One Of The Issues Of Being Obsessed With Death Note Is That It’s Not Comforting

Ohh, so I was looking at my storage and found these! I originally shared them on twitter before yeeting the platform. Anyway, feel free to use! Art memes for your oc :D

let’s settle this shit but do NOT reblog if you’re gonna be modest about it like a little BITCH. anyway privilege check tell me which ones apply to you: hot, funny, can dance, can do math, can spell, can drive, can cook

L - Death Note

Propaganda from submitter:

“I just wanna see”

well i just finished the last chapter of the arc.

during the process i permanently had in mind two very silly and funny things i could do with the plot but did not. because then it would just go off rails completely.

HOWEVER. while trying to avoid those two things, i accidentally made two other stupid decisions, which are more logical, i'll give myself that, but they still mess up the plot in a plethora of ways.

guess who should deal with that mess now instead of whining about their incompetence on tumblr :)

okay... please assume they're clothed and not just poorly drawn blobs... i won't tag this, it doesn't deserve to be in moonriver tag

Day 4. Deception

may I offer you another platonic ship in these trying times

I really need to write something romantic just to push myself out of my comfort zone, but yeah, here's plot

a short summary:

Near marvels at spacecrafts. Near commits crimes. Near doesn't miss Light.

Day 5. Secrets

Before L boarded his spacecraft, he was teaching it to youth. A very rebellious and unruly youth, one must say. The kind that soon got him entangled with a certain police officer...

or L gets some bad news and has to deal with it himself because no one else seems to understand anything

a death note chapter 1 vs episode 1 comparison

I think people tend to be under the assumption that the death note manga and anime are basically the same besides their endings and the foot washing scene, and thus generally interchangeable. Personally, i don’t believe this is the case. Though many of the changes are small things a casual viewer might not notice, to me these small changes add up to such a degree that despite being so similar, reading the manga and watching the anime are two very different experiences (not even getting into how the anime butchers the second half lmao)

For the record, im not against significant changes in adaptations. On the contrary, i find the oft-hated 2015 tv drama to be a compelling alternate take on the narrative (even if it often struggles in the execution of its concepts). Rather, this whole Thing is more of a documentation of the big and small changes made in adaptation, through the lens of my own extremely subjective interpretation of both versions.

the anime naturally makes many structural changes to the narrative so for the sake of consistency, i will generally be going through things according to the anime’s chronology. If i believe one of these changes has a notable effect on how the narrative comes across, i’ll mention it. I’ll try not to repeat things that are identical between versions, so naturally some existing familiarity with either version would be preferable

Let's Begin

Light: this world… Ryuk: …is rotten

The anime takes the opening lines of the manga (which are spoken separately by light and ryuk, respectively) and gives light ryuk’s line, while light’s is then shared between both of them.

Though they are very obviously visually drawing parallels between the two characters in the manga, i think the actual sentiment expressed in their respective lines isn’t meant to be quite as connected as the anime portrays it. the role “boredom” and “morality” play in their respective motivations is pretty important later on in the chapter, so just keep this in the back of your mind for now.

After light picks up the note for the first time, he puts it back down and starts to leave, dismissing it as a stupid chain letter. But once he thinks about the fact that it’ll supposedly kill people, he turns back (and goes back for it). This choice to go back is not present in the manga, he simply picks it up, laughs, and puts it in his bag without a second thought.

Though light laughs at it in both, in the manga the sequence in general feels lighter in tone compared to the anime (where light only takes interest in it Because it claims to kill). 

In general, light comes across as more mature in the anime, in his facial features and behavior. Tragically, there is no “fwaah” 🥺

It’s minor but Anime light entirely skips manga light’s rationalization of finding someone it’s “okay to kill”, though he does immediately rebuke himself for taking this so seriously

This may just be up to translation differences but anime light seems almost eager for the death note to be real, while manga light seems to just want confirmation, and is much more distressed over the circumstances. Again, the anime leaves out light determining who to kill specifically in terms of who it would be “okay to kill”. And here he then doubles down to someone who “ought to die”, as the situation has gotten more serious

It’s a small thing, but the anime completely removes this scene (the teacher is knocking him out of his thoughts of killing one of his classmates). It’s only notable to me in how it connects with the wider tonal differences between the versions of the story, and of how much less willing the anime is to portray light’s more mundane immature/human aspects

I'm not including pics but this sequence where light comes across a woman being harassed by a group of bikers is a lot more graphic, showing the preamble to sexual assault where the manga just implied it to be a possibility.

This one is probably more subjective, but when light pulls out the note to stare at it and laugh a little eagerly, the anime’s delivery is really like. Obvious overt Supervillain laugh (even if it is fairly quiet). The manga comes across a little more….. Idc, childish? Immature? Not to mention the sweat on his face

A small change, but in the anime there’s no disbelieving “a…[bold text] shinigami?”

Anime light sweats at his initial meeting of ryuk, but it’s gone as he resolves himself. Manga light sweats and sweats and keeps on sweating through most of the rest of the conversation, the closed eye expression being one of frustration before he opens his eyes and resolves himself.

