#death note another note

[applestorms]

trying to break down beyond more so here's some random thoughts:

he's very particular about the ways in which he's unhinged/insane, and oddly conscious about every weird thing he does. everything is meant to one-up L: excess sugar (jam + coffee sludge), uncomfortable body movements, presenting as a Genius Detective to hide his own crimes, etc. his weirdness is unnatural and, at least in the ways he specifically tries to replicate L, not innate to him specifically. there's a version of beyond, perhaps pre-L, who is weird in his own unique way.

for a serial killer, he has very little interest in the killings themselves. despite executing all these violent murders, even one of a 13 year old girl, every one of his victims is killed only after they're drugged to unconscious and the mutilation of their bodies is all post-death, for the sake of his puzzles alone. seemingly the only reason why he bothers with murder is because that is what L focuses on, and because his eyes make him so intimate w/ death.

his motives are clearly focused around L, perhaps both as a reaction to L and as an attempt at initiating some kind of interaction? iirc mello claims near the end of the story that his sole purpose is to give L some kind of unsolvable case, but clearly some of his behaviors must be done to antagonize L specifically, since almost nobody else (other than the meta audience) knows who he's presenting himself as/clowning on.

ultimately, it's his ego that gets him. he underestimates naomi's abilities often throughout the story, feeding her clues to ensure that his own puzzles get solved-- perhaps out of a lack of respect for her intelligence, but also to present himself as even more capable? to brag as much as he can?

the congenital shinigami eyes is honestly one of the most fascinating ideas any death note side story has ever presented. there are so so so many questions you can ask here-- is beyond genetically part shinigami? is he or his birth family somehow connected to a death note? how can he read the lifespans? mello describes beyond's shinigami eyes as follows:

Killing people was, for him, normal. Killing people who were fated to die anyway was no effort at all. Mmm, I guess I should explain the idea of the eyes of a shinigami. The phrase is only too familiar to me, but if I don't explain it, some of you will cry foul. The eyes of a shinigami. These eyes could be given out by any shinigami in return for half the recipient's remaining life. Normally contact with a shinigami was a prerequisite for acquisition, but Beyond Birthday had traded nothing--he had seen the world through those eyes since before he could remember. He knew your name before you said it. He knew the time of death of every person he met. ...I hardly need to explain just what effect this would have one his personality. You might think they would hardly be useful without a Death Note, but that is simply not the case. The ability to see someone's remaining life is the ability to see death. Death, death, death. Beyond Birthday lived his life unceasingly reminded that all humans would eventually die. From the time he was born he knew the day his father would be attacked by a thug and die, knew the day his mother would die in a train crash. He had these eyes before he was born, which is why he called himself Beyond Birthday. Which is why a child as strange as him was taking in by our home, sweet home--Wammy's House. (pg. 94-95)

it's unclear exactly how much of this story mello heard from L and how much is him interpreting/theorizing w/ his own ideas. the potentially biased narration is a fantastic layer in this story.

he is the second known wammy's kid to overtly attempt suicide, though his attempt is of course incomplete. we have no idea about the circumstances surrounding A's suicide, though i find it notable that A is mentioned at all as their presence makes this a pattern. this also seems important in conjunction w/ mello's infamous opening line: "I am your narrator, your navigator, your storyteller. For anyone else but [Near and Kira], my identity may be of no interest, but I am the old world's runner-up, the best dresser that died like a dog, Mihael Keehl. I once called myself Mello and was addressed by that name, but that was a long time ago. Good memories and nightmares." (pg. 12)

sidenote: love his use of "the old world," in that quote, i wonder what the original japanese is... fits well w/ the whole idea of L as the god of the old world. anyway,

his relationship with naomi is also Fascinating to me, particularly since it really doesn't seem like either of them have a speck of respect for the other. lmfao. i should really fic write for those two sometime... i really just need to do a proper character study on both of those bitches. lol.

edit: almost immediately upon posting this i open back the damn book back up to this quote:

