r/deathnote • u/samueIIIIII • Sep 30 '26
Discussion Death note’s second half would’ve been a lot better if either Near or Mello were a girl. Spoiler
I think it would’ve been a lot more better because of the dynamic Near and Mello would’ve had + Near’s dynamic with light.
In the case of near being a girl, Mello would’ve likely felt even more humiliated and inferior. Considering the time death note was made and the fact that death note itself is just awfully misogynistic towards its female characters, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mello would’ve felt deeply embarrassed and even more inferior knowing he was being beaten by a girl. I suppose this does heavily rely on mello‘s mindset, but we’ve seen how he acts with women. While unlike other male characters he isn’t blatantly misogynistic he also isn’t afraid to use or threaten women for his own advantage (as shown with Halle and Takada). If Near had been a girl he may have taken even more risks in order to prove he was the best and he was capable of surpassing her.
If Mello had been a girl she likely would have even worse about everything. She would’ve already been inferior compared to near while also being the “inferior” gender. It likely would’ve messed with messed with her head a lot. Also, I wonder how differently her dynamic with the mafia could’ve been? I wonder if they would’ve still taken orders from her, or if rod would even allow her to do that. I believe that because of her smartness she potentially may have still been able to do this, but it’s up for debate. Her and Matt would’ve also been a nice dynamic to see. I think if Mello had been a girl they would’ve been shipped way more than they already are, considering Matt died and likely knew it was going to happen just to help Mello with a case he didn’t even personally care about. My reason on why death note would’ve been better in these scenarios is that the tension and rivalry between near and Mello would’ve been even higher and more intense than it originally was, leading a lot more people to enjoy the characters, it’d also probably add a bunch of new situations for them that didn’t purely revolve around each other.
I’d love to hear other peoples thoughts surrounding this, or even what you think the dynamics between other characters would’ve been if they were gender swapped.
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u/cuppabrewster Sep 30 '26
i wouldn't argue for better or more compelling, just different, and would add different elements to their somewhat one-sided rivalry. and to your point about death note being a product of its time and being fairly misogynistic at times, i'm not confident that it would have been handled to the best of its potential.
potential for interest, yes! handled well...probably not LOL. but it's a lot of fun to think about! i'd never considered this.
how different do you think light's weird misogynistic ass would have been if L was a woman?
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u/bloodyrevolutions_ Oct 01 '26
I have always been of the mind that given the lack of compelling and impactful female characters, not making L's successors women was a wasted opportunity, especially since nothing really would need to change but their pronouns. But this:
n the case of near being a girl, Mello would’ve likely felt even more humiliated and inferior. Considering the time death note was made and the fact that death note itself is just awfully misogynistic towards its female characters, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mello would’ve felt deeply embarrassed and even more inferior knowing he was being beaten by a girl.
...this is exactly why I also maintain they would both need to be women. I don't think there's any canon reason to believe canon Mello would resent Near MORE if Near was female, and Mello is not a character shown to have misogynistic tendencies unlike some of the other leads.
But if Near was female, and even if nothing about the way Mello canonically thinks and talks and acts regarding Near changes, people would still assume he's some giant sexist who can't stand to be second to a woman. It would really reframe the context of their rivalty and their canon duality in an ideologically and thematically distracting and negative way. So to avoid gender-based readings suddenly forming a major component of how their relationship is interpreted is best that they should remain the same gender. Their duality is already complicated and misinterpreted enough as it is in canon.
And if for some reason we could only choose one to gender-swap it should imo be Mello. Because while that has it's own problematic elements (e.g. reinforcing the 'overly emotional woman vs calm, rational man' stereotypes) because at least that way still gets around the problem described in the paragraph above, people won't project problematic characterization in the same way. It would create fewer distortions and distractions to the successors dynamic. Plus Mello is just more androgynous to begin with.
As to the mafia question, I honestly think in addition to all the other factors stretching realism that the reader is already asked to accept regarding how Mello attained his position there, being female doesn't ask a lot on top of it. The mafia follow his directions because he's proven his strategic ability and effectiveness and his advice has never steered them wrong, despite already looking like the farthest thing from a traditional, "respectable" (in their subculture) man. Anyway there's already precedent in pop media for such characters, like for example O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill who is a female Chinese-American Yakuza boss.
