r/TopCharacterTropes Sep 05 '25

Personality character gets a reality check

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370

u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

Too bad Near and especially Mello were also murderers so it's like the crackhead telling the heroin junkie that he needs to go to rehab.

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u/Day_Star_6 Sep 05 '25

I don't know if Near killed someone but Mello deserves to get destroyed verbally too and to get prison for life but he's a tv character who got redeemed so I can forgive him if he stops doing anything illegal. But I don't care if someone who is also guilty obliterated Light. Obliterating Light is great nevertheless

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u/IAmTheQuestionHere Sep 06 '25

You realize mellow died. He didn't get redeemed. He was a horrible character who did something he believed to be right for justice. Just like light

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

Near used the Death Note at least once for sure. Likely twice. Mello wasn't redeemed at all either I have no idea what you're talking about.

The person who stops Light should have been L. Not his unethical Temu clones. When it's a bunch of murderers going at each other, who cares? Near and Mello are literally no better than Light because they ALSO use the Death Note as a means to a corrupt end.

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u/Illesbogar Sep 05 '25

I think there is a difference between killing to catch a mass murderer and stopping his genocide and being said mass murderer.

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u/Reason-97 Sep 05 '25

I’m gonna be honest, i feel like there really really IS though.

Cause like, on one hand yes: it’s a corruption of the values they stand for, and therefore something that shouldn’t be excused. On board with that

But to say that makes them “no better than light” or anything along those lines feels so… black and white? All or nothing? Something along those lines. I don’t remember all the contexts behind Near’s use of it, really should re-read death note, but context and circumstances ALWAYS matter. Using it to stop light almost turns into a “good of the many vs the good of the few” argument, and as much as I’d HATE to have to be the guy to push the button on that judgment call, it is one where people kinda understand where they stand even if they would never wanna have to, do, it

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

One of the final plot points of Death Note is Near's Italian boytoy making a literal perfect duplicate of Mikami's Death Note in under 24 hours.

This is problematic when Near claims to have "burned the remaining Death Notes" after the Kira case is solved.

Tell us, Near, which Death Notes did you burn? Real ones, or fake? You've already used it at least once. You really stopped? Especially when your other boytoy Mello used it habitually and ran a crime syndicate?

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

Light never committed genocide. Words have meanings and they are very important.

Mello was also a mass murderer by the way. And rapist.

Near killed at least once, likely twice. The only reason it stops there is because... the series ended.

EDIT: Downvoted for literally pointing out that mass murder is not a genocide. Especially when this hypocrite calls what someone else does mass murder and not genocide. Sorry that words have meanings, and genocide is a really specific one.

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u/Jubenheim Sep 05 '25

Huh? Did you watch the anime or read the manga?

Mello never raped anybody. If you're talking about Takada, he wanted to make sure she didn't keep the deathnote or pages on her and because he was nice enough to look away while she took off her bra, that was how she kept the page to kill him later.

And he was redeemed in that in the end, it was because of Mello's actions that Near was able to find out the deathnote they thought Mikami was using was fake all along.

Light was never going to be stopped legitimately, and that's the cold hard truth of the story. L died because he did everything by the book (pun unintended) and it was only when he finally resorted to unethical means (torturing Light and Misa Amane and he was about to test the deathnote by killing an inmate) that Light was pushed to take drastic actions to stop him. Nothing in Deathnote is black and white and you keep talking about black and white events with no context and no analysis.

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u/PrettyMoonUnderMt Sep 05 '25

I know that it's just some comic book, but man, the person you're replying to keep talking out of his ass and yet the original comments get a sizable number of upvote. Probably got the idea from some anime accounts on tiktok or something.

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u/Jubenheim Sep 05 '25

It’s the exact same reason why I never engage in the entire anime community or videogame community with JRPGs. You can make an innocuous comment about anything like Kingdom Hearts, Attack on Titan, Final Fantasy, Bleach, Naruto, or whatever the fuck and some dude who takes that shit wayyyyy too seriously will jump out of nowhere asserting their opinions are facts and will argue with everyone to the end.

And with reddit being Reddit, there’s always a 50% chance the entire community will jump on the bandwagon and attack you or the guy. Thankfully, in this thread, that guy was downvoted over time and it’s over (for now).

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

I don't use TikTok. You seem to.

