So my step brother's Netflix came in (no clue why since he's back in Nebraska), and we got A.I: Artificial Intelligence and the first live-action Death Note film. Knowing me, which one did you think me and Marina would watch? Death Note of course. It's one of the few animes my sister actually likes, yet the movie disappointed her from the acting and English dubbing, but I kept watching anyway.
I may include like a crap ton of spoilers so if you wish to watch Death Note before reading this madness, you may leave if you wish so... Spoiler alert!
For those who aren't familiar with what Death Note is, it follows university student Light Yagami who has a great amount of intellect but is bored and tired of the corruption and crime he has to live in. He has even hacked into his father's work files to discover that criminals were let go from their charges. Furious and just plain bored, he discovers a notebook lying on the ground labeled "Death Note". As you can see to the right of the screen, there's even a manual how to use it. Should explain the basics.
With nothing better to do, Light takes this notebook home and experiments if it works by writing down the names of two criminals, both of which die of heart attacks (one literally in front of him). Eventually, after killing loads of criminals, a god of death named Ryuk comes to visit him as he is the original owner of the Death Note and just dropped it on Earth out of sheer boredom and became interested in Light's odd sense of justice.
Because of criminals dropping dead like flies from heart attacks, people begin to believe that it is some sort of god who they call Kira who is passing judgement on the wicked and evil. This begins major debates if Kira is a savior or just another cold-hearted criminal like the ones he kills. Light enjoys his fame with a goal to create a utopia without corruption and death and essentially become God in this new world.
Despite his intentions, he goes kinda overboard with the killings and grabs the attention of the Japanese Task Force (where his own father works!) as they realize that these deaths aren't coincidence or even natural. They begin to work with a famous detective simply known as L. As they slowly close in on Light being their prime suspect, everything turns as unexpected plot twists and such that keep Light a step ahead of the Task Force and L.
Now without really thinking, if you were given a power or someone had this power and was using it, would you support the killing of criminals who probably deserve it? I'm pretty sure many of us would say yes without truly giving it a second thought. Some get away with their crimes without serving time and some people think criminals have committed something so cruel that being in prison for life or sitting on death row isn't enough. It appears that our justice system isn't being fair to those affected by these people. Why not just kill them right away and have them suffer for what they've done?
But we have that justice system to maintain society and democracy and not have everything fall into anarchy. If we just ruthlessly get rid of every criminal no matter what they did, would that make our government any better than murderers? And what if these criminals are really falsely charged or are truly sorry of what they've done? I know it's hard to forgive these people but they're still human nonetheless. I watched a show about a woman who was accused by her own children of manipulating them to murder their step father and they showed her being interviewed and not only did she still have her wedding band still on, but she was crying and claiming that her children were lying. And I saw the exact same story on a different show where they displayed her as a manipulative woman who doesn't give a crap about anyone but herself. But I'm getting off topic. No matter how much we can't really forgive criminals or how unfair the judicial system is at times, it is what it is and we have to move on no matter how painful it is.
But I digress (by the way this is where the spoilers start).
In the first episode of Death Note, Ryuk mentions to Light that once all the murderers and convicts are gone, the only murderer in the world left would be Light himself. Eventually as the anime progresses, Light becomes more sloppy with his planning and just kills anyone who gets in his way, even characters of the main cast and his supporters! Yes, he grows supporters who get Death Notes themselves and do some of the dirty work for him. He has absolutely no sympathy for anyone who gets in his way and becomes a total sociopath.
In the end, he turns into a complete mess and grows a bit of a god complex and loses himself; he gets his sister traumatized, gets his father killed, kills his own girlfriend using the Death Note to have her burn herself to death, one of his followers stabs himself in the gut with a pen, Light himself is shot multiple times and is later killed by Ryuk via Death Note and his other girlfriend was implied to have committed suicide a year later! Even when he's on his last legs, Light is reflecting back to when he first picked up the Death Note years before and what his first intentions were.
Light had a great start, but with all that power in his hands, he thought he could do anything. Sure getting rid of the evil in the world sounds great, but c'mon, you gotta have some limits. Light wasn't just any university student; he had brains and eventually came up with bizarre but creative ways to kill people instead of solely using heart attacks. All of the fame, popularity and trouble with the police got to his head as he went mad with that power. He was willing to kill anyone (or have someone else do the killing) in order to create his "perfect utopia". Now is it me or is Light kinda sounding like a totalitarian leader like Hitler or Stalin? With the way his plans are coming out as the series is drawing to its end it sure sounds like it. He becomes insane and does whatever he want to achieve his goals no matter what. That insanity made him screw up a lot and eventually led to his death.
Self-control is the key to success. Without that self-control, failure is inevitable.
