What Light Actually Wanted - Death Note 

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It's crazy as we get older and understand character motives from older shows, it becomes clear that optimal choices like Light hiding forever and using the Death Note doesn't make sense for the kind of person he is.

Lol it's like people forget that characters aren't machines, they don't just do the smart thing all the time because real people don't do that. People are flawed and so are characters.

Light actually wants Seth to reach a million subs

I honestly think his corruption was inevitable. The Death Note just drastically sped the process up. Had he not gotten the book he likely would have been a detective rivaling the status of L and eventually would have gotten jaded and bored watching criminals he caught escaping the legal system or feeling like he was having a small impact on crime in the world. He probably would have lead some covert criminal organization with similar goals until L caught him. Would love some series showing what would happen in that alternate reality.

Light isn't dumb, he's an allegory to the idea that "absolute power, corrupts absolutely".

“Too aggressive while trying to pick up a girl” might be the best coating of sugar I’ve ever seen put on anything

Wow, Ryuk being the author's way of anthropomorphizing Light's inner demons is so on point. So obvious in retrospect, but I'm completely blind to that kind of symbolism until someone points it out, even in my favorite stories. Also, perfect analysis of Light's character. Better than any breakdown of his true motives than I've ever seen. So much so that I constantly was thinking "Wow, I never thought about that, but it's completely true." Especially the thing about excitement and boredom. Have your like. I rarely give them out, but THIS was well earned.

Light didn't lose in episode 2, he sat down at the poker table. He could have sat at a different table than L, farmed some blowhards for their money and been in no danger of busting, to carry on the analogy. But he specifically wanted to try to meet that challenge. Good analysis here

Naomi's death was a really, really strange scene for me. Light has already become completely unhinged and disconnected from sanity. His God Complex was in full effect. The apprehension you felt when light gets access to her actual name, the way he reveals it to her just before she is taken over, the look of horror on her face turning into a emotionless brainwashed person, the way her walking away on the street turned into her walking up the gallows to the noose... it was unsettling but extremely well written. (I'm aware she has nearly nothing to do with this video, still wanted to point it out)

I never knew people felt that way about the series. If anyone pays attention to Death Note, a running theme is that even the smartest and most genius of people won't make optimal choices if it isn't true to who they are. I just figured it was obvious.

actually, i just remembered the scene where light was offered the shinigami eyes, and how he refused them because it'd half the time in which he could do justice but i now realize he actually refused them because it would've made the fight between him and L too boring..just, wow, brilliant writing

Next video request: Could Light Yagami (Kira) solve the mystery behind Yoshikage Kira (JoJo) and Defeat him

The characters of Death Note are endlessly fascinating to dissect and Light is no exception. I agree that rather than being the well-intentioned extremist Light would have you believe he is he's more so a teenager with a frighteningly sharp intelligence looking to escape his boredom. After all it's what unites him and Ryuk at the very beginning, a need to escape their shared boredom. Light is seeking a stimulus or an outlet for his intelligence to satisfy himself and only goes on about creating a new world as a God because that's less a moral crusade and more so an exciting challenge. His rivalry with L is something I think he deeply enjoys having finally found someone he could consider an equal. It's probably why he hates Near seeing him as vastly inferior to L. While I think a case could be made that maybe to some extent Light buys into his own spiel about 'godhood' and creating a utopia at his core his motive is that of personal fulfillment, not moral righteousness.

Love this take, if Light truly was only interested in killing people who committed crimes and creating an ideal world his entire arc would have been very different. You'd think it would have been glaringly obvious when Light shows how incredibly egotistical he is, claiming he wants to be a God of a New World. The plot also shows what Light without the deathnote would have been like when he wipes his own memory. Most people probably didn't realize that what Light *says* he wants and what he *actually* wants aren't the same mainly because since he's so smart they don't entertain the idea that he also might not completely understand his own drives - or not care to.

Light’s boredom hits home for me more now then when I watched the anime years ago. It’s been rough these past few years, feels like bits of myself have been stripped away leading to a mere husk of my former self.

I think something was missed completely in this video. Near didn't have the same *gaming pride* as L. In that final scene, Near pretty much dismisses Light as just another criminal to jail, not some grand challenge to overcome. And that's why Near overcame Light.

