L and using the death note
Again, this is an old post that I cannot find on this site to share it again. So, I am just doing another post about it.
For those saying that L would’ve used the death note like Light, if he had been the first to grab it.
While yes, he would’ve used it, he wouldn’t have gone the extra mile like Light.
He would’ve just tested it on a convicted criminal on the death row, and that’s it. The 13 days rule wouldn’t exist here, so I don’t know if he would do it himself or make another criminal do it, but I think he would make someone else do it in his stead, “‘cause what if it actually happens?”.
Once noting that it indeed worked, he would just give it to Watari to hide it somewhere safe, where nobody can find it. As for the Shinigami, he would ask them questions to understand everything better.
I won’t get into the fact that the Shinigami could kill him, because he’s no fun in this regard. I mean, if it were Ryuk, I think he would.
It could be possible unless L asks him to make a deal. He could tell him that is going to give the notebook back and in return he could spare him, or something like that. But first, L would pass the ownership to Watari, get again all the knowledge he had, so he could remember them too, since Watari would already know.
Of course, they would note everything down, but it’s better if both of them have the knowledge without losing their memory.
L is a detective, he’s not the justice system as a whole. He focuses on catching criminals and whatever happens after making sure they are guilty is not up to him.
In all honesty, I doubt that L would use the Death Note with the same intention as Light Yagami, or would've even used it at all. He would've read out the entire rule of the Death Note, ask a few questions and figure out a few loopholes he can exploit before going, "That's... so boring???".
L, to me, is the sort of person who doesn't give two shits of the criminal whom he apprehended. He had fun tackling the case, got his pay and let the government do their jobs in the aftermath. At the very least, he wouldn't want said criminal to roam the streets freely— as long as they're somewhere not amongst the civillian, then L fails to see why bother using the Death Note at all.
It's kind of funny when people said, "L would've joined Light had given the chance and eradicate the world off evil" because that would've contradicted L's whole character— and that being having the time of his life solving the unsolvable. What kind of entertainment is there if he just sits in front of his silly laptop, reading off solved cases just to write down the criminal's name and attend meetings with world leader? Sounds boring to me. L would've sentenced himself immediately.
I thought I didn’t have much to say about this, because I agree with it, but if you are the person who sent the previous asks or has read the others, you should know that I cannot for the love of God stop myself from writing.
I just want to preface by saying that I did write a post about this [mentioned above], and I recommend checking it out, if you are interested. It’s not long nor elaborated as these answers I give, but it sums up my opinion and it’s more about the “what if” L grabbed the death note before Light.
I don’t know in which post I wrote that I also think using the death note would take away the challenge he gains from solving crimes, but that’s another of my arguments as to why he wouldn’t use it.
Now, the post will focus on the reasons you provided and the opinions I found in the fandom that would contradict the idea of him being similar to Light in this regard.
[I wrote this after I finished the post.] Before I start, and I’ll talk about this thoroughly: the line between suspect and criminal is slim, and L deals mainly with the first ones. It’s important to remember this, while reading my post, because, while the ask talks about criminals, we have to keep in mind L’s actual job. So, subsequently, it might be off topic in some parts, and this is the reason. Another thing, it’s that I consider different situations L might find himself in. I tried to explain the details as much as I could, but there might be some variables that I did not disclose properly. Hopefully, they can be understood by the context.
In the “I am not justice” speech L gave at the Wammy’s House, even if I think most of it was bait, I do still believe there is some truth to it, because I am not one to point the finger at L and criticising the fact that he does what he does because he likes it. Work and pleasure can go hand in hand, and hopefully it can also be possible in this universe soon.
At the end of the day, L still solves crimes, still catches criminals, still provides “justice”, no matter what his main goal is here, which can also be getting a kick of serotonin by getting challenged. There’s nothing wrong with it, as long as he does what his role requires him to, so it's one thing that I don't get about the fandom or those who think it is wrong. Do you want him to hate what he does? Don’t you think that would make him more prone to take the short route out and detain suspects without any reason, until they confess? Or just straight up kill them and see if the crimes stop? Which, interestingly enough, I wrote a post about how L saving Misa caused his death, to prove that sometimes winning is not the only thing on his mind, but he wants to understand cases on a more nuanced level.
But the point is, these kinds of people have no problem saying that L doesn’t care about others, that his ultimate goal is to entertain himself (and to win) and in the same breath, they continue by stating that he would use the death note in a blink of an eye with the same moral justification as Light, so… Does he or does he not care about the world? Why does he solve crimes? For entertainment purposes or to “get rid of the evil and save the world”?
To me, it’s both (kind of), so it would make sense that he wouldn’t use it.
Let’s go over the reasons one by one.
First and foremost, his role in the world and his responsibility of what happens to criminals after they get caught.
There’s a tendency to confuse private detective work with the criminal justice system and law enforcement.
I came across some posts a while back, when I used to dive into his hashtag, and people would read his work in a light that is not applicable to him, and I think it’s because he works with the task force.
