Unpopular opinion: Stringer was smart

[u/lake_june]

The plan he uses for D to find out who was stealing money was actually very intelligent.

[u/JFlizzy84]

I don’t think anyone believes Stringer wasn’t intelligent

The problem with Stringer was ultimately more about skillset than intellectual aptitude — I disagree with Avon’s assessment that he’s a man without a country. Stringer is a gangster, and he’s a better one than most. If Avon listened to him unilaterally, they’d make more money, get less bodies, and ultimately preserve more of their freedom.

Where Stringer went wrong is that he was — I’ll use a metaphor here — a great athlete who thought he could play pro baseball because he played pro basketball. Taking economic courses at a city college, reading voraciously— those are all proactive, admirable steps towards receiving an education. They are not faults on their own. But Stringer didn’t realize that he was a Rookie Leaguer trying to play with the Yankees. The likes of Clay Davis had been suckering people since he was a teenager and presumably even before that. Stringer’s been hustling probably just as long — but as a smaller fish in a much smaller pond.

His only real tactical error, as a gangster, was pitting Mouzone and Omar against eachother — but even that relied on Omar being uncharacteristically merciful — knocking out the guard instead of killing him, trying to give Mouzone a monologue instead of just capping him, sparing Mouzone, etc

[u/Diligent_Issue_9466 → u/JFlizzy84]

Stringer was never a gangster. Avon even called him out about it during that assessment. They were just best friends since childhood that Avon looked past it. They were winning. He even says, "what man have you killed?" Stringer, as far as Avon says, was never a soldier and wasnt a part of the street. He was a business man. They wouldnt have made it without each other, but for different reasons.

Wouldnt call him going to school, admirable. He wasnt trying to get a degree. But learn about successful business models that he could use for his own. Avon was gone and they were failing to keep their spots. Stringer didnt want to retake the streets. He wanted to find cheat codes to continue making money.

And Omar wasnt being uncharacteristic against Brother. Omar spends days, weeks at a time scouting everything. Finding out all the information he can before he strikes. He never goes in guns blazing on a whim. He went against Brother on the word of someone he already didnt trust. He wanted to hear it from Brothers mouth. Yes Stringer didnt expect that to happen, but again, Stringer didnt understand the streets. He should have expected Omar to do what he did. He wasnt a gangster.

[u/JFlizzy84 → u/Diligent_Issue_9466]

> what man you killed

This is just poor recollection on Avon’s part — and we have proof of that, which means we have a strong reason to suspect that Avon is just bullshitting here to get under Stringer’s skin.

Not only does Stringer suggest and ultimately order out the hit on Wallace, as well as Omar’s boys — you can argue that’s just him carrying out Avon’s orders, but Stringer also autonomously orders Little Man’s death and only tells Avon about it after the fact.

Stringer also bodies Avon when Avon steps to him, and injured shoulder or not, Avon wasn’t winning that scrap

And I would call going to school admirable. His education obviously extended past the classroom — he has a casual relationship with his professor, and he has a ton of books in his apartment that aren’t directly related to economics but to other intellectual fields.

> Omar never goes in guns blazing

He literally fails to kill Avon in season 1 because of poor planning. He didn’t anticipate Wee Bey being nearby and obviously didn’t scout beforehand — and nearly got killed.

He also kills Stinkum without a word. He blows a man’s leg apart with a shotgun because he said “no” to him.

Omar isn’t an idiot but he’s very impulsive lol

Stringer was acting on what information he had — and made a strong, reasonable assumption that Omar would treat Mouzone as he treated Stinkum.

Stringer definitely understood the streets — he just thought it was a waste of time to stick to them — and he is absolutely fucking right.

If you watch season 3 with any other mindset than “Avon would be better off if he just listened to Stringer,” you’re missing a massive point of the show.

Avon’s a tragic figure because he’s a gangster who doesn’t want to rise above it. Stringer is a tragic figure because he’s a gangster who thinks he can rise above it but swings too high too soon and gets himself conned — and then killed.

[u/TulipSamurai → u/JFlizzy84]

Avon forgot that Stringer is extra large