#genderbent deathnote

[nerdstify]

her. (fem light)

likes do nothing!

[mattsvideogame]

day 1

[alewyren]

honestly though, repurposing a heavily AU’d/headcanoned character as an OC is an underrated practice more people should consider. It gives you way more creative freedom. Hell, I’ve done it myself more than once.

Forcing your OCs to commit identity fraud instead of letting them be their best selves is forcing them into a cruel existence ;_;

[craetor]

If you actually think about it, if Light was the only genderbent character in deathnote, the show would take very dark turn and would communicate a different message.

Tbh if Light was woman aligning it might just turn into one of those "dark romance" things from booktok...

But if you wanna take it seriously, yeah. "Women loving woman, fighting against the injustice in the world as men hunt her and try to get her killed" does have a different ring to it.

[translightyagami]

Hi I noticed you have been in the deathnote fandom for a long time. Do you know some changes the fandom/ships went through? I already know that the misogyny towards misa used to be terrible

Thanks 🙏

honestly, the biggest shifts have trended along the same as the shifts in fandom culture as a whole. more queer people identify that way openly and integrate that into their work, more people of color feel comfortable voicing their qualms with up-til-now racist undertones in much of the fandom output (particularly in anime fandoms), and more adults continue to interact with and produce fanworks past the ages at which people used to abandon their fanfiction.net accounts. Death Note is no exception. I have written and interacted with fanworks for this fandom since literally 2008. Pretty shitty ideas were considered commonplace at the time, and those ideas - particularly the homophobic kind, tho we're still working on the transphobia - don't fly anymore.

I guess if we're talking ship specifics, L/Light has never gone out of style. People rag on the ship but when you mention Death Note, no one thinks "Oh Matt/Mello" or "Oh Near/Mello" or even "Oh Light/Misa." Light and L continue to be the core idea even casual enjoyers take away from the series. More rare ships get attention these days and its a delight to see queer women ships like Kiyomisa or Remisa, or even genderbent Lawlight get attention. I do think there used to be more variety in sexual positions the characters took, but ultimately, the fic quality is better and people are less weird about trans and gay people. I like the fandom now much more.

Sorry for the rant! I'm not a fandom "old" but I have liked Death Note for a long time. I've got a lot of thoughts!

[thearoaceshark]

If you actually think about it, if Light was the only genderbent character in deathnote, the show would take very dark turn and would communicate a different message.

Yes, right now I can't think of all the changes there would be but could you share your thoughts with me in another ask 💜

The first change that comes to mind is that for nothing in the world would Soichiro let Light work in the task force, not because he doesn't trust Light's abilities, but because 1) he wouldn't leave his daughter in a workplace full of men. , 2) the father-daughter relationship is different from father-son, Soichiro would not let his "princess" work on something as dangerous as the Kira case no matter how intelligent Light is.

Now maybe Misa wouldn't automatically be attracted to Light if he were a woman, so I think they would have a "best friend" relationship, but I imagine her having a crush on Light anyway (whether platonic or romantic). Depending on your interpretation of fem!Light their relationship could be more stable than it is in canon or it would be a toxic friendship (even if fem!Light is not sexist like canon!Light I think he could end up having a very toxic relationship with Misa) .

It also occurs to me that L isn't as suspicious of Light and doesn't play those mind games like he does in canon, nor does he take her as seriously when she offers to join the task force (in fact maybe that makes him suspicious of her). Because even though the guy swears that he doesn't discriminate against people based on their gender, it's clear that he's not the least misogynistic person in the world yk.

[nebulamist]

How would a wholly genderbent deathnote be in your opinion? Which genderbent character do you see yourself or other people liking or hating?

Gosh, I don’t know…

It’s kind of hard for me to imagine everyone genderbent, due to the male-dominated nature of the Japanese police, especially in 2004. (If I were to make a genderbent au, I’d probably stick to a few important characters.)

