The Sopranos Character Compass

Understanding each major character on the most human show of all time

The Sopranos is the most human show of all time. The spectrum of good and evil is displayed within the context of a male patriarch seeing a female therapist. Some of the most lovable characters are also the most morally deplorable. The gaps in intelligence create endless room for manipulation and revenge. Here’s why I placed each main character where they are.

---

Warning: if you’ve never watched The Sopranos, this post will ruin the first-time experience. I highly recommend watching the full series before reading.

---

Smart/Evil

To any man interested in dating a “BPD girl”: ask yourself if you would marry Tony’s mother, Livia Soprano. Tony accurately describes her as ‘a bottomless black hole.’ Her personality is terminally negative and joyless. She’s an eternal victim who creates drama out of thin air. She despises her children for no apparent reason. She plots with Junior to have Tony killed, merely because she hates her son. Livia Soprano is smart enough to manipulate Tony but not smart enough to kill him. David Chase created an exceptional villain. There’s not much else to say. Livia is pure evil.

Janice Soprano is the most hatable character on The Sopranos. She’s a manipulative fat mess who shamelessly mooches off her family. To quote Tony, she comes back in their lives to “pick the bones” as Livia was getting sick. Like Livia, she’s an eternal victim. She’s the wacky granola aunt who actively tries to sabotage Meadow’s ambitions. Janice is smart enough to manipulate everyone in her life other than Tony and Junior. The only reason she isn’t as evil as Livia is because she genuinely tried to get her anger under control after Bobby threatened to leave her, per Tony’s warning.

Junior Soprano is one of the most beloved characters on The Sopranos. He’s hilarious without trying to be. His one-liners add comic relief to a tense environment: “Go shit in your hat”, “Me and him go back to when Moses wore short pants.” Junior is also a romantic who loves eating pussy. He admits to falling in love with his brother’s mistress but never pursued her because he didn’t want to bring a woman into the dark world of the mob. He serves as a mentor to Tony despite plotting with his mother to have him killed. Junior is also highly perceptive, nothing gets past him. Even deep into old age, he was skeptical of Janice’s random acts of kindness. Junior falls in the Evil quadrant because without a wife and children, the mafia was his whole life. He was willing to kill Tony to absorb more power because he had nothing else. Junior only looks out for himself.

Ralph Cifaretto is the only true psychopath on The Sopranos. To get back at Paulie for ratting him out to Johnny Sack, he pranks his mother with a story about him being arrested for molesting a little boy. He kills a stripper who was pregnant with his child. He lights a horse on fire to get the insurance payout. Ralphie is also quick-witted, entertaining, and often hilarious. The only reason he isn’t as evil as Livia is that he showed actual remorse when his son got stabbed in the heart with an arrow. Ralphie is one of the sickest characters on the show.

Phil Leotardo is the final boss of Tony’s villains. He‘s a disgruntled, resentful, and uncouth captain who never had his moment. Extremely violent and someone to be feared. At the same time, he’s the most old school character on the show. Despite hating Tony, he refuses to “whack a boss.” This is why I didn’t put him in the far edge of evil. Phil is principled in his own way: he ordered the death of Vito for disgracing his family and believed his son would be better off without a gay father. For all his brutality, Phil can still control himself and wait for the right moment to act in accordance with the rules.

Smart/Good

Dr. Jennifer Melfi is the most interesting character on The Sopranos because she’s such an outlier. She’s the only person who truly understands Tony and can’t be outsmarted by him. She’s extremely self-aware and knows Tony is only attracted to her because she’s the loving and nurturing mother figure Tony never had. She’s patient with him despite his many failures to try to overcome himself. She also resists her most primal temptations. She stopped herself from unleashing Tony on the man who raped her. She also stopped herself from being seduced by Tony, despite being attracted to him. Dr. Melfi serves as a counterweight to Tony’s relationship with women by being the polar opposite of his evil mother. She eventually stopped seeing him after another therapist convinced her that continuing to treat him is enabling. Despite their sudden and complicated ending, Dr. Melfi is the smartest woman on the show and the most admirable.

Johnny Sack is my second favorite character on The Sopranos after Tony. He’s cool, level-headed, and calculated. Tony respects him because he’s “as smart as a whip.” His violence isn’t random — he beats one of Ralphie’s men to a pulp simply for working for the guy who insulted his enormous wife, Ginny. I’ll admit it — Johnny’s passion for his Ginny (who he describes as “Rubenesque”) and his refusal to have women on the side are what placed him on the Good quadrant rather than Evil.

