I'd really like to know how Ohba feels about Kira. I feel like she's projecting her own beliefs into the story, and that she's trying to get a message across to her audience. I really wish she wasn't so mysterious as an author. Because she's really driving Light's failure home, almost miserably so. There was a lot of blood in this chapter, and it was almost painful to see Light in shambles, ordering Mikami and Matsuda to kill everyone and be refused, to call for Misa and Takada and be told that they're out of his reach. I know he's brought this upon himself, really, but I didn't expect to see him crash this badly.

    At the same time, all this goes to show that Light is not a God. He's a human being, a sore loser who has just lost very badly. In fact, everyone in this chapter was so very human, and I guess Death Note is really about humankind in general, and humankind as individuals, how different they all are. What they believe in. What their sense of justice is. There is no good and evil in Death Note, just like Near said in the last chapter. There are just different sets of beliefs at war with each other. We see Light broken and bleeding in this chapter, desperately human and with no one to support him. We see Matsuda firing at Light in a fit of very human passion, which I think was a direct outcry of his own inner turmoil. I think Matsuda shooting Light was partially in his own attempt to "kill" the pro-Kira leanings inside himself. Light was still firing off ideals at Matsuda, and Matsuda wasn't saying anything in return. He was just crying and bringing up Yagami Papa, as if that was his touchstone, trying to hold onto the sense of "justice" he's been fighting for all these years, trying not to give into Kira's honey-coated words. I do think Matsuda reacted out of the burn of Light's betrayal (not only did Light lie to the NPA, he was going to kill them all), but also because of what lies inside of himself. Just my two cents about that, though.

    I'm glad it seems to be coming to an end, though, because if Light had escaped and gone against Near, I would have been seriously afraid for Near's life. We see him unsure of Light's rambling about the "fake" Note, and I wonder if the fact that his original plan would have failed if not for Mello has shaken his faith in his own abilities. Near's not the type to show it if it were true, and indeed he may have accepted that he is inferior to Light as far was intellect goes. But someone (I forgot who) mentioned that Near is wiser than Light, and I do believe that is partially true. He understands the nature of humans, really, and places value on their lives, even the life of Kira, who he sees as a mass murderer. He said that he had no intention of killing Light, which kind of surprised me, but not really. Part of me says that Light is too dangerous to be left alive, but I guess for Near, who seems to be strangely humanistic (if anything--I'm really inclined to think he's pretty objective about humanity) in his beliefs, he isn't the one to decide whether Kira lives or dies. At the same time, bringing Kira into the eye of the public would create a melee, most definitely. I think he knows that in the condition the world is in right now, it would be best just to keep Kira locked away.