exAm - Death Note sideblog - 18+|Adult

“Death Playing The Fiddle” by Leonardo Vincent on INPRNT

my contribution to @lawlightweek2026 | day 7; checkmate/stalemate

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In A-Kira the king who has done nothing all of the canon timeline save for send other gods to warn Ryuk he’s out of line (again) creates an entire new rule to prevent Ryuk from making a host of Minoru style occurrences happen. You can’t sell the death note for money. Why? Not for any reason save our most problematic shinigami in the realm finds it funny enough that he most certainly would have kept recreating that scenario.

Of course Ryuk wants to recreate another Light. Problem is he found an ultra rare counterbalance to his rulebending since Light’s stubborn use of multiple rules for self benefit are seemingly what kept Light alive a long time while holding and using the note. The same note which regularly drives people to immediately off themselves.

Light refashions the rules like an armor. Ryuk views them as his boring cage and is thrilled beyond belief when humans smarter than him can see a way to play an invisible game with them. Any game.

Our man found a person who could play that ‘we threw the board and the die out’ style of game for a meaningful length of time but eventually got HIM killed too and also threw him under the bus at the end then has the audacity to be like, “damn. miss that guy.”

It endlessly fascinates me too, on this topic, that Ryuk successfully coasts in Light's moral blind spot for the entire series. Like, Light is closer to him and talks to him more and spends more time with him than with anyone else, but we never see him morally challenge or interrogate Ryuk about anything Ryuk says, implies, or might in the past have done, despite the fact that Ryuk is so obviously treating everyone's suffering as a sideshow the whole time. Even when Light finds out Ryuk stole Shidoh's notebook - with the implied potential death sentence to Shidoh! - he's only pissed because of the impact on his plans and he forgives Ryuk in a heartbeat, never commenting on the moral aspect at all. Even though "Kira", if he was even paying lip service to his own principles, should not be okay with Ryuk being Ryuk.

And yet Light is, always. I do wonder what loophole he carved out in his mind for that. Does he overlook Ryuk's sins because Ryuk never actually kills anyone innocent in front of him and Light can just tell himself thought crimes don't count? Is it because Ryuk is always so openly admiring of him and goes along with all his schemes, and therefore is hiding under the same umbrella of "it's fine as long as it's for the greater good" that Light uses to protect himself from his own hypocrisy? Is he using some kind of "it's his nature, he's a shinigami, he can't help it" internal excuse?

Or is it just that Light can't bear the idea of passing judgement on his emotional support monster, and so he just Will Not Ask about Ryuk's moral standing or past sins? I kind of think it's that last one tbh. (I do love the idea of Rem, in the brief window where she has chance, trying to warn Light about Ryuk. Like, "you shouldn't trust him so much, do you know what he's like?" ...but, of course, Light would never listen.)

But yes one of my favourite things about Ryuk is that he's so good at being absolutely evil but not in any of the stereotypical ways you'd expect for someone with his appearance and backstory. His claws are always clean. He doesn't really push boundaries or threaten or ever take anything by force, he never stands on his pride or dignity (except, like, that one time with Matsuda which I think in itself says something lmao). He does a perfect job of playing the mostly submissive, compliant, friendly pet monster, and nothing can ever quite be blamed on him because he never told anyone to do anything and indeed is always the first to ask "are you sure about this?"

Providing they are still in a relationship where they… you know… regularly chat.

i always feel like Ryuk was the one to be like you sure about this in that way that felt comfortable to Light he’s rubber ducking with someone only slightly brighter than an actual rubber duck. it does make Light consider things further than he would have naturally because think of how crazy this man got if someone explicitly told him he couldn’t do something. even teasing at “I don’t think you maybe should” will make him justify himself six ways from Sunday.

Ryuk was probably two or three are you sure abouts from changing the whole of Death Note with Light But final arc Kira self-isolated and shut off even that bit of input. Ryuk has a closer relationship with Misa than Light by the end of the story and he was Light’s giddy number one fan.

this is what trust no one type behavior got Light Yagami or maybe he didn’t stockpile enough apples

We cannot talk about Ryuk in the last quarter of Death Note without referencing the Narita International Plot Fracture. When the plot moved back from LA to Tokyo, Ryuk basically disappeared until the Yellow Box. He does nothing, says nothing, is absent except for crowd shots - he was written out.

Which is especially bad when we consider the three-way conversation where Mikami calls Takada while she's on her date with Light, while the task force are monitoring them.

Ryuk has to be in one of three places: with Rem's death note, that the task force have; with the human he's bonded to, i.e. Light, in that hotel room; or with Gelus' death note and the person attached to that, i.e. Mikami.

And he's NOT THERE. He's not with the task force, he's not with Light and he's not with Mikami. He literally *disappeared*.

However Ryuk only keeps a couple stated and proven motivations and his top one was… I want to see what Light Yagami does. It should be fascinating. (Insert Shinigami particular brand of unsettling laugh track)

So the narrative point that’s a failure to me isn’t that Light would try to shuffle the god back into his larger playing deck for later, of course he would, it’s Kira.

