Young and the Restless sees Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) out for revenge on what feels like half the people in Genoa City. And he’s just being constantly insufferable. Somebody’s got to stop him!

We’re going to talk about why Victor needs to be shut down, why he needs karma, and why he needs some comeuppance.

Victor Newman’s Unjustified Vendetta Against Jack Abbott

The first and main reason that Victor needs to be taken down is this latest vendetta against Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman), which is ridiculous. For more than a year now, Victor has been totally furious with Jack. Victor is always ranting that Jack put Nikki Newman‘s (Melody Thomas Scott) life at risk, which is ludicrous. Jack did not put Nikki’s life at risk at all. In fact, Jack risked his own life and his own sobriety to save Nikki when she was spinning out of control.

Diane Jenkins (Susan Walters) was even upset that he risked his life for Nikki. And she acknowledges that that’s what it was. Nobody agrees with Victor’s ridiculous accusations about Jack—not one Newman, especially not Nikki. Literally, nobody else in Genoa City except Victor thinks this. He has manufactured a reason to hate Jack. It’s like he pulled this lame reason out of thin air.

If we’re trying to justify this story-wise, Victor was salty because Jack saved Nikki when Victor could not. Victor was actually enabling Nikki to get drunk at home because he kept booze in the house, knowing she was off the wagon. Victor refused to send Nikki to rehab after Jordan Howard (Colleen Zenk) pushed her off the wagon. And everybody knew that Nikki needed to go, but Victor kept saying no.

Even all of Victor’s kids have said he’s wrong for hating Jack based on this flimsy reason. If we’re going to dig into the character psychology, Victor is angry at himself, not that he would admit it. Honestly, though, we think it’s just bad writing on Young and the Restless.

Billy Abbott: Another Target of Victor’s Endless Schemes

The second reason that fans are really tired of Victor and his never-ending vendetta is him being back again, destroying Billy Abbott‘s (Jason Thompson) life. It’s worse now that Victor wants to use Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) to help destroy Billy, which is absolute insanity because Billy is the father of two of Victoria Newman’s (Amelia Heinle) children, Victor’s grandchildren. Yet, Victor always goes after Billy. He’s been doing it forever, even when Billy hasn’t done anything to warrant it.

Victoria hates this about her father, but he won’t stop. Billy was pretty much minding his own business, running Chancellor. And Victor just decided to be a jerk and take it away because he could. He did a lot of lying, scheming, and dirty things to steal that out from under Billy. Of course, Victor will never be happy if Billy has anything good in his life.

We’re not necessarily Team Billy. We’re not huge fans of this version of the character. We loved the Billy Miller version of him, but this version we find problematic. At the same time, we’re not Team Victor right now at all, so we’ll take Billy over Victor at the moment. While we don’t think Billy can take Victor down on his own, we do think Cane could help Billy do it. Victor needs to be put in his place on Young and the Restless.

Victor’s Destructive Interference in His Family’s Lives

Another reason Victor needs a slap from karma is because he is always messing up his family’s lives, thinking he knows better about everything. Victor was out there trying to break his granddaughter’s heart. Poor Claire Grace Newman (Hayley Erin)! She loves Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) and was perfectly happy, but because Kyle is Jack’s son, Victor decided Claire shouldn’t be with him. So, Victor hired Audra Charles (Zuleyka Silver) to break them up in the dirtiest way.

The thing with Claire was like the other schemes that Victor has done in the past, with Victoria messing with her love life. And Victor messed with Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) and Adam Newman’s (Mark Grossman) lives extensively, all while saying he knew better. Nikki is constantly having to defend and enable Victor on Young and the Restless. We think Nikki and the kids should be the ones to put Victor in check, to kick him out of the CEO’s seat at Newman, make him retire. And let the kids inherit. But of course, they won’t do it.

The Negative Influence of Victor Newman on Genoa City

The next reason that Victor needs to be taken down is just what a bad influence he is on so many people. What’s crazy is, aside from him, the rest of the Newmans are getting along fine. Adam has finally been accepted by his siblings. He’s no longer the rejected black sheep with all that anger. He and Nick are getting along great. And miraculously, Adam has actually formed a genuine bond with Victoria. Claire is integrated into the family. She’s close to everybody. All the kids are happy.

Everything would be good if not for Victor being a vengeful jerk. The kids could be running Newman Enterprises very happily, with no revenge plots or scheming. Imagine the Newmans just chill and happy. Arguably, that’s not very soapy, but Victor is the one stressing everybody out and driving all this drama, but not in a good way, not in a well-written way.

Nick and Adam could absolutely handle Cane’s threat without Victor. We think all the kids would function really well without Victor’s interference. He needs to step off. He’s out of control on Young and the Restless. He’s also a bad influence on Michael Baldwin (Christian Jules Leblanc), by the way. And pretty much anybody he comes into contact with.

Young and the Restless: Fan Frustration

The final reason that Victor needs to be thrown off his high horse is because of the fans. Most people we see on soap social media, a great percentage of them, are sick and tired of the way that Victor is acting. It’s down to terrible writing because what’s going on makes no sense. His motive for the latest vendetta is sloppy. It just doesn’t make sense. This is another character that Josh Griffith has ruined for Young and the Restless.

Of course, Victor has been a villain in the past, which is totally fine if it’s well-written. One really villainous plot that we think back on that was very well-written, even though it was just psychotic, was the whole thing with Jack and Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) when Victor brought Marco in after kidnapping Jack and put Marco in his place. And Phyllis had a stranger in her bed and didn’t know it.

That was all terrible behavior, Victor doing these awful things, but the writing was good. And the motivations were twisted but understandable. And there was a flow of logic. In this case, to us, it’s bad writing, illogical. And fans are frustrated. In terms of who takes down Victor and gives him that karmic slap, we do think Cane may be a good choice.

Young and the Restless: The Future of Victor Newman’s Character

Even though his own family should do it, they won’t. But Cane has tons of resources. And he’s willing to play dirty. So, for a lot of reasons, many that we listed. And more that you can probably think of, Victor really needs to get a comeuppance at the hands of the new guy who is back in town.

Even if Cane does take Victor down, it won’t last. The great Victor will never be completely destroyed. And we don’t want that. But he needs a big, fat reality check, knocked down about five pegs, so maybe he won’t be a full-on jerk all the time. Cane might be the one to do it. Something needs to change with Victor.

It’s no fun to watch him anymore because you can’t justify his behavior. And so it’s really cringey and it’s turning a lot of fans off. It’s a shame because Victor remains a fan-favorite character, even when he’s dark and villainous, as long as the writing is good. We’ve been hoping something is going to change now that Jill Farren Phelps is back on the producing team, but so far, we haven’t seen it. Fingers crossed!