But like I said, I'm just not satisfied with it. I don't look at those pages and feel like I really know anything beyond the glaringly obvious. I would have at least liked to see HIM in it. I wanted more, something that gave more closure to it. It didn't, to me. That's just my personal opinion.

This of course could be a product of being raised in the US 'Bible Belt' and the fact that DN had a good share of Christian religious symbolism though I myself have no true spiritual belief structure. It just doesn't seem very fitting that every character would ultimately end up that way, ultimately meaning what they did in life truly didn't matter except for the impact it left upon the living. It just didn't situate well in my literary gullet. It goes back to that whole 'Degrees of Hell' discussion, that a man who lives his life stealing and lying doesn't deserve the same punishment in the afterlife that a vicious serial killer might receive, for example.

Like I said, this is my opinion.

Although generally I enjoy reading fanfiction about Lawliet and Light teaming up or at the least becoming somewhat friendly I can't really imagine following the canon storyline and realistically seeing that happen for some reason, except in the afterlife. Perhaps its just because I saw them as perfect adversaries, two sides of the same coin, which is why I lost a lot of interest in DN after L's demise. That whole 'beloved enemies' sort of thing. But about Light becoming a Shinigami after death, I actually was hoping for that outcome. He did have a certain flair for it, right or wrong. After all is said and done, the Shinigami realm would have been a bit less boring with him around, I'd imagine. Just have to deal with the dry, sandy apples. I would much rather have had that than the dry, by-the-book Mu outcome.

please forgive the spelling/grammer mistakes because i have been up for like 20 hours.

What else could you put? blank write pages?

The words "Nothingness?"

Nothing else really captures that transition of darkness *eyes closing for a last time* to the nonexistence of consciousness.

I wanted something more, but it is the only way to do it that I can think of anyway.

If you have nothing, well most likely you are goning to want something...

Naturally we want to see exactly what happens to various charecters after death, including those that went to Mu.

It's just mind boggling to think of a state in wich some one becomes a part of nothingnes.

I know it not much of an answer, but thats just my take on it.

Ick but the Mu thing was depressing. I like to pretend it didn't actually happen that way. xD Of course that's just my denial speaking but, hey. Think of it like this: if Mu is pure nothingness, as is everything that enters it, than technically one can feel no pain. You can't feel anything because you don't exist. You can't see them in Mu (the black pages) because there is no sight. There is nothing and that is all. Which sounds depressing, but there isn't depression there either, so I wouldn't worry.

Speaking of Light's death, I do wish people would stop blaming it on poor Teru. It is not his fault. He was only trying to help and besides, not everyone can be freaking genius you know. Light made his own choices and his own decisions, always knowing he was taking risks. He knew also that it was risky to depend on someone as... enthusiastic as Teru, so technically he should've seen it coming. Light just got way too cocky.

Near, I like to think did not use the deathnote. I like to think that because the idea that he did freaks me the hell out, though subconsciously I'm pretty sure I do believe it. (lol my mind is strange) Plus, on the note of Near not being equal to Light, that I believe is true. Near was not quite the equivalent of Light... on his own. However you are all forgetting one key factor: MELLO!

Near himself states that it is because of Mello that all the clues fall into place. Mello informed Near of the shinigami and the fake rule. Mello sent Mogi to Near's hideout. Mello kidnapped Takada (along with Matt's help of course) and revealed Teru's false notebook. In fact, I believe that if it weren't for the fatal mistake of having his true name discovered, Mello could have been the one to defeat Light altogether. And hell, but wouldn't it have been fun to see Light at Mello's mercy!? It certainly would be intriguing to see it in comparison to Near's ending.

I still have much more to say, but I suppose I'll save it for another time. It is best not to play all your aces at once, so I hear. ;)

To correct myself, I did think of a better way to transmit what MU is. Nothingness is basically the complete absence of the existence. If someone were to pass through nothing, the person would cease to exist. In theory, MU is this nothing and non existence. (The end of existence.) The artist brilliant portrayed it as a a blackness, however, it would have been more accurate to leave the pages blank. The emptiness and lack of all (even ink, color) would better translate the absence and might have a stronger impact on the reader. Just an opinion though.

