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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | All due respect, you got no f-cking idea what it's like to be Number One. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other f-cking thing. It's too much to deal with almost. And in the end you're completely alone with it all. | „ |
| ~ Tony Soprano's most famous line. |
| “ | Those who want respect, give respect. | „ |
| ~ Tony Soprano's philosophy on respect. |
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano Sr. is the villainous protagonist of the HBO crime drama television series The Sopranos and a central character in its 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
He is a notorious mafia boss from New Jersey who tries to manage both his crime and family lives. Due to his role as a respected yet feared mobster, Tony experiences great amounts of stress because of it and frequently has to go to therapy.
He was portrayed by the late James Gandolfini in the show and by his son, Michael Gandolfini, in the prequel film.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- While he did start out with many redeeming qualities and being a young boy who grew up in this life, he progressively became worse and worse as each season saw him fully grow into a man who is committed to the life of crime with loyalty to no one as he killed people that he grew up with, considered family, and even attempted to kill one of his closest friends.
- It is demonstrated that he doesn’t like when people better themselves, as it’s shown when he constantly undermined Christopher and mocked his attempt to be sober every time he genuinely wanted to, and when his sister went to anger management and he tormented her about her abandoned son just to see her get angry again.
- While he has several comedic moments, they do not detract from his heinousness because he is taken seriously by others in universe, and as the series progresses, these moments become less frequent, with the overall themes of the latter seasons becoming darker.
- He is regularly unfaithful to his wife, Carmela, with other women, which has a psychological effect on her, and it does also affect his family situation in the letter seasons, for example:
- In the second season, after being bored with his new job as a waste management consultant, Tony regularly passes the time by two-timing with the office receptionist Connie, still cheating on Carmela despite her in the season asking him to stop.
- In the third season, upon encountering Gloria Trillo, a Mercedes dealership saleswoman and patient of Dr. Melfi because she was double-booked, Tony becomes quickly attracted to her, eventually starting an affair with her while still continuing to cheat on Carmela.
- In the fourth season, while visiting Pie-O-My, Tony meets Ralph’s new girlfriend Valentina La Paz, soon having sex with her in a hotel room after she convinced Tony to have a painted portrait of his and Pie-O-My. And after she broke up with Ralph over his bizarre masochistic sexual fantasies, Tony willingly gets together with her, having yet again another mistress on the side.
- Upon a visit to Junior, Tony encounters Irina’s cousin Svetlana Kirilenko, exchanging small talk with her before kissing and having sex on Junior’s couch, yet again cheating on Carmela.
- After Carmela found out about Tony’s affair with Irina and Svetlana from Irina, Carmela tried to kick Tony out of the house. He, however, tried to deny all the accusations and lie his way out of the situation, even trying to turn it back into Carmela by bringing up her theft from the birdfeeder.
- Overall, he attempted to have more affairs with other women to the point of harassing one of them, such as Dr. Melfi, and he almost had sex with Adrianna Christopher's girlfriend, which made him very angry and almost killing him and his crew, and lastly, he cheated with Christopher's ex after he killed him, hypocritically doing drugs with her on top of that.
- He frequently beats up Bada Bing bartender Georgie Santoreli, eventually resulting in permanent hearing loss.
- Although he did not want it, his criminal lifestyle is mostly responsible for his son Anthony Junior becoming a juvenile delinquent as he gets older from vandalizing school property to attempting to murder a senile Uncle Junior after he shot Tony.
Season 1[]
- Pursued Alex Mahaffey, a gambling addict who owned him money, in Christopher’s car, running him down, breaking his leg, and beating him up in broad daylight.
- Having developed feelings for Dr. Melfi, Tony hires corrupt detective Vin Makazian to secretly follow and photograph Melfi.
- Because he assumed Melfi was a mistress of Tony's, Vin overstepped the mark when he saw Melfi with a date, pulling the pair over on a false accusation of crossing the double yellow line, and after Melfi’s date admits to having drunk wine, he conducts a field sobriety test and then brutally beats the date and takes him into custody.
- This wasn’t Tony’s intention; however, he is fully responsible for what Vin did.
