From a writers perspective, the ending to death note was poorly handled.

Hello. Before starting, I'd like to thank my opponent for initiating this debate. Following his guidelines, I will refute his claim that from a writer's perspective, the ending of Death Note was poorly handled. Contention #1:The main protagonists (Light Yagami) was out of character during the conclusion to the series: 1) I say this because he made some highly unintelligent mistakes. a) Having Light attempt to write everyone's name on his spare death note paper out in the open was very much out of character for him. There are several issues with this. 1. Light did not attempt to write everyone's name down. Instead, Light attempted to write down only Near's name (Nate River) and coerce the others into letting him free through manipulation. This accredits Light with being in character as throughout the series he is confident in his manipulation skills . 2. Light understood the gravity of the situation. Having been caught with undeniable evidence, Light realized that there was no more time for planning and acted accordingly. Throughout the series, Light always responded to a situation with a reaction suitable to the circumstances in which it lay. If something was only a minor annoyance, such as Takada's encounter with Misa Amane, he treated it as such and worked around it in a minor way. When something major occurred, he altered all plans he had at that point in order to deal with it. For example, when he went to the police station to give his father fresh clothes and encountered Naomi Misora, he dropped all previous plans of returning home and immediately dealt with the new problem, continuing until he had effectively neutralized the problem. In a situation where there was no way to write down Near's name subtly, Light made the best choice available to him at the time, disregarding all further plans and immediately seizing upon a new one that would best suit him. Such is in character for him to do. Which leads to... 3. Rather than doing this, he could have found a means of writing the names covertly. He could have asked Near to let him write on the fake death note so that he could ascertain whether or not it was the real deal. At this point, he would have been able to covertly grab a piece of death note paper from his watch and write all the names he wanted to write. Unfortunately for my opponent, this would not have come even remotely close to being successful. The fake death note at this point was already proven to not be "the real deal," as when Mikami Teru wrote in it mere minutes prior, everyone whose name he wrote in the death note failed to die after 40 seconds. Light would have no basis on which to make such a request and legitimately expect it to be granted. In addition, the only way to determine if the fake death note was real would be to write someone's name in it and see if they died. Near would never have allowed such a thing. As stated in the manga, Near refused to test the notebooks. He would have refused to let Light do so as well. Finally, at this point, Light had already admitted to being Kira. At this point, any requests he made would be refused on largely on principle, as they would be seen as a desperate attempt to escape his situation, which they would, in fact, be. b) Light didn't anticipate that Mikami would try to kill Takada with the Death Note. Light himself KNEW Mikami would do everything he would do as well as the fact that he was fanatical in his love of Kira, so how could he not figure out that Mikami would attempt to kill Takada? Light knew that Mikami was fanatical in his love of Kira, true, but there were two aspects to this devotion that Light even mentions. Mikami's loyalty lay in also trusting his God, Kira, as well as trying to act in Kira's interests. Up until Takada's kidnapping, Mikami never deviated from following Kira's instructions, showing that his loyalty was first to obey Kira's commands, and second, to do as he felt was right to promote Kira's world. For example, in chapter 90, Mikami asks himself, "God, what are you...?" portraying that he is unsure. However, he immediately counters himself with "No... there is no need for me to question. God is absolute. My job is to do as God wishes." Clearly, Mikami obeys Kira first without hesitation. There are other examples of this as well, such as when Mikami first asks Kira for permission to choose a new spokesperson after the death of Demigawa on Kira's Kingdom, and when he first contacts Kira, saying "From now on, it'll be as you wish." With such unflinching dedication to obeying his God's commands, Light had no reason to believe that Mikami would second-guess his God and disobey his instructions. c) Light didn't consider every possibility when it came to his "fake deathnote plan." We know this because he dictates that L could have gotten out of situation simply by checking. Regardless of how sure he knew Near's thought process, he should have developed a back up plan. Agreed. However, it is not in character for Light to develop back-up plans, which is the current contention. When enacting his huge plan to kill L, Light did not have a back-up plan. Rem could have deviated from Light's perceived thought process for her and tried to kill him as well as L, and Light would not have had a back-up plan. When Light initiated an attack on Mello's hideout and Shidou ambushed the opposing forces, Light did not have a back-up plan. Light does not make back-up plans, and thus, it is in character for him to not make one regarding his fake death note plan. 2) We must keep in mind that the story was centralized mostly around Light Yagami and his genius level intellect, thus, for their to be a change of pace in his personality without any character development is a negative effect on the story. This is why I claim that him making those 3 unintelligent mistakes negatively impacted the ending. Rather than immediately change Light's character, the author could have either devised a scenario where Light is actually outsmarted even with his intelligence at its peak. The film managed to do this quite well as rather than have Light make some bone head mistakes, it head "L" sacrifice himself in a way where it was impossible for Light to win. As previously asserted and proven, Light did not, in fact, change his personality. There was only a change of situation and circumstances, to which Light responded as was typical of him. Therefore, this is inconsequential, as Light was outsmarted with his intelligence at his peak by Near. In conclusion, I have shown that despite the opposition assertions, Light Yagami was, in fact, in character throughout the duration of the series, thereby negating his contention that the ending of Death Note is an example of poor writing. For this reason, you should vote CON. Should he provide additional contentions in the next round, I shall be happy to refute them as well. :D Thank you for your time.