#L-A opinion

[jichanxo]

okay i know they went to university basically never because plot, but i'm forever amused by the idea of strangers seeing these two together and being baffled/wildly wrong about them

[pinetreequestionmark]

I find it interesting that so many people, including the writers of the games themselves, have apollo as trucy's magical assistant, often unwilling. Thing is, you can not have an untrained and especially not unwilling magician's assistant. Sure, you can call up an audience member to do a trick or two, but A: they need to play along at least a little or they risk ruining the trick, and 2: the entire time someone who isn't in on the magic is on stage it massively reduces your options for tricks, since you have to do stuff whose good sightlines someone in the middle of the fucking stage. An actual magician's assistant often does more of the tricks than the magician themselves, as their job is to subtly do things while the magician draws attention by being entertaining. So if apollo is being trucy's 'wonderful assistant' than you bet your ass he's at all the fucking rehearsals and he also knows how all the tricks work. Which I can believe, he is a gramarye after all.

[xruzzakix]

Ship that couldn't ever be canon in any circumstance more than how they were in the canon dynamic:

Ship that 100% could've been canon given a different ending to the show:

Ship I still can't exactly say is canon or not:

Ship that was technically canon but was bound to end tragically:

Ship that definitely has some weird dynamic going on in canon:

Ship that would've been strangely heartwarming if it ever became canon:

Lesbian ship everyone needed to recover from the traumatizing events of canon:

Ship that would've been AMAZING if it was canon:

And finally, ship that SHOULD'VE been canon:

[dawnbreakersgaze]

I just had my husband watch Ebb and Flow, these are his notes-

"So he's grump because he's sick?"

"Is he always that whiny"?

"Yes, but this is Advanced Whiny because he's sick."

"Oh. Got it."

"You like him because he's a bottom don't you?"

"If he's so weak how is he just grabbing her like that hMmmm? She's into it?"

"Oh she's DEFINITELY into it."

"OHHH she's a Domme. This makes so much more sense now. Oh shit he called her master. No wonder you like this." *looks at me with extreme side eye*

"Wait so she's not into it? This girl is sending mixed signals. He's obviously DTF."

"The fandom interpretation is that he's 'in heat' here."

"I mean... *obviously flustered* yeah. Yeah."

"Okay but wait she's just feeling him up again? And he's just what, rubbing himself all over her? This is the horniest man."

"I know that look. I've been that look. She can't think he's just sick. He just invited her to a few rounds of free use come on."

"This is painful why are you enjoying this. This man is suffering from dick atrophy he's clearly crying for help."

"Oh his voice changed? He doesn't sound sick anymore? So it was an act? He was playin? He was down so bad he was willing to go the pathetic man route? Oof."

*giggling watching him go through the confusion here*

"After all that all he did was nap?? He was so hard for her and all he did was nap?! I guess he really was sick. Damn."

Lmao the insight 🤣

[skybluearia]

I don't think if many people (or anyone at all) can relate to this post, but i see that many people were fans of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or hunger games as kids, but i was an aogg kid from the very start. I read all 8 books when i was 9 or 10, and i reread it several times over the years, everytime with a new outlook on the world and myself.

Everything about it is nostalgic to me, from the moment Anne met Matthew in the train station, to her friendship with Diana, to her holding a grudge againts Gilbert for 5 years, to her silly mistakes in the first and second book, to her finding new friends in college and Ruby's death in the third book (which was hard to take tbh), to all those letters she wrote to Gilbert in the 4th book, to her marriage and the death of her first child, her meeting captain Jim, Leslie and Miss Cornelia in the 5th book, the 6th book where her children's adventures begin; the 7th book and the arrival of the lovely Merediths; and finally, the last book and the shadow of war over Anne's life, Walter's death and at last, her sons' homecoming and the beautiful ending which brought Rilla and Ken together. It's just that when you read the books you basically follow her all the way from her childhood to her girlhood and then womanhood, and then you start loving her children just as much as you love her. You live in Green Gables and Windy Poplars and Ingleside, you watch her grow old. You follow two generations of the lovliest people in literature. To me it was aogg from the very start and I'm glad about that, reading and rereading it is always somehow the reassurance that I need that the world isn't that horrible of a place, it's just messy, and in dire need for a cup of tea and good old friends you can visit old gardens with on your birthday :)

[choscar-op81]

