the moral dilemma of light's mission is the throw line that runs through the entire series was light misguided in trying to change the world the way he did was L and later were near and mellow misguided in trying to stop him is having a Death Note at all something that could ever be justified no matter what the context is the series doesn't really give us any answers it isn't interested in deciding for us it tells us a story and leaves us to interpret it however we want that's why Death Note is still a series I can go back to 15 years later and still enjoy it just as much as I did when I was a little robot boy watching Adults Swim I think popular opinion over the years has landed on the side of most people not being okay with light or his actions but what if it's not that obvious what if Light Yagami was not the hero we've been okay with but he was the one we needed my name is zero this is kado and today let's break down how light was always the hero of Death Note let's talk about the morality of using a Death Note to solve problems light killed criminals because he believed that the fear of being killed would eventually reduce crime all on its own he gave heart attacks to the most violent criminals preferring to use things like disease or accidental deaths for Less violent offenders in this scenario light essentially acts like a global deterrent for all of humanity he even ends up somewhat successful he points out that he reduced Crimes by a whopping 70 percent light was in the end just one man writing things in a notebook even if he killed tens of thousands of criminals he ended up saving many many more lives than he ever took does that justify what he did or how he did it light acted as a necessary evil for the world the people trying to stop him understand the concept just as well light's father suichiro is supposed to be the moral pillar for most of the story when it came time to investigate his family he didn't hesitate to put cameras in his bathrooms despite his wife and daughter it was a necessary evil to prove his family innocent light was raised by his father and wanted to become a detective because of his father he never actually confronted him about this power who's to say that light couldn't have convinced his father that what he did was necessary if he actually talked to him about it so Ichiro says that the power to kill people is a cursed power and he doesn't even know just how cursed the Death Note really is before he got the Death Note light truly believed that Humanity was just spiraling down into Oblivion getting the Death Note just gave him a way to do something about it maybe the Act of Killing was inherently wrong but can we really say that the world wasn't better off for light the members of the task force in spk oppose Kira's effects but most of the people who were trying to catch light from L to Mellow just wanted to see him convicted for their own reasons when that was said and done none of them had any plan on what to do when the crime rate eventually skyrocketed again their best idea was to pretend Cairo was still out there their fun little game was over Elle for instance was famous for always solving cases that actually interested him why would he care about your everyday murder if light killing criminals saved many more people then wouldn't stopping light just mean killing those people yourself and even if the power to kill people is inherently wrong it wasn't like light could go back it's easy to forget but the first two people light ever killed were experiments heck he thought he was playing into a stupid prank he was more surprised than anyone else that the Death Note actually worked and by that point it was already too late light was already a killer he chose to then go on to do something with that curse if someone had to have this kind of power then I'd argue it might as well have been someone a lot like Light Yagami here's a fun little thought experiment in the place of light just how many people would choose to try out this fun little prank on people that didn't deserve it how many people would write the names of someone that was rude to them one time or someone they had a bad history with not to actually kill them but just to vent with a silly joke even when light thought it was a prank he still only did it with the people he'd actually be comfortable with killing that alone would make him far more moral than most people even in the story light is presented as the most moral person who ever used the weapon using it in the most noble way it could be used Elle wanted to use the death note to test the 13-day rule ironically using Kira's methods to beat Kira Melo used the death note to kill most of near staff to settle a grudge these reasons are either at best questionable or downright evil it's notable that both nier and tsuichiro Yagami the aforementioned moral pillar of the story both refuse to use the death note at all near even has a speech about how easy it would be for his organization to just assassinate Light Yagami and terumikumi but then doesn't do it certain characters do reject the power to kill but that kind of supports the idea that there's no more moral way to use that power than how Kira is using it in principle the principle of killing the right people of course we can criticize how he does use it in practice one problem people often point out is that light eventually uses the death note to kill in a in people he kills the FBI agents gets L killed and pretty much killed Lindell Taylor Just for mocking him and he only happened to be a criminal it's a decent argument but hardly bulletproof light did Kill relatively innocent people but they were only people who were trying to stop or oppose him if light is a necessary evil if he's the reason millions of people are still alive then why shouldn't he light says that the people who are trying to oppose him are truly evil and most people ignore it because its lights ego talking but is he wrong anyone stopping him isn't trying to make things right they aren't trying to stop the downward spiral that light saw all they're trying to do is maintain the status quo they assume the downward spiral isn't happening but what if it really is sure light might have killed Lindell Taylor out of Pride but they ignore that light wasn't interested in him solely because he said mean things to light this was Elle a world famous detective that had solved every important case ever and was now about to investigate his crimes his ego being attacked might have pushed him over the edge to action but I don't think light would have killed him if it was just any random person we hear about other people talking smack about Kira on TV but we don't hear about most of them dying and none it lights hands light has only ever killed people who were either criminals or were trying to stop him people talk like light randomly killed people for cutting him off in traffic when it's always been more nuanced than the take for instance when he considered killing sayu this would have been a case of him actually killing the kind of person his ideal world is supposed to protect