The Sopranos - Ralphie (major spoilers)

[Goon Dog]

If you fk somebody's sister, they may or may not end up hating you for it.

She was fucking him back, or rather, from the back. Lol

Top 5 greatest TV series of all time. Writing and character development was off the charts. Hell, so was the casting.

 

[IIIIIIII]

Not just your own theory they brought that back at the end of the series. When Melli was being antagonized by her psych for keeping tony as patient and he kept referencing a study of therapy on violent psychopaths and how it emboldens them, one of the things in the study was that the criminals would attach feelings to animals easily but not to other people so of course Melville’s thought of the horse, ducks.

oh, that's right. man, i have to re-watch this series again. total classic.

 

[LuchaBear]

Ralphie was the best character on the show. Great acting.

 

[Sir Galahad]

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[DaleBoca]

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Faking nauseating....

 

[zapataxiv]

Paulie was basically the crux of the whole family. He actually made shit happen

Don’t get me wrong he is fucking awesome, but He fucked a lot of shit up in the show by being hot headed.

 

[TribalDrumz]

Dam Big Pussy why did you have to be a rat. I love that character for some reason.

 

[Amerikuracana]

Dam Big Pussy why did you have to be a rat. I love that character for some reason.

I think they wrote him off because of his name. They may have realized early there was money in syndication and wtevr, and they couldn't have everybody saying p**sy referring to a lead character. It was also a stupid name lol.

I like the early seasons there, but some of the scenes still feel a little clumsy until about season 3. This was season 2, right?

 

[zapataxiv]

I think they wrote him off because of his name. They may have realized early there was money in lol that syndication and wtevr, and they couldn't have everybody saying p**sy referring to a lead character. It was also a stupid name lol.

I like the early seasons there, but some of the scenes still feel a little clumsy until about season 3. This was season 2, right?

That is all likely.
Part of the guys character is based off of a real New Jersey guy who was old school and was murdered over snitching concerns. Not to mention it was heavily hinted at in the first season even though they killed jimmy(rightly or wrongly)

 

[KnightTemplar]

Is Tony a sociopath though? People throw that word around waaaay too much. I don't know what the fuck it really means either. But I think if he loves animals, or anything for that matter, he's a not a sociopath.

Hitler loved animals. Nazi Germany had strict laws against cruelty to animals, including hunting.

Being an incredibly vicious, ruthless, depraved bastard and being kind to animals are not mutually exclusive.

 

[KnightTemplar]

Neither is really an official term and theres no clearly defined difference between them as far as I'm aware although people tend to use psychopath more for violent criminals and maybe some confusion between being psychotic which is an entirely different condition.

I think the shows aim was to show that Tony is actually a reasonably normal guy who lives in an environment that's very abnormal encouraging immoral sociopathic behavour. The horse becomes an outlet for feeing empathy in a way that he's otherwise been conditioned not to, hence why he takes it to such an extreme and kills Ralph. A lot of the setup highlights that as well with Ralph being dismissive of the horse relative to his son being injured.

Tony was also pissed at Ralph for beating the dancer/hooker to death. He couldn't punish him too severely for that at the time, because Ralph was a Made Man and even a Captain like Tony has to obey certain rules. But killing the horse was the last straw. Part of his rant, about Ralph killing a beautiful, innocent thing, can be seen to apply to the girl as well as the horse itself.

 

[moreorless87]

Hitler loved animals. Nazi Germany had strict laws against cruelty to animals, including hunting.

Being an incredibly vicious, ruthless, depraved bastard and being kind to animals are not mutually exclusive.

Hitler is generally viewed as more likely to have been a narcissist than a sociopath, his father being incredibly abusive(almost beating him to death) does seem like a setup to overcompensating for a feeling of powerlessness, probably added to by his WW1 expereinces. People like that preferring animals isn't that unusual, no power struggle and the view of the animal as innocents relative to people.

Tony was also pissed at Ralph for beating the dancer/hooker to death. He couldn't punish him too severely for that at the time, because Ralph was a Made Man and even a Captain like Tony has to obey certain rules. But killing the horse was the last straw. Part of his rant, about Ralph killing a beautiful, innocent thing, can be seen to apply to the girl as well as the horse itself.

Yeah certainly that was part of it but I think you see the difference, Tony obviously looked down on killing the girl but still came from a culture of abuse/control of such woman, thinking Raplh killed the horse though had him totally lose it to the degree he killed him in anger.

 

[breadfighter]

Not many shows make me lol but when Chris pulls the toupee off Ralphies corpse and drops it with a mix of surprise and disgust it made me laugh. The dark comedy on the Sopranos is unmatched.

Also that was probably one of my favorite endings to an episode too.

 

[Rizzo]

Started a re-watch of this show after HBO started a marathon last week and still as good as ever BUT its also obvious that David Chase is no Vince Gilligan, so many plot holes throughout the show. So many people or situations introduced that go absolutely nowhere.

 

[TTech]

Started a re-watch of this show after HBO started a marathon last week and still as good as ever BUT its also obvious that David Chase is no Vince Gilligan, so many plot holes throughout the show. So many people or situations introduced that go absolutely nowhere.

Like what?
But in general, Chase addressed that many times, he tried to write it like life, not all things get resolved or wrapped up with a nice bow on top. Life is frustrating and unpredictable, Im mean heck, it was Chase's signature move, he even finished it in that manner.
I dunno, I liked that approach and I dont see it as plot holes.

 

[moreorless87]

The Russian?

I think you need to realise that really the Suprano's wasn't sposed to be a totally straight drama like say The Wire, there was always the element of things being a bit larger than life poking fun at the situation. It was pretty clear that there wasn't a grand plan for the series though either, they seemed to start off knowing roughly what would happen in the first couple of seasons.

 

[Hitdafloor34]

Paulie was basically the crux of the whole family. He actually made shit happen

Easily the best character on the show... Paulie fuckin Walnuts

 

[Rygu]

Easily the best character on the show... Paulie fuckin Walnuts

I actually didn't like Paulie, but that's because he played the role so damn amazingly. Easily some of the best acting in the series.

 

[Hitdafloor34]

The Russian?

I think you need to realise that really the Suprano's wasn't sposed to be a totally straight drama like say The Wire, there was always the element of things being a bit larger than life poking fun at the situation. It was pretty clear that there wasn't a grand plan for the series though either, they seemed to start off knowing roughly what would happen in the first couple of seasons.

Russian survived... was shot in the head by Paulie and a group of Boy Scouts found him in the Pine Barrens and got him to a hospital... he didn’t die and the shot to the head essentially erased his memory and no one was ever named as the killers

 

[Hitdafloor34]

I actually didn't like Paulie, but that's because he played the role so damn amazingly. Easily some of the best acting in the series.

Yeah, couldn't agree more about the acting part!!!! He played it so well because he was very familiar with all of that... I remember reading he was shot as a young kid by a rival gang