What doesn’t check out to me is that Ryuk would ever consent to haunting anyone other than Light for more than a couple days. Everyone else is boring by comparison. I feel genuinely like Ryuk would have been like if you do this I’m writing your name.

My fave recent headcanon for the Ryuk-has-disappeared period has been that perhaps he was off on back to back apple runs. He's got a three day window to visit the realm and a supply nobody else in S-Realm has access to. I like to imagine Ryuk being 'rich' by his kind's standards for a bit. Now that would be fun for him.

(Thanks zombiejesus for pointing the apple runs bit out. Only not tagging because she's on fandom break.)

In A-Kira the king who has done nothing all of the canon timeline save for send other gods to warn Ryuk he’s out of line (again) creates an entire new rule to prevent Ryuk from making a host of Minoru style occurrences happen. You can’t sell the death note for money. Why? Not for any reason save our most problematic shinigami in the realm finds it funny enough that he most certainly would have kept recreating that scenario.

Of course Ryuk wants to recreate another Light. Problem is he found an ultra rare counterbalance to his rulebending since Light’s stubborn use of multiple rules for self benefit are seemingly what kept Light alive a long time while holding and using the note. The same note which regularly drives people to immediately off themselves.

Light refashions the rules like an armor. Ryuk views them as his boring cage and is thrilled beyond belief when humans smarter than him can see a way to play an invisible game with them. Any game.

Our man found a person who could play that ‘we threw the board and the die out’ style of game for a meaningful length of time but eventually got HIM killed too and also threw him under the bus at the end then has the audacity to be like, “damn. miss that guy.”

It endlessly fascinates me too, on this topic, that Ryuk successfully coasts in Light's moral blind spot for the entire series. Like, Light is closer to him and talks to him more and spends more time with him than with anyone else, but we never see him morally challenge or interrogate Ryuk about anything Ryuk says, implies, or might in the past have done, despite the fact that Ryuk is so obviously treating everyone's suffering as a sideshow the whole time. Even when Light finds out Ryuk stole Shidoh's notebook - with the implied potential death sentence to Shidoh! - he's only pissed because of the impact on his plans and he forgives Ryuk in a heartbeat, never commenting on the moral aspect at all. Even though "Kira", if he was even paying lip service to his own principles, should not be okay with Ryuk being Ryuk.

And yet Light is, always. I do wonder what loophole he carved out in his mind for that. Does he overlook Ryuk's sins because Ryuk never actually kills anyone innocent in front of him and Light can just tell himself thought crimes don't count? Is it because Ryuk is always so openly admiring of him and goes along with all his schemes, and therefore is hiding under the same umbrella of "it's fine as long as it's for the greater good" that Light uses to protect himself from his own hypocrisy? Is he using some kind of "it's his nature, he's a shinigami, he can't help it" internal excuse?

Or is it just that Light can't bear the idea of passing judgement on his emotional support monster, and so he just Will Not Ask about Ryuk's moral standing or past sins? I kind of think it's that last one tbh. (I do love the idea of Rem, in the brief window where she has chance, trying to warn Light about Ryuk. Like, "you shouldn't trust him so much, do you know what he's like?" ...but, of course, Light would never listen.)

But yes one of my favourite things about Ryuk is that he's so good at being absolutely evil but not in any of the stereotypical ways you'd expect for someone with his appearance and backstory. His claws are always clean. He doesn't really push boundaries or threaten or ever take anything by force, he never stands on his pride or dignity (except, like, that one time with Matsuda which I think in itself says something lmao). He does a perfect job of playing the mostly submissive, compliant, friendly pet monster, and nothing can ever quite be blamed on him because he never told anyone to do anything and indeed is always the first to ask "are you sure about this?"

Providing they are still in a relationship where they… you know… regularly chat.

i always feel like Ryuk was the one to be like you sure about this in that way that felt comfortable to Light he’s rubber ducking with someone only slightly brighter than an actual rubber duck. it does make Light consider things further than he would have naturally because think of how crazy this man got if someone explicitly told him he couldn’t do something. even teasing at “I don’t think you maybe should” will make him justify himself six ways from Sunday.

Ryuk was probably two or three are you sure abouts from changing the whole of Death Note with Light But final arc Kira self-isolated and shut off even that bit of input. Ryuk has a closer relationship with Misa than Light by the end of the story and he was Light’s giddy number one fan.

this is what trust no one type behavior got Light Yagami or maybe he didn’t stockpile enough apples

We cannot talk about Ryuk in the last quarter of Death Note without referencing the Narita International Plot Fracture. When the plot moved back from LA to Tokyo, Ryuk basically disappeared until the Yellow Box. He does nothing, says nothing, is absent except for crowd shots - he was written out.

Which is especially bad when we consider the three-way conversation where Mikami calls Takada while she's on her date with Light, while the task force are monitoring them.

