I had an absolute blast with this particular post, I’m not even going to lie. I don’t think I’ve ever taken the chance to write about all of the Vongola bosses and it was so much fun to do. They don’t get a lot of screentime in canon but I find them all so interesting, so I hope you lovelies enjoy my thoughts on this silly, fun little question for them 😊
Are they on the naughty or nice list?
I do think that Giotto is most certainly on the nice list. Even though he built the Vongola, a mafia family, it started for all the right reasons. He had good intentions, only fought for what he believed was right, and I don’t think that Giotto ever defaulted to violence, especially violence for violence’s sake. He didn’t want to hurt people, but he couldn’t stand by and see how so many were horribly mistreated, injured, even killed while pretending it wasn’t happening. While he definitely did end up having to hurt and kill in the name of what he felt was justice, I do think that at his core, Giotto was a good person, a gentle and kind person, and I think Santa would have realized that too. All the good he did, all the selfless love and care he poured into the world, all the little unseen or largely unnoticed things that he did without wanting any recognition for them, those are the things that added up to have him on the nice list each and every year.
In stark contrast, Ricardo has never made it onto the nice list any year. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not one of those people who believe that Ricardo was just a terrible human being, without any redeeming qualities or kindness in his soul. I do believe that he showed kindness and mercy to those close to him, to those who chose to devote themselves to him and his goals. It might have been a twisted, odd sort of mercy and kindness at times, but he still had a softer side to him that showed itself in those who swore and showed loyalty to him. But overall, there is a reason he was known to be the fear of the underworld during his time as a Boss and the fact that he displayed the Flame of Wrath…it speaks volumes, the canon facts that we know about him. He didn’t hesitate to show brutal acts of violence to gain control and keep it. If someone made him angry, he would not think twice about killing them. If someone opposed him, he refused to allow that and he would wipe out not only them, but those close to that person, just to teach a lesson to anyone who might have ideas about revolting against his rule. This brutality in his nature, the fact that he didn’t hesitate to maim and murder, the anger that burned, never quite satisfied in his soul? Even Santa, benevolent as he is and as much as he tries to find the best in everyone, can’t fuck with that and Ricardo is always on the naughty list.
I think that Terzo had years where he was on the nice list, but it was mostly when he was younger. Terzo was a genuinely good kid, a happy child who made friends easily and gained a lot of love from those around him. And when he became the next Vongola Boss, Terzo had a lot of support and love from not only his followers, the former members of the family, and the citizens in his area. And god, did Terzo do everything he could to be a good Boss, but the years and the stress of being in such an important position of power did start to change him. He went from seeking non-violent methods as often as he could to being more than willing to leap into battle, to do terrible atrocities in the name of the Vongola. With his charismatic nature, he even made it make sense, not only in his own mind, but to those who followed him. More and more, his name started ending up on Santa’s naughty list and for most of his adult life, he would stay on the naughty list.
Quarto, on the other hand, was on the naughty list from the time he was small right up until the last of his life. It’s not that he was an inherently bad person right from the get-go, because he was not, but he was a naughty child, very mischievous and a little manipulative. He was charming and easily forgiven for his naughtiness, but Santa still saw a lot of that naughtiness and it marked Quarto down on the naughty list. As he grew up, he grew even more into that manipulativeness and on top of that, his greediness as a child only increased as he gained more power. He was responsible for some truly heinous acts in the Vongola’s name, which he did well to convince others were needed (though there was definitely more peaceful ways they could have been accomplished, just with less rewards for Quarto). There’s no way, having fully come into his own as one of Vongola’s more brutal bosses (though not to the levels of Ricardo, for example), that Quarto could ever make it onto the nice list.
Quinto switched around a lot. There were years he was on the naughty list, but there were also years he was quite high up on the nice list. There was really no rhyme or rhythm as to the years he ended up on each particular list – it wasn’t like he’d end up on the naughty list one year, realize the error of his ways and end up trying really hard to be good, ending up on the nice list after that before sneaking back into flawed ways. It was really hit or miss. Even as a child, he’d end up on one or the other, sometimes being on the nice list for four or five years before spending a couple on the naughty list. I actually headcanon Quinto as having some behavioral issues due to mental illnesses and what list he’d end up on that year depended, in large part, to how badly the mental illness was affecting him that year. It wasn’t even like he could really help himself – there wasn’t really therapy widely available during Quinto’s time, mental health diagnoses weren’t really a thing, and he was just doing his best to cope with a mind that made him dangerously impulsive and reckless at times. During the worst of his episodes, Quinto would impulsively go on the attack under the Vongola’s name, he’d recklessly take whatever it was he wanted, he’d break all the cardinal sins to gain dopamine, he’d behave, in short, like the ‘naughty’ child that Santa just couldn’t justify putting on the nice list.
