User Profile

Important Information:
Name: L
Age: 25
Birthday: 10/31/1979
Height: 173 cm
Weight: 49 kg
Blood Type: Unknown
Likes: Sweets
Dislikes: Socks

Intelligence: 9/10
Creativity: 10/10
Initiative: 9/10
Emotional Strength: 10/10
Social Skills: 1/10

Personality

L has to be one of the most curious characters in the Death Note Universe, for numerous factors, his personality is almost too complex to describe and honestly, one can never truly believe they’ve come to understand the true L character. To start, there’s the blank, wide eyed stare and languid appearance that almost misleads one not to believe how brilliantly L’s mind analyzes every single situation without being noticed, having a abnormally great power of deduction, a mere glance and most outcomes of an event have been understood, ready to be controlled, without the foe comprehending – that’s how L plays his game. As a predator plays with its prey.

Whereas, one needs to be aware that one of the major downfalls of his personality lies in his tendency for the perfect, and how far he’s willing to take his (can be considered unethical at times) methods in order to reach a desired end, meaning, to solve a case. On the other hand, L is very opposed to taking risks, which hinders not only his (basically inexistent) social life but also his professional work by making others perceive him as not only superior and vastly more intelligent but by making him look equal or inferior to these people when it comes to living. It’s all been nailed down to him being an autist (or suffering from Autism), but that’s just an hypothesis.

As both preludes and consequences of this disorder, or perhaps as different aspects of his personality, L seems to suffer both from a eating disorder related towards his extreme preferences towards food, paranoia and recurring insomnia. Regarding the first occurrence, it’s unknown why it happens, but L will only eat sweets (it is also unknown how he survives without proteins, vitamins and other foods), which he does often, sometimes absently while he works on a case and others when L arranges the food to his liking, sometimes he also sits haunched while eating (a way of keeping his mind sharp, as the character himself announced).

Regarding the paranoia, it demonstrates at least a bit of self-loving, since L is aware that there are people out there who want to destroy him but also elevates this to an extreme where he feels the need to raise the protection around himself, both intimately and personally although, general-security wise too, fact known by him using one too many fake names. Which lead us to how he is able to live with almost any social interaction.

Socially, there’s not much to say, L’s out of the ordinary habits rule out almost any chance of him getting along with anyone else whose intelligence can’t rate as high as him, however, if said person were to appear, probably they’d still dismiss each other. Raito was the one who seemed able to start a friendship of sorts with L, only to be discovered at the end that it was all staged, meaning that Raito moves all aimed towards the goal of eliminating L, even the friendship. Concluding, L is an outcast because of his intelligence, when it comes to this subject, all his powerful, menacing persona disappear, making him look almost shy, vulnerable.


Background:

The character’s past is mostly unknown, while a part of it has been surreptitiousness announced through the manga series, born on the 31th of October, 1979 L’s nationality and place of birth are unknown, albeit he is most possibly a quarter Japanese, a quarter English, a quarter Russian and a quarter French or Italian (as mentioned by the series creator himself). Somewhere during his childhood L has taken to a orphanage in Winchester, England (the how, when and why questions left unanswered whereas one can experimentally deduct that his parents may have abandoned him because of his uncanny intelligence) known as the “Wammy House” whose sole purpose was gathering individuals gifted with an uncommonly high intelligence level and train them to surpass and become the best. It is unknown if there was anyone previous to L occupy his position, although, there most likely was and he took over when the other died (or retired.)

Thanking solely his vastly superior qualities, L eventually became known as “The greatest detective in the world”, a title granted to him after resolving case upon case in record time, elevating his chosen name to the level of almost a legend among the judicial world. Although, it was not the fame that got him involved with the “Kira” case, no, L was simply the only one individual who could solve it and battle someone whose mind equaled his own, it was the ultimate challenge.

After leaving the Wammy’s house and upon starting his investigation on the “Kira” case, L’s first move was making a supposedly worldwide broadcast (but which in reality was only transmitting within a specific region in Japan - Kanto) to try and determine how Kira was able to kill by putting a fake claiming he was L on screen. Kira swallows the bait, and kills the man, only to be revealed that it wasn’t in fact the real L, and that Kira had not only had to reside in Kanto, but that he needed personal info on an individual to be able to kill, narrowing down the list of possible candidates to fit the role. It is with this tv transmission that the L vs. Kira game seemed to begin. And the first victory belonged to L.