- Because he assumed Melfi was a mistress of Tony's, Vin overstepped the mark when he saw Melfi with a date, pulling the pair over on a false accusation of crossing the double yellow line, and after Melfi’s date admits to having drunk wine, he conducts a field sobriety test and then brutally beats the date and takes him into custody.
- Garroted Fabian "Febby" Petrulio to death while touring colleges with Meadow, due to him joining the Witness Protection Program and ratting out members of Paulie and Pussy's crew.
- Had Silvio blow up Artie's restaurant because Junior was going to kill Pussy Malanga there. However, this came from a good place, as Tony cared about Artie and didn't want that to happen in his restaurant.
- After meeting with Tony at a harbour and informing him he has an informant in his crew that could be Pussy, Makazian is sent to obtain a copy of a police report naming the informant after Tony found out he owes Pussy $30,000. However, Makazian is arrested inside a brothel, and after his release, he drives to the Donald Goodkind Bridge and abruptly jumps to his death.
- While he was saddened to hear of Makazian’s suicide from the brothel’s madam, who was a friend of Makazian, and even got into depression because of his influence in his suicide, Tony is partly responsible for Makazian’s suicide due to worsening Makazian’s status as a crooked detective by employing him.
- When Melfi suggests Livia had a role in the hit on him, Tony physically assaults her and leaves, threatening Melfi and telling her he's finished with the therapy, which causes a terrified Melfi to lock the door after he leaves.
- After realising she was behind the hit on him, Tony goes to Green Grove to confront Livia, picking up a pillow with the intent of smothering her to death. However, after being informed she has suffered a stroke, Tony aggressively tells her as she's being wheeled away that he knows what she did. When Tony notices Livia smiling, he gets into a rage, assaulting the staff before storming out.
- He beats up Mikey Palmice in broad daylight and repeatedly assaults him with a stapler.
- Ordered Paulie and Christopher to execute Mikey Palmice, a soldier in Junior’s crew involved with Tony’s hit, who brutally shot Palmice to death after chasing him through the woods during his morning jog.
- After finding out Junior was the one who ordered the hit on him, Tony, alongside Silvio, visits Chucky, a soldier in Junior’s crew who was involved with the hit, as he is about to go boating. Following a conversation about a fish he caught, Tony pulls out a gun from the fish’s mouth and kills Chucky, dumping his body in the ocean with cement blocks chained to his body.
Season 2[]
- Ordered Junior’s former soldier Gigi Cestone to murder Junior’s crew soldier, Philly "Spoons" Parisi, just because Philly gossiped about Tony seeing a shrink and attempting to kill his mother Livia.
- When he learned that Massarone Brothers Construction was facing protests due to a lack of African-American workers, Tony accepted Jack Massarone’s offer to stop the protests, sending in mob associates to scare the protestors away. However, it’s later revealed he conspired with Reverend James, Jr. to cause the protests, making a buck off of manipulating Massarone.
- He presumably ordered the death of Green Grove Nursing Home owner Fred Capuano after finding out from Junior that Capuano discussed the Soprano family business and gossiped about Tony’s attempted murder of Livia.
- Travels to Naples with Paulie and Christopher to make a deal with the Vittorio/Zucca Camorra crime family over the smuggling of stolen cars.
- Assigned Furio Giunta his first job to collect money from a husband and wife brothel owner, who violently completed the job by beating the couple and shooting the husband in the kneecap.
- When his friend Davey Scatino badgers Tony into letting him play in the executive game and runs up a ridiculous losing streak, Tony refuses to show him any leniency, beating him up and busting out his store.
- At AJ’s confirmation, Tony gives Christopher a rather harsh ultimatum: commit to the DiMeo Family or not. He gives him ten minutes to make his decision; however, he greatly pressures him as he threatens Christopher that he’ll never want to see him again if Christopher doesn’t return to the party after the time is up. Christopher ends up returning after dwelling on the choice.
- This ultimatum is rather heinous on Tony’s part, as him pressuring Christopher caused him to give up on a potential business and much more positive change of life in Hollywood and the film industry, which, if Christopher pursued it, would’ve likely prevented his downward spiral and eventual death.
