#mello

[redmelawashere]

Alright I got woken up at like 3 AM with FORBIDDEN MEMORIES™️ and remember that MelloNear literally had a fandom video game. What other fucking fandom has SHIPPING VIDEO GAMES.

I think it just hit me since recently I've been thinking a lot about how fandom spaces shift over time (especially as we have re-boots, live-actions, or other media that helps reinvigorate fandoms like currently with A:TLA) and honestly, MelloNear has had so many ups and downs and like…as someone who was in this fandom WAY too young and grew up with it I want to see how many people on tumblr, who were there in ye olden wild west days, remember the stuff I do and also for those of you who weren’t around back then but are big now, here’s the insane history that I remember:

1 - LiveJournal (LJ) and the LOST FICS LJ was initially one of the better places to find fics – but a lot of authors jumped ship when FF.NET started to take over and for other reasons that were before my time. Finding fics on LJ that haven’t been deleted was/is hard and their UI is trash I never could get a grasp on it. (The irony of FF.NET now being dead and people jumping ship to AO3 and Tumblr lol.) Astyzia_ii used to write really fucking good MelloNear stuff there. She was one of the first people I ever read that had insanely good Near characterization. Unfortunately, her account no longer exists. But some of the things she wrote were things like:

Near being a total brat (at the time, no one else was really writing Near like that. Including Near lying to Mello about being assaulted by other children at Whammy's, just generally putting him in his place, etc.)

Mello painting Near’s nails black (then this trope just went off on FF.NET and everyone was writing fics like that - I really like when stuff like this comes out of fandom)

Mello finding out that Near, despite being in love with him, thought Mello was so unapproachable he had sex with someone else (implied Giovanni) and Mello is basically confronting Near about it at a time when Near was treated as a prudish virgin in fandom

Finding each other in the apocalypse AU

Mello and Near being like high school sweethearts (salthearts?) and Mello wanting to go to a University in the BIG CITY but would ignore the offer if it meant staying with Near (and super tragic fic too. They pull over on a freeway after an argument about it and then Near just straight up gets hit by a car after pushing Mello out of the way 💀 and you don't know if Near survived)

And obviously, many more really creative AUs

2 - KurosakiAkane and VIDEO GAMES Akane, as Spanish artist and the original “cursed moons” drew some of the most viral and prolific MelloXNear doujinshis and EVEN MADE FANDOM VIDEO GAMES. Like I can’t believe I forgot about this. Akane literally made fandom yaoi video games and they were SO GOOD. What other fandom has shipping video games you’d think it’d be the norm I can barley wrap my head around it

Pretty sure her website (www.cursedmoons.com) is down so you can’t download them directly from there or see her full doujinshis anymore

Her DeviantArt account is still live so you can see some stills and teasers from her doujinshis.

Her LJ account is also still live but more so as an archive.

Her first game “D.nD Poisoned” can be downloaded here if you scroll to the bottom (but I haven’t checked the link so be wary…) but it was basically taking place during Whammy’s days, and yes, Mello has a knife cause he’s unhinged since those were just the times ig.

“D.nD Infection” was her second, unfinished game, which would have been when they were mid-Kira investigation post Mello blowing up the base. I found a website that hosts the short demo she released.

Her games literally inspired a new wave of AUs for the fandom in the fic department and she was just a titan who kept everyone together on all corners of the internet. When she decided to leave the fandom in like 2011 after 2010’s great FF.NET purge of M rated fics it kind of felt like the beginning of the end.  

3 - Doujinshis (fandom comics) Most doujinshi artists had their own websites and MANY were Japanese / Chinese translated into English (pretty sure Akane was the first one to create them exclusively in English...). There are so many archived on YouTube that I used to watch all the time. You can even still find some of Akane’s doujinshi’s on Youtube like:

January

Lost Innocence

The Last Birthday

Game Over

Chocolate Kiss

One of the ones that was most impactful on me was this one that I cannot remember the name of, and it wasn't by Akane, but basically Mello, freshly 16 trying to stay alive, resorts to prostitution, and the big revealer at the end is he’s just kind of left there, alone, opens up his hand and there’s a little white puzzle piece he stole from Near and pretty sure the last line was something along the lines of “no one else” and I just 😭

4 - Lost Art and the Famous Water Colours

A lot of that water-colour MN art you see floating around was from, if I'm not mistaken, a Chinese MelloNear artist and their website I think was just "w" or something and she had created 100s of MN art.

