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nateriverswife · 10 months

Note

Salutations.

First off; I would like to thank you for humoring my questions, by far. Having been in the fandom (Death Note) for quite a while can be daunting at times considering how persistent everyone is on certain views that, more often than not, contradicts the canon itself, though I do not mind the originality. Some of the questions you might remember answering from me would be;

1. How unfair it is for everyone in this fandom to go full autobiography mode on Light Yagami but wrote a piss poor characterisation of other characters.

2. L would not enjoy fighting for Justice under Light's idea

There might be more, but these two are the ones that I remember writing and asking.

I rather enjoy reading your point of views. Being an avid Lawlight shipper myself (which you might found dissapointing, and for that, I apologise) I found it rather... boring that most, if not all, were very insistent that L would join Light's side if given the opportunity while writing him very, very poorly. I enjoy these two through the energy they emitted while actively going against each other. Not when they shook hands and went about it all the same like a carousel ride.

Second: What is your opinion on the whole Wammy's House organisation debacle? On A and B? The whole Successor Programme?

I don't like it. Having being nurtured the same as these children does, I absolutely resented it. Partly because of how harmful the product of the whole environment, largely because of how it reflects the morale ground Quillsh Wammy stood and what he believes in. I despise men in suits, even more so than people in orange jumpers or stripped, black and white outfit.

(Call me E.H. I would like for us to be friends. Mutuals.)

Please, E.H., I would be honoured to be mutuals, but how could you betray me like this? Mid-message? Dropping a bomb of that size on me and my blog?

Seriously, though, I would like that. I will overlook this little flaw of yours, because not everyone can be perfect, and I will accept you with open arms.

Okay. Really dropping the act this time. You don’t have to apologies for shipping them, even though I suppose it was more ironic than anything. I already have mutuals that are like you. I filtered out the various tags concerning L/Light – there are a lot of variations –, and I am fine.

I will survive if I add one more… Hopefully — but I think, in this case, it is more of a “probably”, because you do seem to share some of my views on the whole manga/anime and that means we have some common ground, even though I believe that is not that difficult.

I am really glad you like reading my long-ass posts, because I do enjoy writing it. I actually was waiting for some kind of feedback from you, because, truthfully, I wasn’t sure if your opinions were supposed to be just published without any input from me or if you actually wanted me to say something.

I was both confused (didn’t understand why you decided specifically my blog, since it’s not that well know) and delighted by them.

In any case, I am happy to see this message, especially the last part. You are the first person on here who explicitly stated the wish for my friendship. I didn’t expect that at all. I’ve been told that I seem intimidating, and I still don’t get why, so seeing that someone isn’t put off by this, it’s a nice feeling.

I will now get to your questions, and the post is going to be long, because it’s on a topic that I am actually working on and wanted to do a post of my own, but felt like, “why would people care?”, so I am glad that you do.

PREMISE

I need to do a premise before, because I feel like this is relevant to understanding my opinion.

I would love to kick myself in the face every time I happen to mention it (even though I do so to help my motivation), because it seems that I bring it up so many times and it’s making me annoyed, like, “can this bitch (me) just shut the fuck up already?”. However, it’s important in this context.

I am writing a fanfiction about the Wammy’s House, during L’s years there. And, since I am doing this, my idea of the Wammy’s House is crafted in a way that can make my story work, but I do realize this, so I will try to eliminate all my OCs’ stuff (I think I’ll mention them), even though I still believe that some roles or events I have created can be considered plausible (not canon, of course), because they help explain some things that I noticed about L while reading the manga.

Another thing is that this is a work in progress and while I have an outline for the plot, a lot of things about the Wammy’s are still not definitive. So, everything I say is not set in stone. [This question also made me realise that I made a huge error when it comes to the timeline of my fanfic, which screwed up half of the outline, but thank you.]

Other than this, Ohba left a wide-open door for any interpretation of Watari and the Wammy’s, because he didn’t think too much about them. He just wrote them in for plot purposes and never developed them properly, so anything goes, theoretically, so maybe I will be a bit more lenient on both. I don’t deny the possibility of them being pretty fucked up, because I cannot say that what I think is completely backed by canon. To each their own, but since you have experienced a similar environment, I had to preface this, because my view on it doesn’t adhere to the reality of some of these institutions, and I don’t want you to believe that I’m oblivious to the real-life problems that occur.

I think I took more liberty here, because I had few things to start from, and I’m really fond of the idea that the people (Roger and Watari too) at the Wammy’s were like a family, with its ups and downs (more downs than ups – even in my fic, so I realise that not everything is all peaches and cream). It’s just the wishful thinking of my younger self that so desperately wanted to be part of that world, and I have a hard time getting rid of it.

I must also say that most of my choices regarding the Wammy’s structure and organisation is based on “gut feeling”/intuition. More often than not, I feel if something is right or wrong, even though I can’t pinpoint exactly what’s the reason for that. I just have the impression that something must be in a certain way, and if I don’t comply to this, it just feels uncomfortable until I fix it.

WATARI & ROGER

I want to start from them to explain exactly what I think of these two, particularly their past and what led them to create the Wammy’s.

Reference to another post I wrote – headcanons about Roger – but you needn’t to read it, since I am going to repeat it here, and it talks more about their relationship than the Wammy’s.

In my mind, Watari was both a professor and an inventor. The professor job needed to provide for him before his inventions took off and gave him enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life, since it seems that he was quite rich, even before L gained something.

So, together with Roger, who was his assistant, he was in close contact with different types of students and noticed the disparity between those who can study and have the resources and those who don’t them but have the abilities to continue. Of course, they couldn’t intervene in the private business of these people. Instead, they discussed knowledge, intelligence, and the social economic situation of England (and later around the world) that didn’t allow young kids, especially orphans, to develop themselves and their abilities, since they didn’t have the means.

Not trusting the state institutions with their money, they decided to take matters into their own hands and had in mind to create an orphanage that had an internal school, so they can provide them resources and knowledge, without making them sacrifice any of those.

But then a dilemma appeared: “what if some kids can learn faster than others and we end up slowing them down?”

[learn faster than others – because “prodigy” doesn’t mean anything when it comes to orphans that don’t have resources or any help from adults.]

And from that dilemma, the Wammy’s House was born. It was a specific type of the institution they had in mind, which was meant for those who seemed more capable than others.

It’s said that Watari owns different orphanages, but they are not talked about like the Wammy’s, so it’s safe to assume the main difference is this one – what kind of kids are there and what they learn.