I swear the adoption joke was fire I loved it but that’s so 2024. It’s a new year and Choscar has mad potential Like they’ve had so many moments together (just wait till I drop the post y’all will get it🫵). Lowkey if that joke didn’t exist there’d already be a ton of fics about them. But okay credit where it’s due the joke did bring them closer You can clearly see that Oscar really likes Charles and vice versa and Oscar feels very comfortable around Charles

Still can we please move on this year? Cause I’m telling you, if they started making out on podium everyone would just be like, “Oh, that’s normal, no big deal, It's just a father and son” Bro, what? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

look at this(They’re fucking each other)

[letsgauxplay]

looking at the multi banners so far…

Veiled Whispers where MC is drunk, zayne kissed MC, MC tied rafayel up, and made the night darker with Xavier. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ out of 5

Lingering Gaze: fun and flirty with the boys and zayne kiss 🍬🍬🍬🍬 out of 5 sweet

Entwined Shadows: first non fade away kiss 🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬 off the charts sweetness and maybe 🌶️🌶️ for the spice because making out 🥵 (actually rafayel’s is the sweetest and zayne’s was so hot, xavier is both ah my brain scrambled but all three had their own thing)

Misty Invasion: i don’t think i need to say anything more 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Wander in Wonder: 🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬 too adorbs and feel good and happy ahhh can also add some 🌶️🌶️🌶️ too

Cat Caretaker: just when I thought they can’t get me, they bring this out. 😼😼😼😼 🍬🍬🍬🍬🍬🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ full marks if you like this kind of kink trope

and this is just based on my personal experience. we can disagree and agree on some things since we all have different preferences ✨🫡👋☺️

[lara635kookie]

Unpopular opinions on Caleb:

Okay, I'm going to be honest here:I don't see Caleb as a love interest. I see him as our adoptive older brother. In some voiceovers, he's referred as such. Just a disclaimer here:If you like him romantically, I'm not judging you. I'm just expressing my opinion to whoever might share it, but if you don't, I respect it.

Some might argue that "older person of family" are words that korean/japanese/chinese people just use to show respect, and I know this. Like korean has "oppa" and I don't know the chinese/japanese counterpart. And that I understand. However, they were RAISED TOGETHER. By the SAME PERSON. In the same HOUSEHOLD. Same ENVIRONMENT. Even if they are not biologically related, they were raised like it. That's why the childhood friends to lovers works for Zayne. He was raised by a different family.

Some people might argue that it was like a "living in the same orphanage type of thing", which would make sense if they lived in an actual orphanage, who has a completely different structure. You see way more than just two kids in one, and you don't see them calling the person who takes care of them "grandma". They both considered and called Josephine "grandma" even knowing they were not related by blood to her. Implying they both consider themselves her grandchildren. Even if it's just a form of respect in Asia calling her grandma, they still acted like siblings being raised by their grandmother. I'm sorry but Josephine clearly adopted them. If it was an orphanage kind of scenario, they would look forward to being adopted by a family one day, and they both seemed very in home with Josephine. And even if they weren't adopted, if it was an orphanage, as they are both adults, they would both have to leave, because you have to once you're 18. But they kept coming back and staying there, both of them in their 20s. Don't be fooled by some movies or series, usually the kids in orphanages don't develop the kind of bond Caleb and MC had with Josephine. If there wasn't a bond, they wouldn't call her "grandma", they would use "Mrs./Miss Josephine" or just "Josephine".

We don't have many details about their adoption. I've always imagined it was legal, Josephine had the documents signed and such because I imagine she just can't get two kids and get them home. Even if she was involved in shady stuff in the past, considering Zayne's family knew about her and Caleb, and they were close, it doesn't seem like Josephine was trying to hide them. What might kinda justify to me Caleb being a li is maybe she didn't have their permanent guard and now that they are both legal adults they don't need to see each other as brother and sister anymore according to the law and all documentation and traces of their childhood were erased in the explosion. But so far in the story, MC and Caleb acted like siblings, spoke to each other like siblings, teased each other like siblings, they had all the siblings' mannerisms. Their dynamic was way too sibling like, way too many brother and sister coded, that he just popped into my like the banter, the nicknames, etc. I immediately knew he was our older brother as soon as he opened his mouth. The game didn't have to mention it. It was just that obvious, I just assumed based on what they showed. The narrative and plotline just make it so clear. I was even "props to them for making adoptive siblings actually act like normal siblings"( I guess I said it too soon). So far, he was written like an adoptive older brother, and IT WORKED. He was an amazing brother, lol. I think they will probably pull off:The old Caleb, who was her brother, died. This new one changed his personality completely with everything that happened, and now he makes moves on MC. And MC will have to understand that "the sweet boy from her childhood" is gone and see him differently. But like...It's still the same person. Even if with a new personality. I know I'm not the only one who thinks that. They never showed romantic feelings for one another so far. So when I saw this trailer, I was like, "Where does that come from?". Making this transition just seems weird. Imagine them being married and telling people how they met: "We were raised by our grandma in the same house." I'm sorry, but to me, it is just awkward, even though it's legal in theory.