In the manga, light’s hand trembles as he grabs the chair while getting up.

With the context of the rest of this chapter/episode, these lines come off very differently to me. Anime light feels like he was only surprised by the sight of ryuk+jumpscare, and is wayyy more confident in this situation. That he has been waiting for ryuk feels like a true statement. But in the manga, it really comes off like he is pissing himself scared right now and is desperately pretending to be cool and lies about it to try and have some control over the situation

The anime omits this hilariously awkward line, which really adds to the “light’s absolutely freaking out” of the manga

Ugh, for such a little thing im genuinely kinda devastated that the anime just doesn’t have that look between ryuk and light. It makes the “most people would be too scared” feel so much less pointed. Light later says that there’s “some power that makes you want to use the death note” and i think this bit really drives in how truly abnormal light’s behavior is, even for people who willingly use the death note. 

Off topic but I Hate those “the death note has supernatural powers that makes you evil” theories i really do, it gets rid of everything interesting about the narrative, i’ll fight you. anyways.

Again, the difference in composure. Anime light is still sweating over this, but overall way more “cool” than manga light’s heavily shadowed, serious expression and hunched shoulders

Im so sad at how they’ve removed so much of this lowkey humor in the anime. Light’s awkward laughter is so funny and characterful to me, he is sooo internally freaking out…

i think the juxtaposition of dark shit with humor to be one of the big appeals of the manga, and one of the main reasons i find the anime pretty boring tonally. 

They need to stop getting rid of light’s awkward bits, it really humanizes him

Light has resolved himself to his mission, he proclaims it with a smile on his face, in both versions. (Manga light finally doesn’t have sweat on his face anymore)

But why is he doing all this? Ryuk even asks flat out in the anime. And what does light say?

Well this is where it gets really interesting… It is here where what i believe to be the single most significant adaptation change occurs. 

Light has two RADICALLY different answers.

A childish, wide eyed smiling proclamation that “nobody will commit crimes anymore. the world will start to become a better place,” versus a serious “i was bored…too.”

once you strip away the cat and mouse games to reach the thematic and emotional bones of death note (the manga), i find it to be a story that is fundamentally a character study of our beloved beloathed protagonist light yagami. As such, i find Altering something so critical to who he is like this irrevocably changes the entire narrative. 

And the thing is, both sentiments are expressed in both versions, but come across very differently due to their contexts. 

←- right to left

This first chapter has had some fairly major structural changes done in the process of adaptation. While the anime goes from light seeing the death note fall from his classroom window to meeting ryuk for the first time in chronological order, the manga has a timeskip in the middle of it. What did they skip? Light’s first time actually using the death note. So when ryuk later tells light that he dropped the death note for a human to pick up out of boredom, light responds that he was bored too… leading directly into a flashback of when he first used the note. 

In the manga, the juxtaposition of events leads us to read “i was bored too” as: 

“Light used the death note for the first time because he was bored” 

In the anime, the same line is instead a direct answer to ryuk asking his motivation for becoming kira. Reinforced by following it up with a flashback to the immediate aftermath of light discovering that the death note truly works (+ his decision to become kira).

Though not significantly different, i do find it interesting how the anime has omitted light considering getting rid of the death note and thinking that the second victim didn’t deserve death (then talking himself into accepting it). As a result, anime light’s rationalization of his behavior feels less personal, and has much less doubt.

Again, the manga goes way harder into light’s emotional state, and doubts about this whole thing. “Just two, and look at me…” Also, no guilt blanket burrito in the anime ☹️

Now back to the conversation with ryuk, the anime is very notably missing this line from light. Ryuk has never seen someone write as many names in the notebook in 5 days as light has, and light is not dealing with it well. He’s being flippant about it, but this little line is some of the most damning evidence that the guilt of killing people is actively eating away at him, and to a pretty severe degree.

Though anime light does bring up the same/similar lines about making the world a better place and having doubts about his mission, their place in his motivations has been significantly de-emphasized. The general change in light’s characterization seems to make him look much colder, cooler and more capable, at the expense of removing most of his humanity and a lot of the dimension to his character, particularly regarding his personal feelings re: being kira.

This wouldn’t be so much of an issue to me if (ironically) the anime had changed More in order to support its new direction (the shift in light’s characterization+increased emphasis on L as well as L and Light’s dynamic), but i don’t think it executed it very well. I honestly think the musical actually delivers on these specific goals much more successfully, but we’re leaving that for another post.

can you believe i wrote all that for one chapter/episode. Christ.

Anyways look at this loser who deep down knows he’s doing the wrong thing but chooses to just keep doing it.

reblog if you’re a writer who’s very terrible at responding to comments from your readers, but has read them all and loves and appreciates each and every single one of them very dearly

op I love your thoughts op

consider this: this Original Sin parallel with Albert and Adam. let me dwell on this for a sec okay

because tell me this is not temptation and this evidence is not a forbidden fruit. because this has also played part in Adam's downfall.

