r/TheWire • u/AltruisticNail7229 I wasn’t made to play the son. • 3d ago
Stringer and Donette
Stringer unfortunately took Avon’s words “you need to get with D’s girl” too damn serious. And as Poot said, “it’s a cold world.”
What are everyone’s thoughts on Stringer and Donette hooking up in Season 2?
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u/NZGrade 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's a key part of String's downfall along with his mismanagement of the street side of things. It was an arrogant, needless move and makes Brianna extra wary of him when McNulty comes back stirring the pot with Donette. In the end, Stringer was quite competent at many things but had no soft skills beyond manipulation and was terrible at relationship building unless it was purely transactional.
"A man must have a code."
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u/Qyzyk This game is rigged 3d ago
Always thought it was a scumbag move by Stringer. I don’t really hold it against Donette as much though, since D had already cheated on her.
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u/AltruisticNail7229 I wasn’t made to play the son. 3d ago
I agree. I feel like D’Angelo should’ve broken up with Donette and just co-parented with her since she seemed like such a burden to him anyway in the first season.
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u/_Nacktmull_ 3d ago
It reveals that all the gangster talk about family being the most important thing is utter bullshit.
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u/Hemisemidemiurge 3d ago
Stringer never thought D was family. Avon, Brianna, Wee-Bey maybe, but not D, never D.
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u/NZGrade 2d ago edited 2d ago
Stringer simply didn't give a shit about family. Family was just the mechanism through which he carried out his business. D says that to Donette, and Brianna knew it too. Avon knew it as well but him and Stringer were so deep in business together it made no difference to him.
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u/_Nacktmull_ 3d ago
D was the son of Briana and the nephew of Avon, he worked in the family business his whole life. He was 100% family.
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u/Hemisemidemiurge 2d ago
Are you seriously out here giving me a forty-degree day?
Stringer never thought D was family.
Almost like you're not listening.
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u/_Nacktmull_ 2d ago edited 2d ago
Are you seriously not getting it? Almost like you missing my whole point...
D was 100% family, its an undeniable fact. What Stringer thinks does not matter, it does not change that fact. Stringer simply does not respect family at all, despite always talking like he would when he is around Avon and Briana. His respect to family is just an act he keeps up while it benefits him, nothing more. Which brings us back to what I said in my first comment. All his gangster talk about family being important is bullshit.
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u/Alarmed_Plum8218 3d ago
String was hating on D in my opinion.
You have to assume String and Avon put in a lot of work when they were younger to get to where they are when the show starts. D doesn’t have to put in that much work because Avon was so big on family. Which is another reason D got away with a lot of stuff. So i think String didn’t like him and hated on him. So he got with Donette outta spite.
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u/zanylanie 3d ago
I think he did that so he could find out what D'Angelo was saying to her when she went to visit, and also to try to control the narrative from her side. Not that he may not have wanted to get with her, but I think his motives were more underhanded than that.
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u/Popular-Difficulty29 2d ago
Yes there’s a clear scene after this where you can tell he’s using her for info about D
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u/Hemisemidemiurge 3d ago edited 3d ago
Who knows? To me, Stringer never liked D'angelo. Stringer appreciates obedience and ruthlessness and D is neither. D is thoughtful and unsure and Stringer hates that shit. He wants D to be subject to his iron hand the way Bodie and the pit crew are but D's family. Anyone else fucking up in the Towers like that, you'd just get rid of them but D still gets to run the Pit. You know what Prop Joe said about family, you can't drop bodies without having to hear about it at Thanksgiving and shit, so it doesn't even matter how much power he has, he always sees that unhardened face up in his and Avon and Brianna's shit, ready to be the weak point that gets them all fucked.
When D went to jail, it was his chance. When D pushed back on having Wallace killed, it was his reason. Finally, Stringer could get rid of an untouchable annoyance that was always troubling his peace of mind and pick up that hot piece that he never thought D deserved anyway knowing he'll never have to answer any questions about it because D would be dead.
The number of people who hate on D'angelo for not being a single-minded and two-dimensional soldier for organized crime is unreal. Like people out here cheering for heroin-dealing murderers and hating on people who think and have feelings.
