Lauren (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} red_and_dust) wrote,@ 2008-02-15 23:38:00 |
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| Current mood: |  determined |
| Entry tags: | character study, matt |
AN INTROSPECTIVE LOOK ON ONE OF DEATH NOTE'S MINOR
YET POPULAR CHARACTERS
| What follows is a (overly) detailed character study on a very minor character based simply what few facts are given canon-wise. None of the assumptions here are influenced by the fandom, but the whole thing should be taken with a grain of salt. Let's face it: the author and illustrator didn't have too much planned for this character. This is evident in some of their commentary. He became a fan favorite partly based on his appearance, but ironically enough he was originally designed as a somewhat dorkier character with round glasses and a bowl cut. The artist changed his design to something he liked more with the mentality of "he probably won't do much." The author even mentions that Matt was the most difficult character to create because she "didn't even know what kind of person he was." He was a plot device. Just one that ended up being well loved. I want to accept the challenge of developing him solely off canon evidence, so I've put together all of this to show the basis of how I've designed his personality for roleplay. Over the top? Maybe. But I've got something to prove! |
1990/02/01 - 2010/01/26 Blood Type: O Height: 168 cm/5'5'' Weight: 52 k/115 lbs. Likes: Videogames Dislikes: going out Intelligence: 6/10 Creativity: 6/10 Initiative 7/10 Emotional Strength: 7/10 Social Skills: 3/10 Observational Skills: 7/10 |
Starting with the basics. How to Read 13 gives us Matt's actual stats. You can see them displayed to the left. Note the inclusion of both the birthdate and the blood type. The birthdate and its use with astrological signs is obvious, but in Japan the blood type is also important in the analysis of a character. It serves similar personality definitions. This is the reason you will see it listed in so many anime/video game character bios. For right now, however, we will skip that information and save it for last. More tangible details first, then we'll use that to compare. Take note of the stats underneath the first bunch, however, as those are more straightforward. They're also from the information listed in How to Read 13. Each character in the series was shown with a variation of this chart. The "observational skills" was one that varied from most and was obviously included to show Matt's strong point. There is a lack of social skill, but while the number is small it's not quite as low as L and Near's. His emotional strength is about the same level as Mello's. (This refers to how well they keep their emotions from influencing their actions. Near's is a full 10/10.) |
| Now let's be honest. The writer could have pulled some of those stats straight out of her ass. But the fact is that they're from a canon source and are thus now part of Matt's base personality. From the way the stats for each character are laid out, I believe we can assume that a 5/10 is about average. Intelligence: Oddly enough, though Matt is considered the third smartest kid in Wammy's under Near and Mello, he receives only a six out of ten in this stat, lower than a good many other characters. This would lead one to believe that the stat isn't based solely on factual knowledge, but also on worldly knowledge which Matt is lacking in somewhat. Creativity: He receives the same score here that he does with the intelligence stat. Above average, but not something to write home about. In other words, he's got an imagination on him but doesn't put it to as much use as he could. His love for gaming could easily be the cause of both sides. Initiative: Pretty decent score here. This means when working with Mello he didn't need the other man to call every shot for him, and he knew what things were worth reporting in and what weren't. He knows when to act for the most part. Emotional Strength: As I mentioned above, Matt has the same level of emotional strength as Mello. Above average, meaning he doesn't fly off the handle at even with some subjects that bother him, but his actions can still be influenced by his emotions. He seems reasonably calm and collective, for example, until Misa and Mogi manage to sneak away under his nose, leaving him a bit pissed. Social Skills: Given that Matt is a gamer and appears to have a fair amount of skill with computers, it's within reason to assume that he may have something of a social life online. It's definitely not unusual for people to love to interact online but hate going out into the real world. This would easily explain his cocky attitude - thinking he knows more than he does when having experienced very little in actuality. Observational Skills: Though one of his strong points, this stat also receives no more than a seven out of ten. He certainly knows how to keep good track of things when he needs to. Mello wouldn't have asked for his help otherwise. The lower number is most likely because bores easily or can get too overconfident about how much of an eye he has on things. |
