#And sidoh also

[yeonban]

While thinking about what Tobias would choose if he was ever met with a shinigami (aka deciding between trying to get it attached to him to gain more lifespan when/if it dies vs making it fear him rather than like him so it wouldn't be one-use-only), I realized I never once thought about Tobias dying. nor about what age he'd die at

[mizzmellos]

I just need you to know that you’re carrying the community with these polls. I wake up looking forward to catholic beat-up celibate gayboy mello every day <3

this is us btw

[twinknote]

if matt jeevas didn’t get snatched up by wammy’s, i’m convinced he would grow up to become andrew fisher, singer for english grunge punk hardcore band, basement

[empressofthewind]

a while ago i made a post about Mello and Near potentially having hooked up during the canon timeline, and @optimisticgardenhologram pointed out some very interesting details in canon that potentially suggest that they met up (i strongly encourage you to go look at the original post!! i'm just here to verify the observations, not take credit for them). so i looked into them and i can confirm, there is absolutely enough evidence to suggest that they saw each other outside of the chapter 77 reunion.

Observation #1

this one was from chapter 97. Near states that the Death Note is "an ordinary notebook, just like Mello said":

but Mello never says this at all. i went out of my way to note down the exact phrasing of every piece of information Mello gives Near in canon:

"The murder notebook. It's a Shinigami's notebook, and people who touch it are able to see the Shinigami." (chapter 77)

"The notebook I had belonged to a Shinigami named Sidoh, who dropped it in the human world. He had to come down to get it back. But another Shinigami had it before." (chapter 77)

"There is a fake rule hidden amongst the rules written in the notebook." (chapter 77)

"I actually had a bunch of guys test the notebook a number of ways, but nobody who wrote the names down died after thirteen days." (chapter 79)

nothing there states that the Death Note is an ordinary notebook, nor is it even remotely implied. there are three possible explanations i can think of for this. one, Mello and Near met up sometime between November 19th and January 7th. two, Mello mentioned it on the phone during the three days they spent interrogating Mogi. three, Mello told Halle and she relayed this information to Near. Gevanni does not seem to question it when Near mentions it, which suggests either it's one of the latter two options or the SPK is aware of the meeting(s) Near had with Mello. all very plausible.

Observation #2

Near tells Light after Takada is kidnapped that he has a way of getting in touch with Mello. this one i do remember so i didn't go looking for it, but it does potentially imply that they've been contacting each other. he does say "i can try to contact Mello", in which the use of "i" would suggest that he personally would be the one to reach out (as opposed to him using Lidner to contact Mello), but he IS talking to Light, so he could just be intentionally keeping things vague.

Observation #3

this one imo is the most damning. Near's puppet of Mello has a quilted vest:

but the vest he wears when he visits Near is different:

here is the quilted vest, for comparison:

technically Mello's jacket is covering most of the vest in his scenes with Near, so you could assume it actually was the quilted vest and wasn't textured for the sake of simplicity - but Near wouldn't have had a clear view of it then either, and presumably if this was the only outfit he ever saw of Mello's, then he would draw the jacket onto the puppet too.

i think it would be too much of a coincidence for him to guess that Mello owns this exact vest. it would also seem odd to me if Mello and Near somehow ended up discussing Mello's clothes during the Mogi interrogation, and Mello mentioned that he owns a quilted vest. the same is true of Near speaking to Lidner; she COULD theoretically have told Near about the vest, but it seems like a bizarre detail to mention, and a particularly bizarre thing for Near to add to the puppet if he's never personally seen it. so i definitely think it implies that they saw each other again.

the first time i can find the Mello puppet in the manga is in chapter 94, which takes place on December 25, but the rest of the puppets appear as early as chapter 85, which takes place on December 1st. so if the Mello puppet was made around the same time as the others, they would have had to meet up during the Mogi interrogation to make it work; otherwise it could have happened while they were in Japan.

as a bonus side note, i looked through the entire manga and i actually couldn't find the quilted vest at all outside of the official art - granted i only had a quick skim-through so i could've easily missed an appearance, but i went back and checked this iconic post and it does not appear there either. so perhaps this is a special occasion vest for him (the two special occasions being posing for the official art and meeting up with Near; the most important things a man could ever do in his life).

in conclusion, there is a strong case to be made for Mello and Near having met up at least once in canon, which allows for plenty of speculation regarding the events that transpired during that meeting. thank you so much @optimisticgardenhologram for bringing these up!! this was very insightful :-)

[13eyond13]

personally, I find Nu so compelling because the few details we have on her are bonkers. This rock festooned with eyes hates sound, has a genius-level intellect, is lazy as fuck but also the single most powerful shinigami under the King (which by itself raises the question of what power even means among shinigami [Nu would canonically win a Dragon Ball-style battle royale of the shinigami]).

