It's interesting how people on this board are not just interested in the GF, but are really in love with the characters. You guys have taken a defensive tone about this, as if I have insulted you by suggesting that this was an ironic scene.

The fact that Sonny died at the hands of gangsters is not ironic. The fact that the Don, an architect of mob violence, was so affected by the nature of the killing, was.

For Sonny, it was a heroic death, kind of like a Viking dying in battle.