Favorite Warrior Characters- BtVS/AtS’s Faith Lehane and The Sopranos’s Christopher Moltesanti
My favorite Warrior characters are BtVS/AtS’s Faith Lehane and The Sopranos’s Christopher Moltesanti. They’re actually very similar- perhaps one of the most similar of the character contrasts that I’ve offered so far. Dark, sexy forces of nature who really get into the violence and become the right hand and genuinely beloved and genuinely used and abused daughter/son figure of The Big Guy (Tony Soprano definitely has Mayor similarities.) Faith and Christopher grew up without their fathers and endured mothers who were much more interested in the “getting drunk and passing out parts of life.”
Faith and Christopher’s Northeast working class-chic’s presentation lends them a similar appeal. Faith is an incredibly strong slayer. Christopher is actually a pretty thin little guy who’s not necessarily *built* for big violence but he’s probably the best fighter on Tony’s gang after Tony himself (IMO, better than the overrated Furrio) because he’s a good marksman and he’s fit and puts his whole heart and force of will into every fight that he gets. When they’re evil, both characters bounce between using their strength for legit fights against strong foes out to destroy them where the audience can “root” for them and they use their strength to despicably and verrrry graphically torture physically weaker people who just want to help them.
Moreover, both characters’ get pivotal redemption stories that greatly define their series’ approach to morality and redemption. It’s just that Faith actually does the work to go through with it. Christopher doesn’t and just becomes eviler. It’s ironic because Christopher’s “redemption” would be seen by many as a “get out of jail free card.” He was being afforded the opportunity to avoid legal consequences for his actions. Yes, he’d testify against his peeps. However, he’d get off scot free for his past crime and he’d get to settle somewhere else when he was young enough to still be able to with Adrianna as his wife. Christopher complained for years that Tony was terrible to him and he was sick of the problems inherent in being part of Tony’s crew and his fear of going to hell. “My uncle Tony, Ade. The man I’m going to hell for.”
However, no, Christopher puts Adrianna up for slaughter to continue to work on Tony’s crew in a job that angers him, with a wife that makes him unhappy, while adding more and more crimes to rap sheet and sins to his heavenly slate (given that Christopher believes in Catholicism even though I don’t.)
Meanwhile, it’s logical to conclude that Wolfram and Hart would not deliver on their promise of paying Faith gobs of cash and giving her immunity from her past crimes in exchange for her staking Angel. However, *Faith* was proceeding like Wolfram and Hart would pay her and get her out of trouble. On the surface, Faith was just given a powerful incentive to not toe the line. Yet, Faith turned away from those opportunities in evil to stay in prison for years.
Why did Christopher and Faith go in opposite directions? I’m torn between a woolly headed liberal thinking analysis that Faith had group influences pushing her in the right direction while Christopher had group influences pushing him in the wrong direction and a matter-of-fact “Well, Faith is substantially less selfish and horrible than Christopher!” I mean, I think there’s merit to both and they play heavily in how things went down. However, one or the other or even both don’t feel like the complete story. Faith did always have reserves of compassion and heroism that Christopher didn’t- but their circumstances were different. Christopher was perpetually surrounded by a toxic crowd while Faith had moral aids in the Scoobies and AI team- but Faith did most of her work on herself in maximum security prison. And Christopher helped murder Adrianna who could have been a moral aid and turned away from the FBI who could be seen as a moral aid in this instance.
Some of it does go to the insidiousness of the mafia where Christopher could lie to himself that there WAS no honorable option for him. Yes, he chose to kill Ade which is bad and hurts him but he did it to not rat on his friends which is a moral imperative in Christopher’s world. Faith had a pretty clear choice between the honorable and not-honorable option.
That said, I really agree with pocochina when she wrote that the gas station scene where Christopher chooses against the danger of turning into the schlubby, but seemingly law-abiding family that Christopher reveals that he’s primarily concerned with becoming less glamorous and libertine. If Christopher were to argue that he had it harder than Faith because he’d have to rat on his friends, he’d basically be lying. That question of honor was probably just how Christopher lied to *himself*. Moreover, Faith’s choice wasn’t all that clear. Faith could have hide behind Angel’s leather duster and bought into his sweet nothing about just feeling the pain and clinging to Angel as her sponsor and Faith would have felt the glow that Angel condoned her choice and heck, Wesley and Cordelia would have been forced into accepting it. However, Faith chose to take the harder option.
