*Slight spoilers...*

Think about it:

Mikami said "Kira is no God!" Despite what he so fervently believed.

He kills himself after only ten days of being in jail. (Look into 23 day rule.)

It also seems outside his perfectionist personality to not test the Death Note prior to the final show down with Near.

Near burned the Death Notes so no one could see them again.

I believe Near controlled Mikami to insure victory and then burned the evidence. It would also secure h victory over light. Had he not perhaps Mikami would have tested the note, found it to be fake. He would have then written Light's name in the note also and not written someone else's on the taskforce. Matsuda maybe? The other person would be called Kira and Light coud form a new plan or he could resign the note. Thus, the person not written is Kira and Light would live as a officer for the NPA. Also, with the hidden note in his watch, he mayoe day remember being Kira and kill Near. I like the idea of it ending with neither Near nor Light dying. Then again, I am a Light fan....

And even though Mello didn't REALLY work with Near, it was their combined talents and personalities that ultimately got Kira/Raito caught. L was a delicate balance of Mello and Near, of yin and yang, and the two successors were the extremes of both. Near being emotionally deficit (or merely hiding them) and overlogical (neither particularly BAD traits), and Mello running mainly on his emotions and rarely thinking very hard ahead, L had a bit of both. So, because they kind of coexisted together, Kira was caught, though, unfortunatly, to the loss of Mello and Matt. Which is why I think it's so CUTE that at the very end of the manga, in the final panel we see Near in, he's on his stomach playing with a toy, and chocolate bar in his hand. I was crying I was so happy. I'm such a girl :D.

The only reason that Near beat and seems to outthink Light is because he is extremely running on his emotions. Much of his thought, though reasonable, were completely subjective. For example, Naomi was able to conclude Kira could kill in means other than heart attacks because she was subjective due to her fiance's death. Near is able to outhink Kira because he is subjective due to L's death. However, Near made a slight blunder in cornering Mikami, at first. However, Mello helps Near win unwittingly by kidnapping Takada. However, I must say that if Light had told Mikada to not worry about things happening around him and focus ONLY on carrying out his daily like, Near would not have noticed the odd change of Mikami's behavior. However, I am guessing that if Near did not, more or less, "cheat" as said above, then Light fgured that Mikami would test the Note. If he found it to be fake, he would have written Light's name in there and not someone else's (like Mastuda for example). If this happened, a number of alternate endings could have occured. For example, Near would have gotten ** he was wrong and entered deppression like L did when he was "wrong." After that, Light might have traded half life for eyes, memorized Near's name. (I am not sure if he memorized it ahead of time. However if he did, then Light screwed up in the last two volumes......) Then, he would have written "suicide" for Near some days later, and it could be believable... Maybe, Light would have given up the Death Note and lived a normal life as "L" with "N." The possibilities string on. Oh well, I wonder what would have happened.....

I don't remember, I have to read through them again before I make ANY assumptions. I'll edit this at a later date when I do.

REVELATION!

I DON'T HATE NEAR ANYMORE!!!

Although I cannot LOVE him, I am able to say he is growing on me. BTW, who is the person who did not know he was in pajamas?!?!?

Still, I really like....L...so Kiwi...

In the anime I observed the fact that Near was actually wearing light colored jeans, not white pajama pants, which I thought was strange. Was that the Ohba/Obata's intent to have him wearing jeans? Or white pants? I thought that was kind of strange, to tell you the truth.

I'm fairly certain that I got that off of deathgod.org.

Yeah, I was kind of shocked to find that Near was wearing jeans, and mad that my costume was out of date for that. I have these lovely stark white pants that I grew so attached to and they aren't even right!

For Anime Vegas I have to be a lot of different characters for the different skits my friends and I are doing... Mello, Near, Matt, Misa, Raito, and L they are forcing me to be. And I'm having issues find a comfortable spot in Mello's leather, those pants... how can any MALE stand wearing those without severe pain to their baby makers??

On task, I suppose Near in jeans gives him a more L feel than Near in all white. He wears a plain white shirt (even if it IS collared) and jeans, and L did too. It's kind of cute, I think, that he dresses similarly to L.

(They must have switched to PJs because people did not want another "L" type character --preserve the memory of L, you know.)

"I kept thinking "how do these clothes go together?" so it made drawing very hard. But somewhere along the way when I decided that those clothes were "pajamas," it suddenly became very easy to draw. "

(Thank you for proving it ringo....)

"Because they're L's successors, my impression of Ohba-sensei's order was to "leave traces of L's image/traits."... And then, when I started imagining on my own how the two of them might work together, I drew them with the impression of twins in my mind."

Did Mello ever think that kidnapping Takada would help Near? I wonder if he forsaw that happening. And why did Halle trust Mello? It seemed to be against Near's instructions, even if it did techinically save the SPK.

All right, here's what me and Becca discussed on that subject: I think that, despite Mello's "surface" motives he really wanted to help Near inside. He knew that he couldn't do it himself, that he would never win, so why not just help Near? Of course he would never admit that to anyone, so he probably hoped that doing his original plan would benefit Near in some way. I mean, he did sent Mogi to his base and stuff.

As for Halle trusting Mello, they both had the same goal, so I guess she wouldn't mind working with him AND Near to get it done.

