oh… my god? i did NOT know about the movie!watari’s diary entries. the way it was written hurts my heart.
“the expanded universe is keen on portraying Watari as […] an instigator of change, for the betterment of humanity.”
i still can NOT like this interpretation/concept. in fact, it terrifies me more than makes me view watari in a good light??
putting the weight of the world on these children’s shoulders, always (silently) saying “you can stop injustice in the world. you can punish the guilty and the damned”? that’s too much pressure to put on an adult, much less these children.
no child’s life and mental health is worth it for “the betterment of humanity.”
but then again, maybe watari has this realization himself with the following lines… 🤔
“L. Don't you ever place your emotions prior to your goals?”
“L. I never meant for things to end this way. Your talent has surpassed mine, and now you are consuming yourself.”
also it seems odd to me that watari, this man who is clearly intelligent and has studied countless subjects (just given from the fact that he’s an inventor with several patents around the world), did not think to research about child rearing. 🤨 like,,, he knows all about how to put together machines or something, proving he can learn intricate subjects and topics, but when placed in this parental figure to these orphans, DIDN’T think “i should research about this since i care about these kids :)”??? it’s odd!
but maybe the reason why he didn’t read any current material about child rearing is simply because he’s old, and assumes that the way he was raised was right (cause he turned out okay), so there’s no need to research upon it? 🤔🤔🤔 (i am trying my best to see it from all angles.)
and maybe him being old (and therefore being less informed about mental health) also explains why he didn’t anticipate L killing himself in the name of justice. it’s such an illogical move for any human to do, to kill themself, that it genuinely didn’t cross watari’s mind as a real possibility :o
BUT. i 100% agree and believe your sentiment of “watari enabled L.” like no decent parent would ever let their kid not eat nor eat unhealthily, regardless of the how’s and why’s.
(personal information ahead) i was neglected as a child, mainly through lack of attention from my parents, was emotionally neglected by them, and generally was just ignored. apart of this was my parents getting fed up with me not wanting to eat vegetables as a kid. this… is a normal developmental phase for a kid to go through, to be adversed to eating vegetables. but instead of my parents trying out different recipes that included vegetables, they gave up and let me eat junk food only.
so i have the right to say the following, as someone who (much like L) was allowed to eat only unhealthy foods growing up:
it was not okay. even if their intentions was to have me eat anything at all, it was NOT okay for them to not adjust and to not attempt to find ways for me to eat healthy. this shows a clear lack of caring for my health and my future.
they enabled me to eat unhealthy foods.
that was the end result, and that is not okay for a parent to do.
i eat healthier now of course, but just… god. having good intentions behind your actions towards your child is reasonable to a point, and i feel like what watari did was way past that point of being moral.
which is what leads me to the conclusion that watari didn’t have L’s interests and future in mind, and leads me to the conclusion that he didn’t care about him.
yes, he held a basic level of care for him to not want him to die or be sick in any way, but that’s the bare minimum of caring for other human beings.
let’s revisit the next sentence again…
“L. I never meant for things to end this way. Your talent has surpassed mine, and now you are consuming yourself.”
another possible (keyword “possible”) meaning of this sentence is that while L’s talent (wanting to enforce justice in the world) has surpassed watari’s to the point that L will kill himself for it (“now you are consuming yourself”), watari is saddened by this mainly because he sees L as another part of his cause. his cause to aid humanity.
so while his care for L does cover him being saddened by the idea of him dying… he may not care about L as a human, with a future, who has the rights to goals and dreams like everyone else. if this were true, it’d be upsetting to say the least, as despite watari seeing himself as “caring for the betterment of humanity,” he’s somehow completely overlooking how L should have had the chance to engage in humanity/healthy human experiences (going on vacations, having a friend group or a friend at all, engaging with their local community, having hobbies, etc).
which leads me to bring up how light yagami holds a similar view of himself and his use of the death note. light knows that yes, murder is wrong. but he excuses his murder spree with the death note as “delivering justice.” so, in a sense, he’s doing it “for the betterment of humanity.” 👀
but as near says at the end of the series, if light is going by official forces of justice (laws, the laws on murder), then he still killed people. which, from the perspective of the police, is a crime, and he should be imprisoned for said crimes against humanity. (“you’re nothing more than a crazy serial killer.”)
to summarize, light used the death note “for the betterment of humanity” while not actually caring for the people he killed himself (ex. he never thought of how naomi misora’s family would be distraught by her death).
similarly, watari enabled L to work under the unhealthy conditions he did “for the betterment of humanity,” while not caring for L’s mental health and overall fulfillment in life.
both light yagami and watari did things for “the betterment of humanity,” but that does not mean they actually had humanity** for others, and their good intentions does NOT outweigh the effects of their actions.
**humanity as in caring for another’s physical health, mental health, and fulfillment in life.
i feel like you add a lot of “but watari intended for this as a good thing!!!” after admitting his faults as a way to justify his actions. correct me if i’m wrong, because i don’t intend to be biased here.
in fact, i will admit that i was personally biased with the reblog and tagging lunalit-river. i apologize for that. at the time i thought i had all the information on hand about watari, but i clearly didn’t (with his diary entries from the movie), so that was my own fault.
but going forward, i’m trying to see things as unbiasedly as i can on this post, because i genuinely wanna discuss watari as a character instead of push an agenda. this is a discussion post now XD
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