Hahaha so true actually! I read everything about her in the behind the scenes book and was just fascinated by the impression it conjured. Her hating "noise" the most of everything, and also being very powerful and emotionally intelligent (I think??) made me imagine other less powerful and more bumbling shinigami like Sidoh bothering her with their complaints and requests and things constantly, but since she hates noise she's just sitting there blinking at them silently and intimidatingly with her one million eyes like 😒 👁👁👁 "..." I also immediately started making up headcanons for her like that she won many of her eyes in gambling matches with the other shinigami (because I think their eyes would be one of the most valuable things in the shinigami realm, as they need their shinigami eyesight to survive), and that she also maybe had something to do with the creation of Beyond Birthday as well (as Mello hypothesized that maybe B's eyes "fell" to earth and that's how he got them?? Hahaha ok then, it was probably Nu, she has eyeballs aplenty to spare)

[sundowning-gods]

Pantheon AU

I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for a while. I guess I better write it down before I forget.

Theologists have been studying an ancient religion with the only evidence of its existence being in old ruins across Europe. Recently, as of 2003, the religion has gained a following once more and has spread worldwide with the rise of the internet. This new development has also caused followers to begin to merge their beliefs with another long death faith with origins in Japan. The name of the religion as well as those of its Gods have been forgotten with time, so researchers have the Gods nicknames to keep track of them. They are listed as follows:

L - God of Justice, Intuition, and Empirical Reasoning. He is assumed to be the religion’s primary God, presuming over the others. Followers of L believe that societal reform must be humanity’s choice, and it cannot be forced by divine intervention. They also believe that humans have a right to choose whether to be good or evil, but even if individuals commit evil in this world, the good will always prevail.

Kira - God of Death, Justice, and Retribution. He has amassed a large following in recent years due to the youth’s frustration with the ever present corruption in the justice system. They believe the only way to reform society is through divine intervention, and that Kira is their savior who will cut away the evil in society and leave a clean slate for the rest of humanity to build on. His cult is called the Temple of Kira. There are two distinct sects of the Temple, and their beliefs are as follows:

1. Kira is the one true God and all other Gods are false pretenders.

2. The other Gods are real and each have a role to play in the pantheon, but they are not to be worshiped above Kira.

Misa - Goddess of Love and Devotion. She was formerly the Goddess of the Arts and had her own cult following before she was incorporated into the Temple of Kira. Although followers hold her in less authority than Kira, she is still a formidable deity and not to be trifled with. It is said that she made a deal with a Shinigami to be able to see the name and lifespan of any human on Earth. Like Kira, she is also said to be able to enact divine retribution on humans who commit evil acts.

And last but not least: Every Pantheon needs its seasons.

Near - God of Winter, Objectivity, and Solitude.

Mello - God of Summer, Wrath, and Youth

Matt - God of Fall, The Harvest, and Hedonism

Echo (oc) - Goddess of Spring, Growth, and Introspection

All four together represent the cycle of death and rebirth.

On Kira and L

As the two conflicting religions clash, both online and offline, there are some who have begun to incorporate elements of both faiths into their belief system. Some followers even believe that L and Kira might be two faces of the same God. The one connecting thread among the collective tales seems to be that L and Kira are locked in an eternal battle. The “Justice of Law” versus the “Justice of Wrath”. They are often depicted chained together, representing how they are connected by fate.

The Shinigami

The Shinigami or “Gods of Death” are a separate entity from the Pantheon. They aren’t worshiped as Gods but they have just as much of an impact of human lives considering they are tasked with ending them. They operate by their own rules and don’t interfere with the Gods’ duties, and the Gods are not to interfere with them either. Since they live in different realms, it’s rare that they interact at all. However, there are a few Shinigami that are mentioned in religious texts including but not limited to: Ryuk, Rem, Gelus, and Sidoh.