 Fig. 1 The image above is the only one we're given of Matt from when he was in Wammy's House. You can tell they left him looking very similar to the older version so that the reader could recognize it was him. It's very difficult to judge from just this image if he's wearing glasses or not, but are those gloves on his hands already? | First off, let's talk about the clothes. The artist admits to just drawing something he liked when it came to Matt, so there goes any idea of deeper meaning in the long run, but we can still pull some character traits from this. Starting with the goggles. It's probably safe to assume, especially given his original design concept as well as how video games tend to wear on the eyes, that Matt would have originally worn glasses. Now you can't go around looking like this character does without knowing you're attractive, so getting away with something like goggles would be easy, as well as look "cooler" than regular glasses. There'd be no dorky pushing the spectacles back up the nose. As for the other parts of the outfit, stripes seem to be a staple to help identify the character. The rest is just him being a stylish nerd. He's obviously got the confidence level for it. A note on the gloves. Originally I'd assumed that Matt wore gloves because Mello had a habit of wearing gloves. However, if you look at the flashback image you'll see that it looks like he had them there as well. It may be a habit developed (like I suspect Mello's was) not to leave fingerprints, but there's also the chance that learning to play games with gloves on made for less worn out thumbs. I know I've made finger coverings in the past just for that purpose. Then, of course, he could just like gloves. |  Fig. 2 |
| The third figure here is really one of the best images when it comes to showing Matt's daily habits. Behold the lovely array of snack items all over the floor. Soda, chips... Given his general body size I'd say he probably does a lot of just munching on that sort of thing when he's hungry instead of eating something more substantial. Though all said, his eating habits seem more normal than most of the other Wammy House members we've seen. I also love how the garbage is just left around the room while the computer equipment is kept in fairly neat order. Sure there are cables everywhere, but they aren't |  Fig. 3 | all in tangles and could probably be easily picked up and moved again. The fact that he's allowed for such a mess when the two of them should be well covering their tracks shows a general laziness on his part. This is only backed by how he's giving more attention to his game than the monitors at that point, taking for granted that he's not missing anything important at the moment. At the same time, this also gives us an idea on Matt's basic technological knowledge. He was most likely also responsible for setting up the bugs Mello is using. |
There was one issue regarding Matt that confused me for some time, but with the release of both How to Read and the recent one shot this has pretty much been explained. The point of confusion involved bits of info on Matt I kept seeing that mentioned him as being third in line to succeed L after Near and Mello. I could never find the exact source material for this info. Apparently it came from an interview with the author, now shown in HtR. The exact quote, as it's translated by Viz, says he is "the third most talented member of Wammy's house." |
| Now it's easy to see how something like that could be taken to mean that he was also third in line to be L's successor, but it's important to note that it is never written in those terms. In the one shot with a post-series Near, we get a flashback to a question and answer session with L. (Shown in fig. 4.) It was apparently after this that L chose Near and Mello as the most likely successors based on their reactions (or lack of). The fact that they were also the most talented of the bunch seems to be a coincidence, and I'm willing to believe that there was a significant gap between them and the rest of the children in Wammy's. Matt, having not been singled out, wouldn't have had as much reason to strive for the top. Test scores may mean nothing to L, after all. And given what we've seen of his personality he seems a bit too laid back to try and push to keep up. Near and Mello didn't ask questions during this time, but chances are Matt asked at least one. Aside from this he would have never met L in person. L, however, would probably be able to recognize him. |  Fig. 4 |
It's possible that Mello and Matt were friends of a sort while at Wammy's House. Mello is seen playing with the other children, after all, so he wasn't a complete loner like Near. Matt could have been one of the people he got along with easiest or hadn't bullied much. The choice can't have been random, due to Matt's abilities and how much Mello would have need of them. It's highly likely that when the kids of Wammys all went their separate ways Matt found himself with very little to do and thus joined Mello partly out of boredom. Also, if he wasn't all that fond of Near himself (and I'm willing to bet he wasn't) the opportunity to possibly one-up him may have been too good to pass up. It's been stated, and it's quite obvious from the way the two of them interact, that Matt simply agreed to help Mello. He wasn't coerced into it like some others had been, and the blond never threatened him in any way. Of course at this point Mello also couldn't afford to lose any help he had. |
 Fig. 5 |
Now it's very common to ship the two of them as a couple. From the small amount of interaction we see between them, there are many scenes fans can use to hint at yaoi. (But I wonder who even bothers to look anymore sometimes.) Take fig. 5 for example. The two of them are in a car watching Mogi and Aizawa. Mello is driving. Seeing as Mello has been someone who's had others do his dirty work up to this point, it might seem strange that in this case he's doing it himself. But his Mafia underlings are gone at this point. Matt isn't a minion, he's someone called upon for a favor. The fact that he isn't someone Mello would throw willingly to the dogs doesn't make him instant lover material. According to the timeline in HtR13, Mello asked Matt to help him the same day the two of them started their surveillance. It's possible Matt was in the passenger seat because Mello had recently picked him up. |
