Character Meme: Tony Soprano
I'm starting my Character Meme answers. pocochina asked for The Sopranos's Tony Soprano and/or True Blood's Tara Thornton. I love both characters so much that I am going to go for both! However, I'll cover Tara Thornton sometime later. This entry is about Tony Soprano.
I need to look at my life and choices because I can scrawl off my deeply felt opinions about Tony Soprano in an instant but I have a distance from brave, strong, compassionate, lovely Tara Thornton.
Why I like him - For a horrible psychopath, Tony has some delightful traits. I love how clever and practical he is about running his crew. He's hilarious and really elevates the four letter word into a put-down art form. He succeeds as a father in a lot of ways, although he can be too hard on AJ and obviously, his whole lifestyle is dangerous and corrupting to his whole family. He has genuine generous impulses if he's in the right giving mood- giving Janice the Sacrimoni house, trying to help Adrianna and Christopher with the intervention and sending Chris to rehab, his efforts to protect Tony B from the New York gang, forgiving Artie of his debt for the French liquor, etc. It's not exactly compassion. It's more a kingly bestowing of largesse to those who mean something to Tony. However, that still *means* something. Some kings can never be bothered. He also sometimes warns his "marks" that they should be careful about dealing with him- Artie, the gambler who owned the wilderness adventure store, etc. The other guys don't bother.
To pick one. There's a refrain on the show that "At least with Tony, you know where you stand". I don't quite agree there. I think he's far too coldly calculating and mendacious AND unpredictably tempestuous and violent. However, at least you know that Tony is openly doing everything to satisfy his bottomless pit of wants- money, sex, fun, information, security from facing the consequences of his actions. I prefer that to some of the guys' hypocrisies and pre-occupation with nonsense from killing gays to protecting Columbus Day to the 90 Pound Ass Mole War. Tony knows that he's a criminal and he acts like one. In contrast to say Phil Leotardo is just as much of a criminal but acts like he's the patron warrior saint of purifying Italian culture and thus, ends up doing more damage.
Why I don’t - Um, because he's a horrible, abusive, dishonest psychopath who deliberately creates a trail of devastation and hell for his relatives, his co-workers, law enforcement, and all civilians out of a vile cocktail of utter selfishness, vicious sadism, a disregard for anyone's needs but his own, and ultimately, a total lack of the warmth and loyalty that he claims to embody if he can make a buck or impress someone by throwing over those values?
Because if there's a American evil, Tony Soprano likely has his big, meaty hand in that pie- government and charitable organization corruption, violence on the streets, exploitation and violence against women, defrauding vulnerable immigrant and poor populations, manipulation of the stock market, slum lording, drugs, destructive fraud and violence against small businesses in the neighborhood, etc. Because he's a huge hypocrite who insults women for being sluts and whores- but makes big money from the Bada Bing, who uses blacks to commit crimes on the bottom rung of his business but then sits back in his mansion and makes racist comments about blacks and whines about Italian discrimination as the greatest racist evil. Tony's favorite insult for his loan-shark marks and cop informants is "degenerate gambler" but he gambles and loses tons. Tony mocks Janice for being a bottom-feeder out to swoop in and get Olivia's inheritance but also guards custody of Olivia's rather meager assets compared to Tony's own millions because he wants what's his and then some.
And yet without all of that shit, there wouldn't be The Sopranos... LOL.
Favorite episode (scene if movie) - Really, almost all of the eps are great Tony episodes. Maybe this is an UO- but I like a lot of the dream episodes.
Favorite season/movie - Either S1 for fun or S6 for Holy Batman darkness. However as stated above, every season is a great Tony season.
Favorite line - I can't narrow it down! Tony is one of the most quotable characters ever. I went to IMDB page on Tony Soprano and randomly glanced at the screen. IMO, the first quote that I saw was hilarious enough to put down.
Tony Soprano (to Christopher): You leave Comley Trucking and every other fucking item on this planet that belongs to my uncle Junior, including his hemorrhoid donut, the fuck alone.
Ooh also:
Anthony 'A.J.' Soprano, Jr.: Is it true that the Chinese invented spaghetti?
