Light's Mistakes in the entire death note series

Aug 6, 2014 9:23 PM

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Dec 2013

6607

Neverender said:
Killing "Lind L Tailor."

Thread over.

FragOutFire said:

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Aug 10, 2014 2:56 PM

#52

Botato

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Nov 2013

22774

FlareStar101 said:

Neverender said:
Killing "Lind L Tailor."

Thread over.

Aug 21, 2014 9:41 AM

#53

TheDeedsOfMen

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May 2014

454

W7yd6 said:
Not killing Sayu when she was kidnapped by Mello.

Related to that, the whole investigation team was insane to even consider handing over a Death Note. It doesn't matter if there's a hostage. It doesn't matter if it's your daughter. You just don't hand over a weapon like that.

Besides, once they have the Death Note, they might decide to kill you and the hostage anyway at any point in time. In fact, it would make most of the world their potential hostages.

Aug 22, 2014 3:21 AM

#54

tr1ckst3r

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Apr 2014

3113

Red_Keys said:
Picking up the Death Note.

man I was going to say this. -_-

Aug 22, 2014 3:25 AM

#55

RevolverSnake

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May 2013

339

Picking up the Note in the first place.

Aug 22, 2014 4:37 PM

#56

celestialaquaria

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Apr 2013

"Well Near, looks like I win."

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Mar 28, 2015 5:34 AM

#57

Ctabor

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Mar 2015

The timing of his killings. By not specifying time of death, the pattern led L to believe he was a student. This whittled down the list of potential suspects from around 42.5 million in the Kanto region to about 8.2 million people who may be students.
However, by changing the times of his killings, showing the police he had access to police information, changed the number of suspects from 8.2 million to 50-100 or so who are children of people on the Kira investigation (let's say 100 - two children for 50 officers on the investigation).

Killing Lind. L Tailor decreased the potential suspects by 16x. Letting L know he had access to police information decreased the potential suspects by 82x. Therefore, I believe Light's biggest mistake, when it comes to him becoming a key suspect, was revealing he had police information. He could have easily remain hidden after killing Lind. L Tailor and revealing he was a student.

Mar 31, 2015 12:07 PM

#58

Silvy-Reacts

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Feb 2008

352

Getting involved with L. Trying to make himself known by killing on live TV.

He should have stuck to killing bad guys and that is all. Ignore police investigations because there isn't anyway logically they could ever find evidence unless you give it to them.

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Apr 1, 2015 10:19 AM

#59

Yangbo

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Feb 2013

I'm not going to list the mistakes due to hindsight since that is somewhat pointless but there are two mistakes I feel Light has made.

#1 Not taking the eye deal, and/or kill a Shinigami to further extend his life (most likely net gain).

There are multiple ways he could have done it since he clearly outsmarted Ryuk numerous times. But what jumps out the most is that he should put himself in a life/death situation then ask Misa to ask Rem to save him. I felt like wasting Rem's life to extend Misa's life was a pretty dumb move by Light's standards.

#2 Attempting to kill everyone in the warehouse.

Light obviously knew what the hell was going on the whole time, but instead of further clearing his name (which he did successfully every time previously) he went for the kill. He should have let Mikami use the fake and exclude Aizawa or something. Not only will it clear his name, but he would know all the names from retrieving them from the fake book.

Apr 1, 2015 10:20 AM

#60

CrisiasRex

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Apr 2014

232

Not killing Mello when he had the chance. If he had he would have won. Or am I missing something?

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Apr 2, 2015 1:52 AM

#61

Hinayushii

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Dec 2014

174

Light killed Lind. L Tailor because he claimed to be L and literally dared Light to kill him. Yeah, that's an obvious trap, but think about it in Light's perspective.... killing a random guy on tv had no apparent way for him to be caught. Even after the murder, L could only determine Kira was in a particular city, so it can't really be considered such a huge mistake. If Light didn't kill Tailor, nobody would have, so L would have tried to narrow it down by another method.

Ray Penbar had restricted Light's movements so to speak. He could monitor Light at all times except for in his room or whatever. If the times of murders match the periods when Ray couldn't monitor Light, it would have been too dangerous... L would have picked up on it. Killing Ray Penbar, I think, was a good move. Killing the other agents was better because it clears up all suspicion.

