| It’s difficult to argue Quillsh Wammy isn’t morally questionable. We know he is willing to assist with the imprisonment and torture of people that he, at that point of the story, has no evidence of being guilt (which still wouldn’t excuse things like torture but could explain his willingness to comply). He has L’s word for their guilt and one could say he trusts L to be right. Even if that’s the case, Watari arranged for the death of a criminal to be on television so L could conduct a test. Just through examples from the Kira case, one cannot say Watari only does what is right and good in the eyes of common sense morality. Knowing Mr. Wammy established several orphanages, it’s easy to think, like Matsuda says, and say Watari was a great man. Someone who is a brilliant inventor and who uses their wealth to house orphans around the globe doesn’t sound like a bad person. |  Death Note TV drama photogaph courtesty of NTV |
But what do we know about those orphanages?
If they were like Wammy’s House, they were spacious, barely furnished places. One could argue the children there required rooms with little to no furniture as they would use the space to play like Near does by building card towers. It’s interesting to notice, then, that the rooms don’t have chairs or even cushions for the children to sit in when they are expected to do so (take for example Mello and Near speaking with Roger and the children speaking with L).
The adults responsible for the care of the children seem to care very little for them and Roger allows a fourteen-year-old to leave his care.
The children collected and taken to his orphanages are gifted and they are trained to become the next L. Those children are raised in a competitive environment for no reason other than Mr. Wammy decided they should.
If they were like Wammy’s House, they were spacious, barely furnished places. One could argue the children there required rooms with little to no furniture as they would use the space to play like Near does by building card towers. It’s interesting to notice, then, that the rooms don’t have chairs or even cushions for the children to sit in when they are expected to do so (take for example Mello and Near speaking with Roger and the children speaking with L).
The adults responsible for the care of the children seem to care very little for them and Roger allows a fourteen-year-old to leave his care.
The children collected and taken to his orphanages are gifted and they are trained to become the next L. Those children are raised in a competitive environment for no reason other than Mr. Wammy decided they should.
 Wammy dons his white gloves to leave no mark | Given how Watari acts in the Kira case, we know he has no issues with doing questionable things in order to accomplish a task. In this case, could Watari be stealing geniuses for his project? The children at his institutions are supposed to be orphans but it’s clear he isn’t doing this out of kindness in an attempt to provide them a loving home. If they are orphans, not only they have nowhere to go, no one to reach out to, and are forced to stay, but they have no ties holding them back. The children are taught to look for what entertains them, but they are also given a fake choice as they grow up. They are raised to compete with each other in order to become L’s successor and, for that to happen, they have to learn to want to become L’s successors. |
It doesn’t matter they may choose not to become L as long as they want to have the skills required to still be an option. The objective of the orphanages is not to house orphans but to house gifted children who have the potential to be L’s successors.
The autonomy of those children is denied from a very young age in such a way they grow to believe the way they are guided by beliefs they were manipulated into having are actually an expression of their own independent self.
The system in place to control and raise the gifted children at Wammy’s House does not care for the children’s needs and desires. In fact, it makes it so the children are led to believe their needs and desires are the ones the institution expect them to have, aka to become L’s successor.
If someone looks closely at Watari’s work, he doesn’t seem to be such a great man.
Article by Lua Cruz
The autonomy of those children is denied from a very young age in such a way they grow to believe the way they are guided by beliefs they were manipulated into having are actually an expression of their own independent self.
The system in place to control and raise the gifted children at Wammy’s House does not care for the children’s needs and desires. In fact, it makes it so the children are led to believe their needs and desires are the ones the institution expect them to have, aka to become L’s successor.
If someone looks closely at Watari’s work, he doesn’t seem to be such a great man.
Article by Lua Cruz
