I love The Young and the Restless’ Victor Newman, but his latest antics are a bit ridiculous

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, The Young and the Restless’ Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) is my favorite soap character in all of daytime television. I understand he can be manipulative, ruthless, cantankerous and a downright bully. However, I appreciate his wit, look forward to most of his scheming and anytime he's in a showdown, I can’t wait to see him put someone in their place.

Now I’m not a blind fan, and I understand that at times The Mustache goes too far. Off the top of my head, I can recall him having Victoria (Amelia Heinle) arrested so she didn’t marry Billy, Jack (Peter Bergman) swapped out with an imposter named Marco so he could take over Jabot, Billy (Jason Thompson) kicked out of Chancellor so he could gift it Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and used Kyle (Michael Mealor) just get back at his father. Victor has been around Genoa City since 1980, so trust and believe this is a very short list of some of his questionable antics. But it bears repeating, I’m Team Victor.

Having said all that, the Newman patriarch is currently on another questionable road I fear. Over the last few weeks, he’s increasingly become adamant that he doesn’t want Claire (Hayley Erin) dating Kyle. So much so, that it’s starting to look like he’ll become a major obstacle in their new relationship and possibly go to some extremes to destroy it. I can’t stand behind him in this.

For starters, Victor’s gripe with the Abbotts boils down to his longtime beef with Jack. The two have been like oil and water for decades and he loathes Billy, but he’s never had any real qualms with the rest of the Abbott family. Heck, he once helped raise Kyle, was married to Ashley (Eileen Davidson), his daughter Abby (Melissa Ordway) is half Abbott and he’s had no real issue with Tracy (Beth Maitland). Oh, and there’s also the fact that he has three grandchildren with Abbott DNA. So Victor forbidding Claire from dating Kyle now is a perplexing choice.

Adding to that, Victor’s grandson Noah (Rory Gibson) and Jack’s granddaughter Allie (Kelsey Wang) are in a relationship already in Europe, and we haven’t really heard Victor express his demand those two split. Additionally, Kyle was married to Summer (Allison Lanier) a few times, and Victor never really stood in their way. I could understand Victor not wanting his one granddaughter dating his other granddaughter’s ex-husband, but he’s not really used that rationale for why he’s putting his foot down.

One assumption Victor has made a few times though, is that he feels Claire is too naive to be with Kyle. That doesn’t make a ton of sense in my book when you remember Claire was raised by Jordan (Colleen Zenk) to read and manipulate people. Heck, if anything, I’d be more concerned that Kyle is too naive to be with her.

All in all, I want Victor to stop with all this demanding and let Claire be happy with Kyle if that’s what she wants. Heck, between her lying about the circumstances of Jordan’s death and Summer practically waiting in the wings to reclaim her ex, Claire and Kyle are going to have enough obstacles thrown their way that may result in the couple’s end anyway.

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Paramount Plus.