Tony Soprano: Now think about it. Why would people who eat with sticks invent something you need a fork to eat?
Janice Soprano (about Richie O'Prio): What'd you do with him?
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr. (sarcastically): We buried him. On a hill. Overlooking a little river. With pine cones all around.
Favorite outfit - It doesn't get more iconic than Tony's open bathrobe over his shirt and boxers and a bleary-eyed, irritable expression on his face as he heads down the driveway to pick up the paper.
OTP - Tony/Carmela, obviously! My NOtp is Tony/Melfi. There is so much toxic and wrong about Tony/Carmela, although I wouldn't have believed it any other way. In fact one of the great strengths of the show is that is so unflinching in its accuracy of what's wrong with Tony/Carmela, that it makes the relationship all the more credible when it comes around to exploring the sweeter, loving aspects of Tony/Carmela.
What's more as much as they both bitch and moan about the other, I don't think either one of them would be happier with a different partner. Tony and Carmela try it with their flirtations and relationships with others but those always fall flat and feel empty. Carmela all but admitted that she was attracted to Tony's domination and strength and darkness. It's a far cry from Skyler White or even Betty Draper who didn't know who they were really marrying. Carmela almost softens herself when she recounts to Melfi that Tony showed up for their first date with ludicrously expensive, clearly stolen goods to give to her parents and Carmela didn't know if she fell in love with Tony there in spite of that or *because of it*.
However in fairness to Carmela, she fell hard enough in love with Tony that she sticks by him and cares for him even when he's far from the strong, cold captain of the industry type or even when his crimes endanger her preciously guarded lifestyle. I really think she would have stood by him even if he remained in a coma from Junior's gunshot and she barely whined about going into hiding during the Phil Leotardo war because she knows what she signed up for.
As for Tony, he really can't do better than Carmela. If it all didn't feel so real, I'd snark about how she's almost too much of a perfect woman for him. She's the warm Suzy Homemaker Master Chef who cooks and entertains perfectly and incessantly. She's also the coolly competent accomplice that cleans out the vents and jewelry boxes of cash and jewels when it looks like there's going to be a raid. Even when they disagree, I think he concedes to himself that Carmela was right a lot of the time. Carmela busts his balls about investing their money to create a good nest egg. Tony chauvinistically complained- but after the sale of the spec house, he practically conceded that she did brilliantly when he asked for the money to gamble with. Tony's temper and abusive behavior may make him itch to smack around his kids, especially AJ, but deep down, I think he appreciates Carmela's restraint and careful mothering of the children.
Brotp - LOL, Tony murdered all three of his closest Brotps- Big Pussy, Christopher, and Tony B. It really encourages my cynicism about any of his other "friends". I also think Tony barely tolerates Paulie (even though Paulie adores Tony), has a coldly business-like relationship with Sil, turns on and uses Hesh over nothing, and could never really bond with Bobby as long he continued to want keep Janice in a lower place and hold onto his contempt for Bobby's doofy softness. I dislike Junior and Artie Bucco too much to rate them highly in a Brotp. Tony and Johnny Sac were never *bros*- their warmest moments are rivals who have enough pragmatism over directionless rage that they can still break bread together.
Carmela dropped a truth bomb when she said that Tony doesn't really have friends so much as men that surround him and are afraid of him so they'll laugh at all of Tony's dumb jokes. (Although as much as Rosalie Aprile, in particular, is a loyal and stalwart friend of Carm's, all of Carm's friends are mob wives and mob girlfriends drawn to her because she's the queen of their family. For Carmela's non-mob wife friends, she dominated and lorded over her money over Charmaine Bucco and threatened Jeannie Cusumano and her sister with her husband's muscle to get Meadow into Georgetown.)
I think Tony's best Brotp just might be with his children, especially Meadow.
Head Canon - Tony was a terrible student and history was one of his least favorite subjects. Tony couldn't get interested in a subject about the past that had zero relevance to his life. However, when Tony became a captain in his Family that he became fascinated by history because he found the lessons of war and leadership very informative and relevant to his life. He enjoys how the History Channel shows footage of battles so he can watch the violence and know that it's real. Unlike most people, Tony actively dwells on the people that probably died or were grievously injured when the History Channels shows plane falling out of the sky or a land mine exploding and Tony admires how the camera is showing actual important shit as he watches the carnage and gobbles a sundae or deli sandwich.
