reason however gail is a man who gus feels the need to placate in a similar way to walter albeit in more of the i need to treat this person well because they're a gentle soul way rather than the this man has a tremendous ego that needs to be satisfied in order for him to operate according to my will and though he eventually resorts to cowing walter by instilling fear in him gus understands that these half civilians wouldn't be open to working for him should he treat them the way he's accustomed to treating his other criminal associates that is coldly with a heavy dose of fear instilled within them so they toe the gustavo frank line that isn't to say that gus doesn't on some level care for his subordinates as we see when gus has mike spirited away to one of his safe havens in mexico so he might recover from the injuries he suffered after being jumped as well as his relapsed alcoholism but even here this is still likely gus offering this sort of care to mike because he knows the value he brings to his organization rather than ensuring mike is cared for because he cares for him on a more personal level and when you consider one of the crimes gus committed against one of his most loyal and longest serving subordinates that we'll be covering shortly it becomes clear that gus has no more attachment to these men than he does with a stranger there is one time during this series where gus does make a half-hearted attempt at connecting with someone on a more personal level that being when he's having a conversation with david the sommelier at the wine bar he visits after returning home from a meeting with don elario here we see the interest gus has in this man painted plainly on his face eyeing him with a romantic lustfulness that shows us that gus has likely admired this man for quite some time and it's possible that david might have been a good potential match for gus here but gus's demeanor quickly changes when david excuses himself from the conversation momentarily the reality of who he is what he does and where his heart truly is ruining any chance gus might have had here at forming a meaningful relationship with another person and this along with the death of max shows us that who gus is is not who he wants to be and when it comes down to it gus's traumas as well as the path he's chosen to walk have rendered him a deeply unhappy man who would likely trade all the money and power that he's amassed to be free from the horrors of what he's experienced and the tragedy that is his drive to complete a mission that he feels must be completed no matter the cost to himself or others that isn't to say though that gus doesn't enjoy his position as a man wielding incredible criminal power as it's quite apparent that gus doesn't just want to eliminate hector and company and then find a nice quiet place to retire once he's achieved his revenge as following the death of don elario it would appear that gus planned to remain the dominant force in his illicit world the center of narcotic authority that would operate with a sense of dignity intelligence patience and foresight that would ensure that gaspering's power would remain absolute until the end of his days with that being said with all that we've discussed about who gus fring is it's now time for us to cover the many crimes of gus fring and we're going to cover them in two different categories crimes committed against those in the game and crimes committed against innocence to simplify things in these categories we're going to cover each of his crimes according to their severity starting with his more forgivable ones and ending with the most heinous now his crimes committed against people who are in the criminal game are by nature more forgivable than the ones he's committed against innocents but there are still a fair few crimes in this category that gus either committed directly or influenced that are pretty terrifying but as far as the more forgivable ones in this category go we have of course the unknown number of murders ordered by or conducted with gus's blessing against various criminals and criminal groups in the united states and abroad like arturo colon hector salamanca's man that gus murdered by suffocating him with a bag so he could better take control of the salamanca's business interests the unknown number of espinoza gang members who were massacred by the cousins so gus could take over their territory miguel and cecilio the two guards who were killed during the attempted hit on lalo lalo salamanca himself by gaza's own hand kombo who was murdered by tomas on the orders of the drug dealers working for gus marco salamanca who was shot and killed by hank because of gus's influence as well as leonel salamanca who was also shot by hank and later poisoned by mike while he was recovering in the hospital juan bolsa and his bodyguards who were killed because bolsa was beginning to suspect gus's involvement in numerous unfortunate occurrences for the cartel the most recent event at that time being the deaths of marco and leonel then we have the two drug dealers in his employ that murdered tomas who were killed by walter to protect jesse the six cartel assassins killed by mike when protecting gus's cargo and finally don elario and all of his men that perished at his home when gus gifted him a poison bottle of tequila though it should also be mentioned here that gus choosing to discontinue hector's treatment following his stroke so he wouldn't be able to walk or regain the ability to speak is barbaric but it's still committed against hector salamanca who is quite the piece of work these are all the murders or actions that can more or less be excused as being the consequences of engaging in an illicit business that are forgivable in a sense but now we