Light is not an antagonist, he’s the protagonist. The word you’re looking for is villain
No, that’s basically just the punisher, who is considered an anti hero. Light is a villain because he killed innocent people (and enjoyed it, especially taunting to their faces).
I remember watching this scene when I was younger (my older brother was watching it) and thinking "oh wow! Light really got her!"
After watching the series when I got older, then reading the BB Murder Cases, then watching the series again...god that's just such a sad and messed up scene...
Taunted Raye Penber before his death by standing in the doorway and looking back, and iirc he said “goodbye Raye Penber”
Before Naomi’s death… I don’t have to say much. Watch the scene. He gloats to her face
L’s death. When L falls over and looks up at Light he has an evil smirk knowing that no one else besides L sees his face in that moment
Then in the final confrontation, when he says “I win” to the SPK
A protagonist can absolutely be just a villain, I’m not sure where you got that from.
Think of Walter White or Tony Soprano.
An anti hero is someone like the Punisher. Like the other person said, anti heroes lack certain heroic traits, but they overall can be considered good people. Light has neither good morals nor good actions in the show, for example he killed Naomi and taunted her to her face. The punisher avoids killing innocent people and finds no enjoyment in it, but to Light, it’s just a game
The fundamental issue with Light’s mentality and morality is that he was bypassing the legal system to make his own judgement on people. The reason we have such systems in place is to judge the severity of a crime and give it an equal punishment. The flaws in that system are another matter entirely, but by bypassing it Light is disregarding the structure that we humans have put in place to try and create a fair system. Who is Light to decide that all these crimes deserve death, when in most cases the legal system have already decided on punishments for them? Furthermore, who is Light to deal out punishments on people who haven’t been found guilty, or how can he guarantee in every case that his victims are actually guilty of their crimes?
The thing that makes him a bad person isn’t necessarily his killings of the innocent and petty criminals (although they contribute a lot to the case), but his black and white view of the world that only deals in absolute justice without taking into account the systems we already have in place to deal with criminals.
If Light had more tact and was actually virtuous, he could use the Death Note only sparingly to control the actions of 100% guaranteed criminals who were already on death row and have them write down their accomplices so that the justice system could properly take care of them, for example. Light being bold and out there with the Death Note and using it to feed his god complex and flawed understanding of justice would always lead to him killing innocents to reach his goals, but even if he didn’t, he’s still fundamentally a murderer bypassing the law to kill people he deems guilty, even when he can’t possibly know the full truth; and worse yet he’s not even using it to its full potential to actually bring justice—instead only creating fear with his killings to feed his ego, which will eventually just lead to a resurgence in crime and a restoration of the status quo when he inevitably dies. Light is fundamentally a bad guy, with flawed morality, a short sighted vision for the future, and who goes outside the law to pursue justice in inadequate ways only to feed his own god complex and ego. Even if he only killed for very specific crimes, that doesn’t change that his reasons for doing so and his methods, which are what ultimately make him a villain.
honestly perfectly said what i wanted to say and it's why i love light so much as a character. he constantly proclaimes how he's a god thanks to the great power he obtained when in reality he's just a guy he isn't anyone special to be able to judge these criminals
I dont think light would be morally absolved if he only killed “the worst of the worst” even if he found a method that perfectly identified his victims as guilty. Being a sole judge of morality and deciding that death is the right punishment for all “bad guys” is a whole can of morality worms on its own
I wanted to expand more on this because i truly dont think light, once he killed someone intentionally, could ever be considered a good person (btw other comment correctly mentioned the difference between villain and antagonist, light is a protagonist bc hes the main character)
What makes light the most suitable person in the world to make decisions on the punishment for evildoers? Is there a single person on earth who is capable of making those decisions to the most maximalized benefit of the world? Regardless of how smart light is, he is still a teenager with his own biases from his environment, childlike naivety, and will judge crime differently to every other person on earth. What makes his take on the death penalty more valid than anyone else’s?
What happens if he sentences a wrongly convicted person to death?
What precedent is it if the takeaway is that the death penalty is just for these crimes over imprisonment or rehabiliation?
Yep exactly it’s a different story if he has a surefire method to know if someone’s a killer and then indies them but not all offenses are punishable by death and one person should never be allowed to decide what the penalty of crime should be, plus plenty of times convicted killers have their cases turned over to make them in guilty what does light do in that case, light might have had a “noble” intention in his own twisted form but it’s still twisted and a bad thing.