His favorite period of history was either World War I till now because it was televised or ancient Roman history for obvious Italian and bad-ass reasons. His guys love violent fictional films, especially mob movies. Tony enjoys those too- but not as much as historical documentaries of war where it was all real and there's actual lessons to be learned about tactics and positions and all of that shit.
Unpopular opinion - I don't know what's popular in Sopranos fandom! There's not really much of a fandom. My family doesn't like the dream eps and I recall that the O'Reilly Factor did a segment about the dream eps were stupid and meant The Sopranos was going downhill or some such moronic jibber jabber. Meanwhile, I really enjoy the dream eps, especially the one where Tony was hallucinating the beautiful Italian au pair in working at the Cusumano house and it felt real until Melfi burst that bubble and revealed that Tony was just subbing a warm maternal figure to distract him from his correct fear of his mother.
A wish - I wish that James Gandolfini hadn't died far too young. I miss him as a wonderful actor in general and by all accounts, an incredibly nice guy. But his death also meant that there really can't ever be a "The Sopranos" movie which could have been brilliant, even though I loved the ambiguous ending. Oooh, maybe that's an unpopular opinion too although it's more about the show in general.
5 words/phrases to best describe him- psychopath, calculating, steely-eyed pragmatic, melodramatic, "the sad clown" (Five words/phrases was not enough! I would have also added tempestuous, self-pitying, streets-smart, charismatic, denies-himself-nothing, gluttonous, oddly adorable, accidentally insightful, malicious, abusive. His Animagus form is also totes a big black bear- but the show already pointed that out.
My nickname for him- T is a great nickname in it's simple, King of Streets vibes. Of course, there's also DA BOSS OF DIS FAMILY. His nearest and dearest are great nicknamers- "insensitive cocksucker" (Bobby), "fat fuck" (Ralph), "you fucking piece of shit" (Carmela), and my personal favorite, "Thank you, Il Duce" (Meadow). However, you need a certain swagger to pull those nicknames off that I sadly lack and you need to either be immediate-family related to Tony or talking behind his back!
I need to look at my life and choices because I can scrawl off my deeply felt opinions about Tony Soprano in an instant but I have a distance from brave, strong, compassionate, lovely Tara Thornton.
Why I like him - For a horrible psychopath, Tony has some delightful traits. I love how clever and practical he is about running his crew. He's hilarious and really elevates the four letter word into a put-down art form. He succeeds as a father in a lot of ways, although he can be too hard on AJ and obviously, his whole lifestyle is dangerous and corrupting to his whole family. He has genuine generous impulses if he's in the right giving mood- giving Janice the Sacrimoni house, trying to help Adrianna and Christopher with the intervention and sending Chris to rehab, his efforts to protect Tony B from the New York gang, forgiving Artie of his debt for the French liquor, etc. It's not exactly compassion. It's more a kingly bestowing of largesse to those who mean something to Tony. However, that still *means* something. Some kings can never be bothered. He also sometimes warns his "marks" that they should be careful about dealing with him- Artie, the gambler who owned the wilderness adventure store, etc. The other guys don't bother.
To pick one. There's a refrain on the show that "At least with Tony, you know where you stand". I don't quite agree there. I think he's far too coldly calculating and mendacious AND unpredictably tempestuous and violent. However, at least you know that Tony is openly doing everything to satisfy his bottomless pit of wants- money, sex, fun, information, security from facing the consequences of his actions. I prefer that to some of the guys' hypocrisies and pre-occupation with nonsense from killing gays to protecting Columbus Day to the 90 Pound Ass Mole War. Tony knows that he's a criminal and he acts like one. In contrast to say Phil Leotardo is just as much of a criminal but acts like he's the patron warrior saint of purifying Italian culture and thus, ends up doing more damage.
Why I don’t - Um, because he's a horrible, abusive, dishonest psychopath who deliberately creates a trail of devastation and hell for his relatives, his co-workers, law enforcement, and all civilians out of a vile cocktail of utter selfishness, vicious sadism, a disregard for anyone's needs but his own, and ultimately, a total lack of the warmth and loyalty that he claims to embody if he can make a buck or impress someone by throwing over those values?
