Quote Originally Posted by BeerMug Paladin View Post
I sort of understand this, and I sort of don't. There's a sudden change there, for sure, and from what I hear not a lot of people stick through the shift in the story's focus.

When I first watched the show I had the same kind of reaction to Light and L and the early story. But after a while, I started to understand what the writer was going for. So when that same sort of thing started happening again later on, I went with it.
Spoiler: Death Note symbolism and stuff
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I actually really like the second half. It's depicting that although Light had won the battle, he was still nailed down by the compromises he had to make in order to get that victory. He was going to have to continue being careful in a post-L world. Both against people seeking to take up L's mantle and those seeking to take Light's position.

It's really all about how Light's ideal world is ultimately arbitrary and doomed to failure. Although Light beat L, Light will inevitably lose and whoever comes after won't continue what he's done.
Symbolism is fine, but it doesn't excuse poor writing. Near and Mellow are both terrible, useless characters. Near's "investigation" involves him making straight up guesses and happening be right because the plot needs him to play catchup in an impossible situation. And even then, he still only wins because Light makes dumb mistake after dumb mistake like he lost 50 IQ points after L died.

I know that Light is supposed to lose in the end, but with how many contrivances are used to get there, it undermines the entire symbolism thing, anyways. With the situations Light and his opponents were in, he should not have lost there, but he did because the plot demanded it. It's supposed to feel like Light was hoisted by his own petard, but, instead, it just feels like he got cheated.