If you read the book closely, you see throughout the book that Michael was the son who was most like his father. Smooth, cunning, devious, and reasonable. All the same qualities like his father. Michael was also the only son who had a mind of his own, just like his father. Michael defied the family and enlisted in the armed forces. This showed guts and a person that refused to be influenced by anyone. This is exactly the way Vito was growing up. He had a mind of his own, did things as HE saw fit. Michael was defiantely the Don's favorite, as the Don saw many traits of himself in Michael. True the Don didn't ever want Michael involved in the family business. But this was because he saw the similarities between him and his son, and knew that he himself never had the opportunities to be part of the legitimate business world, but that Michael, having the same qualities as Vito, could use them in a legitamite world. With Fredo, eh, no choices there, and Sonny, well, he saw his father kill Fannucci at a young age, and therefore the Don had no choice but to let him in. Micahel, the one who the Don felt should go legit, was actually the best one to take over for the Don! Puzo did a really fine job relaying this to the reader.

Don Cardi

Well said. I believe that even though Michael was the best one to run the Family, it was Sonny who was most likely going to run the Family (had he not been killed) just because of his willingness to do so- plus he was a lot smarter than Fredo.

"...every man has one destiny...." (Don Vito)

The thread that mentions Michael's future as a politician or professor (started by Liz Skywalker) talks about this. I say he was destined to be a mob boss, and in being so, an unhappy man.

but shouldn't one's destiny be the perfect path for him to walk? so, therefore, wouldn't following your destiny make you happy and give you satisfaction? I don't think Michael was happy at the end of his life. The only time I remember him being truly happy in the films was when he was with Apollonia. ah, young love.

Not necessarily. His destiny turned out to be his undoing. He hated himself and his life, and i'm sure deep inside he regrets helping out his crime family by entering its existance.

He did not chose his destiny but under the pressure he was on caused him to do it even if he didnt want too.Which as many people said made his life a living hell.

It says in a couple of places that Michael's expression takes on an uncanny similarity to Vito's.

My favorite Vito-Michael symmetry is one that was left out of the movie for reasons I can't fathom:

Michael: "If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his the old man would take it personal...."

Vito: "If my son is struck by a bolt of lightning I will blame some of the people here."

I guess they had to take out Michael's line for the movie because they also took out the part where Michael says it's all personal. I don't understand why they did that, either.

"Every man has but one destiny," Vito said, more than once. There are several reasons why Michael would have made a better Don than Sonny and Fredo. He didn't want any part of his family at first. And, even after he stopped being a civilian by whacking Mac and Sol, he could have left the family at any stage. But, he really wanted to be the Don once he took the plunge--it was, you might say, his destiny.

TB, the novel states that Michael had his father's quiet force intelligence and would run the family business when the proper moment came.

By the way, what got into you and Pete today? You two burned up the Board with posts on some threads that have not been visited in quite awhile.

I just figured out how to see really old threads, and went back to look at some that pre-dated my time here. There certainly was a lot more activity then, even though a lot of it was "what are the differences between the book and the movie."

It seems that there used to be even older thread that were on the Trilogy website?

Destiny? What if Vito agrees to the drug deal? What if Vito is never shot? What if Sonny lives? Any of the foregoing obviates the need for Michael to assume the reins of family Don.