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Jul. 1st, 2023 06:58 pm弥 海砂
A girl loved by multiple gods of death, except for the one that really caught her eye... !
Misa is an up-and-coming model, actress, and general talent with a side gig as her serial killer reluctant boyfriend's partner-in-crime "divine justice." (Note the placement of "reluctant" back there.)
Her defining contribution to the Death Note narrative is her willingness to do anything (seriously, anything) to be with and/or help said reluctant boyfriend, Light Yagami. She's killed innocents; she's killed criminals; she's even prepared to kill whatever other girlfriends Light has the audacity to have, and takes no issue with her patronsaint god of death threatening to murder him for failing to do what she wants.
Despite the tragedy and weirdness of her life -- her parents were murdered in a house robbery; she was almost killed by a stalker; and the entity that cares for her the most is a god of death named Rem -- Misa has many enviable qualities: An uncanny zeal for her profession(s) and the people she loves; the courage to go after what she wants with real bravado; and a capacity to play nice that can charm just about anybody.
Just don't get on her bad side. She will not hesitate.
Misa is an up-and-coming model, actress, and general talent with a side gig as her serial killer reluctant boyfriend's partner-in-
Her defining contribution to the Death Note narrative is her willingness to do anything (seriously, anything) to be with and/or help said reluctant boyfriend, Light Yagami. She's killed innocents; she's killed criminals; she's even prepared to kill whatever other girlfriends Light has the audacity to have, and takes no issue with her patron
Despite the tragedy and weirdness of her life -- her parents were murdered in a house robbery; she was almost killed by a stalker; and the entity that cares for her the most is a god of death named Rem -- Misa has many enviable qualities: An uncanny zeal for her profession(s) and the people she loves; the courage to go after what she wants with real bravado; and a capacity to play nice that can charm just about anybody.
Just don't get on her bad side. She will not hesitate.
personality
+
quick-thinking, devoted, charming, hardworking
=
impulsive, irreverent, relentless, carefree
-
jealous, callous, immature, delusional
style
Combines gothic lolita and punk-inspired pieces, becoming more chic and clean-cut as she gets older. Never strays from the sexy/maximalist side of things. Extensive collection of lingerie. Ditches her signature half-up twintail look in her mid-twenties for a style that's more mature. Lots of accessories: Rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, the works.
abilities
tl;dr
Misa takes herself to be in a romantic relationship with Light Yagami, the protagonist of Death Note, and as such is canonically uninterested (at best) and disgusted (at worst) by others who show such interest in her (but see her permissions for caveats). When she's in love, Misa is recklessly self-sacrificing, very sweet, covetous of her partner's time and energy, and eager to please. For better or worse, she loves her partner unconditionally -- barring provocations of her jealousy (more on that in a minute). This degree of passion does not extend to her friends, whom she doesn't mind betraying in the pursuit of her own and/or her partner's goals. She sure is fun to hang out with, though! She gravitates towards "strange" people/entities and is pretty accepting of things others might be put off by or demand that their friends change.
Death Note is weird, and one of the weirdest things about it is the stuff it has to say (and what it doesn't say) about love. Since it's written by Ohba, its women are, for the most part, caricatures of some of the worst aspects of traditional femininity. In Misa's case, she is the goth gf of yore. Her boyfriend treats her like shit and she, too, treats him like shit, mostly because she doesn't seem to mind that he doesn't want to be in a romantic relationship with her and is very happy to force him to be in one anyway. This is, inexplicably, presented by the story as a paradigm case of "unconditional love:" An inherently self-effacing, all-consuming emotion that doesn't care about the personality or feelings of the person on the receiving end. (Rem, Gelus,* and to some extent even Light's mother Sachiko are all examples of this.)
While I think there's something to be said for a love that could endure everything and/or tolerate anything of the beloved, Misa's affections are a perversion of this. I imagine that the violent deaths of her parents and her own near-death experience made her feel as if she needed someone to love and to be loved by, and it's just her luck that Rem decides to give her Gelus' Death Note -- thereby making her the only person in the world who, at the time, knows how Kira (Light's serial killer alter ego) operates. Since Kira just so happened to murder the criminal responsible for the deaths of Misa's parents when the Japanese court system failed her, Kira -- or Light, as it happens -- becomes an obvious candidate for her devotion.
Misa's relationship with Light only "works" for them both because she is fundamentally uninterested in him as a person (even though her amnesiac arc makes it clear that it's him she's come to like, and not just his identity as Kira). I suspect his concurrent lack of interest in her, too, is part of the appeal for her: After all, if someone doesn't actually love you, they won't care to be truly vulnerable with you, to learn as much as they can about what and who you are, to help you face what hurts you. With Light, Misa is able to "love" and to be "loved" by somebody without actually having to participate in the relationship in the fullness of her self -- a self which I think almost everything about her life is devoted to avoiding. This is the interpretation of her character I'm interested in exploring.
* Remember she almost got killed by a stalker? This is the name of the god of death that saved her life at that time.
Death Note is weird, and one of the weirdest things about it is the stuff it has to say (and what it doesn't say) about love. Since it's written by Ohba, its women are, for the most part, caricatures of some of the worst aspects of traditional femininity. In Misa's case, she is the goth gf of yore. Her boyfriend treats her like shit and she, too, treats him like shit, mostly because she doesn't seem to mind that he doesn't want to be in a romantic relationship with her and is very happy to force him to be in one anyway. This is, inexplicably, presented by the story as a paradigm case of "unconditional love:" An inherently self-effacing, all-consuming emotion that doesn't care about the personality or feelings of the person on the receiving end. (Rem, Gelus,* and to some extent even Light's mother Sachiko are all examples of this.)
While I think there's something to be said for a love that could endure everything and/or tolerate anything of the beloved, Misa's affections are a perversion of this. I imagine that the violent deaths of her parents and her own near-death experience made her feel as if she needed someone to love and to be loved by, and it's just her luck that Rem decides to give her Gelus' Death Note -- thereby making her the only person in the world who, at the time, knows how Kira (Light's serial killer alter ego) operates. Since Kira just so happened to murder the criminal responsible for the deaths of Misa's parents when the Japanese court system failed her, Kira -- or Light, as it happens -- becomes an obvious candidate for her devotion.
Misa's relationship with Light only "works" for them both because she is fundamentally uninterested in him as a person (even though her amnesiac arc makes it clear that it's him she's come to like, and not just his identity as Kira). I suspect his concurrent lack of interest in her, too, is part of the appeal for her: After all, if someone doesn't actually love you, they won't care to be truly vulnerable with you, to learn as much as they can about what and who you are, to help you face what hurts you. With Light, Misa is able to "love" and to be "loved" by somebody without actually having to participate in the relationship in the fullness of her self -- a self which I think almost everything about her life is devoted to avoiding. This is the interpretation of her character I'm interested in exploring.
* Remember she almost got killed by a stalker? This is the name of the god of death that saved her life at that time.