I think he did believe he could win, but only by getting Near really close. For example, I think that if Mell were alive for it, then he would have captured Light and whoever has the note when he arrived at the warehouse. Once that happened, he would tell Light to write his name in the Death Note. Or, he might just hold him and burn the notes before releasing him, "Harmless" IN 680 days, Light would forget he owned any Death Note. Mello might go to jail though.

so true.

Actually, "L-2" told "N" not to write his own name in the Death Note to test it simply because of morals. (Well, it is actually L's team's choice.) Besides, Mello tested the books capabilities prior to Near's presentation of that idea. Good idea, but Mello's goal was to be N to Kira.

Who really knows? If Ohba finds it irrelevant to the series plot or extremely obvious, he just ignores questions pertaining to it.

Though, I just want to bring up the idea that Near and Mello are more than just polar opposites. If you factor both of their interests and personalities together, you have L. Each of them is like half of the original L. Near is L's thoughtfulness...the ability to think ahead, plan, and cover all aspects of a plan to minimalize danger. As such, he shares most of L's visible personality traits. Mello, meanwhile, seems to be L's strong desire to get the job done and willingnes to risk his own life. Both of them have traits of L that the other doesn't have, y'know?

(Spoilers, possibly) Near doesn't have the willingness enough to place his own life on the line too much (At one point, he didn't even want to be on an airplane by himself). Mello, meanwhile, is a bit to quick to take action and both he and his colleagues are often put in danger because of it (Matt. >.>)

But, with both of them working at the same time, they equal L...as Near realized and explained sometime later on. :3 In fact...he hinted that they were even more capable. When you think of it, neither of them was as indecisive as L. L always second guessed everything he did...but Near was quick to make an accusation based on little evidence and stick with it.

Also notice Near and Mello's hobbies. O: L enjoyed sweets, and he played with his food. Near plays with toys...Mello likes chocolate! It fits...>.>

And, I think that there's more to Light's downfall than simply placing too much trust in Mikami. One of the things that made Light so effective was the fact that he didn't seem to have any real emotional attachment to anyone. While this may not have always been the case with him, he's someone that takes every opportunity that's presented him. In this way, we could say that Light was very untrusting of people. Rather than keeping allies about him, he simply kept pawns, which he saw no problem with discarding. He cut off Misa, he cut off Takada, and after it was all over he probably would've cut off Mikami. I think you may be taking a less optimistic view of Light's downfall than me. If he'd still had Misa or Takada...well, he realized this near the end, if you'll recall.

Misa would've actually been a better ally to have than Mikami. Misa is, of course, not as competent as Mikami...but Light only see the people around him as pawns anyway. The ability to communicate with someone easily would be appreciated moreso than competence. The fault between Mikami and Light wasn't the presence of trust, but the fact that there wasn't a sufficiant amount of coherent communication between the two. If they'd only been able to actively relay information between each other, as Light would've been able to do with Misa or even Takada, the outcome may have been different. To be a bit of a broken record...Light's flaw wasn't too much faith in people, it was a lack thereof.

Hmmm...so N+M may not equal L, at least in terms of sheer ability. At least, not working together. But, working seperately, it would make something like that? The qualities they share, when cooperative, wouldn't be as effective as the qualities working as completely seperate entities. That makes sense. Though, other than indecisiveness, there was another trait L possessed that led to his own end, that trait being the desire to have something of a friend. It wasn't just indecisiveness, it was the fact that L did not want Light to be Kira. That, in a way, could also effect his judgment. Be it a personality trait of L's, or simply that he had a lot of interaction with Light (Unlike Mello or Near, who never really knew Light as an individual at all). Regardless, there was also the factor of emotional distance.

But...this may be getting off of the subject of Near in particular. So, to keep that on topic...I like Near. Near is cool. He has nice hair. :3

L is a gary-stu who will never be called one because he falls. IF he had a fault, it would most likely be his indecisiveness. However, he ONLY loses because of Rem. He would have beaten Light, as Rem acknowledged, in addition to Misa. If Rem did not think of that or did not believe it or did not exist, L would have won. So, to correct your not wanting Light to be Kira, that is true. However, that never interfered with his object attitude toward the case as shown in one example:

"I wanted you[, Light,] to be Kira..." (Ohba Vol. 6 85).

L was the real deal. Near and Mello are nothing compared to him. Near was able to win because of Mello's intervention. If Mello hadnt done that, then Kira would have owned him good.

And also, the way he manages to find the truth about Kira just like that... it doesn't seem plausible at all. It's like when he made the connection between Takada and Mikami just by some weird feeling / instincts.... that's just ridiculous. I mean, of all the TV screens, he just MADE the link between those two.

Not realistic at all. L's logic was much more believable, and therefore absolute.

And anyways, at the end I just don't like Near cause he got Light killed. Stupid Near. I will never forgive him. Light should resurrect and kick his **.

How old is he really? Deathgod.org says he was 19 at the end of the story, but he had the body of a small child! Is he just a late bloomer, or am I just crazy?

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions including language and content must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
2. Fanatic (on site for more than 2 years)
3. Fan (on site for more than a year)
4. Regular (on site for more than 6 months)
5. Camper (on site for more than a month)
6. Apprentice (on site for more than a week)
7. Newbie (on site for less than a week)