light committed his first murder at 17 & felt immense guilt for it. his kills are only done via death note & have a degree of separation between him + the victim. mello committed his first murder at 17 in a way that was presumably very violent for the purpose of joining the mafia
i wonder if L even intended to pick a successor. he knew that death was a very real possibility with the kira case, and he had a backup plan in the event of his + watari’s deaths, but his plan didn’t include a choice between near and mello
