If Sonny Corleone doesn't get whacked, does the Corleone family win the war?

If only there was a board for this type of question.

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I don't think they do, Sonny was too much of a hot head. Something would go wrong and he would've lost his shite. I think Sonny met a fitting end for his personality type, even though I liked him as a character.

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Sonny was gonna get whacked at some point.

What I never understood was Michael killing Fredo.

One thing I can say about him, you best not slap his sister

Sonny was too much of a hot head. I think he would have caused the demise of the family. Plus, the other families might have grown big enough and powerful enough to take Sonny out. Michael didn't give them the option to grow. He saw enemies and took them out before they could cause any trouble.

I also think Michael was much smarter than Sonny. He saw all the intricate parts of the web. If the situation was reversed, I don't think Sonny would have figured out the rats in the family. He would be busy banging cocktail waitresses in a hat check closet.

He was as cold blooded as they come. He killed Fredo, but to me proof of his calculating cold blooded streak was the hooker. He had that hooker murdered to frame the Senator. That wasn't some revenge killing. That wasn't someone who deserved to die. Just a chick in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Don Corleone:

I never thought you were a bad consiglieri, Tom. I thought Santino was a bad don, rest in peace.

Is there any other movie where people talk about fictional characters with the reverence of The Godfather?

Seriously i love the films, but people talk about them like they are historical figures haha.

Depends on how long term you are looking.


When Sonny got whacked, both sides were in a protracted stalemate and something had to give.

Them missing on the hit would have meant more bloodshed between Carlo getting whacked immediately and Sonny redoubling his efforts to take out any exposed Five Families businesses like Tataglia’s whores.


It would have also meant Vito recovering longer, possibly keeping him alive an additional few years, along with Michael’s exile in Italy continuing and him possibly getting killed before they could negotiate a safe return for him.



Sonny may have ended up winning the war of the Five Families but he would have lost the peace, as he didn’t have the cunning to take over Vegas, smoke out Tessio and Carlo, or whack the heads of the Five Families.

What a lot of people tend to overlook is that Sonny, hothead though he might have been in personal matters, had been groomed to take over the Family from a young age. It's perfectly possible to be a hothead in one's private life and a professional when dealing with business. There's no reason to believe Sonny would have ignored the input from both his father and his capos. Even Tom could have been a helpful influence because it was Michael who decided Tom needed to be sidelined because he wasn't a wartime consigliere. Sonny might very well have kept him on.

The nature of the war changed with Sonny's death. Vito moved for peace to help save Michael's life, not necessarily because they were losing the war. It can even be posited that the loss of Sonny was a tactical blow that influenced Vito's decision over and above the personal one.

Edit because spell check decided consigliere simply HAD to be "configured" no matter how many times I changed it back.

I was always wondered what Sonny would have thought about Michael killing Fredo. I don't think Sonny would have stood for it. He was a hothead, but he wasn't ice cold like Michael.