About Roger, I honestly think that the “he hates kids” was added to have some sort of comedic effect. However, if it was meant to be taken seriously, and I do consider it canon, there are two reasons to me:

He began to hate them, as he continued to work at the Wammy’s, because they pulled pranks on him. He’s not fierce – shown to us by how he responded to Mello grabbing him and how he stopped Mello from bothering another kid. He is quite passive and not confrontational, so I believe he was an easy target for the kids, and he grew to despise their behaviour and to be quite afraid of them in a way, because, while he tried to stop Mello, his attempt was shallow. I don’t think this is because he didn’t care, but because Mello was angry at him, and his explosive nature made him cautious.

Romantic reason: the kids, and especially L, took Watari from him Watari was too occupied with his work that he almost forgot what he and Roger had. That obviously pained Roger and he began to resent the situation and those who stole him and his attention. That would explain why their relationship grew cold, because we don’t see Roger communicate with Watari once, so it means that something happened that drove them apart, aka these kids got in between.

No matter what the reason is, Roger tries to be emotionally distant from them. I have this trope that I associate with him of the grumpy old man having to deal with a kid because of circumstances he cannot control, and he grows attached to them, wanting to protect them at best of his abilities. This is my wishful thinking, but I believe he has those moments in which he thinks, “maybe they are not that bad”, and they then do something that makes him annoyed, and he’s like, “never mind”.

Watari is emotionally not present too, not because he doesn’t want to be involved, but because he is still an inventor before becoming L’s right hand indefinitely and full-time, so he has to fulfil that role and be involved in that community to promote his stuff, to develop it, and etc. Also, the Wammy’s and the other orphanages are relatively new in my opinion, because he first established them when he’s around 40-45, so a few years before L was born, and he has to make sure they all work as he wants to, and he has to make connections so he can find these kids to bring to the Wammy’s. So, he has a lot on his plate. For this reason, if the kids need to talk to him, they have to go through Roger and get a date and an hour for when he is avaliable. Roger says that if it's urgent, they can talk to him, but they are like, "no, thanks", aka they would rather eat cold and raw food for the rest of their lives.

WAMMY’S HOUSE

Location

I have actually thought about this for a long time, and even wrote a post (after I finished this section, I noticed that I was repeating word for word what I had put here, so please, consider reading it for all the reasons).

Littleton, in the north-west part of Winchester.

I know I’m kind of going the extra mile by doing this, but I’ve always done it for every structure I had to write something about, so the Wammy’s gets a real-life location too.

The actual true reason for which I chose this location is because it’s near big fields, and I needed that for plot purposes, but even without considering that, it seems to fit what we know about L’s life there.

He played tennis – there’s a tennis court 20 minutes by foot from there. Relevant that it’s by foot, because I imagined that Watari couldn’t constantly leave the Wammy’s with L for long periods of time and multiple times a week. He had other affairs to attend to, aside from his responsibility at the Wammy’s.

A’s suicide – there’s a church where he can be buried. It can be reached by foot, so the kids could attend his funeral. I also have a morbid headcanon that B took his body from his grave. I also liked to tie the church to L hearing bells before he dies, so this closeness would make it possible for everyone inside the Wammy’s to hear them.

Big space – because the Wammy’s seems to be pretty big by the manga panels we have, and I have a specific idea of how it’s structured, both its exterior and interior, so it was necessary to have many hectares available.

Structure

I made floor plans. I started this a while ago and never actually completed it, because the site I was using was infuriating, but I found an app, and managed to copy what I had done in the other one. I forgot to change the names of the rooms, because I created this to help me visualise the setting of my fic, so ignore them for now (I will point out some names there, just to explain one thing). Don't mind that they are two different sizes, because the app didn't let me make some of the furniture smaller, so I had to enlarge the rooms, so that's why the first floor is bigger.

It’s not definitive, because I still don’t understand where I should put their stairs – or if to put them, ‘cause based on Mello and L’s egos, they already think so highly of themselves that I don’t think they need a staircase to reach the first floor.

In my fic, I didn’t explicitly state where they are supposed to be. I’m letting the readers figure that one out for me, while I just stick to say if they go down or up them. The main problem is not if they should face or not the entrance, because they have to, but where the hell are on the first floor? My gut feeling keeps making me image them next to Lex’s room, but that doesn’t make sense and would be pretty ugly on the ground floor – they would be too close to the entrance, and I hate it. So, I’m just going to ignore it, until it becomes a problem, which I doubt because I’m the one writing this, and nobody is going to police every single detail.

The two unnamed bedrooms on the ground floor are for people that work there (cooks, cleaning staff or the nurse) that can’t go home for reasons.

In my fic, one of the rooms is always vacant, because I imagine that the employees are near the Wammy’s, so they don’t need to stay there, and it is a storage closet, with all of things – costumes and decorations for all kinds.

It’s a pretty big institution. The size of the rooms might not give that away, but it’s big. It has high ceilings, and the classrooms and bedrooms are longer than wider, but they are still very spacious. When I write and imagine it, even it’s from the perspective of small children, I envision everything to be comfortable even for older kids.

I couldn’t add everything I think it has, so I’ll just list them:

A small football field on the left with two benches, so the kids can rest.

Some big trees next the corners of the garden and some bushes here and there.

A stone path from the main entrance to the gate.

A shed on the right, with all the gardening tools.

The interior might not coincide with the way it is portrayed in the manga panels, but I like to imagine that after A’s death and L’s parting, things got restructured and the internal organisation changed.

Internal organisation - from the year it was founded to 1993, so even during L’s years there

I placed L’s arrival in 1988, when he’s about to turn 9, because L is shown to us to be in relatively light clothing in the one-shot “L: The Wammy’s House”, so it can’t be after 31st October. Winchester usually has a high of 11° and a low of 4° in November, and 8° and 2° in December, so I don’t see why he would be dressed up like that.

And 1993, because he says to Light that he stayed in England for 5 years, which also means that he is not from there. I headcanon him to be born in Scotland, because it’s hilarious to think he has a Scottish accent that he hides – “Bang! if Ah was kira, yoo'd be deid.” | “Looks loch someain drapped thes ceel phain in th' crowd earlier.” and so on. It’s so funny. And also, it kind of makes sense why he wasn’t in England before and why he knows standard English. He could also be from Northern Ireland, but he gives me Scottish vibes.

1993 is also the year in which I place A’s death. I don’t follow the timeline from Another Note, because I cannot imagine A and B being younger than L. I’ll talk about this later.

ENTRY

The first requisite for the kids to be brought to the Wammy’s is to show that they are more able than other (as in “able to learn to a faster speed” or show some specific ability), and they usually are kids that were in another orphanage already. Watari has a wide social network and, to me, he’s called by the people in charge of those institutions (that could be his, like he just owns it and is contact with the ones who take care of it) when they realise a kid’s ability. For this reason, rarely there are kids who are very young, and I put that the second requisite is that they have to be at least 5 years old, because the school inside it goes only from elementary school to high school.

