i wanted to make a point about the fact that if we ship soichello we should also consider mello/the literal U.S. president for mere fun, but i was looking through the online manga scans and i have noticed that at some point mello says "you didn't get to be president by luck". VERY sad, because i grew up with the official italian translation that says "non sarai mica diventato presidente per la tua bella faccia, no?" which translates to "you didn't get to become president thanks to your pretty face, did you?". italian mello doesn't hesitate
You can take your time with this, but how would a wholly genderbent deathnote be?
You can take your time with this, but how would a wholly genderbent deathnote be?
A wholly genderbent death note?
I must admit ,anon -I took my time with this, because the scope of that is a little intimidating. Also Eclipse has been busy with work and Baldur's Gate 3, and hasn't had much energy to brainstorm. Thank you for your patience.
To start with, the gender politics of this world are very different, as a lot of people in important positions have become female.
Higuchi, is head of the technological development of the Yotsuba group at age 32, in 2004. He's canonically obsessed with gaining social status, power, and wealth, and is implied to not be as competent as his colleague's. If it were just him swapping genders that would carry unfortunate implications, but the rest of the group heads were male, are also gender swapped, so now she's power climbing ambitious hate-sink, I guess. Just like before.
Would Demegawa still be a sensationalist media director of a TV station in a gender swap? Maybe not if it was just him being swapped. That story would probably her being a lacky who made it higher (quite possibly to Kira Deaths in the industry) who is running the station in part two, someone who reached too high and fell to Kira like all others.
The director of the FBI Stev(i)e Mason, is female, and so is most of the American FBI, with Misora standing out. Actually, in this AU would Penber have still told her fiance to stay in the kitchen and quit his job in order to marry her? Is she still reluctant to marry him? If so, that certainly carries implications about gender roles in this world.
But let's say things are different and Penber is less of a sexist jerk, and Misora had to tie up some loose ends on a previous job, before Rae dies. Misora is still one of the bigger threats to Light in series, and had to be taken down quickly for the story to work. It would certainly up the stakes if that coincidence was taken out, but keeping them there and playing multi person chess would be a lot harder.
The SPK of America, and the police of Japan are now full of ladies. It turns Lady Lights' desire from controversial to expected again.
On the flipside, crime is also made up of ladies, such as Mello's Mafia, Misa's stalker, and independents such as Otoharada.
It's starting to feel kind of like Barbieland, as there is a noticeably higher number of named male characters then Female in the universe of Death Note. Like really, off the top of my head I can think of 13 named female characters in death note, and I'm including characters like Misa's friend Yoshi.
In this gender swapped Death Note, by 2009, there is something that hasn't happened in reality in the states. There is a Madame President, and Vice president. Mrs Roger is so done with Watari, she never wanted to spend this much time around children and here she is running an orphanage filled with them. I'm going to assume Linda is still into art.
In a world where Watari was the only one gender swapped, I would wonder if Watari's past as an inventor was a bit like L being the world famous detective that no one sees. I also wonder about her backstory having her well trained in espionage, and marksmanship. Watari was born in 1933 (anime), which is in the range of world war 2, but would make her a young child when it started and ended. Does this mean that in the Death Note universe World War 2 lasted longer, or did England get up to orphan spy training programs, that later inspired Watari to create orphan detective programs. Wait, is this becoming a kind of crossover with Gallagher girls? After all, just because Watari founded a school in England, didn't mean she was from there. Also transfers were a thing. Or could have been. That's fun.
I'd say Watari would have to be a lot louder to get such a rep as L's handler. After all, stupid people still exist even when you have a rep. I wonder if she used disguise to help? Of course, thats in a solo, and this is about everyone.
Aiber and Wedy
Wedy is L's profesional cat burglar and survalance expert. In story she mostly looks cool, installs some bugs to evesdrop, and rides a motorcycle.
Aiber gets more to characterize himself and stand out. Aiber is L's professional con-man, and social infiltrator, said to be able to blend in with varied types of social groups. L has enough evidence to land Aiber in lifetime prison, and has saved Aiber's life a couple of times. Its also said (in how to read) that he is multilingual, often assumes fake identidies, and gets his biggest thrills from swindling and living on the edge. Basically. He sounds a bit like a male Black Widow, with less combat training, and tramatic backstory… presumably. Hmmm, also less brainwashing
L trusts Aiber enough to use one of the other detective names he stole, and play the roll of Eraldo Coil. I can't say if Aiber is playing the roll of L playing Coil, or original coil. He also, has a family, and heavily dislikes guns.
For the most part, they are pretty typecast by their character designs if it were a story about any of them individually, there's more space for extrapolation, but in large groups it becomes a norm. Female Aiber could be interesting to explore as an individual. Actually, so could male. Same with Watari, or any of them really, by any writer who decides to get really invested in it.