More likely the reader would think there was something wrong with the printer that churned out their copy. Besides, in terms of light (hey look the main characters name), white is the amalgamation of all colors whereas black is the complete absence of them.

Actually, both are amalgamations of all colors. White is the brightest shade of any color, whereas black is the darkest.

in terms of connotation:

if you make it black, you feel that there's a chance of something being there that you can't see. Black brings hope through desperation.

White however, it's empty, there is a sence of never ending nothing-ness. It makes one feel lonely.

Therefore I believe white would have been a better choice for Mu, although much harder to convey.

My point exactly. By the way, artistically speaking black and white are both impossible to create using the primary colors and are, therefore, not colors. (Just like Gold and copper are not colors, they are metal.) White is a shade, use to show something of the same color *such as grass* is lighter where the sun (or some other light) is hitting it. Black is a tint which shows an increase in darkness where there is less light (like the shade.) 100%white is impossible. (100% is the absolute release of light from a color.) 100%black is impossible. (100% is the complete absorption of all colors in a light source.) Black has been attempted and the closest anyone has every come is 99.99% of all color being absorbed. *However, some shade of light still appears which prevents it from being 100%. Therefore, MU makes more sense to be all white since white is the complete absence of all color absorption. But, on a pragmatic note, it had to be black because the illustration on the other pages would be visible in MU which makes no sense.

Just thought that I would add this...

In Asia, black is traditionally associated with death, bad luck and anything of the sort, especially among Chinese, and all other races closely related to the Chinese, which includes the Japanese. White is associated with purity and innocence (same as in the West) but I don't think there's anything particularly represented by white. Black, however, means a lot of things, among them death, like I mentioned, and is in fact a taboo colour among conservatives. Black isn't even allowed to be worn during celebrations, so it would make sense that black would be the colour used to visualise MU. Besides, speaking in a literal sense, when someone dies or faints, it's more common to write "and his world went black" or something like that.

However, white is the traditional colour for mourners during a funeral (for male descendants and their families, and people closest to the deceased). Light died without any remorse, which means he died also as Kira, so using white would be like to mourn him. And speaking as a Chinese, I don't think black is on the list of mourning colours - so far I've seen white, blue, red and green, but no black. Not even if the deceased is not a traditional Buddhist. White is also related to heaven, even among Asians.

And if the pages are entirely white, the pages might seem to be blank pages like those you can normally find at the end of most books.. It just occured to me...

Haha, that actually makes a lot of sense... it's weird how we can sort of forget cultural factors in arguments like this sometimes. Like the story isn't actually written by an asian person and would therefore be influenced by their beliefs.

Although you know, another reason for it... when you see black as a solid color, it's just dodgy. People see a bunch of white and go "Wow, that's bright." or "Hmm, must've used too much bleach." You see a bunch of black and you just think "Wow that's depressing..." or "Gee, how dreary."

Black is just a negative color, and death is meant in this case to be negative (although some cultures and people don't see it that way) so black would be a better color to signify it.

But I myself don't get why black is such a negative colour... Once I was going to wear black to my family's reunion on Chinese New Year... You can probably imagine what my mother said. And that was even though my whole family are Christians.

Back to the topic, I guess white is also too pure to be associated with someone like Light, or Kira. Even though Light is well, light. I think the name signifies Light's desire to be the 'light' of the new world, but instead he became the darkness - black - when he became obsessed with the Death Note's power and essentially became a murderer.

I always just thought it was a touch of irony. Naming such a dark character Light...

Then again, when he'd lost his memories and was genuinely working to catch 'Kira' he was rather a sweetie. Although that did seem to make the contrast extremely distinct, which just added to the twistedness. Huh.

Black isn't really a negative color, people just see it as negative because it's associated with negative things. Death, blindness, sorrow. It's been associated with these things so long that it just seems to give off a negative impression.

I really don't think there's any significance to Raito's name, "Light" is just an Amarican pronounciation as Japanese doesn't have an "L" sound. I don't rember what his exat name in Japanese means, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with light, though because I can't rember, I could be wrong......

As for his loss of memories...i think it just served to make Raito's story all the more tragic....

Death is not bad, Blindness is regretable- but the other senses become stronger, Sorrow....just get over it.

Black is an amazing "color."

