Meaning of 身, 末 and 仮に

Question

Context: From a blog about Death Note, the author is talking about Light not wanting to trade his eyes for half his lifespan. Then he says something like Light is the only death note holder to not want to do the trade/deal, then comes this sentence:

原作を知っている身としては先の先まで見据えた末での選択か、それとも単に保身に走っただけなのかはっきりとは判別できません。

Which I interpreted as:

As someone who knows (has read) the original work (original manga) I'm not sure if would make the choice (to accept the deal for the shinagami's eyes) after gazing at the end of the future; or I would simply just run in self protection.

But I'm not sure if 身 refers to the author or other person and I don't know if my interpretation of 末での選択 is correct (selection/choice at the end of..)

Then I have this part:

いやリューク、アンタ仮にじゃなくて正真正銘混じりっけ無し純度 100％の死神だろ。きっと他の死神から常々死神らしくないと言わ れ続けてきたものだから、リュークも自分が何者なのか自身が持て なくなってきているのでしょう。まさしくアイデンティティー・クライシ ス！　デスノート第三部はリュークの自分探しの旅です。いつものこ とですが嘘です。

This is a comment I found of what Ryuk says when Light complains to him about not telling him important stuff earlier.

What Ryuk said was:

仮にも死神である俺を恐れることもなく、媚びることもなく、こういうこ とに関してはガンガン突っ込んでくる

It seems like the author of the blog is making fun of Ryuk referring to himself as a shinigami but I can't really get the meaning of what he's saying. This line in particular:

いやリューク、アンタ仮にじゃなくて正真正銘混じりっけ無し純度100％の死神だろ

I think this line means: well/no Ryuk, not hypothetically, you seem like a 100% of purity Non-mixed genuine shinigami.

But why does he use 仮にじゃなくて? is it related to that part where Ryuk says 仮にもも死神である俺を恐れることもなく?

Answer 1

身 refers to the author of the blog article. 先の先まで見据えた末での選択 and 単に保身に走っただけ refer to Light's choice of not buying the "eyes". Your understanding of 末 is fine.

原作を知っている身としては先の先まで見据えた末での選択か、それとも単に保身に走っただけなのかはっきりとは判別できません。
As someone who knows the original manga, I cannot tell if this (=Light's choice) is a serious far-sighted decision or a result of mere self-protection.

(The blog author is saying he does not know whether Light's decision was due to his smartness or his selfishness. At this point of the story, Light is mainly characterized by his extreme smartness, but later he will look more like a selfish and coward person who kills innocent people around him.)

仮にも is a tricky set phrase, but it roughly means "despite being imperfect", "like it or not", etc. It's used to emphasize a cold fact, and it has nothing to do with hypothesis.

仮にも

２ 十分でないにせよ、一応ある事実があることを表す。曲がりなりにも。かりそめにも。「仮にも宣言したのであるならば実行すべきである」

仮にも死神である俺を恐れることもなく...
(Although I may not be perfect as a Shinigami) I am a Shinigami, but he is not afraid of me...

Even the most prideful person can safely use 仮にも when he wants to emphasize some cold fact, so there is nothing funny with Ryuk's statement. But this author somehow wanted to make fun of this phrase. He definitely knows the difference between 仮に and 仮にも, but he intentionally mixed them up.