Even if the adoption is undone, they can't change the past. Grandma Josephine dying doesn't change the fact that they were raised, even if not as siblings, as members of the same family. The fact that is by adoption and not by blood, doesn't make it any less real. Adoptive siblings are not less siblings than biological ones. I just hate those kinds of situation, that sadly seem to be increasing their popularity nowadays(The Tearsmith, Culpa Mia/Tuya, etc) that two people become siblings by the circunstances and then fall in love and we are supposed to believe it's forbidden love but like... If you are justifying it with "they are not related by blood", then it's not actually forbidden. "Oh but they have to hide it for their family not to find out" they hide it for a short while, the family finds out, opposes to it for like five seconds and then they end up together somehow in the end. In that case, Josephine died before she could find out, but you got it. And those people are usually the same people that go like:"blood doesn't matter, family is who loves and cares about you and raised you to be the person you are" when it's about couples from the lgbtqiapn+ community or even straight couples when one of them is infertile and adopt children. So what's their point? Do they believe on adoption or not? Those people only believe adoption when it's convenient to them. How is this any different? Those people are basically saying:"Your adoptive siblings are not your real siblings, because adoption means nothing and they are not a part of your real family, so even if you were raised together for years, it's not incest if you hook up with them."

I don't remember what was said about Josephine not wanting kids, or not being good with kids, but she seemingly raised Caleb and MC very well, so that probably changed as she grew older.

Back to Caleb, even as a character...The only unique feature he has is his mechanic arm, that I found really interesting, not just because for inclusivity/diversity/representation but also because it passes a cyborg vibe that just makes sense for a futuristic story, like Alita Battle Angel, for example, that I love. But that's on his physical appearence. Aside from that, in other physical features, and specially in personality, he just seems like a combination of all the other love interests. He kinda looks like Zayne and has the "same" trope as him, he's got a Sylus type of dark romance and kinda villain vibe and the same height as him(I know Caleb was a character before Sylus but he only became a li now, which makes it sound intentional, they could have made Sylus a little bit taller to avoid that, like 192cm or something), Rafayel's more "manipulative" side and eyes that look like his, and Xavier's freakiness and the fact that he also wears an uniform and also flies high, Xavier with spaceships and him with airplanes. I've also seen complaints about his voice, that I didn't like either, but I imagine it will get better with time.

Another thing, is this theory right here that someone commented on Instagram:

(Shout-out to this person because it just seems so obvious now, but I probably would have never thought of that on my own, lol)

The parallels between him and Zayne were pretty obvious, like a few also were with Sylus and Xavier. The thing is... So like, adding similarities to Zayne is understandable, because of this, but as I said, Caleb has a little bit of all the LIs. Which just make it seem like the devs made him to be a cheap copy made with the crumbs of the other LIs with no individuality at all. Which as it was proved with Sylus and Xavier, it could have been avoided, as both have white hair and both come from the same planet, and that's pretty much all they have in common. They should have added on Caleb similarities only to Zayne, because adding to the others to makes it seem like they were desperate to make everyone like him for them to forget that the questionable things I listed that make him a brother, but to me, personally, it had the opposite effect. It just made me like the others even more. And just makes Caleb seem kinda forgettable, since he has no features only he has, that make him stand out from the rest. His personality will probably be more revealed with time, but still, that's not a great start.

The conclusion with this is that I won't stop playing the game or hate on it, I'll just ignore the Caleb romantic content as much as possible and just keep seeing him as a character who is important aa he is MC's adoptive older brother who just came back from the dead somehow, which is what the people who are unsatisfied, like me, should be doing, because hating on it won't change anything. You can share your opinions, like I'm doing, but please do it respectfully. For all the reasons I've mentioned, I don't dislike Caleb, I just feel indifferent to him as a love interest, I still acknowledge him as a well written brother and a good character overall. But if you dislike him, and any other love interest at all, for that matter, there's no point in hating on it, just pretend he's not there. There are other four love interests, I'm sure one of them has catch your eye so just focus on them(this part is a message specifically for some people I've saw attacking the Caleb girlies). Let's just respect each others views.