Whether or not Light was a student wouldn't affect anything when they got to realise Kira had a connection to the police. That alone started the whole Penbar ordeal and whatever else followed.

I think that the biggest mistake was the ending. Near and Mello piss me off. The final plan was brilliant by Near, but Light's biggest mistake is depending so heavily on Mikami. Yeah, use him for a while, but come on... Light is extraordinarily intelligent, but Mikami did nothing to prove he was capable of carrying out the plan seamlessly!

I was here? Prove it.

Apr 2, 2015 1:56 AM

#62

Hinayushii

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Dec 2014

174

Oh, I find it honourable that Light didn't use the eye deal... he wanted to become God and rule long enough to eliminate all evil. By splitting his life in half, even if he got away, his ultimate goal might not be accomplished.

Killing everyone in the warehouse was also a good move. It would remove all people who could have challenged him or knew about the Kira case, correct? Yeah, it would attract attention as to why only Light survived, but who else was genius enough to actually stop Light upon finding out?

I was here? Prove it.

Apr 2, 2015 5:44 AM

#63

removed-user

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Jul 2018

561864

When Light got so full of himself in the last episode and not supplying his assistant -- who wrote everyone's names in the warehouse -- extra pieces of the Death Note pages and keeping it in his pocket in case something goes wrong.

Light should've suspected that Near was going after the Death Note when Near took the bait (Fake Death Note), he didn't take the cautious act and give his assistant another few pages for backup.

Apr 2, 2015 5:46 AM

#64

Grapekiwi

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Jan 2015

362

PriestSlayer said:

Neverender said:
Killing "Lind L Tailor."

Thread over.

Apr 8, 2015 8:24 AM

#65

entityscore

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Apr 2015

Nothing actually. He was bored like Ryuk. He wanted to WIN more than he wanted to serve justice. Hiding from L was cowardliness. He was having fun playing with L trying to find out L's name. But Rem spoiled everything. Then Sidoh spoiled it again. Light's dad turned out to be a coward. Finally, when they decided to end the show Light asked Mikami to kill everyone instantly as if Near was so stupid that he would let anyone come into the warehouse.

entityscoreApr 8, 2015 8:34 AM

Apr 8, 2015 8:31 AM

#66

LeFlower-kun

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Apr 2013

1174

Grapekiwi said:

PriestSlayer said:

Apr 8, 2015 9:34 AM

#67

supracseduch

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Jan 2015

124

LeFlower-kun said:

Grapekiwi said:

Lind L. Tailor was tarnishing Kira's reputation by publicly condemning him. But Kira wants the world to support him, or at least coax them into supporting him. He wanted to let the world know that someone out there is giving divine punishment and anyone who opposes this god will also be punished. Lind L. Tailor was the perfect opportunity for this -- it was a "global broadcast" after all.

Of course, you can't really blame Light for taking the media's words at face value. He had no reason to suspect that it could be all a trick. He has never heard of L before, after all. It's easy enough to call him "dumb" because we know what happens. In reality, he just got outsmarted but that doesn't make him dumb.

May 13, 2015 1:03 AM

#68

DeigoJ

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May 2015

Light said he knew Near was going to mess with the notebooks.. He should have had Mikami bring an actual gun and kill everyone that wasnt him since he knew they were all going to be in the same place together. It should have gone this way because the perfect ending to the story would be to make everyone think that there might be a Kira still out there somewhere. An even better twist would have been to make Mikami shoot Light to take his place as god of the new world. Come to think of it.. why couldn't the whole meeting have been set up so Near could see everyones face and take over Kiras position to avenge L... That would've been fantastic.

Jul 6, 2015 9:22 AM

#69

devourerofcows

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Jul 2015

Killing Lind l tailor wasn't that big of a mistake honestly. It told L:

1. That Kira wasn't omniscient. L knew that already because criminals whose names weren't broadcast weren't dying.

2. That Kira was in the Kanto region of Japan at THAT MOMENT. That isn't useful because people have these things called cars that allow them to travel long distances in very short amounts of time. People travel all the time and Japan isn't exactly a huge country. So really L knew Kira was in Japan. He knew that already.

