I didn't like the Soprano ending, to me, it is totally unrealistic that a Jersey family could ever win over a New York family.

In my opinion, writers should never have killed Richie Aprile or got rid of Feech La Manna. Instead they should let the characters have played out. Have a fight between Aprile and Cifaretto, imagine the possibilities, I mean - Paulie Walnuts vs. Feech was amazing. They should never have whacked off Jackie Jr. neither, then in the last season, they should have an internal war. The once close Aprile and Sopranos families fighting each other. It would have been Richie Apriles crew, Feech LaMannas crew and Patsy (still pissed about his brothers murder) vs. Soprano and the others.

In the beginning, Soprano had the backing of Johnny Sack, while Apriles faction allied themselves with the Philadelphia family (seeing that in earlyer seasons, Pussy mentioned heat between Tony and Philly)

Then when Phil Leotardo took over, he started backing the Aprile faction, seeing that Soprano managed to murder LaManna and a few others, Leotardo backed off and stayed neutural. Then Soprano should have kidnapped Jackie Jr, and make him kill his uncle Richie. Then when Richie got killed, Aprile Jr. and a few others got inducted.
Phil should then have congratulated Tony for his victory.

And only then should we have the family dinner scene where Tony (Probably) got killed by the ''Members Only Jacket Guy'' - or maybe something else?

Whaddaya think?

I can't find the thread from this summer, but I agree Richie was killed off far too quickly. I don't know how Richie and Ralphie would have gotten along -- Ralphie was clearly created in the wake of writing Richie off the show -- but I could see a Richie/Ralphie superasshole alliance undermining Tony at every opportunity.

I liked the earlier seasons of the series because New York was less of a factor. Johnny Sack was a secondary character, and Carmine had a brief appearance at Christopher's post-making celebration in Season 3. From Season 4 on, the Lupertazzi family is wedged into plotlines.

What really bugged me about the final two seasons was the rapid introduction of characters (with little character development) and the essential plotlines revolved around the Lupertazzi family. At that point, the series was less The Sopranos and more The Lupertazzis.

In all seriousness, the core Season 5 plots revolve around the death of Carmine and the internal war between Little Carmine and Johnny Sack. The Soprano family gets sucked into it with the Lorraine Calluzo beef, Tony Blundetto taking a New York contract to hit Joey Peeps, and the retalitory hit on Angelo Garepe, which sent Tony Blundetto off the deep end.

And then for Season 6, it's again Lupertazzi family-centric. After the Tony coma, Johnny Sack goes to prison and eventually dies. You have Phil trying to avenge his brother, as well as trying to maintain control over both the crime family as well as his extended family (whacking Vito). Even the spark of the final New York/New Jersey war is started by the Lupertazzis.

Even more interesting are the type of murders committed by the two families in Seasons 5 and 6. New York hits are more methodical -- Lorraine, Angelo Garepe, Doc Santoro, Vito Spatafore, Gerry Torciano and Bobby Baccla. Compare that to New Jersey murders, which are mostly parodies of hits -- Joey Peeps (botched with Tony Blundetto being run over by the moving car), Billy Leotardo (botched since Phil was left alive), the Colombian drug money heist, the Fat Dom murder, Bobby Baccala's French-Canadian and Vito's fender bender. Even Phil's hit was more comedy of errors, particularly how his head wound up under a tire.

Furio should have waltzed into the restaurant to the tune of that song him and Carmela danced too.

Dooo, dooo, dooo, then he pulls out the shotgun and finishes off Tony this time.

See how good you survive this....

There was a Survivor promo on earlier, and I was thinking the same thing. See how-a good you survive-a dis...

Speaking of Ralphie. Where did his character come from? Was he a guy who was always under Rich or was he away in prison or what? I never got that.

The background was that he was in Florida and had come back after Richie went into "Witness Protection."

Or as I call it: "We killed off Richie too soon, and with Livia dying, we need a punching bag for Tony for a couple seasons."

Hahah, Richie shouldn't have died though.

The jersey family didnt win though. Tony was killed. It's easy to connect the dots, if you watched throughout the entire series and that season alone and the one before it. Tony killed Phil, Butch became boss of that NY family, he double crossed Tony, had him killed in the diner, and took over whatever was left.

I know he probably died, but I doubt Butch obsorbed the family, thats just to mainstream.

Wasn't a fan of the ending , Boardwalk at least showed us nuckys end ,

I don't understand how New Jersey won the war against NY?

Tony was forced to murder his own cousin.

His two top guys were hit. Silvio put into a coma, unlikely to ever recover and Bobby, his brother in law gets killed.

And it's likely that Tony got hit in the restaurant at the last scene.

It seems to be that Jersey lost and lost BIG time. Yeah NY lost Phil, but overall their family was probably kept strongly in tact.
The entire top three of NJ was taken out.
I cannot see how they "won."

Chris flips and it ends with Tony talking to a prison psychiatrist. Done.

The ending was definitely a cliffhanger.