Also, the road to Christopher’s final stand against redemption is that Christopher had so steadily and escalated his abuse of Ade. The funny thing is that Chris loved Adrianna. Chris genuinely wanted to marry Adrianna and he had fantasies of making Adrianna his “Carmela” to Christopher’s eventual position of Boss of New Jersey. However, love doesn’t mean remotely decent and humane treatment- Christopher’s fantasy of Ade entirely consisted of her serving him every damn minute of the day and if that meant, Christopher pressuring Adrianna to take more drugs, beating the crap out of her, limiting her ability to socialize outside Chris’s cesspool of coworkers and their wives, feeling up Adrianna’s friend right in front of her- well, dem’s the breaks.
It’s a pretty stunning reveal that when person just “loves” or “values” another for what they give them and will happily hurt their beloved for anything, it’s just a question of mere circumstances to dictate whether Adrianna gets the vaunted position of Christopher’s *wife* or the disgraced position of the corpse that Christopher steps over to Tony’s pardon.
I don’t want to be an apologist for Faith’s Consequences through Graduation Day/BtvS S4/Five by Five behavior. However, Faith abused people like Xander and Wesley and Buffy in flashes of a temper and resentment and flashes where Faith was covetous of Buffy’s life. And you can’t do that- it’s wrong and all that jazz. However, it’s not as insidious as Christopher’s mode of viewing the supposed love of his life away from his horrible business as a mere punching bag/sex ‘bot/junkie partner/future wife/whatever the hell Christopher wants. MAYBE THERE WAS SOMETHING TO FAITH’S USE AND DISCARD STRATEGY! Seriously, it’s better to evil and single and than evil and looking to get hitched.
Again not to romanticize Faith, however, in the depths of Faith’s evil, Faith had reservations about killing or abusing someone just to follow instructions and stepping over their corpses to the top. Granted, Faith got plenty comfortable with that when she murdered Dr. Lester. However, she was uncomfortable at planning the hit on Willow in Doppelgangland with the Mayor even though she was fine killing Willow in Choices more as part of Faith’s own flash of temper. IMO, Faith’s violent moves against Cordy and Wes on AtS were a delaying tactic because Faith didn’t like the seamy, subservient role of being W&H’s hitwoman against Angel.
It’s very different than Christopher who delights in spontaneous violence (like Faith) but also playing the role of the hitman even against people that Christopher knows very well and befriended.
Yup, another meandering essay. However, again, despite Chris’s and Faith’s similarities, there really is a complicated stew that accounts for why Faith reformed herself and Christopher damned himself.
Faith and Christopher’s Northeast working class-chic’s presentation lends them a similar appeal. Faith is an incredibly strong slayer. Christopher is actually a pretty thin little guy who’s not necessarily *built* for big violence but he’s probably the best fighter on Tony’s gang after Tony himself (IMO, better than the overrated Furrio) because he’s a good marksman and he’s fit and puts his whole heart and force of will into every fight that he gets. When they’re evil, both characters bounce between using their strength for legit fights against strong foes out to destroy them where the audience can “root” for them and they use their strength to despicably and verrrry graphically torture physically weaker people who just want to help them.
Moreover, both characters’ get pivotal redemption stories that greatly define their series’ approach to morality and redemption. It’s just that Faith actually does the work to go through with it. Christopher doesn’t and just becomes eviler. It’s ironic because Christopher’s “redemption” would be seen by many as a “get out of jail free card.” He was being afforded the opportunity to avoid legal consequences for his actions. Yes, he’d testify against his peeps. However, he’d get off scot free for his past crime and he’d get to settle somewhere else when he was young enough to still be able to with Adrianna as his wife. Christopher complained for years that Tony was terrible to him and he was sick of the problems inherent in being part of Tony’s crew and his fear of going to hell. “My uncle Tony, Ade. The man I’m going to hell for.”
However, no, Christopher puts Adrianna up for slaughter to continue to work on Tony’s crew in a job that angers him, with a wife that makes him unhappy, while adding more and more crimes to rap sheet and sins to his heavenly slate (given that Christopher believes in Catholicism even though I don’t.)
Meanwhile, it’s logical to conclude that Wolfram and Hart would not deliver on their promise of paying Faith gobs of cash and giving her immunity from her past crimes in exchange for her staking Angel. However, *Faith* was proceeding like Wolfram and Hart would pay her and get her out of trouble. On the surface, Faith was just given a powerful incentive to not toe the line. Yet, Faith turned away from those opportunities in evil to stay in prison for years.