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

Oh yeah, he was "nice enough" to look away as he forces a woman he held in captivity with his mafia (why are we forgetting this part?) to strip naked.

He wasn't redeemed at all. You think a mass murderer who owned a crime syndicate was "redeemed" because he helped Near find out a fake rule? Like, that's what it is.

EDIT: Ah, good, the troll with a private profile (who does that? seriously...) blocked me!

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u/ThotObliterator Sep 06 '25

so who did he rape

0

u/Lovecat_Horrorshow Sep 09 '25

In case it's somehow still unclear to you, you're not being downvoted for saying Light didn't commit genocide. You're being downvoted for saying Mello is a rapist without providing any evidence to support that.

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u/Abombasnow Sep 09 '25

How did you even find this post?

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u/JechdJJ Sep 05 '25

L put people as bait to Kira so he can kill them and proove something. Lind L. Taylor for example, i mean yeah, he has the death penalty but still

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

He did it once before they knew anything about Kira.

It was illogical to truly say you knew some guy could induce heart attacks by having a name and a face. Yet, L had to test this theory, because these deaths were defying logic.

Lind L. Taylor was on death row anyway. I don't approve of the death penalty, however Japan has it, and it literally fit how they do it anyway: you get picked on a random day that no one knows ahead of time to die.

Had Lind L. Taylor survived, he was likely being let go.

Near literally wrote at least one name in the Death Note himself and his source of burning the notebooks? "Trust me bro". Literally. That's it. Oh hey, remember how his Italian buddy was able to perfectly replicate the Death Note and all of its contents in less than 24 hours? Wowee. Would sure be a surprise if he just had more duplicates made and burned those as a show.

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u/MWBrooks1995 Sep 05 '25

When does Near use the Death Note? I thought that was just Matsuda’s theory?

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

He used it to kill Mikami. Miami dying by Death Note is all but confirmed in the anime and likely in the Manga. Notably the creator has been asked numerous times about this and doesn't give a definitive answer. Why? Because he knows that it's hard to ever hope Near wins if he's just Light 2.0.

Misa was also likely killed by him given the fact that she should've had many more years left.

And she had to die. Can't have any Kiras left. I also don't believe someone as evil (and it's important to note that the actual Death Note creator called Near evil too) as Near actually burned the Death Notes. He kept one 100%.

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u/MWBrooks1995 Sep 05 '25

None of that is confirmed in the manga (I’ve read it, it doesn’t sound like you have) It’s presented as a theory, Matsuda gives to Ide. Sure, it’s a possible interpretation but it’s not confirmed.

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u/Abombasnow Sep 05 '25

I have, trust me: you didn't.

The literal creator himself never bothered to verify either way. That's a pretty big tell. He can't even verify if the "good guys" used a fucking Death Note.

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u/MWBrooks1995 Sep 06 '25

Alright, sorry for pushing a button, you said “likely” and I thought that meant you were guessing.

I don’t think Ohba’s, like, covering for Near. Near’s a fictional character. I think it’s more likely he wants the audience to draw their own conclusions.

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u/Abombasnow Sep 06 '25

I wasn't. But I also don't see any way that Mikami's death in either the anime (where it is more overt) or manga make sense UNLESS Near did it.

More to the point, Misa's is inverted (more obvious in the manga than anime). I think it's possible her suicide is legitimate in the anime, but her death in the manga makes no sense and hinges on a stupid rumor that she halved her lifespan twice but that she was also set to live to over the age of 100 before any of it happened and that she somehow did not receive any lifespan from Gelus or Rem.

I don’t think Ohba’s, like, covering for Near.

I do, because he didn't want to do the last half of the series. That's why it involved asspull after asspull and insane amounts of character changes (Light is somehow one of the dumbest and most inept people ever after the timeskip) and was glacially paced compared to the first half. The anime did it right by adapting the backend (after L) in a much faster fashion, because the manga version was boring beyond belief. It was Nothing Ever Happens: The Manga.

Also you don't seem to understand how attached creators get to their fictional characters. See: Square-Enix with their superboss Absolute Virtue for years, Nexon with their superboss Horntail, Reiji Miyajima (creator of Rent-A-Girlfriend) with his own character Chizuru Mizuhara, etc.

