† Profile
P R O F I L E
[ QUICK STATUS ]
[Character Name] Mello
[Real Name] Mihael Keehl
[Canon] Death Note (manga, plus the novel)
[Point Taken from Canon] After his death
[Age]
Canon: Died at 20.
Arrived at Grand Line in November. The same year, one month later on December, he became 21.
Stood 2 years on Grand Line for over two years (from November 2008 to June 2010), spent 3 Decembers there - 23 years old.
He already spent one December on the Thor, making him 24 years old.
[Birthday] December 13
[Deathday] 26th January
[Gender] Male
[Species] Human
[Sexual Orientation] Bissexual
[Knowledge] 7/10
[Ability to Conceptualize] 7/10
[Willingness to Act] 10/10
[Motivation] 8/10
[Social Life] 9/10
[Inferiority Complex] 8/10
[Height] 171cm (5’6’‘)
[Weight] 52kg (114 pounds)
[Blood type] A
[Likes] Chocolate
[Dislikes] People who are better than him
[Language] English (main), Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, German, French, Some Dutch and Chinese
[Appearance]
Here you have a 21 23 year old man, with a scar across half of his face, shoulder/shoulder blade and chest. He has blue eyes, blond hair - which was page boy style but now it’s just badly cut style - who wears black leather clothes, with a rosary around his neck. Along with stylish shoes and gloves that barely cover his wrist, Mello has a different choice of clothes, focusing on leather, tight clothes that tend to show his waist and bellybutton. He is thin, with his 52kg (114 pounds), and his 171cm (5’6’‘), giving him a frail look, including actually some lack of body strength.
Wounds:
† Burn scar (2nd degree ) over the left side of his face, neck, collarbone, shoulder and chest. The ear remains untouched - Canon
✘Lack of sensibility - Headcanon
✘Some restrained movements - Headcanon
† Bullet wound on his left arm - Past game
Physical:
† Fast metabolism (keeps him thin) - Headcanon
† Little body hair - Headcanon
† Affected vestibular system due to the explosion: may lack equilibrium at times - Headcanon
[ POWERS, ABILITTIES and WEAKNESS ]
[Powers and abilities]
He doesn't have any powers, except his high IQ that can't be considered a magical ability and barely is considered a strength, if we think about it - it greatly depends on how Mello uses his intelligence. Probably this gives him the capability to rationalize fast or/and maybe act fast as well; good strategies (which doesn't stop them from being somewhat mad and even cruel due to the fact he doesn't care about who dies, as long everything goes as planned).
Even so, most genius seem to have quite the photographic memory and by the looks of it, Mello can vomit facts he read from books and cases, he can assimilate information just as good and retain said information in his brain for a long time. This said, it's necessary to remember Mello read a lot when he was a child and had detective training back in Wammy's House; he most likely had contact with information about drugs, anatomy, desieses, guns, and other related topics.
Perhaps even his personality can be considered a special ability, but let's admit it, part of his actions are based on mere hints, the ability of acting fast, and the rest is kind of... luck (no, bad Mello, bad! No jumping into explosions to save your ass).
Though he lacks actual body strength, he is seen with a weapon, a 9mm Beretta V92F Jackal gun. He shows no fear when holding his gun, and I believe it makes up for the fact that Mello's abilities don't reach physical strength.
Even if he doesn't have the strength, because most likely Mello knows anatomy, he also knows soft spots on human body that will allow him to overpower someone he fights with (at least for few seconds, enough to escape). Speaking of which, Mello seems quite fast.
Mello is used to be part of the Mafia and criminal organizations; most likely he’d try to become what he was before arriving, if that is even possible. Obviously he’d use all of his reckless behaviour and intelligence; possibly make contacts with popular refugees, try to climb on the social status and try to have some influence around the place.
If a murder case or any case worth his detective skills comes, he will take his time to solve it. But it must be really interesting.
[Weaknesses]
Mello’s greatest weakness is his personality. In the end, that’s why he couldn't beat Kira by himself. He has a very strong inferiority complex that explains his reactions most of the time: the need to prove himself, the fact that he knows that alone he cannot be the best; he takes extreme actions to overcome this, enough to enter the world of Mafia in order to obtain what he wants. Based on just his qualities, Mello knows himself that he cannot become the top, so he uses anyone at his reach to make it happen.
Despise Mello's superior intelligence, he doesn't use his most (and probably only) important ability in depth. Actually, he ruins himself a bit for this, being a very emotional and rash person towards everything and maybe everyone; he acts on his whim a lot without really thinking through on what he should do next, only aiming for the objective and not caring about the path he has to follow or the consequences it might bring. This makes him very unpredictable and actually dangerous not only to others but also himself in a way, that would culminate with his death.
Truthfully, you cannot expect him to plea loyalty to anyone. Mello is pretty much “chaotic neutral”, which means he has this horrible tendency towards destruction. And if forced to work in team that will only make it worse. Mello is not the type to work in a team; he worries about himself. Having an “appendix” as he’ll most likely call it, in his eyes, means it’ll slow him down. In other words: he will be so hard to work with.
