Death Note // Immediate Consequences and Meaningful Conflict

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Death Note effortlessly walks a line that I think many shows struggle with a line that lies between immediate consequence and meaningful conflict so if I think there's a line I better start by explaining what I think lies on either side on the one side there are immediate consequences there is a difference between eventual consequences and immediate consequences too long between action and consequence we'll leave a story that feels either predictable or slow too short a period between the two on the other hand undermines what I think lies on the other side map line meaningful conflict here I could simply use conflict but conflict for conflicts sake is typically very dull again in order to create that meaning there needs to be a certain amount of time dedicated to developing that conflict as a bit of a side note I will mention here that these two elements in a narrative are often subverted for the sake of humor see Indiana Jones and is conflict with this guy the quick resolution and somewhat disappointing end to the conflict is the whole point of the scene see also every fight in one punch man played as a joke to a similar effect they could have called it one joke man but that's not fair original or relevant before going any further I have to outline the major conflicts and the consequences of what occurs during those conflicts to be very clear I'm talking about the anime not the manga and especially not the Netflix movie which I already discussed in a previous video linked via the card above this is also the point where you should probably leave if you haven't watched the anime so here's a heads up there are major spoilers ahead in this video first I'll outline the major conflicts as I see them the most obvious is the conflict between light and air it's the conflict that most immediately comes to mind for most fans of the show one of the more obvious conflicts that is perhaps less well liked is that between knee and mellow I think this one was less well established because the goal was set up between them at a point where most fans weren't very interested we didn't really care who would take up eles mantle when we were still just reeling from his death so let it be noted that I'm not saying the show is always perfect there are also a lot of smaller conflicts that for me at least are part of what sets deathnote apart the conflict between REM and light is fascinating the conflict between soichiro and L is wonderful and the conflict between Naomi Mira and light might just be my favorite part of the whole series there are a lot of other minor conflicts I could mention and I haven't even mentioned the conflicts that occur within a character aizawa's conflict within himself over remaining in the task force leads to a memorably emotional moment in a series that can come across as cold soichiro struggle between the roles of detective and father made his arc one of the great tragedies of the series but I've got to stop somewhere so what about consequences then with H conflict there are potential consequences and the eventual consequence in order not to waste your time I'm only going to discuss the eventual consequences in depth but it's important to note that for example Elle's death wasn't inevitably set up by light and hell's confrontation but rather one of their deaths was else death was the eventual consequence but the death of either light or L was the potential consequence bear these distinctions in mind as I go forward so obviously Elle's death was one of the major consequences in the series but there are certainly many others the eventual consequence of knee and Melos competition was their compromise which eventually led to lights capture and subsequent death as a brief side note I think this may have been another reason people had issues with the final third four series near and Melos conflict was the real reason light was finally caught not actually nears conflict with light near and Mello weren't even particularly interested in catching Kira so much as catching Kira before the other could do the same but I'm getting off track here the eventual consequence of REM challenging light is her death the consequence of so it's hero's conflict with Elsie's involuntarily imprisoned before eventually confronting his own son to prove his innocence in what is perhaps the most tragic moment for any character in this series the consequence of Mesa AZ chance meeting with light is her death okay so there are consequences that arise from the conflicts within the show what's so special about that well nothing every show has conflicts and consequences no matter how minor what is special though is how they are handled Elle's death has to be the starting point here for his death was incredible not just because it was so hard to believe as it happened not just because such a wonderful character's death was so utterly without ceremony but because the conclusion to his arc the consequence of confronting light was so immediate in a lesser show such a character's death a character who was so central to the series and how unceremoniously that death arrived would have given the audience a sort of whiplash the show couldn't recover from of course there are people who did in fact stop watching after his death but I don't think that could have been avoided nor could his death have been handled any better at the outset of this video I claimed death not walked a line most shows struggle with a line between meaningful conflict and immediate consequence l was developed enough that his conflict with light mattered he wasn't a throwaway character which only made it all the more shocking when he did in fact die in a nutshell his conflict with light lasted long enough that it was truly meaningful but his end came immediately enough that his death was still surprising Elle's death is in my eyes the perfect on-screen death it had significance for the time spent with the character beforehand an impact for having cut that time short but one good moment does not know show me so what other mum's walk that