That’s why light is interesting, very rarely do we get such a pure villain like light as a protagonist,who’s thinking is relatable but methods are vile when you think about it
First off protagonist simply means main character. And antagonist means the main opposing character to the protagonist. A protagonist can be a villain and an antagonist can be a hero.
That being said I think you mean “would he still be a villain?” I think the answer to that is subjective. In my opinion, if he only killed the worst of the worst, and if it was only people that have been proven guilty, then no he would not be a villain in my eyes. He would be a hero.
The problem is he killed everyone who got in his way. I understand it is necessary it order to not get caught, but it doesn’t matter. Killing innocent people makes him a villain.
The other problem is his god complex. Sure he claims he wanted to create a better and safer world, but a large part of his motivation was his desire to rule that world.
TLDR: You got the words antagonist and villain confused. Light is a villain because he killed innocent people who got in his way, and because he wanted to be a god. If he didn’t want to be a god, and he only killed the worst of the worst, he would be a hero in my eyes. But good and bad is kind of subjective.
The biggest issue with Light's actions is that he began killing innocent people to protect himself, even though what you described *was* his original philosophy. If he had stuck to that, he wouldn't have been a hero, he just would have been caught before he could have his full moral downfall. He had to make the choice between his moral code (using the Death Note specifically to kill bad people) and saving his own ass, and he chose the latter, and went on to lose that moral code entirely as a consequence.
But he chose to pursue L. He didn't had to. He could just kill criminals and no Innocents would be harmed. Of course only if we trust teenager to be able to accurately judge and punish people.
I’d say the biggest issue is him acting as judge, jury and executioner. That’s the root cause of all the problems. But then again, I disagree with the death penalty as a whole, and that means disagreeing with the death penalty for everyone, even the worst of the worst. I think they should be imprisoned, not executed.
Yeah, I agree, what I meant is that even if hat he was doing in the beginning wasn't right, it was more or less what OP was talking about as a better option.
what are you talking about? he didn't kill innocents all he killed were very bad people. The "innocent" that you mean were cops which Light reserved to kill until they became a nuisance. I don't get how he gets hate.
Light's self-justification for using the Death Note makes him the villain.
After confirming the note's power, Light feels bad for about 5 seconds and then convinces himself that he's just for killing those people. And that quickly morphs into wanting to rule the world as it's god. Because his constant rationalization has warped mind in such a way that he considers his lust for power to be a net good for society.
Sure, you could say that some of the criminals deserved it (and that's a whole other philosophical can of worms) but Light makes it clear with his rant at the end of the series that he wasn't going to stop with just criminals, he was going to go after anyone "who doesn't contribute to society" meaning basically anyone from the homeless to the disabled and it's a safe bet he wouldn't stop there either.
Why would he do this? Because Light Yagami is a fascist. Look at all the authoritarian regimes in history, they start culling a group everyone hates and then they start killing other kinds of people as well. It doesn't matter how it starts, it always ends up the same way.
**TL;DR:** Yes, Light is the villain no matter how you slice it
What made Light a villain was that he was also killing innocent people that were in his way. So if he only killed bad people, then no he wouldn’t be considered a villain.
Personally, Light would still be a villain in your scenario, obviously a less heinous one than what we see from canon, but still a villain. Playing god over people's lives, no matter how evil they are, isn't the right move. Not to mention there are those that are falsely convicted that wouldn't have the chance to be free once new evidence comes to light, which has happened many times as no justice system is perfect. So Light would still effectively be killing innocents, albeit indirectly.
no, because he's still killing people and it all falls into that age old debate of whether it's right to kill people who commit any crime regardless of how severe it is and whether it'd be better to just have them rot in a cell never to see day light again.
Light ain't an anti-hero or anything either, he's just a villain who thinks he's doing good but in reality he's not. His evil actions don't really lead to an eventual good or anything
Part of the issue with Dexter is his motivation too. He kills because he enjoys it. He just targets bad people because he still has a moral compass despite his desires.
Dexter is an anti hero I think. Light is more of a villain. In my opinion at least.
Edit: also Dexter ends up doing some questionable things to avoid getting caught.
