Breaking Oedipus

Oedipus was a king who was highly praised for his work of eliminating the sphinx, but a new issue is presented: a plague is rippling through the city and won't stop until the murderer of the previous king is exiled. I, as the story intended, felt a lot of pity for Oedipus because he only wanted to live a normal life. Once he held power, however, he became ignorant and only wished to challenge those who might pose a threat to his position. When Oedipus hears of the city's plague, he almost immediately accused Creon of killing Laius. I understand Oedipus's train of thought, but I felt that he misstep, in his fervor to get the murderer off of his mind.
I can't help but draw parallels to the plot of the greatest drama ever:  AMC's show, Breaking Bad. The main character, Walter White, would compare to Oedipus. Walter is a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer. In order to pay for the treatments, he decides to use his chemistry knowledge to cook methamphetamine and make money off of it. He soon has plenty of money to pay for the treatments, but continues to cook to make more money. He becomes mad with power, which eventually causes him to spiral out of control.  This series of actions would make you think that no one could consider Walter White to be a hero, but the pity that the builds in the fans causes the entire fan-base to root for him throughout the drama.
I most definitely felt pity for Walter as well as Oedipus. The two characters both committed crimes that no hero would be caught dead doing, but you can't help but feel for them when they are finally found guilty of their crimes. Because a back story is provided for these characters, the audience can make a connection to their actions, even with a story as old as Oedipus's. I have to say, though, that both stories made me fee pity for the main characters when I would've most definitely have judged them differently without knowing their history.