L is best boy but I do like his successors. I just wish that they were at least minor characters or alluded to a little better because “oh btw L had a back up plan, two of them hidden away at an orphanage for baby geniuses” was a little out of left field. I feel like the audience could’ve appreciated Near and Mello more if they weren’t introduced after L’s death, making bitter fans just that much more sour towards them. Sadly they never stood a chance with a large chunk of the fandom.

You know, as of yesterday, I now agree with you. I haven’t technically finished the series and I took a break for a few days because I just didn’t feel like I had anything left to watch for with L and Watari both dead, but yesterday I watched two episodes and I didn’t feel that initial hatred/disappointment for Near and Mello

But I mean you can’t blame the fans for not liking them and thinking the series went downhill after episode 25. It was such a weird feeling to watch the best part of the whole show - L and Light’s battle of intelligence - come to an abrupt end 2/3’s of the way in. L was by far the most interesting character in the show and then he’s just gone, and replaced with these two kids who are like mini L’s but a tad different so everyone has their own quirks, but they still feel like cheap versions. It felt like being given the most delicious piece of cake you ever had (no pun intended this is just what came to me 😅) and you keep going back for more only for baker to tell you one day that they can’t make that cake anymore but here’s another good cake! It looks the same as the original, it’s two for the price of one even, but when you go to take a bite, the baker says “Oh btw it’s vegan!” So now you’re left with this new cake that should’ve been like the other but it just never will be, and you’re forever disappointed, longing for that original cake. This vegan cake, while healthy and you get two slices instead of one, just doesn’t satisfy

No matter how interesting they made Near and Mello while also giving them L-like qualities - what with Near’s playing with his hair and toys and always on the floor and Mello’s chocolate addiction and dressing like a dominatrix twink - it was just never gonna be the same, because we were also craving this big confrontation between Light and L when L finally had what he needed to prove that he was right all along. I also think it was a big bummer to the fans that L didn’t have the supernatural information that Near had available to him, and how when L says multiple times that Light is Kira, no one believes him, but Near says it once and suddenly the entire task force is now questioning Light. That just sucked for our boy, even though that’s the only way Near could’ve beat him in the first place

I do agree with you. If a little Near and Mello had been sprinkled in here and there, and more on Wammy’s House in general, it possibly would’ve been better after L died. Or if L had just been gravely wounded and the two boys then took his place and at the end they could tell L that he was right and that Kira is defeated, finally allowing L to die peacefully, that would’ve been nice too.

I think it just sucked that Near just got everything that should’ve been L’s, and as beloved as L is, it just rubbed the wrong way, so I can’t blame myself or others for not taking to Near and Mello the way they probably deserve as characters separate from L

(Sorry this got so long, I’m new to all this, I’m a baby DN person and I have a lot to say haha)