“Using people is a skill you know? I’m just making use of otherwise average people.” - Maurice Cole
Plaudite acta est fabula - On Light and L’s death
Obata is a genius, this is what I tell myself when I get up every morning.
It’s impossible to miss the visual symmetry between Light and L’s death. Chained together during their life (x), mirroring each other as rivals (x), even their deaths are similar which underlines how intertwined their fates were.
L is not what you could call a “canonical beauty” (x). However, his pale face, his morbidly skinny body, his spider like fingers, his awkward posture and those strange immense eyes make him uniquely attractive, but not beautiful. Light, on the contrary, is the epitome of the Apollonian beauty to quote Nietzsche. He has soft features, a perfectly symmetrical face, long legs and eyes that can enslave anyone.
However, in death, their roles are reversed. L’s features seem softer, his hair is less messy and he doesn’t look nervous or tired because his eyes are closed. He died believing he had failed, probably desperate he has to leave this world so early (x) and part ways with the person who had been his only friend but his face shows nothing more than maybe sadness. He’s very dignified, no trace of suffering remaining on his face. He even looks younger, peaceful, as though he was sleeping, like Rimbaud’s Sleeper in the Valley (x)
“His feet in the yellow flags, he lies sleeping.Smiling as
A sick child might smile, he is having a nap:
Cradle him warmly, Nature: he is cold. ”
On the contrary, Light’s face is distorted by despair and disbelief which contrasts dramatically with his youthful beauty. His eyes are wide open, staring into the nothingness, almost pleading. It can symbolize his torment as he had to face the truth and assume responsibility for his actions in front of everyone. Earlier, Light tried to invoke “fate” to justify his killings, to escape responsibility (“I had no choice, it was my fate!”). But now, he’s dead. Sentenced. Punished. And he has no way out, no hope to redeem himself. Dying with open eyes, suggests Light hasn’t found peace, he lived and died in fear. L’s mouth is almost closed while Light looks like he’s about to say something, he who was so gifted at talking his way out of most things is silent: it fills the reader with a terrible feeling of dread and unfulfillment.
Light died alone. L died in Light’s arms. Light lived for approval, he died as an outlaw. L pretended he didn’t care much for company but he died surrounded by people.