line Soichiro Yagami one of the few moral centers at the show has an ongoing conflict with L a conflict that ties into his torn loyalties between his role as a father and his role as a detective throughout the series the conflict between the two roles and the conflict between Yagami and L is a never wholly resolved but this in my eyes is another great example of the balance within the show I'll be it to a different effect this time as soichiro strolls as both father and detective are challenged by L we are invited into a conflict that would see soichiro choose between the two were he to do either the show's balance would surely be ruined and so we see L die before that conflict comes to a head Elle's death leaves other conflicts unresolved adding weight to his death that is felt long after his final moments if that lack of resolution seems unsatisfying I would counter that because during this conflict we see two major choices that soichiro makes in order to maintain these two conflicting values first our choices father to have himself imprisoned and then as Detective to stake his life that neither light nor Misa were Kira worth noting here is that both roles can be considered to support either decision this is just my personal interpretation part of death notes billions is knowing when to hold back from a final consequence to leave the audience unresolved and the moral question such a conflict asks unanswered there are a lot of moments that come to exemplify what Death Note is but as a final example I want to discuss Naomi me Sarah she's introduced in a way that would typically be reserved for a major character indeed in a sense she is a major character just not one with a screen time you'd typically expect she's first introduced as the partner of Ray penber and after penber is killed she realizes that Kira can kill with methods of Havana heart attack add on to that a past experience working under Elle on another case and you're primed to expect that she will be both a major character and a recurring one as she attempts to contact the task force to tell them what she has discovered she meets light who eventually convinces her to reveal her name with the promise of becoming a member of the task force the very same expectation that her introduction Prime's us to expect from her character and as an immediate consequence of revealing her name she is killed the conflict is significant because the stakes are high me Cyril will die when she reveals her name and light will be caught if she doesn't the consequences though are so immediate and the potential held and me Sarah's narrative is so great that death is legitimately tragic it's like the tragic inverse of the Indiana Jones scene I mentioned earlier [Music] even those three moments hardly same special though every one of those months has its parallels in other shows so why did I spend so much time discussing them well the final element that sets deathnote apart is the way in which it sets up new conflicts and consequences throughout the series how each conflict seamlessly interacts with and leads to the next and how each consequence affects not merely the conflict that arose from but also the conflicts that otherwise seemed only tenuously related I spent so much time discussing these three moments because I think it's important to bear in mind the individual significance of death notes conflicts when I attempt to paint a view of how they're all laid out together in the next half of this video so let's have a look at how these consequences and conflicts play out over the series until else death why up until then well this video is already way too long and the conflicts are more easily plotted out before else death oh and so this video doesn't extend to a ridiculous length I'm focusing on the main conflicts and the major consequences I'm not looking to make an episode by episode plot summary here although it might sound like that at times in episode 1 we have lights conflict within himself first whether to believe in the notebook and then whether to use it and finally who to use it on that's just the first half of the episode the consequence of which is that light develops a very literal god complex in order to justify his own twisted morality in this first episode the conflicts are largely self-contained and the consequences are immediate this is the sort of thing you tend to see in a lot of pilots they act as a self-contained introduction to the rest of the show what follows in episodes 2 through 25 is where I think Death Note really starts to stand out in episode 2 light is confronted by EL thus begins the single biggest conflict of the series that only ends when L dies in episode 25 this is a long conflict a significant one but not unsatisfactory or dull for its length given the smaller conflicts that litter the show in between its inception and its eventual consequence in Episode three is revealed light is being followed by an FBI agent ray penber the identity of whom is discovered in Episode four and who was killed as a result in Episode five from Episode five members partner Naomi mishra is seeking to catch Kira for her partner's death in Episode six she meets light by chance and dies as a result in Episode seven while this is going on the Japanese police are meeting with L in episode 6 & 7 itself our resolutions for rising tensions between the Japanese police and L that had been going on from episodes three to five this is one of those instances where one conflict affects the consequences of another because the remaining police wanted Task Force Headquarters may Mme sera ended up dead in episode 8 l puts lights Roman household under surveillance beginning the conflict between Soichiro Yagami and L as well as the first major introduction of a conflict between his roles as father and detective the former ending with Elle's death in episode 25 and the latter shortly afterwards I'm going to lump them together here for the sake of convenience but they are both very important in episode 9 L confronts light directly from here on until Elle's death that are the conflicts between light and L as both the ideas they represent and