[Sinfully Naomi]

Originally Posted by SaffyC

The thing that bothers me most, however, is that the author was implying that all of humanity was basically "bad", not just our morals and justice systems. Let's face it. Not a single character acts on purely good motives. L's in for the chase/challenge (sorry, L!) Light's in for power, ultimately. Mello's in for proving his worth. Even Soichiro, who is the one "pure" character in the show, doesn't add much to the story development-wise.

I was reading this DN essay, and it struck a good point:

"Ultimately, the real cult of Kira, in Death Note, is society at large - as lacking in self-awareness and as desensitized to itself as the monster it created. In a postmodern world where good and evil no longer exist, we have no need for "real" heroes and villains, and indeed are happy to accept all substitutions. Light is frequently ridiculous, but his very sexuality, Obata's fanservicing of him, the way he is drawn, presents him to us as an idol: and we idolize him to our heart's content. We idolize him because we have no real, meaningful heroes to take his place; and our idolization perpetuates the shallow ideals that created him to begin with.

And that inescapable, bleak crux is where Death Note, at its blackest and most cynical, becomes truly terrifying: because through the very act of reading and enjoying the story, we, the reader, have become implicit, willing participants in the cult of Kira ourselves." -from http://deathnotes.kefi.org/

I mean, seriously. At least Lord of the Flies didn't have the boys killin' each other from the very start. It progressed from "oh this sounds plausible" to "this still sounds plausible but that's why it's scary!". That's what makes a true masterpiece. Because of the fact that it could happen, it places the story out of the range where you know that such evil could not exist (Voldemort stands firmly in this category), and, therefore, feel safe from what is happening because it will never happen to you/humanity. How Ralph and Piggy cling to morals even as the others start to feel the need to kill, is both appreciated and deappreciated.

But I'm getting off track. What I mean is, there was a certain point in the Death Note storyline when I felt that something was just wrong. I don't mean that I'm the incarnation of pure good, of course- but to have no characters who are even slightly pure-hearted (and I know quite a few people who would stand up for Kira in the name of societal justice and be willing to throw away their life for that justice) and with pure motives.. It kind of made me think that Ohba/Obata was going a bit TOO far with the cynicism thing.

Discussion appreciated. Especially from you, Nevflinn- I'm curious to hear what you think of this.

Hey, Sayu was pure! *shot*

I think DN had to just do with the fact that doing the right things the wrong way isn't the way to go. Of course that's probably nto what the author would've thought when making it. That was purely my own speculation of it, and that makes me think that Light was wrong, even if they were criminals, some of them got killed for very misdemeanor crimes. Light was far too harsh on things, and punishing people who were senetnced to death, and could've probably turned their lives around is what puts Light in the wrong.

And Light was wrong no matter what. He was killing criminals making himself a criminal in turn, no matter what the ends were, it doesn't justify the means in any way possible. As I said earlier, Light confused himself with a god. As intelligent as he was, he was wrong, no matter how you sugar coat it, try to back it up with your logic, it's wrong to kill someone, by other means than self defense. He lied to make it seem like he was right. When you kill someone you have to lie to yourself so much to justify it, to make it right in your own mind, Light must have had to do that a lot.

In short, my conclusion is there is no morality in Death Note, the ends do not justify the means.