u/ItsDefinetelyNotOne

Firstly the results of the trap. Although it narrowed down Kiras location to one of 300 million people in Japan and revealed the limits of his power, Light already knows the death note is somewhat limited but light HIMSELF doesnt think he’s limited. L however, did this infront of every police officer in japan, willing to sacrifice any lives and basically shows that anyone with their name and face public who defies kira will die. Which only makes most police literally resign from the kira case later.

Light reacts to the trap very oddly to some people, but it makes sense as to why he reacted like this.

When L did the brilliant “i am L” play, when light gets home he is FURIOUS, ANGRY, SWEATING, hands against his head screaming “DAMN IT HE GOT ME.” When L does the Lind L Tailor trap, Light and him do their little “i will hunt you down and eliminate you, i am justice” dynamic. Light after the Lind L Tailor trap only feels more motivated because he immediately sees the flaw in this trap.

We know this because literally in the next episode, light exploits the flaw by revealing some of the powers of the death note to cause mass distrust between L and the Police. Light continues and forces L to reveal his face because of the unfairness of L to the police. “L doesnt have to show his name or face but we do when we oppose kira” is what the cops think. The death note needs a name AND a face to kill and by episode 6 Light pretty much already has L’s face.

Literally one of the detectives say verbatim “it seemed impressive in the moment but…” and went on to explain the police’s motivation to distrust L.

So if the trap only motivated Light even more and allowed him to exploit its weakness causing him to already have 50% of what he needs to kill L a few episodes into the show, what do you think the narrative is trying to portray especially when other plays by L have caused light to react much fiercer?

With that being said L psychologically profiling kira, the “I’m L,” and the note trap, all showcase L’s brilliance far more than the Lind L Tailor trap. Not to mention he tried something of the same concept with the 1500 fbi agents but light saw through it immediately cause he’s not falling for the same trick twice

Side note: Light continues to kill in Japan to bring L closer to place his headquarters in japan when L lowkey couldve js kept doing it from england until light REALLY pushed him

The reason why im saying this, trying to be as objective of a light AND L glazer as i can, is because of two things.

1. The results of the trap
2. Lights reaction to the trap

Firstly the results of the trap. Although it narrowed down Kiras location to one of 300 million people in Japan and revealed the limits of his power, Light already knows the death note is somewhat limited but light HIMSELF doesnt think he’s limited. L however, did this infront of every police officer in japan, willing to sacrifice any lives and basically shows that anyone with their name and face public who defies kira will die. Which only makes most police literally resign from the kira case later.

Light reacts to the trap very oddly to some people, but it makes sense as to why he reacted like this.

When L did the brilliant “i am L” play, when light gets home he is FURIOUS, ANGRY, SWEATING, hands against his head screaming “DAMN IT HE GOT ME.” When L does the Lind L Tailor trap, Light and him do their little “i will hunt you down and eliminate you, i am justice” dynamic. Light after the Lind L Tailor trap only feels more motivated because he immediately sees the flaw in this trap.

We know this because literally in the next episode, light exploits the flaw by revealing some of the powers of the death note to cause mass distrust between L and the Police. Light continues and forces L to reveal his face because of the unfairness of L to the police. “L doesnt have to show his name or face but we do when we oppose kira” is what the cops think. The death note needs a name AND a face to kill and by episode 6 Light pretty much already has L’s face.

Literally one of the detectives say verbatim “it seemed impressive in the moment but…” and went on to explain the police’s motivation to distrust L.

So if the trap only motivated Light even more and allowed him to exploit its weakness causing him to already have 50% of what he needs to kill L a few episodes into the show, what do you think the narrative is trying to portray especially when other plays by L have caused light to react much fiercer?

With that being said L psychologically profiling kira, the “I’m L,” and the note trap, all showcase L’s brilliance far more than the Lind L Tailor trap. Not to mention he tried something of the same concept with the 1500 fbi agents but light saw through it immediately cause he’s not falling for the same trick twice

Side note: Light continues to kill in Japan to bring L closer to place his headquarters in japan when L lowkey couldve js kept doing it from england until light REALLY pushed him

Illusion of two different shows

The parallel between Naomi Misora and Mello often doesn’t get talked about enough because of both characters being in basically two different “parts” of the show when its really the same manga. A lot of people like to separate death note into two parts but i feel like the entire point is that L never left the narrative as shown in the imagery and near and mello could match him. But this parallel is beautifully written and both are trying to tell you something about how acting off of impulsive emotion rather than calculated logic will guarantee your downfall, but you will do great things in such little time.

