#OOUGH IM SO GONNA REBLOG THIS LATER WITH HOW LIGHT'S THEMES ARE SO HUMAN AND FIRE AND GGRAAAGH GODGODGOD

[nezz-cringe-crib]

not not not normal about the machinery/technology themes in L's english musical lines it has me in a grip.

all the characters actually have such clear themes and motifs but i especially love how L's is so subtly crafted.

there's obviously "The Game Begins." very clear machinery themes. pixels and code and blahblahblag sad technology boy. BUT IT CONTINUES IN OTHER SONGS TOO!! WHICH IS SO NEAT. AND THE PLACES THEY CHOOSE TO PUT IT IS SO GOOD in fact here's a whole list of bits i can pinpoint:

Secrets And Lies: - "All of the data has been analyzed" - "What other data does he have to see?" - "The truth is hard to sort out"

The Way Things Are: - "The cold, hard truth / Can't shut it down... / You can't turn it off" - "I won't let who I used to be... / Get me out of sync" - "I'll turn into a different me / Not so cynical / Not so clinical" - "Frame by frame / I see this movie in black and white / Shot by shot / Minute by minute..."

The Way Things Are (Reprise): - "I win the game / Gotta calculate one last trick"

The Way It Ends: - "Go through the motions like the hands upon a clock" - "I'm like a software program caught inside an endless loop / Just bad code that keeps repeating" - "It's like I'm hitting all my marks, as if I'm acting in a play / So out of character, yet somehow not a shock" (THIS ONE I LOVE THIS ONE IM TALKING ABOUT LATER) - "My camera's cloudy lens now / Takes much darker pictures than before" - "See it flicker, hear it humming" - "The message that it sends now / Sounds exactly like a closing door"

i bring all of this up to not only point out all the little machinery bits bUT TO NOTE WHEN THE MACHINERY ISN'T PRESENT AND IS MOST PRESENT.

the only songs where we lose the theme of technology in L's lines is when he's with light. "Stalemate" and "Playing His Game" aren't on this list. L doesn't use many technological terms in those songs. the only ones that pop up are said by light (ex: "Does he see pixels, not dreams") and that's because it's about light trying to follow L's machine-like thinking.

in fact, "Stalemate" (i think, it's late and i don't wanna check all those songs again) is the first time L uses some kind of human analogy: "Just like two actors on a stage / Go through the motions that we both rehearse... / Eyeball to eyeball / We'll see who blinks first."

IT'S BECAUSE HE'S WITH LIGHT. LIGHT MAKES HIM HUMAN.

IN FACT IT MAKES HIM SO HUMAN THAT WHEN LIGHT KILLS HIM IT LIKE SENT HIM THROUGH FUCKING SHOCK. WHICH IS WHY "The Way It Ends" AND "The Game Begins" HAVE THE MOST MACHINE BASED TERMS.

we are introduced to him as a robot, and it is stripped from him when he meets the one case/person that makes him feel alive, and suddenly it all hits him like a truck when the one thing giving him that sliver of humanity is what kills him. that line-- "It's like I'm hitting all my marks, as if I'm acting in a play / So out of character, yet somehow not a shock"-- encapsulates it perfectly. L is used to hitting all his marks already, because he has been raised as a machine, but with light those marks have been different. he has not been hitting them out of code, he has been hitting them out of precise and willing action. he did it with the fire that sparked inside and kept him burning, not the cold hard gears he was raised on. but playing with fire means melting everything you once had. it's gone now. it is what he has always done but it is no longer him.

note the shift from "eyeball" to "camera lens." note the mix of personification with machinery in "hands upon a clock" and "flickering" to "humming."

L lost because he was too alive. L died because for a second he was human.