5 - ForbiddenSoul562 and FF.NET Beef and Fan Fic Rap Battles

Soul was one of the BIGGEST creators on FF.NET (and luckily, she’s still active both on FF.Net and here on tumblr!) I remember when she had like a fic battle with another creator FragilePuzzle (who is also on tumblr and active – but they post M-ll-M-tt stuff now and pretty sure they deleted all their MelloNear fics... Their active handle on tumblr is mizzmellos I think? Anyways, they’ve also switched from writing to art and its really good!) And there was like a whole “vote who you think wrote the better fic” and it was like Clash of the Titans. Shame that Fragile, as they used to go by, doesn’t like MN anymore since they also wrote a lot of really good stuff. When Fragile stopped posting and Soul went on an extended hiatus that also felt like another beginning of the end loooooool (pretty sure Soul and Mzz had an interaction here on tumblr reminding each other of each other and I had so much social anxiety I was like headbanging watching this interaction go down and if I'm remembering correctly it started cordial but didn't really end well but I could be 100% misremembering the tone of the interaction but if you dig through Soul's tumblr you can probably find it or mzzs for that matter.) 6 - Kids Writing Dark Tropes

I feel like I should make another post and just…describe how Mello and Near were portrayed individually and in a relationship during that time since it was honestly insane. Very toxic, very star-crossed lovers who revolve around each other but are devastating together and are healthier a part, and so much more. I’m much happier with where their characterization and how the fandom has evolved currently from those times lol. But I think over the years I’ve also realized how fucking young all of us were (I was literally like…13 consuming all this media which retroactively, I’m like YIKES 18+ is 18+ for a reason and I even realized some of my favourite authors / creators who I thought were way older than me or like “cool teenagers” were also close to my age and not that much older so no wonder we were all writing crazy unstable relationship shit like that - which can be fun! - but this was literally all. the. time.).

Honestly that’s all I can remember for now but what a wild ride. I know FF.NET is like, a super hard platform to use now (and just gets worse every day 🙃) but if anyone wants some MN fic recs from the vault lmk and I’ll make a post about it.

-Redmela

[niightniines]

it came to me in a dream

[assimetria4]

snow white

[feeniest]

quick doodle

[vengeflies]

im really normal about him btw

#normal

[overlymellodramattic]

Can you tell I like the wammy boys

[dr4k0ns]

“heart’s bitter bloom”

[cha3blu]

meet cute, meet god

[poofmalyakaet]

guys when they are a biblical reference

[wammypilled]

[queeranotkira]

BESTIES

[redmelawashere]

hi hello! may i ask 13 for Near and Mello?

13: Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

hey hi! Oh that's juicy. I feel like I have WAY more unpopular Mello than Near opinions, since some of my unpopular opinions have become popular over time just as the fandom has evolved (I've been in this hellish fandom, shyly, since I was a wee baby starting highschool and I'm currently in my late 20s for context😭)

Also I realize this was only supposed to be one (1) unpopular opinion. And I provided several. Mb 🙃.

Near:

Near is too slow in taking action (conversely, Mello is too quick in taking action but I think the latter part of this statement isn't all that unpopular lol).

Near isn't weak or brittle, physically speaking. I think we all forget how in the manga buddy straight up dressed in riot gear and blended in with the police to escape an incensed zealous mob.

Near's actually fairly emotional in the series - people just can't read body language or neurodivergent behaviours well

speaking of which Near is super underrated as a character. So it's easy to put him in a box of weak, emotionless, boring, weird, and cautious when he is, like all Whammy kids, a traumatized child doing the work of adults. I also dislike viewing him as a watered down version of L.

Near isn't an angel who is morally above killing someone. I kind of like Matsuda's implication that Near is the reason Mikami is dead.

Near might not be as smart as L and that's not a bad thing. L was an adult way older than Near with more experience solving cases. I also like the imagery of Near and Mello needing to work together to surpass L.

Mello:

Mello didn't idolize L. He was obsessed with the power and glory that the title brought, as well as the concept of beating Near.

Although I think its fun to treat Mello as the "popular" and "well liked" kid at Whammy's kind of like the bully/jock in a highschool setting (and tbh, I love fics that characterize him this way) if we look at manga he's also kind of an isolated weirdo who was mean to basically everyone he interacted with.

I actually think Mello, despite his appearance, embodies a lot of domineering and masculine behaviours and he's comfortable with that portrayal. I honestly don't know how you'd survive the mafia otherwise, even with smarts, and reaching that level of power and infamy with just "faking it". This kind of goes with the point above.

I kind of view Mello as a pansexual disaster who doesn't give a fuck about gender presentation. He just dresses how he likes. But that's maybe cause I'm Eastern European, and when I go back home for the winter, the amount of dude bros in fur trim coats and leather is like a LOT haha. It's a flashy way to show you have money - not necessarily flamboyance. It's kind of like with the extremely elaborate hidden mad max-esque bunker in the middle of the goddamn desert - I think a lot of that was like "haha look how much money and power I have".

Mello could have still helped Near without revealing his face to Takada. I think his rashness reared its ugly head after Matt died (which he didn't expect to happen) and consequently, so did he.

[iknowwhereyousnoozeatnight]

here’s them all together btw (i am seething that there’s an uneven number)

[ponury-grajek]

happy birthday light yagami you deserved all of this that happened to you <3

[poucz]

"The "Red Thread of Fate" is an East Asian myth that says an invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. This thread can stretch or tangle but never break, symbolizing the inevitable connection".

*Strongly referenced by the photography of Luigi Boatto.

[randyng-fanart]