zangetsu412

I'm going to say L becuase he's the only person I really know about.

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The world is full of fear and despair, that is is why we must find the light in this pit of darkness.

Tula

So basically L was too dumb to live.
There's no uestion that he was intelligent.
But smarter than Near? no.

I'm sorry but I believe that whatever skills/knowledge you think you have or actually do is somewhat dependent on experience.
Near followed his gut instinct and lived.
L ditched his gut instinct and died.

I reiterate: L was too dumb to live.
Especially since he was more or less world reknowned and would have had all the requisites to solve the case of Kira's identity and his success rate was pretty high. He possessed almost all the skills and knowledge necessary to discover Kira's true identity.
And while Light was pretty smart, there's still no excuse for L's untimely demise due to careless miscalculations.

Zev

I see, well I get your point although I don't agree with you. Considering its just an anime, and whatever happens is for entertainment purposes. If you take for example the Death Note the movie, things turn out totally different. I think your taking it a bit over the top.

Neither N or L were dumb, if that was so then this thread wouldn't have existed. End of conversation.

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AnimeAddict

I think L. He risked his life and just because Near lived doesnt make him smarter, Near also had help from Mello and Aizwa and also when Light thought L was dead he thought no more obsticles were in his way so he killed more until he found out that Wammy had more special children and Mello & Near came along. Although Mello didn't want to work with Near, he still contacted Near and worked together a little bit. Near and Mello also had people working for them Near with SPK and Mello with the Mafia. L only had himself and some cops which he we suspious about.

Tula

Let's attribute L's death to a momentary lapse in judgement or diminished brain activity due to stress.

LichGRIFFIN

I'd like to rephrase that : L was too dumb to live for he knew that he fought a battle with pure strategy against a strategy armed with a strange unnatural power.

No ,Light was more intelligent than Near or Melo ,there's no question about that ,why? well the answer is pretty simple ,Near couldn't have a chance at discovering Kira's true identity without Melo's sacrifice nor Melo's sacrifice could've been enough to uncover Kira's identity without Near's follow-up actions ,so both of them were just as intelligent as L ,not to mention that Kira merely failed because he depended on inefficient helpers like magami or whatever name that stupid servant has ,for his fault Kira was "caught" ,right?

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No415

I'll try toSettle the L vs N thing once and for all (huge amount of text warning)

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I've been watching Death Note for sometime now (anime and manga) and have been looking at a bunch of N vs L threads trying to figure out for myself who is the better person. I'd like to say first my favorite character was Near fallowed close by L, I didn't much care for Kira or what he was doing. That said I've come to two conclusions

First

Near IS smarter then L

second

L IS a better dective then Near


Here is why:

-In terms of raw brain power Near beats L. While L is extremely smart (one of the smartest people in the world; getting a perfect score on a placement test at a top college entrance exam) I'd have to say Near is smarter. The way Near thinks is actually very strange and almost robotic like (shown metapohricly with the glowing eyes). What Near does is take all the information he has avaliable and narrows each choice down till he arrives at the correct choice, this is done very fast too. Also shown with the puzzle from the first scene showing Near. he takes an almost perfectly white puzzle scatters it on the floor and deduce where each peice would go in about 20 or so seconds (I have no idea how he does that but probably through the same method as he did finding out who X Kira is).

-L on the other hand is a better dective then Near. L makes better assertions then Near this doesn't mean intellegence its more of an instintic thing. L would assume there is a fake note because he would know Light better and knows what he might be planning. L is also more hands on then Near by making friends with his Prime suspect in order to gather information out of him. Near on the other hand has to rely on other people getting the clues for him, most of which comes from Mello. Both N and L use their teams to execute their investiagion. But L uses his more personally.


Oh and if you are wondering Light isn't smarter then Near or L(of course he is still extremely smart). Light is just more informed on the rules of the Death Note and knows best how to probably make good use of it. He also had Mikami and Takada...and Misa...and Ryuk...and Rem.


All in L both Near and L make a good "L". Near is the best candidate after L though....I'd still like to know how the 2 would fair working together.


Edit: One thing I should elaborate more on is L suspecting there was a fake notebook thing. While some can argue that in terms of intellegence L would have thought of that right away but I think the only reason he might have guessed it is because of him knowning Light so well (again being a better dective not being smarter). If Near had know Light's methods he probably would have came to the same conclusion.

Tula

^
you're reasoning is a tad. . . .
but at least you agree with me.
Finally someone that does.
(Although we've gotta change you're argument a little because the methods behind Near's way of thinking aren't really that great. . . .)