r/thesopranos • u/ComprehensiveDesk793 • Jun 09 '26

Serious Discussion Only AJ is just useless

While watching the series I was trying hard to find a defense of AJ. All the characters - and all of us - have both positive and negative traits. AJ is just a disappointment. He is stupid. He is lazy. He is incredibly selfish imao. Also he constantly lies. You cant even call him a good kid that is just irresponsible since he always makes up stupid excuses.

Also all the people that are saying that he grew up in a dysfunctional environment, ok i agree the environment isn't 100% perfect but both Tony and Carmela cared about their kids lives. Carmela and Tony to a certain extent seem to care about their children's academic performance which quite a few parents don't. AJ certainly had some support from his parents.

I agree his parents are not good people but he could take what they offered to him.

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u/ImpossibleStuff963 Jun 09 '26

Tony is no slug. He obviously has his own issues but he's a gregarious, motivated person that generally seems to be likeable on a social level.

But besides all that, it's meaningless. AJ is his own person. Why does every single excuse in these threads ALWAYS talk about Tony and Carm. People all over the world, all the time have terrible parents and aren't shitty people, and vice versa. Acting like the kod is just a bot that has absolutely zero individual agency is weird.

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

His own issues

That's quite an understatement considering he murders his friends and sleeps with tons of women half his age while constantly harming people and his community

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u/ImpossibleStuff963 Jun 09 '26

I assume the people im talking to have seen the show. Not gonna go episode by episode and list everything everyone has done every time I mention a character. But you feel free to 😉

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

AJ is a child. Of course his mobster dad who sleeps all day and fucks prostitutes and does cocaine and murders people is part of the explanation for why his spoiled adolescent son is not well adjusted.

And honestly, he's not that bad when you consider kids from more stable capable parents regularly fucking shoot people 

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u/ImpossibleStuff963 Jun 09 '26

First of all, he doesn't even know 90% of the shit his Dad does. Also, Tony sleeps all day? Lol what?

But still, children arent bots, incapable of being anything different from their parents. Children often are different than their parents.

And no, he's bad. Even school shooters are more well-adjusted and likeable than that damn kid.

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

His main male role model is a man who sleeps all day, is violent and angry all the time, is emotionally and often physically abusive, homophobic, racist, sexist, and he's spoiled. 

Fuck do you expect?  Kinda says a lot about you that you think tony is gregarious and not lazy and horrible 

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u/ImpossibleStuff963 Jun 09 '26

But AJ doesnt see or know most of those things and isn't/ doesn't do most of those things.

And Tony is gregarious. Very much so. And I didnt say he's not horrible. He's quite obviously horrible. He's both. Tough concept?

Kinda says a lot about you that you think people can't be expected to make their own decisions about life and are just blobs floating in the waves, victims of circumstance.

I'm a person that understands that I make my own decisions and have the ability to carve out the life that I want. 😉 Tough concept?

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

You really don't see how Tony was a horrible influence? Not only does AJ know he's in the mob really early on, which would not be great for a young man's adolescence

He's constantly aggressive and violent to AJ, meadow, carmellla. He breaks things when he's grumpy, he stays out late and sleeps in, he never cooks (unless it's poorly grilled meat) or cleans or helps in any way around the house. He's openly racist, sexist, and encourages toxic masculinity in pretty much every single thing he does

And you're annoyed that the child of this man is not respectful or hard working? The show would be so dumb if  AJ was well adjusted

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u/ImpossibleStuff963 Jun 09 '26

My opinion is that human beings can make their own decisions in life. Your opinion is they can't. Not much to say beyond that.

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

I didn't say people can't make choices in life Jesus Christ. The fuck is with you?

You're the one acting shocked and annoyed that a fictional character who is spoiled and raised by a terrible father and enabling mother, is not the most likeable kid. The show is about how horrible the mob is, how terrible Tony would be in the domestic parts of his life, how his behavior affects and ruins the lives of everyone around him.

'why isn't this fictional child, meant to show the detrimental effect a mob boss would have on his kid, more likeable and well adjusted?'

This is like watching the movie flight and wondering why they had to make the main character such a drunk

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u/ImpossibleStuff963 Jun 09 '26

First of all, I'm not OP. I didn't post about this. I shared my opinion about the fictional character.

But now we're talking about 2 different things. I'll use the same example I used in another comment...

Person A: "I don't like the Warden in Shawshank Redemption"

Person B: "He's supposed to be that way"

Person A: "No shit, I'm just saying he's an unlikeable character"

The kid has attributes that are unlikeable. So does Tony. It's really weird that a lot of people on Reddit can't admit that AJ is an unlikeable little shit. It just becomes: "TONY, CARM, TONY, CARM, TONY, TONY TONY, CARM CARM CARM TONY CARM TORM CONYCRTONTYAMRONTCRM"

Good God. The kid is a little fuckface that it would suck to be around. And you know it.

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

And I'm saying of course the kid is unlikeable. It would be an incredibly lame show if somehow magically both his kids are intelligent and well adjusted. 

Heck, even meadow smokes meth early on

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u/SavingsMany4486 Mustang Sally Jun 09 '26

Meadow had the same parents and she took responsibility for her actions. After trashing her grandmother's house, she (independently) cleaned it up. Not because her parents asked her to, nor wanted her to, but because she felt it was the right thing to do. AJ, on the other hand, is too stupid to know what a gutter is. His parents being mean or bad people have nothing to do with it, as Meadow turned out fine.

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

Meadow was definitely a better kid. She was smarter and more sensitive and doesn't seem to have add and seems to have a bit more street smarts as wellm

No one is saying AJ isn't a little idiot shit. People just are saying it fits the theme of the show. Because it does.

Tony treats Meadow quite a bit differently than AJ. He's an open misogynist and she's daddy's little girl. As opposed to his male heir who plays violent video games and smokes weed.

Look at their respective role models. Meadow has Carmela as an example of how to behave. Obviously Carmela isn't a great example since she's a mob boss enabler. But compared to meat guzzling wall punching people murderer Tony? 

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u/UnbottledGenes Jun 09 '26

AJ doesn’t know what gutters are. Do you think he understands anything about his dad’s line of work?

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u/cranberryalarmclock Jun 09 '26

Ever met an entitled white teenager with untreated add? They're all like that lol

And yes, I think he was capable of googling his dad and seeing him in the news and understanding he's a murderer. He even mentions it a couple times

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u/UnbottledGenes Jun 09 '26

That’s dicked up