3. That Kira was not a big poisony organization and that the killings we done through the use of some mysterious power. He probably already suspected that.

So killing Lind l tailor told L 3 things that L already knew or suspected. Excuse me while I shit myself in awe of the horrific stupidity of giving a detective information they already have.

Oct 20, 2015 11:13 AM

#70

Streetreaper_98

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Oct 2015

After he discovered that the police knew he was a school student, he altered his killing patterns by using the details of death to kill criminals without coinciding with school hours AS SOON AS HE FOUND OUT! As much as I can see why it seemed like a rational thing to do, absolutely nothing positive would come out of it, and why did he expect it to? Did he reckon that changing his patterns to every hour would somehow make them reconsider?
All he did was narrow the list down from "school student somewhere in a specific area" to "school student somewhere in a specific area WHO HAS CONNECTIONS TO THE POLICE!" Not many kids have connections to the police, and it's this which ultimately led L to suspect Light to be Kira- he wouldn't have even given Light a second glance if he hadn't done something stupid like that.

All of Light's other huge mistakes aside, from killing Lind L. Taylor to allowing Misa to remain involved, wound't have mattered. It's this one slip up which ultimately screws him over.

Oct 28, 2015 4:50 AM

#71

Jones187

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Jun 2015

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Apr 8, 2016 6:10 PM

#72

Axel_Zarioh

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Apr 2016

His biggest mistake was when he hacked into his father computer and saw that they suspected Kira of being a student so he wrote down 23 names a day for every hour that way l knew he was close to the police so the fbi started tailing everyone that was related to someone in the task force and then that bus jacking happened and then he killed all of the agents then l heard that Rey penbers wife that worked with l had something about the Kira case but he couldn't talk to her cause he wasn't there and she just disappeared and he thought Kira had killed her so he investigated her husband and then he found out about the bus jacking and he knew Kira could control how people die because he was testing it out with the inmates so he thought it was someone of the yagami household or of someone else don't remember who sorry but he knew Kira was smart and that's why he thought it was Light if light hadn't wrote down 23 names a day this wouldn't have happened but he could have not killed the FBI agents then he would still be alive and even if the FBI agents were watching him they had no proof the only proof they would have had was the note book but if anyone would have taken it out of his drawer it would have been gone there were no cameras in his room when the buss jacking happened so he could have lived s lot longer if he wasn't so childish he did two big mistakes
1.Killing 23 people a day because he wanted to get closer to l he said it he knew l would have suspected that it was someone close to the task force
2.killing the FBI agents.

Apr 9, 2016 6:27 AM

#73

Ash_DuQuennes

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Mar 2016

I would say his first big mistake was his own hubris, followed closely by Light's use of confidential police info gleaned from his father's work computer. That latter bit narrowed L's search from "Kanto Region, Japan," down to "Someone with access to confidential police files/information."

His third mistake was killing Raye Penber, and the rest5 of the FBI team. As a "genius," Light failed Counter Intelligence 101. Light could've simply acted like a normal brainiac/nerd teenager for Penber's sake, and kept on writing in the DN while watching TV and studying with a school textbook open in front of him.

After all, what's so strange about a High Honors High School student reading a textbook and taking notes/writing in a note book at the same time???

And, since Ryuk found "being followed and observed" kind of creepy, Light may have been able to convince Ryuk to counter-surveil Penber to see what he knew and/or suspected about Light. Ryuk would've been the perfect intelligence agent: invisible to all mortal means of detection, and able to see/hear anything he wants to.

Penber would've (most likely) eventually been, "Right, nothing unusual to see here. I suppose I'll move on to the next person on my list of people to surveil."

The killing of Penber and the other FBI agents further narrowed L's list of suspects down to , "Someone in the Kanto Region of Japan, who has/had access to classified police intel & info, who was also being surveilled between this date and that date."

After that, all L had to do was carefully look over a few dozen personal files to "profile" one of them as Kira. Given L's intelligence and probable education level, picking Light out of that particular lineup was, if you'll pardon the expression, "a piece of cake."

Given those three key mistakes (I'll grant that Mistakes #2 & #3 followed from #1 in a "nature of the beast" kind of way), Light was doomed. Whether it was L, Mello, Near, or someone else entirely with more than two brain cells to rub together (which, obviously, excludes the JTF), the gig was up; it was only a matter of "when," not "if."