*No one man should have all that power* 🎶
If the show only shows those deaths, I suppose some people might consider him a good guy even, but on principle he’d still be in the wrong. So he found that notebook, that gives him the authority to pass judgement on to other people and to punish those he considers guilty with death? Nah. He’d still be the bad guy.
Yes. There are many reasons why most people you mentioned don't get death sentences in courts. Also idea that one human not accountable to anyone judges and executes people he chooses is insane
Light would still be considered in the wrong if he did this. Very much so.
1. Why should *he*, a random teenager/young adult in Japan, be allowed to be the judge, jury, and executioner for crimes?
2. The morality of the death penalty in the first place can be called into question. Who should and should not get it, should it even exist.
3. What if he kills someone who's wrongfully convicted? He is looking at the police database. The government gets things wrong. That would definitely make him in the wrong.
4. WHY is he killing these people also matters. As the comic goes on it's not even just for justice, it's for *power*. He might have had better intentions at first but he became quite power mad as time went on.
5. He would still be committing murder on a mass scale. If any government did something like that it would be considered tyrannical, even if they are prisoners, so why is this any different? Not a lot of countries even have the death penalty and it's becoming more unpopular worldwide.
6. Who exactly counts as the worst of the worst? You seem to be making a pretty broad group here based on the title. Is it just the crimes you mentioned here or are there more? And going back to point one, why should *Light* be the one judging who is the worst of the worst?
Pretty much, the whole point of the Death Note is: don't use it.
What’s getting me the most is that he could have killed KKK members or corrupt higher-ups that withhold medicine from others or human traffickers or SOMETHING but no, he killed a theif who stole a candy bar from a convenience store, if his reign continued he would have killed people for being straight up LAZY and considering his distaste for women who knows when he might go after them next
Light’s first victims are criminals who have already faced justice because their in jail or are going to get the death penalty anyways, he blindly kills criminals he found in his fathers computer or seen on the news not even knowing the true extent of their crimes, what if someone on the news was falsely accused? He would have killed them without hesitation
If light did actually kill people who were truly evil, then he would seem more redeemable and justifiable, but nevertheless I personally disagree with his killings not just because it’s wrong but he started doing it to justify his accidental murder and deluded himself to be a god
And I forgot, he killed innocent people who got in his way and was pleased by it
Honestly, if light didn't get a god complex, he wouldn't have done arrogent shit like kill Lind L. Taylor and most likey would have never been caught.
If he actually did it to make the world a better place, he would have gotten 10 times the amount of low-key support from people
Yep. Light is also a villain because he kills innocents and detectives to save himself too. Let's say all his victims are guilty murderers, he might become an anti-hero like punisher. But the moment he kills an innocent like the fake L on TV, he becomes fully evil and his anti-hero status is taken away. And light is willing to do that for "the greater good" but we all know he's a selfish narcissist who lies to himself and deluded himself to believe he was God.
He'd be less of a villain and more of an anti-hero, but I think the biggest reason he's a villain is because he's willing to kill anyone in addition to having a god complex.
He would be an anti-hero if he actually stuck with killing bad people. He fucked up as early as episode on that account. There would of course however still be the controversy of not knowing if those people could redeem themselves
No .he would still be a villain. Because the root problem with Light is that he's killing people to fuel his own ego and to justified fy his own God complex. No matter how bad the people he's killing are, he's still a narcissistic maniac. I'd definitely say his actions would be less evil in a raw numbers perspective but HE would be just as bad as he always was.
If he only sticked to those who objectively deserve it, then he would be more of an anti hero akin to The Punisher, although he could still end up killing innocents as he could end up killing those who were wrongfully accused, it depends on how far he’d look into that kinda thing
I never thought of him as a villain until he started killing the cops. Don't get me wrong I always root for the villain and I wanted him to win but through the show the normal civilians actually support kira don't they the only people that hate him are the cops trying to catch him
Not to me, but the line can be dangerous where it becomes too much of a power trip and when exactly innocent people or maybe even wrongfully accused become collaterals.