[corviiids]

If i ask nicely, would you consider writing the core of Light and L character like you did for Shuake? (IT'S BRILLIANT BTW!! You're so galazy brain. I love reading any meta or just silly posts you posted here <3) because you mention Light a couple time in Akechi's part and now i need to know your thought on him and L.

(Also, about the death note wip you're cooking right now, is it a oneshot or multiple chapters fic? Im super excited for it!)

i ABSOLUTELY would thank you so much for asking and for your lovely kind words. and im sorry this took me seven years to get to i just kept psyching myself out.

here's the ren & goro post this ask refers to for anyone wondering. the 'core' refers to my answer to a writing meme:

26. What would you describe as OOC? [...] it's the same approach i take to language tbh particularly in pronunciation. once you understand how a language forms its sounds at a base level, you dont struggle with the accent on particular words, and you can encounter words you've never seen before and understand how they're likely to be said/spelled/etc. so once i learn to 'speak' a character they come more naturally. idk if that comparison makes sense to anyone else but it does to meeeee all this to say i think a character is ooc if they do or say something i cant reconcile with that core!

the death note wip is a multichap!! thank you for your interest!!! ill talk about it more once i've stopped tying myself in knots plotting it!! broadly it's a what-if type au which has led me to replot an entire series from scratch dont look at me

anyway lawlight below. i will say ive been really desperately wanting to do like a video essay or something about death note which would be a lot about L and light specifically and how i interpret their characters so ill try and not go toooooo insane in this post but maybe ill go more insane later. in a video. with my human voice.

(edit: i failed i went insane)

light - one-way road to the sky

ok let's talk about one of my favourite scenes of the entire series, which i think is widely not super well understood but honestly to me holds the key to light's entire character. it's right there in volume 1

sorry, the only digital copy ive got on hand is the scanlation. for comparison the official print copy reads:

bubble 1: hey, maki, wanna party tomorrow with some guys from s. college? ten o'clock. bubble 2: yeah, totally! bubble 3: hey, can i go too? bubble 4: my mom isn't here yet? what's that nag doing, geez! light (thinking): damn... light (thinking): start looking around you... light (thinking): and all you see are people the world would be better off without.

this happens within the first 40 pages of the first volume. and it's like. haha hey light what the fuck? this is a totally normal scene in everyday life. people are talking about living their lives. nobody's done anything remotely reprehensible in this scene. and light's just walking through the streets experiencing apparently unprompted and quite extreme misanthropy. what's wrong with him

ok let's have a quick look at the first time we meet light in the anime.

[...]

[...]

cool cool cool im gonna pivot again let's look at the first song (besides the overture) in the musical.

ok rook! we get it! light yagami is out here like damn we live in a society time to kill people about it. this is news to nobody! we all know this!! that's what the series is about! why are we rehashing all of this

great. cool. awesome. let's look at all those scenes one more time. but this time don't look at light. instead let's look at the people around him

in the opening shots of the anime (after the shinigami world, which actually is much the same theme): news of brutal murder is narrated over establishing shots of tokyo. light is shown dead-eyed, going about his ordinary life, surrounded by random other civilians doing the same thing.

in the musical, light isn't angry that murders happen. he's angry about the inaction and complicity of the ordinary people around him.

these scenes aren't highlighting that light thinks crime is bad. we all know crime is bad. the point of these scenes is to contrast light's frustration and fury against the reactions of the people around him. here's what light yagami is seeing: we're surrounded with rot. but nobody's reacting. and then life just goes on. so suddenly all those completely normal scenes of people being concerned with the superficial details of their life aren't just normality, they're complicity. day in, day out. so the world is rotting, and to light, it seems that everyone is completely ok with that. that's just the way things are. and that disgusts and depresses him. on top of than that, it isolates him: he feels like he's the only one who sees or cares about this, that everyone dismisses him as naive, that no one else can be trusted, that everyone else is able to ignore something he sees as inexcusable. this is a sentiment he repeats again and again. it reads as arrogance, and it is, but it's also isolation - after all it's lonely at the top and just as lonely to feel like you're at the top even if you arent

can i talk about the iliad again? is that ok with everyone. im gonna talk about the iliad again

