| NOTE: Protagonists CAN be villains, Antagonists CAN be heroes https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainProtagonist Every time I make a post talking about how Light is such a great villain or include Light in my top 10 anime villains list. There is bound to always be that one guy who goes "Nooo, LiGhT is nOt vIllaIn hE iS aNti HeRo". The only reason people can come up with is that he had good intentions and he reduced the crime rate, therefore he is a good guy. Well several anime villains have good intentions, Hanami from jjk wants what's best for the environment, Makishima Shougo wants to free the world from a corrupt government, Stain from mha wants to free the world from corrupt superheroes. I don't see anyone having a problem with calling these guys villains. If you consider Light a "grey" character then you are just saying majority of anime villains are grey, because most anime villains usually have sympathetic qualities, understandable motives and etc. There are VERY FEW moustache twirling villains in the anime world. I'd say Light is one of the most vile villains I've ever seen in anime and I've seen a decent amount of anime. |
| Maloween 2020 candies Main candies:         |
Mq84jdk said: GreyratAnimelist said: It is same like now like in AOT many people don't want to believe Reiner as Hero and Eren as Villain. Reiner isnt a hero lmao. The point is absolutely nobody in that show is a hero. They are all villains. wait for the futre episodes. |
Spoonmaster12 said: NOTE: Protagonists CAN be villains, Antagonists CAN be heroes https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainProtagonist Every time I make a post talking about how Light is such a great villain or include Light in my top 10 anime villains list. There is bound to always be that one guy who goes "Nooo, LiGhT is nOt vIllaIn hE iS aNti HeRo". The only reason people can come up with is that he had good intentions and he reduced the crime rate, therefore he is a good guy. Well several anime villains have good intentions, Hanami from jjk wants what's best for the environment, Makishima Shougo wants to free the world from a corrupt government, Stain from mha wants to free the world from corrupt superheroes. I don't see anyone having a problem with calling these guys villains. If you consider Light a "grey" character then you are just saying majority of anime villains are grey, because most anime villains usually have sympathetic qualities, understandable motives and etc. There are VERY FEW moustache twirling villains in the anime world. I'd say Light is one of the most vile villains I've ever seen in anime and I've seen a decent amount of anime. Well, I suppose it depends on how strictly you define villain. As you said, the blatant “mustache twirling” villain isn’t seen extremely often in the medium, and for good reason. A character, whether they be protagonist, antagonist, “hero” or “villain” (up to the audiences own moral judgements) in any medium, is generally going to be pretty uninteresting if there isn’t at least some nuance that puts them into the moral gray area. Largely, I think, it likely owes to the conditioning regarding “protagonist = good guy, antagonist = bad guy” type of thinking that, especially in Western cultures, is so prevalent. Regardless of any of their behaviors or rationalizations for such behaviors, the fact that you’re following a specific, leading character (as is their role as protagonist) in lieu of others, generates a propensity to sympathize with them (sometimes in an aggrandized manner, such as with Light), to view their actions as implicitly justified, whether or not that same reaction would occur in the real world. Any character worth their salt is probably going to be morally grey. The connotation is just, ostensibly, too strong regarding “hero” and “protagonist”. Perhaps many people also aren’t comfortable admitting they’re pulling for a person/entity that’s completely morally reprehensible (i.e. a villain). Anti-hero certainly sounds much softer, even if it’s perhaps a misnomer (as in Lights case). |
GreyratAnimelist said: It is same like now like in AOT many people don't want to believe Reiner as Hero and Eren as Villain. If you go story wise, Eren can be called a hero till season 4 and a villain afterwards. And Reiner can be called a villain till season 4 and a hero afterwards. But If you notice something properly, They both are just fighting each other for their own personal gains or for their motherland. Eren wants to save Eldia and Reiner wants to save Marley. So I wont call either of them a hero or a villain for that very reason. Coming back to the OP's og topic, Light is an Anti-hero at the beginning of the series because he was just killing criminals and becomes a villain at the end of the series as he was ready to kill anyone to keep his identity a secret. He did show some villainous actions in the beginning as well, by killing that agent and his wife. and also trying to kill L(eventually having the other shinigami kill him. My apologies, I watched this show a long ago. So I dont remember alot if things that happened). But his intentions were to create a new world, where every people respected and followed morality which is a noble thing to do in the PoV of a story. But his methods were ironical to his goal. You mentioned about some villains who had good intentions. They are I guess called Anti-villain. Come to think of it, I guess Light can also be called Anti-Villain. Idk this is just what i think. |
