×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Light VS. Lelouch: The Worst "Heroes" of Anime




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
jroa



Joined: 08 Aug 2012
Posts: 549
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:27 pm Reply with quote
It's an easy point to make. Light was essentially a complete villain, who has almost no humanity left after a handful of early episodes and wished to forever impose his will on the world from the shadows, while Lelouch was more of an anti-hero with only a few moments of villainy yet never really aimed to rule the world as a personal ambition.

I guess this used to be a popular match-up back in the day, but they're reasonably different as individuals outside of the common superficial mannerisms and general "mastermind" status.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ranran-001



Joined: 25 Oct 2018
Posts: 545
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:31 pm Reply with quote
Light is the worst. He has no morals. His worldview was distorted, his morality was repugnant, he was a coward, a sicko, and just plain evil. There is no difference between Light and that of a Hitler, a Duterte, or Saddam, he is the worst lead character of any anime.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1586
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:17 pm Reply with quote
On the villain tier meme, Lelouch is Great Tier, while Light is Sh*t Tier.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Rob19ny



Joined: 13 Jun 2020
Posts: 1976
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 5:12 pm Reply with quote
*reads article title*

How is this a debate? Did you not watch Code Geass? How is the GOAT, Lelouch, the best hero in anime history, in this discussion? *prepares to write 5 page essay*

*watches video to the end*

So you said all of that just to conclude with what I was going to say and you still dare to put Lelouch in this discussion as the worst hero. lol

With that said, Lelouch made mistakes during his journey, but not once did he do it with evil intentions. He did it Nunnally and his mother. He saved the world from his father then focused everyone's hate toward him. He sacrificed his life to unite the world and went down in history as the most evil and hated person ever.... and it was all according to his plan. No one but the waifu Kallen and those close to him know the truth. You can't say that about Light. Lastly, Yes, the smartest man alive said the worst joke ever. That's the irony. His level of intellect is so damn high that the worst joke he could make was exactly that. There was no way to avoid it. lol

Oh, and I find it funny that at 1:21, you use a clip from KA. But since the sites gone, its now ok to promote it. Laughing
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2359
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 5:37 pm Reply with quote
ranran-001 wrote:
Light is the worst. He has no morals. His worldview was distorted, his morality was repugnant, he was a coward, a sicko, and just plain evil. There is no difference between Light and that of a Hitler, a Duterte, or Saddam, he is the worst lead character of any anime.


Pretty much; Lelouch can at least be seen as tragic due to his genuine motives and has a few redeeming qualities. Is he a good person? No, because he's still manipulative and ruthless and has no issue throwing people under the bus if it serves his goals.

Light has NONE. He's a manipulative, misogynist, egomaniacal wannabe-despot. He really comes off as the kind of misanthrope who's utterly miserable every second of his life.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Dark Mac



Joined: 17 May 2008
Posts: 323
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:29 pm Reply with quote
Light ended war on Earth and reduced the worldwide murder rate by 2/3 (currently 437,000 per year), all at the cost of merely killing 100 or so people a day. If that's not heroic, I don't know what is.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1341
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:59 pm Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
Light ended war on Earth and reduced the worldwide murder rate by 2/3 (currently 437,000 per year), all at the cost of merely killing 100 or so people a day. If that's not heroic, I don't know what is.

Last I checked, heroes don't kill off or ruin the lives of non-villainous people for being in the way and take clear-cut sadistic pleasure in it--and generally don't regard all human lives (his family included) as pawns when he himself is just as human and commits the very evil he is "vanquishing". Based on that alone, I don't believe you do.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ranran-001



Joined: 25 Oct 2018
Posts: 545
PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 10:25 pm Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
Light ended war on Earth and reduced the worldwide murder rate by 2/3 (currently 437,000 per year), all at the cost of merely killing 100 or so people a day. If that's not heroic, I don't know what is.


Light is just an evil turd, who has murdered people who can't fight back or defend themselves, he is a coward of the lowest order, and his end goals can never last. Mass murdering dictators tend to keep control if they are good at it, but inevitably when they are gone, chaos ends up happening because there is a void that is missing. Light is simply setting up the world to fail harder after he is gone, evil shits tend to do that, which is what Light is.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13626
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 8:04 am Reply with quote
Light, without a doubt. At least Lelouch atoned for his crimes/sins by having Suzaku kill him.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
a_Bear_in_Bearcave



Joined: 14 Jan 2019
Posts: 551
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:15 am Reply with quote
Also, while I only watched half oh the Death Note since I dropped it, the whole premise of reducing criminality is bullshit. Light just brings back death penalty, something what most of humanity used to have in the darker times and worse: you had torture for worst criminals, and even stealing bread from market could cost you your hand. He also circumvents the legal process, so he must have had lots of false positives, letting real criminals escape. Civilization moved past death penalty since it's not necessary for civil and just society, not because people love having lot of crime.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
SpacemanHardy



Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 2511
PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 8:30 pm Reply with quote
Light openly admits to Ryuk, in as early as episode 2, that he's doing it purely because he wants humanity to fear and worship him like a God.

He never had pure intentions. If he did, then he would choose to outsmart law enforcement and civilians over outright killing them.

He cares not about the status of the world. Only about himself.

People who can't see that are frankly people you don't want to be friends with.

He is a villain. He is a villain. HE IS A VILLAIN.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 1:21 am Reply with quote
I'm sorry, but this title reads like the very worst sort of clickbait, and it certainly doesn't give me any desire to watch the video. The only people who conflate Lelouch and Light are those who didn't pay attention to the events of either series. Lelouch's driving motivation was the justified desire to overthrow an oppressive regime and obtain revenge for the horrific wrongs inflicted on his family. He was ruthless and calculating, but he had genuinely good intentions, and he was nearly ready to give up his rebellion near the end of the first season before things went horribly wrong. His ambitions started to get more out-of-hand in R2, and he became far too willing to let the ends justify the means, but even so, in the end he allowed himself to become the pariah of the entire world in order to achieve peace. At the end of the day, all he really wanted was a better world for his sister.

But Light...Light went from brooding teenager to irredeemable sack of shit in all of thirty minutes. He got his rocks off from committing wanton murder, and any claims he had of having good intentions were just false window dressing for his sociopathy. There was no nuance to him, no conflict, just pure megalomania. I found him to be one of the most insufferable and uninteresting protagonists in any shounen I've come across.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Lycosyncer



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 526
PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 2:33 pm Reply with quote
Come on, really? Light is undeniably the worst one between him and Lelouch, no contest!

As morally questionable of what Lelouch had done, he always had good intentions in wanting to make the world a better place for his little sister by overthrowing a corrupt oppressive government and for the innocents that got caught in the crossfire, Lelouch does express genuine remorse about it when his actions can have bad consequences but as for Light, he really doesn't seem the type to be like that because with his god complex and how he killed those FBI agents and especially Naomi Misora without remorse despite that they are all just doing their jobs, I knew that by that point, Light seems beyond saving.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group