oh, fuck it. i was gonna make this its own post but i'll just add it here since it's on topic:
people on here are always (rightfully) clowning on light for his Seductive Charms™ when it comes to women in death note, but you know actually who falls for kira's charm the hardest?
let me explain. when light first meets ryuk in ch1, one of the first things he asks is why light specifically was chosen to receive it:
or, in the official viz translation, this conversation goes:
RYUK: Hyuk hyuk! Don't flatter yourself.
RYUK: All I did was drop the notebook, that's all. You thought I chose you? 'Cuz you're so smart or something?
RYUK: It just happened to land somewhere around here... and you just happened to pick it up.
...with ryuk just telling light that he got it purely by chance. the conversation then evolves to ryuk explaining his boredom and light talking about his similar feelings about his world, which goes into backstory about light's first two kills.
why is this notable? well, check what ryuk says here, much later, when light is talking to takada on the phone in ch87:
or again, according to the official translation:
LIGHT: You're a woman the whole world pays attention to now. Is it impossible for a guy like me to have a conversation with just you?
TAKADA: But... if I weren't in this situation, would you have bothered to call me?
LIGHT: Probably not.
LIGHT: After university, I never got the chance to talk with you, even if I wanted to... But I can't help feeling that this is destiny, if this gives us a chance to talk to each other again, even though it's for work, as we are now members of society.
RYUK: There it is... Light's use of "destiny" with women. He actually uses the same trick a lot...
note in particular ryuk's line here: light's use of "destiny" as a way of trying to appeal himself to women. as i've mentioned before, a lot of light's strategies in the second half of DN are almost exactly the same as what he does in the first half of the story. notably, light uses this same kind of "destiny" line not to appeal to misa (from what i can remember/find, anyway), but rather to naomi misora (ch14):
LIGHT: It's got to be some kind of fate that we met like this today! I'll give you the recommendation you need to join the task force!!
RYUK: Hyuk hyuk hyuk... That's brilliant, Light.
RYUK: Human females always fall for that word, "fate"... You could be a god of salesmanship, too.
"destiny." "fate." "not chosen-- but randomly picked, getting the notebook purely through chance and luck."
light needs and wants and has to believe that he was destined to be KIRA, that this is the one true, fated path he could only ever go down. the fact that ryuk didn't specifically choose him for his intelligence or charm or emotional strength does not in any way deter this idea in his mind-- if anything, it only strengthens it, proves that there are forces at work even stronger than a literal god of death pushing light in the direction of his worldwide domination.
later on, we see that this godhood is just as much his glorious destiny as the noose around his neck, tugging him forward into an end he sees as inevitable. but really, whether he internally thinks about the DN as a good or bad thing doesn't really matter-- the point is that light sees his fate as something unavoidable, unchangeable, under the influence of powers greater than himself. again, going back to ch1, remember what light tells himself as justification for continuing to use the DN even after the guilt of two kills begins to eat him alive:
LIGHT: This world is a rotten mess. It really needs to be cleaned up.
LIGHT: I... with this notebook, I can actually do it...
LIGHT: The question is...
LIGHT: Do I have the guts...?
LIGHT: Just two, and look at me... Well, it's only natural. They're human lives... Of course it isn't easy.
LIGHT: Can I take it? Maybe not.
LIGHT: ...
LIGHT: But... come on, I can't quit. So I lose my peace of mind. So I sacrifice people's lives...
LIGHT: Somebody has to do this!! The world needs to be cleaned up.
light justifies his earliest killings by claiming to himself that he is the only person who could do it, who could overcome the guilt and regret of his human morality to do something for the betterment of humanity. perhaps ironically, this is the exact same logic used by the character raskolnikov in dostoevsky's crime & punishment:
Raskolnikov smiled again. He saw the point at once, and knew where they wanted to drive him. He decided to take up the challenge.
"That wasn't quite my contention," he began simply and modestly. "Yet I admit that you have stated it almost correctly; perhaps, if you like, perfectly so." (It almost gave him pleasure to admit this.) "The only difference is that I don't contend that extraordinary people are always bound to commit breaches of morals, as you call it. In fact, I doubt whether such an argument could be published. I simply hinted that an extraordinary man has the right... that is not an official right, but an inner right-- to decide in his own conscience to overstep... certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea (sometimes, perhaps, of benefit to the whole of humanity). You say that my article isn't definite; I am ready to make it as clear as I can. Perhaps I am right in thinking you want me to; very well. I maintain that if the discoveries of Kepler and Newton could not have been known except by sacrificing the lives of one, a dozen, a hundred, or more men, Newton would have had the right, would indeed have been in duty bound... to eliminate the dozen or the hundred men for the sake of making his discoveries known to the whole of humanity. But it does not follow from that that Newton had a right to murder people right and left and steal every day in the market. Then, I remember, I maintain in my article that all... well, legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law, they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed-- often of innocent persons fighting bravely in defense of ancient law-- were of use to their cause. It's remarkable, in fact, that the majority, indeed, of these benefactors and leaders of humanity were guilty of terrible carnage. In short, I maintain that all great men or even men a little out of the common, that is to say capable of giving some new word, must from their very nature be criminals-- more or less, of course." (Part III, Ch.V, pg. 244-245, Constance Garnett trans.)
if you can read this entire speech raskolnikov gives here PLEASE do as it is horrifyingly light yagami-core, but in short: raskolnikov's justification here is that there are two groups of people, the ordinary losers (cough cough japanese task force, etc, cough) who must abide by the laws and morals of humanity, not just due to the justice system but also because of their own internal moral compass, in contrast with the extraordinary chads that can kill for the sake of humanity and know they are justified in doing so and thus feel no guilt. raskolnikov likes to think himself in the latter category, killing two women in the first part of the book and then feeling his guilt slowly creep up on him for the entire rest of the story as he slowly loses his mind. i really don't think i need to point out just how much this align with light yagami's own story arc and fall from grace and godhood.
point is: light falls for the allure of KIRA harder than any other person, eventually believing godhood to be his destiny and committing so hard to the belief that he can no longer believe anything else. there is something tragic there, in my mind, something about him writing off his own agency in order to assuage his own guilt, only to dig himself even an even deeper, dirtier grave... but this reblog is getting long enough lmfao. damn you, light fucking yagami.
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