SPOILER WARNING. Plot and/or ending details follow.

 

     It isn’t that Light got lazy or stupid towards the end that sealed his fate (I can’t stand such offhanded comments); it is the fact that he was too overconfident in his plan to bother with a backup plan. And why should he? He never needed one in the past even though his plans were extremely risky. When he gave away the notebooks, there was never any guarantee that he would touch one ever again. What if they confiscated the notebook and had it immediately locked away? The point is, Light tends to leave very little wiggle room in his plans because he is so arrogantly confident in his foresight.

     Which is why he was bound to slip up at some point. The problem with being in his position as Kira is that one mistake means that’s it. Kaput. With the particular plan he manifested to kill Near, he allowed it to have too many unknown exponents, such as what Mello might do. It’s not that he didn’t bother to think things through, he just assumed that Mello was acting on his own and had nothing to do with Near or his plan. But we know what happens when people ASSume. Even after Mello kidnapped Takada, Light gave Mikami the order not to use the real Death Note under any circumstances, ( I personally like to hate Mikami for Light’s death) but Light gave himself no way to communicate with him, creating yet another unknown in his plan. Even after all these flaws, he still can’t back down on the deal with Near or else it would be suspicious.

     The worst part of the plan, and what really burns my bacon, is that Light is so eager to get Near that he doesn’t think of the possibility of NOT DOING ANYTHING. He knew very well that Near was looking to find proof of him as Kira, and so he could have decided to simply go to this “concluding meeting” and let everyone stand there like idiots. THAT would be a brilliant plan. Then he would have Near’s trust (somewhat) and it would turn into an enjoyable couple more chapters like in the L arc where they work together and he would eventually kill Near some other way. And then become God. The end.

     The reasons this or any other plan with Light being the victor won’t work:
1.) Even after defeating L, Mello, and Near, there would always be a O, P, Q...etc. (I mean, there was a whole orphanage of them!) Thus killing the series by making it too predictable.
2.) Or Light will have his way, without any opposition, and he will reign a perfect world. Perfect ending? No. The whole reason this story started was because of Ryuk’s boredom. The same ennui will settle in once the world is perfect and there is nothing left to do. Ryuk will then kill Light. Unless Light kills him first and that’s where it all ends...in which case that would be......awesome! LONG LIVE LIGHT! *cough cough*...ahem...
3.) Who really believed that Tsugumi Ohba meant for this to be a story of “how Light became God?” (I know there are some hopefuls out there, but...)