L is a high-profile private detective, and like any other, he doesn’t have the ability to arrest nor sentence criminals.
Yes, he says that he will bring Kira’s head to the task force, but it’s a figure of speech and it only means that he will find enough proof to catch him (and I also think it was such a badass move to say it in front of Light, but I digress).
You could argue that some of his tactics aren’t legal, so he could possibly be the one to administer “justice” (in quotes, because the death penalty is not it to me), but this is different. If he wires the house of someone and gets proof that they committed the crime, let’s be honest, given his status and the probability of law enforcement or national agencies/government already knowing how he operates, he will get a slap on the wrist, but deciding the fate of a criminal or a suspect is overstepping his already inexistent authority in that field.
He would lose trust, which he cares a lot about. He wouldn’t be able to work with the support of the national law enforcement, which he needs because he is a private detective that countries need to employ and nobody would do that, if he cannot respect them. It would also put him in danger of his identity being discovered, because that is a patently crime, which would probably get him blacklisted from working in a country if it’s reiterated more than once and make him a wanted criminal.
Even if he uses a death note to kill his suspects, one time is a coincidence, two times is weird, and three times shows that something fishy is going on. He seems to communicate his progress to high profile people, like the FBI head (we can see that at the beginning of the manga), so going from “yeah, I have a suspect” to “they died” continuously would literally point every possible finger in his direction. He cannot afford that, not even if he wanted to kill his suspects. We are told and we say that he is smart, so why would he do something so stupid? It would also be weird if all the criminals he caught were to be killed, so he would need to avoid patterns, which would definitely take him some time and steal it from his actual activity, that he loves.
Besides, if he manages to kill enough people to raise some eyebrows but they are not linked to him, countries will ask him to do something about it and if he refuses, that's fucking weird, because that's the type of case he is interested about. If he accepts it, but it takes him too much time without any justification, weird. If he denies the help offered by national agencies, weird. If he accepts it, but does things that don't make sense and don't actually help the case, weird. Countries will start to think that he cannot be trusted, which goes back to what I said before. It's a circle that he cannot escape. And he is not the only smart person in the world. Someone will notice that something is wrong, that that is not the way he usually acts and people will start to question his integrity.
But going back to the beginning, since he has no authority after he provides proof, I honestly believe the thought of him deciding the sentence of a criminal has never crossed his mind, not even the darkest corners, because he has no reason to spend time over that. He cannot do anything. Maybe he has a wish but that is it. Nothing he can act upon, so it’s useless. He also came across so many criminals and surely, he had no time to individually think about each one of them, so he just stopped doing that. Sometimes, I think he works on multiple cases at once. Why would he waste time over their fate, after he caught them, when he can continue to occupy it with more interesting and fun mind games?
So, yeah, he doesn’t give a shit in this sense. If his saying was required, maybe yes, but even then, he wouldn’t follow the criminal prosecution closely. I am not sure what his opinion on the death penalty is, to be honest, because him using a criminal that was on the death row doesn’t immediately mean that he is in favour of it and the fact that he was willing to get one of them out of that situation makes me inclined to believe that he is not. In Lind L. Taylor, he just used what was already in place.
The fun of solving a case.
He loves it. Mind blowing.
Considering the in-universe tale of what Light managed to do, it says that the crimes have dropped significantly. How can you possibly believe that L would love to be in a world in which his favourite pastime is useless?
I won’t get into math to calculate exactly how long it would take him, because the stats we have are not accurate. I tried to do it but there are so many variables that would change everything (e.g. when he actually started to work), but it’s safe to assume 20 years – or less –, because he still needs to find suspects but if he wants to use the death note on them, he doesn’t need to convince anyone but himself that they are the criminals, so as soon as he is convinced, he can proceed and then move on. He can also work on many more cases than just almost 2 a day. He can take on a lot of them, even five, if he feels like it, because the time for each one would be minimal.
And I think this is something people fail to consider when saying that he would use the death note, because what would be his criteria for choosing who to kill? Or when to kill them? If they are arrested and convicted, what’s the point of doing it? What would he achieve? Nothing, so you have to think he would do it when they are only just suspects, but he is confident enough that they are the one. The question remains: when would that be? L is quick to find a suspect and be convinced that they are guilty. Basically, for most of the easier cases, he would need less than a day. So, I’m going to believe that the people supporting this idea imply this, which is so contradictory to his character.
If you say that he would do what Light did, as I said, it makes even less sense. Why would he kill convicted criminals? Other than the fact that he goes against Kira for this reason, he doesn’t gain anything from doing it. That’s not his job nor his goal.
As you said, “What kind of entertainment is there if he just sits in front of his silly laptop, reading off solved cases just to write down the criminal's name and attend meetings with world leader?”. Key word “solved”. Once it’s solved, why would L care? Unless he is personally invested in the criminals because they are connected to his past, or the case is related to a future one, he would literally move on.
Killing people as a detective.
