Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Making Fun with the Bleak

How about a Breaking Bad death pool?


Ok, we have to figure out the rules and we have about eight or nine months to do in between the two parts of the final season:
  1. The big question first: do we bet on who lives or who dies?  Walt, watching Scarface, says that in that movie, "Everyone dies."  Which suggests we should bet on either who does not die or lasts longer.  If we bet on who does die, we are going to have multiple winners.  So, who lasts longest or even survives if Walt is wrong (and he frequently is), ok?  This can be complicated, as my Lost betting game proved only too well--since everyone ultimately died and showed up in purgatory/Bob's Church of Lost folks.    (My Libya game did not take off quite so well, but it did end well for those who bet the middle).  The scoring system is simple: 3 points for each character you have drafted that is living at the end of the last episode, one point if they are in a coma or other near-death, uncertain situation but not clearly dead.
  2. The second question: who plays?  We have eight slots in this game (so everyone can draft three characters).  I am giving my twitter friends two weeks (while the joy of the penultimate finale still resonates).  Join the game by emailing me, commenting here or by tweeting me directly.  Do not count yourself in unless I email you/tweet you back, confirming you are in.  It is first-come, first-in, with one caveat--friends friends before unknowns.  That is, if I don't know you (and I consider those who I have tweeted with on a semi-regular basis to be more friendish than unknowns), then you might get in, but perhaps not.  I will be the one and only arbiter of who my friends are.  I mean, really.  If we get heaps and heaps of interest (probably not), I could imagine two separate parallel games (multiple fantasy leagues, if you will).
  3. The draft order?  To be randomly assigned once I have a complete list.  It will be a snake draft (last in the first round picks first in the second).
  4. The stakes?  As always, never cashed in but still available: blogging in my space about anything, including making up stories about me that may or may not be true. And, yes, blame Bill Simmons for teaching me all that I know about drafting stuff.
  5. I will take suggestions for tie-breakers.  Perhaps how did the last person to die was killed?  Oh, and if the show ends with a flash-forward, well, damn, I will think about that.
  6. Whose lives count in the game?  Only characters that are alive at the end of the first half of this season.  No adding new characters that show up in the second half.  Oh, and if you choose a character that was early in the series and does not show up at all in any of the final eight episodes at all in the present day, it does not count.  That is, if Walt's frenemies from the old company only show up in a dream or flashback and then survive, they don't count.  It has to be people who have a reasonable chance of dying.  This list is a first draft, if you will.  So, if I forget anyone, let me know and I will add them.  We will hold the draft in about a month or so, giving people yet more reason to anticipate.
    1. Walt/Heisenberg
    2. Skyler
    3. Walt Jr./Flynn (dying under either name counts for both)
    4. Holly (the baby--yes, we have no humanity--Walt lost his, and we lost ours when we rooted for Walt)
    5. Jesse
    6. Hank 
    7. Marie
    8. Saul
    9. Steven Gomez (the DEA sidekick)
    10. Ted Beneke
    11. Skinny Pete
    12. Badger
    13. Todd (formerly of Friday Night Lights)
    14. Andrea, Jesse's former girlfriend
    15. Brock (Andrea's kid)
    16. Lydia
    17. Bogdan (the guy who used to run the car wash)
    18. Kaylee (Mike's grand-daughter)
    19. Group Leader played by Jere Burns--from Jesse's addiction treatment group
    20. Gretchen Schwartz (one of Walt's former business partners)
    21. Lawson (Jim Beaver, the arms dealer)\
    22. Old Joe (the guy with the wrecking yard)
    23. Huell, Saul's bodyguard
    24. Declan, the new drug dealer

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