Duh not sure what I was thinking there. I guess I took it from the movie instead and thinking the book. I'm getting old.
Yea no doubt on Rocco, that was just absolute lunacy at that point. But was the reason Rocco was expendable the reason or his extreme passion to get revenge?
Rocco had to make up for not stopping the assassination attempt on Michael at Lake Tahoe. When Michael put it to him, killing Roth that is, Rocco knew he couldn't refuse because he had lost standing with Michael and knew Michael expected him to kill Roth to regain his "face."
I don't think anyone really meant anything to Michael and that he viewed everyone as an expendable tool.
I also, I think compared to Sonny, who was just a big thug (at least in the film) and Fredo, who always a non-entity, Michael really came off as a real Ted Bundy kind of creep. Something you really see in the flashback birthday party scene at the end of Pt. II. That said, I think it's something deeper than a delusion of legitimacy with Michael. I think it's a delusion of normalcy. I think Michael was borderline to begin with and that his wartime experience opened those otherwise latent psychopathic floodgates. His elevation to Don was just another stroke of good fortune for him as well, in that it gave him back the ability to kill again with impunity.
