What is the meaning of Ozymandias? Sonnet poem connection with Breaking Bad most iconic episode ever explained 

There was more to Ozymandias than just the name of a Breaking Bad episode. One of the greatest British poets of the 19th century, Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote a sonnet of the same name. It was initially printed in The Examiner of London in 1818, written by Shelley under the pseudonym "Gilrastes."

The speaker of Shelley's poem meets a traveler from a bygone era, who talks of the enormous remains of a statue belonging to a renowned pharaoh. He draws the surroundings in addition to observing how the statue's components are positioned on the sand.

The desert and the weathered monument together allude to the sonnet's main theme, which is the pointlessness of human endeavor. It also touches on issues of fate, the transience of power, and the inevitable fall of kings.

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Ozymandias and its connection to Breaking Bad

One of the most pivotal episodes, Breaking Bad's season 5, episode 14, included a direct mirror image of Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1818 poem, Ozymandias, which marked a turning point for Walter White (Bryan Cranston).

The sonnet serves as a warning to the powerful that time will ultimately bring them to down, regardless of what they do or how self-assured they become. Even if Ozymandias is no longer powerful, his expression still conveys his "passions" and "cold command."

The great man's face still appears as though he believes his authority still exists, despite the fact that everything he produced is gone, as various readings of the sonnet highlight. However, the sculptor's legacy is enduring because even though the monarch has passed away, his creations live on thanks to his work.

In the show, time is of the essence, and since there aren't many episodes left of Breaking Bad - which had a 5-season run - this is probably a bad sign for Walter (or Heisenberg, at the very least).

The first scene of Ozymandias of Breaking Bad opens with a flashback to Walt and Jesse's first RV cooking of meth. The two had no idea how drastically their lives would alter while living on the Tohajiilee reservation in the middle of the desert.

Breaking Bad returned to the present day in the same desert. Walt made every effort to prevent the neo-Nazis and Jack Welker from ambushing the DEA agents. He was ultimately left to cry out on the desert floor while Hank was shot and killed.

Walt was left with little alternative but to take what remained of his riches and leave the neighborhood after turning the tables on Jesse and losing the support of his family. He had a whole new identity at the end of the episode, leaving his old life—or what remained of it—behind.

The narcotics empire he established in Breaking Bad had officially collapsed. The episode was inspired by a poem that described the story of a collapsed empire and its strong ruler.

The statue of Ozymandias, the so-called "king of kings," has long since tumbled into ruin. In a similar vein, Walt too had elevated himself to the status of a near-mythological character named Heisenberg, yet he also reached his moment of decline.

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As the poem described the statue's "two vast and trunkless legs of stone," several characters, Walt among them, were seen breaking down in tears in Breaking Bad.

Though both the figure and the sculptor were long dead, the man's passion was imprinted on the statue. One could say the same thing about Walt's acts, which would always be associated with the people he has harmed.