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Apr 9, 2016 6:32 AM

#74

Difionex

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Sep 2014

149

Killing L. After that the anime got kinda boring but still enjoyable for me.

Apr 11, 2016 8:12 PM

#75

AironicallyHuman

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Jun 2007

2253

Rather than anything specific, I would just say Light's arrogance itself was his greatest failing. He looked down on others, and that resulted in him killing Lind. L Tailor without caution. And challenging L head-on. And gambling on being able to outwit Near.

His biggest actual mistake turned out to be trusting Mikami, though. Whenever he relied on others, it backfired. Same with Misa and her not getting rid of the evidence in her room.

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Jul 28, 2016 10:51 AM

#76

Jolo-senpai

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Jan 2014

Those people who say "Light should have just pulled a gun and shot L, no need to know his name." clearly do not know how Death Note universe works. People can't die before their predetermined lifespan unless their name is written on the death note. Writing people's name in the death note is the only way to hack through their lifespan and end it in 40 seconds, even if their natural lifespan hasn't expired yet. If Light tried to shoot L, it wouldn't have worked. L would still be alive by any means possible since his lifespan has not expired yet.

The Death Note universe doesn't care. If your lifespan has not expired yet, you won't die, unless your name is written on the death note. So, shooting L while he had the chance wouldn't have worked. It's just how their universe work. You die naturally, or you die from the death note. Otherwise, you live. It's an absolute rule in the Death Note universe.

Sep 2, 2016 12:11 PM

#77

LadyRenly

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Mar 2014

2244

He made lots of mistakes, but ultimately the last one to mess with him was probably revealing his ace in the hole too early. If Light had waited, perhaps he could have escaped and been able to write names without getting shot.

Jan 3, 2017 5:25 PM

#78

faroresdragn

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Jan 2017

Neverender said:
Killing "Lind L Tailor."

Thread over.

Killing Lind L. Taylor wasnt a msitake, it was nessesary.

First, killing Taylor didnt tell L all that much. as someone said earlier in that thread, I told L that Kira wasnt an omniscient god because he didnt know it was a fake and then couldnt kill the real L, which L already guessed, and told him that Kira was in Kanto AT THAT MOMENT. it in no way proved that KIRA LIVED in Kanto, or that he would remain in Kanto for any extended length of time. for all L knew Kira could be travelling everywhere and was driving out of Kanto that day. not to mention L already suspected Kira was in Japan due to that first experimental killing, and although Kanto narrows it down a little, not really that much. its not like Japan is a massive nation, and to be honest, if all you know about someone is that they are in japan, kanto, the region that contains the most densly and highly populated city on the planet, is probably the most likely place for them to be in any circumstance.

Second, light had no choice but to actively attack L, ego or not. i dont remember if he knew Ls huge reputation at the time, but if he just hides out and ignores L, hes going to slip up at some point, and L would catch him somehow. the dude is the smartest guy on earth or damn near. So he could wait to be caught or try and take out his opposition. easy choice. the best way to avoid being caught by L was to know more about him and what he was capable of.

Also, killing Taylor on live TV was Kiras first big public move. he had to make it known that anyone who tries to actively oppose his goals is going to die. just killing people in secret isnt enough.

Jan 9, 2017 4:59 AM

#79

LegendBonjet

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Mar 2016

109

Yep, killing Lind L. Tailor then Raye Penber and Naomi Misora...

And it's all downhill from here for Light.

..............

Jan 22, 2017 3:20 PM

#80

Izarara

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Nov 2016

610

What I never got was why when Soichiro was dying Light tried to make him write the name rather than asking what the name was as that would've been alot easier. Then he could've put on act and be like "who wants to write it?" and be dramatic like killing is a big deal to him. To be honest, idk Im not Ohba xD

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Feb 20, 2017 2:39 PM

#81

pranav007singhal

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Feb 2016

Xyik said:
Targeting L.

