re: Michael is actually the villain in Godfather II

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always saw Frank Pentangeli as a pawn that Michael was willing to sacrifice

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Exactly. I think Michael saw Frankie as some old relic, no longer relevant in his new breed of mafia. Hwa used him til he no longer needed him.

Frankie was basically the last of the old school hoods who came up the hard way and sort of stuck to old code of disliking drugs and distrusting everyone not Italian.

He should be, that role was meant to be Clememza, which outside of a few lines during his Character intro about Clememnza's "heart attack", the dialogue was basically unaltered besides his name.

Clemenza, remember, was even more old school than Vito, as far as American Street crime goes.

But Michael probably thought Frankie/Clememza were stupid to stay behind and cling to the old ways. It was obvious from the way he strung him along in Tahoe. This guy was technically the #1 east of the rockies and he was dealt with like a bit like a tougher version of Fredo.