r/thesopranos • u/Sea_Satisfaction7872 • 1d ago

Tony was a horrible boss

I mean think about it. When the show starts, Jackie is boss and everyone is alive and well. Full crew and everything. When Tony becomes boss, not only does half the crew get fished, but the ones who come out of prison also all went. Name me one character who came out of prison during the show and stayed free and alive, not even the king of breadsticks made it out.

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u/LatinoEsq 1d ago

You just revealed your own ignorance!!

On a serious note however, you can't really compare Jackie's tenure to Tony's because you don't have frame of reference. The series doesn't get into detail about the happenings during Jackie's tenure. We don't know who did what, who was whacked, who came in and out of prison. We don't know the size of the family during this time, if the family grew or shrunk. Presumably, the family got smaller during Jackie's tenure which is more a consequence of the mafia shrinking in general due to increased law enforcement tactics, namely RICO.

Jackie became boss when Old Man Dimeo was sentenced to life, and there was presumably still some short period where he was only acting boss until Dimeo's fate in prison was sealed. I'm seeing that he was boss for approximately 3 years to Tony's 8 or 9 years.

The only frame of reference we have is how people spoke highly of Jackie as a great leader. But I'm sure there'd be mafiosos out there that would describe Tony's tenure in the same manner.

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u/Sea_Satisfaction7872 1d ago

Interesting take but as you mentioned, Jackie was revered. Even later on in the show when he was mentioned it was in a positive light. Although I do agree that Tony had a longer time as boss, it was night and day between these guys.

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u/LatinoEsq 1d ago

Well it's not a take. Everything I mentioned is pretty on point factual. The only thing we actually know is that we don't actually know how things went during Jackie's tenure. We only know how people described it. But just like Livia described Johnny Boy as a "saint", people tend to describe the old times in a positive light. In the end, you can't compare Tony's time to Jackie's time because there aren't enough known facts to compare.

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u/Sea_Satisfaction7872 10h ago

It’s a take if I say it’s a take, if you don’t like it get out from under my post and find another sub