as individual people they are quite different so I'm marking it as a separate conflict even if it could be considered part of the same conflict this again carries forward until Al's death in episode 10 we have tennis very important that episode 11 introduces the second Kira who has an ongoing conflict with the task force because this one ends up becoming more or less part of the same extended conflict between light and L I'm not adding anything new here but it is worth noting that does happen episode 11 also introduces a conflict between lights moral standards and those of Sakura TV once again I'm not adding anything to this diagram as this conflict is rather messy and only appears sporadically in episode 12 the second Kira is introduced as a problem for light and lights conflict for this second Kira begins ending in episode 13 when Misa tracks down light and reveals herself as the second Kira in episode 14 the conflict between light and RAM is introduced via her promise to kill light the moment he puts Mesa in danger again this conflict is resolved the deaths of RAM and El in episode 25 the fifteenth episode introduces a bunch of developments within the conflicts I've mentioned previously but doesn't really begin or end any these conflicts so I'm not adding anything to this diagram episode 16 is much the same stuff is definitely happening but we're seeing the setup for the yotsuba arc not any of the individual conflicts therein in episode 17 the yotsuba arc is properly introduced and Rams distaste for the members of yotsuba I'm combining the two again here under the banner of the conflict between the task force and the yacht's of a group which concludes in episode 24 episode 18 introduces aizawa's conflict within his desires to remain in the task force and to hold a job to support his family concluding with a revelation he was conducting his own investigation before rejoining the task force in episode 23 the 19th episode sees a bunch of things happen the main conflict of which I'll just lump under Matsuda as a title Matsuda's internal conflict between his perceived inadequacies and his desire to assist in the Kira investigation are later resolved when he agrees to appear on Sakura TV in order to lure out huger in episode 22 episodes 20 to 24 wrap up the yotsuba arc while minor conflicts are introduced like those between the individuals within yotsuba none are on the level of those mentioned thus far these episodes are concerned for the yacht's of arc and providing a minor victory for el and his team before lights major victories revealed episode 25 then sees the fruition of that victory in the deaths of el and ren the two biggest threats to him at that point okay so what's my point he asks rhetorically well a lot of shows can make one or the other work well you could have consequences or resolutions on a regular basis making each episode feel more self-contained or perhaps a show with lengthier conflicts that feel more significant as a result both can serve up fine television but when you strike a balance between the two you get something Peschel the difference between striking a balance and just favoring one or the other can be illustrated in the first two seasons of The Walking Dead Season two had major pacing issues because it stuck far too long on the one situation on the conflict between Rick and Hershel before introducing any consequences for that conflict it became stale and predictable before the eventual conclusion even though that eventual conclusion was actually not bad the first season however had conflicts that were resolved in one or two episodes all while building major conflicts that would extend to the end of the first season or beyond an approach I greatly prefer death notes tight writing makes the first season of The Walking Dead look like the work for amateurs though here is a series that is so consistently introducing new conflicts and resolving old ones that there's almost no time to breathe look at how the major conflicts are spaced out here the vast majority of episodes introduce something new or offer a conclusion to something old and those that don't do either have more than one major conflict running at once just right made a great video and death notes pacing which are linked in the description and via the card above but it's worth stating again that its pacing is pretty much peerless of course fast pacing wouldn't matter if the conflicts consequences and narrative beats of the show didn't land and they absolutely do I feel the need to temper my enthusiasm just a touch here because it's not perfect as I mentioned in an earlier video I do have issues with the way certain characters are handled and the at times unbearably over-the-top style with which even mundane activities are rendered there's also the occasional attempt at comic relief that feels a little out of place and Mesa as a whole [Music] here and the others told me that this woman's supposed to be the second Kira but could it really be this unbelievably stupid girl just just every everything with Misa overall though I think it's pretty brilliant and in maintaining a balance between immediate consequences and meaningful conflict his show achieved something pretty special something I clearly thought was worth celebrating given I just wrote 3,000 words doing just that but hey that's just my take on the series I'd love to know what you think what makes Death Note special in your eyes is it even special at all let me know in the comments below cheese

Channel: VARIOUS

Views: 82,940

Rating: 4.9335251 out of 5

Keywords: Death Note Video Essay, Death Note Analysis, Death Note Conflict and Consequence, Death Note Just Write, Naomi Misora, Naomi Misora Analysis, Soichiro Yagami, Soichiro Analysis, Ls death death note, L death Note video essay, video essay, Death Note Anime, Writing, Writing advice, Animation, Screen play, Anime Video Essay, Various videos, Various, Various death note, Various analysis, Just Write Death Note, death note essay, light, death note, Various Horses

Id: CCivoyloRss

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/SurvivorNovak]

Professional, enjoyable video!