After rewatching The Wire, I think it's safe to say Stringer>Avon.

[Verbal Kint]

He got to that level because of Avon. The same way Avon got to the level he got to on the legit side because of Stringer. D'Angelo wasn't no top tier player but he had a position all because of Avon. Stringer was doing all the moving around because of his legit savvy and clean record. He was still taking his cues from Avon. All of Stringer's issues started once he stopped doing that and tried to do his own thing. If he was so respected on a street level why was he sneaking and doing everything all the while paying lip service to his "partner". Why didn't Avon have any problem making whatever moves he wanted to and telling him about it directly while Stringer was sneaking around a like a kid? It's much easier to be ruthless when you are directing other people to do the shyt. He tried to put a hit out on Clay Davis too until Slim Charles was like . My man actually thought he could pop a senator like it was nothing. All them nikkas looking at him like . That's why I said he thought he could jump back and forth at his convenience. He clearly didn't fully understand the street aspect. That wasn't his area. I never said Stringer didn't have value or that he was a complete weakling, I just said the streets wasn't his forte. He was in the game for what...15 years without a scratch? He becomes the man and is a dead snitch within 2 years.

Good points. When it came to the real grimy war stuff String definitely played the sideline. That's one thing that's hard for me to reconcile. Season 1 String definitely seemed a lot more 'street' than season 2 and 3 Stringer.

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

For the mob families that originated in Sicily, sure. But 'made' guys were a tiny percentage of people involved in the mob. For instance there may be 1 boss with a few lieutenants who are made guys but there could be hundreds of other guys under them that are just guys. Some could be Italian but some weren't. Some of it was family based but mostly it was just cats that were down for the get down that got involved at some point. Its like anything else. Just cause you're deep in crime doesn't mean you want that for your kids. The 'family' aspect had far less to do with the mob and more their cultural norms as Italians. And remember these Italians didn't come to the US in droves until the 20th century so you're talking 1st and 2nd generation folks that live in Italian neighborhoods so they were still extremely Italian in their culture. And that's just the Italian mob. And again, there's no real 'mob style' in terms of working with other groups. Mobs moved like anyone else; try to get more territory when possible, make alliances when beneficial. Mob cats were greedy too. Thing was they did have enough structure to feel secure in what operations they did have. Avon's weakness was needing to dominate. String was right that they all couldve ate off Prop Joes package and all couldve done well without all the other nonsense. Avon couldn't leave the game which is what got him caught up.

nikkas act like lucky wasn't murdering italian mob bosses so he could take the crown with his jew friends


mob didn't give two fukks about anything but money

 

[Erratic415]

we are talking about avon's girl... he said HE did it

then when the cops got on him, he admitted he was just told to go see her and wasn't even told there was gonna be a murder


then weebay verified the story that he did it without even knowing D snitched....



D was just telling nikkas in the pit a bunch of bullshyt to look hard

Yeah, the show hints that D'Angelo was lying about killing her even before that.

When Wallace was all broken up and depressed over the torture of Brandon, he tells Dee "you're right, it's all in the game, like you and that girl".

D'Angelo goes "what?" He's confused by Wallace's comment, because he was lying in the first place.

The show has a ton of these little moments that don't look like anything at first, then later on you see the meaning. Season 4 had quite a few scenes where Michael is testing Namond and Michael can tell Namond is weak.

When they're trying to catch the birds:

Namond: put some meat on it, that shyt would have been got

Michael, with a dismissive look: shut your mouth it would have been got

Then Namond looks away all defeated

 

[Erratic415]

Avon and Stringer obviously worked better together as a team, when they had a "crisis of leadership", things fell apart. Stringer had the right idea in terms of wanting to go legit and not beefing over street corners. Avon even said "Stringer was right...fukk this war, all over a couple of corners". But Stringer went too far in his ambitions. It took Levy a few seconds to figure out that Clay Davis played him, then proceeded to laugh smugly in Stringer's face.

