Poll: The DeathNote

[Internet Kraken]

I personally believe that nobody has the right to kill another person, ever.


Putting aside my personal bias, I still believe Lights method of distributing "justice" was completely corrupt. It was ultimately him who decided who lived and who died. He killed people based on what he thought was evil. He only saw people as either lawful or corrupt, and killed them accordingly. In his world, the second you made a mistake you were disposed of. It's never a good idea to let someone have ultimate power, especially when they horribly abuse it.

 

[historybuff]

Light was an arrogant cocksucker.

L was crazy though. I liked him.

 

[Daggermonkie]

Well, the point of the series wasnt to show evil must be destroyed for evil is like a hydra,cut of its head and it grows 2 more.This is further implied by the fact the enemy of Kira gets killed off and there are 2 more detective dudes that come in to the story. In reality if such a thing did exist it would kill more people then it would save because power is a violent and malevolent and only very few people can use it right so like Kira they would use the notebook for their own gain

 

[ReincarnatedFTP]

Eh, I only watched the show and one thing bothered me.
They don't always define what the criminals he killed did.

1)Light seems to think that if they broke the law, it's ok to kill them.Not all crimes are violent, there are bullshit laws.
2)Not to mention, he killed wanted suspects or wanted for questioning, who might have been innocent. Innocent until proven guilty damn it!
3)Even disregarding the previous 2, he became a hypocrite in many ways. A)He broke the law he so revered by killing, and many other acts. B) He becomes the very monster he hates and kills innocents to save his own ass.Including his father.

Sure he culls the crime rate, but so would genocide or secret police.

So, he was intelligent, but ethically retarded and a bastard on par with Charles Manson or Dahmer.

L and Light's father seemed like the only lawful good characters, and even L came dangerously close to crossing the line when he detained Misa. Near and Mello veered into vigilante territory just as Light did, to catch his ass.

So I guess the ultimate lessons are, "Stare into the abyss and it stares right back into you", "Nothing lasts forever", "Might makes right", and "Fight fire with fire".

 

[JimmerDunda]

I think people miss the point L was the bad guy of the entire series. It shows how power can corrupt those with good intentions. He got power hungry and died like a *****.

 

[Thaius]

There has to be a third option here, I think. What he was doing was noble, sure, but he got powerhungry and his desire for justice turned into a lust for power. He had good intentions, but his actions eventually became completely corrupt.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

He started out good, but got even crazier and more socialpathic as the story goes. It was depressing that he didn't win in the end, though. So I have to go with evil. Everything about him seems evil, even the way he eats potato chips.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

I think people miss the point L was the bad guy of the entire series. It shows how power can corrupt those with good intentions. He got power hungry and died like a *****.

You meant Light, right?

Deathnote is the story of a villain, not a hero, which is what made the series stand out.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

Eh, I only watched the show and one thing bothered me.
They don't always define what the criminals he killed did.

I think they did at first, then it was like "so you get it? He kills people who are evil" and it focused on the drama with L and Near instead.

The point of the book is that it challenges the conventions of good and evil. You can take Light as evil, but he's only doing it to make the world a better place (and to give himself wood). So is he really evil or is he, like he thinks he is, a god? And it works. Crime stops and the country seems like a nicer place to be.
But by killing people, he is himself a murderer. So, L fills the role of the conventional hero, but in essence, he would be creating more crime and, even to achieve his desires, he wouldn't kill Kira, even if that was the only way to stop the killings.
Post would make more sense if I hadn't been awake for 60 hours on the bounce.

 

[tthor]

Eh, I only watched the show and one thing bothered me.
They don't always define what the criminals he killed did.

1)Light seems to think that if they broke the law, it's ok to kill them.Not all crimes are violent, there are bullshit laws.
2)Not to mention, he killed wanted suspects or wanted for questioning, who might have been innocent. Innocent until proven guilty damn it!
3)Even disregarding the previous 2, he became a hypocrite in many ways. A)He broke the law he so revered by killing, and many other acts. B) He becomes the very monster he hates and kills innocents to save his own ass.Including his father.

Sure he culls the crime rate, but so would genocide or secret police.

So, he was intelligent, but ethically retarded and a bastard on par with Charles Manson or Dahmer.

L and Light's father seemed like the only lawful good characters, and even L came dangerously close to crossing the line when he detained Misa. Near and Mello veered into vigilante territory just as Light did, to catch his ass.

