The Sopranos: A Defense of AJ

the sopranos has some of the most iconic and beloved characters in all of television characters we love to follow and who draw us into every scene they're in it also has some of the most hated and reviled characters as well characters like jackie jr janice and most of all aj soprano aj serves as a punching bag for most of the community people love to mock him for being spoiled weak and the absolute opposite of his powerful and respected father mommy mommy however are we missing something is there more to this character than meets the eye and is it possible that father and son are more alike than we think let's take a look at the parallels between tony and tony that is aj's name after all i'm supposed to get a vasectomy when this is my male hair look at him tony come back here and apologize anthony soprano jr is the youngest child of tony and carmella unlike his overachieving sister meadow aj isn't particularly motivated he has a d average in school and prefers to spend his time skateboarding or playing video games rather than actually putting effort into anything as the series goes on and aj grows from a child to a teenager these problems only get worse he's eventually expelled from school for cheating he drops out of community college and is fired from his job at blockbuster for stealing merchandise after spending his time and money partying in new york he eventually spirals into depression and attempts suicide after getting out of the mental hospital he has plans to join the military but drop some when his parents arrange a cushy job at a movie studio for him instead all in all aj seems like a spoiled and bratty kid he doesn't appreciate anything his parents get him and pisses away all the opportunities their wealth affords him it's understandable why the community looks down on aj so much especially when compared to his masculine and powerful father however what i think most people miss is how alike tony and aj really are tony even comes out and says this directly you and me we react without thinking that's why i get mad at you you know i i see myself in you tony and aj are very similar when it comes their troublemaking olivia said she was always being called to the principal's office when tony was in school just like how aj gets in trouble with his and when aj is being considered for adhd carmela notices that many of his supposed symptoms are things that tony has as well like father like sean right however it goes beyond just their behavior they both deal with emotional problems as well we learned in the series that the panic attacks and depression that tony suffers from are hereditary his father and even more distant relatives suffered from them as well so thank you father what is that the same thing my old man had anxiety attacks well in those days we called it a condition you know it comes down to the ages because i remember hearing about my great-great-great grandfather he drove a mule cutter from mountain road he was transporting these valuable jugs of olive oil probably was a panic attack and later in season three we see that aj suffers from panic attacks as well these attacks keep aj from going to military school which tony hoped would straighten him out as aj's depression grows to the point of suicidal thoughts tony believes his genes are responsible for how his son turned out ginny's blood just miserable [ __ ] existence my rotten [ __ ] putrid genes have infected my kid's soul that's my gift to my son another connection between the two lies in the poem the second coming aj becomes depressed after reading the poem for his english class as it reminds him of the horrible state of the world post 911 he becomes fixated on terrorism as a constant source of worry and depression not only is tony also obsessed with terrorism and homeland security when he's depressed melfi actually uses a line from the poem to describe how tony feels about the world the center cannot hold the falcon cannot hear the falconer what the [ __ ] are you talking about knowing that aj suffers from the soprano curse it's interesting to look back on his earlier behavior i wonder how much of his lack of interest in school is just him being lazy and how much of it is him being depressed after all tony himself found it hard to function when he was going through his bouts of depression it's an illness and it's [ __ ] hereditary thank you i know i am intimately acquainted with the soprano curse your father your uncle your great-grandfather who drove the donkey cart off the road in avolino all of it in fact tony and aj's depression is so similar they share the exact same line of dialogue when it comes to how they feel about the world i know it's [ __ ] ridiculous but i feel like the reverend rodney king jr you know why can't we all just get along and why can't we all just get along if that's not the writer screaming at us to see tony and aj is the same i don't know what is but if tony and aj are so alike why do they seem like polar opposites after all tony is able to climb to the top of the mafia world while aj can't make it through school tony has women crawling all over him while aj cries in bed when a girl breaks up with him tony is everything we want to be aj is everything we fear that we are the main difference between tony and aj is how they deal with their depression tony externalizes his depression through rage rage why depression is rage turned inward throughout the series we see him taking his anger and frustration at himself out on other people it's implied that he learned this behavior from his father who did the same thing to him if carmelo let me kick aj's ass like my father kicked my ass he might have gone up with some balls like you yeah like me aj however internalizes his depression he doesn't