#near

[numbuh424]

AU where Light never picks up the notebook and goes on to join the NPA, eventually following in his father's footsteps as chief.

The first L has retired (which is a nice way of saying he's disappeared and no one can track him down), forcing his successor Near to take up the mantle.

Years later, the chief of the NPA is summoned by L to help track down a serial killer.

[skara-skoot]

orphans idk

they’re playing dress to impress

[deathnotewiki]

November 19, 2009:

With America’s announcement, the Japanese government and those of other countries fall into chaos.

The American vice-president (now president) announces the disbandment of the SPK.

Mello comes to SPK headquarters and shares information with Near.

[76696c]

happy meronia reunion day!

19th november 2009 for the manga

19th november 2012 for the anime

and this part from 13, that keeps being stuck in my head. makes me wonder if this scene would've been a bit different, if near had actually said it.

[lunalit-river]

The more we understand death note, the more human emotions and pain we see in the characters. Love this.

Saw a twitter post about Near and L with the "do I look like him?" caption and it got me to feel so viscerally sad because... he does. He does look like L. The similarities are so uncanny that, had I not known they're not related, I would have guessed they are. And not just appearance too... some of his mannerisms, the way he speaks and reasons... all of Near is haunted by the traces of a man he has never even met.

It's not really surprising: he was groomed by Wammy's to be just like L. He never really rejected that notion, either; he just embraced it as something that has always been part of him, because how could he refuse something that was there from the beginning? He was just a kid. A very young one at that.

But someone who did reject that was Mello. Or, rather, he felt rejected by that system, so he turned his back on it -- at least partially. The effects of it are still felt even in its rejection - his visceral hatred of Near being a lampant example. But I wonder if that rejection, that search for individuality, is what made Near so endeared to Mello in spite of the other very openly hating him.

Mello became his own person and Near, forever bound to be one of two parts of L, admired that. Because he couldn't do it.

[imninakk]

I miss drawing Near with that 😩 face

[sublimerences]

i love how you draw near so much. youre the neariest artist evar

Wow… thank you anon o7 I’ll bear the title with pride — here’s a near for the occasion, even c:

[adamnoestaaqui]

Near in Arcane Art style

[masodemic]

Because even though both are trying to catch him, L fuels Light's ego by calling him the most villainous serial killer of all time and that he would parade Kira's head around time square, meanwhile Near treats Light like a common idiot with a deadly weapon, a gorilla with a machine gun. And Light HATES that.

Even when he walks back on his statement afterwards and say "ok maybe not everyone could have done what he did," he still doesn't give Light the respect and control he so craves

Lights hatred

Something I find funny is that Light clearly hated Near much much more than L.

He would genuinely start having a breakdown due to how much he despises Near, his voice would change entirely to one of pure hate. His voice actor did amazing on that note. But with L Light was much much more kind of calm sometimes, and was never down right aggressively toned about L constantly as he is with Near.

Put Light in a room with Near and Light would try and kill Near with his own bare hands out of anger, but put him with L and they'll attack each other but never try and truly kill each other with their bare hands.

I like that contrast dearly.

[omegadazai]

I always wonder if Near has ever given Mello his shit eating grins while growing up. Because from all the interactions we got to see of them, Near always seems very respectful and polite towards Mello, meanwhile he is just a menace to everyone else

[neallo]

the frost

mello/near | rated T | 1,620 words

“So?” Mello shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Brushes his wrist against the handle of his gun, just to remind himself that it’s there. “What the hell do you want?” Near smirks. “Who said I wanted anything but your company?” He twirls a strand of hair around his finger. The gesture is so familiar that it makes Mello’s chest ache. “Perhaps I wished to spend time with an old friend. It’s been a long while, hasn’t it?” Mello scoffs. “Oh, is that what we are?” A tilt of Near’s head. His smile skews, bafflingly, a bit more genuine. Bizarre little bastard. “Isn’t it?”

[princessuncertain]

Near's character is interesting. He's not as self-destructive and obviously in pain as Mello, but he's not not either. One thing that seems to be a theme with him is his willingness to sacrifice anyone, mixed with his immediate shock and pain when he loses anyone. There's some serious head-heart disconnection there y'all

[vamphorica]

How would a female Mello, matt, and Near be?

absolutely wonderful question, anon, thank you so much. if you've been on my blog for any length of time, it is probably not surprising that i've given this a lot of thought and, putting aside my intricate transgender speculations for the time being, let's gender swap the wammy's creatures, and consider how that could impact their narratives within death note.

note: i will still be referring to all three using he/him pronouns, but this is not intended to be intentionally contrary. feel free to substitute whatever pronouns your heart desires throughout.

