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00:00The Godfather Part II was released 50 years ago, and in the half-century since it and the first
00:05film debuted, they've influenced film and television in innumerable ways. This story of a
00:10mafia family, and one initially reluctant member's blood-soaked ascendancy to the top of the empire,
00:15has continued to draw on audiences with its sprawling epic nature, and deep intimacy and
00:20drama, because at its core is a tale that remains relevant, even all these years later. One of the
00:27most compelling modern Echoes is found in Succession, another story of a powerful scion in a changing
00:32world, and the family members vying to take his place. Connecting these two threads across time
00:38allows us to really analyze the true danger that lurks in the dark heart of greed, and how it consumes
00:44everything and everyone in its path. My father taught me many things here. He taught me, keep your
00:50friends close, but your enemies closer. The Godfather Part II gives us more insight into how the Don
00:57Vito we met in Part I came to be. The murder of his father and brother at the hands of the mafia in
01:02Italy, his fleeing to America for safety and the hope of a new life, and his struggle to build a
01:07secure, successful life for himself and his new family. Vito's story is in many ways an archetypal
01:12version of the American dream, building yourself up from nothing into someone with true power and
01:18seemingly endless wealth. But in his story, we also see the darkness hiding underneath that ethos,
01:24the struggle and pain and corruption of the South that must take place to really succeed
01:29in a place that values money and power above all else.
01:33I'm making all of Vito refuse. Don't worry.
01:37Logan Roy shares a similar story, born into a poor family in Scotland, living through abuse from
01:43relatives after the death of his father, and clawing his way to success and fortune in America.
01:48And both are products of the eras of their ascendencies. Vito made his name in the early 20th century,
01:53starting in petty crimes to feed his family after losing his job, and working his way up to eventually
01:58become the dawn of his own incredibly powerful crime family. And while he was a dangerous man
02:04who put work above all else, he did have a deep care for his family and placed a lot of value on
02:10respect. Logan, on the other hand, began working his way into power in the mid-20th century, during
02:16the heyday of corporate titans driving stocks sky-high through any means necessary. He was willing to
02:21screw over anyone at any time if he thought it would lead to more success for himself.
02:26And that was the overarching theme of the entire era. His ability to fit himself into those ideals
02:32so ruthlessly was what allowed him to ascend to the very top of the pile.
02:36Both Vito and Logan built their empires to allow themselves to access power that they couldn't
02:50have otherwise, working outside of the traditional structures of authority to come to be able to
02:55wield a much more effective influence. But because of this, they also never felt secure in their success,
03:02instead always looking over their shoulder for the next threat or possible usurper.
03:06They did manage to capture all of the wealth and power they had desired, but not without great costs.
03:13While they both work to create the outer appearance of being a family man,
03:17in reality, they're willing to put anyone on the line to keep a grip on their power.
03:22It's so, so important that children are supported and encouraged. Everything I've done, I've done for my children.
03:34Vito is more reactive generally. He strikes out for vengeance or desire for what he thinks is justice.
03:40But we also see this with how he puts his family in harm's way as well. He laments that they'll have to
03:46deal with the dangers of the life, but never really does anything to stop it or set them on a different
03:51course, and even pulls Michael back in after he seemingly escapes to start down a different path.
03:57Logan is more of an active danger. He's always looking for an opportunity to create chaos or cause
04:03harm for his own benefit, and not only has no problem throwing his children into the line of fire,
04:08but also seems to delight in toying with them and lording his power over them.
04:13Why would you do that? I see you. I spied you out, son. Don't ever do that to me again.
04:19They're both aware that the world is changing, and though they might still be on top, everything
04:24around them is shifting and crumbling in a way that feels like not just the end of an era, but the
04:30end of the type of lifestyle they so excelled at altogether. Logan in particular is concerned about
04:36this new world because he fears that he won't be able to control it and bend it to his will in the
04:41same way. When I arrived there were these gentle giants smelling of gold and milk. They could do
04:48anything. Now look at them. They've pissed it all away. As they begin nearing the ends of their lives,
04:54they start to look to their children to figure out who will be able to take up the mantle and
04:58carry on the family name and business, and found that maybe it wasn't going to be as straightforward
05:04of a decision as they had hoped. What's the matter with you? I think your brain is going soft. Never
05:10tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again. Who is truly the heir to the throne,
05:15and who is even capable of doing it, is a major point of conflict in both stories, though for
05:20different reasons. Vito initially assumes that his oldest son, Sonny, will take over the family as
05:26his tradition, but he has doubts about his ability to truly lead, because he's a hothead who doesn't always
05:32think things through. Sonny is totally taken out of the equation when he's killed. And then middle
05:44brother Fredo is completely written off, because no one believes that he could possibly take up that
05:50position. Connor is a mix of these. The oldest, as much as Kendall might disagree. Brother who is never
06:08even considered for the position because he's seen as totally inept by everyone in the family,
06:12including his father. You were never interested. Well, maybe I was never encouraged. Thankfully,
06:20while Connor isn't always the brightest, he also doesn't let his sidelining cause him to make any
06:24rash decisions that could harm the family. Fredo, on the other hand, does exactly that in an attempt
06:30to feel like he's contributing to the family too. And it doesn't go well. I knew it was you, Fredo.
