Some people have stated that some of L and Near's personality and actions suggest they have varying degrees of autism/Asperger's. I don't know enough about ASD to judge, but I wonder if others have any thoughts about this?
Personally, I don't think L has any sort of autism. The first time I read the manga, it seemed like the obvious interpretation, but now I think L is just so full of intelligence and bullshit that he deliberately acts weird and, on occasion, naive, just for fun. Not to mention that L is so incredible at emotional profiling, whereas someone with autism has a natural disadvantage to distinguishing that sort of thing especially on such a high level, and L is also very expressive when he chooses to be. He's certainly not normal, per se, but if he has any psychological disability, I don't know what it is but I'm pretty confident it's not autism/Asperger's.
Near is a bit trickier. He does seem a lot less emotional to me in comparison to L, and in general seems cold to me (though he also has parts where he displays more emotion, and several lines that are up for interpretation). He doesn't express much so in that sense it's difficult to say what he may have or not. It's certainly possible that he has mild autism, as that wouldn't impact his abilities much (he also is incredible at reading emotion, in theory), but I really can't say if I've made an opinion there. I suppose it could go either way.
A better question, I suppose, is that if any of the Wammy's children did have a psychological disability, would they actually be treated for it? Considering how batshit they all are, I have my doubts that Wammy was too concerned with their psychological welfare. :P haha
I couldn't agree with you more as far as L is concerned. I'm not sure about Near either. I've always seen Near and Mello as the two extreme sides of L's personality (which is what I think the writer intended), so I've never given it much thought.
I agree about the extremes thing. Mello is the side of L that kicked Light in the head ("You booted me in the head!"), and Near is the side that sat around stacking sugar cubes.
Near is a bit trickier. He does seem a lot less emotional to me in comparison to L, and in general seems cold to me (though he also has parts where he displays more emotion, and several lines that are up for interpretation). He doesn't express much so in that sense it's difficult to say what he may have or not. It's certainly possible that he has mild autism, as that wouldn't impact his abilities much (he also is incredible at reading emotion, in theory), but I really can't say if I've made an opinion there. I suppose it could go either way.
A better question, I suppose, is that if any of the Wammy's children did have a psychological disability, would they actually be treated for it? Considering how batshit they all are, I have my doubts that Wammy was too concerned with their psychological welfare. :P haha
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I don't have anything else to say, really. But I'll be linking to your comment every time someone brings this up again.
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