Death Note

[Sephex]

Light's method was nightmarish and irresponsible, and if no one would have stopped him, he would have probably ended up killing off the entire planet at some point. He was talking about eventually using the Death Note to kill off people who are lazy. Think about that from the perspective of the top student in Japan. Yeah, I don't want someone like that ruling the world and deciding who lived and who died.

Those who root for Light completely miss the point and the lessons imparted from Death Note.

Seriously, in the end, Light was like a toddler wielding a magnum, and it worked out for him just as well as that actual situation would.

[Jinx]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Slothy]

Just because he didn't say he'd kill innocent people from the get go, he went from being a fairly high achieving genius kid who seemed completely normal to full blown psychopath willing to kill pretty much any criminal to make the world a "better place." The amount of hubris that takes alone is terrifying and his willingness to kill anyone that readily is just a glimpse at how little he values human life if he doesn't approve of what they do.

The guy was a full blown psychopath who only needed a little taste of power to set him loose. Like I said by the end of the first episode it is abundantly clear that he has lost it and isn't just headed down a dark road: he started out already on that road and hopped a bullet train to pitch black crazy bastard town. It was clear from the get go that he wasn't a hero, and the entertaining back and forth chess game with L is the entertaining part.

But I was never actually rooting for the guy other than in my usual root for the villain because I like a good villain way. He was a horrible person from the start, became worse as time went on, and got a better end than he really deserved when it was all said and done. For the things he did and the number of people he killed he deserved a much more painful end.

[Freya]

I loved the series for that moral gray it presented. And the way it makes you question the whole, well was he doing good cause he killed bad people? I enjoyed the dialogue it set up.

[Jinx]

If it's not clear that Light is insane from the get-go: Ryuk tells him that if he uses the Death Note, he can neither go to Heaven or Hell. He'd rather be trapped for all eternity just to have a moral high ground on Earth.

(I am going by the manga, not the anime. The anime is abysmally dull.)

[Sephex]

Just chiming in again to agree with Jinx. I have read the manga three times and only watched the anime once. I feel the manga version does a better job with the material (especially post L stuff).

[Forsaken Lover]

If it's not clear that Light is insane from the get-go: Ryuk tells him that if he uses the Death Note, he can neither go to Heaven or Hell. He'd rather be trapped for all eternity just to have a moral high ground on Earth.

(I am going by the manga, not the anime. The anime is abysmally dull.)

By the time Ryuk shows up and tells him that, Light had already used the Death Note. Even if he was going to Hell, it was a little too late.

I still wish more people would remember that first chapter. How this guy


Just appeared to Light and Light's only reaction was "you're here to take my soul? Okay then." And yet, even as he figured he was inevitably going to die, he judged all the sinners of the world before he went.

There is definitely a difference between Early Light and Later Light.

[Shauna]

Yes, he is a psychopath from beginning to end, and I wouldn't contest that. My point really was that he goes from criminal destruction to anyone destruction over the course of the story. He may have never had any care for humaninty, but he knew where the lines should be drawn. Until people started steppin' in his way, then... the power corrupted.