06:36You broke my heart. You broke my heart. Leaving Michael left as the only son. Michael was always
06:46seen by Vito as the most capable of his children, the one that might actually be able to make it in
06:50the legitimate world. And initially, Michael does set off to make a different life for himself,
06:55separating himself from the family first at college, and then after dropping out by going into the army.
07:00That's my family, Kay. It's not me. Vito starts to pull Michael back in. And once Sonny is dead,
07:07Michael becomes the anointed heir to the throne. While he spends much of his time trying to convince
07:12himself, and his wife Kay, that he still isn't like his family, he's going to change things and
07:18get the family out of their shadier dealings. As he gets pulled further and further into the life,
07:23he's corrupted by the dark power and greed until he's no longer able to even imagine pulling himself
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08:46free shipping while your subscription is active. Logan's choice is less obvious, to say the least.
08:52I just don't think you have the track record. Roman's a knucklehead,
08:57Shiv's a fake, Kenny's screwy. Kendall, Roman, and Shiv all have positive attributes,
09:04but those are often totally eclipsed by their complete incompetence and inability to put petty
09:09things aside and focus on the bigger picture. Logan is never really sure who could possibly take over
09:14from him, both because he doesn't believe in them and because deep down he has zero desire to pass
09:20the crown. He also enjoys being able to use the coveted position of being his chosen heir,
09:26to get the children to turn on each other and do his bidding. All three also share a shade of
09:31Michael's reluctance. On the one hand, they deeply covet the heir role, but on the other,
09:36want to see themselves as better than it and the empire their father has built. They tell
09:41themselves that they could change things, but they really only ever work to create an
09:46approximation of Logan's world. They each break off from the family at different points,
09:51only to get sucked right back in. Kendall is the most obvious Michael analog,
09:56at least in the beginning. He's not the oldest, but has always seen himself as Logan's natural
10:07successor. But he also continually buckles under the pressure.
10:11Did you ever think I could do it? You're not a killer. You have to be a killer.
10:18Roman is a bit of a loose cannon like Sunny, though over time he is given opportunities to
10:24show that he can strategize well when push comes to shove. Look man, I'm dumb but I'm smart.
10:30Shiv, as the only sister, is often left out of the equation in a similar way to Connie.
10:35You're a young woman with no experience. A woman, that's a minus.
10:39Well of course it's a f***ing minus. I didn't make the world.
10:42But because she exists in a different era, she was able to go out and find her own success
10:47outside of the family, before working her way back in and trying to demand her own share of the pie.
10:53Unlike Michael, none of them truly have the killer instinct of their father. They certainly don't have
10:58a problem hurting other people or the world at large to get what they want, but they don't have the
11:02ability to decisively wield their abilities to make major accomplishments. And they don't realize
11:07that essentially all of their success has been a direct result of Logan's influence,
11:11and how afraid everyone else is of him, and instead think it's all born of some innate
11:16intelligence and business acumen on their part. And so they keep slipping up over and over again and
11:21losing to people who really do grasp what's at stake. This is where Tom comes in.
11:27Tommy Whammy. Tightrope Tommy. Riding his little subtle cycle across Niagara Falls, huh?
11:32Tiptoe Tommy. I'm here to serve. I'm here to serve.
11:35Shiv's husband is seen by everyone as a useless interloper, someone who just married into the
11:40family to climb the ladder at work, but doesn't have the capability to do anything beyond that.
11:45But Tom is able to use his inoffensive outsider status to sneak his way into the heart of power.
11:51You've played your hand well, and you're sitting at the top table.