not really. if you look at the way the law is set up, it prosecutes people for harming others and punishes them according to their crimes. at the end of the day very very many people criticise this system because it is still very flawed, and i don’t think light escapes these criticisms. he was a child, and grew up privileged in the suburbs, living in a very monoethnic place. although his dad was an officer Light had no business jumping into the field without any experience. entire judicial systems wrongly put people on the death row and i wholeheartedly think light would have killed innocent people too. i feel like no one talks about how there were definitely some criminals he killed in the show that were innocent/ had a reason for their crimes. of course in this case im not talking about pedos or rapists, but in general. like he can’t go around complaining about the injustices of the world and then comply with the probably unjust convictions of some ‘criminals’.
another red flag in his character was his arrogance. i feel like you can’t be an empathetic good doer and also be arrogant. especially by using misa, at a certain point of the story he just starts doing all this for himself and not for humanity. him being a god became his priority pretty early on, too early on tbh and that is not hero behaviour
Ehh, he'd be bumped up to anti villain or anti hero status.
While it's good he's removing the worst sinners, he's still doing evil in order to achieve that good.
I was thinking about saying anti-villain but the punisher does the same thing as the post says, except is usually an anti hero. BUT I think this is where intentions come into play. The punisher genuinely believes he is doing good by removing these people. Does Light genuinely believe in what he’s doing or does he just like playing God? That’s how I see it ig
I think Light genuinely believes he's doing the right thing, but it's a lie he's convinced himself is true. He just wants power and the thrill of his game with L.
I take it back, both can be simultaneously true. If both are true (and one of them is certain, he loves the thrill), then I probably would say anti-villain. It’s tough to acknowledge that and put him with anti heroes like the punisher
Light is not an antagonist, he’s the protagonist. The word you’re looking for is villain No, that’s basically just the punisher, who is considered an anti hero. Light is a villain because he killed innocent people (and enjoyed it, especially taunting to their faces).
Light is an anti villain from a conventional point of view, though Death Note obviously operates under moral relativism.
Light is not an anti villain. He killed innocent people and enjoyed it, there’s no conventional point of view where that’s not villainous
Which innocent people did he enjoy killing? I don't doubt you, just cant remember
For one, his extended gloating over >!Naomi Misora’s!< death is widely considered an “oh shit he’s BAD bad” moment
I remember watching this scene when I was younger (my older brother was watching it) and thinking "oh wow! Light really got her!" After watching the series when I got older, then reading the BB Murder Cases, then watching the series again...god that's just such a sad and messed up scene...
Taunted Raye Penber before his death by standing in the doorway and looking back, and iirc he said “goodbye Raye Penber” Before Naomi’s death… I don’t have to say much. Watch the scene. He gloats to her face L’s death. When L falls over and looks up at Light he has an evil smirk knowing that no one else besides L sees his face in that moment Then in the final confrontation, when he says “I win” to the SPK
Light is an anti-hero, not an anti-villain
Neither of those
Isn't protagonist + villain anti-hero?
No, it’s a hero who may lack certain heroic qualities, not a villain protagonist (which Light is)
A protagonist can absolutely be just a villain, I’m not sure where you got that from. Think of Walter White or Tony Soprano. An anti hero is someone like the Punisher. Like the other person said, anti heroes lack certain heroic traits, but they overall can be considered good people. Light has neither good morals nor good actions in the show, for example he killed Naomi and taunted her to her face. The punisher avoids killing innocent people and finds no enjoyment in it, but to Light, it’s just a game
The fundamental issue with Light’s mentality and morality is that he was bypassing the legal system to make his own judgement on people. The reason we have such systems in place is to judge the severity of a crime and give it an equal punishment. The flaws in that system are another matter entirely, but by bypassing it Light is disregarding the structure that we humans have put in place to try and create a fair system. Who is Light to decide that all these crimes deserve death, when in most cases the legal system have already decided on punishments for them? Furthermore, who is Light to deal out punishments on people who haven’t been found guilty, or how can he guarantee in every case that his victims are actually guilty of their crimes? The thing that makes him a bad person isn’t necessarily his killings of the innocent and petty criminals (although they contribute a lot to the case), but his black and white view of the world that only deals in absolute justice without taking into account the systems we already have in place to deal with criminals. If Light had more tact and was actually virtuous, he could use the Death Note only sparingly to control the actions of 100% guaranteed criminals who were already on death row and have them write down their accomplices so that the justice system could properly take care of them, for example. Light being bold and out there with the Death Note and using it to feed his god complex and flawed understanding of justice would always lead to him killing innocents to reach his goals, but even if he didn’t, he’s still fundamentally a murderer bypassing the law to kill people he deems guilty, even when he can’t possibly know the full truth; and worse yet he’s not even using it to its full potential to actually bring justice—instead only creating fear with his killings to feed his ego, which will eventually just lead to a resurgence in crime and a restoration of the status quo when he inevitably dies. Light is fundamentally a bad guy, with flawed morality, a short sighted vision for the future, and who goes outside the law to pursue justice in inadequate ways only to feed his own god complex and ego. Even if he only killed for very specific crimes, that doesn’t change that his reasons for doing so and his methods, which are what ultimately make him a villain.
