DEATH BATTLE

There's also the question of how much Light knows about Batman in general or could get as a student. Readers know that Batman is friends with Gordon. But most people at best think he's just a liaison between the cops and Batman. Also, Light would have no reason to suspect that Gordon would know Batman's identity (which he only would in some continuities).

Edited by Freshwater on Apr 12th 2024 at 9:02:21 AM

Light doesn't have to walk around asking people (though coincidentally this did work out for him once). The Death Note allows you to possess people and control their actions to their dying moment. They can't give info they don't have - we see this fail in the anime when Light tries to make random persons reveal L's identity while testing out the Death Note's capabilities but as long its within the realm of plausibility it can be used to divine information.

2) If this does happen during the Kira investigation the attention moves from a region of Japan to Gotham, an American city.

It'd also be darned near impossible to get a reasonable answer. Heisenberg doesn't do his own work and relies on criminal connections, and Light would still be relying on outside help from the task force and likely Ryuk as well. I wouldn't see a point?

Batman has never asked Flash to do something like that, and that would involve exhaustively checking every diary in every drawer in every desk on the face of the Earth and checking every entry.

Which, to be fair, would also be a brute force-tactic like I suggested, but not something I'd see Bruce viewing as a worthwhile tactic. I suppose if we were gonna go that far then yes, Batman could ask The Flash to make his job shorter in a lot of scenarios, but then we'd also have go into the territory of "well Light could also just take the Shinigami Eye deal to make his job easier and see under the cowl."

Edited by FOFD on Apr 12th 2024 at 12:19:19 PM

It's pure speculation at this point but I feel like if Batman found out that there was a magic notebook somewhere in the world, and he was maybe able to pinpoint it down to a city or region, which L managed to do very quickly, then he would have no problem saying "Hey, Barry, or Wally, or Bart - there's a lot of you, frankly - uh, could you track down a suspicious book for me? I'd do it myself, but there are lives on the line, and it would literally take you an attosecond." None of this is to say that this should be taken into account at all, but just to make the point that outside help should be extremely limited in this situation.

I can see your point about the GCPD officers, but other than Gordon, I don't think a lot of GCPD officers even know who Batman is, and their suspicions probably aren't very close. In order to track down someone who you are reasonably sure knows who Batman is, you first... need to know who Batman is.

I guess technically he could write down the name of any Justice League member whose identity is well-known, like Arthur Curry or possibly Oliver Queen. But for characters like Aquaman, you get into the logistics of "Would the Death Note work on Superman or Wonder Woman?" which it almost certainly would not, and for characters like Oliver Queen, then... good news Light! You killed someone who while dying, left a clue revealing Batman's identity! Great job. Just one problem; you've just majorly pissed off the entire Justice League, several of whom are actually magic. And since it was fair game for you to target them in this situation, it must also be fair game for them to try to target you.

I think you have to be able to picture someone's face in order to use the Death Note on them. So even if you tried to write Batman in the Death Note, you'd still need to unmask him as Bruce Wayne first.

Light: [writes "Bruce Wayne" in the Death Note] Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I, Kira, the God of the New World, have triumphed over... wait, why are you not dying?

Batman: Because I'm Batman.

Queue Batman Beyond "How did you know the voices were fake"

"I don't call myself "Bruce" in my own head."

This topic reminds me of how the Detective from Disco Elysium is likely a hard counter to Light since, not only does he forget his own name, but he can just insist his name is a whole bunch of other things so hard that the game itself starts calling him those things.

For Light hiding from Batman... unless Light has done something more complex than a murder involving a time traveling bullet I don't think he can hide from Batman.

@Elmo3000 ...I don't remember Light ever attempting to make a deal for Shinigami Eyes, what moment you're talking about?

-from the Death Note wiki

I didn't know this. Light has 3 angles of attack:

• 1) target the GCPD and use the Death Note to glean information

It's a crapshoot though if he can land Gordon or gain information from the GCPD killing themselves and dropping hints about Batman's identity.

• 2) Light takes the Shinigami Eyes

Won't work unless Light can see his eyes or if the eyes penetrate the cowl's lenses.

• 3) Bribe Ryuk and have him do some sleuthing.

If Light can bribe Ryuk to go to Gotham that could work. Ryuk claims to be apathetic and not on Light's side, but Light's bribed him to put extremely complex plans in motion and keep them on track.

Edited by FOFD on Apr 13th 2024 at 9:09:27 AM

I remember someone on the Death Battle subreddit claiming that Light solos basically everyone because he gets Ryuk as support and he can just ask Ryuk to kill everyone, since he has his own Death Note and can't be harmed. And I remember thinking "Have... have you read the end of Death Note? Because I have some very bad news for you about Ryuk's, uh, loyalty to Light." Ryuk is happy to provide Light with explanations, but the most he ever involves himself with Light's plan is allowing Light to do a Death Note switcheroo with his note, Light's note and Rem's note. He never kills for Light or does detective work for him, so from a VS perspective he's more or less a non-factor.

I think I might have been mistaken, I remembered that at the end of Light's confrontation with Near, he knows Near's name, and I thought "Ah, so he had (too late, of course) taken the Shinigami Eyes deal," but now that I recall, I think he only knows it because Mikami took the Shinigami Eyes deal and Light saw the name that Mikami had written in his (fake) Death Note and found out Near's name from that. In that case, Light should definitely not get the Shinigami Eyes, since he never feels the need to take that deal in canon once, even when he's very clearly in danger.

