Death Note

Seeing Light begging and pleading with himself wasn't cathartic. It was sad, and entertaining, but Alas, Poor Villain was in full effect. Particularly when he hallucinates seeing his teenage self walking by, reading a book - come on.

This didn't strike a chord with you?

Since we want to chalk up "list of ways Light could have won", I always question why he decided to "lunge" toward that sliver of the notebook, when he could've, I don't know, folded his hands behind his back and tried to scribble at least a few names, or used the time he gave for his speech, with his back facing them, leaning against the wall.

edited 21st Mar '15 4:06:05 PM by Soble

it would strike more of a chord with me if light was a sympathetic character at all prior to the moment in question. he spends the vast majority of the story as a deranged, petulant mass murderer. he's not exactly a person who inspires sympathy.

edited 21st Mar '15 5:22:18 PM by wehrmacht

It made me laugh uproariously. Watching one of the most stuck-up Smug Snakes in the history of anime scream and beg when things finally turned against him? Immensely satisfying.

Watching Matsuda fire every bullet he has into Light is the most satisfying of all.

edited 21st Mar '15 11:40:31 PM by TheAirman

I prefer when Ryuk writes his name on the Death Note.

I like both. I like Ryuk writing his name in the Death Note when Light pleads with him for help, fulfilling the promise he made at the beginning and re-establishing a point that Light had long since forgotten, that Ryuk is not his ally, not his friend, not a minion in his corner urging him to succeed - he is a guillotine blade that will strike the moment he becomes convinced Light will no longer be entertaining to watch. At the end of the day, all of Light's ambitions, all his goals and intents, it's all been a show for Ryuk's enjoyment and was never going to be anything more.

And I like Matsuda shooting Light because throughout the series, he's been the soft guy and the one most supportive of Kira among the task force. Like, if anyone was going to come around to Light's way of thinking, it was going to be Matsuda. In this moment, Matsuda not only demonstrates that he is Not So Harmless, but we can actually feel his mild hero-worship of Kira shatter into a million pieces when the truth of his Surrogate Father Soichiro's life and death these last few years hits him like a ton of bricks. Matsuda never embraced Kira, but what sympathy he had for Kira and what sympathy he had for Light annihilated each other when they collided.

In addition to those two, I feel that Mikami's fate is better in the manga as well. In the anime, he kills himself to protect his messiah. In the manga, Mikami - like Matsuda - loses all of his faith in Light. For Matsuda, the fracture was caused by the revelation that L was right all along. For Mikami, it's Light's desperate display when he's caught, his inability to Face Death with Dignity, that leads Mikami to reject Light as God to his face.

Once again, this feels like the anime is more sympathetic to Light in the end by portraying Mikami as never losing faith and giving his life to protect his idol. By connection, the anime version also disallows the "Near wrote Mikami into the Death Note" theory because Near wouldn't have written Mikami suddenly distracting everyone by killing himself with a pen, so there's that too.

edited 22nd Mar '15 9:50:26 AM by TobiasDrake

I wouldn't say Mikami's suicide makes Light look more sympathetic. It just makes Mikami look like an even bigger nutjob.

I don't mean that the suicide makes Light more sympathetic; it makes the story more sympathetic to Light by having his most faithful servant be loyal to the end rather than lose faith and turn on him.

In the manga, the last thing Mikami does onscreen is reject Light as God. In the anime, the last thing he does is an ultimate display of his undying faith.

edited 22nd Mar '15 1:01:41 PM by TobiasDrake

Yeah, Light's defeat in the manga (I haven't watched the anime) was an orgasm of schadenfreude for me too. By that point, the last shred of empathy I may have had for him was long gone. He was monster enough that I could rejoice in his suffering and humiliation, while still being human enough that he could suffer and be humiliated. I was happy.

I prefer the manga for giving Mikami a bit more dignity. Always felt sorry for him. Light, not so much

I couldn't feel sorry for Mikami. He was just as crazy, if not crazier, than Light, and displays the same kind of self-absorption. When you write off your mother's death because she was concerned for your safety, you are a jackass.

Both endings are good, the anime just always used more Rule of Symbolism than the manga. Looking at you, Can't-believe-L-isn't-Jesus foot massage scene.

Manga ending was better, definitely. While the Anime implies that Light realised that who he used to be and who he is now are very different people, the manga has Light's smugness reduced to a man wailing on the floor, begging for help from people he's been manipulating, despising, and treating like trash.

Mikami's rejection of Light was the best part, not even that wacko could respect who Light turned out to be.

"the manga has Light's smugness reduced to a man wailing on the floor, begging for help from people he's been manipulating, despising, and treating like trash"

That still does happen in the anime, actually.

Oh yeah. I guess I was thinking of him begging Ryuk not to kill him, instead. That was definitely the most cathartic moment, that Light Yagami had a full 40 seconds to contemplate that he was going to die via Death Note. Karmic Deaths are the best.

It also feels more satisfying for Light to see his name in the Death Note and to die knowing that's what killed him because it's exactly what Ryuk said to him in the beginning. Ryuk spoiled the ending for everyone in the very first chapter, but many of us - Light included - didn't really think he was going to do it.

It's so easy to forget that Ryuk is not an ally, but an active threat to Light's continued existence who can't be killed as easily as the police he spends so much time battling. Easy to applaud Light for managing to kill a Shinigami but miss the fact that he killed the wrong one; that Rem was more closely aligned with his course of action than Ryuk ever was. Easy to congratulate him for his willpower in refusing the Shinigami Eyes that could have ended all his problems on the grounds that half his life span was an untenable cost as he'd need all of it for his ambitions, and miss Ryuk laughing; it's actually somewhat funny in a dark way when you get the joke.

"Humans are so...interesting."

edited 24th Mar '15 7:46:24 AM by TobiasDrake

Here's a question, was there ever a chance that Light could have dreamed up a way to get Ryuk out of the picture, with only the rules we know?

Nope. Ryuk doesn't care enough about Light to kill somebody for him, and that's the only way to eliminate a Death God.

Not the only way but good luck figuring out any of the others.

There exist entirely unknown methods with which a shinigami can be killed, but that is of no help because those methods are entirely unknown. I don't think Ryuk would have much patience for trial and error.

edited 24th Mar '15 8:38:59 AM by TobiasDrake

Different question: If Ryuk hadn't written his name, how long would Light survive?

I was just about to ask if Ryuk would have died if he had killed everyone present to save Light. It's a related question, because I think Ryuk wouldn't have died; Light was losing and was about to be arrested, but wasn't going to get shot in the next five seconds (though someone might have arranged for an "accident" soon).

So Light shouldn't have been making any long-term plans, but he also might have been able to get out of it if he hadn't given up and begged Ryuk for help, which in turn convinced Ryuk that the game was over and it was time to kill off Light.

Rule 58.

Regardless of whether Light would die right then and there or as a consequence of execution or whatever, if Ryuk deliberately lengthens Light's lifespan by using the Death Note to protect him from the Task Force, Ryuk will die. If Light gained so much as a second off Ryuk killing the Task Force to protect him, Ryuk's gone.

He was willing to help with the cameras because Light bribed him with apples; it was in his benefit, like a business transaction. But the absolute last thing Ryuk was ever going to do was self-terminate for Light's benefit.

edited 24th Mar '15 6:04:33 PM by TobiasDrake

More from the upcoming musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_suH_DOG6E That this exists at all just has me laughing.

I don't mind Soichiro's song:

As for Ryuk, I'll let you be the judge.

edited 27th Mar '15 6:08:58 PM by TheAirman

Soichiro's got my girlfriend to tear up a little.