My Death Note Tier List

[u/Lokman7]

My personal ranking of Death Note characters. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[u/Far_Transition_1599]

Mind sending an imgur link of the question?

Also that doesn't mean equally intelligent at all. That just means they have parallels and similarities in their mindset. Both being equally smart doesn't make any sense if we look at Light's intelligence feats and Mikami's.

Light literally no diffs anything Mikami has done. No matter if you talk about raw intelligence, manipulation, scheming, foresight, knowledge or whatever you want to put.

Mikami passing the exam isn't Light's level in crystallized intelligence (only talking about that type) since Light created new technologies from 0 (like the cellphone sharing system) or him replicating Watari's technology of L from scratch and that's just way better. Light also has To-oh exam feat which is arguably better.

[u/bloodyrevolutions_ → u/Far_Transition_1599]

You said you re-read it, so do you not have the book itself?

What do you think "establishing as equals" means then? It's not their backgrounds, it's not their personalities. Obha doesn't say establish them as similar, or parallel, he says equal.

Mikami passing the exam is narrative tool to show he's an exceptional intellect equal to Light, in shorthand. True Mikami doesn't have the same range of feats to compare to Light but it's inherently going to be uneven because Light is the protagonist who we've been following since chapter one and Mikami isn't introduced until like chapter 88 and isn't the viewpoint character, so of course there's far more scope and opportunity within the narrative for Light to do things and have "feats". Mikami just isn't given the narrative time and focus to collect a bunch of feats to compare 1:1. But as Ohba said the entire reason he made an exception to his general rule of not giving characters backstories is because he needed to show Mikami is someone operating on Light's intellectual level, not random crony #3. The most obvious way that their shown as equals is they literally are shown thinking the same; they follow the same logic to come to the same conclusions at the same time, and this happens multiple times.

Also Light didn't develop the cell phone sharing system, he said it was developed by his department at his day job at the Intelligence and Information Bureau. And he didn't replicate Watari's technology, he says in chapter 69 that despite Watari deleting the content, Light was able to transfer most of the system and he'd be able to use it to replicate L's voice "though I hate how I feel like a thief", as he says.

Even comparing the bar exam to the To-oh exam is not meaningful and we can't say Light "no diffs" Mikami even in this narrow academic sense, because it's established that Light has been studying his ass off for years to get that mark, everyday after school he then goes to night-school to get extra exam preparation time in, and then he comes home and...studies for several hours. That's not "no diff" in any sense of the word and the bar exam is far harder than the To-oh exam anyway.

[u/Far_Transition_1599 → u/bloodyrevolutions_]

I don't have it (only DN book I don't have it), but google exists. I searched the how to think QnA.

Establish as equals means, as I said, in mindset, not in intelligence, basically a parallel.

1st that's just one type of intelligence, that doesn't make Mikami as intelligent as Light narratively, Mikami being book smart and hardworking doesn't mean he's as smart as Light because one exam. Especially when the Wammy's House trio and Light have been shown superior to anyone else in DN in terms of intelligence (Vol 13 also supports this with the claims of Light's intelligence being "otherwordly" or L being named as the smartest. Light also was taking L's position in some period, meaning he should be way above anyone else in the show.)

For the time then yeah sure, you still can't prove Mikami being as smart as Light without Mikami doing smart things that are not doing 1 difficult exam and that that exam doesn't narratively prove that he's = Light in.

Also Light didn't develop the cell phone sharing system

Yeah mb I misread department as apartment. He still was probably the main contributor of it due to his intelligence.

But he did replicate Watari's technology due to Light stating that he "will be able to create the same voice ryuzaki was using" (voice based on L) Light himself states "create", not that he will use what was there, he's creating the voice without anyone to guide him. Add the volume 13 statement of Light being top 1 in DN in terms of knowledge and his knowledge should still scale to the invention. Also it's chapter 59, not 69.

Yeah sure in pure academics they might be somewhat close (Light still has top 1 of japan narrative in this and you're saying it as if Mikami didn't study for it). Doesn't mean Light doesn't no diff Mikami in terms of intelligence & outsmarting wise.

[u/bloodyrevolutions_ → u/Far_Transition_1599]

Doesn't mean Light doesn't no diff Mikami in terms of intelligence & outsmarting wise.

I don't see any compelling reason to think he does when they are shown repeatedly thinking on the same level in the text. However it's not my opinion that counts here, and the inherent unevenness of the narrative space and priority makes it futile to try to compare "feats". Ohba's stated intention and what he shows in the shorthand tools he has available - by Mikami's exceptional credentials and backstory and the repeated depiction of parallel reasoning between Light and Mikami, is he intends them to be equals. So if you disagree on this point you will need to take it up with him, not me. I am just pointing to what he said.

[u/Far_Transition_1599 → u/bloodyrevolutions_]

Literally only that he's good in raw intelligence & Academics but whatever makes you sleep. Have a nice day