Stringer had the "smartest man in the room" complex, just look at how proud he is of himself because he learned the term "market saturation".



Taking a couple of business courses at a Juco doesn't exactly mean you can apply those same principles to selling heroin and cocaine.

Avon had smarter instincts. He was able to read right away that prison had changed Cutty. The little exchange at 0:45 says so much, and later comes into play when Avon isn't mad or surprised when Cutty tells him he wants out.



Avon knew Stringer screwed up on the Orlando hit, he knew Marlo wasn't someone you could really reason with.

So overall I thought Avon was smarter, but was on a serious power trip in season 3. I like Stringer's mentality of having money and freedom over having the power and having "your name ring on some street corner", but he obviously fukked up too with all his duplicity, and the worst of all was getting caught on the wire talking about planning a murder of a STATE SENATOR.

For Stringer, that's going backwards like 100 steps.

In the end, Marlo has what Stringer wanted with all those business opportunities. But Marlo doesn't want it, he wanted what Omar had, even in death. Those guys on the corner didn't know who Marlo was, but they were talking about Omar.

 

[Paradise50]

Ya'll keep saying this nonsense and completely ignore that String was the 1A in the biggest drug operation in the city. How can you not have streetsmarts and get to that point? Avon even talks about when they was young nikkas shoplifting so it ain't like he came around later, String was there from the jump. He was handling business, ordering hits, doing all sorts of stuff and the police were nowhere near touching him. All his mistakes came from trying to clean up the mess when he went behind Avon's back with the Prop Joe stuff. nikkas act like cause they saw String as a grown man trying to make different moves that he'd never been in the streets. He was trying to do what all those that actually make it out/profit from that game do and use it to launch to bigger things. Just like those organized crime cats do. They eventually get far away from the day to day. Shoot look at the Greeks in the show. They were far removed from the nitty gritty of what they did, just had meets here and there

Stringer was the man when everything he wanted fell in line. Any street adversity, and his weaknesses were exposed. He tries talking logical to ignorant ass nikkas like they'd see his overall pov. All they know is what they see now, they can't see the bigger picture. The irony is that shallow way of thinking is what got him screwed over on with the legit side of things.

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

Avon and Stringer obviously worked better together as a team, when they had a "crisis of leadership", things fell apart. Stringer had the right idea in terms of wanting to go legit and not beefing over street corners. Avon even said "Stringer was right...fukk this war, all over a couple of corners". But Stringer went too far in his ambitions. It took Levy a few seconds to figure out that Clay Davis played him, then proceeded to laugh smugly in Stringer's face.

Stringer had the "smartest man in the room" complex, just look at how proud he is of himself because he learned the term "market saturation".



Taking a couple of business courses at a Juco doesn't exactly mean you can apply those same principles to selling heroin and cocaine.

Avon had smarter instincts. He was able to read right away that prison had changed Cutty. The little exchange at 0:45 says so much, and later comes into play when Avon isn't mad or surprised when Cutty tells him he wants out.



Avon knew Stringer screwed up on the Orlando hit, he knew Marlo wasn't someone you could really reason with.

So overall I thought Avon was smarter, but was on a serious power trip in season 3. I like Stringer's mentality of having money and freedom over having the power and having "your name ring on some street corner", but he obviously fukked up too with all his duplicity, and the worst of all was getting caught on the wire talking about planning a murder of a STATE SENATOR.

For Stringer, that's going backwards like 100 steps.

In the end, Marlo has what Stringer wanted with all those business opportunities. But Marlo doesn't want it, he wanted what Omar had, even in death. Those guys on the corner didn't know who Marlo was, but they were talking about Omar.

I would agree but Marlo made Avon correct

You can do that co op shyt. You can make it all business. You can try to not have violence.

But at the end of the day, Marlo with brute force, took all those corners, took over the entire game, and completely shut down the co op. All with brute force.