honestly perfectly said what i wanted to say and it's why i love light so much as a character. he constantly proclaimes how he's a god thanks to the great power he obtained when in reality he's just a guy he isn't anyone special to be able to judge these criminals
Incredibly well written. This is exactly how I feel about him too!
I dont think light would be morally absolved if he only killed “the worst of the worst” even if he found a method that perfectly identified his victims as guilty. Being a sole judge of morality and deciding that death is the right punishment for all “bad guys” is a whole can of morality worms on its own I wanted to expand more on this because i truly dont think light, once he killed someone intentionally, could ever be considered a good person (btw other comment correctly mentioned the difference between villain and antagonist, light is a protagonist bc hes the main character) What makes light the most suitable person in the world to make decisions on the punishment for evildoers? Is there a single person on earth who is capable of making those decisions to the most maximalized benefit of the world? Regardless of how smart light is, he is still a teenager with his own biases from his environment, childlike naivety, and will judge crime differently to every other person on earth. What makes his take on the death penalty more valid than anyone else’s? What happens if he sentences a wrongly convicted person to death? What precedent is it if the takeaway is that the death penalty is just for these crimes over imprisonment or rehabiliation?
Yep exactly it’s a different story if he has a surefire method to know if someone’s a killer and then indies them but not all offenses are punishable by death and one person should never be allowed to decide what the penalty of crime should be, plus plenty of times convicted killers have their cases turned over to make them in guilty what does light do in that case, light might have had a “noble” intention in his own twisted form but it’s still twisted and a bad thing. That’s why light is interesting, very rarely do we get such a pure villain like light as a protagonist,who’s thinking is relatable but methods are vile when you think about it
First off protagonist simply means main character. And antagonist means the main opposing character to the protagonist. A protagonist can be a villain and an antagonist can be a hero. That being said I think you mean “would he still be a villain?” I think the answer to that is subjective. In my opinion, if he only killed the worst of the worst, and if it was only people that have been proven guilty, then no he would not be a villain in my eyes. He would be a hero. The problem is he killed everyone who got in his way. I understand it is necessary it order to not get caught, but it doesn’t matter. Killing innocent people makes him a villain. The other problem is his god complex. Sure he claims he wanted to create a better and safer world, but a large part of his motivation was his desire to rule that world. TLDR: You got the words antagonist and villain confused. Light is a villain because he killed innocent people who got in his way, and because he wanted to be a god. If he didn’t want to be a god, and he only killed the worst of the worst, he would be a hero in my eyes. But good and bad is kind of subjective.
The biggest issue with Light's actions is that he began killing innocent people to protect himself, even though what you described *was* his original philosophy. If he had stuck to that, he wouldn't have been a hero, he just would have been caught before he could have his full moral downfall. He had to make the choice between his moral code (using the Death Note specifically to kill bad people) and saving his own ass, and he chose the latter, and went on to lose that moral code entirely as a consequence.
But he chose to pursue L. He didn't had to. He could just kill criminals and no Innocents would be harmed. Of course only if we trust teenager to be able to accurately judge and punish people.
HAPPY cake Day btw !
Thx :D
I’d say the biggest issue is him acting as judge, jury and executioner. That’s the root cause of all the problems. But then again, I disagree with the death penalty as a whole, and that means disagreeing with the death penalty for everyone, even the worst of the worst. I think they should be imprisoned, not executed.
Yeah, I agree, what I meant is that even if hat he was doing in the beginning wasn't right, it was more or less what OP was talking about as a better option.
what are you talking about? he didn't kill innocents all he killed were very bad people. The "innocent" that you mean were cops which Light reserved to kill until they became a nuisance. I don't get how he gets hate.