Only in exceptional circumstances, the Wammy’s House takes on younger kids, e.g., if they are in danger and the Wammy’s is the closest place where they can stay. However, after everything is settled (a matter of a few days), they are transferred to other orphanages administrated by Watari if they are that young. They still can come back, when they are older, but it’s a lot more work to look after toddlers or pre-schoolers.

After passing the entry exam, all the kids have their own personal folders with all their existing documents – birth certificate, medical records, etc. – that will be given back to them once they leave the Wammy’s House.

While the whole letter system becomes a thing when L appears, the kids still have to choose their alias, because some of them surely have a troubled past and choosing a new name is a fresh start, as if the bad things that happened to them can’t reach them anymore inside those walls. Since making only some choose it would make them stood out, it is implemented as a general rule, and even Watari does it so it isn't seen as a bad thing.

ENTRY EXAM

To enter the Wammy’s House, there is an exam. Since every one of the kids that are sent here is with the idea that they are more able, the admission rate is 100%.

The exam covers different abilities: raging from knowledge the orphan should possess for their age to difficult stuff (this knowledge is chosen based on the national curriculum for students up to 18 years old), and it includes other scopes (e.g., musical, artistic, etc. – to understand if they have an inclination to something or if they are interested in that).

There is also a social part. Since they live into a community, it’s good to understand how to live with others. If they don’t pass this part, it doesn’t mean they get automatically excluded, but it can lower their position a bit.

There is an obvious fallacy, because if they theoretically know how to behave towards others, it doesn’t mean they employ that behaviour. In fact, most of the kids “know” how to act in a community, but they have some behavioral issues, and the higher they are in the grade system, the worse they are. I like the irony I created, so I’m keeping it in.

This exam focuses more on the thought process than the result.

THE GRADE SYSTEM

I created a system made by 6 grades + 1, which is called “Apex”.

All of them have a basic requirement in knowledge.

The first three (1 is the lowest, 3 is the highest) are more socially oriented and coincide to elementary and middle school. They mostly teach kids social skills, so they can work all together to get to a common objective, aka pass the grade. They focus on play, conversation, emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills.

When developing this, Watari thought it would be quite easy to pass it, but he was wrong. He found out that letting the kids try the test – which is, like, a presentation, a competition and a debate – every year created more hatred between them, so he had to add another year, so they could defuse these feelings and make them understand that cooperation is the best option.

The result here is not that important. The most important part is how they got there and how they all behaved towards each other, which should be inclusive. And, while the kids can maybe work better together as a class or big groups and pass the first two with ease, grade 3 is tricky. Not because the curriculum is hard, but because they need to find a person and trust that they are on the same page as them, but not everyone is eager to get to the new grade.

It never happened for someone of the age 13 to still be in the grade 3, so it was never a problem to “what if they remain there until they become 18?”, because Wammy’s existence is short at this point in time, and usually they find someone, but, in case it happens, Watari has a plan B and it’s individual classes to teach them what they should know at their age. They are still in grade 3 and they still have to do the debate with someone else, but if they pass it, depending on how much they have learnt, they can also do the exam to get to grade 5 or skip the classes about the things they already know, because the other three grades (4 is the lowest, 6 is the highest) are more individualistic. They don’t have to work with the others to pass it, so here is more important the result.

The last “grade” is not a grade, but a category. These are those who fulfilled all the requirements and are “free” to do whatever they want. It’s like they finished high school. They are not required to go to class or take some exams, unless they ask to get a degree or a master, in which case, if they need it, a professor is called to assist them and then, an external qualified examinator to test them and their knowledge. But, other than that, they are completely free.

CLASSES AND TEACHERS

Classes are semi-mandatory, and everyone is greatly encouraged to take part to all of them. Watari may even talk to those who deems more needing to be present, which are usually those in the first grades, especially if they misbehave or show anti-social behaviour.

For the first grades, there is one teacher per grade for every subject, since the syllabus is not hard. They are of course specialized in those parts. This choice was made for consistency and to create a great bond with them, since having different teachers might throw off the dynamics that exist within the class.

For the other grades, since the topics are harder, there is a different teacher for subject.

School time is a bit different from the one for the public school:

Youth Month represents the start of summer break.

Classes are resumed in September.

They have all the other breaks like Easter, Christmas and so on.

The classes are from Monday to Friday, and every student has their own timetable that may or may not coincide with those who share their same grade – it depends on what they know already, determined by a test at the end of every quarter.

ACTIVIES

Youth Month

For this, I took inspiration from youth games in Italy, which is basically an event that promotes inclusivity, sport, healthy competition, and social relations.

It’s in May, and every Sunday there is a different activity in which pairs compete. There are two different competitions based on age: 7-12; 13-17.

In 1989, I put that:

May 7: three legs run.

May 14: relay race.

May 21: treasure hunt.

May 27: cops and robbers (the last game is divided into two big groups to give a chance to gain a lot of points for those who didn’t until then).

In 1990, the only change I made is that the third game is table tennis, since it was raining outside.

Holidays

Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year's Eve are the main holidays that are celebrated inside the Wammy's, because even though I believe that Watari is Christian and the orphanage has an affiliation to Christianity, I don’t think he indoctrinate the kids. That would go against the core of the Wammy’s in my opinion, because kids are supposed to think critically and accepting the existence of God without questioning it is not. They can always turn to that religion if they feel close to it, but it’s not mandatory. They don’t go to Church (imagine two old gay men having to make sure 30+ kids don’t destroy it every Sunday) nor celebrate other very Christian holidays, like Easter. They might have a feast, but it’s not publicly associated to the resurrection of Jesus.

This is a choice I made based on the fact that nobody showcases any belief in any type of supernatural entities. Mello wears a rosary, and it seems more symbolic than him actually believing and practicing the religion. I associate it to his mother, who I like to headcanon as a devoted Christian, since Eastern Europe/Balkans are very, extremely, to a worrying extent religious, to the point that people would rather go to church or call a priest home and pray instead of visiting a doctor to cure any kind of injury.

[Tangent: and the church as an institution seems like the mafia. I happened to be home in Romania when the priest and his helpers had to bless our home and they made us kneel in the dark with torches in hand. We had to kiss his ring and give him money, and it’s not like a voluntary contribution. It’s pretty much blackmailing, because if you don’t “donate”, they have the right to give your place in the graveyard to someone else, and they write it down how much you paid to see if it’s enough when you die. If it is not, your kids or relatives have to pay. It’s wild. It’s not everywhere like this, but the church is quite shady, at least in Romania, and they brainwashed people, especially older ones, to devote everything to them. It's insane.]