[ BACKGROUND ]
[Canon]
Before we start, I suppose a short resume about the series is necessary. Also some definitions that will be needed to understand Mello's background better. Yagami Light, a Japanese student, son of a Police Officer, one day found a Death Note; this notebook had the supernatural ability to kill someone as long you wrote down their name and knew their face. The book has its rules written on it which made it easy to use, and all can be found here for the curious ones.
http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rules_of_Death_Note
The notebook didn’t just have the amazing gift to kill someone simply; the human writing on it could chose the cause of death and could even add details (and actions that the victim would follow) sometime before their death. If the details were not specified, the victim would die of a heart attack within 40 seconds.
Finding this power on his hands, Light decided to create a new world by killing all the criminals and alike through heart attack. But like one rule said (“The human who touches the Death Note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner, a Shinigami, even if the human is not the owner of the note.”), soon the Shinigami Ryuk came to meet the human who took the Death Note (I want to add that Ryuk has his own Death Note. The one Light has is another Ryuk had before and dropped on the Human’s world because he was bored).
Since Light had always the same M.O, soon people recognized these actions and begun to worship “Kira” as they called him, the God of the New World. Even better, a girl named Amane Misa too had a Death Note that she got from a Shinigami named Rem (who also had her own notebook; Misa’s is a second one she had) also joined this cause. It’s important to explain Misa’s role: Misa had “Shinigami Eyes” (“The human who becomes the owner of the Death Note can, in exchange of half his/her remaining life, get the eyes of the Shinigami which will enable him/her to see a human’s name and remaining life span when looking through them” and “From this point, a person with the Death Note cannot see the life span of other Death Note owners”).
Shortly:
Light kills criminals with a Notebook, by writing down their names and knowing their faces; he can manipulate their deaths, but by using always the same M.O he soon became recognized by others as “Kira”. He also met Misa, who had another Death Note and had the shinigami eyes.
Total of Death Notes: 4 - Ryuk’s, Rem’s, Light’s, and Misa’s.
Notebooks being used: 2 - Ligth’s and Misa’s.
Notebooks belonging to shinigamis: 2 - Ryuk’s and Rem’s.
But Kira’s existence didn’t only get positive reactions. The Japanese Police was fighting him - Light’s own father, Souichiro Yagami. And to make things even more interesting a special person arrived: L. L was an important, world-wide known detective, said to be the best of the best; he took interest in Kira’s case and managed to pin Light, as well as Misa. Because this part does not relate to Mello, I will not explain it, however, by the end of Light vs L arc, L died, Rem died and Light was working with his father’s team to catch Kira (oh the sneaky bastard) so he could pretend to always be innocent, and still, at the same time, stopping others from capturing him. Also, Light had lost his first book, that the Japanese Police captured, however when Rem died, she left behind her notebook which Light took.
Shortly:
Light lost his book, and later on L and Japanese Police team managed to get it. However, to save Misa, Rem killed L and so she died (“If the God of Death decides to use the Death Note to kill the assassin of an individual he favors, the individuals life will be extended, but the God of death will die”). Light (who planned all of this) took Rem’s book that was left behind after the shinigami’s death, having now a new book.
Total of Death Notes: 4 - Ryuk’s, Light’s, Misa’s, Rem’s.
Notebooks being used: 2 - Misa’s and Rem’s (this one became Light’s as well).
Notebooks currently belonging to shinigamis: 1 - Ryuk’s.
Notebooks kept safe so no one will touch them: Light’s (this one is at the hands of the Japanese Police).
After this, Light became the new L. He contacted with American President, letting him know most things the Japanese group did, and at the same time, he and Misa kept busy cleaning the world from bad guys. This would have gone well, if it weren’t for two new characters showing up.
FINALLY. Mello and Near arc begins.
Let’s start with information we have on Mello’s past.
By the real name of Mihael Keehl, alias Mello, birth place is unknown, he was born in December 13, 1989 (this changes in the anime, though I prefer to follow the manga data). Growing up on Wammy's House, an orphanage located in Winchester, England, Mello was the second best, he rivalled for the first place against Near; both were meant to be L's successor and were the House’s fourth generation (A and B are respectively referred to as being from the "first generation"" of L, while Mello and Near are described as being from the fourth generation. Three other Wammy's students (X, Y and Z) are briefly alluded to as being the last students of the first generation, though no further information on them is given.)
Wammy's House is one of many orphanages established by Quillsh Wammy (aka Watari). Founded after World War II, Wammy's House began as a training facility for children with exceptional intelligence and skills, and its main focus is L: a detective title that the orphans of Wammy's are all working to inherit. None of the children refer to (or know) each other by their real names, instead using aliases, hence why Mello never used his true name.
Of course there would naturally be children better than others, children better suited for the title, thus creating a sort of climb toward the top where those lacking necessary attributes would be left behind. At the very front was Near, closely followed by Mello. The eternal rivalry (probably one-sided) between these two started here; Mello, being bested by Near in a number of things - mostly tests and exams - would come to resent the younger boy. As said below, Mello’s personality did not accept defeat.
From the novel, we know that Mello had come to meet L face to face; while it's told us no Wammy child ever saw L's actual face (not even Near), Mello mentioned he - probably the only one - did meet the man whose path he was following. Through this way he heard about L's case on Beyond Birthday and several others (if other novels come out, we will know how many), including also few details about the first child, A, who killed himself. Mello also showed sympathy for BB, the second successor who could never surpass L, probably due to their similar personalities on trying to be the best.
