The original post: /r/television by /u/Term_Best on 2024-05-27 04:40:17.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’ve gone back and forth about it. He’s undoubtedly an evil person but I’m not necessarily sure if being an evil person inherently makes you a villain. Maybe it’s because pretty much every character in The Sopranos is evil or a bad person to some degree (with a couple of exceptions) so Tony’s behavior feels like part of the norm in his show. Let’s compare this to his often compared to counterpart Walter White. I (and I’m sure as well as many others) have no issue classifying Walter as a villain and I feel like he does not seem out of place on a greatest villains list with people such as Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, The Joker, Michael Myers, etc. Tony on the other hand would seem completely out of place (maybe it’s just me). In Breaking Bad there are quite a bit of major characters who people genuinely sympathize with (Jesse, Hank, Skyler). So when Walter ruins their lives it feels much more natural calling him a villain. This is different with the Sopranos because like I mentioned previously, everyone is pretty much a piece of shit.
So what do you all think? Is Tony a villain? Does being an evil character automatically classify them as being a villain? If so, what’s stopping people from considering Christopher, Paulie, Junior, etc. villains as well? Are all of them villains, or are the Sopranos villains only people like Livia, Richie, Phil, and Ralphie even though their behavior doesn’t differentiate much from most Sopranos characters?
Also keep in mind the difference between villain and antagonist. They are not the same thing.