in book 1 of the iliad, the commander of the greek army insults achilles by publicly and unlawfully taking a prize (the girl briseis) who rightfully belonged to achilles. achilles reacts by withdrawing his troops from the army, dooming the greeks' campaign. achilles had a lot of friends in the army, so why would he essentially sentence them all to death for something that only agamemnon did? well, (because agamemnon did something publicly that everyone knew was wrong, and yet nobody was willing (or at least able) to stand up for achilles and stop it from happening. achilles, disgusted by the inaction of the bystanders, turned his back on all of them. fun fact i nearly wrote a mini thesis (an academic one not just a long post on tumblr) about the intersection btwn this book of the iliad and legal theory but law+classics is such a niche interdisciplinary field my professor couldnt find anyone who could supervise me so i couldnt do it. anyway that's not the point

is this right or fair? who cares, not the point. what im interested in is what that kind of behaviour says about the individual. light, like achilles, is a highly idealistic person. we all know that in the abstract, but take a second to really really dig into it, because it's actually quite an interesting fact about a character who is popularly understood as being cold and unfeeling or flatly psychotic and on a power trip. idealism isn't naivety, it's not optimism, it's not even really a happy thing. idealism is simply a firm belief in the way things should be at the cost of refusing or being unable to accept what is.

this is the core of light yagami to me. light doesn't become kira because he's cold or destructive or crazy. he doesn't actually even do it because he's spiteful or misanthropic. it's very much the opposite. he's misanthropic because he believes in the world so much. isn't that a great contradiction! ok here i'll show you some proof.

in an early scene (also in volume 1), light describes himself as an optimist and ryuk finds that interesting.

so light is an optimist. he believes in a bright future for humanity. he wants to protect humanity. he likes humanity. no, he doesn't believe that people are inherently good, but he does believe in some goodness as a part of humanity and wants to protect the best of people, in an egotistical way:

how do we reconcile that with a young man who walks through the streets listening to completely ordinary conversations by ordinary people and reacts by wishing death on everyone talking?

let's split out what's going on here. remember what's happening in light's head. light yagami is 17 years old. he grew up with a police chief for a father (in a fictional world where the police are the literary stand-in for law as justice so just pretend for a second that police are good im sorry), watching his father work tirelessly to fight crime - but crime continues, making this an endless, thankless task. and while crime continues, so does the world around him. every day light sees atrocities on the news, and he sees atrocities brought home, and then he lives his ordinary life and watches the people around him apparently not give a shit, only concerned with the petty details of their own little lives. bystanders watching wrong happen, selfishly unaffected. day in, day out. that idealism is getting colder the longer this unendurable injustice goes on. so achilles condemns his friends to death.

what human trait is being exhibited? realistically it's helplessness. would being miserable about crime help to end crime? of course not. people have to go on with their lives, that's a fact, it's even a strength. even light begins the series completely unable to do a thing about the rot he sees around him, which is part of why he's so depressed. but that's not what light is seeing. light is seeing ordinary people appear to choose not to give a fuck about injustice. the thing that's sparking his disgust is apathy, real or apparent. light yagami is an idealist. he wants a better future - a utopia that only he can imagine - something that can only happen if either everyone becomes as good as he is, or he takes control.

if you leave an idealist in an unwinnable situation for too long, their pure belief will start to curdle. it will not turn to realism. they will not accept what is. they will only become more and more bitter that what should be, isn't. they will become a cynicist. this is really the heart of my argument and ive made it a million times and ill make it again. idealism and cynicism are not opposites, they're not even two sides of a coin. they are two points on the same line which moves very quickly in only one direction. this is where i start when im writing him: how do i make someone who believes so hard that it's killing him? someone who believes so hard it makes him believe in nothing?

then we find the third point on that line, which someone can reach by gaining sudden power - for example, a magic notebook that kills people: radicalisation.

how do we reconcile his desire to protect humanity with the fact that what he's trying to protect against is also humanity? how can i say light loves humanity when he has such disdain for them? easy peasy: light sees himself as the messiah. my bumper sticker that says ask me about light's martyr complex PLEASE ask me about light's martyr complex i wrote a song about it ask me about light seeing himself as the sacrificial lamb on the (and then the bumper sticker cuts off)

light loves humanity the way a twisted shepherd might love his sheep. something to be protected, but something beneath you that can't be trusted to know what's best for them. humanity is something he loves because it's endearingly pathetic, something to pity and save. repeatedly he refers to becoming kira as a personal sacrifice, something that costs him his soul but that he has to do. it's a delusion of grandeur driven by dual purposes of ego and some desperate wish to change a status quo he's been despairing about for years.