Because if there's a American evil, Tony Soprano likely has his big, meaty hand in that pie- government and charitable organization corruption, violence on the streets, exploitation and violence against women, defrauding vulnerable immigrant and poor populations, manipulation of the stock market, slum lording, drugs, destructive fraud and violence against small businesses in the neighborhood, etc. Because he's a huge hypocrite who insults women for being sluts and whores- but makes big money from the Bada Bing, who uses blacks to commit crimes on the bottom rung of his business but then sits back in his mansion and makes racist comments about blacks and whines about Italian discrimination as the greatest racist evil. Tony's favorite insult for his loan-shark marks and cop informants is "degenerate gambler" but he gambles and loses tons. Tony mocks Janice for being a bottom-feeder out to swoop in and get Olivia's inheritance but also guards custody of Olivia's rather meager assets compared to Tony's own millions because he wants what's his and then some.
And yet without all of that shit, there wouldn't be The Sopranos... LOL.
Favorite episode (scene if movie) - Really, almost all of the eps are great Tony episodes. Maybe this is an UO- but I like a lot of the dream episodes.
Favorite season/movie - Either S1 for fun or S6 for Holy Batman darkness. However as stated above, every season is a great Tony season.
Favorite line - I can't narrow it down! Tony is one of the most quotable characters ever. I went to IMDB page on Tony Soprano and randomly glanced at the screen. IMO, the first quote that I saw was hilarious enough to put down.
Tony Soprano (to Christopher): You leave Comley Trucking and every other fucking item on this planet that belongs to my uncle Junior, including his hemorrhoid donut, the fuck alone.
Ooh also:
Anthony 'A.J.' Soprano, Jr.: Is it true that the Chinese invented spaghetti?
Tony Soprano: Now think about it. Why would people who eat with sticks invent something you need a fork to eat?
Janice Soprano (about Richie O'Prio): What'd you do with him?
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr. (sarcastically): We buried him. On a hill. Overlooking a little river. With pine cones all around.
Favorite outfit - It doesn't get more iconic than Tony's open bathrobe over his shirt and boxers and a bleary-eyed, irritable expression on his face as he heads down the driveway to pick up the paper.
OTP - Tony/Carmela, obviously! My NOtp is Tony/Melfi. There is so much toxic and wrong about Tony/Carmela, although I wouldn't have believed it any other way. In fact one of the great strengths of the show is that is so unflinching in its accuracy of what's wrong with Tony/Carmela, that it makes the relationship all the more credible when it comes around to exploring the sweeter, loving aspects of Tony/Carmela.
What's more as much as they both bitch and moan about the other, I don't think either one of them would be happier with a different partner. Tony and Carmela try it with their flirtations and relationships with others but those always fall flat and feel empty. Carmela all but admitted that she was attracted to Tony's domination and strength and darkness. It's a far cry from Skyler White or even Betty Draper who didn't know who they were really marrying. Carmela almost softens herself when she recounts to Melfi that Tony showed up for their first date with ludicrously expensive, clearly stolen goods to give to her parents and Carmela didn't know if she fell in love with Tony there in spite of that or *because of it*.
However in fairness to Carmela, she fell hard enough in love with Tony that she sticks by him and cares for him even when he's far from the strong, cold captain of the industry type or even when his crimes endanger her preciously guarded lifestyle. I really think she would have stood by him even if he remained in a coma from Junior's gunshot and she barely whined about going into hiding during the Phil Leotardo war because she knows what she signed up for.
As for Tony, he really can't do better than Carmela. If it all didn't feel so real, I'd snark about how she's almost too much of a perfect woman for him. She's the warm Suzy Homemaker Master Chef who cooks and entertains perfectly and incessantly. She's also the coolly competent accomplice that cleans out the vents and jewelry boxes of cash and jewels when it looks like there's going to be a raid. Even when they disagree, I think he concedes to himself that Carmela was right a lot of the time. Carmela busts his balls about investing their money to create a good nest egg. Tony chauvinistically complained- but after the sale of the spec house, he practically conceded that she did brilliantly when he asked for the money to gamble with. Tony's temper and abusive behavior may make him itch to smack around his kids, especially AJ, but deep down, I think he appreciates Carmela's restraint and careful mothering of the children.