[chickenwaffles17]

*careless whisper starts playing*

Hm? Wh- what do you mean he doesn't have any ears? They got written in the Death Note, of course!

also @girl-sidoh i promise this is one of the last times i'll pop up in your notifications please don't block me

[wat-the-cur]

LEMME TRY AGAIN. Death Note for the fandom meme please!!! 🥺 I want to hear all of your opinions!!!!! 💖

Ooooh, gosh. I’m going to be honest with you, I haven’t rewatched Death Note in AGES, so my memory of so many plot points and details probably leaves a lot to be desired. That, and I’m sure that if I rewatched the series now, a lot of my opinions will have changed. For that reason, I shall not be answering all the questions, but I have picked out the ones I do have half decent answers for. Silly ones, but I hope you enjoy them all the same! I should definitely rewatch the series soon.

3 headcanons for (insert characters here): Bad news, all of my headcanons revolve around the most mundane shit imaginable, but they bring me pleasure!

Rem - So, Shinigami evolved to the point of never having to eat, but we know that they do so for pleasure. They especially seem to gravitate towards sweet food and they all seem to have favourites that they eat to the exclusion of all others. Ryuk has his apples, Sidoh loves chocolate, and Calikarcha is partial to blueberries. It is easy to assume that Rem has no favourite, because we never see her eat, but I think that she does. Rem’s favourite treat is king cake, in particular the king cake served at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. We never see her eat, because she cannot get hold of that cake in Japan and she always wants to be by Misa. Upon confiding in Misa about her guilty pleasure, Misa said, offhandedly, that she would try to bake her one, one day. She never got the chance.

Ryuk - This one is a bit silly, but we get a lot of hints throughout the manga, anime and related series that Ryuk loves cutesy things. Misa is one of them. I think Ryuk gets on very well with Misa. He and Light may understand each other better, but he has a more affectionate relationship with Misa. They share an enjoyment of cheesy TV dramas and trashy reality shows. They both like baking and dancing. They even give each other gifts sometimes. Ryuk frequently examines Misa’s plushie collection, so as a sign of friendship, she let him keep one. A pink bunny, which Ryuk keeps sat in a corner and occasionally picks up and pets.

Mello (and Matt) - Mello fucking loves hagsploitation cinema (movies featuring scary old women). It’s such an unexpected thing, but he has a collection of hagsploitation films, from the best to the forgotten, on VHS. His favourites are “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane” and “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker”. Matt’s favourite film is “Clerks”, partially because it’s very funny, but also because he likes to fantasise that his life would be similar to that of Dante and Randall, had he never been whisked off to Wammy’s as a child.

2. 3 fandoms views you don’t agree with: I don’t think I’m about to say anything groundbreaking here, but here I go.

“Light was corrupted by the Death Note” I seem to remember you making a post about this one some years back, and getting a whole lot of shit in response. Like, yes Light went down a slippery slope, but it looked to me like he used his own two feet to get there. I just hate it when people remove responsibility from Light, because that sort of defeats the point of his character to me. Besides which, from day one he just came across to me like the type of guy who was one missing order of French fries away from beating the servants with the stiffest switch from the tree, so yeah.

“L was in love with Light” Listen, seriously, ship whatever you want chaps. No hate to you LawLight shippers, it just does not work for me. I absolutely do believe that Light had a fat hate crush on L, but I do not think L felt the same way. Is L a bisexual king in my opinion? Yes. Do I like he fancied Light? Maybe a little. But for me, this is no soulmate situation. Sorry. I was sad that L died, but I felt absolutely no remorse for the end of his relationship with Light.

“L was faking absolutely everything about himself (in other words, he was faking all of his autistic-coded traits)” Ahem...Nooooo he wasn’t!

14. Most intriguing rarepair: Okay, I have a few, so just hear me out. First of all, I have to mention LMello, which you got me into with your galaxy brain takes <3. Just recently I’ve been loving the idea of an alternate universe where Ryuk is Misa’s Shinigami, because I honestly think they would be so cute together. The ultimate same-interests couple. In yet another alternate universe, I love the idea of Rem and an older and wiser Sayu going up against Light. Sorry, but I somehow could never see Misa being interested in Rem, so I wanted to give her a different girlfriend and Sayu is perfect, in my opinion. Also, Rem/Kinddara Guivelostain (the female Shinigami with the fissure down the middle of her head). It appeals to my love for “viciousness personified having space in their heart for kind, tender soul”. That is this pairing.

