WARNING. SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME/MANGA SERIES ENTITLED "DEATH NOTE".
After watching the series all over again, though, in English this time, I knew that a journal entry such as this one would be inevitable. To watch Light Yagami die is the equivalent to succumbing to a heart attack; pun or no pun, it is true.
From the time I started "Death Note", I knew that Light was too perfect a human being to be completely normal. Especially when one relates the title to the main character, he obviously was going to change. And then, he found the Death Note and everything went spiralling and I couldn't help but stop to think about what Light was attempting to do.
"Cleanse the world of evil and rule it as the New World's God, Kira. Become justice personified."
His thought process is similar, in my opinion, to Adolf Hitler's. Hitler also wanted to rid Earth of specific "kinds" of people, leaving only the "perfection" that he saw in his oh-so-utterly-insane eyes. They both wanted to attain some sort of "godly" status, and they both met their downfall.
He also reminded me of the Zodiac Killer, due to the fact that he blatantly made fun of the police and of L himself. "You can't catch me! I'll keep running and running and hiding and I'll find your names and faces soon enough! Try and catch me! Try it! But I'll win!" That was what Light-Kira was attempting to childishly boast to L. And L understood that, and took up the challenge, though that would inevitably lead to his own death.
But was Light truly evil? He committed the worst sin of all: murder, and multiple times too. But remember this: Light Yagami was a sociopathic, borderline - at least to me - schizophrenic man, tempted by Death itself, which was in the form of the Shinigami, Ryuk. Kira was practically a whole other person, brought out by the temptation of the Death Note, of perfection. Light Yagami was innocent, intelligent, kind, and under different circumstances, could have possibly worked with L without any serial killer named Kira involved.
The gods of fate, or should I say, the plot didn't smile on him, though.
I can comprehend why anyone would want to follow someone like Light-Kira as well. He offers a safety that no one else can guarantee, and if you don't listen to his ways, he'll scare you or threaten you into "having faith in him". As stated multiple times throughout the series, when Kira murdered daily/weekly/frequently, crime rates dropped throughout the world in fear. The weak had a god and the malcious had a devil.
But am I on Light Yagami's side?
No. I don't forgive murderers. And that's all Kira is: a serial killer. I have enough knowledge about psychology and mass killers to know that Kira wasn't truly Light, though they "were technically the same person". Different personas equal different people to me in some cases, and this example of Light Yagami and Kira are on the top of my list.
But would that mean that I'm on L's side?
I suppose. Though if I truly took into consideration some of his methods, preferably the use of the Death Note with prisoners: if L had chosen the words that he had used in his explanation a tad more carefully, I might be swayed into agreeing. I don't blame him for wanting to have used it as a test, in fact, I applauded that idea. I guess I would have sided with L.
I can only imagine, though, what it's like to gaze up into your killer's face as you die.
"Light Yagami... So I wasn't wrong... I..."
So one would think that watching a mass murderer die at the hands of his own tool would be satisfying, correct? Not really, at least, not to me. Light's death scene was so fragile and pitiful that I absolutely could not take my eyes off of the television screen. Blinking was impossible; that was how mesmerized I was. The desperate look of pleading in his eyes, the blood caking his chest and arms, the grime, the absolute lack of remorse in Near's face.
It makes me think what it felt like. One can only hang on to life for so long before becoming completely enveloped in a heart attack brought on by the Death Note. And for Ryuk to have done it. I remember the first time I saw this scene, as well as the first time I read it.
My heart had palpitated and my palms had started sweating inadvertantly. The horror was incredible. Both the words and the art were perfectly expressed.
For on that fictional day, a "god of justice" had died at the cold, unforgiving hands of "justice" incarnate.
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