Still, sticking to your ask, while I imagine a wholly genderbent cast would cause many specific things to happen differently (e.g. I imagine a genderbent Light wouldn’t date so many people, in order to keep up her reputation as a ‘good girl’.), I think, as far as the plot goes, the basic thing would likely go similarly, if it isn’t impacted by the butterfly effect.

As far as fandom perceptions go, here are a few things I imagine:

Many more people would see fem!Light as a femme fatale. I feel like a lot of the men who love canon Light would hate fem!Light.

The fandom’s reception of fem!L would be more similar to her canon counterpart.

Misa’s male counterpart may be seen as even more annoying, but male!Misa’s competence would be more likely to be acknowledged by the fandom.

Quite a few people would accuse fem!Near of being a Mary Sue.

As for myself, I’d have a lot more crushes in the Death Note cast! XD

[rnisa]

You can take your time to answer this ask or even delete it if it's too much, but how would a whole genderbent deathnote be?

Hi dear, I love this thank you. More women the better if you ask my gay ass. It's a broad ask so I'm just word vomiting whatever comes to mind but feel free to ask specifics if you want. It's a bit hard as honestly to me mostly everything would stay the same.

Well for starters? The obvious that people don't want to admit: Male Misa would have a LOT of simps. Yes I can elaborate if asked... Aside from that I do think male Misa would still be a model of course, and just at bat shit. In addition to the Death Note I feel a male Misa would be more willing to actually physically get his hands dirty too, at Lights request of course. Like physically covered in blood.

Fem Light? Master manipulator. Even moreso. I mean, Light already is, but fem!Light would be a bit more terrifying I think? If you've ever seen the old movie "Cruel Intentions" just picture the brunette girl as Light and...yeah that's it. Basically the same things Light already does but would have an added bonus of pretending to be helpless/lesser when around sexist men, and use how they view her (as "weak") to her own advantage. Would 100% have mastered the art of fake crying. That's the kind of manipulation that is uncommon for guys so a fem!Light would entirely use that when she could.

Would be a lot closer to Takada I think and never really lose that contact. Why, eh, I unno just because.

Soichiro would be a MILF.

L would have big boobs, idk why, I feel L just exudes big boob energy. When L first shows up to To-oh university, I feel she'd draw lots of attention from everyone (not JUST for the boobs...but that does play a part)

The tennis scene would be a lot more fun because at least Lights outfit would be super cute in my head aha.

Near, nothing would change much I don't think. We never get to see Near's full toy collection but I'm sure he has everything so this isn't really gender specific, they're just toys, but I'm going to use any excuse to give more Near hcs haha. Near would have a substantial beanie baby collection and designate Rester and Lidner to fight for hours on eBay trying to outbid others (and Mello having some low level grunts being the one to purchase said beanie babies, out of spite).

Instead of being male Misa's manager, Matsuda would end up getting offered/recruited to be a model herself and almost takes it, but remembers oh yeah, they have like a mass murderer to catch and all.

[randomkposts]

If you actually think about it, if Light was the only genderbent character in deathnote, the show would take very dark turn and would communicate a different message.

K:- " If Light was the only genderbent character in death note, the show would communicate a diffrent message, yes, primarly because the show was written in the early 2000s with 90s values, and its creator was not good at nuanced portrayal of women, to put it mildly. Look at how Death Note treats Misa. Shes treated as a legit threat until she joins up with Light where she becomes more of a joke. Yes the sexism and being talked down to for being a girl would drive Light nuts, but its nothing she didnt already deal with growing up. Would it be harder for them to take her seriously? Yes-"

E :- "Which is obvious considering the early 90's 00's Japanese work culture. Even now it's still a breakthrough.

But they may or may not be trying to say Fem Light would suffer under male hands or something of that issue.

Would the Task Force hurt fem Light? Doubt it. Most of them are respectful men, the worst I can say is they can get hot headed with each other as men.

Laying hands on Fem Light? No.