- When arguing with Carmela about getting a vasectomy, Tony angrily states he doesn't want to do so since AJ is his only male heir right in front of him, before proceeding to verbally abuse AJ after he drops leftover food in the kitchen.
- Alongside Pussy, he shot Matthew Bevilaqua to death for attempting to assassinate Christopher, who begged for mercy and cried out for his mother before dying.
- Alongside Richie, he continues to pressure Davey and squeeze money out of his store, buying merchandise from his store out of Davey’s own credit and selling it out on the streets, threatening that it’ll continue until Davey pays back his debts, which caused Davey to become seperate to the point of becoming suicidal and even embarrassed to the point he set up a sleeping tent in his store rather than go home.
- Assisted Janice in getting rid of Richie’s corpse after she killed him, brutally dismembering the body with Christopher and Furio’s help.
- Although he did it extremely reluctantly, Tony, alongside Silvio and Paulie, executed Pussy on the boat after finding out he was the informant, dumping his body in the ocean.
Season 3[]
- While he initially gets along with him, after learning of his African and Jewish heritage, Tony makes several racial remarks toward Meadow's boyfriend, Noah, as a means to scare him away from Meadow completely.
- The ironic part is that when Tony usually talks about black people being criminals, his own narcissism prevents him from connecting the dots about how he is a criminal and reinforces the stereotype of Italians being mob gangsters, overall making him a hypocrite in general.
- After a cop, Officer Leon Wilmore, gives him a speeding ticket, Tony uses his connections with corrupt assemblyman Ronald Zellman to get him demoted and out of the ticket, which forced the man to take a job at a local gardening store as a means to supplement his low income.
- Later, while visiting a lawn ornament store, Tony sees Wilmore selling pottery and sarcastically antagonises him over losing his job.
- After attending a funeral for Carmela's uncle, Tony meets up with Bobby Baccalieri and his father, Bobby Sr., and pressures Bobby Sr. into accepting a hit on Mustang Sally in retaliation for Sally attacking Vito’s brother Bryan. Despite Bobby Jr. and Junior’s pleas to Tony to get someone else to do the hit because Bobby Sr. suffers from lung cancer, Tony disregards their pleas.
- Because he pressured him into accepting the hit, Tony is indirectly responsible for Bobby’s death, as, although he succeeded in assassinating Sally, albeit with a violent struggle, Bobby suffered a coughing fit and started to choke on his own blood, losing consciousness and fatally crashing into a sign post.
- After learning that Angie Bonphensiero had been complaining about not having enough money despite his financial support Tony angrily threatens her by smashing up her car.
- While on a date with Gloria at the Bronx Zoo, Tony has sex with her in a deserted reptile house, essentially committing public indecency.
- Tony, not long after having a heart-to-heart with him and telling him to stay straight, angrily scolds Jackie after running into him at a local illegal casino, telling him to stay away from the criminal world and focus on his education if he wants to continue seeing Meadow, which is hypocritical on Tony’s part as he regularly engages in illegal casino activities himself.
- After finding out the name and taxi driver occupation of Igor, one of the Russian thugs who attacked Janice after she refused to give back Svetlana's prosthetic leg, from a member of a Russian mob who launders money for him, Tony and Furio ambush Igor in his taxi, beating him and throwing him through a glass window of a mall display, where Igor is later found wearing a Christmas hat and lying under a Santa's sled decoration.
- While visiting Bada Bing’s rival strip club, Tony, Silvio, and Paulie spot Jackie getting a lap dance from a stripper, which enrages Tony to the point that he drags him into the bathroom, shoving, punching, and slapping him, which caused Jackie to draw blood. He then takes away his gun and knees him in the groin, telling him he “bottomed out”.
- This is incredibly hypocritical, as Tony is extremely unfaithful to Carmela yet reprimands Jackie for doing something he himself does all the time.
- When he found out Gloria had been stalking his family after she drove Carmela home from the dealership when Carmela dropped off her car for service, Tony confronted Gloria in her home, calling off the relationship, devolving into a heated argument, and smacking Gloria to the floor.
