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I strongly feel that a person needs to have the ability to change his character in order to truly be free. I do understand what Tony says in one of the earlier films about him being fake if he changes; however, to just have the ability is what makes a man free. If I had to pick one, I would say that not trying to alter your character, to any degree, shows a lack of self reflection necessary to be free. However, if one is happy with who he is, where he has been, and where he is headed, then I do not think he is not free because he has not changed. That day where he wants something new in life, but does not give it a shot, or cannot give it a shot is when he is not free.

I feel Tony has done a great job in his life. Who am I really to say, but he honestly is one person who can say that everything he mentioned he wanted to put a foot in, he has. The attempt at being a jockey, and an actor, he tried to start a pub, he has a family that he and his wife are raising, He is a successful taxi driver. Not many people can say that they have tried everything they have wanted to. Tony may not have had a huge character change. Obviously he is not fighting as commonly as he was on the playgrounds, and he seems to have calmed down a little bit since he was a child, but he still has that thing about him that keeps him different from everyone else in the film. He has seemed to me to be an ambitious and active person since the first film, and he has remained very active throughout the entire 28 years. Therefore, he may not see a change as necessary, but I do not think that someone who changes is fake.

Someone who does not change at all, not in the least bit, can only call himself fake. I cannot decide who is fake or who is not because I am not that person. I know how I feel. I feel that change is inevitable and I welcome it. The ability to change your character is necessary and someone who does not have that ability, to me, is not genuinely free. I know I am not the same as I was just five years ago. I was not forced to change, but I chose to change in order to make my new environment more enjoyable and to allow me to grow the most. What is hard to comprehend, to me, is the idea that you are stuck in the same person you are now for the rest of your life. You are not a determined person; you will never be a determined person. You do not work hard, or are not polite, then you will never be polite. This is very wrong to me.