I feel like this is almost too obvious, but Tony Soprano, played brilliantly by the late James Gandolfini, was the badass to beat all badasses, and much like Walter White, he did most of what he did out of love for his family. At the heart of it, most of the atrocious acts committed by this man were committed to ensure he could keep his family dynamic functioning at the standard they were all used to.
Yes, much like Walter White, the deeper you got into Tony Soprano, the more you could see the lines blur between good guy and REALLY bad guy, but you need to look no further than the series finale of The Sopranos to see the entire point of the show. As much as people hate that ending (and yes, Breaking Bad pretty much had the best ending ever, ESPECIALLY when you realize that it was all in Walt’s head), the ending to The Sopranos served to make a brilliant point. At the heart of it, at the heart of everything, and the reason we do what we do, is family.
But can anyone argue this guy was badass? How many people did he whack for crossing a line or disrespecting him? At the very core of it, the basic glue that holds the idea of badass together is whether or not they are someone you would ever mess with? While you MAY be prone to mess with Tyrion due to underestimating him, and you could be prone to screwing with Daryl, mistaking him for some uneducated fool, just being NEAR Tony Soprano is freaking intimidating, and in that sense, he was the king of badasses. He only cemented this further by playing a the king of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are. I don’t care if you liked that film or not….it, and him, are badass.
Even though the moment of silence at the beginning of this article was for a fictional character, maybe we should have a real one regarding the passing of James Gandolfini, because really, his was the face that forever redefined the badass, as well as the places TV could go.
Thanks James. We’ll miss you, man.