Don’t feel like I need to explain how this is just stupid. He uses some very morally grey tactics, but killing is a bit too far.
I wrote a post about how I think L wouldn’t work with Light, even if he caught him, because I honestly doubt L would want to be associated with someone who kills people, let alone be the one to do the killing. It just doesn’t feel in character, like at all. Not only is it a shallow way to deal with criminals, he wouldn’t gain anything and if he does it long enough, his job will be useless, but why would a detective engage into that, also to that extent? It makes no sense, and as I said, it’s not his focus.
A detective that kills people is contradictory. It is cool, not going to lie, but L is not that type of character.
I saw a comic a while ago in which L and Light joined forces, and L was the one using the death note to kill corrupt politicians. That would never happen. Not only because he wouldn’t kill or join Light, but he doesn’t care that much, unless it hinders his job. And, even in that case, he would not end their life, but manipulate them to give him what he wants or persuade them to act in a way that is beneficial to him.
Neither of them is that righteous. I don’t believe Light actually cared about the world that much. It was just a speech to cover up that he was having fun with the power he held. Just a moral justification. I tried to write a post how him being smart, his supposed interest in this matter and his black and white view of the world doesn’t make sense to me if he actually cared, but I was writing it in my tumblr drafts, and it got deleted.
As I was writing the paragraph above, another thing that is different between Light and L and that is to be taken into consideration: how far sighted they are.
I will use as an example how they manipulate.
In this post [I don’t remember which one to be honest], I talked about Aizawa and L’s fallout to explain how L does it. Long story short, he convinces his target to act in a certain way, withholding information that the other person would need to know to change their mind. He doesn’t do it with the intention to get something and then get rid of them, as Light does. Besides Misa, who was protected by Rem, and other people, like the task force, that if dead would show that he’s Kira, Light manipulated people to gain something and killed them, because he could not see a long-term relation forming between them, probably due to the fact that he was scared that they might either try to overthrow him or find about him being Kira (although he does really get a sick pleasure from telling people he is him, after condemning them to death). Even in Raye’s case, he could have continued to threaten him and use him to kill any FBI agent that might come after him. He could’ve done so much with that one federal agent, but he just got rid of him.
L is not like this. L can see himself working with the same people he manipulated for a long period of time. He does see it as an irreversible act, because other than his identity, he doesn’t have much else to hide and he doesn’t always do something criminous. He even creates a mutually beneficial partnership.
So, he is farsighted, so he might also take into consideration that a criminal he caught could be useful in the future. Maybe, he has a case that connects him to something he already solved, and he needs any input he can get from the person responsible for that. He then makes a deal or manipulates them, depending on the benefits, but he seems to be fair even with criminals when it comes to this. So, using the death note and killing his possible future assets is such a self-sabotaging move.
What he would do with the death note.
As I wrote in the post hyperlinked at the beginning, he would study it and its rules, make Watari and himself remember them even without owning the death note and either give it back to the Shinigami, after getting as much information as possible about them too, or lock it up somewhere safe. It would depend on if the Shinigami is someone like Ryuk.
Either way, he would realise how destructive it is and would know not to engage with it. If he wants to prove its authenticity… I don’t know.
He might ask the Shinigami, “how many death notes are dropped on average on the earth?” and from the answer, which – before Light – is zero, and after returning the death note to them, he might just decide to wait to see it happen with his own eyes, because it’s not an urgent matter, and if it happens, he knows how to act, and if it doesn’t, it’s better.
I don’t think he’s that interested in the death note itself. In the Kira case, it was crucial to the investigation, but on a normal day in his life, seeing it actually work might lead him to have some thoughts he might not otherwise have, and that could possibly spiral down to testing each rule. He would realise that, and I think he would take the Shinigami’s words at face value, considering that he just saw a Shinigami so that must mean that it has a high chance of working, and leave it alone.
If he had been that eager to test it, he would’ve not shared his plan with the task force, as to get their approval, and would’ve done it in secret, getting back to them with just the results of his finding. It would’ve saved his life, to be honest, because Rem would have not known about that and what would’ve meant for Misa. Or maybe not, because she might’ve just killed him once everything was done and while he was presenting everything. In any case, it shows not only cooperation but also a sense of hesitance on his part.
Going to the scenario of him getting the death note before Light, he would also hope that it doesn’t become a mainstream thing, because that would, like you said, make everything so boring for him, like, “get creative, I know how you are doing it”, a bit like Near did in the one shot.
Now, I am thinking about L begging criminals to be a little bit more fun to catch, ‘cause they are making him die of boredom, and he can’t do it anymore, he’s losing his mind. If they continue like this, they could really defeat him.
But yeah. That’s more or less what I had to say on the topic. I kind of get the feeling that I am leaving something out, so that might make this a “to be continued” situation, depending on any external input I might get.
Hope you liked this answer. It’s quite long. Almost 4k words, but it was stimulating, to say the least. I know I repeated myself, but I think reiterating some points was important and needed, because otherwise the discussion on each point would seem incomplete.
