On Misa....

Spent the day with my mother and sister today. All in all, it was a nice time. Saw a movie, hung out, got really good news from lennaofmidearth.... Things are really looking up for her and her family, and she really appreciates the well wishes and congratulations!

I got to talking about Death Note, and the problems I have with how female characters are portrayed both in the series and by fans.

I realized something about Misa, and the trend of labeling Misa as 'dumb'. I don't consider Misa dumb at all. She's no genius, but she's not a stupid woman. But when you take Misa in context... she's surrounded by super-geniuses. Of course she's not as mentally capable as the rest of the cast! Yes, in comparison, it's very easy to consider Misa not that bright. But if she were taken away from a gaggle of the absolute most brilliant people, I doubt she'd seem as 'dumb' as she does.

I think that with Death Note, it's easy to forget that Light, L, Near, Mello hell, even Naomi and other minor characters - are all genius-to-above-average-intelligence types. They're brilliant, they've been highly trained, they've had specialist educations... Misa's a model. She hasn't had any special training. She hasn't been educated to use her mind in a certain way. But she's still an intelligent young woman - yes, she makes mistakes, and moreso than anyone else, but again... almost everyone else is a freaking genius.

It just kind of sucks that Misa's own intelligence so often gets overlooked. And it's perfectly understandable that it does - in comparison, Misa is on the lower end of the Death Note Intelligence Scale.

But it's one hell of a high scale.