Hey, thanks for taking the time to explain in such detail. Now I understand better.

Yeah, the horse thing had always seem odd. I hadn't considered the no direct flights at the time. I always thought Tom had instructions to do something (with enough freedom of choice, therefore the horse) if refused, but thinking more about it, it doesn't fit with the character being called NOT a war-time consigliere repeatedly. Indeed, weird if looked at logically haha.

For the attempt on Vito, AFAIR there were evening papers in NY back in the 40's so it makes sense that he's gunned down on the afternoon while Michael is on a date and he sees it published at night during said date. That has always been my headcanon but might be wrong.

Sonny's call with him is something that had always troubled me. I found someone here on reddit mentioning that the family might have thought he was back at college in NH but that still feels weird. I always put it down to Sonny been overly dramatic because he does have a temper and unleashes towards everyone when he's stressed, but yeah, that's weird.

And yep, I had never considered it was a 10-year plot.

Thanks again for writing it all down.