17:09 Seth was speaking from his own personal experience☠☠☠☠☠☠

It’s annoying when people misconstrued characters and act like they’re suppose to always act 100% logically. These characters are given specific characteristics and flaws to make them interesting, unique and human. No human operates on pure logic alone

05:30 For clarification, they were "just aggressive" in the manga. In the anime they clearly sexually assault her, so it's a bit weird for anime Light to feel the same guilt manga Light does

Side note: I would say that “Misa slips up” can also be considered Light slip ups. I think he even says that in the manga. Like he should’ve done better, checked what Misa said and made sure things were sent out correctly or had just killed her (after she gets caught)

Wt i find funny is how light died at 23 , imagine if he took the eye deal, no wonder ryuk kept laughing.

"If you're creative, and you get graded by someone who is not, they won't think you're creative, but dumb. Same is true for intelligence." And this applies here. The people who say Death Note is stupid are too stupid to realize it, and same goes for anyone who says Light or L are stupid. Especially for the people who say Light lost in episode 2.

Death Note really is a masterpiece. People still discuss the characters and plot years after it's ended

Light's pride and ego is what decided is actions. It was carefully planned, but out of a desire to even the score from episode 2 against L. Later against Near, Light was forced to attempt to kill Near, he was already too far into the game at that point that running away would still be difficult to attempt.

Bringing back the Death Note vids= nostalgia feeling hitting 😩

i always saw light and his pride as a reference to Lucifer and his pride that got him cast out of the heavens. just as Light loses in the end due to his pride.

I wish more people understood these writing conventions, just because a character is smart does not mean they can't be flawed or will always make a great choice, it's not bad writing it's realistic writing, if you want to read a story where every character is a cookie cutter personification of a certain trait and always acts in line with what they are expected to do then by all means tell have fun with that, but otherwise you need characters who are realistically unpredictable and flawed in spite of their intelligence.

Fantastic video. I've always had a gripe with the people that call Light and L unintelligent for not performing the "smarter" actions to further their goals. When you get to heart of these characters and understand what really drives them, then you'll see that these actions Light and L make aren't "dumb mistakes", but flaws within them as people.

I am actually impressed by the fact that you genuinely understood Light. People often don't see the motivation behind of his actions and don't really understand his intelligence properly.

It's pretty crazy interesting and compelling that Light, deep down, would rather fulfill his desire of seeking a thrill and challenge over a goal he himself views as morally correct and a warped form of true justice.

Pretty spot on. I would go further, and state that Light’s sense of justice has almost nothing to do with it. He brings them up as post-rationalisations for his actions. His ego is so inflated that he can just adds justifications for his moral actions, when he doesn’t truly believe that he is doing a moral good. The best example is the idea that he wants to kill L. As far as he can tell (before meeting him), L is a good person, who stands by a firm moral code that killing is wrong, no matter who gets killed; something Light’s father would support. But light doesn’t want to eliminate his father (or any of the other members of the task force for that matter). He only wants L because he values the challenge of beating L more than enacting justice. His ‘justice is just something to guide the members of the public; he would break that code if he felt their was something interesting to be gained from it. We know for a fact that Light isn’t truly being motivated by justice, because he had the ability to kill L at any time, by doing the deal for the Shinigami eyes. For him it was about the personal satisfaction he would get from taking down L, and he didn’t want an easy solution to take away from his enjoyment. There are many moments where he manipulates the police force in his favour (in L’s absence), and he laments how easy it is to bend them to his will. He gets the most satisfaction in the entire series, when his elaborate plans to beat L and Near come to fruition (I know his plan for Near failed, but there are no holes in it, and would have worked without the plot convenience used to end the story).

so in conclusion light knew he could win easily but he wanted a fight which he coulda of deff won but lost cause of his pride

Well thought out analysis. It never ceases to amaze me how people don't think about the complexity of what makes a character a person.

This video is very interesting because I understood all these things already, but this there first time I have thought about Light's character this deeply.

You can’t drop a death note video at 2am and not expected me to not watch it

The Death Note content on this channel is always GOATed

The tennis game was foreshadowing exactly what would happen in the show, Light would try his hardest to beat L instead of doing the smart thing and losing because he simply can’t help himself, he knew what L was thinking yet he wanted to win the match anyways. He would defeat L but L was playing the long game and actually won the war in defeat of this battle.

Never thought that way about Ryuk's reaction to that Naomi Misora scene. Ryuk definitely representing Light's inner boredom. Great video as always, my dude!

