Death Note

[xparrot]

So. Yeah. I am the last manga fan on the planet to finally get around to reading Death Note. And I gotta love a manga that can do this to me.


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was hyperventilating from holding my breath for about three chapters before 53, because you know what's coming, you know what's coming and it's still as brutal as a backhand from a lover, to see Light's smile.

And yeah, I had ch.58 spoiled for me when it happened last year, the meltdown on the flist was hard to miss. Didn't help much. You almost want to stop reading, because you know exactly what's going to happen, like a horror movie when you're screaming at the girl, Don't go there!!!, except it's not a ditzy dumb co-ed but L, who is more brilliant than anyone, except the one person he needed to be. And what could he have done, anyway, when even Light wasn't smart enough to figure himself out in time?

But you don't even get to hear his real name for yourself!

Even Light doesn't get to hear it.

I wonder if that ever bothers him...

Comments

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Isn't it wonderful?

I have my doubts about its permanance though, given SJ series' histories in that regard. Still, I hope they stick with it, because man do I love a story with stakes.

And yes, welcome aboard the addict wagon. We hope you have a pleasant stay.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

While there's some stories that I'll argue don't need character death to make them stronger, that kill characters for emotionally manipulative shock value and are, at least to me, ultimately as much or more satisfying when it's not the real deal - this isn't one of them. It's a fascinating twist, and I don't see how else it could've gone, really. Am looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

...That being said, I'd be insanely curious how they could bring L back, all things considered...

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Which stories, do you think? (Aside from like CoMC...) Nine times out of ten I think character revival is a copout, if only because you can't get people back IRL, and it thus strikes me as over the top wish fulfillment. And besides, it takes GUTS as an author to kill off one of your series' favorite charas.

That said, I can see them bringing L back through a total deus ex, if it will counteract flagging readership. "How did I survive the Note, Yagami-kun? Don't you just wish you knew..."

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Well, some of it depends on how they die, and whether they were actually meant to be killed and then returned because of, as you say, flagging readership; or whether it was all part of the story for them to be presumed dead and then revived. And I'm biased here because honestly, I love 'presumed dead' stories; I have an odd simultaneous love of angst and love of happy endings.

For me, there's type-A and type-B fandoms, of which type-A I get into more for the story, and Type-B I get into the characters more; Type-B are the fandoms I fic for, generally, and I tend to be happier with them remaining more status-quo...lose my favorite characters, and I've lost my interest in the series. (as happened with a lot of people with DN, I've noticed)

But then, I also have the anti-Aristotlean attitude that fluff and comedy and happy endings are no less intrinsically worthy than angst and depressing finales. And while I agree it takes guts for a creator to kill off a favorite character, sometimes it is done just for shock value, to prove that they can do it, or for sweeps' week advertising (see Lost)...

--The original pilot Death Note story had a way to revive people killed with the Note - a Death Eraser, conveniently enough. It 'upped the stakes' quite a lot to remove that, and I think was a good choice for the story they're telling. At the same time, should L reappear - well, yes, cheating death is unrealistic, but--it's a story about using a notebook to kill people in order to create a twisted utopia. While its otherwise realistic grounding gives it dramatic weight, Light is already a larger-than-life protagonist/supervillain, so I don't feel it would be that great a betrayal of the story for his archenemy to be the same.