As the case develops, and after the killing of twelve FBI agents by Kira, L starts to slowly grow suspicious of a young man named Light Yagami as more evidence comes onto light; as a son to the police chief (who happened to be involved with the solving of the criminal Kira case), he is one of the few with access to enough information on criminals to be playing a god as Kira is. Whereas this may end up being known as the truth, there’s not nearly enough evidence at the time to incriminate Raito of any foul play, so L then decides to step further by presenting himself to Light under the fake name of Ryuga Hideki (one of the many alias names he ends up using during the series, the main two being Ryuga and Ryuzaki) during an academic event at the University Light attended. L is aware that he wouldn’t be killed or Light would be immediately seized and arrested.

Afterwards, a strange friendship of sorts seems to flourish and L ends up inviting Light not only to visit the headquarters but also attend to meetings as a way of trying to find substantial evidence convicting him, both by directly watching his reactions to every development that happens and by warning others (those also investigating) to watch Light when they’re alone with him. Although, with each new event, the chances of Light being Kira seem to apparently decrease and whereas L finds himself absolutely unable to believe that Light is not Kira - but is stuck without any way of proving this claim - he still strives for an answer. However, seemingly out of the blue, Light comes out, confessing he believes being Kira and is immediately placed under arrest in a specially prepared cell along with the previously captured Misa (whom L believed to be the second Kira).

Strangely enough, after a few days of Light being imprisoned and to L’s major disappointment and confusion, criminals start dying yet again, eventually proving that Light cannot be Kira, as cannot be Misa. Believing that the odds of Light being guilty were lowered considerably during the time spent in captivity, he releases both; Misa is set free while Light’s 'punishment' (actually, a means of making sure he isn’t Kira, since percentages mean very little as L admits, even saying that something has 5% of being true actually means the real value is over 90%) is being permanently handcuffed to L for an indeterminate amount of time.

Furthermore, as a means of gathering more information, L goes on a 'date' with Misa, which ends up as a violent fight between the man and Light (since they were handcuffed, Light had to physically remain in the same room as well).

Meanwhile, L determines that a mob-like organization named “Yotsuba” is either being manipulated or has Kira in its member list, therefore, quite accidentally (thanks to Matsuda, one of the case’s investigators), a communicator is planted inside of the building holding the group’s reunions. Hence, L discovering that deaths planned by Kira don’t need to be heart attacks but can vary, from diseases to accidents or suicide. It is also because of the sudden involvement of Light, by proposing to try and find Kira within Yotsuba, that L’s suspicions rise again, he now seems to support the theory that Light was Kira and lost its 'power' which may and most likely will eventually return, straining the relationship between the two man ever further, L can’t seem to trust Raito, at all.

A supposed 3rd Kira appears from the within the Yotsuba investigation, and it is being revealed that his name is Higuchi; L’s immediate priority becomes capturing this man who apparently has Kira’s power, but in order to do so, he firstly commences by questioning Light (whom L is still sure of having been at some point, the first Kira) and wonders about how possible it would have been for the powers to be transferred.

As it once happened to the first Kira, L chooses another tv program to strike, to make Higuchi act so he can be captured; it doesn’t take long, however, until the mission progresses and eventually Higuchi is cornered, being apprehended only to die, shortly after, of a heart attack, not before surrendering the object which L acknowledges as being the source of Kira’s power, the previously unknown ‘Death Note’. From previous mentions to a notebook, which had been ruled out as meaningless, L also comes to understand that there are definitely more than just one of these. Another surprising appearance shocking L and the team members is one of a ‘monster’ that presents itself as Rem, a she-shinigami.

According to the Death Note, if someone doesn’t write in it for 13 days, they will die, ultimately releasing Light and Misa from L’s suspicions. It was at that moment that L was defeated, that every single clue would have to be ruled out as of minor importance, and meaningless, because of the rules found along with the notebook. Ultimately, Light triumphs over L, by manipulating the one thing around which L has based his entire life - facts. Although L was the world's greatest detective, his reliance on rules and probability prove to be his weakness when he meets perhaps the only man more ruthless than he.