I Must Analyse Everything

Because my English teacher has brainwashed me.

So I finished watching Death Note last night. That last episode. Wow. Yeah. The first half is just a total mindfuck, and you have no idea who's going to win. Then Light goes off the deep end a little bit more, and the rest of the show ends up being rather... sad.
Not crying-sad, just... unfortunate-sad. You can't help but wonder if anyone made it out alright.

So this is what I've noticed throughout the series (Spoilers abound! Turn away if you didn't want to know which yaoi couples became canon, or which side decided to blow up a good portion of Greenland)
...[I'm kidding Greenland. I love you. <3]

- Symbolism ahoy. This was definitely the first thing I noticed. Especially when Light and L seemed to be on top of skyscrapers. I guess this shows they're both above the rest of the world. It also shows who's 'winning' based on who's highest.
- Red oni blue oni. Colour-coded for your convenience.
- We all have breaking points (Hello Matsuda, please put down the gun).
- Near isn't all that bad, despite my initial hatred of him. "Together, we can surpass L" was a brilliant line
- I think L was an anchor for Light. He stopped his decline into insanity, if only temporarily.
- The scene with L's death is haunting. Light seems to have a moment of regret; his eyes widen as they did when he was no longer Kira (or perhaps that was just shock) and he genuinely seemed worried. Then, as he held L, Kira must have returned because that grin was just... no.
- To think that the last thing L saw before dying was that. (Also note the symbolism. In that scene, Light was higher than L, and his power is further established by having Light hold him.
- Everything's rectified in the end. L is looking down on Light. Whether it's a hallucination or not doesn't matter; it still shows L was the winner. (Or, I suppose, the Wammy boys in general)
- I guess you could argue there were no winners. Everyone lost something.
- Mello knew he was going to die. That there was such a beautiful moment for him. He knew but he still did what was right. Bravo to both him and Matt.
- Back to the Matsuda thing in the last scene, Matsuda was the only one who admitted to sympathising with Kira. He understood what Kira was doing. Even Light remembered this and tried to appeal to that side of him, but to no avail. Yay Matsuda ^_^
- Mikami's facial expressions were lol-worthy.
- Light used everyone. Did he even have any friends by the end of it?
- Back to symbolism one last time; Ryuk was the only one who ended up on top of it all. And it's true, really. He's the only one who had nothing to lose.

You just have so many things to look back on.
Personally, I can't go past Light's maniacal laughter. Or when he had been shot and was lying in the water. Most people died with some dignity. Light was internally begging for help (and actually asked for it from Mikami, Misa and Takada). And then he died. Alone. On a staircase (which must've been rather uncomfortable).

Delightful. Death Note is such a happy story =)