Er... actually his name is Light. It's just that it's pronounced Raito in the Japanese anime/movie because, as you said, they don't have an 'L' sound. Hence why they pronounce L as 'Eru,' and Mello as 'Mero'... you get the idea. Raito is actually a misspell that occurred because fans tried to spell it phonetically and it caught on.

-bangs head on table- Yeah, I have no issues with death, blindness I don't think anyone with sight can actually judge, and sorrow isn't always easily dismissed. I'm just saying that those are widely regarded as negative, and the color black has been associated with them.

I like black, love it even. Black is like, my fourth favorite color. That is just not the case with the general population, and people aren't all that inclined to change their beliefs just because it would make sense. People can be dumb like that.

I think - stress on the word think - I might know what Light's name means. I watched the movie on dvd, and it had the oddest subtitles, because it was translated word for word from the Chinese versions, and all the Japanese names appeared as their literal meanings. Light is 'supernatural moon at night' or something like that, Souichirou is 'supernatural chief at night,' Sayu 'abundance,' Ryuzaki is 'dragon,' Amane Misa is 'sea sand,' Mogi is something to do with 'wood,' Kira is 'very happy'...

I know, laugh all you want, but that's what really appeared in my dvd version. I laughed a lot at first too, until I realised I had no idea what they were saying.

THAT"S IT!

Raito means "moon" basically. Though most would pronounce it "Tsuki" or something akin to that, but it's "Raito." lol

Don't worry, my DVD did that too, I had to go through and reprogrm my subtitles. not fun.

Hold on. Doesn't Ryuk say that only those who actually use the Death Note go to Mu? As far as I recall, L never did that.

Well, there was the conversation between Raito and Ryuk, in which the conclusion was made that Death was equal.

In which L would have gone to Mu, just as the Death Note user would have.

If that is the case, Ryuk's statement concludes that there is no punishment upon using Death Note.

Unless you believe that using it gives one nothing but bad luck.

If bad luck is due to poorly planned and reckless usage, well then there really is no punishment, only your own stupidity. When Ryuk says Death is equal for everyone, could he by any chance mean death itself, and not the afterlife?

You know, I do believe you are the first to bring up something like that.

In which case he is saying that everyone will die, but what happens after that varies from person to person!

Oh my god, i'm actually REALLY excited right now!

I love that you said that!

(hugs no name, and goes off to think about it more)

The initial spark of my thought is probably of the most primitive kind. I just felt it would be really wrong to send L into nothingness. It doesn't feel good to me at all, for him to end up the same way as Light.

What's even more obvious, I now realized, is when Ryuk says that DN users go to "neither heaven or hell", he implies there is a heaven and hell.

I hope L went to heaven.

I hope L went to heaven as well.

Though I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in hell.

DX

HEH! That dirty sinner. LOL

(smirks)

I wonder which section Dante Alighieri would put him in.

(tilts head in thought)

damn, it's been a while since I read that........

How come? How long is a while to you?

Well, I don't own it.

And the library always has a million holds on it.

anyway. I read it back in 7th grade, and now im going into 10th.

Was it a school assignment, or did you do it on your own? To me, it was school, a mere introduction, but then I borrowed it. The only one in my class to do so. I found its horror and alienness fascinating.

I read it on my own.

And I know what you mean by fascinating. Was one of the most interesting things i've ever read.

I would love to find an older copy, which is not too expensive but still counts as an antique one.

I'd love to find the original translation. Where it's still in the poetry format. (forgets the trem for this)

All the bookstores keep giving me this modern day english translation. Which sucks....

We're off topic, but still. I read the Swedish and Russian translation, in poetry form. There were no English. I want to find and buy the English also.

I noticed I mislead you, before. I was wrong. There is a rule which says all humans will go to MU as they die. Episode 37.

It made me very very sad, because I was just beginning to hope for L's happiness...

lol

It is rather dissapointing. But I do wonder what exactly Mu would be like....

I wonder if humans keep their physical form in MU. To feel nothingness, (it must be discussed whether it needs to be felt at all) you certainly need nerve cells.

I don't think of it as a feeling, but more of an awareness of nothing.....

You are aware that there is nothing around you. And because of that, you can not feel anything or see anything.

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