Poll: The DeathNote

[JustusCross]

i think that at the begginning he was the hero with good intentions. but later when he kills alot of innocent people with his cause as his justification he becomes almost a villian. plus his want to be the god of the world he creates is pretty messed up. the intentions may still have been pretty good, but "hell is paved with good intentions"

 

[asteroth21nox]

Well, I have seen the entire series and you forgot to mention that anybody who uses the death note cannot go to neither heaven or hell. I would have probably done something similer if this nasty little aspect was not a part of the conditions of useing the death note. I would probably kill a lot of corrupt poliicians and buisnessmen who get away with murder. only the world would never know about me, that was the greatest mistake L made was announcing himself and makeing himself known. Unlike L I wouldn't have slain an innocent who got in my way. Very good series, I would like to see the people who say it's bad write up a series thats more interesting.

 

[jboking]

The point of the entire anime is that the level of power Light had corrupts all. No one should have that kind of power.

 

[Fox242]

There definitely has to be some kind of a third option here. There were aspects of what Light did that reflected both of the options. If anything, he lands squarely in the middle ground. You cannot boil down such a compelling character's actions in such an outstanding anime to such a black and white choice. Sure he tried to do the right thing, but there was an excessive amount of collateral damage. He did intentionally kill innocent people for his own gain/ survival, which really tempers my esteem for him. Basically, I cannot really make up my mind about Light or the question at hand. I feel that the best answer anyone will come up with regarding this topic was the one that jboking gave.

 

[Lamppenkeyboard]

I thought the series was awful, but the moral question it raises is pretty deep. I think that some criminals deserve to die.

 

[Brendon_4V]

Light is crazy amazing and everything he did was totaly epic. I think what he did was right and he should have won even though the end was still incredible.

 

[Caligulove]

sounds like hes the villain... and a self-righteous douchebag with lots of inner monologues- wouldnt like it

 

[Mad World]

It was wrong of him; no human being has the right to decide who

\

not true every human being is capable of taking life, and thus deciding who deserves to die.
the question is who is justified in the act and who is not.

self defense
betrayal/ vengeance
a chance to get ahead
fore a cause (be it for country, religion, freedom etc.)

which are good reasons, which reasons are bad, and which are good enough?

I would probably only ever accept self defence (there may be some exceptions).

I understand that every human being is able to take a life, but that doesn't make it right.

So, I believe it was wrong of him.

 

[secretshadow90]

While evil should be gone from the world, placing it in the hands of another human being just leads to a crapsack world, hence why I voted against it. I understand both Light's and L's reasoning, but let's face it: Light was absolutely bonkers.

 

[Veylon]

The central irony of the show is that Light is exactly the kind of inhuman monster that he is trying to rid the world of.

It's very easy to say that if you kill of X, Y, and Z the world will be a better place. It's not so easy to see that in someone else's eyes, you are the X, Y, or Z that needs killing off.

 

[The Ultimate 2]

If somebody isn't going to kill the scum of the world then who will, Long live lord Kira.

 

[Lonan]

I say he went completely over the top, remember at the end? It was no longer about killing criminals, he intended to become a God. He used morality as an excuse, plain and simple. A truly moral person has compassion for evil and good. Most people can't manage that, and use immorality as an excuse for violence, a desire we all have at our roots. I can't even tell you the number of times I've seen people say that pedophiles should have their dicks put in meat grinders, or that rapists should all be killed. And of course, those who kill others, should be killed themselves. Right now the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks is on trial. Should he be put in the street and let the families of the 9/11 victims take shots at him? I was in grade 6 at the time, and that was largely the male consensus of what should happen to Osama Bin Laden. But is there not a line between justice and vengeance?

I'm not saying this shouldn't happen nor am I saying it should, but I would like to mention that Jesus always said to forgive those who trespass against you. I'm not interested in the past, I'm interested in who you are right now, the only time which truly exists. If they are a completely different person now than they before they committed the crime, I fully recognise that the person in question has changed. But it's not up to me, it's up to God. God decides everything, and he doesn't need mortals help in telling him what's true and what isn't. Don't decide too much of what's true about others. To be completely accurate, you would have to not do it at all.

It should also be considered that the people who commit these crimes were likely treated very poorly when they were young. Are the people who drove them into the darkest corner to not be at all held responsible? No. That's how it is right now. You get beaten and beaten and beaten constantly, and when you finally lash you are the one who is punished. That's how it works.

 

[Asturiel]

Both sides were bonkers, heck if L and Light had switched places it would have been the same really, L seems unstable enough to do it as well and Light and L had something in common, they wanted a equal opponent. However during the end when Light had succeeded in his goal, he was consumed in the power of being a "God". I say that Light's mission was indeed righteous but wrong at the same time.

To be honest if I couldnt do anything against him that I knew wouldnt get me killed, I would keep my head down and accept his rule. However if I had a means to actually stand up against "Kira" without dying instantly (in my mind) I would stand up against the mass genocide this "God" has wrought on our world.

 

[ReincarnatedFTP]

Well I think there's a way to test this.

Recently, four cops were gunned down in cold blood in a coffee shop in Tacoma.