Brotp - LOL, Tony murdered all three of his closest Brotps- Big Pussy, Christopher, and Tony B. It really encourages my cynicism about any of his other "friends". I also think Tony barely tolerates Paulie (even though Paulie adores Tony), has a coldly business-like relationship with Sil, turns on and uses Hesh over nothing, and could never really bond with Bobby as long he continued to want keep Janice in a lower place and hold onto his contempt for Bobby's doofy softness. I dislike Junior and Artie Bucco too much to rate them highly in a Brotp. Tony and Johnny Sac were never *bros*- their warmest moments are rivals who have enough pragmatism over directionless rage that they can still break bread together.
Carmela dropped a truth bomb when she said that Tony doesn't really have friends so much as men that surround him and are afraid of him so they'll laugh at all of Tony's dumb jokes. (Although as much as Rosalie Aprile, in particular, is a loyal and stalwart friend of Carm's, all of Carm's friends are mob wives and mob girlfriends drawn to her because she's the queen of their family. For Carmela's non-mob wife friends, she dominated and lorded over her money over Charmaine Bucco and threatened Jeannie Cusumano and her sister with her husband's muscle to get Meadow into Georgetown.)
I think Tony's best Brotp just might be with his children, especially Meadow.
Head Canon - Tony was a terrible student and history was one of his least favorite subjects. Tony couldn't get interested in a subject about the past that had zero relevance to his life. However, when Tony became a captain in his Family that he became fascinated by history because he found the lessons of war and leadership very informative and relevant to his life. He enjoys how the History Channel shows footage of battles so he can watch the violence and know that it's real. Unlike most people, Tony actively dwells on the people that probably died or were grievously injured when the History Channels shows plane falling out of the sky or a land mine exploding and Tony admires how the camera is showing actual important shit as he watches the carnage and gobbles a sundae or deli sandwich.
His favorite period of history was either World War I till now because it was televised or ancient Roman history for obvious Italian and bad-ass reasons. His guys love violent fictional films, especially mob movies. Tony enjoys those too- but not as much as historical documentaries of war where it was all real and there's actual lessons to be learned about tactics and positions and all of that shit.
Unpopular opinion - I don't know what's popular in Sopranos fandom! There's not really much of a fandom. My family doesn't like the dream eps and I recall that the O'Reilly Factor did a segment about the dream eps were stupid and meant The Sopranos was going downhill or some such moronic jibber jabber. Meanwhile, I really enjoy the dream eps, especially the one where Tony was hallucinating the beautiful Italian au pair in working at the Cusumano house and it felt real until Melfi burst that bubble and revealed that Tony was just subbing a warm maternal figure to distract him from his correct fear of his mother.
A wish - I wish that James Gandolfini hadn't died far too young. I miss him as a wonderful actor in general and by all accounts, an incredibly nice guy. But his death also meant that there really can't ever be a "The Sopranos" movie which could have been brilliant, even though I loved the ambiguous ending. Oooh, maybe that's an unpopular opinion too although it's more about the show in general.
5 words/phrases to best describe him- psychopath, calculating, steely-eyed pragmatic, melodramatic, "the sad clown" (Five words/phrases was not enough! I would have also added tempestuous, self-pitying, streets-smart, charismatic, denies-himself-nothing, gluttonous, oddly adorable, accidentally insightful, malicious, abusive. His Animagus form is also totes a big black bear- but the show already pointed that out.
My nickname for him- T is a great nickname in it's simple, King of Streets vibes. Of course, there's also DA BOSS OF DIS FAMILY. His nearest and dearest are great nicknamers- "insensitive cocksucker" (Bobby), "fat fuck" (Ralph), "you fucking piece of shit" (Carmela), and my personal favorite, "Thank you, Il Duce" (Meadow). However, you need a certain swagger to pull those nicknames off that I sadly lack and you need to either be immediate-family related to Tony or talking behind his back!