Howard was a good guy (Better Call Saul)

[Prefect]

 

[Prefect]

Wrong German dude. Werner actually belongs in a different category. Namely, "probably a decent dude, but kinda dumb"

I think the german guy was an great engineer that is easily flattered. He was flatted by the money, the secret project, the adventure, and talking at the bar. I honestly don't think he gave a shit about money but just people seeing how stand up and smart he was. Killing him just felt very retarded because he was more just kind of dumb rather than a loose cannon.

 

[ChickenBrother]

I'd argue James McGill belongs on that list as well. He earned it. Jimmy, Saul, & Gene were all scumbags -- but James turned out to be a stand-up guy.

Sorry but I don't buy it. James/Jimmy/Saul/Gene are the same guy. You can't just change your name and erase your missteps. If it were that simple, I could blame all my transgressions on "Luigi," that dick I sometimes become. He's the guy who forgot my wife's anniversary who also didn't take out the trash. It was Luigi!

Even "James'" confession at the end wasn't driven by real atonement. He only did it to win Kim's respect. And the way he did it was dripping with sarcasm and "in your face Feds" and he completely sold out his buddy Bill Oakley who stuck his neck out for him.

Chuck and Kim are similar in the sense that their own pettiness dragged them down. I'd still put them miles ahead of Mike and Nacho though. Mike, in particular, was a bastard before the events of the BB/BCS-verse even started, and had every opportunity to turn his life around but rejected it.

Subjective and debatable, it comes down to how you prioritize intention vs. consequences and to what extent you relate to each character. We don't know everything about Mike prior to BCS. We know he was a dirty cop whose son was killed because he refused dirty money, but we don't know how Mike got dirty in the first place. Maybe he REALLY needed the money for something noble, because it seems unlikely he'd do it just to ball out. Even when he's making Anderson Silva money with Gus, he still lives a humble life in a shitty house, wants to give the money to Kaylee, and keeps to his principles.

Nacho OTOH is somewhat principled but he lives the baller lifestyle with his two THOT girlfriends in his pimp pad. Clearly he enjoys the cartel lifestyle while resenting his employer.

Chuck is not a criminal but he is a shit brother and human being. Kim and Saul are sworn legal experts with responsibilities for ethical behavior but they abuse that position for no good reason other than they were bored and felt like trolling Howard.

Kim had mixed motivations in going after Howard. On the one hand, she was massively motivated by her own petty grudge against Howard. On the other hand, I think she genuinely wanted the Sandpiper residents to get their money, and Howard was an obstacle to that. On top of that, she saw the Sandpiper money as a means for her to do the most good possible (working pro-bono cases and such). She had no way of knowing that what she did would get Howard killed. If it weren't for the fact that part of her motivation was sheer pettiness, I'd chalk up her whole arc as a "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" type deal and put her in the "mostly good, but occasionally kind of a douche" tier, but her grudge against Howard (while understandable) takes her down a level. Still, probably the best morally ambiguous character in BB or BCS imo.

This is simply not true. The Sandpiper residents were about to get their money when Kim and Saul pulled their troll job. And because their scheme worked, the residents (and Saul and Kim) got LESS money. Further, Kim already had the pro bono mandate. Schweikert offered to cut her loose to work as many pro bono cases at her leisure while keeping her lucrative day job. But she walked away from that because she wanted to get her bad girl on. Then Cliff Main hooks her up with the big pro bono donor that she also blows off to do her Howard troll job instead.

I will say that Kim going full bad girl was poorly scripted IMHO and was my main criticism of the show. I agree she should have been a "good" character and all signs were in that direction. Being so hellbent on screwing over Howard (even talking Jimmy back into doing it) just didn't make sense to me. It was too abrupt and not substantiated by everything we saw up to that point.