- Just as he’s about to leave through the door, Gloria threatens to tell Carmela about the affair and visit Meadow at Columbia, which causes Tony to violently attack her, demolishing her dining room table, throwing her across the room, and nearly choking her to death. However, he leaves instead when Gloria begs him to do it.
- Later, he sent Patsy Parisi, who took a test drive with her, to threaten Gloria after pulling over in an isolated area with a gun and leaving Tony and his family alone, which likely played a part in Gloria’s eventual suicide, which Tony learns of in Season 4.
- While having a conversation with Jackie Jr, he lies to him about Richie’s fate, going as far to call him a ‘rat’ for the government. This in turn destroys Richie’s reputation for the rest of his family, purely out of spite and self interest on Tony’s part.
- Following Jackie’s failed armed robbery at Eugene Pontecorvo’s card game, Tony meets with Ralph at his home to discuss what to do with Jackie, with Ralph actually heavily considering sparing Jackie and giving him a pass. Tony, however, refuses to intervene and places the choice on Ralph; however, with his words, Tony subtly pressures Ralph to go with ordering Jackie’s death, only acting neutral so the blame and fallout of Jackie’s death would go back to Ralph and not him.
- Due to their meeting and his subtle pressuring, Tony is directly responsible for Jackie’s death, as Ralph ended up dispatching Vito to Jackie’s area, with Vito sneaking up on Jackie and shooting him dead.
- This is a particularly heinous act on Tony’s part, as Jackie, a troubled individual who made many bad choices, including cheating on Meadow and leading the armed robbery, didn’t deserve to die and was the child of Tony’s lifelong childhood friend Jackie Aprile Sr., as well as Rosalie’s son and Meadow’s boyfriend. Jackie’s death would also cause Meadow to go into a bitter depression.
- While at his hideout with Paulie, Tony finds out about Jackie, which prompts him to become enraged and smash objects in the kitchen, hypocritically muttering “fucking Ralphy" after he finished, even though it was him who pressured Ralph into ordering Jackie’s death.
Season 4[]
- In order to ensure Christopher will feel indebted and stay loyal to him, Tony has Christopher drive out to a Hooters, where he claims to Christopher that the man who killed his father, Dickie Moltisanti, corrupt Detective Lieutenant Barry Haydu, who is on Tony’s payroll, is in the restaurant having his retirement party, giving Christopher Haydu's address and his blessing to execute him. Christopher ended up tracking Haydu to his home, knocking him unconscious, taking his gun, and handcuffing him to the staircase. When Christopher questions him, Haydu seems to genuinely deny any involvement with Dickie’s death and claims Christopher is being set up; however, Christopher shoots him dead after he nearly managed to escape.
- It is heavily implied that Tony was manipulating Christopher and lying about Haydu’s involvement with his father’s death. In a therapy session with Melfi on the subject of his future, Tony discusses his future in terms of two endings: death or prison, and says he has a plan to avoid either outcome by relying solely "on blood relations” and bonding Christopher stronger than ever to him so Christopher can serve as a buffer between himself and others to avoid any potential future prosecutions. This, mixed with Haydu’s genuine surprise and perplexity at being accused of killing Christopher’s father, further makes Tony seem all the more likely to manipulate Christopher and cause the death of an innocent man.
- After learning that Junior's Frelinghuysen Avenue warehouse was about to go up in value Tony tricks Junior into selling it to him by acting like it is to help him financially despite knowing that his uncle needs the money for his trial.
- After Johnny Sack orders a hit on Ralph in retaliation for him making a fat joke about Johnny’s wife Ginny, Tony arranges for Sack to be assassinated after Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. makes a subtle suggestion to do so, and Junior suggests he pay Lou "DiMaggio" Gallina to kill Johnny, sending Silvio and Christopher to provide DiMaggio with the money and a photo of Johnny. However, he cancels the hit after Johnny changes his mind and calls off his hit on Ralph.
- After getting the idea from Brian Cammarata, Tony conspires with Ralph to defraud the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fund with ridiculous housing deals, recruiting Zellman, his friend Maurice Tiffen, and Dr. Ira Fried, who’d act as straw buyer to initially purchase poor neighbourhood property.