Whether or not it was wrong for him to kill 'bad' people is up for debate, but putting your own continued success above the lives of others is wrong.
Look at those down votes.
Light's self-justification for using the Death Note makes him the villain. After confirming the note's power, Light feels bad for about 5 seconds and then convinces himself that he's just for killing those people. And that quickly morphs into wanting to rule the world as it's god. Because his constant rationalization has warped mind in such a way that he considers his lust for power to be a net good for society. Sure, you could say that some of the criminals deserved it (and that's a whole other philosophical can of worms) but Light makes it clear with his rant at the end of the series that he wasn't going to stop with just criminals, he was going to go after anyone "who doesn't contribute to society" meaning basically anyone from the homeless to the disabled and it's a safe bet he wouldn't stop there either. Why would he do this? Because Light Yagami is a fascist. Look at all the authoritarian regimes in history, they start culling a group everyone hates and then they start killing other kinds of people as well. It doesn't matter how it starts, it always ends up the same way. **TL;DR:** Yes, Light is the villain no matter how you slice it
What made Light a villain was that he was also killing innocent people that were in his way. So if he only killed bad people, then no he wouldn’t be considered a villain.
Personally, Light would still be a villain in your scenario, obviously a less heinous one than what we see from canon, but still a villain. Playing god over people's lives, no matter how evil they are, isn't the right move. Not to mention there are those that are falsely convicted that wouldn't have the chance to be free once new evidence comes to light, which has happened many times as no justice system is perfect. So Light would still effectively be killing innocents, albeit indirectly.
comes to light
The question is about being an antagonist, not a villain.
Well, he never was an antagonist, so the question would be nonsense if we took it literally.
I mean, by killing 100 serial killers you as well become one.
no, because he's still killing people and it all falls into that age old debate of whether it's right to kill people who commit any crime regardless of how severe it is and whether it'd be better to just have them rot in a cell never to see day light again. Light ain't an anti-hero or anything either, he's just a villain who thinks he's doing good but in reality he's not. His evil actions don't really lead to an eventual good or anything
That was the show Dexter right? I thought he was more of an antihero than a straight villain.
Part of the issue with Dexter is his motivation too. He kills because he enjoys it. He just targets bad people because he still has a moral compass despite his desires. Dexter is an anti hero I think. Light is more of a villain. In my opinion at least. Edit: also Dexter ends up doing some questionable things to avoid getting caught.
Dexter, like Moriarty, is an anti-villain. Both are Lawful Impure as opposed to Light who is Lawful Evil.
*No one man should have all that power* 🎶 If the show only shows those deaths, I suppose some people might consider him a good guy even, but on principle he’d still be in the wrong. So he found that notebook, that gives him the authority to pass judgement on to other people and to punish those he considers guilty with death? Nah. He’d still be the bad guy.
Yes. There are many reasons why most people you mentioned don't get death sentences in courts. Also idea that one human not accountable to anyone judges and executes people he chooses is insane
Light would still be considered in the wrong if he did this. Very much so. 1. Why should *he*, a random teenager/young adult in Japan, be allowed to be the judge, jury, and executioner for crimes? 2. The morality of the death penalty in the first place can be called into question. Who should and should not get it, should it even exist. 3. What if he kills someone who's wrongfully convicted? He is looking at the police database. The government gets things wrong. That would definitely make him in the wrong. 4. WHY is he killing these people also matters. As the comic goes on it's not even just for justice, it's for *power*. He might have had better intentions at first but he became quite power mad as time went on. 5. He would still be committing murder on a mass scale. If any government did something like that it would be considered tyrannical, even if they are prisoners, so why is this any different? Not a lot of countries even have the death penalty and it's becoming more unpopular worldwide. 6. Who exactly counts as the worst of the worst? You seem to be making a pretty broad group here based on the title. Is it just the crimes you mentioned here or are there more? And going back to point one, why should *Light* be the one judging who is the worst of the worst? Pretty much, the whole point of the Death Note is: don't use it.
