Why is Heisenberg Like That?

Started as a reblog/reply to this post
( @toosmallformyowngood ) but I decided it got too long and merited its own post.

Why does Heisenberg bother with the robot army instead of just killing Mother Miranda in some other way?

So there’s two reasons for this, actually.

Miranda’s actual power, and Miranda’s perceived power.

For the first one, Miranda’s actual power, funny as it is to call her “just some stuck up old lady”, we can see from her fight with Ethan at the end of the game that that’s simply not true. Miranda has quite a bit of viral/supernatural power, shape shifting, mental fog, all kinds of strength, regeneration, and nasty attacks. 

And this is when she’s in a weakened state, due to the ritual to bring back her daughter.

Second, is Miranda’s perceived power.

What you need to remember is that every person in the village has grown up isolated and indoctrinated into a cult, the central tenet of which is that Mother Miranda is all powerful. This includes your man, Karl.

Now Karl obviously doesn’t believe that she’s all powerful, but here we have to peel back the second layer of Miranda’s perceived power over him.

Karl didn’t start this relationship as an adult man. Karl was a child. 

Miranda raised him as a son, AND as part of her cult.

To Heisenberg, Miranda is an abusive parent.

And speaking as a victim of child abuse, one of the key elements of an abusive parent is raising your child with the perception that your power is absolute, and unshakable.

Whether or not Heisenberg could kill her some other way is irrelevant, because at the end of the day, Karl is scared of her. He fears exactly what she’ll do to him if he tries to kill her, and messes it up. He isn’t going to GET another shot. The plan has to be perfect, foolproof. 

This is what Heisenberg sees every time he thinks about killing Miranda.

(image transcript: a meme of a baseball mascot with mother Miranda’s face pasted over it. The text reads “What are you gonna do with that big bat? Gonna hit me? Better make it count. Better make it hurt. Better kill me in one shot.”)

And that’s why the robot army. That’s why the insane amount of planning, and preparation, and secrecy.

Heisenberg is afraid of his abusive mother Miranda, knows he has exactly one shot to kill her, and is terrified of what will happen if he misses that shot.