Emotion as something useful

Both if these characters have the same character flaw: emotion. While L and near saw cold calculated logic as the way to solve the case, naomi and mello were feuled by anger vengeance and grief, two emotions that provoke strong reactions.

Naomis fiance died attempting to solve the Kira case and she took it upon herself after countless warnings not to get involved and did so anyway. In exchange for the impulsiveness, she deduced that heart attacks werent the only way to kill and raye penber was the key to the puzzle. She never cared about the justice, she cared about her vengeance.

Mello had an inferiority complex with near and a desperate need to honor L claiming that Light couldnt hold a candle to L completely out of spite. Near and mello both hate Light meanwhile L respected him as an opponent to a game. Mellos anger lead him to joining the mafia and taking drastic measures such as kidnapping sayu.

L, near, and light used to see emotion as a liability because look what it got them: L saw that Kiras ego allowed his location to be revealed and make mistakes so why wouldnt he see emotion as a liability? Near saw emotion as a distortion of data rather than a key to the puzzle. Misas obsession with Light caused TOO MANY things to go to shit with rem literally threatening to kill Light TWICE (tbh idk how light even won against L but light is a better manipulator so it makes sense when L challenges him with a chess game)

However, Light beat L with a combination of cold, calculated, Logic (the fbi plan, potato chip, etc) and using rems love for misa as a catalyst.

(Edit made after this analysis was complete: I think what the narrative points to here is that Light is the smartest out of the 4 in their respective time periods because he was the only one to use both until Mello dies which then together, near and mello could even surpass L catching kira. But who really knows??)

Operating outside the main area

Naomi and Mello each operated outside of the primary detective teams and make observations that L and Near miss because of their “Logic>>>>>Emotion” mindset. Naomis breakthrough as previously stated was a. Kira being able to kill with something besides heart attacks and b. Kira met raye penber. Mello discovered ryuk and the fake 13 day rule through extortion and shit.

Face to face against “the god of the world”; plot armor

However both sacrifices met the demon: Light yagami.

His unparalleled manipulation skills caused both to die. With naomi he met her off of pure coincidence and when people say this is “plot armor” its plot armor on both sides because how tf is the fbi agent that’s responsible for light, coincidentally the husband of a person L worked with in the past. Its not plot, its just the narrative. Mello knows hes not good at that logic stuff so he tried the kidnapping shit again with kiyomi but uh, yea rip him.

Anyways after both of them got packed up thats not my main point, its what happens afterwards. Naomis sudden disappearance after L knowing her character and Rayes strange actions help L narrow it down specifically to the now prime SUSPECT light yagami (L was like 50% sure but not really sure until he does the paper test)

Mellos death forced mikami to break his routine and rush to the bank and retrieve the real death note, which leaks the real location of it to near who was trailing him, and hes able to swap it out for a fake which ultimately defeats light

In conclusion, both were sacrifices operating alone from the main detective teams who were extremely necessary in order to solve the kira case. Amazing writing by ohba.

I may be L’s Legacy, but i am not L

However, im not finished there because a lot of people tend to overrate their intelligence because of their contribution. Naomi did NOT “solve the case in 15 minutes,” she was in the right place at the right time and made a good deduction. Other than that though, she was manipulated by Light in like one episode of talking.
Mello had several moments where he had that nigga light sweating BULLETS, but it wasn’t because of the raw intellect and long term planning, its cause of how unpredictable mello is. Mello didnt care about his own safety or reputation, he hated light with a passion. Lights ego was shattered when L’s legacy was still alive and some chocolate eating kid was taunting him with his own notebook in his face. Although Mello is pretty tuff n smart ill give him his flowers for some stuff he did. Mello turned the game from a battle of logic to a boxing match, something L was too pussy to do (no offense L i still love you goat but thats what happened).

Both did have Light sweating for a lil bit, but just like i said in my 5th paragraph, relying on emotion only or no emotion at all in this narrative will cost you your life. They werent “written out because they were too smart,” thats just the way things work.

