He lost because someone else screwed up his plan. He would have easily won if they hadn't.

I was also very disappointed with the ending.

I also like spoiler tags.

you could see it coming from miles off. i think Light became way too overconfident after accidentally beating L and lost sight of his former self. also, what a stupid place to hide the real notebook!

He didn't kill L accidentally, it was part of his plan. He manipulated Rem into doing it, thus getting rid of his two biggest obstacles (L and Rem). He was faaaar too cocky at the end, wanting to gloat, he should have waited till the heart attacks. He could have won quite easily anyway, if that guy hadn't stayed around he could have just got the names later and won then.

my bad, accidentally = tricked an idiot into doing it for him because L would have caught him had he not.
they were many ways Light could have won aswell as your suggestion. he was ridiculously cocky


CHECK TO MAKE SURE THE NOTEBOOK BEING USED WAS REAL, replace it with a torn out page if it was found to be a fake.

or bug the room and have him do it from afar. or if bugging was impossible he could have had a hidden camera, a simple photo would be enough to kill near.

have the guy who <LOOK MA, I AM SWEARING> it all up to text the names to someone else, who would kill them.

or get some crazy followers to attack the place leaving the one wearing [some significant item]

or manipulate (via death note) the people working for him to shoot near and his aids. or manipulate one person to shoot near and flee, then to admit to being Kira when cough.
as 'L' he controlled the whole worlds police, get a sniper team to kill Near the moment he enterd the building.

or bomb the damn place first and kill the people he knew with deathnote.
etc. etc.


god dammit light >_< God.. Damn.. It.

This one is impossible;
1) You can't use the death note to get people to kill other people
2) By the point in the story, he didn't control them, they had all given up with regards to Kira.

But yeah, just checking, or keeping a torn out page somewhere hidden would have worked fine.

1) you sure? he got the bank robber to shoot all his bullets at the shinigami just fine. he did instruct him to do so in the death note but i suppose he may have only done so out of fear.

2)bad wording from me sorry.
The police had given up, but he can still use 'his' title of L to his advantage. they said a few times through the anime that L can command any police force in the world.
If you cant make people kill people with death note, he could still legally order the police force to arrest or maybe assassinate Near and co. He could give them any reason other than 'because he's Kira'
if Near was mealy locked up light uses the photo they take as a record of the arrest to kill him.

L's rep would probably be ruined, but who cares, everyone who knew who L was is dead

New emphasis in my quote. Of course, shooting Ryuk makes no difference, as he doesn't die.

but I'm sure he didn't know he wouldn't kill Ryuk.
in any case, my second point still valid

Yes he did, Ryuk had told him previously that Death Gods can't be killed by guns.

i meant the guy who robbed the bank. he didn't know he couldn't kill Ryuk with a gun

It wasn't the fact he didn't know, it's a matter of the Death Note can't be used to kill other people, it doesn't matter if the people who you're manipulating know they can or not, it just won't happen if you write "shoot person x". But as Ryuk can't be harmed, it doesn't matter.

you might be right, but it sounds like you can make someone kill another if you give a name.