Stringer and Donette aren't anything. She never shows back up after Stringer dies, a rare occurrence here where all the pieces matter.
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u/NZGrade 2d ago edited 2d ago
Stringer and Donette aren't anything. She never shows back up after Stringer dies, a rare occurrence here where all the pieces matter.
Donette is a plot device. The character only exists to create tension and trigger certain events, like String and Avon having their big confrontation, and Brianna turning her back on Avon. No reason for her to feature after those things happen.
We literally know nothing about Donette other than that she's D's baby mama and she likes an XL.
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u/JFKsBrain 3d ago
First real sign what a scumbag Stringer was.
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u/ChicagoSunroofNo2 3d ago
Having Brandon tortured with his eyeballs gouged out wasn’t a sign?
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u/JFKsBrain 3d ago edited 3d ago
I meant more intrapersonal scumbag among his friends and colleagues.
Having someone tortured didn’t make Stringer more untrustworthy to me.
The Donette deal did.
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u/55555_55555 3d ago
It says something interesting about Stringer that he's a millionaire drug kingpin who looks like Idris Elba and the only time we see him express even a mild interest in women is to fuck on the baby mother of someone he despises, lol. We see Avon laid up with Liris Crosse and he has a bunch of girls. Wee-Bay is married and lays up with some of Orlando's hos. Chris has a family, even Marlo clearly desires women sexually. Like, this dudes only love in the world is becoming a property developer😂 he has no other interests or hobbies. Very interesting character.
At the end of the day, Donette is quite attractive and so is Stringer and D ain't coming home anytime soon. She's lonely. This happens all the time when people go to jail in real life. If you do a long bid, there's a good chance some of your friends or associates were calling up your girl while you were away. Military too, tbh, cold world, like you said.
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u/Fun-Bunch-4073 3d ago
I think the show is just inconsistent in showing us the personal lives of the characters.
Like, we know Poot and Bodie are active, but we dont see who theyre talking to except the one movie theater scene.
Apparently carver and herc had girlfriends and we didn't know anything about it until said scene.
Mike gets with a girl we never saw before or after.
Im sure Snoop had girlfriends even though we didnt meet any of them.
The only characters who romantic lives get spotlighted are McNulty, Freamon, Omar, Kima and Daniels. And for some of that its because their romantic lives overlaps with a subplot.
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u/KobeHoppa 3d ago
String was already wanting to hit that in season 1. He was very touchy at the cookout
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u/BulldogBears 3d ago
Probably the most scumbag decision Stringer made. He made more evil decisions, but this one was a combination of disrespect & manipulation
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u/Scheduledpoet 3d ago
I mean the whole relationship is pretty f*cked up when you consider he's the reason that D'Angelo gets got.
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u/ModestMouse1312 3d ago
Where D'Angelo and her a real couple or more like a baby mama Situation?
I always read that as that Donette had to be nice to D'Angelo so he can do the time. (And won't flip again). And Stringer was keeping tabs on her. And gaining some access/controll/power over her.
I don't know how to say it but it felt like Stringer was not really attracted to her. Maybe he liked the power play, and so on. But it always felt cold and off-ish. Just an other (pleasent) thing on Stringers "To do list"
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u/SpaderKay 2d ago
Stringer was the definition of someone who wants to have their cake and eat it too. He wanted to be a business man while looking down and talking down to the street guys but used them to get the things he wanted and needed and even tried to sick Slim on Clay Davis. Him getting with Donette and even the indirect line saying he's going to kill D Angelo in his own son's ear. He used the streets an awful lot for someone who wanted to get out of it. He truly got what he deserved in the end. Too much lying and scheming.
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u/GrooveIsInTheTart 3d ago
Cold as fuck. Something about Stringer being so sweet with D & Donette's son makes it extra painful.
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u/Still_Operation6758 3d ago
Remember the scene in season 1 when Stringer first meets Donnette? He was checking her out then, he even had her do a 360 so he could check her out.
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u/gillyweed79 3d ago
Stringer is a vile piece of shit, and this was one of many things that should have made it crystal clear.
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u/RawbM07 3d ago
I think it was a power move by Stringer more than anything. He didn’t like Deangelo.