It’s not specified, but we are free to assume Mello did meet BB, or at least had some contact with him so he’d be able to write the said notes (the novel) that explained so much detail on the Shinigami eyes and that L himself never knew about, (it was a secret Beyond Birthday was willing to bring to his grave). Assuming that Kira killed BB, these meetings with L and this contact with BB had to happen before Kira’s case, when Mello was still relatively young.
After L's death, Roger - Wammy's successor for the Orphanage - decided that both of the two successors in line should work together in order to capture Kira and continue L's work, but the blonde boy without delay refused this, claiming that it'd be impossible for the two of them to work together.
Decided this, Mello left the orphanage at the age of 14, completely alone, claiming that he'll be able to find his own way to defeat Kira and show that he can indeed be the first, even if he is not L's true successor. Eventually he did find his own way, and was able to fly from England to America (Los Angeles), where he was able, four years later, to join The Mafia (a west coast criminal organization that actually is being used by Mello himself, without them even realizing it).
How this happened, nothing is mentioned, but the boss, Rodd, showed great respect and trust towards the blond even if he only was with them for 6 months. It's also mentioned that Mello had taken even mob bosses down that Kira couldn’t touch, so I believe he actually used this in order to rise among Rodd's gang to a position where he couldn’t be touched by anyone.
Meantime, Near - working on another team called the SPK - had contact with the American president and learned everything he needed to know about the current situation (who this new L was, that the Japanese Police had a Death Note and what they have been doing to capture Kira). Mello, on other hand, had a mole over this group (most likely Halle) and this is how he also knew these informations.
Mello's first appearance was made through the kidnap the Japanese's Police director as an exchange for the Death Note; because Light Yagami was working in the Police at the time he had access to this information and killed the man. Noticing how slow things were going, Mello decided to go further: kidnap Sayu Yagami (Light's sister). Having his child taken, Soichiro Yagami (Light’s father and Sub-director of the Japanese Force at the time) would be quicker and more willing to the blonde’s desire on handing the Notebook the Japanese Police had.
With this, Mello easily got his hands on the Death note, but never once he used it, letting others do that job and never he showed any emotion when one died or were threaten during the whole process - Kal Snydar was the current owner, and he was forced to change half of his life span for the Shinigami Eyes.
With the notebook, Mello and the Mafia group were able to even threat the President of United States about killing him and make him send out a nuclear missile to start a World War III, showing us how far he was actually willing to go. In exchange for amnesty for the whole Mafia Group and Mello himself, the young man held back his threat as long the President gave him all information he had on SPK (Near’s group that was also trying to defeat and arrest Kira).
This way, Mello went further to piss Near off and killed most of his team - except Halle, Rester, Gevanni and Near himself.
Remembering few details again, Mello’s notebook was the Japanese Police’s, which used to belong to Light. This notebook was Ryuk’s before, so the shinigami said. However, this was a lie. The notebook belonged to another Shinigami named Sidoh and Ryuk simply found the book lying around, so he took it and gave it to Light.
Having the book allowed Mello to meet him (Sidoh), and have knowledge about it better, giving him an upper hand towards not only Near, but also Light, who was working to take it back from him.
Unfortunately Light also had his own plans and they were good; after being contacted by the President of United States and informed that he was being threatened by the “kidnappers”, he asked Misa (who had Shinigami eyes and could see real names of people and life spans - expect the ones belonging to Death Note owners) to look through photographs of wanted people so she could tell him which one was the owner of the Death Note.
Soon they found Kal Snydar, the current owner, and Light wrote down his name on his own notebook, but before that, he would send Misa Amane the address of the Mafia Group’s hideout and this way Light managed to learn where he should attack. To make sure the Mafia group stood at the current address, Mello also killed the American President, who didn’t give Mello money to move. Better yet, he formed an ingenious plan (I’m not getting into details, this is not a Light Yagami application) and made Kira (himself) send the Japanese Police his Death Note, so they’d use it while capturing Mello.
At November 10th of 2010, at 23:59, Light made a move to actually take Mello by killing Mello's mafia mates, and make the nervous child loose his precious Death Note. Soichiro Yagami traded half of his life span for the Shinigami eyes, and now able to read people’s true name and their life span, he and other policemen entered the hideoput after Mello and the Death Note.
Surrounded by his enemies and Soichiro already knowing his true name, no other way to escape, and with the ideal that being arrested and dying was just about the same thing, Mello blew up the building he was in, in order to escape.
Quick note here: After this, Japanese Police got Mello’s Death Note back, and had to give it to Sidoh, who returned to the Shinigami real. So shortly, this is how we are, yet again:
Total of Death Notes: 3 - Ryuk’s, Misa’s, Rem’s.
Notebooks being used: 1 - Misa’s (the one being used for Killings)
Notebooks currently belonging to shinigamis: 1 - Ryuk’s.
Notebooks kept safe so no one will touch them: 1 - Rem’s (that became Kira’s after her death and is now at the hands of the Japanese Police).