have the mafia to enable him to take his aggression out on other people so instead he focuses it inward and attacks himself though tony sees this as weakness melfi correctly points out that tony is jealous of aj for having a mother who protected him unlike his own mother livia but i have to point out what you resent carmella doing for aj protecting him from his father is the very thing you had often wished your mother had done for you the twisted irony of tony's disappointment in his son is the fact that what he really hates is himself tony hates that he has to have this tough persona in order to survive in the world of the mom and despite the fact that he commands respect and power it does nothing to alleviate the internal doubt that he feels gnawing at his soul i got the will by the bulls and i can't stop feeling like i'm a [ __ ] loser and if you want yet another example of parallels tony describes aj in the exact same way shut the world by the balls every [ __ ] advantage and he hits one little pothole it goes in hysterics yeah i know now tony says that aj grew up with every advantage and has no reason to be depressed however aegis childhood was far from perfect and in reality his upbringing might actually be the cause of his depression in the season 2 episode full leather jacket aj announces he wants to go to harvard or west point however tony immediately shoots him down i want to go to harvard or west point well you may get to see them on television but that's about it later in season three tony reminds him of his desire to go to these schools but aj denies having ever said it west point west point yeah that's what you said no i didn't yeah you did you were sitting right there you said uh either harvard or west point no way i'd ever said that i could never get in at this point aj no longer believes that he is capable of making it in school and a large part of that is due to his parents hypocrisy tony undermines his education with distractions and presence and then belittles him for not being better than he is and it's not only limited to tony even though tony says carmella coddled aj there are plenty of instances of her putting down aj as well in that same episode when aj spills the milk carmela makes a snide remark about it sorry every night and in season five when aj proudly announces he got a c on his billy bud paper higher than his usual grade carmella insults it and you can immediately see the smile leave his face now you might say so what no one's childhood is perfect and at some point you need to grow up and move past these things and i agree with that however it's clear that these moments had a profoundly negative effect on aj he says this himself in therapy with his parents how about my confirmation you called me an animal i did not i was in the garage and you said what kind of animal smokes marijuana at his confirmation and if we're gonna say you have to just get over childhood trauma what about tony he's still fixated on the problems with his mother even in the final episode of the series he's mentioned your mother very briefly very difficult woman undermining i tried to place you in a retirement community for her own good she turned on me completely and speaking of livia another parallel is that while tony and aj both suffer from a genetic predisposition to depression it's aggravated by their relationship with livia livia is a constant cause of tony's panic attacks and later aj cites his conversation with livia in green grove as the beginning of his decline you mean alone it's all a big nothing what makes you think you're so special one of the themes of the show is the idea that toxicity is a black hole it swallows everything around it and brings down not only the people who are toxic but those around them as well i'm not saying aj wasn't a spoiled wrath he had plenty of problems he can't blame on other people however i do think he was a victim of the same toxic world that swallowed his father and i think he deserves to be judged more fairly because of that but i'm interested to hear your thoughts as well let me know what you thought of aj as a character and how much you sympathize with him and if you want to go into the world of film like aj does you're gonna love the sponsor of this video movie movie is a curated streaming service a place to watch incredible cinema from around the world every day movie premieres a new hand-selected film from iconic directors to emerging arturs there's always something new to discover on the platform it's like having your own personal film festival streaming anytime anywhere and if you're interested in learning more about the films you're watching movie provides great information on the director actors the history of the film and even a place where you can leave your own reviews on what you thought of the picture you can try movie free for 30 days by going to movie.com purekino or by clicking on the link in the video description down below thanks again to mubi for sponsoring this video so what no [ __ ] kino now tommy smith adola alamari russell sean graham heart of markness broccoli placenta wand logan clean john rayna jesse sterling andrew stewart ops gracing media dazz j kitt conan higgins irish nachos shiroz greg penna stephen lillard rex lee sam cedarlin sandy wren and don lucania [Music]

Channel: Pure Kino

Views: 443,302

Keywords: pure kino, kino, sopranos, tony sopranos, aj soprano, tony aj, gabagool, sopranos ending, sopranos analysis, like father like son, sopranos tony aj, sopranos carmela, sopranos finale, sopranos season 1, sopranos season 2, sopranos season 3, sopranos season 4, sopranos season 5, sopranos season 6, james gandolfini, robert iller, sopranos bear

Id: h044f4Awe74

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 08 2021