re: OFFICIAL "The Wire" M/TV Board rewatch thread (current discussion starts ~p. 53)

Posted on 12/28/15 at 7:50 am to 13SaintTiger

Posted by CocomoLSU

Inside your dome.

Member since Feb 2004

156585 posts

Posted on 12/28/15 at 7:50 am to 13SaintTiger

quote:
Maybe I'm just having a hard time articulating that Dee fits his role well as a lieutenant. Avon or Stringer tells him to do something, he does it and sometimes exceeds it. Does he screw up? Yea, so what, everyone in the game screws up and everyone suffers the consequences of their mistakes. That doesn't mean he isn't cut out for it because regardless of who his kin is, if he wasn't cut out for it he wouldn't have made it this far. The game doesn't care about who your kin is.

I get what you're trying to say, but you're straight up wrong on the quoted part above. That's the thing about Dee...sure, he's successful at times in the game. And yes, he's cut out to be someone who can "play his role" and fit in at times. But the very fact that Avon is his uncle is literally the only reason he's still in the game where he is, or even alive at this point. You think if anybody else was in there with the cops writing letters and saying shite that String/Avon would let them live after that shite? frick no. They'd be a direct liability to the regime and would be dealt with in a hurry.

Or you think the boys in the pit would respect Dee as much if they didn't know that Avon was his uncle? frick no. Sure, most of them play their roles and do what they're told, but they know who Dee is, and they know that his name garners respect even if they don't always agree with him. shite, Bodie calls it like he sees it, and calls Dee on his bullshite sometimes, but he knows who he is and still gives him a level of respect that someone else whose name isn't Barksdale wouldn't get.

So yes, Dee is relatively successful in the game to an extent, but he's also naive and shortsighted as frick a lot of times. And he puts things in jeopardy without even thinking or realizing that he is. And he's done it several times. And that's dangerous. But the reason he still has the position he does is because of his uncle.

quote:
This question requires some forethought so I ask that you just think about it: would you rather have cheese or dee as a lieutenant if you were running the show?

Not only is that getting ahead, because Cheese isn't a character yet, but this is about Dee/Stringer and their comparison.

BTW, I love this discussion, but it's things like this that are at the crux of my arguments for separate threads for things like GoT/TWD. Because as shown here, it's a completely different discussion between people who know what happens versus people watching for the first time (like readers vs. nonreaders for GoT/TWD). It's basically impossible to have these discussions clearly, based on the current episodes, because those of us who have seen the series already know what happens in the future...which is why it's necessary for separate threads sometimes.

Just funny the way this is helping my case when people bitch at me about GoT threads and whatnot.

This post was edited on 12/28/15 at 8:10 am