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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Listen to me. The only reason you are alive and he is not... is because I know who you are. But understand: you are not in Chile anymore. | „ |
| ~ Eladio to Gus Fring in 1989 after his partner Max is killed. |
| “ | Hate. A little bit's okay. As long as you never forget who's boss. | „ |
| ~ Don Eladio intimidating Gus by revealing he knows that Gus hates him. |
Don Eladio Vuente is the overarching antagonist of the Breaking Bad franchise. He is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Hector Salamanca) of Breaking Bad and its prequel/sequel series Better Call Saul.
In his characterisation, he is a notorious drug lord who was the founder and leader of The Cartel - serving as it's main Don who is the boss of various Cartel members such as Juan Bolsa and Hector Salamanca respectively. He is also the employer of Gus Fring, whom he first met back in 1989 and ended up becoming one of the few to know about his mysterious Chilean background.
He was portrayed by Steven Bauer.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- He founded the Cartel, serving as the head brain of all operations, making him most responsible for every employee as well as their actions in some way. This also enabled hundreds of deaths and countless lives being ruined due to people becoming drug addicts and even overdosing on various different drugs.
- Although both Bolsa and Hector each collaborated with the Cartel's foundation as well, Eladio was the one who became it's supreme leader in the first place.
- To cement his position as leader of the Cartel, he forced others to pay a monthly tribute to him, favoring the ones who bring the most profit and admonishing the rest. To make things worse, Eladio himself does little to no actual work and makes others work instead.
- Many dangerous villains are somewhat afraid of him, with even Hector's nephew Lalo Salamanca looking behind his back before cursing him out likely out of caution that if the wrong person heard him, Eladio would likely have him executed in a heartbeat (or at least try to) once he learned of it.
- In addition to this, during Hector's rant about Eladio constantly pushing him aside, he responds by saying that Eladio can "suck" him; Bolsa then told Hector to watch what he says, implying that Eladio would have had Hector executed just for this remark.
- He is proud of being a heartless monster, as he stated to Gus his view that feelings have absolutely no place in Cartel business.
- Although he presents himself as an affable and loyal boss as seen with his seemingly charming and outgoing nature at his parties and meetings, he deep down is a mean-spirited and sadistic individual who takes pleasure in bullying and being needlessly cruel to his hard-working subordinates.
- He is responsible for nearly every death in the franchise thanks to his role in founding the Cartel and turning Gus more evil, both directly and indirectly.
- Although the franchise’s heinous standard is high, he stands out for not only having the most personal cruelty towards Gus via having his boyfriend killed in front of him and forcing Gus to look at his lover’s dying corpse, but founding the Cartel in the first place - knowingly causing the ruin of numerous lives and the deaths of multiple people via consumption of his product and even sanctioned murder.
- He is incredibly hypocritical, as while he is said to preach about honor, he himself has none, as Gus noted during his speech against the Cartel to Lalo.
Background[]
- In 1989, while Gus and Max did sell their products without his permission as well as methamphetamine (which he contemptuously dismissed as "poor man's cocaine"), he did not see the profit they could bring, and instead of warning them or even offering to work together out of pragmatic reasons, Eladio ordered Hector to kill Max and had Bolsa force Gus to watch his lover's corpse bleed out just because he felt that Gus was viscerally disrespecting him. He also showed sadism in this alongside Hector, smiling heavily at Gus's despair.
- He then proceeded to threaten Gus that the only reason he is alive and Max is not is because he knows about his background in Chile, and instead of crediting Hector for obeying him, he just used this as another point to make fun of their rivalry and Hector in general.
- This murder turns out to be completely unnecessary as Eladio ends up hiring Gus and becomes interested in the meth trade later on anyway.
- Although the death of Max was shared with Hector and Bolsa respectively, Eladio stands out alongside them due to being the one to orchestrate and enforce the plan, whereas Hector directly killed Max in the end and Bolsa simply allowed the assassination to occur before pinning Gus to the ground and making him look at his boyfriend's corpse against his will, which ended up turning Gus into the crime lord we know him as today.
Better Call Saul[]
Season 3[]
- In a flashback, when Hector brought his monthly profit and present a mascot representing Eladio, he mockingly complained about the mascot being too fat, showing his self-centeredness and narcissism.
- When Bolsa arrived to present Gus' larger profit, Eladio taunted Hector once again about his lesser share, but utilizing the mascot he criticized, and while Hector is a self-serving and unpleasant person to say the least, Eladio never has the decency to at least thank his work.
- As shown in more than one occasion, he particularly chose to mock and bully Hector despite all the hard work he's done and contributions he and his family made for him.
- He constantly made Hector less important by making his drug business dependent on Gus' trucks, which led Hector to having an angry outburst that resulted to his stroke.
Season 5[]
- When Bolsa notified him that his and Gus' profit is less compared to before due to bad luck, Eladio chided Bolsa for not fulfilling his expectations.
- When Lalo displayed a new car he bought for him, Eladio fawned over it and compared it to a woman, something even Bolsa found uncomfortable.
- While somewhat comedic in tone, even Lalo seemed as creeped out by him as Bolsa.
- While he is alarmed by Lalo's cousin Tuco Salamanca and asked Nacho Varga if he is alright in the head after finding out he worked for him, it's likely out of pragmatism because of how volatile Tuco is. This is also hypocritical as Eladio himself is not above such brutality.
Season 6[]
- He put a hit out on Nacho after finding out he was a rat and seemingly caused Lalo's death; although in reality, Lalo faked it, leading to his suicide.
- He is also partially responsible for some of Lalo's heinous actions throughout the season (most notably killing Howard in front of Saul and Kim), as Lalo tried to find evidence for Gus' disloyalty to the Cartel.
- When Hector organized a meeting between him, the Twins, Bolsa and Gus to accuse Gus of being behind the attack on Lalo's hacienda as well as his death, Eladio is implied to at least suspect Gus' culpability in the matter. While Eladio dismissed Hector's allegations due to a lack of evidence, it's fairly likely he believes Hector's claims and simply doesn't care because Gus brings more profit, which further proves his greed above all else.
- He childishly mocked Hector's disability once he is out of earshot, knowing why Hector needs his bell, something that Bolsa is disgusted by in response.
- To further support the fact he knew Gus did indeed have a role in Lalo's death, before leaving, Eladio reveals that he knows Gus hates him and he doesn't care about it one bit but does warn Gus once again to remember who he works for.
Breaking Bad[]
Season 4[]
- He had several Los Pollos Hermanos trucks attacked and had people killed, just so he could get the Blue Sky recipe from Gus.
- He sent a sniper named Gaff to threaten Gus.
- When Gus finally met up with Eladio, the latter casually mentioned that he had to "spank" Gus to do what he wanted, before throwing a party to celebrate.
- He sadistically told a servant that he will cut off his hand if he spills a drop of tequila while pouring the drink.
- He tried to attack and kill Gus after realizing that he had been poisoned by the man before his death.
- His death is played for pure satisfaction due to how he dies by Gus in the same place Eladio had his lover murdered two decades ago.
Trivia[]
- Don Eladio is the only villain in the Breaking Bad franchise to be Pure Evil, as all the other similarly heinous villains in the franchise can’t qualify due to having some redeeming qualities (e.g. Hector Salamanca, Lalo Salamanca, Jack Welker, the Cousins and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle) or failing the Heinous Standards (e.g. Kenny and Juan Bolsa).
External Links[]
- Don Eladio on the Villains Wiki
- Don Eladio on the Breaking Bad Wiki
- Don Eladio on the Hate Sink Wiki
- Don Eladio on the The Ultimate Evil Wiki