need to talk about the crimes that while still being committed against people playing the criminal game are a lot less forgivable and it starts with victor this one is going to be brief as victor was no slouch when it came to following his boss's brutal orders and by no means can we claim that he didn't deserve in some way to be punished for the many crimes he likely committed over the years not to mention that he's a gangster who knew what he was getting into but the way in which victor was killed was horrendously brutal and though it's quite enough for us to see gus executing one of his subordinates with not a shred of emotion on his face and then literally washing his hands of it like nothing happened what makes it all the more terrifying is the fact that it was victor that he killed one of his longest serving and most loyal associates for making a single mistake allowing walt to use his phone long enough to alert jesse to his position and sending him to kill gail in response which does admittedly ruin a lot of gus's plans but this is one of the best examples we're given of gus's zero tolerance policy when it comes to mistakes showing us that not even years of loyal service can outweigh failure in gus's mind a lighter example of this attitude is given to us in gus's insistence that werner ziegler be killed after he attempts to take a vacation with his wife werner was not nearly as ingrained in the gusfering organization as victor was but this is another great example of how gus will not tolerate even a single deviation from the plans that he's made for a person within the confines of his organization and though werner was at least partially aware of the consequences of his actions his murder is still one committed against a person who was in the game that pulled on our heartstrings now next up is another heartbreaking murder nacho varga however nacho is no stranger to committing his own acts of evil but to his credit throughout the latter half of better call saul nacho is trying his best to get out of the drug business however his attempts at doing so are severely hampered by gus after hector suffers his stroke and is put into a coma gus essentially claims ownership over nacho by strong arming him into working for him first by holding the knowledge of nacho's involvement in hector stroke over his head and then by threatening to have his father killed should he not acquiesce to his demands but why is gus keeping nacho under his thumb well because nacho dared to interfere with his plans for his eventual revenge against hector salamanca sure nacho held a key position in the salamanca crew after hector was incapacitated and gus certainly used that to his advantage but the real issue gus had with nacho was how he harmed the man whom i'm sure he had diabolical plans for regarding his demise throughout better call saul we see nacho forced to undergo immense pain and hardship for the sake of gus and his reward for all of it is simply the reassurance that his father won't be harmed and of course a quick and painless death again nacho wasn't exactly innocent and perhaps it could be argued that he did deserve the punishment he received during his service to gus but what's more important here as far as gus is concerned is how absolutely cruel he showed himself to be during this ordeal i'm sure gus already disliked nacho because of his affiliation with the salamancas but the fact that he was so easily able to treat nacho like human garbage is a shining example of just how vindictive he can be when it comes down to it nacho essentially did gus a favor by incapacitating hector but he still only saw him as an interloper encroaching on his territory the kawati eating a fruit from his lucuma tree and nacho's mental and physical suffering is just as sadistic an act as it was to keep the kawati as a pet rather than putting it out of its misery the last murder in this category that can be connected to gus is the murder of tomas cantillo the little boy who was used as a stool pigeon by the two unnamed drug dealers and gus's employee tomas had been working for these men for quite some time and when jessie got involved on tomas's elder sister andrea's behalf gus did attempt to put a stop to tomas's use as a mule when he brokered a piece between the dealers and jesse but later on that day the dealers took gus's command to not use children in their operation any longer as a signal to kill tomas rather than simply relieve him from their service what's horrifying about this murder in particular as far as gus is concerned is of course the fact that this is an 11 year old boy being used as a drug mule and then later being murdered for it but to add insult to injury you have his punishment for his men using a child which was giving them a slap on the wrist and ordering them to not use him in their business dealings anymore but what's even worse is that we have no way of knowing whether or not gus ordered his men to commit this murder as that would be very much in line with his unwillingness to forgive any sort of mistake as well as being true to something he says to walter regarding his family when he's threatening him to stay away from jesse which is the foundation of our next section of crimes those committed or threatened to be committed against innocents which we'll move on to now now as i said only a moment ago the threat that gus makes to walter regarding his family that being that he'll kill his wife son and infant daughter should he not stay away from jesse tells us just how far gus is willing to go in order to achieve his goals and though this could be seen as a bluff that was intended to instill the utmost fear into walter we do have two examples of gus being involved in the murder or planned murder of innocence