Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul showcase many types of genius. Gus Fring has a reasonable claim to being the smartest character on either show. He's an expert businessman, head of a criminal enterprise, and clever schemer.
Walter White in 'Breaking Bad'
There's no denying that Walter White is a calculated genius when he isn't letting his ego get in his way.
Throughout the entirety of Breaking Bad, two characters stand out as worthy of the "kingpin" title because of how intelligent and calculating they are. That would be Walter White himself and Gustavo "Gus" Fring. Both are villains and mortal enemies due to how ambitious and cautions they can be in the drug trade.
Walter White was a greater genius, in terms of intellect, but Fring was a far more effective drug lord. Fring set up a world-class chain of distribution, married to a German conglomerate, played the Cartel, then buried its kings, built the super lab and had the business savvy to run this thing in perpetuity.
Up to this point, Gus is portrayed as the smartest person on the show, matched only by Walter White in Breaking Bad. In spite of this, Lalo is able to believably outmaneuver him at nearly every turn.
Because of the rivalry between Gus and Hector, Lalo becomes dedicated to disrupting Gus' legitimate restaurant business Los Pollos Hermanos and Lavandería Brillante, as well as his reputation with the cartel. Unlike his other rivals such as Walter White, Gus was highly fearful of Lalo due to his cunning and resilience.
Is Hank Smarter Than Walt? Walter, while smarter, had some series issues which Fring didn't. Fring was more disciplined. He had a better logical mind than Walter and never let his ego get in the way of winning.
145 is a good estimate of Walter White's IQ. That's just above genius level, which is 140. Somebody with an IQ of 145 is very capable of being a college professor or a chemist. Those are the two areas in which he showed an interest and are the two careers he should have realistically been pursuing.
Eduardo 'Lalo' Salamanca
Pretty much from the word go, Lalo cements himself as not only the smartest of the Salamanca family but as one of the best and most intelligent villains of either series also.
They're both really intelligent in their own ways. Walt is clearly savvy when it comes to science, chemistry, and problem solving. Saul is privy to political matters, making deals, and he's generally intelligent when it comes to things on 'the street' (I hate using the term 'street smart'…
She is highly intelligent and capable at accounting and money laundering, allowing her to deduce Walter's second life with little to no information at her disposal. Disgusted by Walter's moral decline which she has fallen victim to, Skyler is a pragmatist willing to do whatever it takes to keep her family together.
Yes. He's not book smart like Walt, but he's street smart and unlike Todd, after working with Walt he was able to make blue meth as pure as 96%, the same purity as Gale who had a master's degree in organic chemistry with a specialty in X-ray crystallography.
A notable exception was Walt's wife Skyler (Anna Gunn). While crushed beneath the weight of Walt's criminal activities and desperate to protect their children, Skyler was widely seen as a massive hypocrite by Breaking Bad fans, who treated the character with extreme malice.
William James Sidis has the World's Highest IQ. Anywhere from 250 to 300 is his IQ score, almost twice the score of Albert Einstein. At the age of eleven, William famously entered Harvard University, becoming the youngest person to enter. He also claimed to be conversant in 25 languages.
Out of all the main characters, Walter Jr. is definitely the show's most innocent one (except for baby Holly). Despite this, Walter Jr. has done some questionable things, yet they're all done out of ignorance. He doesn't actually know what is going on, having no idea that his father is a hardened criminal.
To those who knew of his son, William James Sidis was quite possibly the smartest man who ever lived. Born in Boston in 1898, William James Sidis made the headlines in the early 20th century as a child prodigy with an amazing intellect. His IQ was estimated to be 50 to 100 points higher than Albert Einstein's.
After an unexplained incident, he's left paralyzed in most of his body and can't speak or move on his own. His only means of communication is the bell on his wheelchair.
There is no denying that Walter White is one of the most intelligent characters in Breaking Bad. His quick thinking has gotten him out of many sticky situations.
Notably, the average IQ score falls between 85 and 115. A score above 140, meanwhile, is considered to be genius level.
During the original series run, Cranston shaved his head to play White, who is diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the show and loses his hair during chemotherapy. But because Cranston didn't have time to shave for El Camino, he was instead fitted with a bald cap.
85 to 114: Average intelligence. 115 to 129: Above average or bright. 130 to 144: Moderately gifted. 145 to 159: Highly gifted.
Gus Fring has a reasonable claim to being the smartest character on either show. He's an expert businessman, head of a criminal enterprise, and clever schemer.
The sides of his personality — sociopath and family man, scientist and killer, rational being and creature of impulse, entrepreneur and loser — are not necessarily as contradictory as we might have supposed. Or rather, if we insist on supposing that they are, it may be for our own sentimental reasons.
After doing a recent rewatch of the show, I think Hank originally obsesses over Heisenberg to get his mind off of his PTSD, and eventually continues to obsess over it to conquer his PTSD. First, the Heisenberg case is used to avoid going back to El Paso.