as well as someone who should have a close personal connection to him in the end he doesn't do it and for good reason but this moment suggests that his willingness to kill people is just him offering them up his sacrifices to a better world sometimes he enjoys making the sacrifice and sometimes he does it with hesitation no I still don't personally agree with light just killing criminals broadcast on the news or online after all wrongful convictions are a thing and light wasn't investigating literally every single person whose name he wrote in the death note it does seem like he looked into a lot of the cases of the people he punished but we also know that he punished some people right after their crimes were made public there's also the times when Kira's killings were being performed by higuchi Misa or mikami all of which means numerically speaking Kira definitely has some innocent blood on his hands still the results do speak for themselves light genuinely made the world a far safer place than it was before essentially light did create a better world but this better world wasn't real there's less crime not because people are better but because they're afraid a World created through means like this has no value it's something asked not only in Death Note but in many similar shows like code GEOS I say this is idealistic because while it's true it's not really practical it's the same problem everyone trying to stop light has sure they might stop Kira but all that really does is break the dam light was holding shut all by himself what is the alternative even in the real world the biggest thing keeping us from going to war is nuclear weapons another Global deterrent light is exactly that in the world of Death Note honestly given the kind of power that light has it's actually amazing that he's been so well reserved with it even after the time skip we know that light pretty much only cares about two things he cares about killing criminals and wants to prevent authorities from trying to investigate him or hide criminals from him with the power he has it would be trivially easy for him to say swing an election stop or cause a war and do pretty much anything it somewhat implied light has done stuff like this if light had wanted to he could have taken far more advantage and it wasn't like they could have stopped him any sooner given that it just speaks to light's patience and foresight that he only did what he did a few months after that time skip Kira is basically endorsed by the president of the United States people are starting to accept him as part of the world and some see him as the Arbiter of morality there was the moment when mikami told the media that he was going to start killing people who don't contribute to society enough and light said it was too early for Kira to start saying stuff like that mikami probably just said that because he was starting to have trouble hitting his self-imposed one-page a day quota so we don't really know how much blight planned to speak to the world or if he planned to be more of a silent God but it's interesting to imagine that he might just stay in basically the same role for the rest of his life one thing I feel often gets overlooked is that people only focus on the criminals he's killed the crime rates he's reduced in the world of Death Note where you can drop dead at pretty much any time would wars exist in the show we learned that even War has been reduced by Kira's influence What leader would lead his country into a war knowing that he can be killed even if he's inside a bunker 100 feet under the Earth people in the fandom have done the math and light saves hundreds of thousands of lives every year just by reducing the crime rate I'd argue that light has actually indirectly saved the lives of millions not just hundreds of thousands on that kind of scale light has probably saved more people than most everyone who's ever existed compared to all of that and with all he's sacrificed it's hard to see light as a villain you might still disagree with him you might think he's an anti-hero instead but light's results do speak for themselves with this lens light has objectively been a Force for good in the world and defeating him did just make the world worse not better but maybe you think things were just getting better before they got worse we can never really know light is smart I'm sure he had plans for what to do after his death I doubt he only wanted to make the world more peaceful for a few decades before letting it spiral back to whatever it was before if I had to guess he would eventually trained up in air making sure they had all the values he himself had then he'd pass along his powers I will become the god of the new world the phrase sounds Resolute there's almost resignation and how he says this light might have wanted to be a God but it wasn't strictly for his own good he wanted to take on the worst parts of being a deity judging people he might have even relished in the people who worshiped him but is that really such a bad price for saving millions of lives light isn't perfect and we all know he's still got plenty of things wrong but he would have had to mess up spectacularly to undo all of the good he ended up doing that's why love him or hate him light was the hero in Death Note on this channel we try to present more interesting and nuanced perspectives of the shows that we love and often perspectives that we feel are underrepresented in the community and I think back to that moment in the finale when light has been completely exposed and blatantly caught in a trap he tries to start a dialogue thinking he can rhetorically trick the others into releasing him as a final Resort his words give them pause as they start to contemplate the actual ramifications of Kira's actions in their world and what it would mean to cut that off instantly they've all come so far for this purpose but he starts to feel as though he can sway them but near shuts him down by simply pointing out that they don't let murderers Go free the simple and moral view rejects Kira's merits and ends the conversation right there now tactically speaking this is a ploy on light's part and near sees through it to the point that light thinks he just has to kill near but I think it's true that when you try to defend Kira's actions the discussion becomes so much more nuanced than when you admonish them it makes sense for near to put a stop to the conversation but that doesn't mean we as Death Note fans should if you like this content make sure to subscribe share this video with someone who will like it and turn on that notification Bell before I go I just want to give an extra special shout out to all of the lovely patrons over at patreon.comit we're Super Active in our Patron Discord server occasionally throwing some late night anime and movie watch parties so if that's something you're interested in pledge just a single dollar to get an invite you can also follow us on Twitter Beyond links to everything will be in the description again my name is xero this is kado and thank you all for listening to my dumb rants for more