If he attacked her with intent to kill, he would absolutely fail. He knew that he would. Ensuring his path of escape was far more critical. Naomi Misora was nothing more than L's servant, and if she died there would be dozens of replacements-- from the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA-- even Secret Service. So he had only been testing her. Seeing if Naomi Misora was capable of being L's substitute. "Hmmm...mmmm...hmmm...Huh huh huh huh...no, hee hee hee? I could go with ho ho ho ho, but that's a little too jolly...anyway. Oh, Naomi Misora-- you are pretty good. A shame to waste someone like you in the FBI." She had passed the test, so far. (pg. 95-96)

so. shit, idk. i guess he does still have some respect for her, albeit tempered by that classic death note sexism. shrug.

the beyond vs. KIRA comparison has a lot to consider, particularly when it comes to their egos and how they choose to cover up their crimes. L's reaction to either of them is also intriguing-- as much as i like to point out L's lack of respect for beyond he does admittedly take on the case even when it doesn't quite fit his usual standards (10+ deaths and/or 1 million dollars). he's at least somewhat aware of what his legacy is setting up, though how much he actually gives a shit about any of those kids is somewhat debatable...

[legatouwu]

i got really inspired by some artists drawing L which partly brought me back into fandom

[theoldworldsrunnerup]

Made several different batches of... these?? (What do you even call these things) a while ago. Here are some of my favourites

[kroosluvr]

when there's smoke there's fire

[rainworlds7]

"if L's a genius, then B's an extreme genius. If L's a freak, then B's an extreme freak."

[corpsedessert]

For the labb fans <3

[frootloopsl]

them....

[deathnotewiki]

August 22, 2002:

Beyond Birthday attempts suicide by setting himself on fire to make it appear that he is the final victim of the serial murders.

Naomi Misora arrests Beyond Birthday.

[smallsinger5901]

im picturing Matt finding the manuscript for LABB and walking around their place reading it aloud while Mello furiously tries to stop him

[valfeathers]

get out the way (get out!)

[kokokeiko]

BB be like:

[satorusluver]

I say "getting laid would fix Beyond Birthday" as a joke but I do truly think half the reason he went rogue (much like Mello) was because he was raised in a shitty orphanage that didn't value him for who he is, only his potential to be molded into the next L. That he was never made to feel like he was worthy simply as Beyond and not "the backup L successor." Not worthy of being valued or loved (did any of those kids ever really feel that way? Just look at A and Mello and possibly even Matt) without surpassing L, and that a genuine and healthy relationship with someone who would love and accept him simply for being Beyond could have possibly kept him from going fully off the deep end.

But he is also a self-fulfilling prophecy because his childhood trauma + being cursed to know when everyone is going to die probably made him too toxic to ever be able to find the very thing that might have saved him.

[keithbutgay]

something thats really special about the labb murder cases is that the one thing beyond couldn't fully plan was his own death

well

to rephrase

it was the one thing he couldnt know for certain, because he couldnt see his own lifespan, as he could with his other victims

thats why, when he set the apartment on fire, he hadnt really known if he would actually die, but did it anyways because he has likely been wanting to know that one date for his entire life

and

the fact that he was killed by kira

he must have seen the people dying around him in prison, their lifespans cut short and not known exactly what had happened at first

he's really smart of course, but its not like he *knew* why he could see names and lifespans most likely. thats not often something people like. are gonna talk about, and if it really was only him with the eyes that would be mildly surprising

even on the day he died

he never would have known his own numbers

because he never lived up to his lifespan before light killed him with the notebook

and i think thats an interesting concept

[thanatelle]

My Beyond Birthday design! A couple notes about it, LABB spoilers ahead;

- This is from before BB left Wammy's, so he's not in the L makeup and he's not in a white shirt. This is his actual face.

- Normal people can't see the shinigami eyes, so I made his eyes blue and pupils permanently dilated instead. (I'm shaking please get him some brown contacts)

- I tried making him look different from L, but close enough that if he went into disguise someone who only vaguely knows what L looks like couldn't tell them apart. (Since in the novel he's described as 'wearing a lot of makeup to look like L')

[crimsonsnippet]

A nocturnal serenade

[diabolicdetective]

Raw Meat.