the first two are admittedly game adjacent but innocent nonetheless the two civilians who died during the hit attempt on lalo salamanca at his house yolanda and cecilio now it could be argued that these two weren't exactly innocent considering that they likely knew who they were working for but cooking and gardening for a horrid employer aren't exactly crimes that warrant a death sentence in operations like these i'm sure the best practice for a hitman is to murder anyone they see when you factor in that they don't know who does and doesn't pose a threat to them but even so that isn't really the best reason to excuse the killing of innocents and it's reasonable to assume that gus gave the order to eliminate everyone at the compound which would make sense considering that we know gus is quite the fan of scorched earth tactics and he wouldn't want any potential witnesses left alive who might be able to tie what occurred there back to him the second time gus directly threatens the life of an innocent is when he sticks the salamanca cousins on hank who while being a dea agent that's expected to experience danger in the line of duty was far from deserving to be assassinated by two cartel hitmen but what's more important than a singular threat made against a single man and a handful of verifiable accounts of gus's involvement in the death or endangerment of innocence is the fact that with this knowledge of gus's willingness to engage in this type of behavior this is more than likely not the first time that gus has committed or ordered crimes to be committed against innocents there's of course the unknown regarding his potential service in the chilean secret police where he was likely made to do horrible things to people who didn't deserve it but there's also how much misery that was likely caused because of his profession as a drug lord who knows how many innocents may have suffered because of gus's business whether that be via collateral damage from shootouts or any number of other criminal endeavors we have no way of knowing but the chances are high that the amount of innocence affected by his activities is quite the number indeed and when speaking on this subject i'm not factoring in the harm that people who bought and used his product might have caused to themselves or others as a person's choices are ultimately their own and again as i said in the introduction of this video i'm not here to comment on the morality of using drugs but i am here to talk about what men like gustavo fring do when given the opportunity to profit from illegal activity now what has to be understood about people who choose to engage in this business is that the majority of them aren't doing so because they're attempting to fight laws that they believe to be unjust regarding what a person can and can't do or what they can and can't put into their body they're all doing what they're doing for money and power the fact that it's drugs they're selling doesn't make the slightest difference to them if corn were illegal they'd be doing their best to get their hands on it by whatever means necessary and provide it to people so they could turn a profit for profit sake and there's still there are other crimes to consider as cartels and other organizations like them are a jack of all trades when it comes to illegal activities prostitution gambling fraud loan sharking extortion protection rackets dealing illegal arms assassination all these crimes and more can be attributed to these organizations and while you can argue as to whether or not some of these things should or shouldn't be illegal again you can't ignore the fact that what they're dealing in doesn't really matter to these people only the financial and influential gain from doing so does so when we take a look at men like gus fring to try and determine whether or not they or what they're doing is evil it's not so much what they're doing but why they're doing it is gus fring engaged in the illegal narcotics business because he believes that their illegality is an injustice that needs to be fought of course not is gus willing to murder people or have people murdered innocent or otherwise because he's fighting a good fight that's unfortunately paved with unavoidable casualties no he's not how many innocents had to meet their end because of gustavo frings insatiable lust for revenge did the path gus fring took lead him to a life of prosperity and happiness or was it a life wasted by an unwillingness to overcome the injustices committed against him that ultimately ensured his life to be one of misery and inevitable doom this is what revenge and a life dedicated to pursuing it brings you is the possible eradication of gus's family and the murder of max horrible injustices that should have been answered with justice in one way or another of course but to live one's life solely in pursuit of revenge is no life at all it's a suicide note written with the blood of the people you harm as you tread this dark path so had gus not committed to this path following his family and max's deaths would the men who deserve to be punished for it ever have received their due the answer to that is yes and no the pinochet government elario bolsa and the salamancas would likely have never seen justice directly according to the crimes they committed against gus but in one way or another the lives of evil men are almost always destroyed by their deeds were it not gus who dealt the final blow to these men or their organizations it's more than likely that something else would have the pinochet government indeed met its end and although a sizable portion of the people who comprised that tyrannical regime and committed crimes against their people unfortunately never received what they deserved many