tl;dr: light believes with all his soul in something he thinks is impossible, and it's killing him slowly, and then a chance to change the world just falls out of the sky

L - isolate yourself until you can make believe it's just a game

steeples fingers. i have Things to Say about L Lawliet.

ok listen. listen. Listen. listen. are you listening? listen. in general i think people kind of misunderstand characters who are hyper-intellectual and/or behave unconventionally in social settings. you're all going to fucking kill me for this but i think there's a tendency to like... accidentally turn any character who falls vaguely in this broad category into sheldon cooper. god im sorry i feel like i just shot everyone's collective dog

specifically what i mean by that is that 'awkward' gets flanderised in a way that eventually becomes a caricature of itself, because there is so much nuance to actual social awkwardness that it's very easy to kind of pick a template and stick to it without really thinking about what makes that character 'awkward' and what the root and type of awkwardness is, unique to them. so instead we just get, like... generic big word user. generic driven by logic and logic alone guy. generic guy who doesn't Do Well with other people, for Smart Reasons.

here's a list of true things about L which i think are safe to say are uncontroversial

intuitive

logical, master of deductive reasoning

competitive

behaves in an odd way that draws attention

is aware of that fact

focuses extremely hard on his cases and only cares about being a detective not anything else

isolates himself and doesn't like talking to people partly for his own safety partly because it's boring to him

here are things i have seen in characterisation of L which i would like to dispute

makes decisions and draws conclusions based solely on logic and evidence

doesn't understand social cues

here's a list of alternate interpretations which i would like to propose and that i am willing to back up with evidence and/or by physically fighting over them

is driven primarily not by logic or evidence, but by incredible intuition which is supported by logic and evidence when it suits him

has a keen understanding of people, interpersonal relationships, and social norms

leverages that understanding frequently to his benefit

feels that he is not capable of / not a part of emotions that he sees as being typically human (see his speech about being a monster)

and yet in an abstract and self-contradictory and low-priority way still kind of desires connection, leaving him emotionally isolated

chooses to behave oddly on purpose, not because he doesn't realise he's behaving oddly, but because it is not a priority for him

those might seem like fine distinctions at some points, but stray slightly off the mark and his characterisation begins to vary wildly. for example, interpret L as being bemused or unaware of social cues, and one possible characterisation that may stem from that understanding (which i have seen) is that L doesn't understand sarcasm or jokes - which is demonstrably untrue. L demonstrates weak social skills because social skills aren't a priority for him, not because he doesn't understand social norms. after all he does a reasonably convincing 'i am a normal dudeguy' voice on at least two occasions (suzuki the information line guy and asahi the calling matsuda for drinks guy). even with the taskforce, when his behaviour is more of his usual bizarre self, he still makes the effort to treat them respectfully and meet them where they are, explaining himself when they ask, chatting with them, holding ordinary conversations. you can read this any number of ways but my point is that he can do all of this with relatively little struggle

it's also very much not the case that L doesn't have feelings or care about other people. he's ruthless and he's cool with causing people to die if he has to, but he reacts with visible distress to the deaths of the FBI agents, to ukita's death, to the prospect of other members of the taskforce dying. he does care, he's just not morally driven as a priority.

ok but if he can cosplay as Normal Dudeguy with no trouble then why doesn't he. why does he conduct all his business in dark rooms apart from the entire world forever. is it gauche to use a section of my own fic to explain my point? im going to do it anyway

It is easy to identify in Light what he has long known in himself. That little pearl of disruption, grown around an irritating grain of something just unique and tremendous enough to be uncomfortable to the more ordinary around them. L has hidden it by hiding himself. Light has hidden it by hiding within himself. L's black letter is to Light’s vapid smile is to Kira's invisible bullet.

(honestly a lot of what i have discussed here is also covered in this fic so in case this fucking three thousand word essay is not enough for you you can go read that.)

something L and light significantly have in common is that their intellect and unique way of thinking really set them apart from everyone in the world, which is incredibly isolating. but while L has the 'benefit' (arguably could be a detriment but i think he sees it as a benefit) of a unique upbringing which allows him to use his skills to their full extent without worrying about really anything else, light is very much trapped by social convention. while light's life is privileged and materially perfect, he's stuck inside what society expects of him, while L is able to exist completely outside that paradigm. the result is that light has retreated within himself and spends all day playing a part, barely tolerating the monotony and apathy of the world around him by mechanically performing as expected while smothering the part of him that never has an opportunity to truly come out until kira. L, on the other hand, has no reason to put up with a society that is, for lack of a better term, really just beneath him. so he retreats. remember that the first volume/chapter of the manga is called 'boredom'.