A guy with an extensive criminal record is wanted for questioning in the murders. He has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Here's a list
-at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington.
-Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child. He was released from custody just six days ago, even though was staring at seven additional felony charges in Washington state.Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons' release on the pending child-rape charge.
-Two confrontations with police alone this year (including punching a sheriff in the face during one of them)Charged with seven counts of assault and malicious mischief.
-He has shown signs of mental insanity, including making his family stay naked during random periods, the world is going to end, he is Jesus, scared of the Secret Service, calling Obama a messiah.
-In 1990, Clemmons, then 18, was sentenced in Arkansas to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft of property
-When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.
-Another time, Clemmons hid a hinge in his sock, and was accused of intending to use it as a weapon. Yet another time, Clemmons took a lock from a holding cell, and threw it toward the bailiff. He missed and instead hit Clemmons' mother, who had come to bring him street clothes
-On another occasion, Clemmons had reached for a guard's pistol during transport to the courtroom.
-In March 2001, he was accused of violating his parole by committing aggravated robbery and theft

Various circumstances have kept him out of jail. For one Mike Huckabee (a Republican politician) commuted his sentence, a probation panel recommended that it be commuted and other judges and such stood by in inaction. Clearly, incompetence is why he was still out on the street.

Hypothetically, you have the Death Note
1)Do you kill him?
2)Do you kill the people that bailed him out, let him by, or otherwise incompetently allowed it to go this far?
3)If you killed any of them, what would you do if you found out that law enforcement authorities, some of them friends of the dead cops, were going to arrest you for murder? They know exactly how you did it, and plan on seizing your notebook. Go to court and lawyer your way out? Kill them? Flee? Serve your time?

 

[ZergInfestedJesus]

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.}

I don't know if it was in the manga, but when ryuk said you couldn't go to heaven or hell, Light guessed that was because neither of them existed. Ryuk was surprised that Light got it right since he thought " most humans believed in that kind of stuff".

 

[Therumancer]

I have this series but haven't seen it all yet (I bought an import copy of it).

It's an interesting and thought provoking premise, but I don't think Light can be considered a good guy. I think the turning point for the character was pretty early in the series (as far as I've seen) when he tried to kill the police for simply saying on TV that they wanted to stop him. He wasn't even under serious threat at that point and did it to make a point. Really there was no excuse for it.

I am one of those people who does not nessicarly agree with the maxims that power corrupts, or that only those who don't seek power are worthy of wielding it. However this seems to be the point of the series (as stated) and it really jumped into that territory with both feet pretty quickly on. I didn't really see Light as being corrupted over time but as being pretty bloody unstable to begin with.

I could agree with SOME of what he was doing, but he took it too far. I can also see creating a better world, but I feel anyone who believes they can create a true utopia given human nature as being off their rocker.

As someone who has in the past advocated mass murder under certain circumstances I was also less than comfortable with the way he was exterminating people who had already paid for their crimes or were in prison. I support the death penelty to some extent, and can even support a degree of vigilanteism but he took it from "some criminals deserve to die" to "I will kill anyone I don't like or find inconveinent".

Such are my thoughts from as far as I've watched it.

As far as the quality goes, well Anime is not a highly intellectual medium and is intended for a teenage audience. Allowing for this as a teen horror/drama I think it isn't too bad. It's a work of high art compared to say most of the "Fear Street" novels.

 

[Lullabye]

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

this

killed bad people, went bats shit crazy in the end......kind of a "respect is given where respect is due" situation.

 

[Rhodeyo]

actually i really hated that anime... gayest ending of all time

 

[Flos]

actually i really hated that anime... gayest ending of all time

SWIM!

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!

Hypothetically, you have the Death Note
1)Do you kill him?
2)Do you kill the people that bailed him out, let him by, or otherwise incompetently allowed it to go this far?
3)If you killed any of them, what would you do if you found out that law enforcement authorities, some of them friends of the dead cops, were going to arrest you for murder? They know exactly how you did it, and plan on seizing your notebook. Go to court and lawyer your way out? Kill them? Flee? Serve your time?

Y'see, now, that's a horrible situation to be put in. It's akin to the entire 'kill one, save a thousand' situation. Would you do it and have to live with the consequences?

I know I wouldn't. My morals are not able to be bended. I believe murdering for any reason is wrong. ._.

Does that make me a killer by association? Well, no. The same way the people who let him off aren't murderers. I didn't make his choices, I simply didn't stop him.

I'd feel guilty as hell for the rest of my existence, though.

 

[Lekonua]

He started out good. I probably would've done the same thing. But he let is arrogance get the better of him. He went from "I want to make the world better" to "I want to be a god."

It all went down hill when he got pissed at L for calling him out.

Spoiler

If Light hadn't killed the fake L at the beginning, the real L never would have found out anything about him. By killing Tailor, Light MADE L his enemy and not only unknowingly revealed his own location, but the limitations of his power. (That he needs a name and a face.)

Thanks the lead he handed to L on a platter, Light had to start killing off detectives and police who got too close to catching him. That, in my opinion, is when he actually became evil.