25 D'Angelo Barksdale
In this game, pawns get capped real quick.
You can change up, right? You can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But what came first - is who you really are. And what happened before - is what really happened. And it don't matter if some fool say he different, cause the only thing that make you different is what you do, is what you really go through.
I think D'Angelo is the closest thing to an actual human being in the entire show. There's the obvious stuff, where he's like "why can't we just sell this **** and not beat people up" but there's other stuff that separates him from pretty much all the other gang members. His apology letter to Gant's family, his being haunted once he realizes that he's indirectly responsible for Brandon's death, and his famous "Where the **** is Wallace" scene. It's made pretty clear that he isn't okay with the dirty side of drug dealing and wants out by the end. That makes him unique within the show, and his death is one of the more tragic ones of the series.
The Wallace-D'Angelo relationship is one of the more touching ones in the show, and that's especially meaningful considering that the writers were still figuring everything out in season 1. D'Angelo walks somewhere between "this is how the world really is, listen up" to "I support you and think you should go back to school and get out of this life before it's too late." It's pretty impactful all around.
If there's one mistake made with his character, I think it's how he is written once in prison. I understand it's a reasonable extension of his character arc and sets up the Stringer/Avon tension later, but there were times throughout where it's really hard to empathize with D'Angelo. That helps make it seem like Stringer isn't a complete awful human being for having him offed, but it hurts D'Angelo as a character a little bit. His reactions to Avon by the end can be kind of frustrating.
I don't think there's another character in The Wire like D'Angelo. Cutty probably comes closest, but he's pretty far off too. D'Angelo embodies the wasted talent and hopelessness of the drug trade and it's fitting that he's killed by his own family's organization in the end.