You can't try that business shyt in the streets. Cause there will always be a ruthless killer who gives no fukks and will murder everyone moving and take over.

If it wasn't for the cops and that bullshyt serial killer angle, Marlo would still be running things. And except for bytch ass stringer, Marlo would be dead.


Avon knew from day 1

 

[Skip b]

I would agree but Marlo made Avon correct

You can do that co op shyt. You can make it all business. You can try to not have violence.

But at the end of the day, Marlo with brute force, took all those corners, took over the entire game, and completely shut down the co op. All with brute force.

You can't try that business shyt in the streets. Cause there will always be a ruthless killer who gives no fukks and will murder everyone moving and take over.

If it wasn't for the cops and that bullshyt serial killer angle, Marlo would still be running things. And except for bytch ass stringer, Marlo would be dead.


Avon knew from day 1

Who said the show ended without Marlo running things.....Pay Attention

From the day when Avon got knocked due to stringer snitching, Marlo was showing up to court to show his respect to Avon, who only got sentenced to finish off the rest of his time, he was trying to recruit Avon there showing his love

Once Marlo tried to go around Joe to steal the connect, Marlo once again bumped into Avon this time they ended their beef as they both went aorund Joe and had plans of taking his crown off his head, and Avon asked to give her a lowly 100K to Avons sister to squash the beef and to get Avon operation back going, as Avon was otw home


Although down Chis and Snoop, Marlo could play soldier and get him some corners until Avon come home; being that he sold the connect to another Barksdale, and with Avon's release impending like he complained of Joe, he'd be right back in the middle of everything in no time

 

[Rekorb]

When he told Stringer he was too soft for the game, and not smart enough for those buisness folks and politicians.

It showed Avon was being stunted by sentimentality.

If he did killed Marlo that night, he would have been back in rare form, he already ensured Stringer's death through Omar and Brother Mouzone.

Not sure how Stringer gets the nod.

 

[Duke_Droese]

Avon was the top dog in the whole series. Marlo/Joe/Stringer couldn't run the prison like he did.

He would have had marlo done if it wasn't for stringer's business for dummies course attending ass.

 

[Mr. Pink]

I would agree but Marlo made Avon correct

You can do that co op shyt. You can make it all business. You can try to not have violence.

But at the end of the day, Marlo with brute force, took all those corners, took over the entire game, and completely shut down the co op. All with brute force.

You can't try that business shyt in the streets. Cause there will always be a ruthless killer who gives no fukks and will murder everyone moving and take over.

If it wasn't for the cops and that bullshyt serial killer angle, Marlo would still be running things. And except for bytch ass stringer, Marlo would be dead.


Avon knew from day 1

I think people overrate Marlo somewhat. Yeah he bullied his way to the top when there was a power vacuum and then took advantage of Joe but people like him never last, even without the police. You have to remember the rest of the Bmore drug crews were also ran by killers and dangerous people. Yes they were scared of Marlo but gangsters don't react to fear the way your average Joe citizen does. They don't just curl up in the fetal position and surrender. Instead they start plotting your murder.

Marlo might have scared them for a while and he might have used the leverage he had with the connect for a while but eventually they all would have turned against him
because he was a straight bully and he didn't respect any rules.

Avon was also the top dog but unlike Marlo he had respect for the game and the other players.

Since someone brought up the mob, the exact same thing happened in real life with Carmine "Lilo" Galante. He was this vicious psychopatic killer that had everybody scared for a while and was trying to bully the other bosses out of the heroin market. So they teamed up and started scheming behind his back and eventually the killed him.

 

[R=G]

In the drug game, the more ruthless? The further you go. Escobar proved that but he went too far. Worth 30 billion but ended up a terrorist who just couldn't back down in the end.

 

[Erratic415]

Both were such great characters

 

[Erratic415]

 

[Ol’Otis]

Stringer wasn't cut out for the street side of the drug-game

he was cut out for the street life he kept playing away games

 

[Ol’Otis]