L (alias)

"L was the goal of everyone in Wammy's House. “Everyone wanted to surpass him. “To step over him. “To step on him. “M did, N did, and B did. “M as a challenger, N as a successor. “B as a criminal."

- Mello (Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases, p. 117)

L is an alias used by a few major characters in the Death Note series.

Personality
Those who use the alias L in the series typically have what is described by Takeshi Obata, the series' illustrator, as a "weird" personality, such as usually having an apparent sweet tooth and exhibiting odd behaviors like stacking small objects for no reason or crouching instead of sitting. These behaviors have some significance as explained by the L in the series. L Lawliet explains that eating sweet foods gives the brain more calories, and Near uses his various toys to act out and explain his many theories.

L is a mysterious character in which his real name, the key for Light's success, was not revealed earlier. He used his own mind and strength to fight a person, Light Yagami, who has obtained a power of a god.

Potential successors of L
From the time that the series began, there were three official members of Wammy's House mentioned having been nominated as the successor of the original L introduced in the series. The successors are listed below in the order they were nominated:


 * A (committed suicide under pressure)
 * Beyond Birthday (arrested by Naomi Misora)
 * C
 * D
 * E
 * F (killed by virus)
 * G
 * H
 * I
 * J
 * Kimiko Kujo (became a doctor specializing in viral research)
 * Linda (became a famous artist)
 * Mello (murdered by Kiyomi Takada)
 * Matt (executed by Takada's guards)
 * Near (eventual winner)
 * O
 * P
 * Q
 * R
 * S
 * T
 * U
 * V
 * X (mentioned in the Detective Wars involving the original L)
 * Y (mentioned in the Detective Wars involving the original L)
 * Z (mentioned in the Detective Wars involving the original L)
 * several other orphans from Wammy's House

List of Ls
The following individuals are listed in terms of storyline chronology.

1. L Lawliet, the original L, also known as the world's greatest detective. Prior to the Kira affair, he had solved hundreds of cases that were deemed "unsolvable" by the rest of the world. He soon decided from very early on that Light Yagami was Kira but could not find enough evidence to convict him. He died at the hands of the Shinigami Rem, as L was planning to put Misa Amane in harm's way to try to find evidence, something Rem wouldn't allow. So at the cost of her own life, Rem killed L and Watari to save Misa. L died immediately of a heart attack in the arms of Light Yagami.

2. Light Yagami is actually Kira, but took up the alias of L directly after the real L's death. The Japanese Kira Investigation Team feared that there would be chaos if it was publicly known that L, the only person deemed capable of catching the mass-murderer Kira, was dead, so made Light, the smartest among them, secretly replace him. Light then purposely avoided finding any evidence that would lead to his capture as Kira. As a result, when Near and Mello came on the scene, they saw "L the Second" as quite useless and made it be known—before soon realizing that he was also Kira.

3. Near is an extremely gifted child raised in Wammy's House. When L died, he and Mello were the favorites to succeed him but it had not been officially decided which of them it would actually be. Thus the search for Kira was, for Mello at least, the means of deciding which of them was most worthy (Near was quite prepared to work with Mello but he refused). Because Light Yagami took the title L first, Near would address him as "L the Second" and referred to himself as N, using a capital "N" in either Cloister Black or Wedding Text fonts while communicating via computer. Following Light Yagami's exposure as Kira and subsequent death, Near became the official L. [[Category:L]]