Tuco Salamanca

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Villainous Benchmark

Full Name

Tuco Salamanca

Alias

Mijo (by his grandmother)

Origin

Breaking Bad

Allies

Nacho Varga

No-Doze
Gonzo
Krazy-8
Skinny Pete
Jesse Pinkman
Walter White (all formerly)
The Cartel
Hector Salamanca
Marco and Leonel Salamanca
Joaquin Salamanca
Lalo Salamanca

Powers / Skills

Brawling skills

Marksmanship
Intimidation
Unpredictability
Brute strength
Business knowledge
Advanced endurance
Combat knowledge
Decent intelligence
Usage of weaponry
Vast wealth and resources

Goals

Buy as much Blue Sky from Walter White and Jesse Pinkman as possible.

Get into business with Heisenberg (both failed).

MEH or Worst Act

Forcing Saul Goodman to watch him break the legs of two skateboarders for insulting his grandma.

Brutally beating and accidentally killing No-Doze for saying something supportive to Walter and Jesse.

Kill Count

2

Crimes

Organized crime
Manslaughter
Drug abuse
Smuggling
Physical and psychological abuse
Mutilation
Animal cruelty
Assault and battery
Kidnapping
Drug dealing
Extortion
Terrorism
Crippling
Theft
Torture
Death threats

Type of Villain

Psychotic Crime Lord

“	Tight, tight, tight! Yeah! Blue, yellow, pink! Whatever, man. Just keep bringing me that!	„
	~ Tuco Salamanca's most famous quote after trying Walt's newly developed "Blue Sky" meth.

“	NOBODY MOVES CRYSTAL IN THE SOUTH VALLEY BUT ME, BITCH!	„
	~ Tuco Salamanca after beating up Jesse Pinkman.

“	Let me get this straight: I... steal your dope. I... BEAT THE PISS* outta your mule boy! And then you walk in here and you bring me* more meth!? [wheezes] Woo, that's a brilliant plan, ese!	„
	~ Tuco Salamanca responding to his encounter with Walter White.

Tuco Salamanca is a major antagonist in the crime drama series Breaking Bad and a supporting antagonist in its prequel series Better Call Saul.

In Breaking Bad, he serves as the main antagonist of of Season 1, the opening antagonist of Season 2, the posthumous overarching antagonist of Season 3 and a posthumous antagonist for the rest of the series. In Better Call Saul, he serves as the opening antagonist of Season 1, a supporting antagonist in Season 2 and an unseen antagonist for the rest of the series.

He is a psychotic Mexican drug kingpin who briefly became the meth distributor for both Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, and also had encounters with corrupt lawyer Jimmy McGill and hitman Mike Ehrmantraut. It was clear early on that Tuco is unpredictable and prone to such violent outbursts, but he surprisingly valued Walter because of the latter's superior product - in addition to Walt's intelligence and business style that are added by his seemingly calming demeanor. He is also the archenemy of Hank Schrader.

He was portrayed by Raymond Cruz.

His Evil Ranking[]

His Villainous Deeds[]

In General[]

Plenty of hints are given, especially in dialogue and even from Hector himself, that Tuco is infamous for his unpredictable and cruel behavior.
It’s implied he was malicious and evil since childhood, as visually seen in a picture of him with his uncle and the twins when the young Tuco appears to be giving a hostile scowl to the camera.
He is a dangerous member of the Cartel who serves as the leader of the Albuquerque turf, more specifically the South Valley.
It's mentioned he shot one of his own men, Dog Paulson, with a shotgun to the face, to the point a piece of his skull is stuck in Nacho Varga's shoulder.
According to Nacho, he sometimes examines his cartel members to check their loyalty. Whoever does not pass the test is murdered by his hands.
While one could argue he has moral agency issues due to how insane he is, we see he is capable of good by taking care of his family members and being convinced to let two skateboarders live - which disproves it. He also knows full well he has to avoid the law, meaning he has full comprehension of right and wrong.
- On the subject of his insanity, his psychotic nature even creeps out Don Eladio, as shown when the latter asked Nacho if he's alright in the head upon being informed by Lalo that Nacho had worked for Tuco before.
While he was somewhat remorseful for killing No-Doze and Dog Paulson, with him saying the former was "messed up" (and that's ignoring how he simply wanted to give him a beating and not actually kill him and also asked Walt and Jesse to revive him too late) and Nacho mentioning he felt "kind of bad" about killing the latter, he gets over No-Doze and he was only "kind of" remorseful towards Dog, so this isn't a prevention.
While he seemingly had respect for Walt at first, dealing with him due to having the guts to stand up to him and killing No-Doze when he felt like he was insulting Walt, this trait disappeared by the second season, at which point he kidnapped him & Jesse at random and was going to have them cook meth in Mexico, and with Hector's prodding, Tuco becomes fully hostile towards Walt and Jesse. Once Walt revealed he tried to poison Tuco, any semblance of respect Tuco had for him was fully subverted.
Although he has a few comedic moments, they are infrequent and don’t detract at all from his villainy. He’s also arguably presented more seriously (even to the audience) than other villains, including the other Salamancas and even NPEs in the franchise.

