Forum - View topicTen Years of Death Note: Is Light The Bad Guy?
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Nonaka Machine Gun B
 Posts: 825 |
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The problem every pro-Light response in this thread keeps running into is how narrow-minded you have to be to refuse to see the world in any way but your own. It's already addressed in the article itself, but who the hell is Light to decide who deserves to die and who doesn't? That's not heroism, that's lording your power over others.
I like the apt comparison earlier in the thread that Light supporters would be completely OK with Light writing down a couple dozen Muslim names down every day. Trump is the God of the new world. It'll be a new world, free of injustice and populated by people who Trump's judged to not be rapists, not hiding among refugees, and very nice to him. |
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AggressiveNewt
Posts: 5 |
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I don't agree with the "closed-minded" statement. Whether someone is closed minded or open minded, people have to choose courses of action especially in power. You simple can't sit there and do nothing while you consider all viewpoints for eternity. Having convictions and beliefs does not mean you haven't considered all points of view and are closed-minded. It just means you made up your mind. I wouldn't compare Light to some tv evangelist simply because you don't agree with his course of actions.
George Washington was a tyrant to the British. Only the winner of history decides who is morally correct. |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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But criminal will kill people and Light can prevent those death by using the death note, at the cost of the criminal life. It come back to the same idea, do you take action that will kill few people to save many people? |
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pluvia33
 Posts: 196 Location: Dayton, OH, USA |
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When you try to make a point like that, you have to realize that most real criminals are not crazed mass murderers. The worst murderer that Light put to death likely hadn't killed much more than 10 people. The bulk of the murderers that he killed likely took 1 to 3 lives and probably wouldn't have killed again even if Light hadn't killed them. When you take into account the number of innocent people that Light killed to protect himself, those he killed for lesser crimes, and a number of people who were likely falsely accused, what Light did was a wash at best in terms of death count. The only crazed mass murderers in this story are those that got to use the Death Note (mainly Light). Last edited by pluvia33 on Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:34 am; edited 1 time in total |
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SailorMoonlight
Posts: 6 |
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Light just wanted to be a God, he did not have a good motive at all. When he says "I'll make the world better" the main point of his is not that the world will become better, but HE makes it better. He cares only about himself, his view and whoever dares to oppose it or do something about it, he kills that person merciless, even if it means his own father will die.
And someone mentioned that Light's name is the indicator that he must be good, which is quite the opposite, in my opinion, because the "bringer of light" means Lucifer, which is a suitable character for Light. |
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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This almost had me spitting tea at my screen. Good stuff. I'm very much in the "Death Note is a fun show with a great cat and mouse game built around outrageously entertaining twists and just wants to provide a good ride" camp. I never thought there was a lot of moral depth to be found here, yet I always found it troubling that a show about self-administered justice was targeted at a teen audience. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to foresee a character like Light becoming the hero. Of course Light is a villain by pretty much any society's standards today. And of course we still fear for him when he's about to get caught, simply because he is the protagonist. I rooted for him because he was entertaining, not because he was the good guy. I don't believe in innocents being corrupted by an outside power. You have to embrace said power to let yourself be corrupted. There's always a choice. Which is good, as things get a lot more boring when characters don't have choices. The only point I don't agree with is Light becoming a dirty cop in a world without the death note. He's much too arrogant to be bribed by anything besides his own ego and ambition. |
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Gemnist
Posts: 1760 |
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The real problem with Light as a character is that he has no true motivation. With a character like Lelouch from Code Geass, you at least know why he is like this, what his goals are, and that his guidelines are actually fair by war standards. With Light, however, all you know is that he thinks the world is "rotten" (which makes sense because it kind of is) and that he's "bored" (yeah... no excuse for that). Not to mention the guy was an idiot for keeping the Task Force alive for so long and then fake-crying for his dad when he was actually crying for the fact he couldn't kill Mello.
Granted, Light's ideas do make some sense: the death penalty is one of the most contested issues in modern society. But I think this guy made a good point by referencing Raye's and Naomi's deaths. Most people hated Light when he had Rem kill L and make the whole series look bad with Near, but for me, when Raye died, I just got sick (although Light's dad's death was for me the saddest). So yeah, I was on the Task Force's side for the longest time, even though the characters themselves are somewhat useless. For me, Mikami was the only well-developed Kira. If Light had done his thing from the shadows and killed a few corrupt world leaders, then boom, problem solved. You don't have to make a gothic utopia. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I think this misses the point entirely and I think all the comparisons to Le Louche are off base as well. A better comparison is Light Yagami with virtually all the humans in From The New World. Even the cute girls and children that look and act like they would not hurt a fly. Motivations have little if anything to do with it. The message is much more simple and clear: humans cannot be trusted with supernatural power. (Just ask Squera -- oh sorry he's not available right now he's busy being eternally tortured as a museum exhibit). Light never had this realization even up to the moment he died. His idol/minion/girlfriend Misa is another case study of this. She had no real interest in saving the world but she did no better than Light. It seems almost as if she never lost her soul because she never had one to begin with. One has to wonder what would have happened if Ryuk had dropped the Death Note on Light's father instead of Light. He certainly would have handled it differently. Most likely he would have gone about it in a more mature and judicious manner. But in the end it seems very unlikely he would have ended up any better than his son except that he would have been taken down sooner since he didn't have Light's talent for subterfuge. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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A significant number of the criminals that Light killed were already in prison. And most of them probably never harmed a single person. Toward the end, Light killed innumerable people who simply disagreed with him. To further expand on the train thing though. In the particular case of Death Note, that experiment most closely fits with L, and later on, Near. Not Light. In order to save the greatest number of people, L and Near both attempt to kill Light. Light is the "train". He is the one who poses the greatest threat to humanity. |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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He was a good guy at the beginning, then turn into a bad guy later.
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Acton
 Posts: 5 |
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I do not buy the deconstructionist post modern he not bad or that bad, morality is the eye of the beholder angle.
Light ( another example is Dune's Paul Atreides and Leto II and Bruce Almighty) is a trope I call the fallen messiah. That given the power of a god, mere man will eventually become corrupt. Or as Lord Acton puts it: Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. |
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Green Luthor
Posts: 28 |
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I think that depends on how one defines "dirty cop", really. It's frequently used to describe police officers who abuse their authority in any way, not just those who are "on the take". So a police officer who beats confessions out of suspects or plants evidence would also fall under the "dirty cop" label. From that perspective... yeah, Light would totally be a dirty cop, with his "ends justify the means" and "I know better than everyone else how justice should be meted out" attitudes. |
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FireballDragon
 Posts: 686 |
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Honestly, I believe this is an apt comparison between Light and Lelouch, considering how often the two are compared.
They both may have started with good intent, but only one redeemed himself for his mistakes in the end. http://41.media.tumblr.com/61ffe7ed306dbf3349f0fc9ab14cba8f/tumblr_n6d6ff3JWk1rlybt9o1_1280.png Original post can be found here. [Edit]: I've changed your image to a link. Do you have a smaller version? Errinundra. |
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DuelGundam2099
 Posts: 533 |
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I'm pretty sure Ryuk killed Light and it is possible Lelouch survived depending on whether or not you buy that he got his father's code. Also
>followers not including that huge cult following mentioned over the years >did not achieve his goal when he did in the last third |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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^ If there was ever a post to prove the point I was trying to make I think you have done it. Congratulations.
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