Tonys mistakes

Tony has made alot of bad choices. Which one do you find to be the worst.
From killing ralphie to hitting another made guy in coco. ?!

There are alot to choose from!

In no particular order

1) Favoritism toward Tony B. Killing Tony B., which resulted in the war with New York, instead of handing Tony B. over to Phil Leotardo

2) Promoting Christopher

3) Killing Matt Bevalocqua with Pussy, the latter who was an informant

4) Not killing Junior and then later getting shot by Junior

making moltisanti

One,the whole Tony B. storyline. Tony let his favoritism affect his business relationships with both Johnny Sack and Phil,insulting and enraging both of them,putting the entire Family at risk,and leading to the loss of Bobby and(probably) Sil.
Tony's other big mistake was more of an ongoing thing,than a specific incident,and that was his inability to keep his temper in check. Killing Ralphie,beating up Phil,and the sadistic assault on Coco were not the acts of an in-control Mafia Boss.
I know that Coco insulted Meadow,but Tony should have asked for a sitdown first,especially given the shaky truce between the two Families.Additionally,remember that Coco only said some inappropriate things,he didn't assault or physically harm Meadow.

I don't see how making and promoting Chris was a mistake. Other than being an addict, he was loyal to Tony and the crew. Lest not forget that he was clean for a while after coming back from rehab. The only problems with Chris arose when he was either high or heard when Tony had gotten a blowjob from Adriana. Hell the guy gave up his fiance after finding out she turned States, and continued being loyal up until the day he died. I think aside from Sil and Bobby, assuming he stayed clean, he would've been a good boss after Tony either got whacked or sent to prison.


One of Tony's mistakes were whacking Jimmy, believing him to be the rat instead of Pussy. Another mistake was not giving Richie Aprile his piece of his action like he deserved once he got out of prison. In all fairness, whatever was Jackie's was also Richies, but Tony was so greedy, he didn't want to give any of that up, he wanted all the power and majority share of the profits, not to share with Richie. Had he'd just given Richie what he'd asked for, it would've prevented all of Richie's animosity toward Tony, which only came about after that sitdown in which Tony ruled against him, he would've never plotted against Tony with Junior, and Richie for damn sure would've been a better captain than fucking Paulie Walnuts who couldn't keep his mouth shut for a damn.

Another mistake was whacking his biggest earner, Ralph, over a damn horse, when he wasn't 100% sure that it was even Ralph who burned the freaking stable. Which I don't believe he did, Ralph was turning over a new leaf, he was growing out of the knucklehead he used to be, into a trustworthy part of Tony's criminal enterprise, which David Chase confirmed after the show ended. But Tony killed him, in part over the horse, and because I think he was becoming fearful of Ralph, people were beginning to like him, and seeing how much of an earner he was, he probably felt he'd grow higher in power than Tony, and NY would've preferred Ralph to Tony because of that as well.

However his biggest mistake, was turning his back on the guy that went to the bathroom at the diner.

I agree that if Chris could have stayed clean,he would have been Tony's most loyal and trusted guy.

As far as Ralphie,I think he did kill the horse for several reasons.
I think he felt humiliated in public when Tony squeezed the extra money out of him when Pie O My won her race.
Tony took his horse and his girl.
Tony got the benefits of Pie O My's winnings,but when there was a crisis,he had them call Ralph.
Ralph never liked Tony,but couldn't do anything to hurt him directly,so he pulled a cowardly act that was totally in character for him. However,this did not justify Tony killing him over it.

As far as Jimmy goes,I thought that the basement scene with Tony pretty much confirmed that he was snitching.

Jimmy was for sure a rat

I'll take the opposing viewpoint on this one. The biggest mistake Tony made with Richie Aprile was not nipping it in the bud. Richie was insubordinate and was asking to be clipped- he didn't back off of Beansie, he continued to sell coke on his garbage route, he wanted to dictate the time frame on when he'd get his old action back, he ruined Tony's poker game when he saw Davey Scatino playing.

I actually thought Tony was too patient with him. Richie's problem with Tony wasn't due to his decisions....it was because he thought of Tony as a kid and didn't respect him as the boss. Feech La Manna had the same issue- Tony learned from the Richie Aprile situation that he should just nip it in the bud instead of trying to make things work with an underling that will undermine him.

PS: How about when Richie presented Tony with his prized leather jacket? He thought Tony was going to frame it and hang it on his wall, when he gave it to his maid's husband instead!