more did and the same could be said for the members of the various cartels it's true just like with corrupt government officials certain criminals ultimately live long lives and never answer for their crimes but most of them suffer in some way because of the life they live how many gangsters who live to die of natural causes can say that they haven't seen their friends or family members perish because of their actions or the actions of others that would seek to cause them harm because of the life they live how many gangsters can say that they have never been put into a position where they've been forced to commit evil acts that haunt them until the end of their days how many gangsters can say that their lives have been lived without the fear of being murdered by rivals or allies or the fear of getting involved in situations that will lead to horrible violence and possibly their deaths how many gangsters can say that their lives are carefree and that they don't have to constantly look over their shoulder or look in the rearview mirror to see who might be hunting them be they law enforcement or others playing the same game as them the answer to these questions is either none or less than .01 percent of criminals the criminal lifestyle is an attractive one full of flash and pizzazz one that lures in many unfortunate souls and sends their lives careening towards destruction but it is just that a path to destruction and even if you live to see your dark labors bear their dark fruit can you really say that the life you've lived was one lived well when we look at the life of gustavo fring the answer to that question is no and though living your life in pursuit of revenge isn't always the same thing as a criminal life many of the same fallacies can be found within both lifestyles but the question that always needs to be addressed when examining those who choose to take the path towards revenge is why is seeking out revenge as a form of justice such a horrid thing to do well let's take nacho's father manuel varga as an example when mike comes to tell him that there will be justice given for his son's veritable murder manuel replies by stating that that wasn't justice it was revenge a cycle that never ends and that gangsters are all the same so why is manuel able to quell his emotions in this scenario when faced with a similar situation because manuel realizes that no matter what he does nothing will bring his son back and even if he does do something about it outside of legal channels it's more than likely that he would have either failed in the endeavor or brought about even more misery to an already miserable situation mired in self-pity and rage unending gus's unwillingness to let his desire to avenge his loved ones go forced him into a life of misery one where the only joy that he experienced was that of the brutal satisfaction gained from triumph over his enemies a life full of potential that was wasted by sorrow and fury that ended in a torrent of fire blood for blood that always ends in more blood the achievement of his ultimate goal that would be the doom of gustavo fring and at this end who was gustavo fring he was a man who lived his life dedicated solely to amassing power and exacting revenge against those who had most wronged him calculating cunning and utterly ruthless gustavo fring built an illicit empire that could have rivaled the most insidious organizations that have ever existed a man sitting atop a hard hard-fought blood-soaked throne whose eyes burned with the cold light of an unceasing desire for vengeance was gustavo fring an evil man without a doubt but it can't be said that he was evil without reason no far from it he had his reasons but that's the thing about evil almost every one of us could likely find a reason for committing evil acts but just because you can provide reasoning for something doesn't mean that those reasons are good ones endangering the lives of innocents solely to achieve revenge against someone who wronged you is no good reason to do so and even if that path was coded solely with the blood of the guilty rather than the innocent the toll that such a dreadful existence can take upon your soul is hardly worth the potential satisfaction gained from fulfilling your desires for even then once your purpose has been fulfilled you are left with the same emptiness that had been carved inside of you by those who brought you harm and then some the wounds inflicted by trauma and injustice are either slow to heal or they never heal entirely but to answer those traumas and injustices with more of the same isn't doing yourself any favors either and though there are some sympathies to be found within the story of gustavo fring a man who felt that he must be the man to bear the responsibility of avenging the ones he loved we can't ignore the overwhelming horror that resulted from his dedication to a life focused solely on evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on gus did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured while you're at it if you like this video hit that thumbs up button and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already a big thank you to all of my subscribers and to my patrons and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now [Music] join the channel's discord server and reddit to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed below to keep up with the channel and of course don't forget to check out the new merchandise that you're seeing on screen now by clicking the link down below as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 1,630,032

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Id: ZeSIKmGWUec

Length: 48min 22sec (2902 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 08 2022