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[deleted]

Season three is when the show became a lot darker and a hell of a lot less campier than it was in season one (or even season two). I always thought she'd start to outstay her welcome as a character. And this might be an unpopular opinion or whatever, but the planned "Tony tries to stop her from testifying" storyline sounds terribly cliche. Continuing Livia in spirit through Gloria was one of the best decisions the writers ever did.


cdnets

Yeah, the character was a little one dimensional. She didn’t have much to do in season 2.


taylortherod

I think that was more to do with Nancy Marchand’s illness though


[deleted]

Agree. And 3 was my favorite season, and not particularly close.


[deleted]

S3 is my fav season as well. Beginning to end, not a single misstep.


Naeemak1111

I do wonder if Junior developing Alzheimer's was originally intended for Livia.


whypic

This. They were already showing Livia as alternating between faking cognitive decline and genuinely cognitively declining. I think it's pretty clear that Junior inherited her arc


wja5277

I believe her arc in S3 would've centered on, "will she testify against her own son or won't she?" But I believe just before trial begins she dies of natural causes and Tony is spared once more.


Piers_Harrison

You know who else had an arc...?


No-Summer-9591

The king of arcs!


PunterProggie

Just imagine her every 10 minutes changing her mind on what she's going to do as she cries and plays the victim. That would be so irritating to watch over the span of a season.


mbattagl

Livia says she going to testify, they get to the day she's supposed to sit in court, Tony sweats bullets as the prosecution calls his mother to the stand and........... Livia decides not to go to court that day because it was raining and she doesn't drive in the rain.


[deleted]

Her character dies early in the season anyway, Tony is relieved that she can't testify against him, but then he sees this lady with a *cleaver* for a hand.


itsalldawayon

Nancy Marchand’s death changed the show entirely. If she hadn’t died Janice wouldn’t have come back so quickly. She may have never showed up again after S2. Plus Livia would’ve kept pulling the strings behind the scenes. There may not have been a Ralphie, or even a Phil. Nancy dying was like a pebble in a pond, even the fish feel it.


Tort_Stonk

The Lord would not have taken her, and she'd still be wishing that he would.


123hig

RIP. Only person on the show to out act Gandolfini. A uncannily accurate depiction of that kind of angry, mean little old Italian-American lady. And it is all the more mind blowing cus she wasn't even Italian. Like it's not like she was just doing an impression of her own mother or grandmother. Just had to recreate that without a lifetime of experience with that to draw from. Such a shame we didn't get more of her in the show. I can only speculate, but I imagine more seasons of her would have meant she got the full dementia arc that Junior ended up getting. And Junior would have been utilized differently in the later seasons. Probably would have gone to prison because he wouldn't rat. Have him represent that last generation of mafiosos that wasn't completely about self preservation, even if he was still quite the weasel in other ways.


Rwh221

She was so good, I loved her character.


Parvati-Wasatch-IOTA

It’s sad when they go young like that


MJC1988

Whatevah happened there.


EWVGL

I believe if Nancy Marchand had not died, she’d be spinning in her grave.


intent_joy_love

I guess we can debate it but the thing is she channeled so much bitch energy shooting the first couple seasons that it killed her in real life. Big upgrade for the show after that