History Characters / TheSopranosChristopherMoltisanti

[[caption-width-right:300:''"You ever feel like nothin' good was ever gonna happen to you?"'']]

[[caption-width-right:300:''"That's the guy... My uncle Tony. The guy I'm going to hell for."'']]

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Despite having just been shot twice, he quickly gets off a headshot on Sean. Also shoots Carlo between the eyes as he's trying to help rob Christopher's card game. Later in the series, he nails a biker from dozens of yards away while he and Tony are speeding away after a robbery.

* TheSociopath: Christopher is at first a traditional example. Excepting some anxiety related to his first murder, Christopher is a near completely remorseless killer, adulterer, and liar, has virtually no moral compass, and is constantly confounded that he is not being paid the respect he deserves (regardless of his current status in the family), is constantly seeking his next fix, and, according to Adriana, has only two emotional states: "screaming [his] head off or fucking dead." Even his ostensible affection for Tony, essentially his only lasting relationship based on any sense of mutual respect, is called into question by Season 6, when the film he produces, ''Cleaver'', indicates that he has, at minimum, [[spoiler: suppressed patricidal tendencies]], and he demonstrates multiple times that he can turn on Adriana at the slightest inconvenience. The reasons he has for considering leaving the mafia life have absolutely nothing to do with morality, but rather deeply-embedded self-importance that leads him to believe he would be a rich and famous celebrity but not for the so-called sacrifices he makes to serve Tony. It's later somewhat subverted by the fact that Christopher is capable of feeling real emotion and some self-reflection, still having felt true love for Adriana even after [[spoiler:he gets her murdered]] and finding positive pride in having to raise a daughter.

* HateSink: ZigZagged. Christopher is an interesting example in that his character progression sees him evolve from a somewhat roguish hoodlum with redeeming qualities to a much more hateable character, whose shallow, needlessly violent, and holier-than-thou attitude toward any perceived slight as well as his disproportionately abusive treatment towards Adriana occasionally clouds his more noble qualities. This is balanced, however, as the more Chris evolves into a worse version of himself, the more he suffers with the main sources of grief being his almost-savant devotion to a lifestyle that's slowly suffocating him and loyalty to people who refuse to let him get better his own way, with Tony, Paulie and the other mobster further prodding him to more self-destruction. [[spoiler:By the end, he has become a living indictment of the toll the mafia life can have on people, with his death being cast in a somber light.]]

* TheSociopath: As indicated above, Christopher is a more traditional example. Excepting some anxiety related to his first murder, Christopher is a ''completely'' remorseless killer, adulterer, and liar, has virtually no moral compass, and is constantly confounded that he is not being paid the respect he deserves (regardless of his current status in the family), is constantly seeking his next fix, and, according to Adriana, has only two emotional states: "screaming [his] head off or fucking dead." Even his ostensible affection for Tony, essentially his only lasting relationship based on any sense of mutual respect, is called into question by Season 6, when the film he produces, ''Cleaver'', indicates that he has, at minimum, [[spoiler: suppressed patricidal tendencies]], and he demonstrates multiple times that he can turn on Adriana at the slightest inconvenience. The reasons he has for considering leaving the mafia life have absolutely nothing to do with morality, but rather deeply-embedded self-importance that leads him to believe he would be a rich and famous celebrity but not for the so-called sacrifices he makes to serve Tony.
** Somewhat subverted by the fact that Christopher is capable of feeling real emotion and some self-reflection, he's just too dumb and self-absorbed to really change his ways, and his inability to let go of the gangster lifestyle which [[spoiler: eventually leads to his death.]]

* {{Nepotism}}: Played with, being the nephew-cousin of the big man gives him leeway but also exposes him to the fury of his mentor. This does him no great favors in the long run: Christopher is a good shot and can follow orders, making him a good soldier, but his poor impulse control, terrible judgment, and craving for fame and respect make him ill-suited for the high positions he rapidly ascends to by the grace of this trope.

[[caption-width-right:300:''"Like everybody starts out somewheres. and they do something, something gets done to them and it changes their life. That's called an arc. Where's my arc?"'']]

->''"That's the guy... My uncle Tony. The guy I'm going to hell for."''

* AxCrazy: He has his moments. His mental disorders aside aside, he's the living embodiment of this trope when he kills his friend JT Dolan.
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Deadly deconstructed. Chris, after having a child with his wife, [[spoiler:gets into a horrible car accident in which the baby seat he had in his car is completely destroyed. Had his daughter been in that seat, she would have surely been killed; this gives Tony the excuse to asphyxiate Chris before calling an ambulance.]]

* AmbiguouslyRelated: Tony and Christopher are actually cousins. Tony frequently says that Christopher is not only his nephew but his blood, which [[https://screenrant.com/sopranos-tony-christopher-related-cousins-uncle-nephew-how/ could be inaccurate]]. Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father, is the first cousin of Carmela Soprano (née [=DeAngelis=]). So, Christopher is really Carmela's first cousin once removed, and only a cousin through marriage to Tony. Importantly, however, Dickie was Tony's mentor in the Mafia. Dickie's wife and Chris's mother Jeanette (née Blundetto) is the sister of Al Blundetto, so Chris and Tony S. are 1st cousins with Tony B. but not with each other. It's all addressed in Season 5.

* AllForNothing: Christopher's biggest goal in the series is to become an adequate and respectable mob boss in the future and also win the approval of his uncle, Tony, whom he sees as a father figure. [[spoiler: In the end, his own recklessness and idiocy lead him to death at an early age, and even worse, despite having tried to mentor him for years, not only does Tony end up being the one to kill him, but he also feels absolutely no remorse over what he did, meaning that Christopher's overall storyline in the series meant nothing and that he died not being able to achieve anything that he desired]].

* AintTooProudToBeg: When he's set up for a mock execution back in Season 1, courtesy of Junior, Christopher begs for his life. This only happens once in the entire series; Christopher later on is actually shown to be quite defiant or well-kept and reserved in times of desperate situations.

->'''Played by:''' Creator/MichaelImperioli

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: More and more as the series progressed, Christopher became this to his mafia friends due to his callousness and unreliability. Not only is he often at odds with Paulie and Tony, but he also is a constant butt of jokes to his peers and at times earns their disgust due to Christopher's tendency for domestic abuse, animal abuse as well as beating and threatening his close friends and allies alike on a whim for minor inconveniences. By the time the series reached its final season, Christopher had become eerily similar to the likes of Richie and Ralph who were both constant thorns on Tony's side and hated by everyone. [[ZigZaggedTrope That said]], [[spoiler: upon his death, many of Christopher's colleagues are shown mourning his loss, with Paulie in particular regretting how hard he was on Chris and referring to himself as Christopher's "Dutch uncle". It's also shown in "Made in America" that the crew [[DueToTheDead keep a photo of him mounted on a wall in the back room at Satriale's as a memorial]].]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Like other mobsters, he's racist, sexist, and casually homophobic.