- Before selling the real estate to the federal government, Tony orders Zellman that the crack addicts living in the run-down houses should be moved out, so he could make a buck selling the valuable copper piping in the houses, threatening Zellman with a lighter payment if the situation remains unresolved. Zellman would later visit Tiffen and order him to resolve the situation by sending in gangbangers, who arrived at the run-down houses and brutally shot and beat the squatters up, with one even being shot in his genitalia, all while a child watched. After, Tony sent Vito and his crew to strip the houses of its copper pipes and marble mantles, where then Fried sold the land to Tiffen’s organization at three times the purchase price, and received the sale price with funds loaned from HUD.
- After becoming emotional while listening to the Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl" on the radio, Tony stops at Irina’s appartments and viciously beats up Zellman with his belt, which caused Zellman to break down in tears in front of Irina, even though he previously gave Zellman his blessing to date his ex-mistress and that it was him who left Irina in the first place, just out of envy and to vent out his feelings.
- He shows no empathy for Furio when he tells Tony he's sad about his father's death, bluntly telling him that he has to get over it. (In reality, Furio was only using his father's death as a cover up for his sadness over his feelings for Carmela)
- After Pie-O-My became terribly injured, and later euthanized to be put out of its misery, when a fire broke out in the stables, Tony believes it was Ralph who set the fire intentionally to collect Pie-O-My’s $200,000 insurance, visiting Rqlph in his home to deliver the news. Tony frequently suggests and theorises that Ralph was behind the fire, even though Ralph angrily claims innocence, making a snarky comment on if Ralph had heard from Corky Ianucci lately, who was the arsonist who set Artie’s restaurant on fire.
- Ralph becomes enraged at Tony’s accusations, and calls Tony out on his hypocrisy as Tony doesn't care about Ralph’s blood money and the earnings he provides him, and makes a remark about Tony being a vegetarian, which brings Tony to a furious rage and attacks Ralph, engaging in a genuinely brutal fight across the kitchen, with Tony bashing Ralph’s head against the floor and strangling him until he dies.
- While this killing demonstrates how much he cared about Pie-O-My, and also is implied to have been influenced by Tracee’s death, Tony’s killing of Ralph, while he arguably deserved it, was incredibly reckless and thoughtless as Tony had no real proof Ralph was behind the fire, even though Ralph massively implies he caused the fire through his words, and this killing was also incredibly rash because Ralph was captain and the best earner Tony had. Also, it highlights Tony’s hypocrisy, as, which Ralph mentions, Tony cares so much about animals yet will willingly kill a human being and accept money that comes from illegitimate means and the suffering of other people.
- Following Ralph’s death, Tony enlists Christopher to help him depose of Ralph’s body, cutting his body into pieces and throwing it over a cliff into a quarry.
- Tony calls a meeting at the Bada Bing! with various key family members on the subject of Ralph’s disappearance, lying to the crew about his murder of Ralph and claiming that Johnny Sack had him killed over Tony not allowing him to join in on the HUD Scam, threatening that there would be payback.
- Tony attends an intervention for Christopher’s drug addiction problems, however he made it unnecessarily hostile by yelling at Christopher and becoming quite judgemental, mostly over the fact that Christopher had accidentally killed Adriana’s dog Cosette. However, this is mostly due to Christopher being incredibly defensive and disrespectful to everyone in the intervention.
- While visiting Christopher at the hospital, after Christopher suffered a dangerous beating during the intervention, Tony arranges for Christopher to go to rehab, ordering Patsy to be on hand in case of emergencies. However, Tony strongly implies to Patsy that Christopher is to be killed should he try to leave Rehab before graduating.
- Conspired with Johnny Sack to kill Carmine Lupertazzi but then backed out and had the assassins that would have killed Carmine killed after he and Tony resolved their dispute.
- Refusing to leave the house, after Carmela found out about his affair later, he is confronted by her at the pool, where he shows a lack of remorse and antagonizes Carmela, which eventually grows into an argument inside where Tony rationalises his cheating and claims Carmela “knew the deal” being with him.