16. Favourite behind the scenes insight: This is not even actually a behind the scenes insight, but I’ve never forgotten it. Basically, the Shinigami realm was originally conceived as being full of chunks of old metal and piles of rubble, or something to that effect. An information site that I once read must have been fucked around with, because the quote was written there as being “full of chunks of chocolate and piles of cookies”, and that had me so intrigued for ages. When you consider how the Shinigami love sweet food, it actually would have made sense.

19. Character interactions you would have loved to see: I would have loved to have seen L actually interact with the Wammy kids, I think that could have been so funny. I think the thing that always comes to my mind, is your post when you talked about L assaulting Near over Yahtzee stratagems. That killed me. I wish there were more interactions between Shinigami and humans. I wish Rem got to interact with people who didn’t treat her like dirt. As I’ve said, I’d like to have seen Ryuk and Misa have fun together. Matt deserved a few more scenes interacting with Mello, too, for sure.

21. Song that reminds of (insert characters): Again, multiple answers for this one!

Mello - “Infa-Red” by Placebo (basically any song by Placebo is a Mello song, but this is a good one)

Matt - “What A Waste” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads

Rem - “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” cover by Chris Thomas King

Ryuk - “I Walk On Gilded Splinters” Dr. John The Night Tripper

L - “Life Without Buildings” by Japan

Misa - “Puppet On A String” by Sandie Shaw

Near - “I Dream Of Wires” Gary Numan

Thanks so much for this ask, buddy! It was a lot of fun to answer!

[sarcasticsparkles]

I have been wondering about this for a while, so I'm just going to put this question into the universe. Why didn't Light kill Aizawa?

Think about it. Of everyone on the task force, Aizawa had the highest reward for killing him, since he is the most naturally skeptical, and he is also the easiest to kill because of his negative relationship with his wife. A negative relationship that, from Soichiro's resigned reaction when Aizawa admitted his wife hit him during a fight, has been going on for a considerable amount of time. Even if the idea were proposed later by Near that Kira killed Aizawa should he die in an instance of domestic violence gone wrong, there would be no way to prove it one way or another.

It could be argued Light had a reason not to kill Aizawa during the time skip since Aizawa was the one who put his foot down against Light and Misa's confinement, and Light wasn't actively thinking about wiping out the whole task force until after his father died. But what about after Soichiro died? Once again, in that very same instance that killed his father, Aizawa found himself in a situation where he was the easiest to kill. Besides Soichiro, Aizawa was the heaviest injured. While they toned it down in the anime, his whole upper body was bandaged in the manga, especially around his head, and he was unconscious through Soichiro's death and returning the notebook to Sidoh. Even if Light was on the fence about it until his father died, Aizawa was unconscious long enough that Light could have had some time alone and used the piece in his watch to make Aizawa die in a coma or something, leading to another situation where Near would have no way to prove one way or another if Kira made the kill or if he just died from his injuries in the bomb.

In both scenarios, but especially in arc 2, there is a strategic advantage in killing him, namely in the form of Ide. Ide made it pretty clear he was on this case for Aizawa, so while he could stay on and promise to finish what his partner started, Light's skilled enough in manipulation to turn this to his advantage.

Blame the kill on Eriko? This could be an opening into bringing Ide and even other task force members onto Kira's side since someone they know and care about was murdered.

Blame the kill on Mello? Same outcome with the added bonus of an even greater motive for revenge against Mello without Soichiro there to stop them. Because Near still trusted Mello, Mello's information was what put the 13-day rule into question, and Near allied with Mello to kidnap Mogi... that would go about as well as one would expect. The task force already hated Mello because of Soichiro's death, and it was Aizawa who went to see Near and later began suspecting Light. If Aizawa's dead supposedly because of Mello, that's even more reason for the surviving task force not to trust a word Mello and by extent Near says.

I'm not saying I wish Aizawa had died. On the contrary, he is one of my favorite characters. I'm just wondering why Light didn't kill him if he was planning on turning the task force into chalk outlines anyway, especially with so many benefits to Light's plans should he die.

[keehlgender]

RING POP ITS ME

so my question is what Halloween costumes would the death note characters wear

HIIII!!!

Hmmm that’s a good question,,,

Light and L don’t celebrate halloween because they’re BORING and they SUCK!!!!! (L doesn’t need to go trick or treating anyway because he already has all the sweets he needs.)

I feel like Misa would be a black cat or a witch or something like that.

It’s also hard to imagine Near celebrating, but if he did, I think he’d go all out on his costume. Like, some super detailed hand crafted transformers cosplay or something.