They never did that to Misa not counting the time with Soichiro as that was with Light under the impression they were suspects."

K:- "Misa being under arrest and filmed was pretty yikes. And Solitary confinement was already a pretty dark and messed up angle to go. But Light here is the chief of police's daughter. She has the power of Neoptisim and a prior connection with most of them on her side. "

E:- " True true. He already had a bond with them. Misa's arrest was more hostile. Maybe that is what they were referring too?"

K:-"Misa was both treated like a threat and not.

Later on in the prisonorship she had police escort shopping privlages, but at first that image is pretty wack.

And why? What are we supposted to infer from this?"

E :-"I know right? She's a threat enough to keep around surveillance but not enough to stop her from swapping places with friends.

She can show she is capable of fooling people but it's not enough to treat her as a genuine threat. I doubt Misa minds it. It gives her so much leniency to get away with things.

But for fem Light it's infuriating.

But here I wonder if L would see her as a threat?

My canon L doesn't give a fuck about your gender. Only if you can actually play the game. Violence is not restricted by gender. Anyone is capable."

K:- " Are we supposted to infer something about L from Misas outfit while being filmed? I guess its interpritive, but I see it more as L breaking social boundries to make her unconfortable and push her closer to hopefully breaking. Same with the handcuffs really."

E:- " L does that with everyone. She ain't special in that which makes it oddly open minded.L does that to me by getting his damn feet on things."

K:- " I don't think L cares about Gender. But the steryotypes at the time imposed preformances of gender upon most of the players"

E:- "Right right. Such as expected reactions"

K:- "And I admit, I AU for fun. I'm not intrested in exploring the darker timeline where the taskforce is a skeevy to female Light.

And we acknowledged that the world would treat them diffrently by gender from where the concept was first incepted with female L.

Its always been part of the considerations, the Sexisim present in Japan at the time at which Death note was written. Hell, I'm probably missing nuances from it, from not being Japanese nor Not being an adult in the 90s"

E:- "We can only gather what we know and work with it. And once again this is for fun."

: )

[musical-chick-13]

Hey, can you re-imagine a wholy genderbent Deathnote, is too cursed?

Okay, it is SO funny that you mention this because I was talking to my Long-Distance Best Friend the other day about the fact that there is, apparently, (or at least was, at some point before the strike?) a plan to make a live-action TV series adaptation of this for Netflix. Which is...a whole other thing I don't want to get into, but ANYWAY.

The POINT is that we were talking about what would have to happen to make me have some modicum of hope that this might not be the worst idea ever (remember what happened the LAST time we did live-action Netflix DN, we got the 2017 movie no one needs to live through that again). And what I ultimately came up with was:

Every single character, except for Light and Raye, is now a woman. (Obviously this isn't wholly genderbent, but. It's close enough to this ask that I found it to still be a humorous coincidence.) I think in the hands of the right writer, it could be an interesting examination of misogyny and how baked-in that concept is to the justice system. (And I think it would lend extra context to the fact that Light was able to keep operating for so long. If the people opposing him are all women in a historically male-dominated field, they'd all have to contend with a type of professional and societal discrimination that he'll never have to, thus giving him an advantage. Also L would be a Weird Girl™, which would absolutely raise some interesting questions in terms of the scope of this character's influence and their societal perception. Also femslash Near/Mello would be canonically possible which is OBVIOUSLY the most important factor to take into consideration.)

Soichiro's difficulty in believing Light's guilt would gain an extra dimension if this character were also grappling with the societal expectations of motherhood (especially while being in a position of authority in a """masculine""" career). And Matsuda...I just think some woman, any woman, should get to shoot Light repeatedly in a fit of rage. (Also something-something calling women in the workplace idiots/making them the butt of the joke/consistently overlooking them, I think you could do something there.) I think this theoretical concept I spent way too much time thinking about really only works if, even though the major and supporting characters are women, it's still made clear that they work in an environment overwhelmingly occupied by men.