Notebook recently left: 1 - Light’s (went with Sidoh)
Surprisingly, Mello was still alive after the explosion, though with all of this his real name escaped to Kira's ears and that mistake was permanently craved on his body. Mello's scar reaches from the left area of his face towards his forehead, also touching the left side of the neck, collar bone and left shoulder. How many days it passed until finally he came out from his hideout was never mentioned, but Mello quickly made his appearance the second we know about the disband of the SPK, at New York, where now Near's team secretly worked (even if they were dismantled, they still worked underground).
Actually, this emergence is made with the help of Halle Lidner who mentioned that she has been keeping contact with him; through her, Mello walked right into Near's Head-quarters to get back his childhood photo and to share information with his rival about the Death Note and its usage - he considered it a fair trade: information for his photo. Mello started to suspect the current L (Light) due to the police finding out his hideout, the fact that Soichiro Yagami had a notebook/shinigami eyes, as well as the death of the President of United States. This suspicion was also shared by Near, since the two brilliant boys, in a way, were very alike in matters of thought and assumption.
Later on, Mello contacted Mogi, part of the Japanese Police Group and invited him to come to New York to meet him. Mogi did follow all of Mello’s instructions, and so he entered a building: SPK underground headquarters. Of course all of this was done carefully so Mello would never show his face: he contacted Mogi through cellphone and told the man to always stay in line so he’d listen to him and Near talking.
Meeting Near face to face, Mogi ended up getting suspicious of Light himself, and Near and Mello got their confirmation that Kira was part of the Japanese Police. Unfortunately nothing else was gathered, because Light sent a message to Kira “fans” through Sakura TV, warning them that traitors were hiding on the said building - since Mello was using cellphone, he was safe, yet Near had to cut off the connection.
The first time Matt came out from shadow with Mello was when the two followed Mogi and Aizawa who begun to distrust Light, after Mogi’s meeting with N; using Hal’s information about them, as well new gathered information about the investigation Near was going through, the two tagged along to LA.
Knowing where they were staying, Mello set up surveillance around them and the place where the Japanese Task force was at. They meet Misa Amane, but Mello cannot see her as the Second Kira at the time, since Light had asked her to give her Death Note to a man named Mikami (who was quite obsessed over Kira) and stop her ownership (which causes the owner to lose her memories); of course this isn’t known by Mello.
Mikami also got the shinigami eyes, and so, our current position with the Death Notes ownership is:
Total of Death Notes: 3 - Ryuk’s, Mikami’s, Rem’s.
Notebooks being used: 1 - Mikami’s (This one was Misa’s, but Mikami has its ownership).
Notebooks currently belonging to shinigamis: 1 - Ryuk’s.
Notebooks kept safe so no one will touch them: 1 - Rem’s (that became Kira’s after her death and is now at the hands of the Japanese Police).
Meantime in Japan, Mikami killed Sakura TV’s Kira spoke-person along with several others that were tainting Kira’s name with their fake shows; soon, they were replaced by Kiyomi Takada, actually an old friend (and girlfriend) of Light.
Of course this was problematic. Mogi and Aizawa’s suspicions kicked in once again, and realizing that, Light had to move fast. He proposed going back to Japan so he could approach his old friend and gather information. Obviously Misa followed and because Mello was tailing her, he also followed.
Japan would be his last stop.
At this point, Mello seemed to have vanished. It’s assumed Halle kept contacting him and telling the blond man what was going to happen next, however, she never told him about Mikami.
Realizing the connection between Light (Kira), Takada (who worked as Kira's voice) and Mikami (who was the one doing the killings, so he was called Kira X), Near saw himself cornered and decided to give the final blow and expose Light by risking his own life. He was going to meet him, face to face, along with the rest of the Japanese Police and the SPK.
Before that, however, he was already working on his plan: Near got Gevanni to follow Mikami, touch his notebook, take pictures and more. Noticing that there was no Shinigami following it and that Gevanni was still alive, he decided to tamper with Mikami’s book, placing fake pages on it for when they met face to face (Mikami wrote a full page a day, so it was easy for Near to know what pages to temper with).
What he didn't know was that Light predicted this and told Mikami to create a fake copy - that was the book Near tempered with.
There was a problem, Mikami and his Death Note. Mikami had the shinigami eyes, therefore he’d see Near’s true name, along with everyone else’s so all he had to do was to kill them during this meeting. To stop this, Near had to reach for Mikami’s Death Note, if he ever found out about it. How he did? With Mello's sacrifice.
Knowing that Near was going to risk himself like that (Halle told him about it, and Mello really didn't give us much information if he knew more than Near, but all he said was "Then I guess I'm going to have to do it"), he decided to kidnap Kiyomi Takada.
Truthfully, we don't know nor we have seen much of Mello's point of view at the end of the manga. We didn't, and not even the characters left alive, knew what he was thinking and how much he knew, especially about the real identity of Kira X (Mikami).
There are two options: either Mello knew about Mikami and his actions were indeed so he would bring out the real Death Note, or Mello believed Takada was the one doing the killings for Yagami. This last option does make sense, more than Mello's knowledge on Mikami (since Halle never spoke of him, and Mello didn't have enough lackeys to follow Light's moves).