you can see that even in his comparatively limited interactions with the task force, he is having to exercise a level of patience to explain to them what he's thinking at every stage, to have to defend his methods, his instincts, his decisions, etc, needing to step through every stage of his reasoning so that the others can follow and won't object. this is NOT just about masking his odd behaviour, it's also very much about having to step through his morals and his process, which is second nature to him but is new to everyone else and needs explaining. it is visibly exhausting to him, and this is with people he actually seems to like well enough. eg during yotsuba arc when light and soichiro keep raising moral concerns, and he has those little "here we go again" moments (which i love SO much and are so telling of him to me) even though he doesn't let his frustration show. which is why he usually does not bother with it and prefers to work alone. he sits the way he does even though he knows it's odd, because he feels he need to sit that way. when light calls it out, he doesn't question that people will think he's strange, so he's clearly aware. he just explains himself.

but if he were out with people on the regular, he'd need to defend himself constantly. the things L does are not conventional. yes the sitting is just an oddity of his so it's a good example, but it's not just the things that are odd that cause a problem: he frequently makes decisions which seem to make massive leaps of logic nobody else (except light) can follow, and often his actions are morally questionable or even reprehensible. all that is because L is extremely pragmatic and results-focused. it kind of doesn't matter to him how he gets from A to B as long as he gets to B. but the way his mind works is that he makes big jumps that make perfect sense to him but would draw curiosity or objection from anyone who doesn't think the way he does. it would be absolutely exhausting to have to constantly defend every strange or questionable thing he did, so he just retreats.

when he works with other people, i think it's worth noting that the team dynamic never actually struggles for L's awkwardness. this is something i really like about death note honestly - L is quirky and strange, but the series doesn't do that thing where it's like He's A Genius Of Course He's Rude To Everyone. he's actually not. for the most part, L is courteous, patient, and polite. he's sometimes blunt or abrupt, but he very rarely does the thing where he's obliviously cruel or brushes people off. he's considerate of people's needs, he's visibly compassionate of other people's emotional difficulties, and he very rarely loses his patience. when matsuda tries to tell the locked-up light about kira resuming activity, L snaps "Matsuda!" to stop him, and then immediately corrects himself to go "I mean, Matsuda-san." it would have been really easy for the series to do that tropey shit where he's so smart that he doesn't bother with politeness, but he factually does. he makes the effort to treat people politely even when he's not actually being kind. when he's asked to explain himself, the reader can see he's tired and annoyed, but he doesn't take it out on people. on the odd occasion he does make fun of someone for being slow, he does so in mostly light-hearted ways. so he is very capable of dealing with other people directly. his lack of social skills aren't for lack of understanding. he just can't be bothered. it's a waste of energy to try and behave 'normally' or to do things that other people find acceptable, whether that's due to social norm or common morality. it is so, so much easier for L to do things alone. without the need to explain or defend his behaviour to anyone, his isolation turns real world problems into something almost purely theoretical. so it really is like a game for him, at least at first.

whatever

i think it's really important for a character like L to not be fooled by the surface-level categorisation of 'smart awkward character'. we really need to find what's driving his awkwardness. it's not ignorance, it's not even really disdain, it's exasperation. he's tired of being surrounded by people who just can't keep up with him, and he does not have enough energy or interest to spend his time handholding everyone through his process, so he just does whatever the hell he wants and avoids people as much as possible so he doesn't have to deal with it.

look i know this is a really long way to say stuff that people mostly already know, but i think L is one of the most finely nuanced characters in the series because he looks like such a simple expression of a known archetype and the ways in which he subverts expectations are so granular that it's easy to completely miss them even while appreciating how interesting he is. the way this translates into how i write him is that he's polite and has a lot of patience until he simply doesn't, at which point he'll inwardly or subtly express that he wishes he didn't have to bother with this shit, that he picks up on fine social and emotional details that other people will totally miss, but that he'll always put his own whims and plans before anything else.

tl;dr: L behaves like someone who is constantly moving at his own pace and for whom dealing with people is rarely worth the effort, but this does not make him inept or unkind.

[loveanddeepstress]

EXCUSE ME?!

[projectsekaitakes]

l/n is overhated like what did they do to yall😭😭

~ 🧀

‎

[intersexnateriver]

I feel like Near resembles L a lot more than usual in these panels. Maybe it's the wide open 'alert' eyes, or his words (which i swear are similar to something L says earlier), but that just feels like L incarnate to me... idk. I wonder if that was an intentional choice.