- Upon finding out that Carmela has been in love with Furio for over a year, Tony goes into a violent rage and charges towards Carmela, nearly punching her but stopping himself and smashing in the wall, before mocking Carmela and claiming he cheated with Svetlana because he could converse with her, and that has affairs with women who have different qualities than Carmela. Carmela calls him out for his hypocrisy after this, reminding him that he hardly knew any of the women he’s had affairs with.
Season 5[]
- A year following his separation from Carmela, Tony makes an attempt to reunite with Dr. Melfi, sending flowers and a calling card to her office, and calling her to set up a date. When she refuses, Tony makes an appointment and rather creepily professes his love for her, saying he wants her “skin” and “mouth” and to show her “the other Tony”, however she refuses.
- Tony makes a third attempt, ambushing her as she was about to leave the office and offering two cruise tickets, however Melfi refuses again. When Tony pressures her into giving him an explanation, she explains it’s because of his negative values and personality traits, such as his untruthful nature, misogynistic personality, and overall disrespect for most people, which Tony refuses to accept and curses at her, calling her the c-word as he left the office.
- Ordered a hit on Jack Massarone on the suspicion he was working for the FBI.
- Chokes Janice when she slaps him after he refuses to help Junior and insults her personality.
- Meets with as many attourneys as possible in order to create a conflict of interest and block Carmela's attempt to divorce him.
- Forced Phil Leotardo off the road and injured his neck after learning Phil had cheated Fran Feltsetin out of a racetrack.
- While Christopher was out of town in North Carolina, Tony almost had sex with Christopher's girlfriend, Adrianna LaCerva, and would have done so had they not been interrupted. When Christopher angrily came to the Bada Bing and made threats against him, Tony was fully prepared to execute his nephew until he was talked down by his cousin Tony Blundetto.
- After his sister Janice goes to anger management, Tony is jealous of her being able to deal calmly with minor annoyances and deliberately provokes her into losing her temper by goading her about her relationship with her estranged son Harpo.
- On his orders, Silvio Dante murders Adrianna for being an FBI informant.
- When Christopher is emotionally torn up over Adrianna's death, Tony gets annoyed and brutally beats him up.
- After Blundetto gets involved in a power struggle between Johnny Sack and Little Carmine Lupertazzi and kills two of Sack's men, Tony murders his own cousin to avoid a war with Sack, though it should be noted that this was also partly to spare Blundetto from a much more slow and painful death.
Season 6[]
- When he felt his men didn't respect him anymore and felt emasculated by his new bodyguard, Perry Annuziata, Tony attacked Annuziata, accusing him of doing something he hadn't actually done, just to make a point to them.
- Arranged Rusty Millio's death in order to maintain a good relationship with Johnny Sack.
- After Vito Spatafore was outed as gay, Tony was willing to have him murdered to appease his men. While he ultimately didn't do it, that's only because his rival Phil Leotardo beat him to the punch.
- After repeatedly antagonizing his sister and being asked to stop multiple times, he gets into a fight with his brother-in-law, Bobby, who wins. To get him back, Tony spitefully makes him commit his first murder. The person Bobby killed was also innocent, with his only crime being fighting with the sister of one of Tony's associates over the custody of their child.
- Tony seriously considers killing his friend Paulie Gualtieri when he becomes worried that he's a liability, though he ultimately doesn't go through with it.
- After Hesh gives him a loan, Tony becomes resentful and alienates Hesh by making anti-Semitic remarks towards him, only paying his debt after Hesh's girlfriend Renata dies of a stroke.
- When Carmela tells Tony that she cleared $600,000 on the spec house she sold, he tries to encourage her to bet some of his half on a football game; however, Carmela refuses. When Tony's pegged team wins the game, he becomes furious that Carmela kept him from winning big, getting into a heated argument in which Tony brings up Carmela's previous theft of his money and violently grabs her, implicitly threatening that the house's roof will collapse and kill Brian's unborn child.
- He initially decides to help Vito's family out financially so they can move, but gambles away the money and instead convinced Vito's wife Marie to send their son Vito Jr to boot camp.
