ENZO FAVARA

To start somewhat lightly, I enjoy his brand of humanity and masculinity. These are some of the parts that typically draw me to the mafia games in relation to their characters. Enzo came from nothing and built his way up—Don Torrisi acknowledged this but quickly spiraled out of control because of Enzo's infatuation with Isabella. However, this was not a surprise. Dons don't tend to be the most stable personalities and that's been shown throughout the span of Mafia's entire franchise. Still, Enzo feels more hopeful than the other protagonists to me. He was hoping that people would understand because despite what he was given, he doesn't really keep asking for more. Or I should say, like he did, that he has everything he could want. Enzo is not greedy unlike characters from previous mafia games like Sam (who will be mentioned more in his father's section). Enzo has existed in purgatory his entire life. He was sold to pay off debts, which is something that immediately made my heart drop. Not because it's such an insane concept, but because I knew that even his new life wouldn't be kind to him. I knew Enzo would die because people like him don't live long. I don't mean people in the mafia, I mean people who can kill so efficiently but still have a light in them.

Enzo is very mature, similarly to Gianluca, and not similarly to Cesare. I think that's why I find pairing the Enzo and Cesare a bit funny (not that people can't or that it's super far off). Enzo's maturity however, is a quiet maturity. He's humble, he takes in information, and he tries not to overstep. However, like I mentioned before I find it interesting how the final moments of his character went. He wanted to get to Isabella. That's not what stood out to me, it was the way that he kept telling everyone that he has what he wanted. In the eruption of not-vesuvius, Enzo and Isabella are the only stable people who understand that the life shouldn't come before safety. That was what was creepy about the end of the game to me, everyone was a puppet. They had no clue that the Don had been killed and instead were aimlessly doing the last thing they were told like zombies.

Enzo just wanted to leave. I'm not saying people leave the life successfully because we know what happened to Tommy, but he just wanted to take care of who would he his wife and kid. I knew he wouldn't get out but for it to be Cesare's backstabbing, cowardly, jealous ass irritated my soul. It fit yes, but irritated me nonetheless. Enzo died doing the same thing that got him in this mess: believing that someone had his back. That was the ONLY way Cesare's ass got him. Even tired I know Enzo would've wiped the floor with him in a fair fight because oh yeah, he literally did before he killed the Don. He just didn't kill Cesare because he cared.

His death was haunting because of how everything just goes still. It's the game's way of showing he's gone but also it's a way for the player to feel the physical disconnect from someone they've controlled for 8 hours of gameplay. It hurt. A LOT. That was one of the most haunting character deaths I've encountered because of the stillness. He deserved peace, not to die unaware of what would happen to Isabella and his child.

And you know what burns? Enzo's child escapes falling back into the life, you know who didn't despite what his own father said? Sam. Which leads me to Gianluca "Luca" Trapani.

GIANLUCA TRAPANI

His final words are pleading with Enzo to leave the life as he realizes just how real mortality is. Luca doesn't get to see his wife and children ever again because of the conspiracies surrounding Don Torrisi. Many people have mentioned it, but let me put it in a different way.

Luca suffered a fate his son should've suffered.

And in the same breath, if Luca had lived— his son wouldn't suffer many of the things he had gone through. I watched the same thing play out that had happened to his son Sam and I, like many others, knew he would die here. I didnt expect however for him to have such a visceral reaction to death as the series hardly gives characters time to traumatize you in their death. Usually there is just a body. Not an exchange of words, not a plead to leave. Do you understand how scared I was the second he used his last moments not to just wish to see his wife or children but to tell ENZO TO LEAVE. I cried so horribly because I didn't expect that at all. But it makes sense because he was the warmest person to Enzo outside of Isabella. He saved Enzo's life and therefore, when Enzo couldn't save his he immediately did the best he could do. The only thing he learned, which was to murder the men who technically did it.

Outside of his death, he was always a good man. That much was evident in how he interacted with Enzo. When Luca touched Enzo's face, it was full palm, full contact. Almost grounding but certainly not treating Enzo like he wasn't worth the connection. This is different from Don Torrisi who touched Enzo like he didn't even really want to touch him. He believed in Enzo and after Luca was gone a lot of people lost their way. A lot of shit went wrong actually. The sacrifice of Luca Trapani sealed a lot of fates in a way that was entirely a domino effect.

Technically counts as haunting the narrative? I don't know, feels like something you'd see in a movie like hereditary. That horror aspect of someone dying and all protection being lost as some physical manifestation of that spiritual and physical loss. And like I said, despite his pleads, Sam has no clue that his own father would've wanted him to stay out of the life. Oh, and his own father wouldn't betray his friends like that. Just saying.

CESARE MASSARO

Dirt neck alert. Cesare. What can I say about Cesare that won't turn into me cursing him out for an entire paragraph. Uhh, one, I didn't trust him from the start. Some thought it would be Luca that would turn on you. This was simply because Sam is his son but you can tell Sam was not raised by that man–c'mon. Cesare however was expecting things to be his that he definitely didn't work as hard for. He just thinks he deserves it like a true irritating nepotism baby. He didn't deserve shit. He lacked maturity, slept around and flirted with women who wanted nothing to do with him, and used his privilege to get what he wanted. The second that Luca passed his dumbass had the AUDACITY to say he'd take over for Luca. The closest man to Luca at that point was Enzo. However, Cesare is in a damn child's place mentally and thinks this is where the wild things are so he just becomes king all of a sudden. Enzo was practically mentored by Luca. Cesare was too busy being mentored by boobies. No but on a serious note, I laughed at him when he said he would take over. Him and what honor? He legitimately had to SNEAK Enzo. That's because he knew he couldn't fight him legitimately because he failed earlier. Cesare is haunted by his failings as a person and therefore turns to this fucked up way of dealing with things.