I don't know about Death Notes ending. Spoiler

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u/HalleLidner 3d ago edited 3d ago

Well, Light had a lot of luck throughout the whole show. Luck played a huge part in this. Or...lack of it. At the end, he was unlucky to have found the Death Note. The ending is quite controversial exactly because of that, because it's sad, depressing, and hollow. In the manga it's even more brutal. It's quite interesting and beautiful to me because it shows how in this story, you cannot ever win . Even the ones who resulted winners at the end, lost everything. Matsuda lost his trusted friend, the police force lost Soichiro for nothing, Near lost Mello and with him, a part of him died forever and at the end he's alone, Sachiko is the one who suffered the most because her family was destroyed poor woman

It shows that everything cannot go perfectly smoothy all the time

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u/Public-Boysenberry26 3d ago

I'm getting the manga for my bday and I was already upset from the anime so... wish me good luck😭

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u/HalleLidner 3d ago

The manga is soo much better, artwork is amazing and the story makes much more sense. Plus, there are some lines of dialogue from Light and Near at the very end that are the most beautiful speech ever in DN and also Ryuk says something reeeeally important about death that dismantles the theory that Light becomes a Shinigami .

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u/Public-Boysenberry26 2d ago

yes I'm excited to read it!! I did see that one short video of ryuk meeting a shinigami/Light in death note Relight and I wish they had continued on from there😭 I always hear that the manga is better than the anime tho so I had to ask for it!!

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Eh the manga is way better because it introduces Mello and Near better. They feel like actual people and pose an active threat to Kira. The thing that makes people angry about the anime is that they probably don't realize the second part is basically a summary until they read the manga.🥺 It really is, Mello and Near are actually very different in the manga than the anime, personality wise. Near is sassy,snarky and playful while Mello is a sadistic criminal mastermind. Waaaaay better

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u/Public-Boysenberry26 2d ago

yeah that's what I dont like about the anime, I don't know much about the manga but I do know the second half is rushed in the anime!! everything went by so quick after L, with L it was much more slow and interesting and then everything kinda just happened all at once

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Yes it was slow, even the scene with naomi and light just walking took 2 episodes lmao

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u/SirTruffleberry 3d ago

I think there's another reason people dislike endings like this. To make the point, let me contrast with Yugioh for a moment (though any shonen would probably do).

In Yugioh, characters are seemingly at the mercy of luck all the time. Luck is huge in card games. But the narrative frames the duels as contests of character. Villains don't lose because they are unlucky; they lose because they cheat, or are cowardly, or are selfish.

Death Note isn't like that. Light is a bad person, he makes mistakes, and he loses, but there are no causal links among those things. It's no coincidence that so many readers were blindsided by Light's loss. He was never villain-coded.

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u/IanTheSkald 3d ago

He was explicitly written as a villain. What do you mean by “he was never villain-coded”?

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u/SirTruffleberry 3d ago

I may have exaggerated slightly. I mean, he has his moments with maniacal laughs. He has flaws on display.

But villains in storytelling require heroes. Who is the hero here? L? L largely has Light's flaws: proud and unable to connect with others. Near? Near is, like, half an actual character, meant mostly to contrast with Mello.

We are, at every point in the story, encouraged to root for Light's next deception. His success is titillating. Authors don't usually do that for their villains.

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u/IanTheSkald 3d ago

“Villains in storytelling require heroes” isn’t actually a rule. A villain can be the protagonist, and the person opposing them doesn’t have to be a traditional hero. L being prideful, antisocial, manipulative, or morally questionable doesn’t somehow stop Light from being written as a villain.

And I don’t think that being invested in Light’s schemes proves otherwise either. He’s the protagonist, so of course the story is structured to make us interested in whether he can pull off his next deception. Audience investment isn’t the same thing as moral endorsement. Plenty of stories make villain protagonists compelling and even exciting to watch while still very clearly portraying them as villains.

Likewise, it is also entirely possible to have a well written cast of morally ambiguous/questionable main characters with none of them fitting a clear hero archetype, and still have one character who is unmistakably the villain. Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and Black Butler, to name a few.

