Definitely agree. When I was younger I used to be in the "Stringer was a genius/visionary" camp like most fans of The Wire but now I realize Avon was the better 'player' by far.
I guess Stringer might have been smarter in the IQ sense of the word, though even that is debatable, but Avon understood the world, other people, and himself far better than Stringer did. It's funny cause Stringer was supposed to be the level headed guy and Avon the loose cannon but Stringer was just as guilty of acting impulsively as Avon, if not even more so. And throughout S3 he accuses of "playing at war" and wanting to kill Marlo just because of his ego, and then the first thing he does when Clay Davis ruins his "playing at real estate" fantasy and is try to kill him because of his ego.
Avon is a character straight out of Machiavelli's The Prince, to the point where I honestly believe the writers had the book open when they were writing his plot. And out of the 3 princes(Avon, Marlo and Prop Joe) he was the best.
He was "both a lion and a fox" and also the optimum mix of humanity and inhumanity.
- Marlo was too psychopathic(a lion), too inhuman. He didn't understand that just because the drug game is illegal, that doesn't mean there aren't any rules. And that you can't muscle everybody because sooner or later everybody is going to turn against you. Marlo's blood lust and paranoia would have caused him to self destruct even if the cops hadn't gotten to him.
- Joe was too much of a schemer(a fox) and too human. His fundamental human need for community and cooperation, even in a game as depraved as drug dealing, blinded him too the fact that there are some people(like Marlo) who are straight predators and have no need for community, don't understand reason and can't be fooled by your schemes because they're too power hungry to care, even if you appeal to their best interest.
Avon was the only one who understood that "laws come naturally to men and force comes naturally to beasts" and knew how and when to be both. He knew when you have to use force and when you have to cooperate, he pursued his ambitions but also understood that there are things greater than any one man which must be respected(the Sunday truce, giving money to Cutty's gym to help the community), when to be ruthless(witnesses, Omar's people) and when to be merciful(letting Cutty go despite the fact that he was a bad investment).
First of all, I'm sure BOTH of them were in on sending them, like most things, they're partners. They sent them to kill Orlando who they figured out was snitching from well, common sense. They knew nothing about there being an undercover cop with him in the car, how were they supposed to? You act as if Stringer is supposed to be omnipotent, Avon was as much at fault for that as Stringer. You clearly just have a bias against Stringer and don't know wtf you're talking about so
.
remember that nikkas stole a X5 too and helped prezo goofy ass