Better Call Saul[]

When two skateboarders called his grandmother a biznatch and tried to scam her into giving her money, he beat them up and kidnapped them with the intention to kill them.
When Saul Goodman comes to his house, worried about the skateboarders, he kidnaps him as well.
He almost cuts off Saul's finger to make him talk.
He planned to perform Colombian neckties on the skateboarders (cutting their throats and pulling out their tongues), ripping out their eyes and cutting off their legs before being convinced to simply break one leg each.
He brutally beats up Mike Ehrmantraut for bumping his car.
He was mentioned to have knifed and possibly killed a guy in prison, as well as breaking a guard's jaw.

Breaking Bad[]

He brutally beats up Jesse Pinkman to the point where he starts spitting blood once he threatened to take away the meth he gave Tuco. He also takes it without giving Jesse the cash and tried to excuse it for Jesse as "tough love," but it's pretty clear that his intention was to hurt him regardless.
When Walt came to take revenge for Jesse, Tuco's men almost closed in on him and if he hadn't blown up the compound, he would have been killed as well.
He savagely beats and accidentally kills one of his own men, No-Doze, for saying something supportive by mistaking it for an insult. What's worse is that this event traumatized Walt so bad that it led to him nearly raping his wife Skyler to calm himself.
He threatens Gonzo when he objected to burying No-Doze under cars and even though he didn't mean to, which indirectly led to his death when he tried to move the body.
Despite being his brother-in-law, Tuco makes it clear he'll kill Gonzo when he sees him again due to thinking he was a rat, unaware of the fact he's dead.
He kidnaps Walt and Jesse and tried to get them to Mexico so they could keep cooking for him, as well as wrecking Jesse's car and breaking their phones. He also had responsibility for Jesse's investigation following the kidnapping.
He shot and killed cows for his amusement.
Despite following a "Family Is All" motto, he shows immense hypocrisy when he tells Walt he'll get a new family in Mexico.
He tries to kill Jesse once he finds out he and Walt tried to poison him.
He came close to murdering Hank Schrader in a brief shootout between them. While he is ultimately killed in the gunfight, the actions of his provocation to the shootout ends up leaves Hank with PTSD due to the fact he killed a man.
He's responsible for Marco and Leonel's rampage in Season 3, as they're trying to avenge him.

Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]

Although his 2 kills and attempt to graphically torture a pair of skateboarders are brutal enough to pass the general standards, he still massively fails the high heinous standard of the series when compared to other crime lords like Walter White, Gus Fring, Hector Salamanca, and Lalo Salamanca who have the same resources, and he additionally fails to villains with less resources such as Jack Welker, Todd Alquist, Kenny, and even his own cousins Marco and Leonel.
He's genuinely protective of his family, taking care of his grandmother and uncle Hector, almost killing two skateboarders for insulting the former and angrily screaming at Walt and Jesse when he thought they did something to Hector.

Trivia[]

Tuco was considered Near Pure Evil before being cut for failing the standards too much.
Out of Hector’s nephews, Tuco is the only one to not be Near Pure Evil, as Lalo, Marco and Leonel all qualify as such because of his villainy pales in comparison to them rather than serious mitigating qualities. From a morality standpoint, he is not much different from them.
Tuco was originally supposed to be around for all of Season 2 as its main antagonist, but had to be killed off early because his actor, Raymond Cruz, felt uncomfortable playing someone as violent and deranged as Tuco. If Tuco was allowed to stay around for the entire season, it's possible he would be Near Pure Evil or Inconsistently Heinous.