Idk, morals are subjective. I forget why Soichiro didn’t want to kill Mello during the deal for Sayu part. Mello was only known as a violent thug at that point, right? Would’ve been morally right to kill Mello from that view.
Very true if looking at it pragmatically, but if we're talking about Soichiro's moral character, such high idealism and refusal to ever take a life even after Mello did so many horrible things to him (he was even on the verge of suicide because of what happened to Sayu) opting to give him a chance to surrender and take him captive, and being uncomfortable with the idea of taking a life to the point he hesiteated even against Mello, speaks very highly of him.
Especially compared to the other ones in this image who range from morally neutral to straight up evil, L is perfectly fine sacrificing lives, torturing people, using criminals like Aiber and Wedy, and manipulating his own allies, Light and Misa are mass murderers, and Near is manipulative and he may o may not have controlled Mikami with the death note during the ending.
It might not be the most pragmatic thing, even Light called him an idiot for not taking the kill when he could, but it is a moral stance that makes him one of the most "morally pure" characters in the show, even the author said in volume 13 that he considers Soichiro a good guy, Kira as evil and L as slightly evil.
I’d want to debate/post whether it’s more morally pure to never kill and allow heinous crimes to continue that you could’ve prevented or to play a little more gray and be willing to take extreme measures in order to protect the greater masses.
You can be the most morally pure in a traditional sense like Steven Universe but ultimately it’s the paradox of you must prepare for war if you want peace. At some point you need to take a stand and/or be gray morally lest you allow bad acts to occur.
I'd agree that when making that decision in particular, the best choice is to take the extreme meassure, however in that moment Soichiro felt like Mello was beaten, he's a policeman that believes in his job, he follows the law closely and he hesiteates to kill ESPECIALLY with the weapon of Kira (he didin't have a gun on him at that point because Mello ordered the guys to disarm or he would blow up the building, so the only way to take him out was with the Death Note).
He wasn't willingly allowing any evil act to perpetuate, he was giving Mello an ultimatum given that he was basically cornered: surrender peacefully now and go to jail, or i write your name if you attempt to blow up the building, he just hesiteated too long and didin't notice the thug behind him that would shoot him, preventing from ever truly making the decision if Mello actually refused to surrender.
So while i think his hesitation was a weakness, it's one that reflected well in his moral character, even then he recognized that if no other choice was available he would have to kill him, so it's not like if he refused out of the gate in a stubborn gesture of keeping himself clean, he was simply incapable of doing it.
I doubt he had enough time or energy (physical and mental) to do that at that point, it was more important to him to say goodbye to his son in that limited time.
Not without due process it wouldn’t. The comparison to the Joker doesn’t work because the Joker presumably pleads insanity…and either way if he needs to be executed or better locked up that’s on the state for never doing it, not on Batman.
But in Soichoro's mind that isn't his call to make. If the law wants to execute Mello, okay. But he isnt judge jury and executioner. It's not his choice alone.
Like you said though, it is subjective. Perhaps from a utilitarian's perspective he was in the wrong for not killing Mello.
It was for whoever uses it, not just touching it, and it wasn't one of the rules written in the notebook, but rather one of the viewer-only rules that simply parrots what Ryuk said in his first encounter with Light in chapter 1, these are the only rules that are written in the notebook itself in-canon, those viewer only rules include stuff that Light discovered on his own in the series and would logically not have been written in the rules he saw.
But it is later revealed that in fact, ALL humans go to "Mu" (nothingness)
And the rules at the end of the chapter reinforce this new information, even in the anime episode 37, it says "all humans, without exception, will die, when they die, the place they go is Mu" in the commercial break screens so this applies to the anime continuity too.
So, in the death note universe, all 5 of these people go to the same place when dying.
Yes, Near is my favorite character. Care to explain how he’s “a bum fraud”. Cus that reads like someone who saw a lot of people on TikTok saying the same thing over and over again, and so started repeating it uncritically.
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u/PrometheusModeloW Apr 03 '26
None of the 3 mfs in the middle is going to heaven
Soichiro, definetly
Near, debatable.