- After Christopher fails to shake his drug habit, Tony murders him after they get into a car wreck after falling off the road, and he admits afterwards that he feels relieved that he no longer has to worry about Chris being a liability. This is made even worse by the fact that Chris possibly could have stayed sober if Tony had supported him instead of undermining him and mocking his attempts to sober up at every turn.
- What also doesn't help is that his wife is now a widow, and his baby daughter will be too little to remember him, in much the same way that Christopher was too little to remember his own father, who was killed when he was a baby.
- He ordered the hit on Phil Leotardo, where he was shot right in front of his wife and two grandchildren, although Phil did deserve it considering he orchestrated a hit on his brother-in-law Bobby Baccala and his friend Silvio Dante, killing the former and putting the latter in a coma. Not to mention Phil’s immense sadism and crimes (such as Vito’s very grotesque death).
- Due to an earlier hit on Phil going wrong Tony is indirectly responsible for the death of Phil's goomah and her father.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is quite tragic, as he was emotionally manipulated and terrorized throughout his childhood and even into his early adulthood by his sociopathic mother, Livia Soprano; she even went so far as to threaten to stab him in the eye with a fork at the age of ten. While his father, Johnny Boy, is more outwardly pleasant compared to Livia, he's extremely manipulative and has indoctrinated his son into the mafia lifestyle.
- Throughout the show, it's implied that this hellish upbringing is what turned Tony into the ruthless and violent man we see in the show.
- He genuinely cares about multiple people:
- He genuinely loves his children, AJ and Meadow, trying to keep AJ out of his criminal life, furiously assaulting Coco for sexually harassing Meadow, keeping AJ out of prison when he tries to murder Uncle Junior, trying to protect them when he thought they could be in danger from Phil, and saving and comforting AJ after his suicide attempt.
- He has an incredibly close bond with his childhood friend, Artie Bucco. He tries to look out for Artie by stopping a hit from going down at his restaurant, and he protects him from both Christopher and Benny Fazio. Tony even gives Artie a pass for pointing a gun in his face, which would have gotten pretty much anyone else killed, as well as giving him a pass when Artie confronts him about being disloyal to his restaurant and once more bringing up the fact Tony arranged for it to be torched, with Tony simply telling Artie the reasons the restaurant was failing.
- Despite not really having a great relationship with his older sister Janice, he loves her and Bobby’s daughter Domenica. He even stops her from crying by playfully spinning her around, clearly enjoying the moment. He’s also seen being friendly with her when she’s a bit older.
- He really looked up to Dickie Moltisanti, being very saddened when Dickie stopped talking to him and later by his death. In the years afterwards, Tony speaks very fondly of his mentor.
- Since they were both children, Tony had a close friendship with Jackie Aprile. When Jackie was in the hospital with cancer, Tony arranged for a private party between him and a stripper to raise Jackie's spirits. When Jackie died shortly afterwards, Tony was devastated.
- Despite their difficult relationship, Tony still cares about his uncle, as he always treated him more kindly than his own parents. Even after Junior tries to have him killed, Tony still shows love for him and genuinely wants to help him after he's diagnosed with cancer. When he last visited Junior after Junior had tried to kill him, he was shocked to see just how far his uncle had declined mentally and left in tears.
- Despite the abuse she put him through, Tony still tried to be a good son to Livia. When it became apparent that Livia couldn't live on her own, Tony arranged for her to go to the best nursing home possible. His attitude changed when she tried to have him killed, but he still wasn't pleased with Fran Feltstein talking badly about her. He has a nostalgia filter around Livia following her death, even reminding his children that she loved them. This clearly shows that he still loved her deep down and was saddened by her death.
- He was incredibly close to Pussy for many years and it's revealed in a conversation between Pussy and AJ that Tony supported him when his sister was sick. The affection blinded Tony to Pussy's betrayal and he was furious when he thought Paulie had killed him. While he did kill him it was shown to bother him afterwards.
- He has a genuine friendship with Silvio and is distraught when Phil Leotardo's men put him in a coma, even holding his hand when in the hospital. Also Silvio was one of the few people who could speak freely to Tony without setting off his temper, and Tony rarely deviated from the advice that Silvio would give.