| It's even more likely that Mello is driving simply because he knows the area better. Same as in fig. 6, where he's driving the one motorcycle shown. Two people on one motorcycle simply means there was no need for, or no funds for, a second one. One of the more damning little lines that spurs the fangirls on is really something of a mistranslation. In the scantalation I've seen, Matt says the following when talking about Misa: "It may be strange for me to say this... but she's a pretty cute Japanese woman." The first line immediately has people thinking that if it's strange for him to say this he must be gay. Yet this seems to contradict the incident later where Matt asks to trade places with Mello, because at least Mello gets to listen in on a cute girl. In the Viz translation, what he says makes more sense: "If you'll pardon my expression... She's an awfully cute Japanese girl." Despite what people may say about the Viz translations, this makes far |  Fig. 6 |
 Fig. 7 | more sense. In other words, he's simply making a weak apology for sounding unprofessional. If anything, the only clues we're given towards his sexual preference points to him being straight. There would be nothing wrong if he was gay, but this really isn't displayed in the canon context. Whether or not Mello has such feelings for Matt is still up in the air, but Mello doesn't seem to attach himself to anyone romantically. The apology he gives Matt when he finds out he's been killed is more than he gave any of his lackeys, but as it was mentioned earlier - Matt is a friend. No one likes losing a friend. It could have even been more heartfelt, but at this point Mello knew he'd be soon to follow. |
There are several points to Matt's character that can simply be assumed based on his images, stats, and where he grew up. - He is a gamer. We see him playing games during his free time, and he spends a lot of time around computers. This is backed up by the mention of video games as his favorite thing in his stats. Considering Mello's listed favorite is chocolate and Near's is toys, we can assume that the games are something of an obsession for Matt as well. As in he spends a good portion of his free time playing them. Now seeing how much of one's attention is taken up by video games, it would be difficult for him to do nothing but that - especially given that he was third in his class. It probably requires less thought on his part than most, though, and I'm willing to bet he's great at multi-tasking while playing. - He may have heavy knowledge in fields required for detective work. Now it's been shown that not everyone at Wammy's specialized in this. Some had more artistic fields. But as Matt's observational skills are high and no artistic ones have been shown, there's a good chance this is the case. Also an interesting option to consider would be training in the field of spywork, considering the ways he helps Mello. - He may be fluent in several languages. Perhaps not as many as L, Mello, or Near, but definitely some. He obviously knows Japanese from the way he spoke in Japan, but surely there's more of a reason for this than just because he wanted to be able to play original imported video games. - He may have an accent. Wammy's house is in England - Winchester to be exact. Though not all of it's members may be from there, one could assume that some of them are. Even if they aren't, depending on how young they were when they were brought there, they could develop one from the region anyway. Winchester, and that area around Hampshire, has it's own particular accent. More rural. |
A few other things that could be looked at in regards to defining Matt's personality are his birth date and blood type. Of course every character with a certain birth date and blood type isn't going to actually have the same type of personality, but the fact that it is given means that some traits may have been used. One could pick and choose, though some are already obvious true and some not. For blood type O, Wikipedia lists the following traits in the article on the Japanese theory of blood types: Best Traits: Agreeable, sociable, an optimist. Worst Traits: Vain, careless, ruthless, cruel. He's obviously not sociable, but he seems somewhat agreeable and optimistic. Perhaps too optimistic in some cases, which goes along with the negative trait of being careless. As for being ruthless and cruel - that could have varying interpretations. It is apparently only a smokescreen gun he has in his final scene. He's definitely at least a little vain, though, if his choice of dress is anything to go by. For a second opinion, there is also this site, which says the following: Type O – The Warrior # trendsetter # loyal # passionate # self-confident # independent # ambitious # vain # jealous This is similar to what Wikipedia has, but possibly a bit closer to the truth. There's room enough for some interpretation by the player. On the subject of birth dates, Matt's is February 1st. Under the tropical zodiac, that would make him an Aquarius. This is most likely the version the author would have used. According to Chinese Astrology, Matt was born in the year of the horse (under the yang metal element). Some of the traits listed there (especially the last few negative ones) also seem to fit Matt well. But these things are all optional ideas for a player developing Matt's personality and should be fit in with the better established information first. |