Simora, on the other hand, kind of idolized Ricardo. He’d always grown up hearing such high praise and all these legends about Vongola Primo and how amazing he was, but Giotto seemed weak and boring to Simora. Simora would hear all these tales and legends about the atrocities that Ricardo had performed, of all Ricardo’s exploits, almost as cautionary tales, as examples of what Simora should not do, but the thing was that Simora, even as a young lad, just absolutely loved all the tales he’d hear about Ricardo. Ricardo seemed exciting. Ricardo seemed strong, terrifying but intriguing. Simora started thinking of him as some sort of hero and wanted nothing more than to become a Boss like Ricardo was. And that he definitely did, modeling his rule over the Vongola after Ricardo’s. Of course, such behaviour automatically sort of earned Simora a yearly, well-earned place on the naughty list, not that he much cared. Sinning was so much more pleasurable, in Simora’s opinion, than being a good boy.
Fabio did rule over the Vongola with an iron fist. He tried to be fair and reasonable and he only did what he believed was right and just. In Fabio’s mind, he was just doing the best he could for the Vongola, his beloved Guardians, his family members, and the citizens in his area. He was doing what needed to be done to keep all of them safe, sound, in good financial condition, and well-taken care of for their emotional and physical well-being. To accomplish that, though, Fabio became ruthless in his actions. He took care of his people, but it was through some underhanded or just plain disgusting means. While the Vongola never really dabbled in drugs throughout most of their rule, Fabio would sell drugs and weapons to build up the Vongola’s bank accounts to absolutely obscene degrees. He justified it in his mind as making sure that he had plenty to take care of himself and his people, along with setting the next generation of the Vongola, the one led by his daughter, up in a really grand position. When small groups would try to band together, create gangs, he’d swoop in and use Vongola’s might to crush them. When other families seem to be setting themselves up for a rise in power, making them, in Fabio’s mind, a threat to the Vongola, he’d completely genocide the Family and everyone related to them. It was all for the Vongola, after all. Even though the intention and thought behind Fabio’s action, at least in his mind, was always well-meant and justified by his love for those around him, Santa couldn’t use that as an excuse for the horrible things done, and Fabio often ended up far more on the naughty list than he ever did the nice list.
We know that Daniela idolized Giotto. He was her hero. While she took a lot of inspiration from her father’s generation, particularly from the strong females that made up his Guardians, what she mostly learned from Fabio was what sort of Boss she did not want to be. It’s from Daniela that Timoteo learned his moderate nature as a Boss and how to really make the community the Vongola surrounded a part and parcel of the Family. While she marched into battle, Athena herself, in the name of the Family, she took every chance she could to make herself a part of the community. She didn’t want to just be a figurehead, just the Boss of Vongola, she wanted to be a source of comfort and strength in the community and she did it by charity work within her community. On top of that, she devoted herself to taking care of all her people and their families. She genuinely cared about those around her and sought to make their lives better. While there were years of her reign as Vongola Boss where she most definitely ended up on the naughty list, hard years for the Vongola where Daniela had to make tough calls and do horrible things that haunted her dreams, for most of the time, she ended up on the nice list (way down on the nice list, but still sneaking in there).
Like his mother, while there was years that Timoteo ended up on the naughty list, they were the hard years for him as a Boss – the year of the Cradle affair, the years he lost his sons and in his grief, allowed himself to attack mindlessly those he thought responsible, the year’s uprising happened that he couldn’t ignore. These are the years he hated, the years he almost regretted ever having become the Boss. But like I said, Timoteo gained his mother’s admiration for Giotto, her love for the people around her and in her community, and her moderate nature as Boss. Timoteo is genuinely a kind-hearted person, someone who just wants to take care of the people around him. He just wants to make people happy, to live a good, quiet life surrounded by the people he loves and treasures. He wants to do good in the world. He wants to leave it a better place than he found it. He wants to make a difference in people’s lives. And he tries really hard to do just that, and his efforts often leave him on the nice list, but like I said, sometimes Timoteo learns, through hard experiences, the weight of the name of Vongola, and the terrible things he must do end him on the naughty list.
Tsuna is a lot like Giotto. Tsuna is someone who tries to find every way possible to avoid violence. He doesn’t want to fight. He doesn’t want his friends to fight. All he wants is to enjoy time with his friends and family. He wants them happy and healthy and with him. While he will take on the responsibility of protecting those he needs to, he doesn’t take violence lightly and it’s hardly ever his first resort. He can’t help but help those he sees in trouble. Tsuna tries hard to do the right thing, even when it’s hard for him, even when it hurts him. He’s a person with a good heart, a strong sense of justice, and a lot of love buried in him that he lets out into the world. While there are definitely horrible things he’s had to do, the good he’s done normally outweighs those acts, and I think Tsuna ends up on the nice list far more often than he ever would the naughty list. There’s only going to be a handful of times (like you wouldn’t even need all the fingers on one hand to count them) that Tsuna ends up on the naughty list.
