#and part of the reason why I like L and Serlock in particular is because of being able to relate somewhat to their oddity

[melivora]

Personally I feel like having characters who come off as autistic or otherwise ND, who are portrayed as weird and not suiting society (not inherently bad things), and showing how they can use that to their advantage and still do very well in their little niches is actually quite a nice thing to have, in a way. Of couse, we shouldn't be playing that angle for every autistic character ever but it's not bad to have that existing in some cases. How fandom treats them is another matter but ppl can do what they want I suppose.

I’m not saying death note is one big hate crime and we all should just toss it and never read it, no, I would never, but would you agree there’s something ableist about decision to make L/Near “off-putting” and “weird” “not suiting society at all” almost “the freak” characters by giving they’d autistic traits? And I tried to look into it and it seems creators didn’t see it this way, imo it makes it worse. Or how the fandom made those into silly quirky things they do, so adorable and cute and it has infantilization vibes all over. I never saw anyone with similar thoughts here and I asking if I make even a tiny bit sense? Or am I just looking for problems? I really don’t want to get death note cancelled or boycott, I’m just noticing things I hadn’t before

I think you're looking at an issue that goes a lot deeper than Death Note. The quirky genius archetype is old as dirt and Death Note is really just playing into a trope that has existed since forever - part of L's autistic traits are just directly ripped from Sherlock Holmes.

So I wouldn't really single DN out for going with something that is so all-encompassing in pop culture all over - it's certainly not the most reflected use of the trope (and some things Ohba and Obata have said about L and Near read kind of off-color when you think of it as commentary on autism) but it's also well within the margin of what was, and still is, extremely normal in media.

I don't think O&O had any conscious thought about neurodivergence when writing these characters, they were just pulling from the pop-culture hivemind and adding their own quirky geniuses to the list.

Personally, I wouldn't say the trope is horrid in itself.

There are certainly bad renditions of it, but like... look at how beloved L and Near are among neurodivergent readers who very much see themselves represented in them! On the scale of offensiveness, I'd argue they rank mid to low in this context - especially L is clearly a character beloved by readers of all kinds and meant to be so.

So tl;dr: there should be more broad and thoughtful representation of the neurodivergence than the 'quirky genius', but I don't think it's necessary to single out Death Note for something tons of stories have done and continue to do.

Though I'd also say it's a good thing to be aware of the tropes, their prevalence, and their individual executions ofc!