Is Avon Barksdale One Of The Worst Characters In This History Of Black Entertainment?

[gluvnast]

avon killed his best friend, who was simply trying to steer avon to a safer and more lucrative path. he drew unnecessary attention to his organization with his braindead obsession over marlo. stringer already told avon that marlo could keep the streets. they didn't need it anymore. they were already making money without the blocks. they had graduated beyond that, and avon was too dumb to see it. avon didn't have any intelligence or pride. he was just a glorified street thug who made it to where he was because of stringer's intelligence and shrewd navigation of street politics. yeah, stringer fukked up with clay davis, but that's to be expected of anyone who starts dealing with people you're not familiar with, especially a politician like that. but stringer still positioned the barksdale crew to do big things, and avon fukked it all up.

avon didn't try to save stringer. he was jealous of stringer. i've seen cats like avon before, dudes who see the smarter black man and start catching feelings because he's just a mindless ghetto hoodrat who doesn't have that intelligence. avon killed stringer partly because of built up resentment over string's abilities.

You make valid points however, you do not understand the street culture and ethics that was existing there. You are seeing things from purely Stringer Bell's perspective, who was an actual snake that was moving the Barksdale Organization to a place that Avon never approved of. It wasn't out of jealousy, that's HIS organization and he TRUSTED his right hand man to push it the way HE envisioned it and not the way Stringer wants it. Not only that, if anything Stringer is the worst character for a number of reasons; 1) None of this would of came down to this downfall to BEGIN with had it not been for mistakes and bad judgment by Stringer in season one! 2) But the hit out on D'angelo while fuccking his girl on the side, then initially hid the truth from Avon and that supposed to be your homie. 3) SNITCHED, absolutely SNITCHED to the police on Avon. Had Stringer not snitch on Avon, Avon would of won the war against Marlo, and things would of been back to normal. The shyt the police had was on Stringer Bell NOT Avon.

What you failed to realize and why Marlo reacted the way he reacted with the classic "My name is my NAME" quote, is that this has NOTHING to do with how much money you built, it's about your name and street status, it about passing on crime family tradition. D'angelo in season one even explained that when he realized he's don't have the stomach for it anymore. This was about maintaining generations passed on. Those corners MEANT something to Avon, not the money, not the drugs, but the real estate. The wanted to control the blocks and keep his name and power and most of all RESPECT. By the end of the day, but the end of the entire THE WIRE season run, Avon was STILL respected and was still looked upon as a street legend. They quickly forgotten WHO Marlo was and that was the ultimate failure in Marlo's eyes IN SPITE achieving EXACTLY what Stringer Bell was trying to do.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Clay Davis was my favorite character.

 

[kermit da hustla]

You make valid points however, you do not understand the street culture and ethics that was existing there. You are seeing things from purely Stringer Bell's perspective, who was an actual snake that was moving the Barksdale Organization to a place that Avon never approved of. It wasn't out of jealousy, that's HIS organization and he TRUSTED his right hand man to push it the way HE envisioned it and not the way Stringer wants it. Not only that, if anything Stringer is the worst character for a number of reasons; 1) None of this would of came down to this downfall to BEGIN with had it not been for mistakes and bad judgment by Stringer in season one! 2) But the hit out on D'angelo while fuccking his girl on the side, then initially hid the truth from Avon and that supposed to be your homie. 3) SNITCHED, absolutely SNITCHED to the police on Avon. Had Stringer not snitch on Avon, Avon would of won the war against Marlo, and things would of been back to normal. The shyt the police had was on Stringer Bell NOT Avon.

