Light and Japan’s capital punishment - death note and death sentence
I’ve read some very good Death Note theories (special nod here to casuistor and her analyses - she is actually the reason I’m here on tumblr - I read her stuff and I just had to join the fun) but I do not believe someone tried to look at the overall plot of DN and Light’s motivation from the angle I explore here.
So, in short, here it is:
1. Light’s motivation to continue killing and become ‘Kira’ is related to Light’s fear of the death sentence
Light’s motivation to continue killing is not just related to casuitor’s crack in Light’s ‘personal mythos’ of his own infallibility but, taking a step further in that direction, it is related to Light’s fear of the death sentence, which, in Japan, he could very easily get as a murderer of two people at the beginning of canon (before he decided to become ‘Kira’). Light’s mythos of infallibility is not just related to him believing himself to be infallible in the intellectual sense, he also considers himself to be infallible in the legal sense. Someone as virtuous as him cannot possibly be a criminal, cannot be opposed to the state.
2. In creating Kira, Light is mimicking the state - this comes from his belief that only the state is allowed to kill, without itself becoming criminal.
In Light’s mind the state holds an absolute position (if you are opposed to the state, you are evil) because of his father who is a state’s enforcer (policeman) and who has a rigid, absolutist’s interpretation of the law ( he ‘will not bow down to evil’, take heed, not crime, but EVIL). Also, Soichiro’s role in his family is very much only that of a disciplinarian and supervisor, much like the role of the state’s justice system toward the people.
It is also Soichiro who tells both Light and Misa that they would be executed in secret. Soichiro is the one who volunteers to take them to the execution ‘chamber’ and the one who is ready to give his own judgement upon Light. Who executes is the state. It’s not important that Soichiro was just pretending and very likely did not believe Light was Kira. Light had no problem believing his father would’ve killed him. He did not suspect the whole thing was just an act. Here it is even more clear that, to Light’s mind, Soichiro represents the state.
3. The imagery that implies that Light is mimicking the state is abundant in canon, becoming one of the main themes of the work. This is also the case with ‘capital punishment’ imagery. In fact, these two often overlap. For example:
3.1. the Death Note itself - what comes before the execution in any today’s legal system, is definitely the death sentence written on a piece of paper. Light is therefore not strictly the executioner, but the authority condoning execution, making it legal. He’s the state.
3.2. That Light decides to target criminals, and while he starts with those who committed multiple murder, he, over the years, widens the array of his victims. While, today, Japan gives the death penalty predominately to offenders who committed multiple murder, in the past you could be executed for a much wider array of offences. By widening the array of his victims, Light is literally taking Japan backwards, into its past.
3.3. When Light writes Naomi’s name on the scrap of Death Note paper and specifies suicide, what appears are the gallows. Hanging is the method of capital punishment in Japan.
3.4. Light does not announce the time or day of execution. This is general practice in Japan - the convicts on death row are not informed when they will be executed. The public too is not informed when the executions will be taking place. Very much Light’s modus operandi.
3.5. That the police, by officially giving up on the Kira case, gives Kira’s actions an impression of legality. The police acknowledges the state’s power to kill and treats it as not criminal.
3.6. That Mikami, a prosecutor, is Light’s helper (again giving the impression of mock legality to Light’s judgement) and that he becomes Light’s helper only in the later stages of Kira’s ‘state’ - now not only the enforcers (the police), but also the higher authorities of the state apparatus acknowledge Kira’s killings as not criminal, giving him the authority of the state. Kira’s ascension to statehood is going well.
3.7. That Kira makes use of the media and has a spokesperson, to proclaim new laws. Kira now has legislative power. The ascension to statehood is complete.
3.8. In Japan, ‘offenses against the state’ (treason) are also punishable by death. This is the reason Light wanted to kill Lynd L Taylor and later L. L calling Kira evil is an ‘offense’ against state authority - treason, rebellion.
3.9. That there is mock execution staged for Light and Misa, perhaps emphasizing what was on Light’s mind all along and what he was trying to escape - execution by the state/his father.
3.10. Misa mentiones the death sentence to Takada.
3.11. That, at the end of DN (which could be seen as a sort of mock trial, with witnesses and presentation of evidence), Light is effectively executed. Ryuk very possibly saves him from having to wait for the execution in prison.
4. Even though Light does proclaim cheerfully to Ryuk that there is ‘nothing after death’, he is obviously afraid to die in his final scenes (and perhaps has been during the whole of canon).
5. The whole duration of Death Note is Light being on death row.
At this point you might be asking yourself why is this the case, why is capital punishment such a major theme in DN universe? The reason might be this:
“A 1999 (Japanense) government survey found that 79.3 percent of the public (in Japan) supported it (the death penalty). In 34 polls taken between 1953 and 1999, support for the death penalty has varied, although never having dropped below 50 percent.” (Wikipedia)
In Japan, capital punishment enjoys major support. Kira’s death sentences were also very popular in DN universe, which is an implicit call out on the supporters of capital punishment in Japan and on the state that enforces it.
2087
prguitarman
amandla
pixelskylines
kianamaiart
germansingergirl