He could have easily suceeded if not for his inflated 'i have to win everything' ego.

i totally agree
If he would have just continued killing like a school boy he wouldn't have given all the clues out L and he may have never even found him out. L basically narrowed it down to him

May 6, 2017 12:29 PM

#82

Sanford_Bassett

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May 2017

1. Killing in an obvious pattern, narrowing him down to a fraction of the population.

2. Killing Link L Taylor, giving sooo much information about himself and his abilities.

3. Acting on leaked police information, essentially narrowing him down to a list of a couple hundred suspects.

4. Killing the FBI agents was probably a bad move, but since they were probably going to investigate him much more thoroughly after they finished with all of the suspects it was completely understandable. The mistake he did make was having Raye Penber's death be super duper suspicious. He should have waited until he was investigating someone else, made him keep an alternate version of the folder without suspicious contents, and not given himself away at the end. There would have been nothing (other than the fact that he was riding a subway to nowhere in particular, but that's only a very small anomaly) that made Raye's death suspicious, preventing him from being literally the only suspect.

Naomi's arrival probably would have made the result of mistake 4 moot, but that doesn't change the fact that Light was an idiot.

Also, I think Light handled Misa very well. Some of the people in this thread may disagree, but I think if he'd done anything else, it would have made him more suspicious. Anyway, back to his mistakes.

5. The fake rules for the note book, my goodness. I mean, I realize that he needed something to shift suspicion away from himself, but L had already come to the conclusion that Light used to be kira, but the power and memories left him. Those rules practically scream 'I'm fake!'. He's just lucky that L was an idiot there, because if I were him I would have said "Well, that just about proves it, Light. You're Kira. Real sorry about this, but we'll have to execute you now."

Also, L GAVE LIGHT THE NOTEBOOK! I realize this is supposed to be Lights mistakes, but I still have a nagging feeling that L was too smart to not have realized what was going on, and brought Kira back for a challenge. Anyway, sorry.

6. Letting Takada run wild, saying Kira would kill people just for being unproductive. His goal is to create a world with no evil, and while laziness doesn't exactly contribute to society, creating mass resentment towards him is just going to create dozens, perhaps hundreds of 'Kira groups'.

7. Light could have gotten out of the situation with Near in tons of ways. I had at least 6, but I didn't write them down, so I'll see how many I remember:

7a. Not gloat. Throwing Mikami under the bus to save his hide would have been pretty easy, even if Near didn't buy it for a second. He probably could have gotten the names from Mikami, and killed Near and crew.

7b. Mikami keeps a spare DN page where nobody would look. Easy as pie.

7c. Mikami writes everyone's name but Near's, and Light says that HE switched the notebooks.

7d. Mikami checks his DN before coming in, since checking his bank for the real DN is something L would have done. If the DN doesn't work, resort to 7a or 7c.

7e. Have the safe's DN be fake with the real one buried somewhere. A page of the real DN is disguised as something normal, and he writes on it with invisible ink.

7f. Shinigami eye deal. Certainly would have extended his life in that scenario.

I think there were more, but you get the idea.

Sanford_BassettMay 6, 2017 2:56 PM

Aug 7, 2017 11:32 PM

#83

Jequananime

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Dec 2016

I don't know if it's been said yet but I believe that Lights very first and most devistating mistake was in episode 1. He chooses to use his fathers secured police files as his means to find criminals. That lead to the FBI agents and the inevitable suspicion. His second mistake was only killing in Japan. If you were going to be the "God" of the new world you should act like it and be Kira on a global scale. Then there would be no way that anyone could track you. Eventually everything would have fallen into place. He would have been free and not have to rely on anyone. And once your world was established and you were on top you could start looking for a successor. Leave anyone still looking for you on an endless world wide search. And though there were a few bumps he placed so much trust in his followers but burned them in the end. He should have let Mikami have an emergency page like him. And wait until the people in the warehouse came out to kill them.

JequananimeAug 7, 2017 11:39 PM

Aug 7, 2017 11:55 PM

#84

Felix

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Feb 2015

2951

His biggest mistake was that he had God Complex. Which sparked killing Lind L. Taylor live and other things...

Jan 1, 2018 10:33 PM

#85

Geneoz

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Jan 2018

10th episode half in, Lights respond to Ls test actully revealed himself "only something kira should know "kinda" what you where trying to do now" The only person who knows about the fake note is kira himself, misstakes like this is why L is so sure thru the whole series that Kira is Light, so called "original kira"

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