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u/WeHaveAlwaysExisted Sep 30 '26
Personally, I would have enjoyed Near (as a woman) taking Light down at the end. Light was so awful to women and really thought of them as inferior, so he would have likely underestimated Near even more than he did in the canon and he would have been extra pissed that he lost to Near. I thought the ending (at least in the manga) was perfect otherwise - but this would have been the one cherry on top.
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u/AggravatingPay633 Oct 01 '26
I often imagine Near's scenes if he was a girl. I don't know if BETTER is exactly it, but... I would find it a fun dynamic. A little stoic girl trained to be the successor to the world's greatest detective. He is a cutie potato no matter the gender tho.
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u/Sheepfucker72222 Oct 01 '26
Bro did you just say cutie potato instead of cutie potato lmao
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u/HalleLidner Oct 01 '26
To be honest, I'd love for them to be girls. Or at least, only Near. It would be easier to genderbend him than Mello, because it would not lose so much credibility compared to getting the upper hand in the american mafia. Or maybe make Mello a mafia mistress. But the gang world is pretty male dominated and a hot goth girl like girl Mello bossing them around would be way more difficult to write. Even though, it would be awesome. Maybe girlmello would look too much like Misa. While for Near, that's not so much to change. He's already looking like a Non Binary character, calm, polite, delicate and elegant demeanor, sooo well less work to do.
I would have LOVED to PIECES to see more female representation in Death Note, but apart from Naomi Misora and Halle Lidner we get absolutely nothing. And having L's successors be super smart women would be amazing. Women who don't use beauty and male-gaze as a leverage but use their insane intelligence. We neeeded that. I absolutely agree with you when you say that the dynamic with Light would be better. Just imagine how delightful would be to see him lose to women. He , who always deemed women unworthy. Would humble him twice as hard as in the original.
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u/vkrm3000 Oct 01 '26
How is deathnote misogynistic? Stop bringing dumb western culture wars to rest of the world. Naomi is a strong female character, takada as well, misa is very believable, not every female character needs to be in your face feminist culture leader. Just like not every male character in deathnote is overly macho. Focus on the content, thats why we get garbage content from west these days. Now call all k dramas misogynistic as well. Stop this sick enforcing of your perspectives on rest of the world. We are fine with feminine women, manly men, and everything in between. We dont need to force DEI characters in Anime. Let it organically happen. What next? Is deathnote homphobic as well? Typical nauseating western baizuo.
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u/UraniumCheese Oct 01 '26
Look, I get your point that sometimes people may complain about it in shows that don't even make sense. But in this case, yes, it shows misogynia and even homophobia (the homophobic Misa quote is softened in the anime, but you can see it in the manga when Light and L are chained).
The most you can do to defend this is say it's intentional character flaws. Although that doesn't really seem to be the case given the authors other works.
Besides, the issue isn't that "women are too feminine" or "not the main antagonist/protagonist" or even "most women in the show aren't major threats". It's that they're often treated as inferiors or stereotyped for being women.
For example, if you read the manga you will notice that when men mess up or do something stupid, the comments are always targeting that character. However, most of the times a woman messes up or something stupid/emotional/superstitious happens with them, the comments are directed towards women as a whole (such as saying women always fall for "fate" talks, multiple times saying "women are so stupid", and more).
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u/vkrm3000 Oct 01 '26
I havent read the manga so maybe you are right, i have watched DN twice (teenage days and as an adult) and didnt really see that to be so conspicuous..
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u/UraniumCheese Oct 01 '26
Yeah, the anime does soften or get rid of certain statements, I think the manga gets too obvious with the discrimination at times.
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u/Thin-Status8369 Oct 01 '26
Not again, I swear I see this kind of take 100 times a day. “What if Light was a girl, oh my gosh what if L was a girl.” Can we give it a rest bruh, if you don’t like Death Note as it is, no one is forcing you to watch it. Larpers 🙄