Pre-timeskip Mello goes even MORE all out on his costume and also it’s cooler and edgier than Near’s is. Post-timeskip Mello doesn’t care about halloween because he’s too busy eating his own expensive chocolate probably paid for with mafia money.

Matt’s costume is a low effort “ironic” cosplay of some video game character. Or he doesn’t have a costume because he’s too busy staying inside playing video games like any other day.

None of the shinigami care about halloween except for Sidoh who I think would totally love to go trick or treating if he could. Not that any of them would even need a costume lol.

I’m really struggling to come up with actual costume ideas because I don’t think many of them would really care enough to dress up for halloween??? And also I’m not feeling especially halloween-y, considering the fact that it’s April and not anywhere close to being October.

[totallynotthedarkreunion]

I've been thinking recently about how shinigami don't have biological genders so how do they identify genders and pronouns and stuff and I'm writing it all here just because I want to and I can

My first thought was that their names have certain parts which makes them seem more feminine or masculine. Let's take a look at the names

Dudes: Ryuk, Gelus, Calikarcha, Armonia Justin Beyondermason, Sidoh, Deridovely, Guukku, Zellogi

Girlies: Rem, Daril Ghiroza, Nu, Midora, Kinddara Guivelostain

Observing the letters and structures of these names, I at first assumed that masculine shinigami would have names with u, e, and o as the first noticeable vowels, while feminine shinigami might have a and i, but as we can see here, that is not the case. The meaning of their names does not really apply either because in the human world most of them are just gibberish.

The second thought I had was their appearance. In the Shinigami realm, is there a specific quality to a shinigamis appearance that makes them masculine or feminine and determines how other shinigami will refer to them? I noticed that Rem and Midora, both female shinigami, have patterns on their faces that make it look like they're wearing lipstick, which is something none of the male shinigami have. However, not all female shinigami have this feature, and Ryuk looks like he's wearing eyeliner so I've decided makeup-like features cannot be accounted for. I have noticed that typically the male shinigami have "sharper" more beastly features and the females have "softer" more swamp-creature-like features, for example most of the males have lean skeletal bodies and the females tend to be plumper, but there are numerous exceptions to this rule and therefore cannot be accounted for.

Voice could be the defining trait but its hard to say because only three (I think [actually I think guukku is voiced in the first episode, I'm pretty sure that's him]) shinigami have actually been animated and voiced, but you could definitely say that rem obviously has a more feminine voice than ryuk and sidoh do. This is not easy to use as a good reason because of how little of the voices we know, but I think it might be the right track.

It could also be true that Shinigami choose their gender and pronouns, and since there aren't many shinigami in the Shinigami realm, they all know each other well enough to know everyone's gender.

If you have any ideas pls reply or reblog with them because the Shinigami realm needs to be talked about more

[yeonban]

❛ You might be the first person I've come across who doesn't seem to be on the ninth cloud about Kira's notebook payout, ❜ Most certainly the only one in his (assumed) age group at least, as far as he's seen on the streets, on TV, in the news, on social media, during broadcasted interviews... Perhaps that's what has piqued Tobias' interest enough to drive him into a conversation with a younger stranger: the alleged indifference on the topic of the exchange, a rarity regardless of the boy's city of origin.

His pals all across the globe have been either red in the face from anger or similarly reddened by excitement, as though the notebook had landed in their hands instead of the President's, or the money in their bank accounts rather than some strangers'. What a curious reaction to something so devoid of importance. ❛ It can't be that you don't have a Yotsuba bank account. I'm pretty sure you'd either be crying in a corner right about now or getting dragged around to the bank to make one by someone who cares about the money if that was the case. So... how come, Mr. Cool Guy? ❜

Tobias-centered s.c : @antinomos ( Minoru )!

[eyecicles]

7, 13, 18, 24 though i think i know what you'll say on that one lol

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

No one in Death Note! I hate pretty much every popular fanon version of the characters, but it only makes me appreciate their canon selves more.

One character from a different franchise I came to dislike, though, is Bernadetta (FE3H), unfortunately. I don't think I've met one fan that is even remotely normal about her. Doesn't help that she's essentially a caricature of certain mental illnesses + screams too much for my liking, so I already had a hard time warming up to her.

13. worst blorboficiation

L? If it means what I think it means, haha. But yeah, sorry, too many people who have L as their fav have a very bad grasp on his character. One of the most popular characters in manga/anime, and yet you rarely see him liked for his actual personality.

