#i may have been here for 5 years but i havent been thinking about DN much these days at all

[13eyond13]

Hi! Hope you’re doing well!

Do you have any unpopular opinions about DN in general or character-wise?

I sometimes forget what the unpopular opinions in this fandom are since I've been in it for so long now and most of my interactions with other fans are from the laid-back long-term ones here on Tumblr, but hmmm... -I think Light's an extremely interesting and entertaining character and the whole reason this story is a classic and works as well as it does, and nothing he does annoys me in the least even when it's terrible or frustrating to watch because it's also always iconic no matter what. Some of my fandom friends truly detest Light, and every time I hear that they find him so annoying or whatever I'm just like oh, sorry can't relate. Much of the fandom does appreciate him, but much of the fandom also hates him, too. And at some points in the fandom hating on Light with zero sense of humour about it or acknowledgements of his more nuanced character qualities or the good writing behind his character etc. was a pretty popular thing to do, and still remains a big part of the fandom now -I like the original premise from the manga the best, where there are no special eternal consequences for using a death note, and everybody goes to Mu after they die no matter how they behaved on earth, and they can't come back from the dead again no matter what. Not because I'm trying to be an edgelord or something, but because I think that bit of the worldbuilding needs to be included so that none of the characters are slotted into moral categories by the writer for the audience. This way the audience has to draw their own conclusions about the morality of the characters and who they choose to sympathize with or root for or condemn. And not bringing any of the characters back to life is a pretty ballsy decision from Ohba as well that adds a lot more dramatic stakes to things than if they could easily be resurrected just to keep the series going longer or whatever else.

-I also think it was a good decision for Ohba to kill L off when he did, and am glad that Near was the one facing off with Light in the warehouse instead of L (though if I had only watched the anime this probably wouldn't be the case, since I didn't like Near in the anime when I first watched it and only liked him once I read the manga too). I of course also think it would be very interesting to see L and Light actually be able to talk freely to each other in a situation like that, but I don't feel like it would be that satisfying narratively to me since L wasn't really meant to be viewed as the righteous hero of the story originally. And I feel like Near was in a better position narratively to do this since he wasn't just trying to win for his own glory like most of the other geniuses arguably were

-I feel like my takes on some of the characters can be a bit unpopular at times? For example, L is my fave character of all time, but I often find it hard to feel on the same page with other big L stans and the way they see him for some reason. I actually find myself vibing with the fans that dislike him based on his negative personality traits more often than I find myself agreeing with big L stans, lol. And I usually find it much easier to click with Light stans than L stans when making fandom friends, too. I'm not sure exactly what the disconnect is for me? But it seems fairly popular to see L as a tragic hero of sorts, and also as a much nicer person than Light (which is very debatable to me). I think it's rare to find L fans who view him as as much of a shady and sly and complicated and prickly character as he actually is to me in the manga much of the time, maybe