- He was attached to his horse Pie-Oh-My, paying the veterinary bills for her when Ralph wouldn't, and being distraught by the animal's death. This leads to Tony lashing out at Ralph, believing that he was responsible for the horse's brutal death.
- He has a sense of honor and standards:
- He was disgusted by Meadow's soccer coach sleeping with one of her friends, and he even planned to have him killed, but was told by both Artie and Melfi that that wouldn't actually help anyone and would only serve to make him feel better. He actually takes their words to heart, deciding to call off the hit and have the coach arrested.
- Made it clear to Paulie that Pussy wasn't to be killed unless absolute proof of his betrayal could be found.
- Was horrified by Ralph's murder of a young pregnant stripper Tracee. This leads to Tony hitting Ralph several times (despite it being against the Mafia to hit another made man).
- Tried to keep his promise to Jackie Sr to stop his son from going into a life of crime, he gave Jackie Jr multiple chances to walk away to no avail. It’s only after Jackie Jr kills Sunshine and injures Furio that Tony decides to take him out.
- Is always kind to animals and hates when they are abused, this is one of his most consistent traits. He’s very visibly upset once he hears that Christopher accidentally killed Adriana’s dog Cosette while high during Chris’ intervention.
- He gives his cousin Tony B a quick and painless death instead of handing him over to New York to be tortured by Phil Leotardo.
- After learning about Vito’s brutal death at the hands of Phil Leotardo and his men from Bobby, he (along with Christopher, Silvio, Paulie, Patsy, etc) was clearly disturbed by Phil’s level of depravity even by Mafia standards. When Carlo says he admires Phil for doing it anyway, Tony gives him an angry glare, showing visible disgust. While Tony was going to have Vito killed as well, it was only due to pressure from not only Phil but also fellow DiMeo crime members (including the very pragmatic Silvio Dante) and he wouldn’t have done what Phil did.
- He can show remorse for his actions, as he felt guilty when Gloria killed herself and regretted getting a cop demoted. Most notably, he showed great reluctance to kill Pussy, who he considered like a brother. Pussy and Gloria’s deaths had a lasting impact on Tony, as he sees both of them in dream sequences.
- He has several "Pet the Dog" moments:
- After Junior tries to have him killed, Tony realizes Melfi could be in danger and gets her to skip town for her own safety.
- Tony genuinely feels bad for Beansie after he gets crippled by Richie, even threatening Richie if he steps out of line like that again. He even tries to help by forcing Richie to have a ramp built for him. When Beansie leaves the business, Tony and the rest of the guys remain on good enough terms that they visit him whenever they are in Miami.
- He defends Janice when Livia taunts her about her disastrous track record with men following Richie’s death, saying that Janice didn’t have a chance with having Livia as her mother. He also helped Janice from being incriminated for killing Richie, having Christopher and Furio help as well.
- When Pussy asks Tony, Silvio, and Paulie to not shoot him in the face after discovering that he was a FBI informant, Tony (and the others) do honor this request and only shoots Pussy in the chest in a quick and painless manner.
- He's upset by the death of his brother-in-law's father and helps to cover the funeral costs out of respect for the man.
- He tries to comfort Melfi when she's distraught after being raped.
- After Christopher begs his uncle not to make him kill Adrianna, Tony agrees to have someone else do it.
- He gives Finn money for a sandwich and drink after he confirms Vito's homosexuality to the crew.
- When his actions indirectly result in Phil laying a brutal beatdown on Benny, Tony feels guilty and offers to arrange for Benny to be made once he's recovered as compensation.
- When the other mobsters deride Johnny Sack for crying at his daughter's wedding, Tony is the only one to defend him.
- After he’s informed of Johnny Sack’s death due to cancer, he shows visible sadness and mourns for him. He even does a toast for John to honor him. Despite their relationship turning very sour by the sixth Season for a variety of reasons, Tony did hold some lingering care for the man.
- In the finale, Tony tries to find out where Junior's money is so he can put it into a fund for Bobby's children.
External Links[]
- Tony Soprano on the Villains Wiki
- Tony Soprano on the Sopranos Wiki
- Tony Soprano on the Wikipedia