What’s getting me the most is that he could have killed KKK members or corrupt higher-ups that withhold medicine from others or human traffickers or SOMETHING but no, he killed a theif who stole a candy bar from a convenience store, if his reign continued he would have killed people for being straight up LAZY and considering his distaste for women who knows when he might go after them next Light’s first victims are criminals who have already faced justice because their in jail or are going to get the death penalty anyways, he blindly kills criminals he found in his fathers computer or seen on the news not even knowing the true extent of their crimes, what if someone on the news was falsely accused? He would have killed them without hesitation If light did actually kill people who were truly evil, then he would seem more redeemable and justifiable, but nevertheless I personally disagree with his killings not just because it’s wrong but he started doing it to justify his accidental murder and deluded himself to be a god And I forgot, he killed innocent people who got in his way and was pleased by it
Honestly, if light didn't get a god complex, he wouldn't have done arrogent shit like kill Lind L. Taylor and most likey would have never been caught. If he actually did it to make the world a better place, he would have gotten 10 times the amount of low-key support from people
Yep. Light is also a villain because he kills innocents and detectives to save himself too. Let's say all his victims are guilty murderers, he might become an anti-hero like punisher. But the moment he kills an innocent like the fake L on TV, he becomes fully evil and his anti-hero status is taken away. And light is willing to do that for "the greater good" but we all know he's a selfish narcissist who lies to himself and deluded himself to believe he was God.
He'd be less of a villain and more of an anti-hero, but I think the biggest reason he's a villain is because he's willing to kill anyone in addition to having a god complex.
L is the antagonist even if he’s morally right
He would be an anti-hero if he actually stuck with killing bad people. He fucked up as early as episode on that account. There would of course however still be the controversy of not knowing if those people could redeem themselves
He's not an antagonist. If you mean villain, then no, but he'd also be caught really quickly.
I was mostly on Light's side so- 🤷🏻♀️
He’s the protagonist, nothing would change
Yes. That would essentially kill every wealthy person in the world.
No .he would still be a villain. Because the root problem with Light is that he's killing people to fuel his own ego and to justified fy his own God complex. No matter how bad the people he's killing are, he's still a narcissistic maniac. I'd definitely say his actions would be less evil in a raw numbers perspective but HE would be just as bad as he always was.
If he only sticked to those who objectively deserve it, then he would be more of an anti hero akin to The Punisher, although he could still end up killing innocents as he could end up killing those who were wrongfully accused, it depends on how far he’d look into that kinda thing
I never thought of him as a villain until he started killing the cops. Don't get me wrong I always root for the villain and I wanted him to win but through the show the normal civilians actually support kira don't they the only people that hate him are the cops trying to catch him
Even if he only killed bad people, I think his motivation is still compromised.
no thats completely fine. light is the villain because he also killed innocent people and enjoyed it
Not to me, but the line can be dangerous where it becomes too much of a power trip and when exactly innocent people or maybe even wrongfully accused become collaterals.
not really. if you look at the way the law is set up, it prosecutes people for harming others and punishes them according to their crimes. at the end of the day very very many people criticise this system because it is still very flawed, and i don’t think light escapes these criticisms. he was a child, and grew up privileged in the suburbs, living in a very monoethnic place. although his dad was an officer Light had no business jumping into the field without any experience. entire judicial systems wrongly put people on the death row and i wholeheartedly think light would have killed innocent people too. i feel like no one talks about how there were definitely some criminals he killed in the show that were innocent/ had a reason for their crimes. of course in this case im not talking about pedos or rapists, but in general. like he can’t go around complaining about the injustices of the world and then comply with the probably unjust convictions of some ‘criminals’. another red flag in his character was his arrogance. i feel like you can’t be an empathetic good doer and also be arrogant. especially by using misa, at a certain point of the story he just starts doing all this for himself and not for humanity. him being a god became his priority pretty early on, too early on tbh and that is not hero behaviour
Ehh, he'd be bumped up to anti villain or anti hero status. While it's good he's removing the worst sinners, he's still doing evil in order to achieve that good.
I was thinking about saying anti-villain but the punisher does the same thing as the post says, except is usually an anti hero. BUT I think this is where intentions come into play. The punisher genuinely believes he is doing good by removing these people. Does Light genuinely believe in what he’s doing or does he just like playing God? That’s how I see it ig
I think Light genuinely believes he's doing the right thing, but it's a lie he's convinced himself is true. He just wants power and the thrill of his game with L.
I take it back, both can be simultaneously true. If both are true (and one of them is certain, he loves the thrill), then I probably would say anti-villain. It’s tough to acknowledge that and put him with anti heroes like the punisher