When Near set up his meeting with Light, he immediately put his life on the line; he had no idea where the real Death Note was, and therefore he could not make the switch. If Mello believed Takada WAS Kira-X, it'd mean she'd have to be over that meeting so she could kill the SPK - what is the best way to stop her from going to that meeting? Kidnap her. Since she was not there, she could not kill anyone and Near could not expose Light that time by giving his own life - in a way, Mello was trying to get the upper hand: he'd not only save Near's life, but he'd also not allow him to reach the end of the game just yet.
Kidnapping Takada was a public matter; by my point of view Mello was aiming for the easier route (it's harder to kidnap a VIP when she is at home than when she is out in the public) but also to make Near and Light know what just happened and how he was, yet again, ruining their little private plans. Mello doesn't like to be left out, and in those last episodes he was forgotten a lot by Light; it's part of him to randomly show up when no one is expecting it. By making it public, however, Mikami also got the information about Takada's situation.
This is a real "50/50" situation, because it can either be one option or the other since the two make sense.
Kidnapping the woman caused Teru Mikami to expose his own Death Note to kill Takada before she did anything stupid, not realizing that Light already killed her (to destroy all the evidence by setting herself and the truck on fire, including Mello’s body) using a different piece of Death Note paper he had with him. This alerted Near's agents to the location of where Mikami had hidden the real Death Note in his possession, directly leading to Near's final defeat of Kira.
During this, Takada too wrote on a piece of Death Note Light had given her before. The name was “Mihael Keehl”, Mello’s true name that once Soichiro Yagami saw.
Mello died on 26th January of 2010, being barely 21, of an heart attack, after kidnapping Takada, which brought her to write his name on a piece of Death Note she had with her. Mello died in a church near Nagano, and his body was burnt.
[Non-cannon]
Mihael was born in England and until he was 3 he lived with a man whose name he can’t remember. That man was the first who taught Mihael what a gun was and it became the boy’s toy. Soon he was caught and Mihael was sent to the orphanage’s, foster home’s and social service’s network; for a year, Mihael jumped from place to place due to his difficult personality and advanced intelligence.
After that year, Roger found the blond on an orphanage, setting a trap to another boy whom he had been bullying lately. After talking to Mihael for a while, soon Roger decided to take the child to the Wammy’s House.
At the age of 4, Mello was born in Winchester.
Mello has met L face to face, who told the blond several stories about the Wammy’s children and his own cases. The same man taught the nervous child the sweetness what sugar was, though he always would rather have that dark bitter chocolate of his than the sweet sugar of cream.
I would rather not get into details on how Mello was able to enter the mafia because thruthfully, I have no knwoledge on mafia actions unless they are from television, but I’ll give out what I’ve come up with during logs. Before leaving the House, Mello stole from his teacher Irinda money, and left with a bag filled with clothes and chocolate. He did mention more than one that he ate the chocolate in one week, staying for the next months without tasting it.
Mello at first walked around the prostitute’s alley, taking care of the woman’s children while they were out working. That way, he had been able to get to know the streets and gangs, soon finding the one that would fit his purpose, and had ties with American mafia groups. I cna't give you a realistic explanation on what happened, but that way he was able to fly to America in 2009 to meet a boss (again, HOW, this is still up to speculation and discussion) and finally kill him, giving the head to other Mafia Boss who had the geographical area and the resources he needed, Rodd.
[MallowMateys]
The game was called MallowMateys; it’s a game inspired on One Piece world, where characters showed up on Grand Line.
Mello was there for more than a year (he got on Grand Line on 1st November 2008), 20 months. He got to know all currently alive One Piece characters, I believe.
While I hate few things about the way I played him before (mostly emotions related), I do think it’s necessary to do this in order for people to know how much Mello grew.
He came alone, with no money, no bullets in his gun, and the memory that he was dying of a heart attack. To shorten the story, he had to give in to many things he didn’t want to, in order to survive the first months on a new complete and strange world that he imagined it only existed in dreams and fairy tale books.
Truthfully, he didn’t believe the place was real at first, but after a while they do have to give in, and Mello isn’t one to be in denial forever.
Even still, his characteristic personality didn’t leave. Accepted in a crew that rotated captains - Sweet Death Crew, SDC - when it was Mello’s turn to lead, he basically used the crew to see what they could do; he already had information from before (things the other captains did or analysing the captains themselves, and even the daily life of the crew), but he wanted to make sure how much he could control them as well. And for that, he stole an important item from a museum.
This got Mello a bounty, a big one. And a ridiculous alias like “All that shines Mello”.
Since Grand Line works basically on who is the strongest, and because Mello apparently couldn’t use mere words to move mountains - he was no longer alone since Matt arrived, but he couldn’t do much with just one ally - he couldn’t just pack his things and start a crew; therefore the blond remained for undetermined time with SDC. Not even with his mafia connections that at the time, that Reborn (from the anime Reborn, yeah) also had, helped to change the situation.
They changed when Belphegor - an assassin from a Mafia group (also from Reborn anime) - came. After Bel, Xanxus (his boss) came and HE was what Mello needed. With his own boat, crazy strength, and loyal crew, it didn’t take much for Mello to use Bel in order to get into the crew, along with Matt: The Seven Sins crew.