As for a FULLY genderbent story...Light as a female character is, to me, indeed an idea too cursed. I will not elaborate.

And I don't think the Shinigami experience the concept of gender in the way that we do, so tbh I'm not really sure a whole lot would change in that regard. But I do think a female Ryuk would be very funny.

Naomi being a man I think would be...not cursed, I just don't particularly enjoy it. But mainly that's because I am A Gay™, and I love thinking about women who are tough enough to have the word "massacre" as part of their nickname. :)

Misa being reimagined as a guy could be really interesting, though, given how a) the entertainment industry treats women differently from how it treats men, and b) the world at large generally expects men to react differently to trauma than women do. (Although I still very much prefer the version of Misa that serves as a deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl). And I'd be curious to see what the viewer/reader response would be if this character were a man. (Mainly because, historically, audiences are a lot more positively receptive to extreme, unhealthy displays of devotion when they come from a male character than when they come from a female character, but this answer is already probably too long, so we don't have to talk about that.)

(Best Friend ALSO mentioned the idea of Rina Sawayama playing L, and I am now gay on a level I previously didn't ever think was possible, but we don't have to talk about that either.)

Uhhhh....TLDR, full-genderbent DN kind of cursed, but there are some really interesting ideas you could examine. (The one veto I'm gonna make is that I do not think this story works if Light is a girl, but-you guessed it-we really don't have to talk about that.)

Also, stan the stage musical for serotonin and clear skin!

[litterateur97]

Wouldn't a wholly genderbent Deathnote be cursed?

Lmao, would it be anon?

I don't know, I think it would be kinda fun. Murderous girlboss Light, fail girl L, neck beard Misa, girl power task force, etc. all sounds like a lot of fun to me. I guess the only one that would be a little strange to imagine is girl power Yotsuba, but why not have a bunch of murderous CEOs be women? And then we'd have weird girl Near and edgy girl Mello with her gamer girlfriend Matt.

Would the shinigami be genderbent too? Would they even look any different or act any different if Ryuk was a woman and Rem a man?

Honestly that sounds like a lot of fun lol

[13eyond13]

Would a wholy genderbent Deathnote have different fandom?

Good question! I mean, probably? I am not the expert in these things though heheh

[mattsvideogame]

“light, you’re a shinigami? womp womp lmao”

[deathnotegenderbent]

❄️ 12 Days of Death Note ❄️

Day 3: death note genderbent but light gets tongue tied

[darklight-owl]

Hey, how do you think a wholly genderbent deathnote will go

Imma be honest kinda the same, I don't get why switching up characters' genders would make a difference narrative wise.

MAYBE Light would be caught sooner and L would be taken less seriously because as we all know society hates women and a lot of the stuff Light got away with was thanks to his privilege let's be real.

[empressofthewind]

Hey, wouldn't a wholly genderbent Deathnote be kind of cursed in your opinion? Like, remember that scene with Halle and the bathroom scene with Mello, or when Misa barges into Light's home 💀💀💀

Yeah, I see your point 😬 in my opinion though, a lot of the examples for which this applies are pretty bad as they are. Like how Misa stalks Light online to find his full name, address, school and various other personal details, shows up at his house, begs to be his girlfriend and threatens to kill anyone else he’s interested in. The creepiness of these actions might be more pronounced if she were male, but it’s all equally fucked up regardless.

I think the narrative relies on the fact that some behaviours will be interpreted differently depending on the person’s gender, even if the situation is identical. So Misa stalking and manipulating Light is passed off as a lovestruck girl simply acting on her feelings, on the basis that the reader won’t find this disturbing because she’s female - whereas if she were male, the creepiness of that behaviour wouldn’t be as easily ignored. Similarly, it’s suggested that Aizawa’s wife injured him during an argument, and the story expects that the reader won’t question this because she’s a woman.

I guess my point in all of this is that I think a genderswapped AU might draw attention to how bad some of these situations are, but it doesn’t make them inherently worse.