The Jimmy situation is up to interpretation, they never confirmed it either way, but Jimmy's reaction fed towards the belief that he was a rat. I just have a differing opinion, I mean he was under pressure, and seconds away from being killed, it's possible he knew it was too late to plead his case and just prayed for his soul at that point. But who knows..


I think Richie had valid reasons for busting up Tony's card game. It's not like he intentionally went in there with that on his mind, but Davey owed him money after Richie gave him a loan to cover his previous gambling debts. Richie told him he couldn't play another game until he paid him, because he knew if he was allowed to play more card games, he'll just get deeper in the hole owing Richie and possibly others more money he couldn't actually pay. Tony wasn't aware of this until after the fact. Also, I agree that Richie didn't think very fondly of Tony since he basically watched Tony & his little brother Jackie rise from snot nosed punks to Capo & Boss of the family, but he wasn't going to let that influence his decisions and the welfare of the family. Remember, it was Janice who talked Richie into making a move against Tony in the first place, Richie was very big on the rules, and he also stated this in a few episodes. Mainly the one where he's fucking Janice with the gun to her head and she keeps calling him boss. Richie knew she was feeding into that idea that Tony wasn't a capable boss and it should've went to someone else, he then asks Janice why she's doing that and that the rules are the rules and Tony's the boss. But Janice egging him on and saying Tony was incompetent along with the drugs/garbage route beef pushed Richie into seeing if it was a possibility.

Even prior to that, when Bevliquoa and the other kid made a move on Chris and tried to use Richie's name, Richie was basically ready to kill Bevliquoa himself after he ran to him and told Richie "I did it for you". Richie knew the implications of his name being tied up in that, so he chased the kid away, he didn't want any beef with Tony. And of course, after he couldn't sell the move against Tony, he backed off, he most likely would've been hit anyway because Junior eventually told Tony, but the night Janice killed him, that argument basically began because he wanted Janice to stop talking about a move against her brother after realizing it wasn't going to happen.

So yeah, while he never really thought highly of Tony, Richie was a firm believer of the old school rules. And for that I think he and Tony could've co-existed and Richie would've even been somewhat of an asset.

Tony's fallibility was loyalty to family instead of the thing. Janice and Christopher were emotional cripples that were at the core of, or collateral to, so many of the controversies. Disrespect me once, shame on you; disrespect me nine-hunnert times...

Not adding Jackie Jr in the family business . I think he had potential .

The three big mistakes Tony made that comes to mind are.

1. Promoting Chris to Capo, before Chris was cleaning up.
2. Favoring Tony B
3. Making Johny Sac and Phil angry with him and pretty much rubbing New Yorks nose in it with his greed.

Tony's hubris was his ego and contradictory nature, on one hand he preaches "Honor and loyalty" then in the same breath he'll say "Fuck all that honor and loyalty shit"....

"Seven deadly sins Ton', and yours is...Pride" - Silvio to Tony in "With All Due Respect"....

Mistakes by Tony:
- Not allowing Richie to earn or giving him the proper respect once he came home.
- Making Chrissy
- Constantly pissing of NY with his ego, especially over the HUD and Zellman
- Hitting Ralph...later on killing Ralph which cost him millions potentially.
- Letting Chris be an acting Capo while Paulie was in the can and chaos ensured
- Getting involved with internal power struggles in the Lupertazzi family and contracting hitters from Italy to solve them. (Which if found out would erase the Sopranos from history)
- Giving Tony B. a pass and mercy kill rather than let NY get their proper revenge which would sow the seeds for the war with NY
- Not allowing Eugene to retire (which caused more crew problems)
- Not protecting Vito from Phil
- Smashing Cocoa's teeth
- Continuing to gamble big and heavy with the loss of his big earners.

Thats a good list ninobrown.

Killing Ralph over the horse was potentially one of his worst mistakes, he's only lucky Chrissy kept his mouth shut out of loyalty or he would have probably been whacked out himself.

Ralph began to seal his fate when he was gambling and winning big and didn't want to leave the table and greet Tony, and then refuses a drink with Tony.

then he disrespected the Bing by killing Tracee outside.

His anger at being passed over for a captain position and his resentment of Gigi, who Tony thought was doing a good job, didn't help him either.

Tony tested people by questioning them and when he suspected someone you could see it in his eyes. Gandolfini did a terrific acting job in this respect.