An idle mind is the devil's playground.

That ending summary was next level man. Love seeing you develop as a writer and analyst in this far too often surface-level space in youtube. 👌

People thinking Light is dumb is like thinking Kakazu beats Pain.

Great video! The research done here is insane, hopefully we get more character analyses like this from Seth.

The thing most people overlook is that Light does everything out of boredom and so after L is no longer there to keep up the game of cat and mouse, he starts rushing to a conclusion. Either by letting his guard down from disappointment or by his own volition, he loses at the end so as to fulfill Ryuk's prophecy. He had to die and I don't think he really regrets it because the alternative was living a painfully boring and normal life.

Boredom is a powerful emotion that sits at the very base of our emotions. I think the only more powerful emotion than boredom may be fear. Studies have proved the power of boredom in humans. One I remember is of sitting a subject at a desk in a mundane room to wait for an undisclosed amount of time. At the desk where they sit is a button they can press that will shock them. After some time, people press the button, and often do so multiple times, even after already knowing how it feels. Simply because they are bored and they'd rather feel some pain than be bored...

I never thought of Light this way but it makes total sense. Boredom can make you do stupid things. I've done bad things in the past when I was young just "too kill time". It makes you feel alive, it can be exciting. I believe that Light was deeply lonely, he was appreciate by a lot of people but he didn't have any real friend or someone he could connect with. Despite their rivalry L was the closest person to a friend for him. Loneliness and boredom. His daily life was boring. He went to shcool, got good grades and he was the perfect son with his family but he had nothing that really stimulate him. He could have been a completely different person had he never found the death note

I love these narrative analysis videos man we need more of them

Seth, I love your videos man. I love how your entire ending speech dived into real life as well, very wise words my friend. I hope that you continue to make this great content

Seth describing himself at the ending monologue about light 💀💀

Yo that exiting monolog of yours really hit home. Such a practical argument to be a better person. Thanks

Fantastic analysis 👍 Sums up perfectly what I've been thinking

Seth the programmer you stood the test of time man and I’m happy to see that you’ve evolved so much over the past years it’s amazing

Bro this is legendary. 🔥🔥

Great video as always seth

Thank you for this much needed video.

Yes, this is exactly it. Light is a multifaceted character who's defined by his pride and boredom almost as much as his intelligence. It always bothered me when people would bring up the whole "he could've stayed hidden" argument. Of course he could have, but that's not the point, is it? It misunderstands who Light is as a person fundamentally. While, yes, he does want to create his new world, that's not his sole purpose for doing what he does. His lack of being challenged by anything in his life is what made him susceptible to manipulation by the Death Note and consequently his high stakes life and death game between him and L. Because for Light (and L), their actions were never really about justice, but about their desire to find something in the world that would let them escape their boredom. They're basically playing 3D chess with real people as the pieces and the world as the board.

You tell us Seth why people do them evil things 😭

amazing video thank u seth

Honestly Seth I really like those questions and ideas that you asked at the end of the video

I think it would be interesting if L found the death note first, I wonder if he would be tempted to use it

Light really would have succeeded in completing his "divine goal" as Kira, but he was too busy trying to entertain his own boredom. He could have ignored L.

Actually such a good breakdown 🐐

the editing towards the end of this video was so funny i love how you landed the video on light when talking about trolls 😭

When I first watched the show, I had little understanding of Light and thought the same things you mentioned and just thought "Why didn't he swallow his pride on this or that?". But as time passed and I rewatch the show I got it way better, and these kind of videos helped shed more light on this (no pun intended). I really enjoy your videos on Death Note, I wonder if you can pull off an analysis video on Near or Mello, they're so underrated and disliked by the majority and it doesn't help that most viewers are anime onlys. The anime did not do them justice.

This anime is a masterpiece, the older it gets, it still feels fresh and one of the best story ever written.

your death note content is amazing.

Love the video, Seth always goes hard with deathnote videos

This is why I like Seth. He doesn’t make random observations and scrotymcboogerball at random. He just shows you the source and explains the facts.

Vidéo request: Could Light Yagami("good light") solved the Kira case ("evil light") ?

This is a reeeally well-thought video, good job man. I actually thought the same things, but i kind of see light as a perfectly accurate psychopath.