Mello was actually able to play Xanxus around; he brought to his boat people who obeyed the blond and that somehow would be useful. The first ones were Renge, rich and with a lot of contacts between all of the crews, and Akito/Agito, in love with Mello at the time and who was an excellent fighter. Then he actually lured Sloth, Gluttony and Lust, homunculi and very powerful.
Obviously in game people come and go; and Xanxus and the Varia left and Mello took over the Seven Sins and their boat, Ambrosia III. The fact that Mello doesn’t have any inhuman strength and the fact that he is just a human, not even a very strong one, the now captain had to balance everything so no one would go and kill him. Such as giving most things the Sins wanted, allowed few crew members to do their own plots among others.
Soon other people such as Envy (yes, Envy. Crazy thing), Yuki, Elphaba, Seishirou came to the crew. It looked like a volatile crew, truthfully, but they worked really good together no matter how crazy the whole thing sounded.
Mello didn’t do much aside going against the law (the rest of the crew, however, did whatever they wanted, specially Envy who went around killing people for the kicks) and that was enough for him to get an even bigger bounty. True, he did kill few people along the way, tortured even, but those were not innocent victims he picked up randomly. Every single person he killed is mafia, pirates or marines who came for him; in other words, it was either in self defence, or just because he had to get rid of some idiots on his way, but never innocent wives and hard working priests. Mello showed no regrets for it, but he’d say “I never meant to kill them at first, only if they haven’t gotten in my way”. He showed himself as he is; no regrets and no care, no restrains and no pity, and perhaps this is what made Mello so hated among the other crews. After all, he came out and calls himself bad without any remorse. He also never defended himself when someone calls him bad, and he’d agree with it.
It’s much easier to agree than to give your true face to others. Narcissism, superiority he doesn’t have, anger and evil, those contribute to the fact that many in Grand Line feared him, hated him, disliked him and just didn’t wish to approach. People found it easier to look at the way things appear to be and hate him for it.
Among the bad things his crew did, Mello sold weapons and information (even to those who hated him, ironically enough). Though information he did give it for free only to own someone, as said on the personality part. Still, sometimes he did help the marines to catch several criminals who were bothering him. He did that anonymously and sent the information directly to higher ups, not only to show he had access to them and their business, but also because they were probably the most competent ones.
Basically this whole resume of two years shows how Mello learned to give in to other’s desires. Well, mostly because he wanted their powers, so he really had to. He is still narcissistic, cocky and selfish but if he has to, he’ll pretty much allow someone to do something that annoys him, if that will keep that person on his side.
Finally, yeah, Mello had some sort of lover. He doesn’t even know how to call him. It’s Agito from Air Gear who has double personality (and no, whatever he has with Agito doesn’t happen with the other personalities in the body). If you are curious or anything, you can read about it here.
[ PERSONALITY ]
[Canon]
Mello's personality is rather complicated, because during the anime/manga we mostly only saw the craziest, the meanest and the angriest side of him, and only at the last end we got some humanity coming from him. For this, I consider he may not be a sweet character most of the time, but he isn't ultimately cold and evil.
As for hobbies, he is known to love chocolate (especially when he is plotting), and has a really cool motorbike. Mello is also seen wearing black clothes and a crucifix (Catholic; probably Anglican since he lived in England), and he was the second best at Wammy's House - an orphanage for gifted children. As a child he seems to be a bully, and even since then he has shown traits of this in his adult angry and despiteful character. Also, it's easy to now admit that towards others, the blonde is arrogant and above all, he acts with a superiority that he doesn't have. In fact, he has a very strong inferiority complex that is the explanation to his reactions most of the time: the need to prove himself, the fact that he knows that alone he cannot be the best; he takes extreme actions to overcome this, enough to enter the world of Mafia in order to obtain what he wants. Based on just his qualities, Mello knows himself that he cannot become the top, so he uses anyone at his reach to make it happen.
Despise Mello's superior intelligence, it doesn't make him the most intelligent person (at least not towards Near, L or even Raito, for example.), but the fact is, he doesn't use his most (and probably only) important ability in depth. Actually, he ruins himself a bit for this, being a very emotional and rash person towards everything and maybe everyone; he acts on his whim a lot without really thinking through on what he should do next, only aiming for the objective and not caring about the path he has to follow or the consequences it might bring. This makes him very unpredictable and actually dangerous not only to others but also himself in a way, that would culminate with his death.
But let's not fall only into critic, because in a way, this can be good. The fact is, since he doesn't choose nor think his tactics over, his strategy is based on quick though and fast action, which actually works well for him most of the time; as I said, he has luck. He doesn't have the need to stop and analyse, he actually only takes a small glance and reacts in response to that. No kindness in his speech, no backing down, Mello not only isn't reserved towards his actions, but also towards everything else, speaking out his mind whenever he can - still, when he has a moment to rest, he might actually take precautions to his behaviour. With this unstable personality and quick judgment, Mello also makes various connections (aka, the Mafia) and friends along the way, which really help him in his goals (aka, Lidner and Matt).
Possessing an explosive, spontaneous, and even hot-blooded personality, being unpredictable and rash, Mello isn't as easy to read as it’d look like to someone observing. He has a lot of insecurities and doubts, but still his mind doesn’t allow him to stop and think about them; he has the aggravating tendency to turn everything all on its head, and this provides him a mask painted with self-confidence and narcissism, characteristic only to him.
