The Young and the Restless: The Fatal Flaw That Could Finally Destroy Victor Newman’s Ego

On The Young and the Restless, Countless people have gone up against Victor, and all have come off second best. So how does one take down “The Great Victor Newman?”

The Young and the Restless: A new plan, a new approach

Let’s be honest. For decades, we have watched Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) sit behind that desk at Newman Enterprises—or in the grand salon of the ranch—dictating the lives of everyone in Genoa City like a chess master bored with his opponents. He is the villain we love to hate, the "Moustache," the unassailable patriarch. But is he truly invincible? If you strip away the corporate raider persona and the ruthlessness, you find that Victor Newman does have a weakness. It is a gaping, exploitable vulnerability that his enemies consistently fail to target correctly because they are too busy trying to attack his bank account.

Victor’s weakness isn’t money, and it certainly isn’t the law. His weakness is his desperate, pathological need to be the "savior" of a family he constantly breaks.

Victor justifies every vile action—from faking his own death to replacing his son’s job—with the mantra, "I did it to protect this family." It is the lie he tells himself to sleep at night. He believes he is the only thing standing between the Newmans and oblivion. Therefore, the only way to truly take Victor Newman down a few notches isn’t to steal Newman Media or outmaneuver him in a merger. He expects that. He thrives on that. It feeds his ego because it proves everyone wants what he has.

To destroy his ego, you have to attack his narrative.

Imagine a scenario where Nick (Joshua Morrow), Victoria (Amelia Heinle), Abby, (Melissa Ordway) and Adam (Mark Grossman) finally stop fighting for the scraps of affection he tosses them. The exploit is simple but devastating: indifference. Victor requires an audience. He requires subordinates to rebel so he can crush them, or loyalists to reward. If his children collectively resigned—not in anger, but in total boredom—and refused to engage in his tests of loyalty, Victor would lose his power source. He cannot control people who simply do not care what he thinks.

Currently, his enemies, like Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman), make the mistake of engaging Victor in war. War validates Victor. It proves he is a threat. If you want to exploit his weakness, you don’t fight him; you render him irrelevant. You prove that the family thrives better without his "protection."

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If the Newman children ever realized that their infighting is the only thing keeping the old man in charge, they could end his reign in a day. Victor’s ego is fragile; it relies entirely on the belief that he is essential. Prove he is obsolete, and the titan doesn’t just fall—he crumbles. But as long as his children crave his approval, Victor Newman will never truly lose.

Watch full episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS or stream on Paramount.

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