As I said in my earlier post, Tom recognizes that the real world and the mafia world are two very different ones. In Michael's world, that kind of treachery can never be forgiven. In ours, you might end up with some uncomfortable Thanksgivings, but you wouldn't have him killed!
You think that Vito would have ordered the death of his own brother? Would Sonny have ordered the death of his own brother?
Sonny would have done it himself.
Never. No way. As hot headed as Sonny was, he would have never planned out and ordered the death of his own brother. He had a heart. Somewhere along the line Michael lost his.
It was the defining moment when Mike lost his soul, and although I was sorry to see Mary die in the end of Part III, I thought it was almost a "payback" for his killing his own brother.
Don't forget that he at least died of natural causes and apparently a ripe old age.
Exiled to a life in prison of sorts. Alone and guilt ridden. Left to suffer all those years with the thought of how he destroyed his family. Left to ponder until dying of natural causes at a ripe old age the thought of how his thirst for power, his quest for legitimacy and his hubris cost him his daughter, how his actions indirectly took away her young life. How the path that he chose ripped apart his family.
Yep, he lived to a ripe old age alright.
I'd rather die the way that Fredo did than to live that long with all the guilt and loneliness that Michael suffered with.