Halloween:

I put that a few days before Halloween one of the older kids is appointed to go around the Wammy’s and take notes of what the kids would love to eat (candies) and what they want to dress up as. Everything is done in the realm of possibilities. Watari is going to buy the costumes he can find. Usually, they are passed down from one person to another, so during L’s years, there have been enough requests to have pretty much the ones that are more common, and the only change is to make them fit the new person wearing it. Kids like also to be crafty, like for a mummy costume, they are going to use toilet paper and so on. It’s more about the candies, because he needs to buy something they will like.

In the first part of the day, Watari calls some outsiders to help him decorate the Wammy��s and carve pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns. Some kids give a hand, but the others are more preoccupied with their costumes.

The party usually starts at 17:30, after they take a group photo under the “Hallowe’en XXXX” banner over their head. They then play games and just do their things, while eating candies and other sweets. At 19, there is a feast. After that, Watari or Roger tell the kids some age-appropriate scary stories, and at 21, Littleton has fireworks, but you really have to be lucky to see them, aka it doesn’t have to rain, and it usually does.

Since trick and treat wasn’t popular in UK until the late 80s-early 90s, I put that the kids at the Wammy’s experienced it for the first time in 1992. Watari didn’t understand it at first, because he was the one to buy candies for the kids, so why would they need to go to someone else? (Poor grandpa, feeling replaced).

Christmas:

I wanted to do something different. Watari doesn’t ask the kids what they might want, but tries to surprise them, showing that he knows them, so that he can make up for all the time he isn’t present, which is a lot. He buys the gifts and places them under the tree in the main hall. After the kids open them, they take again a group photo next to the tree and the kids have all their presents in their hand, showing them to the camera. It’s very cozy and calm holiday. They have a big feast, and the kids are let playing with their new toys. They even watch some Christmas movies.

New Years’s Eve:

Watari doesn’t prepare anything special, other than a feast. There are fireworks, and that's it.

Valentine’s day:

There are two types, for those older than 14 and those younger, because I think the Wammy’s is strict when it comes to romance (mostly about PDA), which is not that serious at that age. But it’s an important part of growing up and they cannot go around fearmongering that liking someone in a romantic sense is bad. That would defeat the purpose of the first 3 grades. If you can’t like someone in that way, then you can’t even get near them, as to avoid the possibility of that feeling to develop.

Generally, everyone gets chocolates and candies, but they are also required to write a nice card to someone else. This person is chosen by extraction – done by Watari, who can pretend that is random, but it’s actually not.

In my fic, they usually write stupid things, like “you are funny”, but some of them get someone they have petty rivalry with, and so they write backhanded compliments, because they can go to Watari and complain about the card, and the sender can just lie that they meant it, that it’s all in good faith.

Those that are older than 14 can ask Watari a gift to buy to someone, but of course, it’s fucking embarrassing to go and ask him that, so they usually just gift their sweets to that person and do a hand-made card for them, if they feel like it. Only those that are braver go to ask him to buy a rose, a special card or something.

Stargazing

I added this activity for the summer break, in which they all gather in a nearby field and look at the sky on some specific days.

There is also an astronomer called by Watari that can answer their question, but the reason for this was to let the kids feel a bit freer and not confined within the gates of the Wammy’s, especially the younger ones that can’t go to the recreational ground. They can play some games there, but usually they just lay on the ground and talk with each other. There is a telescope they can use.

Recreational ground

There’s a park near the Wammy’s – 20 minutes by foot, but they usually use bicycles to get there.

Only those age 13 or up can go there. They can’t go alone, but always with someone. If someone age 11 or up wants to go, they need to be accompanied by someone age 16 or up, because those of 13-14-15 might not pay attention to them that much, even if they say, “yes, of course”.

For extra measure, Watari has the numbers of those who live near the park, that can contact him in case something happens. Those under 11 can’t go there under no circumstances. I decided this because the roads that take to the park are not safe for riding bicycles, and there is an age limit for doing that on the road.

Other than the necessary stuff for riding the bicycles, they have a tag with the number of the Wammy’s and a bag with Wammy’s insignia on it, because I did create it. It was just a vision in my mind, but I did a draft using picsart and color, so here you go. It’s not well made, since the lines of the ribbon banner are not straight. The ribbon banner I took from Google had such a bad quality that I could see each pixels (like in the first picture), so I had to draw over the border to make it more full.

The picture on the left was the first version.

The first idea was to have a W with an H behind it, like this.

But I decided to change it, also because it has all the letters of Watari.

Everything that is propriety of the Wammy’s House has this on.

SUCCESSOR PROGRAMME

Premise

First and foremost, I don’t like the idea of Watari being the one to impose it on everyone, without any regard for what they want to do, because I think he’s experienced enough with kids to know that you can't just force them to do something. They won’t. You can coerce them by using violence and threats, but none of the kids that we know of showcase any sign of being physically abused.

It’s also important to note that not everyone in the Wammy’s is competitive. Mello is the only one who wants to be at the top. Matt and Linda don’t care, and neither does Near. He is just first because he is that smart. However, this is after.

Competitiveness is more prevalent in the system I had created, because being in the Apex means not having to follow classes or have to listen to teachers. That’s the prime reason for why people want to reach it. It’s not about prestige, because I don’t think the kids, especially younger ones, have that concept wired in their brain. And usually, as a self-preservation technique, people tend to consider negative something they cannot reach/have and that opinion is automatically applied to those who can enjoy it, which makes them want to stay away from it so nobody thinks that of them, but if they had the chance to join it, they would take it in a heartbeat.

E.g., imagine someone that wants to go to a water park, but they find out that the entrance costs a lot or it’s far away. They are more likely to think, “well, it wasn’t that good to being with” or that it’s only for rich bastards or something, rather than accept that it just happens. They will even talk badly about it to others. However, if they manage to get in, they will enjoy every second of it.

So, in this case, while advancement is okay, getting to the higher position is pretty much a curse, because if you act in a certain way that is redeemed rude, then the reason is considered to be your status.

In my fic, when A and B got in to the Apex, people started to have a negative opinion of them. They have always been on their own, but since they are now reserved AND in the Apex, then it’s because they think too highly of themselves and less of others, which makes people find them some times annoying, even when they are doing nothing wrong. They might still interact with them nicely, but that doesn’t mean they like them.

Secondly, the general theme of the Death Note is that people are responsible for their own downfall in a way, so I’m going to follow that when it comes to its establishment and organisation.

