Analyzing Evil: Light Yagami From Death Note

Your claim that objectivity can be reached by majority opinion is flawed, and Light addresses this point in the anime. The majority of people will say whatever they think society wants them to say. They will admit that murder is evil, but given the opportunity that Light was, the vast majority of them would likely use that power in some capacity. The point is that there is no clear answer to such a question. The ends never justify the means for those who perish because of them. But they may be justified for the survivors who are enjoying a utopia.

Death Note is NOT the greatest in the anime OR manga medium. Not even close. Not even REMOTELY close. It's a 6/10 AT BEST. What are you even talking about?

Light Yagami's story is a good example of the phrase, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

That the story would have us believe that killing criminals could reduce crime by 70% is my biggest problem with an otherwise fantastic story. In real life, we have plenty of evidence that extremely harsh punishments DO NOT reduce crime. It's much more dependent on the ratio of criminals that are caught.

"Evil is winning rn."-X

Damn. Would really like an episode of this series about Johan Liebert.

awesome done. I really enjoyed listening to this. =)

Death note is a story about the subjectivity of justice

Self-righteousness is evil ?

This seems like you looked at a surface summary of Light. He is evil and he ABSOLUTELY killed for his own selfish desires and it was blatantly obvious that he was.

Your argument for the idea that Light isn't really evil is pretty flawed if you consider the fact that as a human, he isn't really immune to bias. While he hasn't really shown any flawed and biased view on anything or anyone in the show, I do not believe that instantaneously makes him free from favoritism.
Furthermore, you also have to argue that he is fully capable of knowing who is good and who is bad which is impossible.
I personally believe he is evil because the result of a human being making himself the divine judge of the world and the one who gets to execute anyone from any place is simply a bad result, and hence he is evil.
To destroy crime is to destroy humanity. Peace is never permanent.
There will always come a time where terrible things will happen unless the world ends.
I am not completely against the idea that the best word to describe his alignment is "anti-villain" but I do believe to a major extent that he is a villain because ultimately, if he truly wants his way to succeed, that's what he must become because it really isn't the right way.
I think he is very close to just a villain.

Light became what he desired to get rid off with that power. He sure is my favorite anime character, I was really devastated at his death mostly at the part where he runs past his old self. RIP to everyone affected by the Death Note and Light.

Light was one of those rare villains you root for throughout the entire series (kind of like Walter White). I think somewhere deep down we all sympathize with some aspect of him despite how extreme he is in his beliefs and actions.

Light's ambition. Him using the sword to judge the wicked for their sins. It isn't inherently evil. The Death Note is a sword. When the sword is used righteously it is a good thing. Light however was not a just man but a young man fueled by hubris and arrogrance. He murdered people not for righteous judgement but for his own curiosity at first and then his own ensuing god complex. Almost all the murders committed in Death Note has one simple motivation. To satiate Light's growing ego. The Death Note is tainted with Light's malicious nature.

Please do eren

Watching this again after finishing deathnote again.

On top of everything else, I honestly wonder how many of the “criminals” Light executed were even really guilty. Japan has a notorious false conviction rate; their rate of conviction is almost 100%. How many of those faceless criminals we see written down in those montages were entirely innocent?

And even if they technically did do the crime, Light never takes into account why they did it. I doubt he researched any of the people he kills. As far as he’s concerned, if the system says they’re guilty, they’re guilty.

The moment Light forced FBI Agent Ray Pember to inadvertently kill his fellow FBI agents by writing their names on pages of the Death Note (also condeming Pember from Heaven or Hell), then killing Pember, followed by forcing Pember's fiancée to commit suicide (which in the Christain faith is a major no no and could be a major disqualifies frim Heaven so essentially condemend an innocent woman to Hell) just to protect his identity AND send a message to L and the Task Force...I knew he was truly only in it for himself.

He didnt just want to kill criminals for a better world, he wanted recognition for it...he spilled innocent blood and force others to spill innocent blood just to benefit his goal...he constantly called himself a "God" and "Justice Itself"...he was a highly intelligent manipulative sociopathic narcissist who created a cult following and killed anyone who got in his way...

He wasnt a good guy or an anti hero...in my eyes he was a true villain who hid his ill actions behind "good intentions"...but as the old saying goes, "The Road to Hell is Paved on Good Intentions..."

You keep mentioning objective evil. No such thing could possibly exist, with no subjects to judge an action, that action could neither be good nor evil, therefore it would still be subjectively evil. Also, saying a god deems such and such to be evil, simply replaces the subject, now instead of humans as the subject, it's god, and that's still subjective.

