Now we all know equally, there are many..and I mean MANY differences between the father and the son. But there is one big difference that made Vito good and Michael bad.

Vito was Don to help and Michael was Don to earn.

I don't remember one time, a man came to Michael asking for something and Micheal helping them out all the way. Michael just was not like his father in that way. He grew up watching all the money his father earned and all the respect his father got and Michael fell in love with that. Now his brothers did also but Michael always saw the business from a far. And while he always said he would never be part of the famnily, he always envied his father in that way.

You can kind of see this in GF3 when Don Tommansino dies, Michael says to the corpse, "Why were you so loved, and I so feared". He wanted to be like his father so much, being loved, protecting his family and being strong but he just never had the magic that he wanted or the magic his father thought he had.

But Vito, he began the family by killing the "black hand" and helping little old ladies get a home. Who here thinks that Michael would ever help a little old lady get a home? That is one thing that none of the brothers ever truly had, Vito's love.

Feel free to post comments on this.

I see what you are saying, I suppose as you said, Vito killed the 'Black Hand' and started the whole thing off by helping people like himself with favours, but Michael and his brothers had grown up seeing Vito as the successful, powerful Don, probably not realising where that power originated from.
TPM

I also think that Michael was much more sheltered then his other siblings. In the garden seen, a little before Vito dies, he tells Michael that he alsways wanted him to become a successful legitament man. So his father was probably trying to keep him out of the business completely. However, Michael did see some things, from the outside and from the outside the don life was all about respect and Michael was brought up thinking that that was what the mafia was about.
However, Sonny who lived and breathed the mafia, making his bones at 16 I believe, knew more about the mafia. I do believe that Sonny would help a guy out before Michael does. Its sad though Vito tried so hard to bring him up legitimently but Michale still ends up spiraling down from the one thing Vto didn't want him to be. This is kind of like how Michael, as hard as he tries to protect his family, the more he is slowly ruining it. See the pattern? So I guess we can all blame it on Fanucci for forcing Vito to kill.

Vito was just so likeable, in both incarnations (Marlone Brando and Robert De Nero)

Michael in lots of ways was not. Too Ruthless.

Ive got the book though, I havent read it from cover to cover. In that Michael comes across as more personable.

Yes, I do believe that Michael, deep down inside, was a really good person but was tricked into believing that what he was doing was right. I really think that they should have added more scenes of Mike with Kay, having fun, relaxing or something. If you have the DVD, in the deleted scenes, there is a scene where you see Michael and Kay in bed. They are in a hotel and are laughing and having fun, this shows that Michael was ot just a ruthless killer but also a loving man.

well at this time when he's with kay in the hotel bed he wasn't even a killer. i guess at the beginning of gf1 they show michael as a nice person, he became heartless and ruthless as he became the don.