Watch: Christopher Moltisanti: Tony's Heir and Biggest Failure

Christopher Moltisanti was supposed to be the future of the family, the nephew Tony would rule through, and he became the series' saddest proof that the future was never coming. Watch the video above, then read his arc. See also: why Tony killed Christopher.

Christopher is two people: the loyal, funny, movie-obsessed kid who dreams in Godfather quotes, and the addict whose disease keeps overruling his ambition. Tony grooms him, protects him, forgives him past all reason, because Christopher is the blood relative through whom Tony hoped to beat the loneliness of the top. The tragedy is mutual: Christopher knows the love is conditional and says so, in an intervention, in a screenplay, in a final ride home from a christening neither man can stop performing for.

Quick answer: Christopher failed as heir because addiction and resentment beat loyalty, and Tony finally treated him as a liability instead of a son.

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