Ryuk has to be in one of three places: with Rem's death note, that the task force have; with the human he's bonded to, i.e. Light, in that hotel room; or with Gelus' death note and the person attached to that, i.e. Mikami.

And he's NOT THERE. He's not with the task force, he's not with Light and he's not with Mikami. He literally *disappeared*.

However Ryuk only keeps a couple stated and proven motivations and his top one was… I want to see what Light Yagami does. It should be fascinating. (Insert Shinigami particular brand of unsettling laugh track)

So the narrative point that’s a failure to me isn’t that Light would try to shuffle the god back into his larger playing deck for later, of course he would, it’s Kira.

What doesn’t check out to me is that Ryuk would ever consent to haunting anyone other than Light for more than a couple days. Everyone else is boring by comparison. I feel genuinely like Ryuk would have been like if you do this I’m writing your name.

In A-Kira the king who has done nothing all of the canon timeline save for send other gods to warn Ryuk he’s out of line (again) creates an entire new rule to prevent Ryuk from making a host of Minoru style occurrences happen. You can’t sell the death note for money. Why? Not for any reason save our most problematic shinigami in the realm finds it funny enough that he most certainly would have kept recreating that scenario.

Of course Ryuk wants to recreate another Light. Problem is he found an ultra rare counterbalance to his rulebending since Light’s stubborn use of multiple rules for self benefit are seemingly what kept Light alive a long time while holding and using the note. The same note which regularly drives people to immediately off themselves.

Light refashions the rules like an armor. Ryuk views them as his boring cage and is thrilled beyond belief when humans smarter than him can see a way to play an invisible game with them. Any game.

Our man found a person who could play that ‘we threw the board and the die out’ style of game for a meaningful length of time but eventually got HIM killed too and also threw him under the bus at the end then has the audacity to be like, “damn. miss that guy.”

It endlessly fascinates me too, on this topic, that Ryuk successfully coasts in Light's moral blind spot for the entire series. Like, Light is closer to him and talks to him more and spends more time with him than with anyone else, but we never see him morally challenge or interrogate Ryuk about anything Ryuk says, implies, or might in the past have done, despite the fact that Ryuk is so obviously treating everyone's suffering as a sideshow the whole time. Even when Light finds out Ryuk stole Shidoh's notebook - with the implied potential death sentence to Shidoh! - he's only pissed because of the impact on his plans and he forgives Ryuk in a heartbeat, never commenting on the moral aspect at all. Even though "Kira", if he was even paying lip service to his own principles, should not be okay with Ryuk being Ryuk.

And yet Light is, always. I do wonder what loophole he carved out in his mind for that. Does he overlook Ryuk's sins because Ryuk never actually kills anyone innocent in front of him and Light can just tell himself thought crimes don't count? Is it because Ryuk is always so openly admiring of him and goes along with all his schemes, and therefore is hiding under the same umbrella of "it's fine as long as it's for the greater good" that Light uses to protect himself from his own hypocrisy? Is he using some kind of "it's his nature, he's a shinigami, he can't help it" internal excuse?

Or is it just that Light can't bear the idea of passing judgement on his emotional support monster, and so he just Will Not Ask about Ryuk's moral standing or past sins? I kind of think it's that last one tbh. (I do love the idea of Rem, in the brief window where she has chance, trying to warn Light about Ryuk. Like, "you shouldn't trust him so much, do you know what he's like?" ...but, of course, Light would never listen.)

But yes one of my favourite things about Ryuk is that he's so good at being absolutely evil but not in any of the stereotypical ways you'd expect for someone with his appearance and backstory. His claws are always clean. He doesn't really push boundaries or threaten or ever take anything by force, he never stands on his pride or dignity (except, like, that one time with Matsuda which I think in itself says something lmao). He does a perfect job of playing the mostly submissive, compliant, friendly pet monster, and nothing can ever quite be blamed on him because he never told anyone to do anything and indeed is always the first to ask "are you sure about this?"

Providing they are still in a relationship where they… you know… regularly chat.

i always feel like Ryuk was the one to be like you sure about this in that way that felt comfortable to Light he’s rubber ducking with someone only slightly brighter than an actual rubber duck. it does make Light consider things further than he would have naturally because think of how crazy this man got if someone explicitly told him he couldn’t do something. even teasing at “I don’t think you maybe should” will make him justify himself six ways from Sunday.

Ryuk was probably two or three are you sure abouts from changing the whole of Death Note with Light But final arc Kira self-isolated and shut off even that bit of input. Ryuk has a closer relationship with Misa than Light by the end of the story and he was Light’s giddy number one fan.

this is what trust no one type behavior got Light Yagami or maybe he didn’t stockpile enough apples

Would you rather be with a Hello Kitty pijamas girl or a goth femboy? mmmm... decisions... decisions...

Went to the aquarium with the student council president after class, but she’s a bit touchy… what should I do?

Probably inaccurate but lemme cook: buff L.

He did practice Capoeira, his body needed to be prepared to some extent right??