Alright...here's my theory. Jesse is the son he wanted rather than Walt Jr (I should really go back and watch S1 where Walt and Jr fall out big style and Jr changes his name; Walt doesn't seem to care that much; he's more into Jesse). Maybe I'm wrong but if I'm right then that kind of puts a dent in the whole family thing. He's kidding himself about family. He wants a legacy instead. He could have been a world-renowned scientist and got laid at every convention round the world but instead he ended up with Skylar in a boring burb and a son who was no fun. He got cancer and he just simply wanted to break bad.
And yeah he simply had to get rid of Jane cos she was a blackmailing junkie. Brought a lump to his throat though. So he's only 99% bad.
Hmm.. I think you could be right there - at the start, his family is his legacy, so that's the driver.. but as the series rolls on he starts to both want and in some way be able to make his work his legacy, as he wanted to with Grey Matter (the firm that he left or was kicked out of, for reasons that haven't (yet) been made entirely clear - though clearly something to do with Gretchen, there is a scene in S2 I think it was where Walt and Gretchen argue about how he left the firm, with Walt saying he was kicked out and Gretchen syaing he left, and with a story that says they were in a relationship and he left both that and the firm - but then Gretchen is married to Scwartz, the business partner, so perhaps there's an affair there.. )
Only because what he is doing is illegal, he can't be open about it. He knows that he makes the best meth ever, so does Hank, so do the criminal gangs.. but the world doesn't know it's him. In the end, I think he is going to want to get caught so that he can show everyone how it was him that paid for his cancer treatment, not Gretchen & ? Schwartz. It was him that put the money through Walt Jr's charity website. him who made the best ever meth, who outwitted Hank for so long.. in fact I think he'll set it up in such a way that he can say that Hank only caught him because he set it up that way - that his capture was actually his victory, his brilliance - not Hanks.
When the cancer goes into remission in S2, there's a definite change in his character I think - he goes from making meth out of an almost desperate need to ensure his family (legacy) is provided for after he dies, to doing it because he can, to prove that he can or because it's a way of showing that he is the best.. and getting that 80% remission on the cancer, beating terminal lung cancer, gives him that confidence or something.
The scene immediately following when he is told the tumour has shrunk by 80%, he goes into the toilet and there is a shiny paper towel dispenser which he sees his reflection in, and he punches it hard a few times.. like he's getting rid of the self he has been (presumably since leaving/getting kicked out of Grey Matter), and starting afresh..
I'll be starting S3 tonight.. It'll be interesting to watch with these thoughts in mid.
When the whole thing goes pear shaped, as it inevitable will, I'm going to feel most sorry for his son, who is such a good kid. Though minor compared to many of the terrible things Walt does, the most heartbreaking thing in the whole series for me was when Walt (ab)uses his son's charity website to collect money for Walt's cancer treatment to launder drug money.
Yeah, I agree that Walt Jr is a good kid and the most innocent person in the series.. One of the things I found interesting about the charity site, as I mentioned above, is that Walt really hates that he put the money through that - he wants the credit for paying for his cancer treatment, for beating cancer.. not Gretchen, not Walt Jr, not anyone else but himself.
When the money is coming through from the site, he doesn't like it at all. His attitude to the money laundering scheme could have been "great, we get the cash and it'll make my son feel like he is contributing and feel good about himself", but ultimately he is more concerned with his inferiority complex and the need to prove to others that he can support himself and his family properly.
Walt is a really, really great character. One of the best and most complete I can think of.
I'll have rewatched S1 this evening..
Nearly choked reading that!
then 
