Mello And Near

the female sounding voices that i hear are somehow comforting most of the time

the male sounding voices on the other hand, hate me

nobody actually cares. they just want you to take your meds and shut up.

Hyperactive guy who doesn’t shut up and girl who doesn’t react to anything or talk..

i love the fact that toby canonically has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia (schizoaffective disorder)

i finally have a character to project my mental illness onto

So I’ve been thinking a lot about the popularity of Matt as a character, which is something that is met with a lot of ??? by those in the fandom who aren’t matt/mello shippers or generally don’t like the second arc of DN (which is… reasonable in and of itself but not something I’m gonna get into atm). And I think that most of the Matt love comes from an initial love of/identification with Mello. Mello on his own is kind of a tough sell - he’s a vain, selfish, manipulative, murdering asshole - he’s insecure, gaudy, self-loathing, and can’t control his emotions. Which, like other than the murder part, there’s a lot going on here to see myself in, whether I want to or not. And that’s where Matt comes in.

Ohba made Matt specifically to give someone for Mello to bounce dialogue off of, and though I’m sure this was done as a throw-away thing, Matt as a sounding board for Mello as a character is something that extends into fandom as well. I’d say that it was that tiny act of establishing Matt as a Wammy’s kid in HtR13 that really did it though, as it establishes a past between the two and mobilizes a dozen drawable conclusions about their relationship. Suddenly we have this character who canonically knows Mello from childhood, and thus can be understood to readily know what a crap person Mello is, but chooses to be a part of Mello’s life/weirdo anti-kira operation even after all these years. Is this loyalty? Friendship? Love? Boredom? Who is this ride-or-die kid in a stupid furry vest?? Whatever way you spin it, Matt is a character who puts up with Mello and his bullshit, and coupled with the blank slate of knowing literally nothing else about him, he’s the perfect projection ground for wish fulfillment/validation. Mello represents a lot aspects we hate about ourselves (don’t even get me started on the queer coding) but Matt redeems him. Matt as established in fanon (and squint-and-you’ll-miss-it in canon) says you’re still lovable! You are worth sticking by and coming home to! Mello’s kind of scary to identify so fiercely with but Matt makes it safer and softer and draws the poison from it.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk

All hail Mihael Keehl, the father of cunt

this is very funny to me

have some

lmfao make Matt, Mello, and Near YouTubers and make them do the Blind, Deaf, Mute baking challenge HAHAHAHA

I want Mello to be mute so he can't fucking complain or yell at Matt and Near for not doing something right, so he's just standing there motioning vaguely to Matt

Matt is deaf, so he's fucking loud as hell the whole time and he keeps yelling into Near's ear, trying to give Near instructions and Near is slowly losing his sanity while stirring eggs and flour and shit

Near is blind, obviously, so he can talk and hear and he's fucking miserable lmfao, and he keeps talking to Mello, trying to help him,, but Mello can't fucking hear Near over Matt's constant screaming and singing

This is so funny to me omg

cue Mello trying to talk despite his mouth being taped and Near perks up and points at him and Matt is like what???? is he trying to talk??? And Near nods and Matt looks at Mello and yells "dude, stop breaking the rules!" And Mello glares at Near like "you fucking tattle tale brat" and Near shrugs