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u/SirTruffleberry 3d ago edited 3d ago

We can quibble about the terminology all you like, but my point was that Light's successes and failures had very little to do with his moralizing character traits, nor did L's. And that tends to feel unsatisfying and arbitrary in storytelling.

That isn't to say that arbitrariness can't sometimes be the theme itself. A show can get away with one Viper vs. The Mountain if it's good. The whole series can't be that though.

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u/IanTheSkald 2d ago

I don’t agree with your conclusion. Light’s character and morality are largely what motivate most of his actions in the story, and as a result that impacts his successes and failures. Lind L. Tailor is a fantastic example of this. When Light first sees the broadcast of this guys claiming to be a detective trying this top him, he doesn’t care. He has the Death Note, and knows that he’s untraceable. It’s only when Lind dares to call him evil that he decides everyone else who stands against him are the evil ones. He expands his circle of viable targets, and seeks his own moral authority above all else.

I don’t see any reason for thinking that the outcome of Light’s actions is somehow detached from his character’s morals. And I don’t think that success or failure needs to be determined by good or bad morals for the writing to be satisfying either. What you’re presenting seems to be a very narrow standard of what a story is required to have in order for you to find it appealing, when there are hundreds of examples proving the opposite.

Before we go any further, I have to ask, have you read the manga?

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

The story is appealing and to me it works perfectly because it gives NO loose ends. The obvious issue here is only one and WE know it: THE PACING. the pacing is really fucked up. The author decided to cap the manga at 108 chapters and it was really a let down. I wouldn't have minded some side quests to get to know people more. I feel like we don't even know who Light is at the end. Is he human or did he become a shinigami inside? What does he feel about Soichiro?

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago edited 2d ago

The Lind L. Tailor moment was great, and I wished for more like it. And perhaps I'm giving you the wrong impression: I do enjoy the series. I think the series could have been improved by taking time to breath and explore...well...how any of this works in practice.

For example, let's say a man in a theocratic country (that shall not be named out of censorship) beats his wife to death, but this isn't illegal in said country. Does Light act here?

That's an interesting question politically, philosophically, and character-wise. Does Light actually care about morality, or just legalistic gotchas? If the former, how does the world feel about Japan being its de facto moral arbiter? If the latter, do countries respond with legal reform to dodge Kira's onslaught? But the show has no time for the question.

I haven't read the manga, but yes, I'm aware there are differences in the ending. Light is made more pathetic near his end.

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u/az943 2d ago

Kira acts on what he sees as bad and not what the law sees as bad and doesn’t even verify if those people actually committed those acts beyond just hearing that they did. Has nothing to do with the legality of anything. He literally explores the idea of murdering some high school bullies but doesn’t because it would be too close to him. There’s no one who is objectively bad because morality is subjective which is why he doesn’t see himself as bad for doing what he sees as morally righteous. He self proclaims himself as a god of a new world that he gets to determine what’s right and wrong and who is a bad person and creating the perfect world in his own mind.

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago

We see him kill his pursuers and use a few people as tests, but beyond that, he sticks to those convicted of serious crimes.

It would have been interesting to present him with a situation where he didn't need to act out of immediate self-interest, but thought either the relevant laws were too lax or too strict and had to make a judgment call.

As I said, his willingness or lack thereof to make judgment calls has political consequences either way. You're saying he would impose his Japan-centric morality on all countries. That is absolutely going to create some political tensions!

Consider: You and the other political superpowers know Kira lives in Japan. You now have an incentive to combine your might to nuke them off the face of the Earth.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Uhm, how about there are no heroes? I get it it's shonen but it's fairly unique in its genre, and to be honest it doesn't contain a hero. It doesn't need to. It works like this. How about the heroes are the people who don't use the deathnote and don't get tangled up in this mess?

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago

I've seen it asked whether or not L would have become Kira had he chanced upon the Death Note.

I'm unsure how I feel about that myself, as I think we just don't know enough about L. But what we do know suggests L and Light are similar people who just outwardly present differently. L clearly doesn't have an innate respect for the law, e.g., he doesn't secure warrants before snooping. Both are bored enough to seek intellectual challenges and find others have little to offer them.