L's idea

Unlike others in the fandom, I consider A and B to be older than L (4 years apart), so the successor programme was first tasted out when L was living there. Decided this because I want him to see what he caused, and for the reasons in the post I hyperlinked.

I have a kind of specific yet not definitive idea of how L’s life before the Wammy’s was. I won’t write all down because I don’t think it’s that important. The only part that is, is the fact that he managed to stop a terroristic attack to get Watari’s attention, because “go big or go home”, and he was the one who decided to establish the successor programme.

Establishment

When he arrived at the Wammy’s, he wanted immediately to get down to business, and asked Watari to talk to the smartest people there: A and B, together.

L introduced the idea for “when I’m away”, as in “when I am taking a break” – because I imagine him to ramble about his career to Watari in the days they stayed together before going back to the Wammy’s and on the 8-10 hours long trip, and Watari pointed out to him that he needed to have time to play/free time, and L said that he was right, that he’d put someone in his place for that time, he’d teach them what he knew, because he was very good at it, he was basically justice itself for how many things he knew – but A and B took that as in “when he dies”.

It was in that moment that L took everything more seriously. They talked for hours. A and B asked him lots of questions about that project, the possibility of that to happen, and how to make sure that it can last for a long time.

And while the conversation started as more of an abstract idea, after L showed them what he managed to do, they were both impressed and eager to learn to be able to do the same. They too had an interest in solving riddles, and… C’mon, it’s cool to be a detective, especially one that was supposed to be the greatest.

They discussed the technicalities and decided not to limit themselves only to two members, so that’s how the successor programme was actually created. It was also A and B to decide their own names, because they said that, since he’s called L, they too should have they own letters, and, while talking, they said, “I would be an alternative” and “if you are that, then I’ll be your backup”, so that’s how they got them.

Basically, it started with L, but A and B became co-owners of this programme in a way, and L didn’t mind it, because they were older than him, seemed wiser, and he looked up to them in a way.

For the others, the letters were chosen in two different ways: the first five smartest people there would be the first letters of the alphabet, while the others would have their own letter based on their real name, because five people were enough.

And I say, “smartest people”, but A and B advised L to look for other qualities other than that, because you can have someone that is extremely intelligent, but if they are extremely reckless too, then that detective persona is doomed to fail.

All three of them talked to kids in grades 4-5-6 and the Apex (in my fic, there are other two people here) about this project, but they weren’t obliged to accept. They let L speak, who explained what they were planning to do, showed them what he did, and gave them the choice to accept or not. If they didn’t accept, they would ask them to not divulge the information they discussed. In my fic, no one actually says no, because they think it’s awesome.

In case they accepted, he granted them a wish, something that he would fulfil, so that, if they wouldn’t get chosen, at least they wouldn’t think they wasted time. It’s a quality I noticed in L, while reading the manga. I explained it in my long post about the characters: he compensates his actions, which I think it’s something he picked up as he started to be interested in solving cases (before he arrived at the Wammy’s), because he saw what criminals had to do after they got caught doing something bad, and wasting people’s time is bad.

So, everyone had a choice and L, initially, worked mostly with the first five people in the successor programme, but not immediately.

In my fic, there is the MC that tries to destroy him and his project, but even without her, it makes sense that he would take time, years even, to make sure this project can operate without any vulnerabilities. He’s far-sighted and took things more seriously, thanks to A and B’s inputs, so he wanted to create a solid foundation for this detective persona and the project.

However, he didn’t spend all his time thinking about that, because he is also a child, so he experienced a bit of his childhood: he participated in Wammy’s activities, played with the other kids, spent his time picking and giving up interests, etc. He even had tennis practices and tournaments, so it’s not like he just solved cases. He still did – smaller ones – but not all the goddamn time. He was also into stocks, and he had to pay attention to that too.

To me, he started when he was 12-13 to solve them periodically, but not publicly, just to have some credibility in the eyes of England’s law enforcement, that could then recommend him to other national law enforcement, slowly building up his empire.

There wasn’t this urgency or this pressure to be like him. It was like a long-period plan that still had to show its fruits. L wouldn’t even tell all the members everything he solved – just the first five, because he would give them the case files to practice their skills.

ALTERNATIVE / A

So, he was older than L and participated to the establishment of the successor programme.

For the first years, he didn’t actually think too much about it, but as he was slowly approaching being 18, he started to have doubts about his abilities, because, as said before, L gave him case files to solve and he wasn’t able to get any of them entirely right. He still didn’t want to admit defeat and be a disappointment in the other eyes’, so he tried times and times again. This had an impact on his mental health, of course.

L noticed this change in attitude and told him that he can switch places with B. He had no problem with it, but A, instead of admitting that he wasn’t fit for the position, preferred to argue with him, damaging their relation.

The situation was really heavy for him, and since telling the truth was worse than anything else, his first attempt to leave it was by running away from the Wammy’s. That didn’t go well, because B, with a group of people there, managed to find him. A invented some kind of excuse, that he was being followed and didn’t want to bring them to the orphanage. B didn’t buy it, and they too started to argue.

So, in that case, telling the truth was worse than death and he couldn’t bear the idea of being a complete failure, and killed himself.

That’s how I see how things went, more or less. And L was blamed for it. The successor programme was interrupted, and some of them decided not to participate anymore, even though they could always return, once and if it would be resumed.

L left the Wammy’s the same year, before turning 14, which is important, because B kills a 13-years old girl by bashing her head, and that what I think he wanted to do to L (in my fic, it’s him and the MC, but whatever) at that time, but couldn’t.

In my fic, A’s name at the Wammy’s is Natal, because it means birth/birthday. And B’s name is Elioenai, which means “towards him are my eyes”. Now, this can have different interpretations: the “eyes” could mean the Shinigami eyes and “him” could be Natal, or L. I am not sure how much I consider him having the Shinigami eyes to be canon. It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t understand how that would be possible, like what led to that and what else does it mean for B? Is he part Shinigami? Or his mother had wild sex with a Shinigami, that then got some type of punishment by the King, because it’s against the rules?

I don’t know, so I don’t count them as canon, to be honest. Cool, but I don’t get it.

For me, Beyond Birthday means also “After Natal”.

BEYOND BIRTHDAY / B

I don’t believe he went completely insane after A’s death. In my mind, he was always kind of shady, ruthless, based on survival instinct and self-preservation. He had an attachment to A, but he had no problem to consider him also a tool that he could use and then discard, if he needed to. He loved him, but he always prioritized himself, at the end of the day.

I associate to them the betrayal trope - Was It All a Lie?

If things went differently and A became L, that would not last long, because B would kill him so that he could succeed him, and nobody would question it, because they wouldn’t know what truly happened.

A’s death screwed up his plan and blamed L for it. He wanted to take his place, but he first needed his detective persona to be well established. He let L do the hard work to create it. A mostly gave some inputs to help him, while B supervised it, to make sure that everything was going according to his plan.

Since A was chosen as first successor, he couldn’t convince him to switch places, because he didn’t want him and L to have the impression that he really wanted that.

He honestly believed that L would be the first one to crack, because he was younger, but when A died and the project stalled for an indefinite period of time, he couldn’t take it. He planned his life to go in a certain way, but now L wouldn’t work as L anymore for an indefinite time, making no progress, and the project was a big question mark, without any information on when or if it would be resumed? That made him see red.

If he couldn’t become L, then nobody deserved it, and he decided to impersonate L and ruin his career. If he had managed to kill himself in Another Note, while Misora still believed him to be L, then that would’ve had irreparable damages to L’s credibility (Misora would tell Raye, who would tell to the FBI, and etc.), and L would’ve needed a lot of time to get that trust back.

That’s one of my interpretations of the LABB case, because I can’t really explain why B decided to that. We take for granted that the Another Note is canon, given also the praise by Ohba, but… It’s not. I have a hard time to consider things about L published after the manga conclusion canon, because they usually follow the fandom’s reaction. I consider the two one shots about Near canon, because Near has never had the same kind of fanbase L did and does, so it’s easy to not be influenced by what other people think.

In Another Note’s case, it’s also written by someone else and, even though it might be weird to say it, it’s a fanfiction in my eyes, that Ohba considers canon because he is lazy, and couldn’t come up with any type of case L solved. He said that himself.

I pick and choose, basically. I could also throw Another Note out the window, with A and B, and pretend they don’t even exist, and I wouldn’t be “wrong” in doing so, but I like them, even though some parts of the novel leave me confused, because it contradicts the canon.

AFTER A'S DEATH

I haven’t thought about this too much. I have just a general idea of the fact that the orphanage got restructured in some way, but don’t know what exactly changed. It’s just my gut feeling telling me that, as well as saying that the grade system got replaced by a simple graduation list, who ranked the kids based on points they gathered during the year by doing tests, and etc. Can’t go in-depth, because there is nothing here that I actually explored. It isn’t important in my fic, so I haven’t paid too much attention to that. I might start to think about it in the future, but I still want to submit my answer.

It gets tricky when it comes to who decided that Mello and Near are meant to be his successors. It makes sense that it would be something imposed to them, but they seem to want it. Near takes on the title of his successor and even tells Light that he is that, meaning that he does not despise it. Mello clearly wants to be the best, and the best in his eyes is L, and I think this is due to the fact that L, during their time, is an established figure in the world and they want to be like him. He came from the Wammy’s, which tells them that they can reach that level of grandiosity.

In the 2013 “It’s not about justice" one-shot, it said that some of the kids lose respect for L and keep their distance, so it is not mandatory for everyone to be part of the successor programme. Maybe even here, it’s mainly for the best in the institution, so that position was offered to Near, Mello and Matt (third in line).

Mello accepted for obvious reasons. Near because he likes to solve puzzles. Matt because, “yeah, why not”, but never believed that he would ever end up actually taking on that role, because Mello was in front of him.

Here, they are not given letters in an alphabetical order, so there isn’t a first or a second for L’s position (it exists only inside the Wammy’s), and it ties well with what I said before about A and B. A felt like he needed to become L and couldn’t back down or ask for help because he was "A", but now, who feels fit will take on L’s role and can also work with the other, without feeling like they need to do things alone.

I doubt L would make the same mistake twice and impose such job on only one person. Besides, I don’t think L believed to die that young, so while they taught them some important skills to be a detective, the idea was that they will become L later in life – in their 40/50s. Unfortunately, L died young and so even the successors were young.

Maybe it’s just naivety on my part, and the interpretation of the majority in this fandom of the Wammy’s House, Watari and the Successor Programme is more accurate than mine.

Of course, characters’ individual experience of the Wammy’s can be absolutely horrendous and they are not fond of the institution, but I don’t think Wammy’s House was born or became as something meant to create copies of L, especially because Near and Mello’s, as well as Matt and Linda’s, personalities and thought processes aren’t a carbon copy of his. They are their own people, in some way.

That’s all I had to say. I think I wrote enough to get a grasp of my idea of everything, even though there are some parts that I did not disclose or aren’t definitive. So, keep that in mind – I might as well wake up one day and decide to consider Wammy’s a factory of Ls, that resembles the common depiction of Hell in cartoons, but I highly doubt it.

Hope you like it. Let me know. And thank you for the ask, as always.

I kept thinking who you might be, based on when you sent the asks and my notifications around that time – maybe to find a correlation (e.g., you read something I wrote and thought of talking about that) – and I identified some accounts. Some of them are mutuals, that I can now exclude. The other non-mutuals that ship L/Light but have views that are different from yours. So, when I said that maybe I know who you might be, I think I was wrong, so I am quite curious to find out the truth.

Take care, E.H.

#as always - hopefully my english is good lmao #thx again #death note #death note meta #l lawliet #beyond birthday #wammy's house #quillish wammy #watari #roger ruvie #mihael keehl #alternative #mail jeevas #nate river #dn.inbox #dn.general

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nateriverswife · 9 months

Note

If you're willing to, would you mind sharing some of L/Aizawa headcanons? if you're not comfortable sharing them here and would rather it be more private, DMs are okay too! Just offering options! But I'd really like to know your thoughts 👀

You are finally free from the shadowban! I have been waiting for this one. And I am glad you asked.

I have never written anything similar – I mean, just random headcanons – so I don’t know how satisfactory this is going to be, because some of these happened in the canon, which I take as hints that there is more going on between them, while others are a bit up in the air lmao.

SHUICHI AIZAWA:

Aizawa is in denial at first, not because he just realized he liked men, but because he fell for motherfucking L of all men. He would’ve had an easier time accepting someone like Ukita, Matsuda or Ide. Not L.

Because of this, he purposefully tries to start an argument with him more often – he thinks that by doing that he can erase his feelings. He is stupid and doesn’t realise that having a rebuttal with him makes him fall in love even more.

He is more concerned about L’s health but tries not to show it too much – he makes snarky comments about his eating/sleeping habits, saying how fucking ridiculous and unhealthy they are and that’s why he comes out with the worst hypothesis, like: “Maybe, if you got 8 hours of sleep, you’d be able to realise that that is absolutely the most absurd thing you have ever suggested.” Sometimes he slips up and he’s being obvious, like when L fell out of his chair, he literally screams, “Ryuzaki!” – gets down on his knees – “Are you okay?”, like who does that for someone they despise?

He is married and he is not the type of person to cheat on someone, so he really has to fight his feelings and suppress them.

He curses the world at night, when going to sleep, because, as he tries not to think about L, he obviously thinks about him.

He sweats when he finds himself alone with L for long periods of time, because: “I am being too obvious, for fuck’s sake. Of course, he knows I like him and he’s going to make fun of me any minute now."

The glow up he had after L’s death is a post-breakup kind of glow up, so that he can make L regret dying on him like that – have you seen his fucking muscles? This man went to gym to get over his ex, I am telling you. At night, he definitely nods to himself and says, “Wouldn’t you love to have me now, L, huh? Too bad you can’t!... Too bad you can't...", and tries not to cry.

After L’s death, initially he couldn’t go to his grave because he still didn’t want to accept that he died. He was angrier than sadder, because, for all that time, L pretended to know better than anyone what was going on, and then he just died. The first time he went there alone and just stayed in silence for a few minutes, before saying that he is a fucking loser. Then, he just left and cried in his car shortly after.

He then gets used to go to his grave and does that regularly – he has some kind of imaginary bickering, saying something and following that up with what L would’ve said in response. Before leaving, he always says that he misses him and wished he wasn’t dead.

After catching Kira, the first thing he does is telling him – “When will you ever be wrong?”

L LAWLIET:

He isn’t in denial about his feelings – he knows why he likes Aizawa and doesn’t find it weird at all that he fell for him. He just doesn’t get involved in romantic relationships, since he’s busy with his job/the Kira case. He thinks it will be counterproductive. He simply states that he likes him (as he did in canon), without going the extra mile to get into a relationship with him (also because Aizawa is married, and he respects that).

He frequently asks about his well-being and the one of his family – he also suggests that he doesn’t overwork himself. Aizawa finds it ironic, since he’s the first one not to take breaks.

He sometimes flirts with him in his own weird way. Aizawa doesn’t realise it most of the times and thinks he is just being corny (and he said in the canon, “I've always hated when you say corny stuff like that”, which implies that it happened before the Aizawa gateway, and we just didn’t see it).

He seriously cares about his opinion and favours him over everyone else in the task force – when Aizawa turns off the screen showing Misa and Light, because he told him to stop doing that, and L doesn’t get angry but says, “I am sorry”, like, what? L would never do that with anyone else. Or when Aizawa points out that Misa hasn’t had water in three days and soon after L gives her that. There are strong implications in the canon manga that L is fond of him, other than explicitly saying that he likes him, so the ship is just right there in front of everyone’s eyes.

GENERAL:

[Copying what I said in a comment lol] Both have “acts of service” as love language – like, if L knows your house has a problem, he is going to fix it for you, but won’t say a word until you bring it up to him, and he’ll be, “Oh, yeah, I did. What do you think?”. He works mostly in the shadows and waits for the other person to say something before talking about it. Aizawa doesn’t have that type of manpower, so he doesn’t do something so big, but since he was willing to go out to Ukita, he really does everything for the ones he loves or cares about. He pours all his heart into his actions for others.

Also, “words of affirmation” – L says directly and upfront that he likes Aizawa, and he praises/thanks the task force when they do something good. Aizawa, on the other hand, doesn’t hold back, when stating his opinions (especially of L), so I can see him to that even when he is being affectionate.

In this way, their love language are compatible, which I think, at least in their case, is perfect for a healthy relationship – minus the fact that L going behind his back to do him a favour would piss Aizawa a bit off, but Aizawa would tell him to stop doing that and L would probably comply, after getting used to it, of course. And they would then discuss things together, even though I still feel like L would still do something important in secret, but it is to surprise him, so it isn’t the same thing.

[AU in which L survives and they are one step from catching Kira] L tells Watari something about preparing for their departure, and Aizawa realises in that moment that they are not going to see each other soon or ever again, so he starts to question L’s proofs and whatnot even more than usual, just so they can investigate together for a little more. L knows the reason why he does that and reassures him, without being obvious, asking instead Soichiro if he can contact them in the future, in case he needs any help, since he found himself pleased with how the investigation went.

[same AU + Aizawa is unmarried] Aizawa is the first one to explicitly say he likes L and at first, he isn’t able to fathom that L reciprocates.

"Why don't you admit your feelings?" L asked, taking a sip of coffee, his back to Aizawa. "I will leave soon."

Aizawa stood still for a few seconds, gazing at the hair of the man he hated so much, which had taken up a place in his brain and heart, like a parasite feeding on the feelings he had for him, and which he couldn't get rid of in the slightest, because it had found a regenerable amount of food.

"Okay, fine. I like you." He finally admitted, as he had no reason to hide anything any longer.

He had always suspected that L knew. After all, he was the greatest detective in the world. But he didn't do it for that reason. It was more that it was only a few hours before they would be separated for an indefinite amount of time; therefore, he would no longer have to show up in the morning there and see him - even though that was what he wanted most in the world, and he had tried unsuccessfully in every way to slow down the investigation, but, in the end, they had caught Kira, or, rather, Light Yagami, and he could do nothing but watch L be even more unreachable as the minutes ticked by.

The only good thing, according to him, was that the distance would allow him to slowly and painfully accept the reality, which was that he had been an idiot for falling in love with him.

L said nothing in front of his confession, which only irritated Aizawa, but rather than show the fact that it bothered him, he preferred to choose a less painful road to the cliff, so that at least the journey would be pleasant.

"Now, what? Are you going to be my boyfriend or something?"

"If you ask me."

"Yeah, right..." He chuckled. "Is that one of your games, again?"

L shook his head. "I did it for you... The request to Chief Yagami."

And Aizawa is like, “Wait, are you fucking serious right now?”.

In another AU, I can see Aizawa saying that he likes him, and L is like, “I am sorry, but haven’t we been boyfriends since the beginning?” just to mess with him.

I still don’t know their ship name – so any suggestion is appreciated lmao.

This is all I have for now, because it’s hard for me to explore something like this, without any variables or a specific context to take into consideration lol. Hope you liked it.

Two NSFW HCs – under the cut:

[unmarried Aizawa AU + not boyfriend yet] They definitely have hate-sex in another room, trying to make as little sound as possible, so the others – all working in the main room – don’t hear them. L is the one to initiate things verbally, making snarky remarks or teasing him to get him riled up and, especially, to get a reaction out of him, which he gets, and Aizawa hates it, because he is playing L’s tune. Aizawa is on the dominant side of it all, and L is the one more satisfied (not only sexually), for sure. Aizawa hates that he enjoyed it as much as he did, and always says to himself, “this is the last time”. (!It never is!)