What you failed to realize and why Marlo reacted the way he reacted with the classic "My name is my NAME" quote, is that this has NOTHING to do with how much money you built, it's about your name and street status, it about passing on crime family tradition. D'angelo in season one even explained that when he realized he's don't have the stomach for it anymore. This was about maintaining generations passed on. Those corners MEANT something to Avon, not the money, not the drugs, but the real estate. The wanted to control the blocks and keep his name and power and most of all RESPECT. By the end of the day, but the end of the entire THE WIRE season run, Avon was STILL respected and was still looked upon as a street legend. They quickly forgotten WHO Marlo was and that was the ultimate failure in Marlo's eyes IN SPITE achieving EXACTLY what Stringer Bell was trying to do.

i'm not denying the validity of what you're saying and failing to recognize that avon WAS concerned with his name. but i'm saying that stringer didn't care about that anymore. the drug dealing business was bigger than a block and a name. there was money - LOTS of it - to be made well beyond those blocks, and that's what stringer was telling avon. yes, avon didn't care about the money so much as he did the reputation. but that's shortsighted and self-destructive, which is exactly what stringer tried to tell avon. also, in season 1, avon gets obsessed with killing omar. stringer tried to pull avon away from that obsession, but he didn't listen. the same shyt happens in season 3, when avon becomes obsessed with killing marlo. two instances where avon is distracted from the BUSINESS because of his own personal animosity towards these two individuals who he feels disrespected him.

avon is symptomatic of a lot of problems in the ghetto, a model of the self-destructive pride many black men have. stringer, for all his flaws, served as a reflection of black men trying to do something better, despite being derailed in their efforts by fellow "brothers" like avon. that's what i took from the tragic story arc of avon and stringer. avon might still be respected, but he squandered all of that. he gets caught strapping up with grenades just to take out a marlo who was irrelevant at that point. if avon had just fallen back, kept it low key, and made his money with the greeks (who didn't even want to fukk with marlo), he would be free and rich. instead, he's serving football numbers in jail and his right-hand man is dead at the hands of the snitch homo avon wanted dead in season 1.

 

[Thoughts]

avon killed his best friend, who was simply trying to steer avon to a safer and more lucrative path. he drew unnecessary attention to his organization with his braindead obsession over marlo. stringer already told avon that marlo could keep the streets. they didn't need it anymore. they were already making money without the blocks. they had graduated beyond that, and avon was too dumb to see it. avon didn't have any intelligence or pride. he was just a glorified street thug who made it to where he was because of stringer's intelligence and shrewd navigation of street politics. yeah, stringer fukked up with clay davis, but that's to be expected of anyone who starts dealing with people you're not familiar with, especially a politician like that. but stringer still positioned the barksdale crew to do big things, and avon fukked it all up.

avon didn't try to save stringer. he was jealous of stringer. i've seen cats like avon before, dudes who see the smarter black man and start catching feelings because he's just a mindless ghetto hoodrat who doesn't have that intelligence. avon killed stringer partly because of built up resentment over string's abilities.

Avon wasn't obsessed with Marlo, Marlo struck first taking their block, and the street level pawns paid the price.



After he realized Avon wasn't respecting his insight and caveats, Stringer saw everyone in the streets as expendable pawns @0:30
Avon did NOT kill Stringer and he DID try to save him, but Mouzone didn't want money, it was about reputation @1:26



Even though they DID graduate beyond that as I mentioned before, his reputation (first vid @0:40) AND the streets were all Avon knew, and the STREETS still funded B&B Enterprises' legal hustles. (second video)





Avon didn't fukk anything up, and Mouzone and Omar explained that right before they shot Stringer.

 

[Konnan]

 

[AJtheOne]

breh really? you really think he's the WORST CHARACTER

 

[Thoughts]

breh really? you really think he's the WORST CHARACTER

Worst black character as far as morals go was Randy ...Cheese's b*stard kid. He ain't love nobody, and that's BEFORE he was disenchanted.
Overall it was Chris and Snoop, they were sociopaths.