[tanoraqui]

I’m not personally a headcanonner of Maglor living in Rivendell in LotR under a new name, but if he is, I adamantly believe that he is not Lindir (“song guy”) but rather Erestor (tentatively glossed “lonely brother.”) Tragic humor or bust!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What do you think L thinks of the successor program?

Previous Thoughts on Wammy's and How the Concept is both Bonkers and Toxic

Well, what we see is pretty damning.

L... Doesn't Talk About it Much and Other Bad Signs

L brings up the successor program once in the manga (this line is removed from the anime adaptation). It's a very one-off line in which he tells Light (while still in the college arc) that "you know, even if you were to kill me, L is legion and I'd just be replaced by the next L" and Light sort of stares at him.

Neither touch on this ever again.

Worse, when the torch is passed, it's only because Watari happened to be in the room where he could push The Big Red Button (TM) that sent information to Wammy's. And yes, while there was clearly a protocol in place to let the successors take on L's legacy, it uh... sure wasn't L pushing that button and the fact that it's a secret button in the security room where Watari hangs out (and certainly not L) leads me to think this is a Watari idea (the orphanage where people compete for the title of L, being in fact, Watari's weird fucking idea).

Most tellingly, L doesn't even bring it up when he knows he's going to die. He doesn't even think to himself "ah yes, those bratty twelve-year-olds in England will get vengeance for me and then Light will be put to justice". L doesn't think about the Wammy program at all in his last day, in fact, he knew for several hours he was going to die and he didn't seek out any means to bring his successors in or even think "oh woe that Light is right there or I could inform my secret successors of everything we need to know".

We learn later that Near and Mello never actually met L, in fact, and if they ever did speak to him it was... brief and impersonal. This leaves them both with weird complexes about the man and their relationship with the role of successor.

In fact, L blatantly says "Light is my successor" and seems to mean it. True, L knew Light was Kira and was perhaps doing this for the mind fuckery, but on the other hand he had no reason to do this and again, had time to take it back once he realized Light was Kira again (which he did very quickly after Light got his memories back). Had L not done this, he could have either a) directly had a Wammy's person take over and explain the whole successor thing (he does not) or b) left it such that Soichiro was in charge. He has nothing to gain by even hinting that Light could take control over his title after he left. And the fact is... Light does do it. He's the power behind L for six years while Near and Mello do... well, Mello joins the mafia and has a time in Nevada, Near does who fucking knows what.

Basically, L couldn't be less supportive of the Wammy's orphanage unless he actively shut it down and fired Watari (but then who would bring him snacks?)

But Why?

L's in it for personal victory. L wants to beat Kira himself, he wants to do it on his own terms, with his own ingenuity. It's not so much about beating Kira but the fact that he will be the one to beat Kira. His 'successors' doing so would be less than meaningless to L.

Leaving it to some twelve-year-old to solve, hand-picked by Watari because they solved puzzles good and read good too, would be worse for L than fucking Matsuda or Misa making a major break in the case (and canonically, both those things happen, and canonically L handles it fucking poorly).

Worse, Watari is not even implying, but outright saying, that L is not so special a super genius snowflake and that Watari can cultivate another one simply through hard work and careful selection. "Congratulations, L, you are irrelevant and superfluous!" And worse, those replacements are little kids and I imagine L finds their quirks... annoying. (I'm not convinced L's not just s troll).

And if we take LABB into account, all L sees them do is kill themselves or make trouble for everyone (through murder). L does not want to deal with these people (and so he doesn't and makes Naomi do it for an entire hilarious novel).

TL;DR

L hates those fuckers.

[lesbianralzarek]

trying to not complain about the discrepancy between how much content fictional women and poc have vs the white dudes in every fucking fandom im in, because no one owes me fanart/fic and i can make shit myself, but holy fuck can any of you name a woman?

[creekfiend]

I've had some spicy opinions about dog shows and AKC confo specifically in the past but not anymore. I only have one dog showing opinion anymore and it's that if they allow pro handlers those pro handlers should be required to have a special Handler Name and a whole Schtick to go along with it, like drag queens.

the persona I'm envisioning currently is sort of a hot and sinister widow sort of vibe. you know. descending the marble staircase in a feather boa to meet the cops that are here to tell you your husband has been found dead under suspicious circumstances.

but at the dog show.

many other such concepts could exist if only we opened our minds somewhat. please join me in my vision