Still, in fanwork, you have to consider the conservation of the ship of Theseus. At what point in replacing the parts do you have a new ship? Is it when the first nail is replaced? The fifth? The planks? The entire boat? Is it still the same boat after all that change? Likewise, you can never be the same person you were at eleven, or even two years ago. You have grown, your body has changed old cells out for new ones, and most importantly you have had experiences that filter your thoughts into directions that filter your perceptions.
At what point in changing a character do they become an OC committing identity fraud? What core traits are important to keeping a character”in character”, even when you change the experiences that filter their perception of the world? What changes with gender, and what stays the same?
Gender is a big factor in the face we present to the world. It has expectations with it. And the expectations of gender in Japanese culture are different then the ones in the west. Japanese culture is collectivist, and group cohesion is placed higher than the west's individual needs. There is also a shame culture in the east, in contrast to the west's guilt culture. Confucius vs Christian values. There are benefits and pitfalls to both worldviews.
It's not something anyone would know their first time watching eastern media, but with learning more about these cultural aspects, one can look back to characters they didn't previously understand the motives of in a new light.
Time is also a factor. The culture and expectations adults today grew up with, are different from the ones they would have experienced 20 years ago, for all that there have been things that stayed the same?
I should also get into Honne and Tatemae. Tatemae is whats expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances. The Honne is one's true feelings and desires, which may be contrary to society's expectations and is often kept hidden except with one's closest friends.
It ties in with Japanese Confucianism Beliefs, of human centered virtues for harmonious and peaceful society. Essentially, in Japanese culture Public failure and disapproval of others are seen as a source of shame and reduced social standing, so direct confrontation is something they wish to avoid. The traditional social norm then is to minimize discord, not doing so might be seen as insulting or aggressive.
I feel a good example can be seen in this quote from this article.
Arriving in a country full of unreadable people, I was unexpectedly labelled a wild barbarian for the first time of my life. I laughed on…
“A Belgian friend of mine once kindly told a Japanese librarian that the English travel guides had been misplaced in the “History” section. The woman immediately started apologizing almost hysterically, bowing, hiding her face in her hands and looking so distressed that my Belgium friend started apologizing frantically as well, and left as fast as she could after putting the books back where they belonged. A Japanese student, had he or she noticed the mistake, would probably have took it upon himself or herself to silently put the books back into the right place, and nobody but a foreigner would have casually and publicly proclaimed something was wrong, thus unintentionally shaming the librarian and embarrassing themselves in the process.”
Not to say that we don't have social masks as well in the west. We do. But because its not talked about to keep social cohesion, you often don't realize you have been angering someone to the point hurt and resentment and grudges towards you has built up until things escalate.
Politeness is something that keeps society together. We have scripts for interacting with others to keep things even keel. We have rules that we all follow to more or less get along with other people. This is true of any lasting society.
We all expect other people to follow the rules, and make exceptions for those we consider close to us.
Perhaps that paints Light's killing of criminals with more context. These people did not follow the rules for harmonious society. Light told Rem to find someone selfish and cruel enough to be willing to use the Death Note, while being dumb enough to not spread out his corporate killings. She found Higuchi. Nobody likes him. His collages instantly pin him as Kira. He's a victim no one would have any qualms about dying if it were not for the Kira case.
Lights dream for the Millennium Kingdom-I mean- new world, consist of kind hearted people he deems fit to live in it. He claims that once the world as a whole changes people will become kinder as a whole. He starts with criminals, then plans to move to immoral people, and harassers, and has later plans to kill people who refuse to contribute to the good of society, or lazy people as he put them. I have to wonder whether Light living through “The Lost Decade” had any influence on his thoughts here?
He's basing who should live in the world he wishes to build on those who can follow the rules (both said and unsaid) of society he knows. And he is using the rules of Japanese Justice to enforce them.
The Phoenix Wright games are not a bad place to start understanding Japanese Justice. Japan has a 99.8% conviction rate in cases that go to trial. For all we make jokes about the confetti that comes down when Pheonix wins a case, with those numbers, winning a case as a Defense Attorney is rare, and worthy of celebration.
While no real trial that I am aware of has needed to cross examine a parrot, Japan's “hostage justice” means a long uphill battle for an acquittal.
On Japanese Justice
Japan also practices Capitol Punishment and the death penalty.
To Light, narcissist, son of a police officer, and good Japanese student, this is probably what everyone is secretly wanting but could never do. But he can. And will do it for them. And if not, well they will come around when they see how much better it is, his way. He just needs time to change the world.
But back to a point, of sorts, Eclipse and I try to keep a balance of sorts between what we know of Japanese culture, and fun headcanons. We certainly go into cracky territory (no regrets about Cat Misa here), but I also don't see a lot of reasons that most of the character traits with the other characters need to change with Gender, when gender is not the only factor that make up their persona. What we see of most of the other characters are what are culturally or socially expected of them. We don't see their Honne, just their Tatemae.
I'm going to end this with another Lady Virgilia video about Persona 5, this one about Socialcultural context. P5 is very on the nose apt with its gameplay mechanic about removing their mask to send their will of rebellion out to fight.
