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WMG / The Death Note Universe

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Death Note is in the Mage: The Ascension Universe.
Light, with his Paradox-free ability to kill, is a Euthanatos Sorcerer. L is a New World Order Extraordinary Citizen. Then Light went Nephandi.

EVERYONE is still alive.
They are hiding out as extras in Full Metal Panic!.

The previous universe of Death Note was Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Think about it! L is Gendou, Near is Rei, Light is a twisted form of Shinji and Kaworu, Mello is Asuka... This works because L shows Gendou-like secrecy and Chessmasterness, while Near is a tykebomb which has been effectively trained by L since his childhood (albeit indirectly), and Near and Mello have their conflict...

Think about it. Despite being a dark crime thriller with a megalomaniacal mass-murderer for a protagonist, when you get down to it it contains all the basic elements of a typical shonen series, albeit in forms twisted nearly beyond recognition: a young, justice-loving Chaste Hero Chosen One (a narcissistic Knight Templar with delusions of Godhood/being the Chosen One) who discovers magical powers (a notebook that can be used to instantly murder anybody) and gains a Spirit Buddy (an amoral Cosmic Horror embodiment of death), makes a Worthy Opponent rival (a cynical detective trying to apprehend him for his crimes) and picks up a persistent Genki Girl love interest (a vapid pop idol who's fanatically obsessed with him and, despite barely knowing him, is instantly willing to kill for, die for and marry him). If the satire was intended on the part of Tsugumi Ohba, he/she sure hasn't let on.

There are so many weird names in the Death Note universe, because people try to confuse Death Note users.
Even though the concept of Kira didn't exist before the events of the story, there were other Death Note users, and people got used to that revealing one's true name can get them killed. So, in the same way as certain tribes used to give infants weird names to confuse evil spirits, the inhabitants of the Death Note universe subconsciously got into the habit of giving confusing names like "Merrie" for Mary, or "月 (tsuki)" for "Raito", to decrease the risk of heart attacks.

The Death Note universe is The Inkworld a few milennia in the future.
Between the events of The Inkworld Trilogy and Death Note, somehow the White Women were mutated into Shinigami and each had their lifespans bound to modified White Books that would later be known as Death Notes. The reason it's so much like our universe is because of Meggie, who was able to influence history through her inventor husband Doria.
  • And by extension...

All the events of Death Note were The Plan by Orpheus to get revenge on Mo and Dustfinger.
Basically, after running away, Orpheus read aloud something he wrote about the White Women being bound to corrupted White Books that could only kill, then read that, generations later, a descendant of Dustfinger's would use one of these Books to kill a descendant of Mo's, only to die defeated and alone shortly afterward. Then, a few milennia later, Light uses a Death Note (he technically used the Shinigami whose Death Note it was, but it still counts as 'using' the Note) to kill L, only to die a few years later of a heart attack after being shot five times and being utterly crushed by Near.

Death Note shares the same universe as Phantom Thief Jeanne.

The second arc never happened.
It was all Light's nightmare or a simulation he had during the Yotsuba arc and he became so unnerved by it he decided to give up the notebook and remain as L's partner. Yeah...

Nineteen Eighty-Four is what would have happened if Light had won.

"Dead" by My Chemical Romance is about Death Note.
And if your heart stops beating / I'll be here wondering
Did you get what you deserve? / The ending of your life
And if you get to heaven / I'll be here waiting, babe
Did you get what you deserve?
The end, and if your life won't wait / Then your heart can't take this
Have you heard the news that you're dead?
No one ever had much nice to say / I think they never liked you anyway
Oh take me from the hospital bed / Wouldn't it be grand? It ain't exactly what you planned.
And wouldn't it be great If we were dead?

The names of the characters of Death Note aren't strange at all.
At least to the people in the Death Note universe. Names like Light/Raito, Beyond, Mail, Mihael and single letters are all common names. It's names like Nate and names common in our world that would appear unusual to someone in the Death Note universe.
  • Except that pretty much every other character in the series does have a more conventional name—those ones mentioned are unusual. And Mihael is a real name—it's the Croatian/Slovenian form of Michael.

The Kira case is the basis for the Sibyl System.
Light dies. Who are we to say that Kira's judgment ends with Light? Somewhere down the line, someone would have heard about the case and set about to create a new world based on it, only without the public knowing. That is, until Inspector Akane Tsunemori comes along.
  • It's also possible that they (Psycho-Pass spoilers ahead!) took Light's brain and preserved it to become the first to be inputted into Sybil, too.

In the Death Note Universe, there is no such thing as a "natural" heart attack.
Every heart attack is actually a Shinigami writing someone's name down.

We know that people can die by causes other than Death Notes, and that every death in the Death Note universe can't be attributed to Shinigami simply due to the amount of people that die every second. Ryuk mentions that most Shinigami, when writing down names, don't bother to put in a cause of death because they don't need to, so it can be assumed that the vast majority of people that Shinigami kill die of heart attacks. This is not unlikely as heart attacks are the leading cause of deaths worldwide. However, most people who die from CV Ds are people who have chronically suffered from them for years, or have genetic predispositions to attacks. Very rarely does a healthy person succumb to a heart attack and die when perfectly healthy 40 seconds prior. Add in that most of the people who suffer from heart attacks are likely to be very old (therefore not having a lot of natural lifespan left) Ryuk's statement of the Shinigami world being lazy and inactive is likely an exaggeration; most Shinigami would have to kill every dozen years or so to stay alive if they were just building off the humans' lifespans. (Afaik we are never told what the natural lifespan of a Shinigami is) While there are definitely contributing medical factors that lead to having heart attacks, these heart attacks would be the non-fatal variety; whenever a heart attack results in death, it is because a Shinigami killed them. Fatal and non-fatal heart attacks are two separate things, and the second just happens to mirror the first. This idea is supported with the lack of general apathy at the idea of Light putting a stop to war and crime by other Shinigami; if they are not collecting time from humans dying of crimes, then they are likely obtaining it off of disease or heart conditions, with the occasional accident as well. As Light is not targeting the elderly unless they are criminals, old people being picked off by Shinigami through heart attacks would likely not be impacted by his actions as Kira. Judging by the amount of people who die each year of heart attacks, if the number of Shinigami in the Shinigami world was known then it would be much clearer how many people they would have to kill to maintain living.

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