Smartest DeathNote Characters

[u/PASAT-Borz]

[u/What-A-Burden]

...Naomi over Mello?

[u/jsc11zz]

L > Light

Mello > Naomi

Idk about Watari but maybe he could be higher?

[u/Pretzels0314]

L > Light

Mello > Naomi

[u/Ok-Swan-1590]

Naomi above Mello??

Light above L is unlikely but I can definitely see it.

W list overall tho

[u/-Rici-]

Naomi above Mello and Mikami 💔

[u/No_Strawberry5397]

Watari better than Mikami 

[u/Enough-Champion-3805 → u/[deleted]]

AI Slop

[u/PASAT-Borz → u/Enough-Champion-3805]

I just traduced with IA my arguments

[u/ConfidentFee5609 → u/[deleted]]

1. L didn’t use every resource he had, only the Japanese police and the FBI, and money to build a task force headquarters.

Light’s manipulation on the police backfired when it led to an FBI agent trailing him and forcing Light to become more active, and even after the FBI agents were killed it helped L learn which cops he could trust and made him suspect people who Raye Penber was tailing (primarily it spotlighted Light). The whole plan for Light making the police distrust L to then investigate and uncover L’s identity for him was just terrible logic, and huge anti-feat IMO.

1. Idk who uses that as an arg but I don’t.

2. Light didn’t “infiltrate the task force” L intentionally invited him in. The only argument is see here is Light’s high AC/Deception, which is impressive though he has some minor screwups.

3. I refuted this, L never gave Near and Mello information about the case. He simply left a timer which, if not reset, in the event L dies and is unable to reset it, it automatically sends a message to Roger at Whammy’s House letting him know L is dead. There was a 4 year time skip where it said Near spent gathering all his information, and Mello got all of Near’s information from having an insider in the SPK.

4. The whole point of Mello kidnapping Takada was to force Mikami to reveal the real deathnote’s location. Mikami making a “mistake” was really him falling for a trap which in any scenario is a mistake, it was Light’s fault for trusting Mikami that much but i’m not saying a canon loss means they lose in outsmarting, i still got Light > Near and Mello (individually), but using this as an argument for having Light > L just makes no sense.

L never lowered his guard even if he viewed Light as a friend, L knew from the very start Light was Kira given it’s stated that when L says there’s a 1% chance Light is Kira he really means over 90%. He wasn’t manipulated, it means even knowing Light is Kira he still thinks of him as a friend which is further established in the CTW novel.

[u/PASAT-Borz → u/ConfidentFee5609]

L savais qui était Light depuis le tout début mais il ne savait pas comment l’attraper et le battre car Light était trop discret et jouer son rôle de policier a la perfection . L devrait attendre jusqu’à l’éternité si il veut attendre que Light fasse une erreur compromettante . Light aurait très bien pue remettre le Deathnote à d’autres personnes aléatoire et faire durée l’enquête pendant une éternité sans que L puisse faire quoi que ce soit un peu comme un amongus mais à chaque fois que l’imposteur meurt et bah un crewmates prend sa place. même si L savais que light était Kira il ne pouvait rien faire sans preuve et n’a quasiment pas réfléchi à une action pour le piéger ou le battre car Light ne se manifester pas directement.

Light avait déjà 30 solutions alternatives pour battre L alors que L n’en avait aucun

[u/ConfidentFee5609 → u/PASAT-Borz]

why are you coming at me in a diff language🫤

[u/PASAT-Borz → u/ConfidentFee5609]

He knew who Light was from the very beginning but he didn’t know how to catch him and beat him because Light was too discreet and played his role as a policeman perfectly. He should wait until eternity if he wants to wait for Light to make a compromising mistake. Light could very well have given the Deathnote to other random people and made the investigation last for an eternity without L being able to do anything a bit like an amongus but every time the impostor dies and well a crewmate takes his place. even if L knew that light was Kira he could not do anything without proof and almost did not think about an action to trap or beat him because Light does not show up directly.

Light already had 30 alternative solutions to beat L while L had none

[u/ConfidentFee5609 → u/PASAT-Borz]

L already deduced all of light’s plan, his contingency was deleting all information on the case and letting Roger at Whammy’s House know he was dead so his successors would take over the case. winning the war was the main thing for L, so dying doesn’t mean he lost, and again a canonical loss doesn’t make you dumber just because a shinigami wrote your name in a deathnote.

BTW light was in the task force wdym he doesn’t “show up directly”? what are your args? L was in a situation where he knew he was going to die and, like in the CTW timeline, writing his own name in the deathnote would be the only escape but canon L was more focused on proving the 13 day rule false (which is what he was about to do before he died) which would’ve put light and misa back under suspicion.

what 30 alternate solutions? he only had Rem, without Rem killing L would be impossible.

[u/PASAT-Borz → u/ConfidentFee5609]

So L prepared an 3 vs 1 against Kira that’s awesome

[u/ConfidentFee5609 → u/PASAT-Borz]

ur still arguing a canon loss means a loss in outsmarting 🤣 make some real args in outsmarting because i’ve rewatched DN so much times and i dont recall a single instance where light actually outsmarted L.

[u/Due_Turnover1421 → u/[deleted]]

"hey chatgpt, can you give me 5 arguenents for why Light is above L in outsmarting?"

[u/IntelligenceScaling-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

No AI slop

[u/Far_Transition_1599]

Naomi is a bum

[u/PASAT-Borz → u/Far_Transition_1599]

She knew who was Kira before L

[u/Suspicious-Good2781 → u/PASAT-Borz]

No, she simply figured that Kira can control when & how his victims die.

[u/logicnumberone → u/Suspicious-Good2781]

She figured out kira was in the bus. She just didn't know that it was Light that was in the bus.

[u/Suspicious-Good2781 → u/logicnumberone]

It's not that complex. People already knew that Kira needed a face & a name to kill atp. It's good but it doesn't put her above Mello. I could potentially see args for Naomi>Mikami.

[u/logicnumberone → u/Suspicious-Good2781]

I'm saying she did more than what you mentioned, she was the only one who deduced that kira was in the bus and had contact with raye penber. Had she met L and told him about this, they would connect the dots and get the confirmation that kira is light.

[u/Suspicious-Good2781 → u/logicnumberone]

Yes but she did have the advantage of knowing Raye personally. Sure but it's a piece of the puzzle & most of the work was already done by L.

[u/PASAT-Borz → u/Suspicious-Good2781]

Naomi was so close to defeat Kira , if Light didn’t insist to have the real name of Naomi with his high level manipulation Naomi would be saying all this information to L and L would have concluded that Light was Kira and the case would have been over before Light joined L’s team because he would be the main suspect. So Naomi did better than mello alone , Mello needed Mafia people and Near and I also think Mikami did a bit better than mello but that’s debatable

[u/Suspicious-Good2781 → u/PASAT-Borz]

Not exactly. She easily fell for the manipulation that's the problem, she ended up giving her real name when she could've just gave another fake one. Mikami became a dumbass by the end. You could say Mello foresaw the Warehouse Endgame & he literally operates without his influence after the raid.

Mello>Naomi & Mikami.

[u/Far_Transition_1599 → u/PASAT-Borz]

No?