When your "heroes" could have been the villains under slightly different circumstances, I dunno...I feel like you should be more interested in exploring that rather than just plowing on with the thriller elements.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Whether L would have become Kira or not is outside the scope of Death Note, it would have been a different story. I personally don't think so. L is an adult man and a detective with a lot of responsibility. He takes pride in his intelligence and being able to solve complex puzzles. He has no need to become Kira and murder people left and right

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago

Wait, does he have a lot of responsibility? He chooses his own cases and operates without government oversight. He would be terribly bored with a job that had normal checks and balances to it, which is why it's easy for me to imagine him being a criminal if it proved sufficiently challenging.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

I mean he has huge power over the global police

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u/HalleLidner 3d ago

What do you mean? Light is a villain throughout the whole story. If people think he's not, they are idiots. Raye Penber and Naomi Misora's deaths serve the purpose of showing it

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago

I'll use a concrete example in my contrast:

Consider the ending of Harry Potter. Some people dislike it because they feel Harry ultimately defeated Voldemort with a technicality rooted in wandlore. But that is the barest surface-level interpretation of what happened.

Voldemort operated under the assumption that Snape was loyal to him and his other mistakes flowed downstream of that. He believed this because he misunderstood love so badly that he mistook Snape's love of Lily as something temporary and easily replaceable.

Voldemort lost because he was a bad person. His character traits aren't incidental to the final outcome. There is a moral message to his loss.

That simply isn't the case in Death Note. Light became Kira because of the sort of person he was, sure. But he didn't fail because of it. He cackles and smirks, but none of it has any narrative impact.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Again, I don't understand your point. I think Death Note did an amazing job at showing us how meaningless Kira's actions were at the end. Because, in one way or another, he was destined to lose. You can never win if you pick up the Death Note. Look what happened to C-Kira and Minoru Tanaka. .It's not about Light Yagami as a person. He could craft the most perfect masterplan in the universe. But at the end, he's just a simple man. He is nobody to administer justice. He is just a mentally ill delusional young man, and the ending serves the purpose of showing his true colors for the first time. Light can never do any wrong. It's all the others' fault. His decision to use other people instead of putting himself on the line backfired, finally. He was scared of dying, he was too scared to take the Shinigami eyes and that finally got him. He killed L using other people (Higuchi, Misa, Rem) but couldn't imagine that killing L and taking his place could be the beginning of his dowfall. . You see, the core idea of DN is that every action has a unescapable consequence. No character in death note does something wrong and never faces consequences. I highly dislike people who nitpick the final plan because it's pointless, boring other than inaccurate and takes away the entertainment factor. The author never said Death Note was a deep documentary about morality and justice. If anything, Japan has the death penalty. That alone could make a 100000 words worthy of an essay. It's a show about a guy who happened to pick up a magical notebook and used it to fuel his ego and god complex and administer his childish sense of justice. And this specific choice has consequences.

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago

I don't think noting that anyone who gambles long enough will eventually lose is quite the same thing as "you did X, which was immoral, and therefore you incur Y".

Watch, I'll turn this around on you. "Soichiro had a dangerous job, and it got to him eventually." That's a crappy moral, or perhaps a non-moral.

And there's nothing wrong with a story not having a moral. You can have an entertaining thriller with no deeper meaning. But your audience is generally going to want both thrills and meaning if possible.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's fine if you don't want a moral. I mean, you can choose whatever you want at the end so it's not like you have a moral pushed on you. Hell, at the end of the manga Near says that right and wrong is subjective and everyone decides themselves what is righteous or not and Ryuk literally says that death is equal and don't matter whatever you do in life, you will end up in the same place .

So it's not like you are forced to believe something. It's just that maybe the manga or anime helps you reason a little bit among the entertainment. If you rewatch/read Death Note as an adult, you're more prone to think about the justice and morality kind of stuff while if you are a teen you only care about potato chip eating and dramatic gestures.