Carmela Soprano is a complicated character. She’s fiercely protective of her children and loyal to Tony, despite having every reason not to be. She defers to Tony as the head of the household and admits being deeply attracted to him regardless of his flaws. She doesn’t show any particular malice towards anyone. She was also tempted at several points. She kissed another man and fell in love with Furio (the only example of true love on the show). Carmela was also morally conflicted; she confided in several priests and therapists to reconcile her feelings with her responsibilities as a Catholic wife and mother. She also could see right through Tony, though not as poignantly as Dr. Melfi. Carmela is no bullshit and isn’t afraid to call people out and bring them back down to Earth. Even though Tony lived a secret life, she knew what Tony was up to and accepted it. She just preferred for it to be unspoken rather than be waved in her face. She also saw right through Livia. She called her out for knowing exactly how much power she held over Tony as his mother and weaponizing it against him. Despite being a great mother and wife, it’s hard not to suspect she also stayed with Tony for the lavish life he provided. Carmela is a morally complicated character. She keeps her children in harm’s way but she’s ultimately a good wife and mother under the circumstances. She’s bright, but not as smart as Tony.

Meadow Soprano is the golden child. She’s smart, ambitious, and manipulative. Tony once drunkenly told her, “You’re all me.” She knows how to outsmart her parents and caught onto Tony being in the mob at a young age. Despite being a typical liberal NYU student, she denies the existence of the mafia. In one scene, she calls out Jackie Jr.’s sister for speaking about the mob in front of an “outsider.” If Meadow were born male, she would have been Tony’s rightful heir, which would have spared us the annoying story of Chris or the disappointment of AJ. She has the intelligence and self-control her little brother completely lacks.

Bobby Baccalieri, or Bobby Baccala, is the only unequivocally upstanding male character. He was devastated over the death of his wife and grieved her long past her death. He didn’t see women on the side. He loved his children and went out of his way to take care of Junior even though Junior didn’t show much love towards him in return. Bobby is humble. While Junior was deciding between honoring Richie’s request to take out Tony, Bobby looked at him and said “I’m in awe of you” merely because he respected Junior’s wisdom. Bobby isn’t dumb, but he’s too trusting of people and leans towards seeing the good in everyone. This is why I put him on the lower side of Smart.

Evil/Dumb

AJ Soprano is the typical American teenage boy. He just wants to hang out with his friends and be one of the cool kids. People often argue that AJ is a product of his environment as a spoiled rich kid, but Tony and Carmela put just as much energy into raising him as they did Meadow, yet he never progressed. Throughout the show, he’s a shitty and selfish kid who never tries to improve himself. In the last season, he tries and fails to kill Junior as a display of faux-masculinity to avenge Tony. Then he tries and fails to kill himself. AJ is a loser. I’m convinced David Chase created AJ to remind the viewer that no matter how much effort you put into your children, sometimes you just get a shitty one. AJ is the dumbest character on the show. His selfishness and stupidity put him in the Evil quadrant rather than Good.

Paulie Gualtieri, aka Paulie Walnuts, is also a fascinating character. His life is tragic. His mother got knocked up after WWII, became a nun, and gave him to his sister, who raised him as her own. Paulie only finds out the truth later in life and resents that he gave his aunt “a son’s love” on false pretenses. He’s also remarkably selfish and slimy. He blamed the Russian “interior decorator” for him and Chris getting lost in the woods, despite Paulie clearly being at fault. He tells Johnny Sack about Ralphie’s joke on Ginny’s 90 pound mole on her ass, nearly getting Ralphie and Chris killed. He complains about Tony to Johnny Sack and tries to jump families more than once. Paulie is smarter than Chris because he’s wiser and less impulsive. He’s tries to tell Chris to stop looking for meaning in life where there isn’t any and is content with not making much out of himself. Chris asks him “You ever think nothing good was gonna happen to you?”, to which Paulie replies “Yeah, and nothing did. So what?”

Christopher Moltisanti is the second main character after Tony. He’s a self-obsessed lost soul living under the booming shadow of Tony. He romanticizes the old code of the mafia while showing no ability or desire to live by it. He yearns to have an identity, or an “arc” in his life. He’s an alcoholic and a drug addict. He frequently beats Adriana despite her doing no wrong to him. He’s loud, impulsive, and lacks self-awareness. Chris’s stupidity is what makes him evil.

Richie Aprile, similar to Phil, is old school. He warns Chris about hitting Adriana, his niece, but after he marries her he’s allowed to beat her as much as he wants. He’s a loose cannon who immediately tries to prove himself again after his prison sentence by displaying horrific acts of violence. He’s less evil than Ralphie because he doesn’t hurt people just for fun. He’s less evil than Janice because he doesn’t mooch off people. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know exactly where to place his intelligence. He’s not particularly smart or dumb, but I chose to place him in the Dumb quadrant because he was stupid enough to marry Janice.

Good/Dumb

Adriana La Cerva is obsessed with Chris-ta-phuh. To be fair, Chris is macho in his own way and embraces traditional gender roles. It’s understandable why a guidette from New Jersey might be attracted to him. She stays with him even after he beat her multiple times and stole from her. She stays even after he becomes delusional about a screenwriting career despite being an untalented heroin addict. Ultimately, Adriana just wants to look hot and be a mob wife. She doesn’t do anything particularly evil to anyone throughout the show, though I think she would have banged Tony that night if they didn’t get into a car accident. Adriana is very dumb and somewhat good.

Tony sits dead-center between good and evil. I break that down here: