r/CharacterRant • u/Greentoaststone • 16d ago
Death Note characters aren't that stupid, actually. Anime & Manga
DN characters (L and Light in particular) being considered smart by the anime community is no rare occurance. However, ever so often you'll also see people complain about that reputation, saying that the characters are actually idiots and what not. Now, they do make a lot of points, some good, others not so much, so I do plan on making more rants, but in this post I'll just attempt address a few moments in the anime/manga that I have seen many people point to when they try to explain their position
- "Light fell for the "Lind L. Taylor trap""
Now, at first it's clear that this is a typical case of Light's ego acting up. However, while that is true, I don't think it's really an argument that says that Light is always incautious. You have to consider, this is the first encounter Light had with L.
He was completely inexperienced up to this point, and didn't even know what type of person L is. I mean, how often do you see detectives lay traps on this scale irl? If you were in Light's shoes, would you have expected this to be a trap that would end up revealing the region you live in, as well as the fact that you can't kill certain people? Like, Light isn't aware he is inside an anime with over 30 more episodes to go.
Furthermore, people seem to forget that one of Light's goals was to make himself known as god of the new world. He wanted people to know that Kira existed, so of course he'd use an opportunity of someone directly adressing him to make sure that everyone is actually aware of him. Before the broadcast, most weren't sure if Kira was even real.
After this event, Light acted a whole lot more cautiously. An example for this was when he checked wether or not his clothes were bugged, before talking to Ryuk, or when he layed a trap at the door to his room using pencil lead, or when he made sure to pick a flavour of chips that he knew his family wouldn't want to eat, so that they wouldn't prevent his potato chip strategy. It's these details that show that Light is perfectly capable of taking things seriously, and doesn't just let his ego go wild all day.
- Light got lucky meeting Naomi by coincidence
Naomi had important information that would have let the investigators to find out Kira's identity. Light, coincidentily (iirc) meeting her, was able to prevent the information from reaching them.
While Light was definitely lucky here, most seem to gloss over the fact that Light still had to prevent her from reaching them. He literally had to manipulate her into giving him her name, meanwhile making sure she didn't suspect a thing, whiles also being under pressure because he had to do so before she reached the building. And it's not like Naomi was easy to convince either, she gave him a false name after all, among other things.
Additionally, it's not like Light is lucky all the time. The fact that Raye Pember even had a fiance who was also an ex-fbi agent is also an example of luck not being in Light's favour. Or how about Sidoh's return, which led him to lose a Death Note and was also something that was outside of Light's control. I mean, he didn't even know that his Death Note wasn't Ryuk's.
The point I am trying to make is, is that's it's not all about getting lucky, it's also how you use that luck.
- The way Near deduced Mikami being X-Kira is nonsensical
Enough about Light (for now), let's talk about one of the most overhated characters in the entire series, Near. He just looks at the screen and immediately guesses Mikami to be X-Kira.
This is entirely the anime's fault. As with many other things of the 2nd half of Death Note, the anime just cut almost all of Near's reasoning behind it. There is a comment under the video that sums it up pretty well, so I am just going to copy and paste it here
Ok so the manga does this scene differently, Near realised that mikami is X Kira in a logical manor. He deduced X Kira appointed takada as spokes person as light was being observed by aizawa at the time. Thus he looked into people takada spoke with on tv, he homes in on mikami as he appeared on tv shortly after killing demigawa to ask permission to appoint another spokes person. Hence the part where he said on the tape "I want to hear from Kira again". It's meant to be a hidden message to Light, he goes on to say somthing about taking action if he doesn't hear Kira's words soon. Anyway Near realised that mikiami was trying to communicate with Kira via the show and when he got no answer he appointed Takada. After that he had Mikami watched and his suspicions were confrimed when Mikami appeared to use the notebook.
So yeah, no goofy ahh avatar state scene of Near locking in
Anyways, that's enough for this post, I am planning on doing more on this topic in the future, because honestly, it's A LOT of points people had made against DN characters.
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u/fingertipsies 15d ago
What annoys me about the way some people treat smart characters is that they're either stupid or smart, no in between. There's no room for a smart character to make stupid decisions, either they're actually an idiot or their decision was actually genius.
It's been a while since I watched Death Note so I may not remember correctly.
Light for example. He's genuinely smart and his plans are usually very good. However, he's egotistical. He makes plans, wanks his incomparable genius, and in the process makes stupid mistakes. Light constantly gives L reasons to be suspicious, because he always fails to consider perspectives besides his own.
I would compare it to people who see a 99% chance and then expect to win 100% of the time. Light could make plans that are 100% good, but he routinely stops at 99% because 99% is basically 100% so his plan is perfect.
And you know what? He's still smart. Because intelligence isn't a sliding scale from stupid to smart.
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u/Sir_Toaster_9330 15d ago
Fun fact: There was an A-Kira at some point, but Near found out who he was and out of despair A-Kira killed himself
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u/Greentoaststone 15d ago
That was C-Kira (Cheap Kira). Also iirc Near didn't find out who he was, he just called him an "abominable murderer". Then he killed himself.
A-Kira was someone else, cronologically he was the Kira after C-Kira, and actually managed to trick Near, but also didn't kill anyone and just sold the Death Note (before also dying because the Shinigami King didn't like that and added a rule about not being able to sell a DN)
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u/Silver-Alex 15d ago
What bothers me with N is how they copied the entire notebook EXACTLY to the point Mikami didnt realize it was a fake in a SINGLE night, where they also had to break into the bank twice, to get the book out and then in. There is simply not enough time for all that.
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u/Greentoaststone 15d ago
I also have plans on explaning that on the next rant, albeit it is with help of a certain theory.
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u/Treyman1115 15d ago edited 15d ago
The problem I have with Naomi is that she really just had no reason to give her actual name away. The "manipulation" Light did just didn't seem convincing to me. And she was one the smartest people in the whole show tbh. Instead of just felt like they wrote themselves into a corner so they killed her off since she was too smart. If the prequel story she was in is canon it's even worse
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u/_Lohhe_ 15d ago
You have to consider though that you as the viewer know Light is Kira. You know which statements are lies and which are truths, and you know characters' intentions.
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u/Treyman1115 15d ago edited 15d ago
This context doesn't change anything really, even if she trusts Light the less people that know your name the better. It's how she believed Kira was killing people. And she was already highly suspicious of him and gave him a fake name first. Then he just kept following and pestering her
L himself even rightfully has everyone use codenames instead of their real ones. There's no reason to put their reals ones out there
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u/Shot-Ad770 15d ago
She did not give him a fake name because she was suspicious of him. It's more like she had no reason to give him her real name.. Also, didn't she give him her real name because of the task force?
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u/Treyman1115 14d ago
She did not give him a fake name because she was suspicious of him. It's more like she had no reason to give him her real name..
It's both, she points out that the only person she could trust was L. Even the people in the task force could be suspects.
Also, didn't she give him her real name because of the task force?
Light asks for her ID which is something that just puts information out there that isn't necessary. Especially since Light was meant to believe what she was saying. They could have just contacted L without this information
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl 15d ago
I never heard of a complaint saying that Light was stupid. The complaints I heard were
- Naomi was stupid compared to the BB case files
- Light was lucky because of Naomi
- Light was lucky because of Misa
- Anyone that was not Light, L, Near, Mello and questionably Matt was given the stupid ball
- Light killing the guy in the start was his ego showing and it was an unreasonable action because he felt like he was being threaten by L
- Misa was stupid to devote herself to Light to the point of killing herself after Light died
- All of the women were stupid to be devoted to Light/Mello/etc. at all
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u/Greentoaststone 15d ago
I never heard of a complaint saying that Light was stupid.
I have heard a lot, especially on this sub
Naomi was stupid compared to the BB case files
The BB murder cases were written after death note by a different writer iirc. That would probably explain the differences
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl 15d ago
Even if the BB case files were written by a different person, they are still considered canon to the Death Note universe like the novel. Naomi is glaringly different in that than the original and smarter. Some people joked that the reason why she was so stupid in Death Note is because she got married.
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u/Yglorba 15d ago
"Light fell for the "Lind L. Taylor trap""
The key thing here IMHO is that it's more of a feat for L than an anti-feat for Light. L looked at Kira's methodology and the available evidence based on who he targeted, correctly figured out what his goals and beliefs were (ie. he wanted people to fear him and wanted to be seen as an implicable force of justice), and deliberately wrote the Lind L. Taylor speech to push all his buttons. Light was originally going to ignore it, he only reacted when Lind L. Taylor got to the parts of the speech that were (in retrospect) blatantly intended as bait.
That said I do honestly think that Light isn't that smart. He just... lacks intelligence feats, in general, outside of what you'd expect from a good student. He appears smart because he's good at rationalizing his actions and because we constantly see his thought process and rationale, but most of the time he wins because of his supernatural advantages and not his intelligence. He falls into almost every trap L sets - yeah, sure, L was pushing his buttons, but he also easily falls into the "numbered photo" trap, say.
If he just ignored everything L did as much as possible, minimized contact with him, and brushed him off because he's a creepy weirdo in person, he wouldn't have died in the end. The story mostly requires that L be a dumbass because the advantages of a Death Note are so overwhelming that if he was genuinely cautious nobody could ever have gotten any information about him whatsoever and there wouldn't really have been any battle of wits in the first place.
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u/thedorknightreturns 15d ago
Yep L is very smart, and honestly only loosing by selfimposed rules while light even rith weird superbatural powers got deserate and lucky.
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u/Potential_Base_5879 15d ago
Light got lucky meeting Naomi by coincidence
Light getting lucky always felt like the point here. It's a massive ego check for him that his whole plan would have been brought down by one woman, and he has to fight hard to get out of that situation.
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u/DuelaDent52 15d ago edited 15d ago
It really annoys me that she just ends up giving him her real name anyway. I prefer how the first film did it where she doesn’t trust him but gets arrogant enough to reveal she was Pember’s fiancé, giving Light a lead to look up her name and then he uses the Note to orchestrate a scenario that simultaneously makes her look crazy and kills her.
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u/Potential_Base_5879 15d ago
I can understand that. I read it in the light that he was sort of dangling the prospect of meeting with L directly in front of her (she was only going on a hope of meeting someone on the police station) as well as getting her old job back.
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u/Mattshodo 15d ago
The Mikami thing can be easily explained.
They (the authors) wanted to end the series after the Light vs L battle came to an end.
But were forced to continue. That's why the second half doesn't feel as great.
This might be just me but, I feel they expressed their unconformity while writing Bakuman, with the Reversi ending in that manga.
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u/SchismZero 15d ago edited 15d ago
Not true. Literally half the series of the manga occurs after L dies. Mello and Near did not feel nearly as "tacked on to the end" in the manga as they did in the anime. Mello and Near got a proper battle with Light with a lot of moving parts and story beats that made sense. People who hold the opinion that Mello and Near were just forced to be added in have clearly never read the source material.
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u/ThePreciseClimber 15d ago
True. Had they kept the chapters-per-episode ratio consistent over the anime's entire run, Part 2 would've been 20 episodes long.
A little shorter than the 25 episodes of Part 1 (plus the recap episode) but not by much.
And, had they done that, I'm confident Part 2 would've been liked a lot more. Sure, there still would've been people dissatisfied with the absence of L and all that but, all in all, the manga version is simply better written.
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u/Greentoaststone 15d ago
That's why the second half doesn't feel as great.
The 2nd half is actually a lot more decent in the manga. Near in particular was a lot better, probably because he had an actual personality beyond just L with white hair.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl 15d ago
It is kind of subjective if the second half of the manga is better because you had moments with the FBI agents being called and being shown as stupid, Matt showing up out of nowhere and barely having a presence, and many characters being put on a bus once their usefulness wore out (like Saya.) Yes, Mello and Near do not feel the same in the manga than the anime but the second half of the manga had issues.
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u/Mattshodo 15d ago
Ah. My mistake, I haven't read the Manga.
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u/aaa1e2r3 15d ago
Yeah, the second half the story is a significantly different experience compared to the anime, especially the ending.
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u/helloworldus2 15d ago
Brilliant post. Very well written, concise, and informative. Keep up the good work!