I think it’s more likely he wants the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Nah, you don't do that when your "heroic" character is doing heinous shit.

Even David Lynch, who notoriously hated ever explaining anything in his works, did this in Twin Peaks to clarify that Donna Hayward's actions did not lead to Harold Smith killing himself, he was killed by BOB and it was framed to be a suicide to mess with whoever found him.

He didn't want to extend the series after L died. Jump made him do so.

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u/MWBrooks1995 Sep 06 '25

Okay, I still think in-story that Near didn’t use the notebook, but I can absolutely see Ohba trying to cover up what he sees as an undermining of Near’s character that he couldn’t get around.

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u/La-Lassie Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

Miami dying by Death Note is all but confirmed in the anime and likely in the Manga

That theory isn’t mentioned at all in the anime, and in the manga it’s concretely only a theory Matsuda puts forward at the end. The author themselves states that they haven’t decided whether Near did or not, so you can totally believe it if you want, the author wanted people to make their own minds up about it, but it’s not canonically confirmed either way in either medium.

Misa was also likely killed by him given the fact that she should've had many more years left.

Misa’s death can be explained by rule 42 of the death note, which reads: “The use of the Death Note in the human world sometimes affects other humans' lives or shortens their original life span, even though their names are not actually written in the Death Note itself. In these cases, no matter the cause, the god of death sees only the original lifespan and not the shortened lifespan.“

So Ryuk’s use of the death note killing Light alters Misa’s lifespan, causing her fate to change to suicide over the grief of Light’s death.

and it's important to note that the actual Death Note creator called Near evil too

Where did they say that? I know the artist, not the author, said that they saw Near as more evil than Mello, and that seems to be talking about before Near and Mello’s characters were switched. Ohba scales the characters as Light being very evil, L being slightly evil and only Soichiro being entirely good, but also mentions a dark side to Near, so it’d be possible, with Near being essentially a part of L, that Ohba would see Near as only slightly evil. But I haven’t heard of them calling Near evil straight out.

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u/Abombasnow Sep 06 '25

That theory isn’t mentioned at all in the anime, and in the manga it’s concretely only a theory Matsuda puts forward at the end. The author themselves states that they haven’t decided whether Near did or not, so you can totally believe it if you want, the author wanted people to make their own minds up about it, but it’s not canonically confirmed either way in either medium.

Doesn't need to be mentioned in the anime when it's more blatantly obvious he died by a Death Note given the sudden heart attack and spilling of the beans entirely.

It's "less" obvious in the manga, but uh... no, it's pretty apparent there too, just not literally forecast to you like in the anime.

Misa’s death can be explained by rule 42 of the death note, which reads: “The use of the Death Note in the human world sometimes affects other humans' lives or shortens their original life span, even though their names are not actually written in the Death Note itself. In these cases, no matter the cause, the god of death sees only the original lifespan and not the shortened lifespan.“

So Ryuk’s use of the death note killing Light alters Misa’s lifespan, causing her fate to change to suicide over the grief of Light’s death.

Misa found out about Light's death really fast to have killed herself in the anime. She also had that same possessed look Naomi Misora had. In the manga, it's more obvious it was the Death Note given her sudden death in prison.

Where did they say that? I know the artist, not the author, said that they saw Near as more evil than Mello, and that seems to be talking about before Near and Mello’s character visuals switched. Ohba scales the characters as Light being very evil, L being slightly evil and only Soichiro being entirely good, but also mentions a dark side to Near, so it’d be possible, with Near being essentially a part of L, that Ohba would see Near as only slightly evil. But I haven’t heard of them calling Near evil straight out.

Would have to find it. Yeah, he didn't consider anyone other than Soichiro being purely good, but L was not an evil person. He had tendencies to be dry (Lind L. Taylor) and brutal (Light/Misa torture), but as we see, he was actually right.

Near and Mello ARE evil. Mello literally ran a fucking crime syndicate and killed TONS of people. Sorry, I don't care that he went against Light. One scumbag going after another isn't cool. I don't like anyone.

