If you look at the young, idealistic Michael, signing up after Pearl Harbor, getting a collegeeducation, wanting to teach, wanting to marrry Kay and live in New England or someplace far from the rackets and compare him to the self loathing monster he was at the end of GF II and the shell of a man he was at the end of III, he was indeed a tragic figure.
IMO that's one of the best parts about the ending flashback in Part II; not only is everyone alive and relatively happy (notwithstanding Sonny's outburst over Michael enlisting) but it highlights how Michael never wanted anything to do with it. The way he looks at Tom and says "You and my father talked about MY future?" like it was some grave insult is contradicted brilliantly with the notion that the path Vito wanted for him ultimately was the path he would have preferred and, instead, because he was so adamant about making his own path he strayed down the same path that Vito took.