Unless you're using objectively differently than I am

An advantage of believing that God generates human standards for morality is that you don’t have to worry about questions concerning the morality of murder; murder’s always just objectively wrong with a God like that, regardless of whether or not everyone agrees that it is.

I think that it is wrong to presume that a God has a right over Light. He could give an ultimatum to reeducate the population 1984 style before the kill all lazy people

He could have become a "Hitman for Hire" with the Death Note as his primary weapon of choice and make millions of dollars and improving his physical strength to go along his heinous acts, by playing violent video games and watching R rated movies to get some depth into the dark side of existence, a total badass...😎, instead he goes for ordinary street thugs he sees on the news 😒and gets nothing but police suspicion and covering up his a** by killing more, even an idiot can figure out someone is laying a coordinated gang attacks on them, criminals often have a lot of enemies after their life. You cannot become anything when most of the human population is dead, evil and evil acts are just human constructs made by individuals as value judgement of their character and nothing more. The judicial system just attempts to control this human behaviour and maintains proper civil discourse. A smart person would realise this, seems like all that studying was not put to good use... 😒 And also test the limits of the supernatural powers of the Death Note, before going on a killing spree (to spare yourself the embarrassment of doing something wrong, trail and error and strategies of using the death note is must, when dealing with supernatural things), because most of his acts happen due to sheer luck and chance, he could have got caught long before if it wasn't for plot convenience and Light getting rid of possible leads to his tail. And Ryuk was right, when you eliminate "evil" people, you BECOME the most evil, because the act of committing a murder is also evil and frowned upon by society. The Death Note in all regards is like a gun, knife, dagger, sword, any weapon humans use to smite others.

Light is evil.
He gets a taste of power and then immediately it triggers his inner narcissist and egoist. In the end, all he wanted to do was rule as much as he wanted (as much as he could) and used good intentions to cover up the fact that he was a megalomaniac.

The problem with narcissists is that they will never admit what they actually want, they will always frame themselves as the good guu because they are always the good guy in their mind. If a narcissist steals from you, its because they knew you wouldn't mind and because they were teaching you how to share. If a narcissist cheats on you its because you never gave them good enough attention and they felt lonely. If a narcissist kills someone its because they were dealing with a huge threat and that they should be innocent anyway because they did people a favor.

Light is a huge Narcissist.

Please do Eren Yeager next

I support Light. he was correct. i would have done similar things.

heres how i see it if your killing innocents you better be starting an apocalypse

Light was definitely off his rocker 😂I thought that since he killed L’s lookalike. I however still think it’s more nurture vs nature. If you think about it Light is groomed to be a narcissist from the beginning. By Japanese standards he is considered the perfect young man, to the point he receives nothing but praise. He gets the highest scores, is attractive, has many friends and admirers, is well-liked by his parents, and can pretty much do whatever he wants to the point that he’s bored with everyday life. Light was smart enough to easily change the world effectively with the death note. He didn’t care about changing the world though, he wanted to have fun. He even says at the beginning that he was bored, so the prospect of being a god is finally something exciting. Plus, absolutely power corrupts absolutely and he was already far gone by the time Lind L. Taylor was killed. Notice how he responds to L, calling it a game, he could’ve made it so L never figured out where he was or what he was doing he purposefully got close to L to kill him. It was about winning to Light, he even says “it’s not the same without L” because he didn’t have that challenge. Light is honestly kind of like an evil Goku but instead of fighting physically he likes mental cat and mouse games. I mean it’s similar to Scarface, Tony Montana didn’t care too much for the material, it was just a big goal that he wanted. He far enjoyed the process of getting there, getting into gunfights, taking territory, competition.

of all the evil characters. has any other been so completely eviscerated by the words "no youre just a murderer" ?

I think it also important to mention that he doesnt just kill criminals. He kills anyone who gets in the way of his ideals. Who are usually good people such as L and the FBI agents.

He was evil. He knew society would not accept his actions. Though some came to worship him, but the question should of the motivations of his worshippers. Some were true believers, others were in fear, while there were those who wished to usurp his power.

To create a better world, it cannot be made through fear. He reveled in the compliance people gave him through the fear he instilled.

And if he achieved his goal, his new world would not be genuine. It would fall back to its original state before his change took effect.

Your whole argument on “objective morality” is based upon an appeal to the majority, which is a logical fallacy.

The majority of people agreeing on something does not make it so, sir: it was once the common consensus that the earth was flat, but that did not make it so, did it?

Let’s say, hypothetically of course, that a certain religion that finds it moral to stone adulterous women to death became the world’s majority due to higher birthrates than the rest of humanity: does that make that act moral? According to your logic, it does.

You are wrong, my friend.