 

[gluvnast]

i'm not denying the validity of what you're saying and failing to recognize that avon WAS concerned with his name. but i'm saying that stringer didn't care about that anymore. the drug dealing business was bigger than a block and a name. there was money - LOTS of it - to be made well beyond those blocks, and that's what stringer was telling avon. yes, avon didn't care about the money so much as he did the reputation. but that's shortsighted and self-destructive, which is exactly what stringer tried to tell avon. also, in season 1, avon gets obsessed with killing omar. stringer tried to pull avon away from that obsession, but he didn't listen. the same shyt happens in season 3, when avon becomes obsessed with killing marlo. two instances where avon is distracted from the BUSINESS because of his own personal animosity towards these two individuals who he feels disrespected him.

avon is symptomatic of a lot of problems in the ghetto, a model of the self-destructive pride many black men have. stringer, for all his flaws, served as a reflection of black men trying to do something better, despite being derailed in their efforts by fellow "brothers" like avon. that's what i took from the tragic story arc of avon and stringer. avon might still be respected, but he squandered all of that. he gets caught strapping up with grenades just to take out a marlo who was irrelevant at that point. if avon had just fallen back, kept it low key, and made his money with the greeks (who didn't even want to fukk with marlo), he would be free and rich. instead, he's serving football numbers in jail and his right-hand man is dead at the hands of the snitch homo avon wanted dead in season 1.

What you forgetting it has nothing to do with the drug dealing business. It was about control of the area. Avon could care LESS about how net worth. It means shyt if you don't have the power and respect. That's why the Marlo parallel is important to include. Marlo GOT want Stringer was trying to achieve, but it meant nothing because he yearned for something that Avon will forever have, and that's respect and legendary status on the street. Avon still was getting treated like a KING no matter where he's act, whether it be on the blocks or in the prison. Nobody fuccked with him just out of pure RESPECT. Stringer tried to pull it to a direction that even HE realized is over his head.

Plus Avon was never short-sighted and self destructive. He was doing this and running the Organization like a well oiled machine for YEARS without the police even know that he existed. The police didn't even know his FACE. The reason the Barksdale Organization went down was entirely based on bad judgment calls by Stringer. And throughout season 2, he kept on doing things against Avon's wishes that turned out detrimental. For one, Stringer should of held out on the wave and never joined with Prop Joe and dealing with the Greeks. He should of allowed Brother Mouzone be the muscle instead of creating a lie to Omar on who was responsible of killing Brandon just to murder/run him out of town. Lastly, Avon didn't kill Stringer. All he did was allow Stringer to meet his OWN fate and not protect him, and allow his killers (Omar and Brother Mouzone) to see him. Stringers was killed for actions HE committed all due to decisions that HE had made and betrayals he had conducted. All Avon wasn't going to protect the brother responsible for killing his nephew.

 

[Thoughts]

What you forgetting it has nothing to do with the drug dealing business. It was about control of the area. Avon could care LESS about how net worth. It means shyt if you don't have the power and respect. That's why the Marlo parallel is important to include. Marlo GOT want Stringer was trying to achieve, but it meant nothing because he yearned for something that Avon will forever have, and that's respect and legendary status on the street. Avon still was getting treated like a KING no matter where he's act, whether it be on the blocks or in the prison. Nobody fuccked with him just out of pure RESPECT. Stringer tried to pull it to a direction that even HE realized is over his head.

Plus Avon was never short-sighted and self destructive. He was doing this and running the Organization like a well oiled machine for YEARS without the police even know that he existed. The police didn't even know his FACE. The reason the Barksdale Organization went down was entirely based on bad judgment calls by Stringer. And throughout season 2, he kept on doing things against Avon's wishes that turned out detrimental. For one, Stringer should of held out on the wave and never joined with Prop Joe and dealing with the Greeks. He should of allowed Brother Mouzone be the muscle instead of creating a lie to Omar on who was responsible of killing Brandon just to murder/run him out of town. Lastly, Avon didn't kill Stringer. All he did was allow Stringer to meet his OWN fate and not protect him, and allow his killers (Omar and Brother Mouzone) to see him. Stringers was killed for actions HE committed all due to decisions that HE had made and betrayals he had conducted. All Avon wasn't going to protect the brother responsible for killing his nephew.

I was with you up until the bolded.

The reason the Barksdale Organization went down was because of LOVE, Avon had too much love for FAMILY ...D'Angelo bytch ass set everything in motion that brought down the Barksdale Organization in the first episode.

Stringer is the reason Barksdale Organization lasted three seasons and even YEARS pre-introduction ...

 

[gluvnast]

I was with you up until the bolded.