IF ANYONE CARES ABOUT MY ANSWER: Imo its naomi misora, she shouldve listened to raye penber because kira is on an a whole other level than BB. It took one episode and she got low diffed by light but people still glaze her like “she was too smart and had to get written out too quickly” kind of like mello

Mello is also overrated too imo because a lot of the times when he “outsmarts” near and light, hes just doing impulsive, irrational, things that are literally proven to get you killed in the show especially im the first half with Light vs L its obvious why he died.

Mello is still on the same tier as the top 3 tho

Near is very underrated tho, he is on the same level as light and L in terms of the cautious intelligence and a lot of people dont really seem to think that even though hes the only one who really understood the situation for what it is; light is not a god nor does the death note bring him anywhere CLOSE, hes js a serial killer who fell to the power of the shinigami.

I feel like a majority of this subreddit believes L is smarter than Light, which i personally disagree with, but is an acceptable point of view considering both of them outsmarted each other many times. The problem with this though is that i see a lot of people use the wrong reasoning and make some conclusion that light wasnt close to L when a heavy piece of their character writing is that both of them are EXTREMELY equal in intelligence.

Many say “L was at a disadvantage of resources since the beginning and Light just kept getting more.” The problem with this statement is that firstly, the technology and authority gap between Light and L is astronomical. Firstly, in order for light to manipulate L before his death and kill him he needs to find his name. Well L had watari since birth hide his identity from the world which makes it virtually impossible for light to find L by normal means. “But light had misa on his side” understanding the show is understanding how the author portrays certain characters, and you need to understand that the author is obviously portraying misa as a liability with Rem literally threatening to KILL Light for 50% of the show. L had authority to place 64 cameras in lights room, send fbi agents to japan, and complete jurisdiction over the investigation. Light targeted L’s resources instead of L himself because, objectively, L had more techological and authoritarian resources than light. “*Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”- Arthur C Clarke*

The worst sentence that i think has done irreversible damage to the death note community is “Light had to figure out L’s name and L had to prove the existence of God (or something) in a court of Law” with this statement three false assumptions are made:

1. “Lights goal was to find L’s name” Well Light literally states He’ll kill L with any means necessary so its not just the death note. But besides that, if you watched the tennis episode, you would understand that firstly everything in this show is going to be a psychological battle for a greater means, and secondly, both light and L need to get close to each other for the other to win. Light however, forced L to be closer than necessary to the police as well and was able to clear his name of all suspicion MULTIPLE times. Lights goal is to become god of the new world while seeming like a normal person, if light kills L while they are hustling becoming close together, would it not be suspicious?
2. “L had to prove the supernatural” i dont think i need to explain why this is stupid but ill do it anyway. Firstly, it doesnt take a genius to realize something weird is going on if criminals across the country are all dying of heart attacks when someone is literally claiming on tv killing people of heart attacks RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. I promise you, if people can believe that the earth is flat or the moon landing is fake, proving that something supernatural is going on wouldnt be much considering LITERALLY RIGHT AFTER THIS THEY HAD A SHINIGAMI IN CUSTODY WITH THE DEATH NOTE AND THEY COULDNT DO ANYTHING AGAINST LIGHT
3. “Proving the supernatural in a court of Law means L achieved his goal” the only thing L had to do was find ANY WAY light is connected to the kira murders. Yet Light kept proving himself innocent cause just as much Light had made egotistical mistakes, L made childish mistakes. If you understood their characters, this should be a no brainer to you

Lastly, even if L had more resources and had a harder task, light killed him in less than a year starting from when he was 17 in highschool, when most detective cases even today where the technology gap between the citizens and the police is much smaller, last years on end. When L suspected Light and called him his friend, light never strayed from his path and continued to play the game like he was the main suspect and didnt fall for L’s fake friendship. When Light used the fake useless messages with the criminals, L was seen visibly sweating trying to decipher their meaning.

**What im trying to say is that they are both extremely equal in intelligence and it really goes either way, but using any of the points ive listed above, is a fallacious way considering the source does not support that point.**

**If anyone wants my opinion on their reasoning for light>l or l>light, feel free to drop them below and ill happily respond :)**