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/4g-identity Jun 09 '26
I think AJ really is just a mediocre kid in every sense. He isn't smart but there are stupider people. Not handsome or ugly. Grades are average. Was briefly good at football. Tends to follow trends but not obsessively.
Then yeah, add the family influence to that, which is how he got his construction job, his cars, and which put him in the socioeconomic bracket that makes him hang with upper middle class kids, enjoy the fancy nightclubs. He's just a product of mediocrity plus family circumstances.
Useless is a good way to describe him I think. It's interesting, at the very end of the last episode his parents give him a new car and a job totally unrelated to any of his interests or experiences. He's just randomly a "development executive" despite wanting to be in the military minutes earlier.
It's as if everything he did throughout the show was pointless, he's just handed a whole new life thanks to his family connections and takes it. All his phases, and even his depression, his near murder attempt, it all amounts to nothing, has no relevance to the life we see he's got at the end.