Before I read the manga, I thought he would bore me to death because of how I've seen people talk about him. Boy, was I wrong.

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

Honestly, so much about the second half of DN: Light's inner conflicts + how he changed, Mikami, Kiyomi, Sidoh, and how interesting Mello and Near are as L's successors, to name a few examples.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Yeah, definitely L's mannerisms. Not just because of the Ryuzaki Persona theory, but also because of the infantilisation, the not-so-subtle ableist insults, and dehumanisation.

It's not like his "quirks" are completely out there. They might be unusual, but not implausible at all. I've met people much, much "stranger" than him, so all the discourse around it surprises me.

[karl-raccoon-enjoyer]

Mello HCs

Disclaimers: Near uses they/them pronouns in this, kinda short because I just randomly found out it’s his birthday , idc if this doesn’t line up with the canon timeline/events, this is more centered around his relationship with the other successors because while I do love him it’s hard for me to think of headcanons specifically for him, may have written characters as softer than they are, but that’s only because I’m soft

*I heavily ship him with Matt

*I don’t know what it is. It’s something in the way they look at each other, the way they dress, they way they carry themselves, idk but whatever it is it’s perfect

*I like to imagine them driving in the nighttime while cool music plays in the background

*Before Mello was placed in the successors program, he actually really liked Near

*”No one gets to bully them but me” type of thing

*Was originally the one teaching Near to write before he got mad they were learning it faster than he had

*Even after Mello started distancing himself away from them, Near still tried to reach out to him for a while (I’m imagining Near as a little kid like preschool/kindergarten age in this)

*Mello looked up to Beyond a lot and saw him as an older brother

*Would force himself to do things with Beyond that scared him because he wanted to seem tough (drunk of that big kid mentality like my iPad kid self discovering what woo-hooing is while reading fnaf fanfiction on wattpad in elementary school)

*If Beyond picked up on the fact he was too uncomfortable/scared he would try to deescalate the situation (As I’ve stated before, he cared about very few people in his life, but this is his little brother we’re talking about)

*Would encourage Matt to do better and rank higher while also not wanting him to rank higher than himself (he didn’t say that though)

*A & BB would tease those 2 so much

*Mello used to be one of those little kids who would snitch on you for absolutely anything

*But that stopped when he was trying to be cool to impress Beyond

*I feel like his little thing being eating chocolate is because he wanted to copy L and his original thing was writing

*Bc I HC A’s thing as drawing they would sometimes have Mello write stories about what they’d drawn

*And A drew some weird stuff so they were usually pretty interesting

*He only briefly mentioned A in LABB out of respect for all of their (the successors’) past private lives

*Mello actually was friendly with Sidoh at times

*More of a general opinion than a headcanon but the second half of Death Note is so much better when you view it as a rivalry between Mello and Near rather than Light and Near

*He thought about Beyond a lot while he was recovering from the explosion

*For one because of the burns /obv

*Not only for that reason but he wondered if his own desperation to live up to L would lead him to the same fate

*He eventually justified it by reaffirming to himself that it was just because of stupid Near

[empressofthewind]

Hi, I'm the one that sent that longer ask recently - thank you so much for responding. So it’s not that the situation at the end in your setting is all that different, but it’s a matter of perspective. That makes so much sense.  

After reading your thoughts I have a couple follow up questions if you’d entertain it (last ones I promise). First because you mentioned interrogating Mogi, why do you think Mello brought Near into it at all? I know he says "my turn to use you" but I get the sense it’s not so much sincere as a pretext and excuse as if to say "don't think this means I'm backing down". Because I think he’s competent enough that he could’ve interrogated Mogi by himself. No doubt he has the skills and confidence to do it on his own since he has the real lived experience needed to rise in the mafia where he'd have to flawlessly prove himself to a very tough crowd a hundred times over. If he kept Mogi to himself it would have in theory given him the big advantage instead of handing it over to his opponent. But the way he set it up put the power in Near's hands...there was always a chance that Near could’ve just said ‘lol thanks’ and hung up the phone leaving Mello high and dry. It seems odd somehow.

