headcanons with L being extremely intimidating and s pls?
Haha this is a good ask, I love me a shady/intimidating L!
L + INTIMIDATING:
I think what scares and intimidates ME the most about L is that he has zero checks and balances on his obscene amount of wealth and power, and he will do just about anything to solve a case and prove himself right. I saw a headcanon recently by Halfpromise in which she said that she believes L genuinely has no moral compass when it comes to winning (mostly due to his weird upbringing); I think I would agree with that assessment of L, and that’s a very scary thing to imagine going up against! He also seemingly has unlimited money and resources and influence and SO MUCH mystery surrounding his actual identity, and he doesn’t ever have to worry about operating within the confines of the Law. The NPA officers often opposed his shady tactics, but were not very effective at ever halting him or convincing him to rein it in, for example.
L is a lot like a battering ram with his blunt and aggressive tactics; he is massively powerful and sneaky and mysterious, and he throws absolutely everything he can at his chosen opponent with zero sympathy or restraint. He had a death row inmate murdered on live TV in front of thousands of unsuspecting citizens, put no less than 64 hidden cameras in Light’s bedroom alone (a huge violation of human rights), kidnapped Misa and cruelly tortured her and Light for months on end due to his suspicions and without any sign of remorse, and was totally willing to let innocent people die during the Yotsuba arc if it meant he gathered more evidence about Kira’s killing methods. He’s self-aware about why he does this, and he knows that much of what he does to catch these criminals is also literally crime. He is fine with telling others that he’s a detective mostly for his own entertainment rather than because he thinks he’s helping people and making the world a better place.
It’s easier to sympathize with L when we already know that he’s right about Light and Misa being Kira, but he was still operating mostly on intuition for his suspicions, and he never actually had the evidence to convict them of their crimes. Imagine if L had actually been mistaken the whole time, and was still allowed to do all of those things to totally innocent people just because he refused to believe that he was wrong.
I honestly think an AU where L decides to frame Light for something would make an excellent horror story, because he could easily make a very daunting villain to oppose. Imagine trying to prove yourself innocent when somebody that incredibly mysterious and basically overpowered in every way was trying to convict you of a crime you didn’t actually commit?