He refuses to be looked down, accepting any challenge and planning on wining always, it seems Mello loves the capture almost as much as the chase, giving him a sort of sadistic pleasure in every move he makes. Since he doesn’t take any defeat easily, he is indeed a sore loser, expecting only the best from him and his actions. If that doesn’t happen, he deserves what goes wrong, like the scar he got from the explosion and that never seemed to bother him at all; yet, if we think about it, the scar is proof that Mello lost, and probably IS a thorn in that pride of his (he hides the scar with his hair most of the time. Or tries to).
Mello jumps from a plan to another as quick as his minds sets; he is almost impossible to follow but still, it’s not viable for him to take all the weight all his choices bring. Wanting to rule the world by taking it with his anger and unpredictable authority and not settling for anything less than that, it becomes difficult to be able to handle everything as he tries to. Still, he’ll keep on taking that risk because he is willing to do what no one else will.
Proud and narcissist, he doesn't look like he needs help, even if that brings him problems later on - which did and made him reach for Matt's and Lidner's help. If he actually came to them, if he waited for their contact, it's not known, but towards these two Mello has shown a far more intimate comprehension (and patience) than the rest of the Mafia members, for example, which leads us to believe the blonde though of them to be more than mere pawns. He is shown not be caring for the others, to an extent of wanting to eliminate anyone in his path, but later on we see that the boy has actual human feelings when Matt dies.
In the novel he considers himself a challenger and not as a criminal, like he described B.B. Even if Mello’s actions during the anime would bring him quite the criminal record, those same actions were nothing but a recurrence of Kira’s actions. For the fact that he considered B.B. a criminal for killing several innocent people only to step over L, yet not himself, we can assume Mello saw his actions as a necessity, just like L saw his actions towards Misa’s freedom during the anime.
Mello’s strength is his ability to think beyond the restraints of the law with his concepts and his actions. Especially moral laws that L once defended; he doesn’t consider himself someone bad, he considers himself as someone who managed to reach somewhere near L’s place by using other methods: a challenger.
Even though it is said that he falls behind in some aspects, as one who possesses great intelligence, Mello’s actions can bet threatening to anyone. Not only mind, though; he is seen with a weapon, never actually using it, but showing comfortableness when holding it. It’s easy to admit that experiences throughout his life have given Mello the capability of handling weapons like guns and explosives. Unfortunately, Mello's abilities don't reach physical strength; he is thin, and he actually looks frail, even if he can take huge amounts of pain (burnt skin isn’t as fun as we think).
Between all this, there is also to remember that he can actual calm down. No matter how rash, crazy, emotional he shows, actually after the explosion that ate half of his face, Mello stood in the shadows, listening quiet to what was going on, even if he still acted. This brought him to then finally allow us to see more kindness on his side, by allowing his ultimate rival - Near - his help, and giving his own life so the other could win the fight against Kira. Maybe others can say it wasn't care, but Mello never really fought in name of justice, and right then he gave his glory to Near for no actual reason given - either to avenge L, either to help Near, either because he was tired, either to stop it all, if it wasn't for the blonde, never would have Near won.
I'd like to point a special note about the fact that when Near gave him his childhood photo, written on its back was "Dear Mello", and that shown us it's not only hatred that connected both. While no one points a gun and almost shoots to someone they care deeply, no one would also kill themselves to save the life of that same person. Their feelings were so strong that mixed hate, love, friendship and disgust. Truthfully, Wammy's children never seem able to know how to react towards emotions: L considered Light - the person who wanted to kill him - his best friend; Near showed no emotions at all, and Mello showed just too many. Feelings of care are perhaps something they can't deal well with, so the heirs - Mello and Near, not L - actually seem to avoid it (Mello did spend sometime with the mafia and felt no regret or pity when he saw them dying; even towards Halle, Mello pointed a gun at her and threatened her, even if she was probably one of his only two allies).
To add, the only person he actually praised and showed obvious care about was L, during the novel, so much he even adds “this is the single most valuable memory I have”. Probably adoration, probably love, Mello admits L as better and for someone like him, that means a lot. His emotional reaction towards L’s death was probably suppressed by the need to be better and to be his heir, but he reacted enough to almost jump on Roger and remind him how L had promised he’d catch Kira and return. That was probably his childish side showing for one last time until he realized that he had to grow that moment, and perhaps he did force that to happen.
Better yet, Mello admits how chasing L was like chasing a mirage; no one ever knew what was going on L’s head, and Mello, even if he met his mentor few times, also knew how difficult it’d be to ever be close to him in matters of mind, perception, position, power, strength, justice, and everything else. He did not want to surpass L, he knew he couldn’t surpass him; Mello just wanted to be someone who’d be worth mentioning when someone brought L’s name, he just wanted to be his successor, his backup.
From the novel as well, Mello mentions his respect towards B.B. since their positions were perhaps similar in some sort of way. The blond even says how he can understand why someone would become a criminal in order to fight against a detective like L, which is why he wrote those notes like that, with so much respect towards B.B. Mello explains to us B.B.’s situations with certain value. He explains how he was affected, his actions, and Mello explains with no signs of anger or being against his actions, everything the criminal did. Indeed, Mello sees himself on Beyond Birthday to certain extend.