So I guess the ultimate lessons are, "Stare into the abyss and it stares right back into you", "Nothing lasts forever", "Might makes right", and "Fight fire with fire".

#1, he didn't kill just anyone who broke a law, only the people he felt were deserving of death.
#2, this was probably often true.
#3, he did not rever the law. he became Kira because he thought the law wasn't doing its job properly, such as by letting murderers live and letting horrible criminals walk free because of technicalities

I think what Light did is a textbook example of the saying "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Not to mention "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." His intentions were sorta noble, in a way. What irritated me the most about Light is the guy was obviously a frickin' genius, much smarter then I could ever hope to be, but for all his brains he failed to notice that he was becoming and eventually became the very thing he was determined to eliminate.

i think he was perfectly aware that he was becoming the murderer, but he saw it as a necisary evil, and that someone had to do it, for the better good

 

[senorcromas]

Not much I can say that hasn't already been said... but...

Dude, the series wasn't even very good, I don't know why people get so worked up about it

It makes people think. Plain and simple. "What would I have done?" " Ha! What a dumb move! If it were me, I'd (insert answer here)"

Also, it's a well-told thriller/detective story with memorable characters. A bit too slow for my tastes, but I could usually enjoy it nonetheless.

 

[ShadeOfRed]

I would just draw in it. Endless paper, right? I'd also write my name in it, just so I would die an awesome death or something.
Damn Shinigami would be all "Kill someone" and I'd be all "No." I guess that would get annoying.
Where's the poll option for dicking around with it, anyway? There's a middle ground and that needs to be brought to light.

 

[Viivrabe]

i will not vote because while it may seem to be a black and white question what he did was more gray.

much like dropping the nukes on japan in WWII it ended the war, but the civilian casualties are uncountable, what we did was wrong, but doing it for the wright reasons made up for that.

light was doomed from the minute he tested it out to see if the book worked "he who rights a name in the Death Note can never go to heaven nor hell" in essence as soon as he found out it was not a joke he was damned so what he did with it was irrelevant so it dident matter how much good or evil he used it for his sole was lost.
but this isn't a discussion about his sole, sooo...

what he did was good at first for the right reasons. (a well my sole is gone, but i can use this now power to make the world a better place)

then good for the wrong reasons. (as soon as the people backed him he felt like he was on a power trip, he was important, not because he was killing bad people but because no one could stop him)

than bad for good reasons (when he was being hunted, were the people hunting him evil? No. but if they had caught him they would have killed him so it was self preservation. and that is as good a reason as i think is needed to kill)

than wrong for the wrong reasons (it became a game, each move he made to expose his enemies also made him vulnerable, and the first person to slip up would loose this game and also there life.)

so the only thing i can say to this is (and i feel that a quote is appropriate) "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

{of course he cant go to hell can he.}

 

[OmegaXIII]

I'd probably end up using it to off people who annoy me, because the series' message rings very true, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

[Sewblon]

Well he did end up using it to kill more than one person who hadn't done anything wrong, so it was bad.

 

[Viivrabe]

2)Not to mention, he killed wanted suspects or wanted for questioning, who might have been innocent. Innocent until proven guilty damn it!

no unmade arguments with the rest of your post, but...
innocent until proven guilty, while a noble ideal, is not held up in most places(and often not in its birth place in the USA. Guantanamo Bay for instance)

 

[NotAPie]

I still laugh at his last name after reading ED.
Anyway it wasn't that good but I watched it anyway, he's just the villain.

 

[benoitowns]

Watched it on the internet before it was released in English.. I absolutely loved it and thought it was clever and stuff. i would use it like the way yagami was going to kill the annoying pricks in his class in the first epsidoe or two, but decided it would be too obvious.

 

[Viivrabe]

I'd personally use it to kill whoever writes anime as shitty as that. Anime is only good when it's completely fucking idiotic and it knows that it is.

have you watched the live action, you cant complain about it because its technically not anime any more.

and besides how is anime any different than other forms of story telling media? books, live action tv shows , movies, comic books "graphic novels".

 

[Jharry5]

Light started off with the right intentions, but went about it in all the wrong way. The power corrupted him, and he paid for it.
I quite like the irony of him becoming the very thing he seeks to destroy...