a high school boy picks up a magic notebook and uses it to execute criminals that's the premise of Death Note the iconic series by sugumi Oba and Takeshi obata the cat and mouse game between light and L spawned a doge and fan base that's incredibly active despite being a decade old however I haven't seen anyone here on YouTube advocating for Kira a lot of people on the Internet seem to empathize with this point of view so I wanted to explain why provide the best argument I could for why someone might agree with him and just break down was Kira right part one greatest good for the greatest number the closest thing we get to an argument on light's philosophy in the actual series is in chapter 105 impossible here light points out that Kira's actions have reduced crime by 70 percent and that war has stopped entirely let's put that into perspective the number of people killed by War per year is 50 000. the number of people who die in homicides is four hundred thousand seventy percent of those two combined is 315 000 people saved that is insane of course light hasn't stopped all people from dying he just created a monopoly on violence where he's the only one who can safely commit it anyone else just gets killed by Kira this bore is an idea from Thomas Hobbes Leviathan Hobbs talks about a state of nature without government where people are allowed to kill each other without any certain consequence and they do so it's better to have a government even an oppressive government because now there's only one entity able to commit violence rather than everyone being able to do it this is also why even though the U.S police is one of the most abusive and violent police forces in the Western World the second people try to establish a Zone without police in Portland murders went up like crazy so what does this mean for Death Note well for one it means that light isn't actually doing anything super new he's just taking the place of the government executing criminals is something that the government already does light is just more efficient and better at it so to be a net positive for the world he doesn't have to be perfect he just has to be better than the government or at least provide some additional benefit and that he definitely does light cut crime 70 past what it is that's because would-be criminals are scared the government might catch them but they're even more afraid of Kira who can kill them with just their name and face the whole point of the Leviathan is to deter crime and Kira does that just better sure he executes a couple Innocents but so does the government they get the wrong guy sometimes and some governments even bomb other countries were engaged in war and kill civilians that way compare that to Kira who actually stopped all wars and is clear who's in the right matsura even wonders aloud is what we're doing the right thing is Kira may be a positive force in the world on net and when catching him maybe be harmful side note I love matsuda his character follows the jester archetype the comic relief that surprisingly philosophical it's matzah who wonders if what they're doing is the right thing and matsuda who actually reflects in the epilogue and matsura who saves them all in the warehouse by shooting light but back to the video so matzo wonders if Kira is good and izawal responds by saying it's a fake piece he claims people are only compliant because they're afraid but how is this any different than what the government does it if people weren't afraid of getting arrested they would do all sorts of things what Kira is doing isn't categorically new he's just imposing a new set of laws onto the people with new consequences it's no different than the government just more efficient and I'm sure light would say he's just scratching the surface of what's possible for example thousands of people die every year in third world countries in America because Pharma companies price gouge medicine and people can't afford it KIRO could probably fix that pretty easily there are countless regimes that oppress their own citizens Kira could force them to stop basically any man-made problem in the world could be effortlessly stopped by the death note and that's shown in the incredible amount of people saved so is Kira good well it's complicated it's pretty clear that Kira believes in utilitarianism the greatest good for the greatest number this basically means that an action is Justified if it results in a net good for society if this is the way you view things cure is undoubtedly a positive force in the world 315 000 people saved is a lot of people and stopping all war is a big deal even if you consider how many people like killed Keith has an alternate ending of death note that is about 125 thousands about over six years so about 20 000 people per year so on net that's an average of 315 000 saved minus 20 000 people killed 295 000 people saved light mostly killed violent criminals but even if you believe their lives are worth the same as those he saved then given that he saved 315 people per year he saved a net 295 000 lives every year you can say Kira is wrong all you want but I'm sure those 295 000 people would disagree with you part two but isn't light a psycho short answer is yes long answer is abso [ __ ] lutely he is he uses misamis as a pawn he's cool with his dad dying and even killing saiyu he shows zero remorse for killing anyone in the series he manipulates mikimi and Takara and even considers killing Naomi Mishra with his bare hands most of all he didn't need to try to kill elf he could have just ignored the task force entirely and went about his merry white killing criminals and if he only cared about the cause this is what he would have done he cares about more he cares about winning light is undoubtedly sociopathic he's manipulative he's arrogant you could say he's just obsessed with his goal but if that was true he'd still display remorse at saiyu's capture or sadness at his father's passing light doesn't either when so Ichiro dies he says I've got bigger things to deal with right now I've got to get him to write mellow's name in The Notebook his inner monologue is zero remorse all just strategizing light does cry when so Ichiro dies but it's unclear if this is still a performance then when Psy is abducted light is smiling saying they caught me and not five minutes later he's gushing at the idea of playing his cat and mouse game with n instead of L and as part of the game he considers killing his own sister light doesn't seem to care about other people in the slightest just a singular pursuit of his mission part 3 doesn't matter but hold on a second why do a few lives matter when he's still saving a net 295 000 people a year 70 reduction of violent crime is absolutely incredible and if flight had stopped there maybe there would have been an argument for his actions being justified but then light reveals that he plans to one day kill lazy people as well I think most people would agree that this is absolutely insane and tyrannical laziness isn't a crime and this is literally light just imposing his will in the world of course you could say well maybe he'd be okay if he hadn't gone that far but why is that a fair thing to say what if the reverse was true and he'd gone farther what it feels racist or homophobic or even if he wasn't what if mikami had been any one of those things that's a Genus I have been making can you imagine Hitler or the KKK with a Death Note and it's easy to see how that might spiral in other ways too for example light's personal life someone giving you [ __ ] in the day-to-day kill them off you deserve it a professor gives you a bad grade have them change it before you kill them because of course the god of the new world deserves an a it'll turn you into a vile person for sure because once you're desensitized once killing someone becomes easy for you you'll never turn back when you're trying to make a better world anything becomes justifiable and that's the problem with utilitarianism you can kill anyone you want to adopt any stance possible and it would be okay because it's for the greater good why not kill everyone who disagreed with Kira so you could have a harmonious Society you're the god of a new world after all this kind of happened in Death Note too Ray Pember wasn't Criminal neither was Naomi mistro neither was Al I strongly believe that if flight had not been stopped he would have killed all dissidents becoming a dictator who ruled with an iron fist when you're creating a more perfect world anything killing all the lazy people leading your father to death manipulating your own girlfriend anything is okay and that's why he's worse than the government government needs to obey its citizens or get voted out of office they have checks and balances light doesn't in the manga's epilogue matsuda notes that crime has gone back up and he wonders if they've done the right thing stopping Kira he's told that if they hadn't stopped Kira they would be dead which means it must have been the right thing to do that's true but it was also the right thing to do because the death note was the most powerful weapon in the world and the world was incredibly lucky it didn't do more harm than it did [Music] if you like this video please consider subscribing I'm going to be making a lot more content on anime like analytical stuff but probably also funny stuff too so come through enjoy it's literally free so I think I'm gonna do something on why pain was right next and make this a series on defending the philosophy of certain villains so yeah like subscribe and I haven't really thought about catchy closing line things so