@metaleggman18

4 weeks ago

In terms of being a mob boss, Tony Soprano actually was always fair in terms of how that system worked. He didn't whack people just because he didn't like them or because he was paranoid they were fucking him over, like the many people who tried to kill him acted. He waited until it was more or less proven (not so much in the court of law way, but you get the point), and then did what you do in that line of business. The irony is that much of his team who were loyal and weren't fuck ups, even if they were assholes, he never killed them. Even if he didn't like them, if they did their job, and they did it well, that's all they were required to do. It didn't mean he was necessarily a good father or husband or friend, but honestly, having watched the whole series a while back, he was actually a good boss. Even when it came to his working girls and all the lower people on the chain, he took care of them, and didn't let people treat them like objects just because they were in higher positions. The guy who was the rat in the first matrix movie, forget the actors name, when he killed a whore Tony knew, he made sure the guy eventually got his come uppance. Yeah, they're whores, yes, they're taking advantage of them to make money and what not. But Tony still recognized that they're people. Tony never just killed people as a display of power and machismo, he did so because he either had to, or because they were had for business. And in the mafia, you don't get fired, you get whacked. He also always did his best to take care of the family members of people he whacked, as one is supposed to, even if they went fed or whatever, because the idea is that the wife, the kids, they're not meant to bear the burden of the father. Didn't mean they could keep their lifestyle, but they weren't thrown out on the street. Iirc, many of the people he had problems with were people who didn't follow all these unwritten rules to mafia life. It's also part of the reason he didn't want people's kids getting into it, including his nephew Christopher. A lot of what he does in the show seems harsh, but you have to remember, criminal organizations like his have regulations for a reason, and if you get yourself involved and fuck up, there will be consequences. It's part of what made the show so great, since it never glamorized the mafia in the way movies and such prior had. In fact, it showed the opposite, it showed how much of a mental toll it took on Tony and his family, his friends, his colleagues, and that it's a life where you better live it up while you can, unless you really keep your nose clean. Even the end of the show is meant to depict the possibility that life caught up with Tony himself, once it seemed like everything was finally good for him, with all his rivals and all his problems more or less taken care of.

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