The reason the Barksdale Organization went down was because of LOVE, Avon had too much love for FAMILY ...D'Angelo bytch ass set everything in motion that brought down the Barksdale Organization in the first episode.

Stringer is the reason Barksdale Organization lasted three seasons and even YEARS pre-introduction ...

shyt, FAMILY and loyalty was the reason why the Organization stayed a float. How can you not forget that when D'angelo was about to confess, ESPECIALLY after the realization of the murder of Wallace that it was due to family loyalty that made him back down and toss the entire case on the Barksdale Organization to the bushes.

The MAIN person in the middle that disrupted it and finalized it by SNITCHING to the police on Avon was Stringer. Everybody else stuck together like glue. Fucckin' even Wee Bey ate charges for shyt he didn't even commit for the strength of loyalty and family.

 

[USSInsiders]

Avon was a GOAT

 

[burner]

yup

 

[kermit da hustla]

What you forgetting it has nothing to do with the drug dealing business. It was about control of the area. Avon could care LESS about how net worth. It means shyt if you don't have the power and respect. That's why the Marlo parallel is important to include. Marlo GOT want Stringer was trying to achieve, but it meant nothing because he yearned for something that Avon will forever have, and that's respect and legendary status on the street. Avon still was getting treated like a KING no matter where he's act, whether it be on the blocks or in the prison. Nobody fuccked with him just out of pure RESPECT. Stringer tried to pull it to a direction that even HE realized is over his head.

Plus Avon was never short-sighted and self destructive. He was doing this and running the Organization like a well oiled machine for YEARS without the police even know that he existed. The police didn't even know his FACE. The reason the Barksdale Organization went down was entirely based on bad judgment calls by Stringer.

avon wanted omar dead, although it began drawing heat to his organization, which is one of the reasons the police caught on to who he was. in season 1, stringer tried to pull avon back from his obsession with omar. also, the most successful drug dealers in real life are like stringer, not avon. dudes like avon don't last. they get caught up in superficial "respect" and "power" and meaningless corners, while the stringers of the drug game are slept on as they continue making money and staying in the cut. that's why the wire is so dope. it really caught the actual politics of this street shyt. you think the rockefellers or rothchilds or other monied elites care about respect? no, they care about the money and the lack of attention to what they're doing, which is why they're feared. avon was just like bodie, only with a little more power. and we all see what happened to bodie.

 

[MustafaSTL]

I stopped watching the wire when stringer was killed that was some ole bullshyt Avon should have been buried in those streets he loved short sighted ass nikka.

So you chose to not watch the best season in the show's history?

 

[TooLazyToMakeUp1]

avon didnt have a choice....they wouldve killed him, its not his fault stringer is a snake and never tied up his loose ends

Avon wasn't obsessed with Marlo, Marlo struck first taking their block, and the street level pawns paid the price.



After he realized Avon wasn't respecting his insight and caveats, Stringer saw everyone in the streets as expendable pawns @0:30
Avon did NOT kill Stringer and he DID try to save him, but Mouzone didn't want money, it was about reputation @1:26



Even though they DID graduate beyond that as I mentioned before, his reputation (first vid @0:40) AND the streets were all Avon knew, and the STREETS still funded B&B Enterprises' legal hustles. (second video)





Avon didn't fukk anything up, and Mouzone and Omar explained that right before they shot Stringer.

It would have never came to that if Avon wasn't so hell bent on keeping those corners to himself when they weren't getting money and the crew was struggling. Stringer had to keep telling their people to keep stepping on their shyt, but those fiends weren't biting anymore

String and Brianna came to him and told him to take the Greek package and join the Co-Op. All Joe and 'em wanted was peace, but Avon wanted to be a War-Lord and shyt. If he had gotten down with the co-op, their combined resources and Man power with could've gotten at Omar much quicker, and the would've finished Marlo's lucky ass before he even started





OT: I would pay money to see Avon and his crew having a chance to get at Marlo and 'em at the rim shop. They had grenades and automatics ready to send those fukkers to bolivia firt class, no round-trip