Why did Christopher and Faith go in opposite directions? I’m torn between a woolly headed liberal thinking analysis that Faith had group influences pushing her in the right direction while Christopher had group influences pushing him in the wrong direction and a matter-of-fact “Well, Faith is substantially less selfish and horrible than Christopher!” I mean, I think there’s merit to both and they play heavily in how things went down. However, one or the other or even both don’t feel like the complete story. Faith did always have reserves of compassion and heroism that Christopher didn’t- but their circumstances were different. Christopher was perpetually surrounded by a toxic crowd while Faith had moral aids in the Scoobies and AI team- but Faith did most of her work on herself in maximum security prison. And Christopher helped murder Adrianna who could have been a moral aid and turned away from the FBI who could be seen as a moral aid in this instance.
Some of it does go to the insidiousness of the mafia where Christopher could lie to himself that there WAS no honorable option for him. Yes, he chose to kill Ade which is bad and hurts him but he did it to not rat on his friends which is a moral imperative in Christopher’s world. Faith had a pretty clear choice between the honorable and not-honorable option.
That said, I really agree with pocochina when she wrote that the gas station scene where Christopher chooses against the danger of turning into the schlubby, but seemingly law-abiding family that Christopher reveals that he’s primarily concerned with becoming less glamorous and libertine. If Christopher were to argue that he had it harder than Faith because he’d have to rat on his friends, he’d basically be lying. That question of honor was probably just how Christopher lied to *himself*. Moreover, Faith’s choice wasn’t all that clear. Faith could have hide behind Angel’s leather duster and bought into his sweet nothing about just feeling the pain and clinging to Angel as her sponsor and Faith would have felt the glow that Angel condoned her choice and heck, Wesley and Cordelia would have been forced into accepting it. However, Faith chose to take the harder option.
Also, the road to Christopher’s final stand against redemption is that Christopher had so steadily and escalated his abuse of Ade. The funny thing is that Chris loved Adrianna. Chris genuinely wanted to marry Adrianna and he had fantasies of making Adrianna his “Carmela” to Christopher’s eventual position of Boss of New Jersey. However, love doesn’t mean remotely decent and humane treatment- Christopher’s fantasy of Ade entirely consisted of her serving him every damn minute of the day and if that meant, Christopher pressuring Adrianna to take more drugs, beating the crap out of her, limiting her ability to socialize outside Chris’s cesspool of coworkers and their wives, feeling up Adrianna’s friend right in front of her- well, dem’s the breaks.
It’s a pretty stunning reveal that when person just “loves” or “values” another for what they give them and will happily hurt their beloved for anything, it’s just a question of mere circumstances to dictate whether Adrianna gets the vaunted position of Christopher’s *wife* or the disgraced position of the corpse that Christopher steps over to Tony’s pardon.
I don’t want to be an apologist for Faith’s Consequences through Graduation Day/BtvS S4/Five by Five behavior. However, Faith abused people like Xander and Wesley and Buffy in flashes of a temper and resentment and flashes where Faith was covetous of Buffy’s life. And you can’t do that- it’s wrong and all that jazz. However, it’s not as insidious as Christopher’s mode of viewing the supposed love of his life away from his horrible business as a mere punching bag/sex ‘bot/junkie partner/future wife/whatever the hell Christopher wants. MAYBE THERE WAS SOMETHING TO FAITH’S USE AND DISCARD STRATEGY! Seriously, it’s better to evil and single and than evil and looking to get hitched.
Again not to romanticize Faith, however, in the depths of Faith’s evil, Faith had reservations about killing or abusing someone just to follow instructions and stepping over their corpses to the top. Granted, Faith got plenty comfortable with that when she murdered Dr. Lester. However, she was uncomfortable at planning the hit on Willow in Doppelgangland with the Mayor even though she was fine killing Willow in Choices more as part of Faith’s own flash of temper. IMO, Faith’s violent moves against Cordy and Wes on AtS were a delaying tactic because Faith didn’t like the seamy, subservient role of being W&H’s hitwoman against Angel.
It’s very different than Christopher who delights in spontaneous violence (like Faith) but also playing the role of the hitman even against people that Christopher knows very well and befriended.
Yup, another meandering essay. However, again, despite Chris’s and Faith’s similarities, there really is a complicated stew that accounts for why Faith reformed herself and Christopher damned himself.