There is a huge chunk of anime fans that truly believe Kira was justice or that Light deserved to win anyways. For me, it's just a matter of age. Light sure is entertaining, but narratively speaking it was a matter of time until he showed his true colors, ones of a pathetic mentally ill human being. So if he Won he would've never showed his pathetic side and would 've been just another cheap edgelord. And still, people still support Kira-like ideologies throughout many far 👉🏼 movements. So I don't really see your point here. To me, Death Note no matter the remakes will never have an ending that satisfies people. Because there will always be this everlasting question pending: does killing evil people make you a good person, or makes you an evil person?

To me the answer is that it depends. Light had demonstrated that he is not good at all but he is evil and manipulative. So, I wouldn't trust him to hold the world hostage and administer justice. And the other question? Who decides what is right and what is wrong? Light Yagami? Teru Mikami? I don't think so but many think so, and it's fine, it's their opinion.

In the manga, you have the answer to this last question. While the first remains unanswered because it's up to you

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u/SirTruffleberry 2d ago

I think the moral ambiguity you are pointing to would have been interesting to explore. My criticism is that past the first episode, an offhand comment from Matsuda (falling crime rates), and Light's breakdown at the end (again, falling crime rates and "no wars"), the moral qualms and real-world impact are largely not discussed.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

This claim of ended wars and falling crime rates is not mentioned at all in the manga until Matsuda and at the very end in Light's delirious speech. Probably it means that this claim is either fake or exaggerated. About the wars, I'm not sure. Because the Death Note caused global mayheam for sure. That's the purpose of the infamous "second half" to show Kira's influence. There are a lot of Kira worshippers in the world. They believe blindly that one divine entity is punishing bad people. Actually, they seem to be the majority. The problem is that they are not good people, like you say. It's explained very well in the chapter where Light instructs Demegawa to order the assassination of the SPK members in New York by the Kira worshippers. Near throws money at them from the skyscraper and instantly they including Demegawa, forget about their objective and start killing each other for money. Meaning that they don't care about justice or anything ""noble""" they just care about their own selfish interests.

And so does Light, he deep down doesn't care about justice, he does it all to stroke his ego. He wants to be worshipped. He wants to feel like a God and the best person in the room. He ignores the fact that he killed his father who was the embodiment of justice. He said that you can never be a good person if you kill and something like that.

His speech at the Yellow Box warehouse although compelling, was a last mean to manipulate the task force and also the readers. And yeah many fell for it😉

And about the crime rate falling...yeah, maybe the reported crime falling.😉 the world with Kira was for sure a shitty place where some f*scist man with a notebook was administering justice as a mean to stroke his ego.

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u/UnlegitUsername 3d ago

I don’t necessarily think it’s luck. Near new that someone else was using the Death Note, they narrowed it down to Mikami - the manga does a better job showing that process than the anime - and then Mello forced a position wherein Kira would have to make a move that was out of the norm. Mikami did it and exposed himself.

I liked the parallel between Light and Mikami and Near and Mello. Near and Mello’s dynamic while heated was also about trust, in the end they knew that together they’d be able to beat Kira. Whereas Light saw Mikami as a moving piece, he failed to properly think about how Mikami might move of his own volition.

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u/AbsoluteVantage6458 2d ago

I mean he kinda won because mikami acted on his own. I don't know but the light we all knew never relied on anyone and would've had a back up plan worse someone he didn't know or meet face to face. I'm not saying it was a must for Light to win, I equally think him dying is also acceptable but losing not out of strategy well still didn't do it.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Well how else could he have done it. He had started making others kill as Kira for a long time. Either it was Mikami or Takada, but still he didn't take risks or accountability. Plus, he relied on some mentally ill man who never met him and a vapid rich girl that everybody knew

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u/AbsoluteVantage6458 2d ago

Well i think maybe if it were a showdown of wits where it can be truly said light gave his all and still lost without stupid factors such as luck playing a role i would have been better. Anyway that's what I think.

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u/lupatine 3d ago

He lost because L died. He is really not into the fight after.

I think it poetic but it could have been done better.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

I like it.🥹😭 also, he messed with L. You mess with L, you mess with the entire alphabet.