Shrug. If Light is supposed to figure out Batman's identity, we've seen him use Ryuk:

• to uncover the location of multiple wire taps in cameras hidden in Light's house by an FBI agent - granted this was manipulation by Light since Ryuk couldn't eat anymore apples if he didn't identify where the other cameras are
  • Ryuk also warned Light he was following an FBI agent solely because it creeped the former out
• help orchestrate a plan to not only murder another Shinigami but keep Light amnesia-ridden for months allowing the latter to throw off any suspicion around himself - during which time Light wasn't aware of Ryuk and wouldn't give him apples, and Ryuk had to fly the Death Note to another part of a city, bury one, switch ownership, follow some random guy around - and Ryuk's ultimate reward for this was entertainment and a single apple once Light's memory was restored days/weeks later
  • and mind, Shinigami or Ryuk at least go through withdrawal symptoms comparable to alcohol and cigarette withdrawal when they don't have apples - so Ryuk put himself through days/weeks of that

The threshold for getting Ryuk to do something advantageous for Light isn't high. He's not gonna write Goku's name in the notebook to protect Light, but getting him to fly to Gotham... honestly the Death Note sequel story had Ryuk do just that for the new Kira without any significant bribe.

"Hey Ryuk, want to go to Gotham on live television for me and find Batman's most likely whereabouts? send a message to the police for me?"

"Pffft why would I do that?"

"It'll be fun?"

"Huh, bet."

Edited by FOFD on Apr 13th 2024 at 11:27:02 AM

There’s a Death Note sequel?

Yes, Death Note Special Chapter.

I am being a bit hard on Light so I will say that despite thinking he loses hard to Columbo, he definitely 100% beats Heisenberg. Both Light and Walter White have the whole From Nobody to Nightmare element to their story, but Light's rise to power is much more meteoric to the point where he can threaten governments, and while they're both very smart, Light is unambiguously a genius and Walt is... above-average intelligence for sure, and a chemistry buff, but I'm not sure he's getting an invite to MENSA any time soon.

Plus, the very nature of Heisenberg's position mandates that there have to be some people who know who he is. Even before Hank finds out, people who know Heisenberg's identity are... Jesse, Saul, Gus, Mike, Gale, Combo, Badger, Skinny Pete, Tuco, Gonzo, No-Doze - and I'm not even counting Skyler or Gus' employees (Victor and... oh geez, that other guy? The one who is also blown up by Hector Salamanca) because I'm only counting the people who Walter is comfortable revealing his identity to, or at least, he accepts it as a necessity for doing business.

So yeah, I think Walter is not as smart and even if he finds out that Kira is after him, there's nothing he can do to stop Kira, while Light at least has some clues to go on.

DONALD TRUMP IS A DEATH NOTE CHARACTER??

Yeeeeeep. :p

Even weirder, Donald Trump is shockingly clever Death Note character who outsmarts Ryuk.

I'm surprised the Alt-Right haven't latched onto that.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 13th 2024 at 9:58:45 AM

With the upcoming Transformers and G.I. Joe movie being announced, I had a fun battle idea.

Megatron VS Cobra Commander VS Shredder VS Skeletor

…But only accounting for their Saturday-Morning Cartoon versions, not using any outside material (even if directly connected to the original cartoons) for fun.

Even with that limitation I’m pretty sure Megatron still sweeps, though Skeletor probably gets a lot of weird stuff in the original cartoon too. But even if they’re outmatched, it’s hilarious to imagine Shredder jumping onto Megatron’s back and trying to slice him open, or Cobra Commander calling in a bunch of fodder soldiers to try and take out Skeletor.

I feel like Skeletor would win this match-up if only because Megatron's alt form is literally just a gun.

That is in fact a massive advantage in this fight. Shooting things tends to work well.

Think it’s a stretch to say he outsmarted Ryuk. At most he made a clever move after being informed of the rule patch, but it’s one of those things where the full ramifications aren’t really explored. Minoru got cheated though.

x5 ... Huh? I just read the page and it seems like the smartest thing he does is not accept the Death Note, despite paying seven quadspillion dollars for it, because Ryuk says 'btw if you accept this then you will immediately die, rule-change lmao' so he wasted all of that money and then says "Well whatever, I'll just tell people I still have one!" which... isn't the most stupid thing he could do, but it's also not particularly smart. You can only bluff someone with an empty gun for so long before they realise that you've never fired it.

Edited by Elmo3000 on Apr 13th 2024 at 5:28:22 PM

He basically prioritized his own life over anything else. Ryuk pointed out he could use a proxy, but Trump obviously wouldn't want someone else using the power, and he wouldn't take it himself and die, so someone else could use it because that means he'd be dead and not able to use it.

He made a selfish choice, then kinda sorta managed to spin it to look like he had a clever plan, which means these writers get exactly what kind of man Donald Trump is.

And while the bluff is a good short term move, in the long run it won't work forever, which is just the kind of short-sighted decision Trump would make.

I found this matchup proposal on the Death battle matchup subreddit and wanted to ask what you guys think.

Ada Wong (Resident Evil) vs Hana Tsu-Vachel (Fear Effect).