I think that was the point. I don't remember where I read it, but his death was always going to be like that. It didn't matter that he was the only beacon of (kinda) good in a cruel world - good and bad, the streets get you eventually and its never honorable or glorious.
Which in itself is an argument against doing that!
The way he went out says that in the real "game", there are no super heroes. Even the biggest badass dies just as much from a bullet, and ultimately mean nothing compared to the big institutional forces that shape the world.
One way to think about The Wire as a whole is that it's about organisations and how they remain the same, regardless of the seemingly big influence individuals have in them.
At the end of the show most the bigger-than-life people on all sides have been replaced. Yet everything is just the same as it always was.
> the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...
That's just it. In the streets, there aren't heroes and villains. Just everyday people who are in the game, and those who are not. And if you're in the game, something as normal as going to a 1-stop shop can end in murder.
I loved that for Bodie, they let him go out in blaze of glory. Deciding to hold his corner in defiance.
Both characters were given the type of ending that fit best with their arcs. Omar had enough epic shootouts that one more would have been cliche.
That gives a nice kind of circular relationship, although it's hard to say there was hero-worship going on, given the ending.
Which is what made it appropriate and perfect. This is what makes The Wire what it is, this representation of "the game" in all its futility.
I loved the wire - truly.
However, I think I would rate the first season of true detective as being better than all of the seasons of the wire except for season 2, which was my favorite.
I was surprised to learn that s2 (dock workers, etc.) is not very well liked - I thought it was by far the most interesting.
EDIT: WIRE SPOILER: also, as long as we're talking about it ... the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...