♀ mello -> mihaela may be a little bit obvious, haha, but if mihael is a croatian name that means 'who is like god', and we need to retain the letter 'm' for obvious reasons, i think it works well as a feminine alternative name. mello is relatively androgynous as an alias, if not slightly masculine, but i think it is fine given what i'm about to talk about.

mello's canonical gender expression is already nonconformative, so it is interesting to speculate what he would he look like if he were a girl. one of my absolute favourite genderbent depictions of mello is this piece by thekatzone because it still retains mello's visual ambiguity but in the opposite direction. i do think he would dress more masculine as a woman not only because his subversive appearance is a very significant aspect to his character, but also because of how it might relate to his position in the mafia.

mello spends a significant amount of time in the manga and anime in hypermasculine environments despite his presentation, and i think it is important to retain this idea even if he were to be genderbent. i do think mello would have had a much harder time, if it was at all possible, in attaining a leadership position within the mafia as a woman. the women who frequent the base are implied to be sex workers, and so i'm genuinely curious as to whether mello would have felt able to approach the organisation as a masculine presenting woman, or whether he'd seek out a different group. in which case, what would that group be? would he have been able to effectively carry out his insane plans in the same capacity?

i have very little doubt mello would still have been ambitious, but i actually don't think that he would have been able to pursue his goal to catch kira before near as he went about it in the series. certainly light would not have taken him seriously if the voice he heard down the phone was higher pitched, and that alone could have greatly impacted how sayu's kidnapping played out, as underestimating mello could have easily resulted in her death.

♀ matt -> apparently mail as a name means 'pleasant', and that is very funny to me. i quite like the name maille, which is irish, so fits nicely with a vague headcanon i haven't fully developed. i also learnt it is the name for a brand of mustard, and i think he would appreciate that. matt as a pseudonym might have to be changed to matilda, or martha.

while i am under no illusion that matt would be the kind of girl to give a shit about their appearance, i do think in another life, he would have made an excellent e-girl twitch streamer. i can imagine him wearing cat ear headphones and miniskirts, and referring to "chat" every five seconds. rest in peace, mail, you would have loved twitch subs.

regarding matt's gender identity in the canon series, i think that it worth considering how he might have responded differently to surveying others as a woman rather than as a man. i think matt's approach to watching others is very informed by his own personal biases, which I think are definitively masculine. The most clear example of this is how he describes misa as "an awfully cute japanese girl" which, while isn't necessarily the worst thing said about a woman in this godforsaken series, demonstrates that matt's perspective on women is superficial at best. this isn't helped either by the fact that he completely fucks up when guessing misa's age, even going so far as referring to her as a "child".

i think a female matt would probably feel the most overwhelmed of the three by societal expectations of women, and may even distance himself away from femininity. i'm not trying to suggest here that matt's comments imply he's misogynistic, but i actually think matt is the most masculine of the wammy's kids, which may be controversial, i don't know. i believe that he retains his masculine personality in this genderbent scenario.

♀ near -> i love the japanese pronunciation of near's name, nia, as a girl's name that he could use as an alias. natania has the same meaning as nate – 'gift of god' – which does not match his character at all, haha, but that is what i managed to come up with.

near is the easiest to consider gender swapping because to me, he's a girl anyway. you can point to his female voice actors in the anime, or his long hair in the 2020 manga one-shot, but he is also so clearly coded as a feminine character, a contrast from not only mello's aggressive impulsivity, but the masculine environment of law enforcement. with halle as a notable exception (who herself is very masculine, but another post, perhaps), near is markedly different from every other character in the series. some might say he resembles his predecessor, but i think they are very distinct from one another as characters.

my personal opinion relating to mello and near's gender identities (which you may disagree with) is that mello expresses his gender ambiguity externally whereas near does so internally. essentially, if we interpret them both as androgynous, mello's appearance is far more expressive of this, whereas near's behaviour is his more nonconformative trait. this can be a slightly tricky area to navigate as it's important not to dive headfirst into gender essentialism, but i think near's mannerisms can, and should, be explored here.

girl near would still be able to work as head of the spk, without the disadvantages girl mello would face to become head of the mafia. i really don't think there would be much in the way of significant plot deviance if near was female, other than maybe light freaking out over the fact he was caught by a woman, which would be very funny. in the one shot, near's internal androgyny has manifested itself as a more external expression, and i really like that decision.

to conclude, i do love the concept of the wammy's girls, and i think it invites some interesting discussions relating to how femininity is often dismissed in death note. there's a lot of creativity in genderbending characters. mello, matt and near each have complex and interesting traits that are very fun to explore when thinking about them from this perspective.

[skara-skoot]

me when i mello and near all over the place

Boys will be boys 💤

[I’ve never posted on Tumblr before- hope I did it right]

[cogneartive]

theyre like siblings to me. theyre liek oomfs….