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Originally Posted by Tenken's Smile
Just one question: does anyone know what the bells symbolize?? in this scene --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Ij89nk0vI
The scene when L dried Light's feet alludes to the Bible when Jesus washes the Apostles feet because he knows he will die, so he prepares them to carry on his work. So I thought the bells were some kind of religious symbol, too. But I don't know what.
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http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp/k...sm_details.htm
http://www.tween-the-shadows.com/mag...gick/bells.php
It could also imply that L was a little crazy, or that he was just screwing around with Light, or that he was hearing the bells from his childhood- this is probably most likely, and that they warn him of his impending doom? Meh.
Anyway, several people say that it was not that scene from the Bible, but the scene where Mary washes Jesus' feet. This is supported by the fact that L appears to be mocking Light's God Complex and that water drips from his hair onto Light. :S
This was explained better on a different forum... hang on; I'll find the quotes.
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In giving Light that strange foot massage L was aping the penitent Mary Magdalene in order to mock Light's ideal of himself as God. The whole thing was so beautiful and explicated the emotional weight of L's impending death in such an artistic way, and the subversive use of the religious ideology that Kira wishes to replace was highly clever.
I reached this conclusion based upon the inclusion of the drops of water falling from L's hair onto Light's skin; this is an allusion to Magdalene washing Christ's feet with her tears and drying with her hair.
The Jesus analysis does not hold. Even if we interpret it as Christ washing the apostles feet, including that of his betrayer Judas, it doesn't feel right to me because Light never had any loyalty to L, and is not turning him over to be executed, he is executing him himself.
On a more abstract level, I cannot see what L would have been trying to express by casting himself as Christ. That does not seem like something L would do. Casting Light as Christ mocks his divine status; casting him as Judas seems too facile a repudiation for L's taste. L is trying to expose him to his own consciousness as the sham he is: asking him a profoundly substantive question (have you ever once told the truth?) which he can only answer with a series of empty but aesthetic phrases; playacting a sinner begging forgiveness to illustrate the arrogance and hollowness of Light's self-deification.
It might have an extra level of irony in that whereas I am certain L would have been familiar with the Bible, I doubt Light was (most Japanese people, even those of his education level, do not know a lot about Christianity beyond the holidays). So Light probably didn't get the allusion at all. I have never thought about it before, but it's consistent with L's character also to be making Light uncomfortable for the sake of making him uncomfortable.
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That probably doesn't answer your questions, but...