Albert and William wish to test Adam. I'm putting Albert first because he seems unusually eager to do that.

again, it's not actually shown if Albert thinks of it in that way. we aren't told about his thoughts much throughout the manga. he doesn't remember about Adam in the Tower as well, which can mean that either he doesn't care or the manga itself doesn't care about Whiteley in terms of anything other than him being a plot device AHEM

what we do know is that he is very much an empathetic person, despite what he tries to appear as. and that he also like to overthink and take blame for things that are not actually his fault (like we've seen with William). so if he found out about Adam's meeting with Milverton and things discussed there, if he knew that the evidence was basically a trigger point for everything...

I may sound stupid don't mind me

THE ORIGINAL SIN AND TEMPTATION - MILVERTON VS. ALBERT

Moriarty the Patriot is full of religious themes and references and one of them is the tale of the Original Sin. It is told in the third chapter of the Bible, in Moses' first book and it's about how the first humans, Adam and Eve committed the first, the Original Sin due to the temptation of the Serpent who made them eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil what was forbidden for them by God.

Milverton and Albert both bring up this tale - now I will analyze how they look at it and view their actions regarding the Original Sin and how they tempted their victims (at least, in Milverton's case) - Whiteley and William - to sin.

In Albert's case, the Original Sin appears in chapter 63 during the Empty Hearts arc when Albert, after the Final Problem, was imprisoned in the Tower. He views William's fate as his Original Sin, that he was the one who made William the Lord of Crime. Albert loathed the world's current state when he was young and wanted to change it what led to a tragedy. He realized that he doesn't have the wisdom, neither the power to change the world - and that's when he met William and hears how he talks about his ideal world. He adopts William (and Louis) because he thinks that through his noble status, William can do the change Albert wishes for. He admits that he saw Christ in William.

Albert already decided to kill his family by that time but he was unable to do it on his own so he asks William if he would kill for his ideals. In the end, the murder of Albert's family is done by William and Albert's hands and Albert seems to blame himself for it even long, long years later. Not for the death of his family, but to make William a murderer. He talks about himself that he tempted William to sin because he himself was afraid to sin, that it was him who robbed William of his innocence and made him a murderer and later, the Lord of Crime. He even compares himself to the devil for this action.

When it comes to Milverton - whose Original Sin speech appears in chapter 37, during the White Knight arc - he talks about the Original Sin when he tempted Whiteley to sin. However, unlike in Albert's case who talks about his reasons why he tempted William to sin, Milverton's speech is not about Whiteley specifically, just generally about the reason behind temptation - for devils, those who are pure evil, nothing brings greater pleasure than tempting the good-hearted to sin and he himself is pure evil. And while Albert feels guilt and self-hatred for tempting William, Milverton feels pride and joy. For Albert, making William to sin was a mere tool for the ideal world, for Milverton, tempting the good-hearted is the goal and all he does is for that end. That's where the necessary evil vs. pure evil contrast between the Lord of Crime (which is also Albert) and Milverton comes to picture again.

But there are also similarities between the two temptations. While Milverton doesn't compare Whiteley to Christ, he is very much sees himself as a hero and that's what draws him to him, just like Albert became interested in William just because he saw Christ in him. Both William and Whiteley was fighting for an ideal world but while the temptation of William led to this ideal world, the temptation of Whiteley pushed away from it (even when Milverton himself was not against equality, he was after Whiteley because he was good.) Both temptations led to a family being murdered and the target of the temptation committing murder. Both Milverton and Albert talks how they dragged Whiteley and William down from their innocence to a murderer.

(Btw, Milverton here actually says OUR side, not MY side. The importance of that will go for a later analysis)

When it comes to Albert, he feels bigger guilt than his actual crime was (but Albert is after all, like that.) The child William talks about killing the evil nobles, so he already had these intentions in his heart, he already knew that the world can only be changed through evil methods, it was actually not Albert who planted these thoughts into him. William was also ready to kill Albert's family before Albert asked him to do so, so Albert didn't manipulate William into a crime (as he thinks) while Milverton truly blackmailed Whiteley (and Sturridge. And that police officer) into committing murder. Albert also took part in the crime, he was the one who killed his mother, while Milverton uses people to set up murder scenes and doesn't dirty his own hands. Albert thinks his Original Sin through years after the happenings, Milverton is during the actual happenings. Albert probably didn't think that it was like the Original Sin for him back then, Milverton is actively aim for a temptation. And talking about his crime as an Original Sin as HIS Original Sin, the first sin he committed is sensible to do in Albert's case, but for Milverton, what he did was not his first, HIS Original Sin.

So despite that they both talked discussing the same religious theme (and the same art is used) their approach regarding it - while having certain similarities on the surface - are fundamentally different. It was very interesting to analyze this through, I'm sad that we didn't see Milverton and Albert having a conversation about the Original Sin.

they traumatized a man with big brown doe eyes and a slutty waist and they want me to be normal about it ?