Here's something that's been bouncing around my head for a while and I'd like to put it out for thoughts and comments.

Let's say that Vito doesn't send Luca Brasi on his fateful mission, and that Luca outlives the Godfather at the end of it all. (Perhaps he ends up whacking Sollozzo and crew for their attack on Vito earlier.) We know that his loyalty to the Godfather is legendary, but it strikes me that the loyalty is to Vito personally, not the Corleone family at large or even Vito's descendants.

With that in mind, Luca outlives the Godfather; his passing is of natural causes. Where does Luca Brasi go from there? Would Michael be able to secure his loyalty, or would he just 'fade off into the sunset'?

Sidebar: the novel describes Luca Brasi's giving of his wedding cash envelope to Don Corleone as a "gaucherie that the Don overlooked". I wondered about that and did some research.

It's described as an Italian wedding tradition called 'buste' where the bride carries the small purse and guests would greet the bride throughout the evening, slipping the envelope into the purse as they did so. The envelope was used to conceal the amount given. The 'gaucherie' in this case would've been Luca's handing the gift to the father of the bride as opposed to greeting the bride himself as was tradition. Neat bit of trivia.

The "gaucherie" points up the fact that Luca's loyalty was to Vito and Vito only. He couldn't relate to anyone else--not even to Connie on her wedding day. Luca would have been a rudderless ship without Vito. Other Dons might have approached him for his services after Vito's death, but Luca would have refuse. Sooner rather than later, one of the Dons would have had him assassinated--he was too dangerous to be at loose ends.