Personally I keep Mello as lucid as possible without cursing around for any reason at all; he does curse, a lot, but only due to right timing. Mello has a sharp tongue, he’d rather use that than of going around cursing at people; I took him like this because during the anime and during the novel, Mello not only doesn’t curse, but if he wants to offend someone he prefers to use a sharp comment about the situation. I believe he does curse, a lot, but he will make you feel wrong about your opinions your actions first, especially if he sees them as an easily avoided mistake. Mello isn’t forgiving on other people’s mistakes, he tends to point them out, like the narcissistic genius he is. This trait can be seen through the novel, as he gives his opinions about certain moments, especially about Misora who was the only who was not a genius.
Inspired on the book, I managed to grasp few other details about Mello’s personality. While it’s not a source written by the original author, it IS considered canon, so I took it in account.
While Mello keeps his snarky comments on Misora’s actions, he showed some respect towards her personal life. Not only he didn’t care, but he also added it was respect for her being the one to be manipulated and played by B.B, and therefore he was reluctant to do so. He can be respectful, more than he shows. Mello doesn’t mention something private it unless it’s extremely necessary; it is perhaps true that maybe he simply does not give a damn about what you’ve done, but we can’t leave aside that even if he knows the details, he will most likely keep them to himself, even if asked.
[Headcanon]
Mello refuses to stain his body with drugs, especially the psychoactive kind (that cause strong addiction). He rarely drinks alcohol since he has no wish to make his body addicted to something that would cloud his mind. He prefers to avoid smoking because not only is too addicting, but Matt already does it for both of them and also because it’s unhealthy - he already has his mouth busy with chocolate, so why to busy it with something else? This also makes him little receptive to any kind of drugs that would interfere with his mind, his conscious state, even if those might take some of his pain away (sedatives do alter your perception). However, he'll take if necessary; you cannot work well if you have a killer headache or a stomachache.
He doesn’t sleep or eat much, though he keeps in his mind that his body’s health IS important. Mello knows how to take care of himself, and knows his limits, but he lives close to those limits; if a human body only needs 6 hours of sleep, that’s as much he will sleep.
The blond has little concern for feelings and even less love and romance. Actually, he has no concern at all for those last two. He doesn’t need nor rely on sex at any time, however, he sees it as a natural thing. Mello does like to feel good, and since he refuses few things that would give him pleasure, sex may be one of those he may allow.
Mello will not give in to care. He is very complicated in his own emotional relations, and he’d rather not have them. His best way not to, is basically to know little about the people in question. He says he’d rather be hated than loved, this because it’s so much easier to deal with hate. That’s why Mello probably also shows himself as someone cold and evil and likes his bad image very much.
Mello has expensive taste, even if he is completely fine with replacing his things or losing them. He’d sleep on the streets if necessary, but he’d never refuse a luxurious hotel room. His chocolates are the most expensive brand, and his clothes only add to his exquisite flavour. While not particularly vain about his appearance, he enjoys the image in reflected on the mirror. However, the scar does remind him of his mistakes, and he tends to hide it under his blond hair.
While Mello doesn’t seem to be the religious type, he is seen holding crucifixes around his neck (on the manga; such was changed on the anime); actually, the whole Death Note environment seems to give us a religious sensations through the scenes, especially from L and Mello most of the time.
I consider Mello does believe there is a difference from right and wrong, and that, in the end, everyone will have to face the consequences of their actions. He, himself, will not be free from this.
God tells you what you should do; it is your decision to follow it your not. It doesn’t influence Mello’s belief that God exists, it influences how he sees the end. Mello accepts his actions; he KNOWS his actions and is ready to accept them… when his times come. Meantime, keep ridding. Even if that means to ignore the Lord's words.
The concept of evil does not bother him. It's not something he sees as black and white, after all, those concepts were made by humans. He understands his actions and he knows that the basis are "you hurt others, you are doing a bad thing", but in his mind he works around not to mind it; because humans are humans, and humans hurt others. If you let yourself be hurt, then you are weak.
Only God has the right to judge, and he will judge Mello, and he is not afraid of it.
Mello hates it when people act superior to him, though, but he tries not to bother himself with those. He believes and sees himself better than them, so anyone who ever tried to make it sound they were even close to Mello’s feet, a brat trying to outsmart him, those game words like “So what I heard is true”, Mello will pass right through them with his narcissistic personality (Near is the ONLY exception to this; actually, Near is the one exception for most of his personality).
Mello is sadistic, mean, and likes to teasingly bother some, but he keeps conversations with anyone who seem to have enough brain cells to also do so. Calling him names is enough for him to get ticked off by you and act superior to you, unless you start to show some respect.
He likes to have everyone in his hand; asking him favours, begging - he loves that - and if he says “you owe me one”, he will never forget it. Even if Mello never makes use of it, just the thought that he owns someone that way is good.
THESE ARE HEADCANON. All of them. We have no information on manga, novel, anime, "How to read" volumes about this. We need to remember we only saw Mello when he is working; we didn't see his side when he is simply talking to other people to keep a natural conversation, much less when he arrived to a new world.