I watched Death Note live action movies yesterday, and they made a few changes to the story. But one good change was that they made Light's character more humanly than the original Light who had a very 1-dimensional personality. And I didn't hate this Light as I hated the manga one. The manga did show him doing many bad things but it didn't explain exactly how he was bad and just had vague counter-arguments like 'you can't take the law in your hands' or something. So I was wondering, was Light really all that wrong?
Let's start with the few good things about Light's view:
1) as he says in the end, no one could really have done what he did. It's true. And I do believe, he did feel sad
when he made the 'sacrifices' while striving for a new world (I only wish the manga/anime showing him at least
slightly sad at least once like how they did in the movie, that wouldn't have caused badass decay at all imo -.-) Anyways, he really
thought what he was doing is right and even sacrificed his own lifestyle fighting for that. He had no other reason to
fight against the FBI at all.
-He is 'bored' in the first chapter/episode. rant:
Spoiler (show)
But playing on the 'safe' side is also a decision and it does affect the world,
even adversely.
2) Only a revolutionary can dare to break this monotony, and it's been so in the past, however, not all revolutions
end up reaching their goal, or sometimes, they realise that the goal they had sought for isn't one they
wanted/needed. But Light chooses to dare, he says no one else can do it. It's cuz no one else has the death note;
very few people are as smart as he is; he's still a teenager and can still resist to play it safe; he also had
pretty strong sense of justice (which became kind of ambiguous as the series progressed but i guess it was the fault of
commonly accepted concept of 'justice' rather than that of Kira)
3) Unlike L, who probably only played the detective cuz he liked it, and didn't care as much about the welfare of
humanity(similar to sherlock holmes) Light seemed to care about the world.. or at least justice or something.. i'm
not sure about this.
4) He was killing people whom the Law generally deems as guilty but because of various reasons like corruption etc,
aren't punished. So in a sense, he was just doing what the Law does. And he was doing it fast, unlike how court
procedure goes in-spite of knowing all facts. What's wrong in that?
And now the numerous bad things about Light:
Well he was certainly wrong in some points as follows:
1) He didn't count people as real 'individuals' but just as a number, he didn't really treat them as
people with emotions, he only thought of himself.
2) He just turned a blind eye to the fact that some 'criminals' might not have been 'unrighteous'
just like him! He just killed many people who were shown in the news, without even researching whether what they did was
right or wrong, ofc in the manga, the details of criminals displayed completely make the man worth of killing and avoids
mentioning ambiguous cases so as to not cause the reader too m uch trouble liking kira.
3) He killed many people who weren't 'criminals' even according to him in the name of
'sacrifice', again treating them merely like chess-pieces
4) He let other people who were certainly not as intelligent or 'just' as him to use the death note again
sacrificing probably innocent people who get killed by these new death-note holders.
5) He didn't really think what will happen After his new world is created. He was going to die at least of old age
and what after that? If he had in mind that he'll find successors to carry on and maintain the new world order
forever then he was mistaken. No matter how intelligent successor he chooses, he/she might not be as just as him or as
intelligent and morally ambiguous either. Even if they are, what about the generation after them? Surely at some point,
the insane power of death note will drive some weak successor to become a true tyrant and then people will overthrow his
rule and then slowly things will get back to just how they were before kira. I bet even light would have thought of
this. This only means that he wanted a 'crime free' new world lasting only till his lifetime in which he could
rule people according to what he deems is right. And that's very selfish.
Of course all these negative points make him no better than rest of us who won't do such things. But it's also
true that he didn't want to do those things either, he just had to in order to do what he felt was right, unlike
most of us who shy away from dirtying their hands even to do good things with less obstacles.
So he was no better than us, but was he any worse than us either?
I really can't say if he was Good or Bad >.<'
So please leave a comment saying what you think about Light and also state the good/bad/both things about him which make
you think so.