[unmarried Aizawa AU + boyfriends] I honestly believe that Aizawa is very caring, so he really takes aftercare seriously, like extremely. L’s favourite place is the couch, while Aizawa’s is the shower.

#thanks for the ask!!#death note #l lawliet #shuichi aizawa #dn.inbox #dn.general #L/Aizawa #L x Aizawa #death note headcanon

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nateriverswife · 11 months

Note

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 recommend a drink and a snack, by the way.

I just want to preface this by saying that I did write a post about it, and if you are interested, check it out. 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 suspects and criminals 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, consequently, it might be off topic in some parts, and this is the reason. Another thing is 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.

PREMISE:

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 criticise 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 being 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, this kind 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.

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 in 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 administrate “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 non-existent 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 get him blacklisted from working in a country and make him a wanted criminal.

"But he wouldn't be caught. Nobody would know."

Even if he uses the most intricate way 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 header (we can see that at the beginning of the manga), so going from “yeah, I have suspect” to “they died” continuously would literally point every possible finger in his direction. He cannot afford that, not even if he wanted to do it. 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 a lot of time and planning and would 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 in. If he accepts it, but it takes him too much time without any justifcation, 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 actual 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, 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 (10.500) and surely, he had no time to individually think about each one of them, so he just stopped doing that. By the way, he works on multiple cases at once, so 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 proceedings closely.

Anyway, I am not even 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 incline to believe that he is not. In Lind L. Taylor, he just used what was already in place. So, if he isn't, obviously he won't use the death note by default.

The fun of solving a crime.

He loves it. You wouldn't ever guessed it, right? It's not as if his character is mainly based on this.

But seriously.

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 his criteria be 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. Other than the fact that he goes against Kira for this reason, 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”. I am repeating myself, but 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. I cannot even force myself to conjure a reason other than these two, because there is not.

“But it’s Light.”

Yeah, that’s another reason why L doesn’t give a fuck. Who is Light to him exactly, realistically? No one but a suspect, which he is highly convinced that is Kira.

I am sorry, but if your whole reading of a character is through the lenses of a ship that is not even canon or probable to be canon, since Ohba is homophobic and would never do something like that, then I don’t know what to tell you, but I find it a bit embarrassing.

L is an independent character. Just like Light is.

Maybe – in-universe and without considering Ohba – I am at fault for failing to realise this attachment they might have for one another. Probably, I have this rigid way to look at Death Note in general, that does not allow me to consider L’s activity more than a case that he tries to solve, while gaining a bit of excitement out of it, especially after considering that it’s shown to us in the yotsuba arc that L cared only about Kira, not Light, because he found them entertaining and challenging, not because he liked Light.

I know it’s fiction, okay? Doesn’t have to be realistic. It can be silly and yada yada yada. I look at these posts and giggle at the “so obsessed with each other”, the whole university sees these men playing tennis and disappearing, etc. and I think it’s funny. I see the irony. That is a joke, but then I read posts that try to prove through canon that L was in love with Light or meta-analysis about him, butchering his character just for that or reducing him just to that, for a bit of gay love with the most republican looking guy ever (I mean, fair but, yk), and I wonder what I am missing, what piece of this puzzle I lost along the way, and I cannot find it.

[Tangent: And then I cannot even enjoy most of the fanfics in this fandom for the same reason. I feel like I am not in on the joke.

That’s why I also prefer L x Matsuda or L x Naomi, even though I don't ship them. People who do, at least, don’t change his personality, his morals and so on. In Matsuda’s case, it’s just a change of attitude, which is possible and easier. When I used to read L/Light fics, people would often either make L OOC or change Light completely, so that things could work. In canon, Light is no one outside of Kira, and L would have zero interest in a 17/18-year-old boy that is just smart. Also, L can find other idiots with the same intellect as him, that are not murderers and are far more entertaining. Did L ever say that Light is the only one who understands his mind or reach his level? I don’t remember it, so where does this belief come from? To be honest, I don’t even really like when people reduce characters to their intelligence. A person is more than their mind.

And I am glad to have found a small following/a group of mutuals that are like me in this regard, because the reason why I left the fandom years ago was also due to the inability to enjoy any content because it would always have L/Light slapped on it lmao (since the characters in the second half were not really considered).

Some people who ship them follow me, which is cool to see because it means they are not here expecting that, but for some unknown reason. I don’t usually go on a rampage about them – what I said here was very mild and I think bearable – so that’s maybe why they don’t mind being here, so yeah, that’s nice. There also people who like Light, and I despise him, so that’s also sweet, but it also means that I am not hating on him enough. I might compensate for that (jk)].

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 it’s 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 corrupted politicians. That would never happen. Not only because he wouldn’t kill criminals 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. His speech at the end was just 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 don't make sense to me if he actually cared, but I was writing it in my tumblr drafts, and it got deleted. Now, it’s uncompleted in my notes, and I have no motivation to finish it. Nice.

Far-sighted.

As I was writing the paragraph above the last one, there's 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 (long ask about characters in general), I talked about the Aizawa’s gateway 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 overthrown him, hinder his work or find out who he is (although he does really get a sick pleasure by telling people he is Kira, after condemning them to death). Even in Raye’s case, he could’ve 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 tossed him in the trash.

L is not like this. L can see himself working with same people he manipulated for a long period of time. He does not 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 can even create a mutually beneficial partnership.

He is far-sighted. He might think that a criminal he caught could be useful in the future. Imagine if he has a case that connects him to one he already solved and he needs any input he can get from the person responsible for that, I believe he will make a deal or manipulate them to get that information. So, using the death note and killing his possible future assets is such a self-sabotaging move, in my opinion.

What he would do with the death note.

As I wrote in the post hyperlinked at the beginning, he would study it, make Watari and himself remember the rules even without owning the death note and either give it back to the Shinigami, after getting as much as possible information 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.

Will he want 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 without his intervention, because it’s not an urgent matter, so 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 in a normal day in his life, seeing it actually work could lead him to have some thoughts he might not otherwise have, and that could possible 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 met a fucking 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’t have 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. It would’ve saved his life, to be honest, because Rem wouldn't have 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 what Near did in the 2013 one shot.

My rambling ends here, and 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. And if they continue like this, they could actually defeat him. And all the leaders in the world being like, "bitch, what are you doing?? Don't encourage them!"

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” post, 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 love when I find these type of messages in my inbox, because they make me think lol

That’s all.

#thanks for the input!!#death note #l lawliet #light yagami #dn.inbox #as always hopefully my english is understandable #i feel like i know who you might be tbh #but even if i'm wrong - i still adore you #dn.general #dn.L #meta analysis #death note meta

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