hell yeah anon i think we’ve got similar viewpoints on this! like, i love L he’s my favorite and the first arc is my favorite part and the lxightxmisa hijinks is arguably the most enjoyable part of the series for me but?

narratively i think his death is brilliant. more so in the manga because in the anime his death episode is quite a bit hokier and full of homoerotic sexual tension and musical numbers and dramatic flashbacks etc, and i enjoy it (and the anime, which is kind of cheeseball central) for what it is.

but in the manga L’s death is just so, like, stark and sudden and like “what. what what what no how is that happening. that doesn’t make any  sense at all you don’t kill the antagonist off halfway through what the hell what what what what (repeat maklemore lyrics into infinity).” and that’s so great because it’s what death is actually like in real life. it makes no sense, sometimes comes out of nowhere, takes the last person you expect to die - with no warning, no rising music, no preparation for anybody. just bam - gone. bye.

and they stuck to their guns they didn’t have him pop back up for the end, they didn’t spend all of the second half wanking over his memory (although light arguably did bc? he thinks about L way too often like when near is kicking his ass in the warehouse he’s still like ‘man i miss L L woulda kicked my ass way better than this twink’)

it was just such an interesting, brave decision from a writing standpoint and i really really liked it