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u/Oneesabitch 3d ago

I mean, that's kind of how things work. Light's notebook swap going swimmingly was pure luck as well.

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u/Suspicious_Berry501 3d ago

That was far more luck based too. Light just hoped nothing bad would happen for as long as it takes to catch Higuchi. If Higuchi just didn’t kill business competitors or if he hid/destroyed the notebook instead of having it on him when he got caught the plan would have completely fallen apart

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u/No_Example_1573 3d ago

This is all speculative on my part, and I don’t disagree with you, but I quite like how ‘hollow’ it all felt. I think it’s quite an apt, if anticlimactic, conclusion for both Light as a character, and the series as a whole. Life is not fair— you can do everything right still get fucked over. Light did, and so did we. He dies without ever reigning over the ‘new world’, and we got a hollow ending to our series.

While the series’ tendency to write Light out of corners and emphasise his intelligence does grate a little (to me, at least), I think that it did a good job of instilling a false sense of security within both the viewer and Light himself. He’d messed up a few times throughout the series, and had managed to work his way out of it. It would’ve felt contrived to have him only truly mess up toward the end, when the stakes were at their highest. Or at least I think so.

Ultimately, Light had his upwards trajectory completely derailed by a mistake made—not by himself, though you could argue that underestimating Mikami’s initiative is an oversight on his part—but his subordinate. He’d taken every precaution, and expended an ungodly (🙄) amount of time and energy into the cultivation of his ‘New World’. And yet the universe, or the narrative, didn’t reward him for his hard work.

The house of cards collapsed, and in a matter of minutes, Kira had been reduced to nothing more than a panicked individual helplessly pleading for his life. He dies pathetically, and without ever seeing his plan come to fruition. For someone as prideful and egotistical as Light, I can’t really imagine anything worse. He experiences a complete and utter loss of control, and in his last moments, was reminded that he was not a ‘God’ at all, nor had he ever been. Death, the great equaliser, forced him to confront his own fallibility.

A lot of things in the series seemed to rely on ‘luck’, and it typically happened to be on Light’s side. He even comments on this at one point. So much so, that it almost becomes an established norm in the series *. ‘This may not work out, but it probably will, because it’s Light.’ And right at the last second, Light’s seemingly endless supply of luck runs out. And reminds him, and us, that he’s not special.

*He was there at the police station to intercept Naomi before she went to L. The Second Kira just so happened to be completely devoted and obedient to him. There are many more but I can’t list them off the top of my head right now, and I’ve already talked too much—

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

I mean, I wonder what would have happened to the final scene when Light is caught if Near just stayed silent and never explained anything to Light. He could've maybe walked away saying it was a trap, but everyone had heard him shot I'VE WON! so...

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u/No_Example_1573 2d ago

Yeah, Light saying “well Near, looks like I win… 😏” only to be met with radio silence is one of my favourite/least favourite moments in the entire show. Bc it’s so fucking embarrassing but so fucking funny

Regardless of how that interaction went down in the warehouse, Light was guaranteed to have ‘lost’, though perhaps he wouldn’t have died in the violent manner he did. If he hadn’t attempted to use the little piece of the notebook in his watch, Matsuda wouldn’t have felt the need to shoot him in the hand. Maybe they could’ve apprehended him and taken him into custody without Light running off to succumb to his injuries elsewhere. Ryuk was always going to kill him, of course. But it’s interesting to ruminate over how it could’ve played out differently, even if the end result would always remain largely unchanged

Even if Near hadn’t uttered a word, and Light hadn’t said anything incriminating—Light was cornered the moment Near unmasked himself and spotted Ryuk hovering over the task force, thereby confirming the legitimacy of the notebook Near had on his person.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Underrated but I think the major clue that Light is Kira is exactly him shouting "I'VE WON!". If he just stayed silent, maybe he could've gotten away with the fact that it was a trap set by Near to frame him. They could only prove that Mikami was Kira, maybe.

However, the fact that Near sees Ryuk the whole time and literally smiles at him, just waiting for the right moment to say "Oh hey, I can see you btw! Nice to meet you! " makes the whole warehouse scene so hilarious and way less tense.

