death note acc

‘near is a cheap copy of L 😡’ yes and he knows it. He knows it in his fucking bones. That’s the worst part, right? He was trained to be another person. And he’s not. There is no way for him to ever fill that role because L, more than being a job, is a human. Who can never be replicated. Who died at 25 years old and left no instructions on what to do after. Near had no interest in Kira really beyond that L must solve the Kira case; he doesnt even really seem to like solving detective cases in general. When all is said and done, Near is a cheap copy of L. Because the tragedy of death note is that no character can ever exist alone, but they all will be when it’s over.

Whoever working on the anime was responsible for four of the best matsulight scenes not being adapted (chapter 67 where Matsuda reaches out past Light and sends the message to Soichiro telling him to tell Mello that he was acting as L so Light wouldn’t have to be exposed as the new L, chapter 74 where Matsuda pulls Light away from Soichiro when he dies, chapter 107 where Matsuda who was previously on the ground sulking gets up and walks towards Light as he’s on the floor dying and Aizawa stops him and says “Stop it. What is it this time, sympathy?” and Matsuda has the saddest fucking look on his face, and chapter 108 where Ide picks up on Matsuda trying to think of ways Near could have been in the wrong too because he was “fond of” Light) count your days I’m serious

I’ve talked about this before but thinking about the taskforce getting older over the years and realising more and more how young light was. 50 year old Matsuda thinking about how he shot a boy barely out of his teenage years. Them at 60 with grown up kids considering how light started his murder spree before he was even out of high school, thinking about how their biggest worries for their kids were exams or social drama. Aizawa with teenage Yumi suddenly understanding why Soichiro couldnt possibly imagine light as Kira, because who would think that that man who had been a child just a blink of an eye ago was capable of that? And suddenly Light is frozen in time and the older they get the further away he drifts

it's also imo an error to think of stories like death note as being a battle of wits in the sense that you should expect the characters to make optimal decisions. that's a flawed approach to any text, but death note in particular i think tricks people into thinking it's about a highly optimised game of chess specifically because the characters are highly intellectual and their game is likewise very thoughtfully planned and stepped out. however that's a misdirect. it's almost never about a battle of wits, it's always a battle of personality. the question "who's smarter, L or light" has almost nothing to do with who could reasonably be expected to win their fight. L is smarter. L can't win, not because of his intellect but because of his character. L can't win because light is his opponent and they are so well-matched in personality that neither can resist making a tactically poor move because it would be the "right" move in their game and they need to see if the other is going to match them. it's not chess, it's poker. it's a tango. it's a game of tennis where the goal isn't to score a point but to rally as long as possible. it's almost a team game. near doesn't beat light because he's smarter than light or L, he beats light because light steps up to do a choreographed dance and near just shoots him with a gun. the reason near wins while L can't is that L and light are playing each other's game to play, but near isn't playing, he's just trying to win

The difference between L and Light is that L is like Oh this is the first person who i’ve ever truly believed is just like me; I need to put him some kind of artificial environment to study whatever’s wrong with him properly. Whereas Light is more along the lines of Oh this is the first person i’ve ever truly believed is just like me. i need him dead.