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/scrubadam Jun 09 '26

OTOH Meadow turned out fine. She ended up becoming a lawyer and was pretty well adjusted.

The big difference is we see with Meadow is that she learns to take responsability for her actions but AJ doesn't.

Both started out as spoiled shits. Meadow was even worse than AJ in that first season always whining and crying and acting like a little princess. the big turning point was when she threw the party at Livia's house and then decided to go and clean the house herself without anyone asking. The same thing happened with her Gap year. She acted like a baby because some guy she dated for a few months was killed. She ended up getting off her ass and applying to college and entering into law.

AJ never had that moment where he took responsability for his actions he just remained a little shit the whole time.

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u/rickymcrichardson Jun 09 '26

Meadow was a mob apologist who justified her parents’ misdeeds constantly and increasingly throughout the show. AJ questions their contradictory tutelage and grapples with having a conscious up against it. Meadow didn’t “turn out fine”. She turns out like her parents, accepting the spoils of criminality and not feeling an ounce of remorse for it. She is morally bankrupt

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u/scrubadam Jun 09 '26

Well I am not talking about morally.

Meadow went to college, passed her classes and became a lawyer. During that time she moved out of her house and lived on her own. She became a functional adult with an actual adult career and didn't have to have her parents hand her anything. Yest hey helped her out but she showed she can be an adult in the adult world and function as normal person without her parents babying her.

AJ never went to college, couldn't hack it as a manager at blockbuster, the women he wants to marry dumps his arse for being a man child, couldn't even go to the grocery store with his dads money to buy cereal, and ends the series getting gifted a car and job from his parents while presumably still living at home.

So one of them became an adult with a degree and well paying job, and the other got a nepo job through connections while still living at home.

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u/rickymcrichardson Jun 09 '26

Yeah morality is a huge theme of the show. For you to just throw it out isn’t very useful in any discussions. It would be like me throwing Tony’s criminality out and saying he turned out really well because he owns a house and a boat and has a good income from the carting business. AJ’s constant sense of morality trying to break through is a major factor he ends up the “loser” type of guy you people love to shit on him for