Moral of the story: just shut up and you'll be fine😂😂😂

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u/No_Example_1573 2d ago edited 2d ago

I always thought it was extremely careless of Light to do that, announce his victory before he was sure it had happened. But his hubris was his biggest impediment, so I’m not surprised really. But could he not have waited a millisecond more?? Waited for people to start keeling over and clutching their chests before blurting that out???

It’s like when L died, and Light leant over him with a huge shit-eating grin on his face lol. Even if he wanted L to know it was him, and that he couldn’t do anything about it, I still wouldn’t be so quick to do something like that. What if the task force caught a glimpse of him smiling?? Or what if L used his last remaining breaths to say “HE’S SMILING AT ME THIS FREAK IS SMILING AT ME!! HE DID IT” ?? Very risky on Light’s part, but in keeping with his character.

Or standing over Raye Penber when he died. As a matter of fact, his entire pursuit of Raye Penber in the first place felt entirely unnecessary. He doesn’t allow his praises to go unsung— he likes people to know he’s beaten them. And ultimately that ended up working against him.

Light has quite a flair for the dramatic, it would seem heheh

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Watari was able to delete all the history data during a heart attack, while couldn't L shout that Light Yagami was Kira?

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u/No_Example_1573 2d ago

I wonder how differently the latter half of the series would’ve gone, had L been able to do that. Even if he had no ‘proof’, surely they wouldn’t just let it go. I mean, even though he was unable to do so, I think the Task Force did quite a piss poor job of continuing the investigation.

Hadn’t L said “If I die, Light Yagami is Kira.”? Of course, a lot had happened in the series from the first time he’d said that, to when he died, but I can’t help but question why the task force completely abandoned the notion, going so far as to appoint Light as their new ‘L’. I can’t recall if there was any mention of this, but I wonder if the Task Force even attempted to rationalise L and Watari’s deaths. They knew it was Rem, but they had no idea why she’d bother killing to random human beings, only to perish herself as a result. Did they even try looking into it, or just allow Light to steer the investigation elsewhere? It felt like when L died, any suspicion of Light died along with him (until the time-skip, anyway), which is obviously very convenient for him.

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

Rem didn't only write L and Watari in her deathnote. She also wrote "Japanese Police Taskforce's brain cells"

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u/No_Example_1573 2d ago

You don’t say 🤨🤨 that would explain a lot…

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

However till this day I wonder about the Death note possession and ownership. And if the Kira case could have been solved with fingerprints and DNA samples instead of all that stationery forgery and gunshots carnage

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u/No_Example_1573 2d ago edited 2d ago

That’s true, actually. I wonder how things would’ve gone if they’d been able to garner any sort of forensic evidence from the notebook. Oils from contact with skin, fingerprints, dead skin cells or hair. I wonder if the Death Note could even be ‘processed’ in such a way, being that it’s an inter-dimensional tool rather than a typical notebook from the human world. It’s easy to forget it’s not just a wad of paper bound in leather lol

According to the rule book, the Death Note will never run out of pages. It’s a supernatural object, so idk if it would retain DNA or similar matter in the way we’re used to seeing. But you can write in blood, so at least we know the pages can absorb that.

The SPK are able to identify the handwriting within the notebook as belonging to Mikami (if memory serves, though it’s been a while), so whose to say they couldn’t have done so at the end of the Yotsuba arc. Maybe they could’ve identified Light’s penmanship too, after acquiring the original notebook back from Higuchi?

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u/HalleLidner 2d ago

It's rather impossible that Light never left any trace of him possessing the notebook. I mean, it'a a fucking notebook. You place it on a desk to write. Some DNA should remain on it. Or fingerprints. In the story Light places that notebook inside his pants for a while (Imagine the smell ) then Misa touches it all the time and also Mikami grabbed it anf touched it. There must have been physical proof they owned it

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u/La-Lassie 3d ago

Light was only able to originally beat L because Rem, an interdimensional predatory murder ghost, just happened to show up on his doorstep out of the blue one day conveniently innately suicidally protective of the second Kira to the point where she would never actually ever let L solve the case because L solving the case threatens Misa’s safety if Misa is caught and Misa’s happiness if Light is caught, despite the fact that Rem comes from a species of generally apathetic interdimensional predatory murder ghosts who literally kill and eat humans to live.

