Death Note

[Ceighk]

To me, Death Note follows the villian's tale. Yes, Light is a villain, don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise. L was more of the personification of justice than Light could ever hope to be. Creating a world where you kill people for wrong doings? That's not a perfect world! That's a world where people are afraid to act out in the slightest because *Kira might kill them*! I'm sorry, but blood for blood is not justice. It's not. So when Light died the way he did, I did not feel sorry for him. In fact, I saw it coming. I've seen it based on history and other stories of people like him. I didn't pity him when it happened, either. For every person he killed so coldly, he deserved what he had coming. I'm not wishing death on him, as I would never sincerely wish death on anyone, but I knew he would have to face the things he's done. Our world might not be perfect, but his idea of utopia was a joke.

Yeah that's... kinda the whole point. People who think Light is the hero are either idiots or sociopaths. But what's wrong with following the story from the villain's point of view? It worked for Shakespeare, and it allows the audience to understand his psyche and motivations, which can be pretty interesting.

EDIT:

But the manga would only be a few chapters then ;P.

As an interesting side note, before there was the main manga there was a DeathNote one-shot where exactly that happened. And it was only a few chapters.

 

[Ceighk]

Or from the point of view of Near. Whoever outwits Light in the end and exposes him for who he is.

You know, it's not just that, either. There is so much more that could have been done. I might have liked Light if his character were more believable, as in a character who grew up with a terrible life and has more of a reason to do the things Light did, especially if he ended up growing as a person and realizing that maybe his idea of justice and a perfect world isn't as great as he thinks it is.

I dunno,I thought one of the messages of the series was that it was saying that with that much power, that is what a normal person would do. It's up to you whether you agree with that (personally, I'm skeptical). Basically I think the point is that you're meant to identify with Light at the start, but then when he goes evil you ask yourself "would I do this? Would most people I know do this?". If there was an explicit reason why he was doing what he was, you maybe wouldn't have got that so much.

EDIT: Oh, sorry for the double post - I was planning on copying it into the edit box for the above post, but I posted it by itself by accident.

On another note (see what I did there??), you can view Death Note (and Code Geass for that matter) as being modernizations of the classic 'tragedy', where you have a well respected character who becomes undone through his own character flaws; in Light's case it's believing he is better than everyone else. Seriously, compare Death Note and Macbeth and tell me there aren't massively overlapping elements. For the record I'm not saying Death Note is better than Shakespeare's work, just similar to it.

 

[Painted_Outlaw]

You know, it's not just that, either. There is so much more that could have been done. [...] Maybe, instead of becoming more and more insane, he grows to believe that there might be something more to the way L does things.

[hide]Then, Ryuk would have been even more bored and probably gone "*yawn* this isn't much fun anymore *kills Light*[/hide] :sweat:

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

From all the stuff I read, it just seems like you don't like Light, or the premise of the series :laugh: What I mean by that is, it's okay to not like what they did, but when you instantly wanna be the writer and start changing things about it completely...I don't want to be a jerk and say "Keep it to fanfiction", but it's like if I said "I wish the Sentai series was different", it's like "Well, it wasn't, just stick to what you didn't like in the actual series itself..."

Sorry if I sound like a jerk, I'm tired

Also, I love Light for every reason you've brought up. He wasn't boring or anything, and the best part about him was that he was given everything and still went this path. He was completely believable. People do these things (unfortunately). They're called sociopaths. If Light didn't have a Death Note, he probably would have became someone like Mikami, or would have ended up killing puppies. The point is, there are people like him, and it's interesting to see that L seems to have come from a broken home, and he turned out like that, but Light has a great home life (from what it seems), and his sense of justice is so skewed.

The thing is dude...in real life...people don't change :disappoin I mean, there is a chance people can change, but I think the second some guy wants to use a notebook to kill all the criminals in the world to become God...he's isn't going to agree with some other guy's point of view :laugh:

Okay, I can concede to what you are saying. I don't mean to take away from the creative vision of the ones responsible for making Death Note. That's just what I do sometimes, I exercise my creativity by trying to find different angles or opportunities a fictional story could take. I guess that's why I never said anything when people made those "How would you have done Kamen Rider Decade differently" topics or anything like it. It won't change what we ultimately got, but it's interesting to see how creative people get.

And speaking of fiction, I would advise not to bring up how things would happen in real life. That's kind of a grey area. For one, it's fiction, and two, it's not a grounds for how to write everything (because people can get tired of making things too realistic). Now I'm not saying you have to go to the extreme where anything goes and it might as well be as silly as Looney Tunes, but if you have to stop your creative flow and say to yourself "Wait, that's not believable in real life...", then I tend to think you are limiting yourself rather than challenging yourself to write something in a way while making it fit at the same time.

Yeah that's... kinda the whole point. People who think Light is the hero are either idiots or sociopaths. But what's wrong with following the story from the villain's point of view? It worked for Shakespeare, and it allows the audience to understand his psyche and motivations, which can be pretty interesting.

Never really read Shakespeare. Really, it's just a personal preference. Centering a story around the villain's tale is fine if you're into that. But personally, I'm not. I just never have been cool with it, and probably never will be. I like a story that follows the hero instead. I'm a sucker for the hero's tale.

 

[Ceighk]

Never really read Shakespeare. Really, it's just a personal preference. Centering a story around the villain's tale is fine if you're into that. But personally, I'm not. I just never have been cool with it, and probably never will be. I like a story that follows the hero instead. I'm a sucker for the hero's tale.

Fair enough, different people like different things and all that :thumbs:

 

[NateRiver]

I don't think the Death Note even corrupted Light.It was his personal opinion that he was superior to everyone that did.When Light learned what he could do with th Death Note, it amplified it, creating a god-complex.

 

[MMPR]

Yeah that's... kinda the whole point. People who think Light is the hero are either idiots or sociopaths. But what's wrong with following the story from the villain's point of view? It worked for Shakespeare, and it allows the audience to understand his psyche and motivations, which can be pretty interesting.

I 100% agree. I found it amazing how many people wanted Light to win at the end of the series. Just because we saw his point of view doesn't mean he was good. People can sympathize with him and say the Death Note corrupted him, but he did everything willingly, he turned into a bad guy, very similar to Scarface, both were very charismatic but by the end of their tales they were villains

 

[Gryphman]

I 100% agree. I found it amazing how many people wanted Light to win at the end of the series. Just because we saw his point of view doesn't mean he was good. People can sympathize with him and say the Death Note corrupted him, but he did everything willingly, he turned into a bad guy, very similar to Scarface, both were very charismatic but by the end of their tales they were villains

I'm not really a fan of Deathnote, but I do know what it's all about, and I know of it's ridiculous fan base. When I found out Light dies like a total pussy at the end of the book, I about died laughing imagining the fanboy/girl rage.

There is no greater joy than the rage-filled cries of insane fans.