anyone else find these films sad for same reason as me?

Yeah, it's sad how much the family fell apart by the end of Part II. Especially after you see the flashback to everyone together and then Michael just sitting all alone, as he should be. Betrayal was a bigger thing in Part II, but it was all over the place in Part I as well. Paulie, Carlo, Tessio, Fabrizio. That's just life for people who live that way.

And I agree with you about Tom. His relationship with Michael was definitely broken by the end of Part II, and one of the main reasons I don't watch Part III is because he's not there. Or at least spoken about more often. I like to think that after he visited Pentangeli and convinced him to kill himself, that was the last thing he would do for Michael. No more after that.

I agree. That's what I love about The Godfather films. I know these are gangsters but to me they're more than that. And I like the Corleones and want to see them succeed!

Even with Michael's turn to the dark side in TGF2, I still root for him. I don't know if TGF3 showed the Corleone's actual downfall but it does seem like it, in the hands of a hothead like Vincent. I didn't see anything in him that would assure me that the Corleones are in good hands.

And like you, I also missed Tom Hagen and tbh I didn't like Michael's children in it. Neither looked like Pacino, their characters were weak, and the actors acted poorly. Vincent looked more like Michael than he did his father Sonny.

I think the most jarring thing here for me is the change in Michael. And I don't fault Pacino for this because he too did not agree with the direction Coppola wanted for his character in TGF3. I lay this on Coppola's hands. I understand where Coppola is coming from, people change as they get older, and they do have regrets but we never saw that bridge between Michael of TGF2 and Michael of TGF3. I hated seeing Michael so weak and vulnerable but I guess that was the intent, to close the circle. Michael in TGF3 is just like Vito in TGF1, his time has come to an end.

It is a tragic saga. Part of me feels sorry for then since they are mostly likeable people, but there is a part of me that sees the logical conclusion of the maffia life. It seemed like they all knew what could potentially be in store for them, but still decided to live the life they did for various reasons.

I'm not affected by it, but yeah, it's sad. As it's supposed to, after all, you can't expect a happy ending from these types of movies. The drama is an overarching theme.

I think it was correct to end the movies in a sad and punishing way. Yes, the Corleones were a likeable family but let's face it they did many horrible things.

I think when you do the things they did it well eventually catch up with you. That was the message I took from it.

Their morals were rotten, and they just covered that with a hypocritical "genteel" facade. They didn't typically get their own hands dirty but had their underlings hash out the messy business while they themselves strutted around like aristocrats. The destruction and falling-apart of their family was an inevitable consequence of the mafia way of life. It couldn't have been any other way. Sad? Sure. Not because of what they had been, though, not because anything good was lost; it was never good to begin with. That's the sad thing. They were doomed from the day they were born because their family was in that way of life.

I think that's where the realism lies, that kind of life never ends well, people die, relationships never recover and sadness is the legacy.

"They are good people (for most part)"

No, they were bad people with a few good qualities. They showed love and had a sense of clan loyalty, but there were limits to both. When Michael had to choose between familial love and power, he chose power.

And that's why I'll never love the "Godfather" films, I don't like or identify with any of the characters.