I love you Seth rlly wanted some more deathnote content :)

People seem to forget he only became a "villain" when the government got involved. He only killed criminals up until that point

I always knew Light did all he did because he was bored and wanted the thrill, the challenge to show his superiority and genius but the Ryuk part was WAS freaking on point. If the Shinigami in the series was supposed to be the extension of a human, like the Shinigami is the reverse of the human world and each Shinigami is a reverse of another human, then yea. It's really on point. So we can assume the ending to Death Note makes more sense because that's Light's only out from being captured or worst. I really love this video. Fantastic job Seth!

This is such a good video. Somewhat distinct from others that I've seen from you. Probably because of the more essay-ish nature of this one. I don't exactly know. It just stands out IMO

I love your Death note videos. They are the best Death note videos on RU-vid

I've always said that boredom truly is dangerous, and this proves it.

Near: If Light was ever a good person he never would've used the Death Note the way he is Light with the memories of the Death Note removed: Is one of the most virtuous characters in the series Me: Wait, so does power corrupt or is corruption drawn to power?!

Yeah!!! You made another death note analysis

Amazing video and analysis of Light as a character.

What if God decided to become the Devil because he was bored…..? “Evil destroying boredom to bring about change.”

Something I've wondered for a minute is, was Ryuk a larger factor in Light's decisions than is led on? Doesn't he say something to the effect of if Light didn't remain interesting, Ryuk would write Light's name in his deathnote?

Very insightful video I appreciate your thoughtful words and still adding to the discussion all these years later. This story (my buddy had the manga so I actually read those first) left and impression on me to this day, I can't find any flaws with your logic and reasoning, I hate when people assert characters should act as complete rational agents, as if that would make for engaging storytelling, plus nobody like that exists in the real world

Liked this so much finna rewatch it

I just finished watching Seth's reaction to markiplier Pokémon smash of pass video 🤣

The reason Light didnt just sit in his room and write names in the Death Note, is because we wouldnt have a show.

Great content!!

Seth, you have released a good video. As a reward, I shall give you my seed.

I always had a bit of idea that Light has a huge ego that make him extremely prideful (not exactly something hard to get considering how gifted he was). But I never actually though the effect Boredom had on him and the way it interacts with his pride. Good video.

I have always found the "Light should have quietly written in death note without bothering with L" such a weak and dim argument. Light WANTED people to know that there was a pattern to the killing and that there was SOMEONE, a possible GOD, passing judgement on the people. He wanted recognition, and he WANTED to face L head on and eliminate him because he dared to defy a GOD and call him evil. Even as he killed Lind L Tailor, he expressed that he wanted people to see this guy (who he thought was L) die on live television (in his mind: for going against a GOD). Most humans hope that there is a purpose to the gift they have been given; in Light's case, it would not have been enough to just create a "just" world. His intelligence would not be justified/ rewarded with this much.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I would love to see more videos about Light. Stuff like the Batman episode you did a while back was also pretty neat

I always kind of guessed there was an ulterior motive. Doing stuff out of interest is far more human than taking the path of least resistance which would be to just sit in his room and kill people. I mean, it's kind of clear that Light planted seed to let L figure out enough about him to make things interesting, even if he made some mistakes.

Boredom because he is a loner. Tragic really. Then again , the alternative isn’t much better. - Friendship can definitely be the antithesis to boredom, but it’s actually very difficult to make and maintain a good friendship. Often times , those who you consider friends only trying yo use you or betray you one way or another.

very good video you never disappoint

omg, im only starting this vid, but thank you for bringing this up, i think more people should recognise that light did what he did due to his own motives, and it's interesting to hear you dive into reasoning of his actions

5:00 if he did that, L would have found him in no time.

i always thought the same thing and got super annoyed by those specific light criticisms. No, Light's goal was never to evade capture and just kill people as kira forever. It was to become a god because anything else would be dull for him. Also as far as Ryuk, an interesting parallel is that both Ryuk and Light are apathetic monsters driven by their own boredom, while Misa and Rem are both willing to sacrifice themself for ones they love. good representation of their own personal demons

Nice video Seth 🔥 love Death Note

BRO, YOU ARE THE BEST shout to swag, chuck and six but bro, I've been subed for years, keep smashing it my bro, best content on RU-vid

light yagami actually is pretty similar to Walter white now that I think about their control freak nature and rise of their egos