11:53We can sense even early on that Logan can tell that there's more going on than meets the eye
11:58with Tom. While Logan is always ten steps ahead of everyone else, he's pretty regularly confounded
12:04by Tom. And he comes to realize that he actually might be the most useful of the bunch. Tom is,
12:11as Logan would say, a killer in the same way Michael eventually is. It's not just about
12:16being willing to take out others, metaphorically or literally, but also to kill the parts of yourself
12:21that might hold you back from doing the evil that needs to be done to secure the throne.
12:26I mean, you've won. You want to wipe everybody out?
12:29I don't feel I have to wipe everybody out, Tom. Just my enemies. That's all.
12:34The show even makes a direct nod to this, with the Season 3 scene in which Shiv realizes that it was
12:40Tom that betrayed the siblings and kept them from besting Logan, which mirrors the moment in which Kay
12:46is shut out of the room as Michael is anointed the godfather. While Kay is stunned by the realization
12:51that the old Michael she knew is never coming back, Shiv is simmering with rage that this person she
12:58always saw as beneath her had managed to not only usurp her, but weasel his way into her father's
13:03good graces in the process. And in the same way that Michael is willing to do whatever it takes to
13:08consolidate power, including taking his own brother out for betrayal, Tom too is willing to put
13:14everything on the line to get as close to the top as possible. While the siblings implode and ruin
13:19their own chances at success yet again, Tom never takes his eyes off the prize. But in both stories,
13:27we see how that prize isn't actually much of a win at all.
13:31I worry all night about everything, all the threats to me and to my division of my physical body,
13:38and I have a very high tolerance for pain and physical discomfort.
13:43While both stories have been taken on by some as a narrative about how cool and awesome it is to
13:48be a powerful titan, they are both very clearly attempts to analyze how dark and isolating that
13:54kind of power is, due to what you have to do to get it and keep it.
13:59The truth is that my father is a malignant presence, a bully and a liar.
14:05They're both cautionary tales about something that stays the same no matter how much the times may change.
14:12Greed and a quest for power above all will corrode once humanity, and leave you disconnected from
14:17everyone around you, and people in general, with nothing to show for it except a hollow crown.
14:23Both Vito and Logan die before they really have to contend with this new world coming into being
14:28and swallowing them up. Vito in the orchard with his grandson, signifying the new replacing the old in the
14:35cycle. Logan in the airplane restroom, followed by a drawn-out passing on the floor of the plane
14:40surrounded by no one but shady hangers-on.
14:43He was a man of humility, grace, dignity.
14:46Who died fishing his iPhone from a clogged toilet.
14:49In public!
14:50But these aren't just stories about individuals. Both work to make it clear that these are larger
14:55societal issues. Problems that arise from the structural foundation of the world we live in
15:00that rewards power over everything.
15:03My father's no different than any other powerful man. Like a senator or president.
15:08You know how naive you sound.
15:10Why?
15:11Senators and presidents don't have men killed.
15:13Who's being naive, Kay?
15:15The Godfather and all mafia stories are really about the American dream and American business.
15:21When Michael takes over from his father and grows the business in The Godfather Part 2,
15:25it's a commentary on how corporations and politicians are the real criminals,
15:29just with more scale and a veil of legitimacy.
15:32We're bigger than US steel.
15:35Mob boss Vito is somewhat romanticized in the first Godfather movie,
15:39whereas Logan, in theory a legitimate businessman, is clearly painted as a dark father,
15:44a bully, and a cultural cancer.
15:47In The Godfather, we increasingly see that, as much as Michael believes he's acting for his family,
15:52he's actually moving towards isolation. And the more his business appears legitimate,
15:57the more it reveals that all of business is a form of gangsterism. That the corporate
16:02American dream is ruthless, harsh, and isolating beyond what Vito ever experienced.
16:07Succession follows from that to show us a world where this empire Logan looks to pass down is a
16:12toxic blight, where the whole act of raising children in order to be handed this insane elite
16:17status is harmful, not only to them and everyone around them, but to the world as a whole.
16:22Only don't tell me you're innocent, because it insults my intelligence. It makes me very angry.
16:30Both stories implore us to turn away from these dark pursuits and instead realize the importance
16:36of building a fulfilling life for yourself that doesn't erase your humanity or harm everyone
16:41around you. Because as alluring as the whelp and power may be, it can't fix everything.
16:46My future.
16:48Mikey, he has high hopes for you.
16:51Well, I have my own plans for my future.
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