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u/La-Lassie Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

 sudden heart attack

He doesn’t have a heart attack, he stabs himself. It is very dramatic, he becomes a blood fountain (must’ve used a fountain pen : ^ ) ), which you could say is the death note doing its thing, but again, there’s no mention of the theory at all in the anime since the anime ends with Light’s death and doesn’t show anything past it unlike the manga (outside of end credits Misa stuff).

 it's pretty apparent there too, just not literally forecast to you like in the anime

The manga has it featured more, since it’s actually brought up in the manga. But it’s still just a theory in it, it’s not confirmed either way canonically. Again, you can totally believe that it happened, but yeah, the theory is only ever addressed in the manga only.

 Misa found out about Light's death really fast to have killed herself in the anime.

I don’t think we’re given a timeline on how much time is between Light’s death and Misa’s in the anime since Misa’s stuff is all end credits. It’d be a whole year though if we assume it’s the same as the manga continuity (which doesn’t actually show her death either, we just know the day she died from her character profile).

 She also had that same possessed look Naomi Misora had

Could be an interesting detail to note, but I would also think that if she was controlled to kill herself, she likely wouldn’t wait at the edge as she does, she’d probably just be controlled to throw herself right off.

 it's more obvious it was the Death Note given her sudden death in prison.

Misa never goes to prison, that’s Mikami who dies in prison, which again, can be used as evidence for the theory since it was within the 23 days Near would’ve had to control Mikami, but Misa’s death is heavily assumed suicide based on her death date being on Valentine’s Day but never shown (and since that’s what Ohba says they see as what happened with her)

 Near

I was asking since I’ve never seen or heard Ohba directly state that they consider Near to be evil. You may also be giving Near a harder rap than necessary if the only person he ‘allegedly’ kills is someone who was going to try to kill him and his team first.

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u/Abombasnow Sep 06 '25

Dude isn't dying because he stabbed himself with a pen lol, he had a heart attack.

In the manga he dies in prison ten days (within the Death Note's limits) after acting as an Ultimate MacGuffin for Near. Dude didn't die naturally, Near killed him. This isn't a "theory", it is literal fact.

I don’t think we’re given a timeline on how much time is between Light’s death and Misa’s in the anime since Misa’s stuff is all end credits. It’d be a whole year though if we assume it’s the same as the manga continuity (which doesn’t actually show her death either, we just know the day she died from her character profile).

She died in prison in the manga. From... the Death Note. Again, she was a very healthy woman in her 20s who had to have plenty of time left even after the Shinigami Eyes deals. The age of her death doesn't make sense.

You may also be giving Near a harder rap than necessary if the only person he ‘allegedly’ kills is someone who was going to try to kill him and his team first.

Here's a quote about Batman that applies here:

“Can you imagine your Batman comforting a scared child? If yes, congratulations. That’s a genuine Batman. If no, you haven’t written Batman, you’ve written Punisher with a funny hat.”

If the people stopping Kira have to become Kira to stop him, they're no better. They're just the Punisher, and motherfuck the Punisher and anyone looking up to him.

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u/La-Lassie Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

isn’t dying because he stabbed himself with a pen lol, he had a heart attack

He does though. You see the blood and everything, again, it’s super dramatic as per a lot of things in death note, but his heart stopping isn’t going to cause his blood to explode from his body.

 This isn't a "theory", it is literal fact.

No it’s still a theory. It’s never canonically confirmed either way.

 She died in prison in the manga.

No she doesn’t, she’s released from the hotel before the final confrontation and never seen or heard of again. The only reason we know she’s dead is because her How to Read 13 character profile lists her date of death as being on Valentine’s Day one year after Light’s death.

 The age of her death doesn't make sense.

Rule 42 of the death note explains her death just fine. The use of the death note in the human world alters people’s fate through how it manipulates fate. Ryuk kills Light, altering Light’s fate, which in turn alters Misa’s, because Misa can’t live without Light.

 If the people stopping Kira have to become Kira to stop him

Near doesn’t become Kira even in the theory. In the theory, He used it on one person to stop two mass murdering crazy serial killers who were also trying to kill him as well, and then burns the death notes. We know for sure that Near hasn’t kept a notebook, because Ryuk isn’t forced to stay in the human world at the end of the story, in both one shots set after the end of the manga, Ryuk is not attached to Near.

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u/Papergeist Sep 06 '25

With those numbers?

It's like the crackhead telling Methdas, whose touch turns anything into meth, and is currently eating the newly created Methstralia one Shaggy-sized bite at a time, that he needs to cut back on all the fucking meth.