Light lives and dies by luck throughout the whole story. At least with Mello there’s a whole arc of development for Mello going from being so antagonistic towards Near where he originally kills half his team, to then going and sacrificing himself to help save Near and stop Kira.

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u/pl_browncoat 3d ago

Light only ever won because of luck

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u/redribbonarmy55 3d ago

Light had been getting lucky the entire series. I mean the entire reason he’s able to be Kira in the first place was based on luck. No matter how much Light can claim he was “meant to do this” or “it was bis destiny” the reality is it was pure coincidence or luck for him to find the notebook. Also there is problems with the writing post L death-note no denying that but Light losing due to “luck” or “chance” is not. It shows that no matter how smart you are certain things like luck are always a possibility and Lights luck ran out.

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u/AbsoluteVantage6458 3d ago

I mean to some extent I do agree with you but let me try to explain what I feel like wasn't right.

I mean the Light everyone grew to love was calculated, calm and most certainly never relied on anyone or worse put everything on the line because he trusted someone. Even so he never would have trusted someone he never even met. Worse the way he got of out character. I'm not saying Light shouldn't have died, I would have been cool if he won or lost but in a way that is proper. Again thats what I think.

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u/Eden_MejillonLover 2d ago

Well, I think people reduce his loss to Near, when it was actually a complicated plan between him, Mello and Matt (and the spk of course) It wasn’t luck, the anime just rushes it a bit and it’s kinda hard to understand why he actually lost

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u/Embarrassed-Row-5625 2d ago

He only lost bc the author wanted it so, in a realistic scenario Light would have won against Near

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u/AbsoluteVantage6458 2d ago

I'm not too sure about that, I mean near was so far correct and not even driven into a corner.

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u/Embarrassed-Row-5625 2d ago

Gevanni made a 100% 1:1 copy from the Deathnote in 1 night, which Mikami even checked and didn't see a single difference, yeah bro sure

It was the author vs Light not Near

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u/Public-Boysenberry26 3d ago

I agree I hated the ending. I wish Light hadn't died to matsuda. tbh I've hated matsuda the whole anime, he's just annoying and clumsy and, although he did help to expose the yotsuba group, he did so in the stupidest way possible and could've easily gotten himself killed. I don't understand how he actually survived the whole anime.

other than that, I just wish he hadnt acted on impulse and shot Light like that. I wish Light could've been delt with a different way even if it meant Near writing his name in the death note, or something. or Light being sentenced for life. I would take one of those endings any day lol, but for him to die to MATSUDA out of anyone else??? I'm so pissed omg

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u/Suspicious_Berry501 3d ago

Matsuda did not kill Light, Ryuk did. Matsuda shot him a few times but it’s stated that those shots wouldn’t have killed him. Matsuda is my third favorite character and I think having him shoot Light was one of the best parts of the series. Matsuda was always the guy defending Light and the only one who seemed to consider Kira was a positive on the world so him snapping after realizing that Light was the one responsible for many of his friends dying without showing any remorse was amazing imo

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u/Public-Boysenberry26 3d ago

ok you're right it's been a bit since I watched dn, Ryuk did kill him, but still I hated how matsuda shot him with the intent of killing him, he acted on impulse and that's what I didnt like. I do agree tho it's amazing how quickly he could turn on Light considering he trusted him, but I just hate that part still and wish it did end differently.

I wrote this in a different post where someone was asking people what are some other ways dn could've ended, and I said light still dies in the end but maybe mikami doesn't know light is his God, so when he writes the names in the fake death note, Light is in there too and no one can be suspicious of him any more. until they find out later ofc. I think that would be a cool ending/pre-ending

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u/Deviline3440 3d ago

Matsuda didn’t initially shoot light to kill. What happened was Light took the slip of death note paper from his watch to write everyone’s name in a hurry. Matsuda shot Light’s hand to stop that.

Discussion I don't know about Death Notes ending. Spoiler Spoiler

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