seisans

13eyond13:

L’s death might feel lacking in intimacy and somewhat anticlimactic, but it does seem very fitting to me that Light killed L using Rem’s protective love for Misa. It is one of the purest, most selfless weaknesses in the whole story that Light uncovers and exploits for his own gain, and it just goes to show how far he has fallen, and how cruel and petty he really becomes (or reveals himself to be) soon after picking up the Death Note.

Light is never satisfied no matter how close he gets to his dream of world domination after that; it seems like most of his remaining joy and humanity dies right alongside L. The memory of L haunts him ever after, probably all the moreso because Light killed him so abruptly and without ceremony. Light puts L on a huge, idealized pedestal in his mind for the rest of his days after that, referring to him secretly as his only truly worthy opponent. This arrogance and refusal to believe that anyone but L could possibly outdo him causes Light to become overconfident enough to get careless, which ultimately leads to his own downfall and demise.

In this way, you might even say that Light’s biggest weakness was actually L: Light was undone by his respect for and devotion to the idealized vision of L that plagued him after L’s death, because it led to him foolishly underestimating everybody else.