| That depends with people's philosophy. There's people who want criminals to die as well as there's people who would give criminals other chance. |
 |
| A lot of people just think Light is the protagonist and therefore can't be the villain or maybe even the fact that Light supposedly wanted to "save the world". Both cases are wrong imo, protagonists and villains are completely different things. Light also never wanted to save the world, it is clearly stated that he just did all this because of his boredom. If he was really such a good guy he wouldn't psychopathically murder innocent people who just got in his way or even mock other people as he kills them because he outsmarted them. |
| Wait what… Well I don’t. Light is a villain as well as L ( the method he use are…) None of them turn out to be good person. Although Light is a protagonist and L the antagonist of the story and not the other way around. Have a great day :) |
Shikhxrghh said: The situation in both AoT and death are pretty much the same. Light believed in wiping all the bad guys from the planet, no matter the cost. He punished the criminals along with some innocent lives just because he believed everything was justified for the sake of justice. He believed his ways were right and it was the only way to get rid of the filth that existed within the society. He viewed the world as black and white while some being black and some being white, which is morally incorrect. Eren also belives that the only way for eldia to gain freedom if the complete eradication of the outside world. To him his method although being extreme is justified. neither light nor eren are villans or antagonists according to me. They're both "grey" characters just like you mentioned. Both of em did things which aren't exactly morally correct but their intentions weren't evil either. But most villains nowadays do have good intentions. Villains are rarely evil just for the sake of being evil. So if Light isn't a villain then neither is Thanos, Makishima Shougo, Stain, Kyubey, Killmonger, Darth Vader, Garou.... People use the term "Grey" very loosely. Sure, I can admit that Eren is grey because he isn't potrayed as sadistically as Light. Light on the other hand is a full fledged villain, having good intentions doesn't mean a character isn't a villain. |
Oinkpiggy12Mar 24, 2022 12:54 PM
| Maloween 2020 candies Main candies: |
| It depends on the perspective on how people see him, many peoples want criminals to be removed from the world and on the other hand many want them to complete their prison sentence. While to some extent light was a good person when he had the goal of removing crime from the world but as the time passed he became more evil and started killing anyone who got in his way of killing spree of criminals, some other innocent peoples too which was definitely shifted to good goal and but using evil methods, i can't say much because i liked light until he started killing innocent peoples. |
Spoonmaster12 said: Shikhxrghh said: The situation in both AoT and death are pretty much the same. Light believed in wiping all the bad guys from the planet, no matter the cost. He punished the criminals along with some innocent lives just because he believed everything was justified for the sake of justice. He believed his ways were right and it was the only way to get rid of the filth that existed within the society. He viewed the world as black and white while some being black and some being white, which is morally incorrect. Eren also belives that the only way for eldia to gain freedom if the complete eradication of the outside world. To him his method although being extreme is justified. neither light nor eren are villans or antagonists according to me. They're both "grey" characters just like you mentioned. Both of em did things which aren't exactly morally correct but their intentions weren't evil either. But most villains nowadays do have good intentions. Villains are rarely evil just for the sake of being evil. So if Light isn't a villain then neither is Thanos, Makishima Shougo, Stain, Kyubey, Killmonger, Darth Vader, Garou.... People use the term "Grey" very loosely. Sure, I can admit that Eren is grey because he isn't potrayed as sadistically as Light. Light on the other hand is a full fledged villain, having good intentions doesn't mean a character isn't a villain. So, what threshold (in your opinion) needs to be reached for a character to qualify as "evil" or a "villain"? Committing "immoral" acts with the inclusion of sadism and without having any arguable "good" intentions? what even qualifies any of these actors intentions as being "good"? Can literally any of those characters be said to have intentions that are "good", fully and completely unarguably? |