And finally, as I understand it your belief is in canon Mello’s priority never wavered from winning the competition but by the end he’d given up hope for that. But also he acted to save Near’s life and gain HIM the victory. I’m trying to wrap my head around this. If he thought there’s a good chance Near is putting his life in danger by having his name written down and possibly overlooking Kira's counter-move, why act at all? If he were right wouldn't it present an opportunity for Mello to claim victory? If Near dies in his confrontation with Kira due to his own mistake…well, that seems like he’s lost fair and square. Afterwards Mello could use Near’s death as the evidence to confront Kira on his own and finally come out the winner. On the other hand if Mello was wrong about there being sketchy business afoot and Near did cleanly confront Kira and win, the situation ends in just the same loss that Mello in theory already accepted so at that point he can go and off himself or whatever. I’m probably not explaining this well, but hopefully you get an idea of what I mean, that there seems to be a bit of disconnect there? ugh sorry it's that I'm trying to understand the end and struggling 😅

Hello again!! These are all very good questions - there's a lot to unpack here so I'm going to do something slightly different and break it up into smaller chunks:

~~~

Why Mello Involved Near in his Interrogation of Mogi

I know he says "my turn to use you" but I get the sense it’s not so much sincere as a pretext and excuse as if to say "don't think this means I'm backing down".

I have a lot to say about this point. I think it's perhaps important to make a distinction between what Mello's intentions actually are, and what he aims to achieve by saying this, because I think these two concepts are entirely divorced from each other. So we'll start with the first point.

The thing about Mello is that he uses people. He hates being used, but he wouldn't have gotten as far as he has without using, if that makes sense. He likes to be the one with all the power, the brains behind an operation where everyone else does the actual dirty work for him. At this stage in his investigation, however, he is working alone. He doesn't have the resources he gained from the mafia. He hasn't linked up with Matt yet. He doesn't have Sidoh on his side anymore. He is operating by himself, and as such, he is limited in what he can do. So, the only person he can use is Near. It wouldn't be the first time he's used Near - he acquired all Near's information via the spy to get ahead in the first place - so he's clearly not opposed to the idea by any means. It's worth noting that this is the closest they get to actually working together in the series, so I'm also convinced he has to believe he's using Near to avoid confronting his own cognitive dissonance about it.

Re: why he tells Near this; I definitely don't think this is meant to be some kind informative statement to make his intentions clear, regardless of whether he means them. I think you're in the right ballpark here. He feels as though he's been used by Near, so he wants to make Near feel the same, and in the process, to show him that he still antagonises Near despite appearing like an ally on the surface. So the interpretation of "don't think this means I'm backing down" is pretty accurate, I'd say. My other possible explanation would be that he believes saying will encourage Near to comply with him. Like, "you already used me, therefore you have to let me use you". We don't have much context to determine what their relationship looked like in the past, but Mello has a lot of hangups about keeping things fair (i.e. giving Near information in return for the photograph, because he doesn't like the idea of being in debt to him), so it's possible Near has demonstrated a similar mentality.

Because I think he’s competent enough that he could’ve interrogated Mogi by himself. No doubt he has the skills and confidence to do it on his own since he has the real lived experience needed to rise in the mafia where he'd have to flawlessly prove himself to a very tough crowd a hundred times over.

Theoretically yes, he could have done it himself, but his choice method of interrogation is kidnapping. I don't think he has the same raw persuasive power that Near does, which he seems to acknowledge in this scene ("I know you're good at that stuff"), so he draws information out of people by force instead. There are two problems with this. One, as mentioned above, he lacks the resources. He has never kidnapped anyone himself. In the case of Sayu and Kitamura, his mafia guys committed the crime themselves, and with Takada, he needed the cooperation of Matt and Lidner to get her away from NHN. I have to imagine it would be incredibly difficult for Mello to orchestrate the kidnapping of Mogi on his own, especially without a secure base, if he hasn't recruited another team of allies by this point.

The second problem is that, as far as he knows, Kira could still be anyone. He was told that it was Matsuda, now he's being told by Lidner that it's the second L, whose identity is unknown to him. Mogi could have the power to kill, and Mello's name is known to the task force, so revealing his face to anyone puts him at risk. This is also mentioned in Near's inner monologue, in which he specifically says "This way, Mello won't be in danger". He also follows this up by saying "Mello wouldn't try to kill me", and I agree with him on that front, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mello thought of this as a bit of a "fuck you" to Near by sending him a guy who could potentially be deadly.

If he kept Mogi to himself it would have in theory given him the big advantage instead of handing it over to his opponent. But the way he set it up put the power in Near's hands...there was always a chance that Near could’ve just said ‘lol thanks’ and hung up the phone leaving Mello high and dry. It seems odd somehow.

