Was Light Yagami from Death Note right? (spoilers)

Felt like making this topic given recent events.

No, he targeted criminals who were already in jail. Completely pointless.

no, he was a child addicted to power

it was never about punishing lawbreakers, it was about ruling by fear

At first, yes. Later on, no. That kind of power would corrupt anyone.

EPR-radar posted...

At first, yes. Later on, no. That kind of power would corrupt anyone.

he folds on his fake principles pretty much immediately with the lind taylor thing

Dungeater posted...

he folds on his fake principles pretty much immediately with the lind taylor thing

Yes, it didn't take long at all.

why would u say "later on" if its basically the very beginning

He had a childish conception of right, wrong, and where crime comes from. Like he outright did not understand or try to understand how a society works lol. He never once interrogated his country or others' power structures or examined what correlates with crime, etc.

No, because deep down, despite all of his justifications, Light didn't want to save anything or anyone except for himself and his fragile ego. He just wanted to make the masses fear and worship him as a god while he played with his shiny new murder-toy, all the while believing himself to be perfect in every possible way. Once he knew for sure that the Death Note worked , his god-of-justice complex was just how his mind tried to reconcile "I'm better than everyone else" with "I just murdered two people with this thing".

If Light really wanted to save the world from its endemic corruption, he'd have at least focused on taking out brutal dictators and crooked politicians and business-people (like he ended up doing with the surviving members of the Yotsuba Group after he killed L and they ceased to be necessary for his plans) who are each far more responsible for the general state of the world than random criminals on the news and/or locked up in prison are. And he wouldn't have fallen for L's obvious "Lind L. Tailor" trap (let alone in just the second chapter/episode of the series) because of his wounded pride, he'd have just stayed on-course with his mission and ignored Tailor's blustering. And even if he was ever justified at any point, the absolute power of the Death Note is outright stated to corrupt absolutely (not from any sort of supernatural effects on the soul, mind you; just good old-fashioned human nature), so Light would not have remained "justified" for very long anyway.

Dungeater posted...

why would u say "later on" if its basically the very beginning

Because I had forgotten the Lind L. Taylor ruse and was thinking of when Light killed the surveillance agents.

SpawnShadow posted...

No, because deep down, despite all of his justifications, Light didn't want to save anything or anyone except for himself and his fragile ego. He just wanted to make the masses fear and worship him as a god while he played with his shiny new murder-toy, all the while believing himself to be perfect in every possible way. Once he knew for sure that the Death Note worked , his god-of-justice complex was just his means of trying to reconcile "I'm better than everyone else" with "I just murdered two people with this thing".

If Light really wanted to save the world from its endemic corruption, he'd have at least focused on taking out brutal dictators and crooked politicians and business-people (like he ended up doing with the surviving members of the Yotsuba Group after he killed L and they ceased to be necessary for his plans) who are each far more responsible for the general state of the world than random criminals on the news and/or locked up in prison are. And he wouldn't have fallen for L's obvious "Lind L. Tailor" trap (let alone in just the second chapter/episode of the series) because of his wounded pride, he'd have just stayed on-course with his mission and ignored Tailor's blustering. And even if he was ever justified at any point, the absolute power of the Death Note is outright stated to corrupt absolutely (not from any sort of supernatural effects on the soul, mind you; just good old-fashioned human nature), so Light would not have remained "justified" for very long anyway.

It's hilarious how the netflix Light actually did take out dictators and warlords first but it was all mentioned off-handedly in 1 minute throughout a montage of him and Mia having sex and then the rest of the movie is just a poor imitation of the original series with L chasing Light for killing jailed criminals. The netflix movie was a complete mess lol

no way, he's killin ppl left and right. people that dont even do anything wrong.

SpawnShadow posted...

And even if he was ever justified at any point, the absolute power of the Death Note is outright stated to corrupt absolutely (not from any sort of supernatural effects on the soul, mind you; just good old-fashioned human nature), so Light would not have remained "justified" for very long anyway.

By what I remember, when Light had amnesia using the effects of the book, he wasn't a bad guy until he got the memories back and went back with his psycho god-complex again.

I think it was understated how much that book corrupts.

Problem is Light had no real way to prove guilt he also killed cops and other people whi got in his way

Forget the morality of it. He was flawed from moment one when he exclusively targeted people declared criminals by the justice system.

He basically became the flawed police system taken to their logical extreme.

Would love to see the numbers of "actually innocent" in that story.

Also he was one of the stupidest, pettiest people who could possibly get the Death Note, leading himself to be targeted and goaded, but uh... that's just editorializing from me and not the question being asked. >_>

GiftedACIII posted...

The netflix movie was a complete mess lol

Willem Dafoe though.

Dungeater posted...

he folds on his fake principles pretty much immediately with the lind taylor thing

When I watched it the first time a decade ago, I was off the team when he killed Ray Penbar. For some reason, I didn't even consider the fact that he tried to kill an innocent detective. It wasn't until rewatching it as an adult that I realized just how fucked up he was as a person.

Its interesting to think whether the Death Note corrupted him or if the "good" detective light was just another facade. He seemed to be quite sincere about catching Kira, but that could have been driven by ego.

Define right. Crime did actually drop under his reign, so yes purely from a view of making a less criminal world.

However, that was almost a happy accident. He was a child with too much power who discarded even the pretense of justice when he went after Lind L Taylor. Although he was a death row inmate, all that Light knew was that he was trying to stop the extra judicial killings. He killed Lind because Light saw him as a threat. He killed Ray Pember and the FBI agents because he saw them as a threat. He killed Naomi because he saw her as a threat. He killed L himself because he saw him as a threat. This is the early days of Kira, it only gets worse from there.

Light is the bad guy who at no point realises he is the bad guy.

Fucking no, you know the arrogant dumbass was raised by a cop when he had the childish notion of killing criminals to stop crime rather than target the socioeconomic forces that drive it.

He's kind of like Dexter. Starts out well intentioned by going after people who have evaded justice.

light at no point ever wanted to actually help anyone

even from the start his inner monologues show what a monster he is he just had no means of acting on those actions

as discussed if he really wanted to change the world he would target those who make the world a worse place