So I was overthinking about the confrontation scene between Soichiro Yagami and Mello (as one does) when something occurred to me.
Did Soichiro actually even write Mello's first name...or is it possible he was bluffing all along?
I may be reading too much into this, but if you'll indulge me here's my reasoning....
Here are the relevant panels from the mafia raid -
Soichiro brings the pen to the notebook and appears to begin writing:
The stand off continues, Soichiro continues to try to talk Mello down, using the threat as leverage, as (unknown to Soichiro) Mello hesitates over going for his gun: "I only have to write down your last name..."
Indeed there's a motion line which implies Soichiro's hand is moving but we don't actually see the page with the name written on it at any point. Soichiro could be just getting the pen in place and/or making a show of acting like he's writing as a threat.
And then as we know Mello notices José on the floor is alive, José notices Mello noticing, and then José fires on Soichiro.
Later, at the hospital Light tries to compel his dad to kill Mello:
Soichiro famously apologizes (twice!) "I'm sorry I couldn't kill him after all..."
but what I noted that actually provoked this train of thought, is how odd is it that as Light desperately urges Soichiro to write Mello's name, he's pointing and shoves into Soichiro's hand the book open to two empty pages???
Like...given Soichiro's extremely weakened condition and if he only had to write the last name (as he claimed), why wouldn't Light be pointing here to Mello's already partially written name? I suppose you could argue maybe it's written there but just small but it truly looks like there's nothing at all on those pages except the horizontal rule-lines, and Light looks like he's just pointing to a random spot on the paper, not a partially completed entry.
But besides that, the name even if only partially written is narrative important so I would expect the artwork to show it (even a single character); Obata usually makes a point of showing what's written in the notebook when it matters to the story.
And since Light is desperately trying to weaponize whatever is in that notebook, if the name were already partially written, wouldn't it make more sense for Light to say "use all the strength you've got left and finish his name?" or, "just one more word", something like that to emphasize to Soichiro that he should try and that it's doable even in his current state? Instead every time Light thinks about 'I need to make him write Mello's name" the implication is he'd need to write the whole name out, not just finish off what he started.
Finally the way Ryuk speaks here:
"Soichiro never actually used the notebook himself..."
The usual interpretation here is Ryuk means "successfully killed someone with it" when he says Soichiro never used the Death Note. However, the manga never explicitly defines "use" that way. Writing in the notebook at all even an incomplete entry that never results in a death could arguably constitute using it. As such Ryuk's statement doesn't rule out the possibility that Soichiro never wrote anything in it in the first place.
Anyway, all this is perhaps actually nothing..... but to me it means A LOT about Soichiro's characterization. We know that Soichiro is repeatedly shown to be a man deeply uncomfortable with the idea of killing, even in the case of death row criminals as L suggested. He never stopped trying to convince Mello to give himself up rather than use the note to kill him even though that was what he'd committed to do, and it would have ensured Soichiro's own safety (not to mention that of his family, who Mello had attacked before and had continued to use as blackmail up to this point). Soichiro's moral integrity is basically his defining trait, and tbh it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was totally bluffing in this situation and never actually crossed the line, never wrote a single letter in the death note.
Now I'm not sure if I like this idea more, or the idea that Soichiro did fully commit at the end and did write half of Mello's name, truly intending to follow through if his attempts to negotiate failed (at what point he would make the call is also interesting to think about). Or maybe the only reason he didn't just kill Mello immediately and even bothered to negotiate is because of the switch Mello was holding, it's a mutually assured destruction situation. Both versions are interesting to think about.
Anyway to me this makes sense given what we're shown, so unless someone can suggest a good reason for me to think otherwise, I'm going to integrate this as my personal headcanon now. 🥰