There is no objective morality: you are an accident of nature, living on a rock, floating through space. At any moment, a meteor could destroy us all, and the universe isn’t keeping track of your good deeds.

Morality is just a figment of a primitive species’ imagination.

I disagree with "kira" being a separate personality. The death note only helped light open up to who he truly was. He was a killer.

Can you do Ragyo Kiryuin or Nui Harime from Kill La Kill?

Light was evil.
Initially there was a moral argument behind what he was doing, like removing murderers from society and saving the lady from being assaulted by the biker gang.
But when he had met Ryuk, he had already lost himself in the idea he was a god of death reaping justice on society by executing known criminals.
This changes dramatically.
Light becomes so egotistical and driven by his absolute power, he begins to murder people who are under suspicion and haven't had their day in court. This is of course immoral, and has no grounding in what would be considered a civilised justice system.
Light also kills Lind L on the TV. This wasn't motivated by justice, it was motivated by narcissistic impulse dictated by his perception L was challenging him. If he didnt kill Lind L, he probably wouldn't have been caught as L couldnt narrow down the location.
As such, if Light was what he believed himself to be, then he would not have murdered Lind L. Nevermind him murdering all the FBI agents. He enjoyed it like it was a game, and again, you have to question whether or not he even had to kill the agent when he could've just avoided suspicion by being normal.
Light was a grandiose narcissistic murderous sociopath.
He enjoyed manipulation of, and murdering of anyone who opposed him or he saw as being a threat to his perfect society. He is like any classical dictator from History.

The focus on the idea of Light's use of the Death Note from a utilitarian perspective makes me think of Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero. It would be interesting to see a look into him for this series.

Japan has a 99.9% conviction rate. Doubtful that Light killed anyone that would have been found innocent in a court of law. Especially in Japan.

I think light was like this before he got the death note, it just got worse when he got it. He didn't have any school friends so he was probably weird already

the price to pay for ending a majority of crime, he controls and becomes the ultimate evil. By becoming a force of authoritarianhism and hanging death above the entire worlds head he threatens everyone making any misstep that the law deems wrong.

In order for Light to realize his goal of ridding the world of evil, he would have to ultimately kill every single other person on the planet, and then kill himself.

man this guy makes these long ass videos but never really says anything

I am also like Light Yagami.

As far as I'm concerned, Light is evil.

He wasn't above using people as pawns, tools. He had to force himself to show emotion over his father's passing just because he thought that's what others expected, not because he actually cared. He considered letting his little sister die if it could have been advantageous. He killed a woman who loved him after using her as a tool to get rid of Mello.

While he may have told himself that was for the greater good, I just can't accept that someone willing to sacrifice family, friends, and lovers can supposedly care so much about the general populace. From the start, Light just wanted to be worshiped as a god. He tells Ryuk that he's deliberately drawing attention to himself because he wanted people to know about him. He says it's to scare the wicked into thinking that someone is "delivering righteous justice", but then follows that with "I will be the god of the new world". This was always about his ego.

And let's not forget the cherry on top: Naomi. The dude actually thought "I'd love to see how she dies". The woman never did a damn thing to him. Yes, she had intel that would probably make him get caught, but she wasn't aware he was Kira, and wasn't treating him with any malice. Yet he took DELIGHT in outsmarting her. The look on his face when the Death Note kicked in and she became despondent is one of the sickest things he does. He's gleeful that he just took a grieving woman and forced her to kill herself, and his only regret is that he couldn't watch it happen.

Light is 100% evil. No one who kills innocents and takes pride and joy in it is "a good person who's just doing the wrong thing".

The Vile Eye. Are you using A.I. voice synthesizer? I can't hear your breath and all of your phrases always ends on the same tone.

L and Near were more evil.

Light was never wrong

You know, if we applied this type of 'justice' in the real world I could already see it leading a vast array of problems. Its one thing to note poverty and lack of education are one major cause of crime; think about how minorities and how lower social classes are already targeted by the media and their neigboring communities, and how relying on any type of biased communications can lead to more problems—the media is inherently in favoritism of twisting narratives. Think about how many Black people are incarcerated before trial and usually have a higher rate of police brutality of being the target of racial profiling. How about in some third world countries where any type of radical lifestyles are frowned upon (Ex; A sex worker in a religious country)? Or the mentally ill, who are known in the justice system to be treated like criminals even though their vulnerability more often than not leads them to being a victim, not forgetting the media that already degrades mental illness by conflating it with violence and aggression? Truth is, Kira would not be immune to filtering out all these half-truths or pretenses among an already distorted medium. And at one point will feed into a system that, at its core, is injust.

This my BESTIE we twins

Isn't NPD a spectrum. There has to be a PDD-NOS(Atypical autism) type of NPD.