- Joined
- Jul 18, 2017
What is the purpose of art? Before we take this dive into “Death Note”, we first must establish why humanity makes art in the first place. At a fundamental level, in my opinion, Art exists to tell a story of survival. Be it a mother warning her daughter 20,000 years ago to make sure her future unborn kids don’t pick up that particular spider, or eat that particular berry. Or for the men, teaching their sons to be wary of that particular sound in forest while hunting, or certain actions by foreign humans pretending to want to trade or be guest. In all these cases, the story exists to impart survival information. Over time this natural inclination would be coopted by advanced societies to turn storytelling into a way to impart societal morality and best practices into the next generation of people.
The Death Note Anime, is the antithesis to this ideal. Far from teaching a lesson about morality, or imparting best practices, this show seeks to impart a vile view of human society and spirituality. A view wherein all of us, at the individual level, are pawns. If we are not pawns of our superior humans who have access to the levers of power, then we are pawns to supernatural forces beyond our control capable of maliciously utilizing the levers of society to their own ends.
I will now address the heretical nature of Death Notes magic system. It’s a system that goes beyond what boomers bitched about Harry Potter. Harry Potter was tame by comparison, because Harry Potter was escapist mumbo jumbo with no defined natural rules. Death Note, by comparison, has a hard magic system that is manifestly heretical to anyone who believes in nature and natures god.
Rule 1 of the Death Note: The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die.
Rule 2 of the Death Note. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
Rules 3-5: If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
This is a fundamental heresy, because it is a perversion of the Chapter 1, Verse 1, of the Bible. “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
The Death Note is, in essence, a stand in for the timeless void. Infinite potential simply awaiting WILL to impose upon it. A human, writing WORD into the death note imparts will upon the void, and makes it reality. Even up to the command over life and death. This is an authority solely reserved to God, and for such a system as the Death Note to exist, a mortal human must have similar power as God the creator before the existence of Time itself. This perversion of the genesis story is a DELIBERATE action on the part of Death Notes author it must be stressed. It is not an accident that the Written Word is the basis line of the vile magic system.
Now, is this a story ultimately akin to Icarus? A story about men who reach for the power of God and getting burned? No. Because the magic system of the death note has no virtue. According to the Anime, there is no authority past the conclave of the Shikagami, the spirits of Death. Like cackling demons, they delight in mortal abuse of their authority while happily enabling its application. The most pernicious example being the female police detective early in the series slowly discovering what was actually going on, only to be betrayed by Light Yagami and sent to suicide by him writing her name in the “Death Note”.
This is the Second, and most vile of heresies because it undermines the fundamental power of God. Namely, that God has ultimate authority over death, and no mortal can invoke supernatural demonic powers to slay one his agents in the world. The scene where the lady cop walks to the Gallows is pernicious, because the show implies that ultimately everyone, good or bad, are simply pawns to death. That ultimately nothing matters. There is no force beyond your own will looking out for you. If you are not being preyed upon by duplicitous humans, then you are being preyed upon by capricious and malevolent spirits.
This friends, is nihilism. Pure and simple. No God, No justice, only the laughter of thirsting demons. it imparts no morality, other then that uncaring demons will kill you all. It imparts no social commentary, other then that civilization itself is simply a façade to implement the cackling demons will to kill. That is the message of "Death Note". It is why I hate it. Its evil. And if you cannot see it as evil, then I am truly sorry for you. May God have mercy on your soul.
The Death Note Anime, is the antithesis to this ideal. Far from teaching a lesson about morality, or imparting best practices, this show seeks to impart a vile view of human society and spirituality. A view wherein all of us, at the individual level, are pawns. If we are not pawns of our superior humans who have access to the levers of power, then we are pawns to supernatural forces beyond our control capable of maliciously utilizing the levers of society to their own ends.
I will now address the heretical nature of Death Notes magic system. It’s a system that goes beyond what boomers bitched about Harry Potter. Harry Potter was tame by comparison, because Harry Potter was escapist mumbo jumbo with no defined natural rules. Death Note, by comparison, has a hard magic system that is manifestly heretical to anyone who believes in nature and natures god.
Rule 1 of the Death Note: The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die.
Rule 2 of the Death Note. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
Rules 3-5: If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
This is a fundamental heresy, because it is a perversion of the Chapter 1, Verse 1, of the Bible. “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
The Death Note is, in essence, a stand in for the timeless void. Infinite potential simply awaiting WILL to impose upon it. A human, writing WORD into the death note imparts will upon the void, and makes it reality. Even up to the command over life and death. This is an authority solely reserved to God, and for such a system as the Death Note to exist, a mortal human must have similar power as God the creator before the existence of Time itself. This perversion of the genesis story is a DELIBERATE action on the part of Death Notes author it must be stressed. It is not an accident that the Written Word is the basis line of the vile magic system.
Now, is this a story ultimately akin to Icarus? A story about men who reach for the power of God and getting burned? No. Because the magic system of the death note has no virtue. According to the Anime, there is no authority past the conclave of the Shikagami, the spirits of Death. Like cackling demons, they delight in mortal abuse of their authority while happily enabling its application. The most pernicious example being the female police detective early in the series slowly discovering what was actually going on, only to be betrayed by Light Yagami and sent to suicide by him writing her name in the “Death Note”.
This is the Second, and most vile of heresies because it undermines the fundamental power of God. Namely, that God has ultimate authority over death, and no mortal can invoke supernatural demonic powers to slay one his agents in the world. The scene where the lady cop walks to the Gallows is pernicious, because the show implies that ultimately everyone, good or bad, are simply pawns to death. That ultimately nothing matters. There is no force beyond your own will looking out for you. If you are not being preyed upon by duplicitous humans, then you are being preyed upon by capricious and malevolent spirits.
This friends, is nihilism. Pure and simple. No God, No justice, only the laughter of thirsting demons. it imparts no morality, other then that uncaring demons will kill you all. It imparts no social commentary, other then that civilization itself is simply a façade to implement the cackling demons will to kill. That is the message of "Death Note". It is why I hate it. Its evil. And if you cannot see it as evil, then I am truly sorry for you. May God have mercy on your soul.
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