I think there's a fairly simple answer to this, which is that the purpose of the phone call is just not something that benefits Near. Mello wants Near to make Mogi say something that will incriminate L as Kira. Near is already confident that L is Kira, so he doesn't care about confirmation. That's strictly something Mello needs to hear. Mello "[keeping] Mogi to himself" would not place him at any distinct advantage, because it would only provide him with information that Near already knows. The reason it's beneficial for Near to let Mello hear this information is because it opens the door for Mello to potentially catch Kira himself. Near appears to want Kira caught regardless of who does it, so this is ultimately beneficial.

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Why Mello Saved Near's Life

And finally, as I understand it your belief is in canon Mello’s priority never wavered from winning the competition but by the end he’d given up hope for that. But also he acted to save Near’s life and gain HIM the victory.

TOTALLY see what you’re saying here and I think this was just bad wording on my part in the original post. So my general opinion is that Mello has gone through a lot of character development since we first see him. When I say his priority was always to win, I mean this not in the sense that he thought dying was a victory, but in the sense that any action that allowed Near to win was not a true triumph. Thus, he couldn’t possibly consider it a win, even a joint one, when Near was ultimately the one to take credit for it, and he saw his sacrifice as surrendering instead. Essentially he never abandoned the idea that there could only be one winner, even if that winner was Near!

If he thought there’s a good chance Near is putting his life in danger by having his name written down and possibly overlooking Kira's counter-move, why act at all? If he were right wouldn't it present an opportunity for Mello to claim victory?

I think perhaps this excerpt (from here) from another of my analyses might help answer this for you:

there’s also the fact that his name is out there, and he knows that, so he probably thinks there’s a high risk he will die or be imprisoned regardless, so at least this way, he’s dying for a cause. and I think it’s also important to remember that even though he hates Near, he believes that Near is better than him. he was raised on that belief; it’s been drilled into him since he was a kid. that’s why he hates Near. so even though he’s dedicated his entire life to beating Near, I do think in a situation like this, where he thinks that one of them is going to die, he would probably assume it’s better to be him.

My point here is essentially that there is not really a future for Mello beyond the case. Even if Mello did "win", what would he do? He already forfeited the role of L; it's not like Near would just give that up because of some five-year-old competition that he was never really invested in. And Mello is a wanted criminal, so his other options are pretty bleak. He could spend the rest of his life on the run, but why? What is the point? I think he started to realise that he had to accept defeat, because the only goal he had left to chase was his own pride.

If Near dies in his confrontation with Kira due to his own mistake…well, that seems like he’s lost fair and square. Afterwards Mello could use Near’s death as the evidence to confront Kira on his own and finally come out the winner.

The issue with this is that it eliminates the entire point of winning. If Near is dead, who is he proving himself to? Who is around to see him claim that victory? It's not like Roger cares, and there's no one else at Wammy's House who mattered to him the same way Near did.

On the other hand if Mello was wrong about there being sketchy business afoot and Near did cleanly confront Kira and win, the situation ends in just the same loss that Mello in theory already accepted so at that point he can go and off himself or whatever. I’m probably not explaining this well, but hopefully you get an idea of what I mean, that there seems to be a bit of disconnect there?

I do get what you mean! Honestly I think Mello was extremely confident that there was a hole in his plan, based on his line "Then I guess I'm going to have to do it". The phrasing makes him sound extremely sure of himself, so I don't think he had any doubt that Near would die if he didn't act.

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Thank you so much for the ask!! I hope this answers things for you - sorry it took me a fair while to write 🫶

[13eyond13]

probably already sent this to someone but what if ryuk was wrong about the shimmygami cant be shot thing and he just DIED on the bus what then?

Hahaha omg...

Well, the main thing I thought about is that Light wouldn't have a shinigami who occasionally helps him out yet also will someday kill him following him around anymore? I THINK the notebook would still be his to use, though don't quote me on that, because it's been ages since I've read the rules and I feel far too lazy to do so right now.

So other than the plot things which Ryuk affected having to change (like erasing Light's memories for him in confinement), I guess Light would just be shinigami-free for a bit? I wonder if eventually Sidoh might go looking for his notebook and then come see Light about it, though (because it actually was HIS notebook originally, Ryuk just stole it from him).

I guess maybe the bus hijacking could go a bit differently, but I think it probably would end up going the same, as in the guy would still get killed by the notebook in the way that Light wrote it would happen and such.

Also, maybe Light would end up getting an extra notebook then if he picked up Ryuk's personal one?