Shikhxrghh said: Spoonmaster12 said: But most villains nowadays do have good intentions. Villains are rarely evil just for the sake of being evil. So if Light isn't a villain then neither is Thanos, Makishima Shougo, Stain, Kyubey, Killmonger, Darth Vader, Garou.... People use the term "Grey" very loosely. Sure, I can admit that Eren is grey because he isn't potrayed as sadistically as Light. Light on the other hand is a full fledged villain, having good intentions doesn't mean a character isn't a villain. bruh he isn't a full fledged villian, there is a difference In someone being a villian who is purely evil and someone being a villian but with a good end goal. Light was a villian but with a justified end goal, hence an anti-villian. You called him the stereotypical "villian" which imo isn't true at all. I don't know if ya'll would count thanos's goal as a justifiable one, there was no distinction in between who would be killed. Light's goal was getting rid of the bad guys, it was specific. Okay, Light is definetly NOT a stereotypical villain, he is the protagonist and that's very unconventional for a villain. Also, you can't say Thanos's goal isn't justifiable, there are people who argue that Thanos was right. It's all subjective. Just how Light's goals are also completely subjective. I personally think Light's goals are not justified at all because I don't think all criminals deserve to die, the fact that Light not only kills criminals but also kills innocents and almost murders his own sister is just rubbing salt on the wound. On a side note, Light was also approved for the pure evil wiki page. https://pure-evil-villains.fandom.com/wiki/Light_Yagami. Thanos was only approved for the near pure evil wiki page https://near-pure-evil.fandom.com/wiki/Thanos_(2014). Also, Ohba himself said he doesn't agree with what Light is doing and Light was meant to be depicted as a full fledged villain. I personally think Light is way worse than Thanos because Thanos truly believed in his ideals and he actually cared about Gamora. Even when killing people, he was shown to be remorseful. Light on the other hand cares about no one but himself, he is willing to brutally kill his allies and laugh it off because he genuinely enjoys murdering people, whether they are innocent or good. He enjoys the thrill of killing. When murdering Naomi, he reveals how he is Kira right before killing her just so that he can see the look on her face of despair. Maybe Light believed in actually ridding the world of crime at the beginning but by the end of the series, he only wanted to be god. |
Oinkpiggy12Mar 24, 2022 1:35 PM
| Maloween 2020 candies Main candies: |
| I actually didn’t know people didn’t think of Light as a villain. That’s literally the theme of the whole show. |
 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦. |
on 
| Because a bunch of edgy teenagers have discovered Death Note and can't handle that Light isn't as cool as they initially thought. And he's wrong lol. |
 |
| I mean I wouldn't necessarily say you're right or wrong either way. Maybe that's what makes anime like this so good, it makes you legit question things morally and think about who is actually the good guy?? I'm sure we can all agree that L is the goat though right? |
 |
| It's always bothered me when some people still defend Light's actions and don't think that the villain label applies to him even though he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, either by him writing their names down himself or manipulating others to do some of the work for him. While the deaths of criminals can sorta be justified to some extent if you stretch morality a bit, the murder of innocent people can't. |
Mlgking said: I also think Light is the hero. but besides the reasons you mentioned I can't think of anything to support that. I think it was just the fact that the story was told from Lights perspective and we saw all of the hardships Light went through. And his altering motive really resinated with me and I was desensitized to the fact that he was commiting mass murder for breakfast. I think the point of the story was that anyone in that situation would have done the same thing. Anyone in that situation would turn into a homicidal maniac? Most people aren't sociopaths. |
| Maloween 2020 candies Main candies: |
| People who think Light was the villain were duped into assuming that there's such a thing as a good person. |
 |
| I'm pretty sure this is the reason Platinum End has such an over the top villain. Ohba doesn't want readers taking Kanade's side as they do with Light. |
| その目だれの目？ |
Lucifrost said: I'm pretty sure this is the reason Platinum End has such an over the top villain. Ohba doesn't want readers taking Kanade's side as they do with Light. Kanade is the antagonist though, Light was the protagonist |
| Maloween 2020 candies Main candies: |
| @Spoonmaster12 I know Kanade is not the protagonist, but he is the character most similar to Light. |
| その目だれの目？ |
More topics from this board
» Isn't it time for a Death Note remake? ( 1 2 3 )Dragevard - Oct 5 |
126 |
by _Nion_
»»
5 hours ago |
|
Poll: » Death Note Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )sugarplumfairy - Sep 5, 2008 |
143 |
by Alperensenpai61
»»
Oct 4, 12:41 PM |
|
Poll: » Death Note Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )Kayrhandros - Apr 11, 2007 |
131 |
by truekatharsis
»»
Oct 1, 11:19 PM |
|
Poll: » About the ending and a poll (critical spoilers of the story)ReMightyRon - Aug 9 |
40 |
by Ammika
»»
Sep 29, 6:48 PM |
|
Poll: » Death Note Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )IIronnick - Dec 30, 2007 |
254 |
by Gwendolly
»»
Sep 28, 6:30 PM |