#lightmeta

[13eyond13]

"Kill his family at last resort" meaning? He did save sayu despite disadvantage.

He did, and the narrative made sure to point that out via Ryuk's commentary so we noticed it as a possible motive:

Light also mentions to Ryuk in chapter 3 that it is something he might have to do, though. He's taking extreme precautions because it is something he very much wants to avoid, but it also indicates that it's a possibility he isn't necessarily ruling out, either:

When Soichiro volunteers to halve his remaining lifespan it shocks and saddens Light. But he also allows it to happen, and he doesn't offer to take his father's place or anything like that. This is pointed out by Ryuk as well:

I'm not someone who thinks the edgiest and most callous interpretation of Light is the most interesting or deepest one by any means. But I do think that a big part of his character is how ruthless and particular he can be when it comes to the things he will and won't sacrifice in order to achieve his goals.

[13eyond13]

I have noticed you make lots of light's relationship headcanon based on his relationship with L. Do you think light would kill his s/o for the sake of ambition?

I think that his relationship with L is by far the best example in canon of Light showing something like strong feelings for a peer. I genuinely believe they both picked each other as their favourite people in the story, so it's usually the relationship I'm going to be thinking about when answering relationship hypotheticals for either person in the pair.

I think Light as Kira would only really stop at sacrificing his own life for the sake of his goals (which is ironic, considering how liberal he is with the taking of other people's lives). The most important thing to him on earth is protecting and prolonging his own lifespan. We saw this with his refusal to ever make a deal for the shinigami eyes, and during the finale when seeing his terrified reaction to facing his own death.

[13eyond13]

Do you support the theory of Light becoming a shinigami? I think it's the most valid theory and it makes sense, since he was a death note user.

Hello!

I think shinigami!Light can be an interesting idea for fanfic, but I don't personally think Light became a shinigami. And I don't really like the idea of there being any afterlife or reincarnation for any of the DN characters. I personally go by how things were explained in the manga, when Ryuk tells Light that ALL the humans in the story go to Mu (nothingness/nonexistence) after they die. There aren't actually any special consequences for using the Death Note. Light would have gone to Mu whether or not he used the notebook at all.

I like this idea better because the whole premise only really makes sense to me if the human characters aren't punished or rewarded for their actions after death. If any of them were shown going to good or bad afterlifes or being reincarnated based on their moral actions then I think it would really easily come off weirdly preachy and nonsensical to me, and sort of ruin the whole story by putting the characters into these boxes for the readers instead of letting them decide what they think on their own. I know it sounds depressing. But I think it's necessary to include the "everybody goes to Mu no matter what" part of this story, because the whole point of the Mu aspect of the worldbuilding is that it allows the readers to make the judgments about the characters' actions and ideals and morality for themselves. It would definitely bother me way too much if these characters got slotted into definitive moral categories or brought back from the dead again by Ohba after he spent all this time setting up the premise so well to deliberately avoid ever doing any of that.

[13eyond13]

In my opinion one of the weirdest/funniest/most frustrating things about Light Yagami is how rapidly he can mentally readjust to convince himself (and others) that everything is always going according to his plan, or else automatically beneath him in some way.

For example, this is what he says to Ryuk about Lind L. Tailor appearing on TV to confront him:

Like I'm sorry Light, but there’s no way in hell you “knew” this was going to happen lmfao, I mean this was his initial shocked reaction to the broadcast literal seconds before that:

I think Light is honestly so overconfident and unable to admit he can make mistakes or be outwitted that he genuinely convinced himself that he “always knew” this would happen in a matter of split-seconds, though. Like as soon as L decided to publicly condemn and oppose him, Light mentally readjusted the narrative to convince himself (and Ryuk) that he was the one with the upper hand all along, and that he always had control over the whole situation -- that he could not possibly be outsmarted or proven wrong by anyone, ever. This rapid mental re-framing and dismissing of things that don’t align with his idealized view of himself and his goals is something you see constantly in Light throughout the story.

[13eyond13]

What is the humans and Shinigami switched places? Like Light was a seriously bored as heck shinigami that drops off his death note after writing a bunch of names for a while like a nerd

Haha omg, Light the Shinigami, what a concept!

I think he’d be extremely ambitious and constantly interfering with and manipulating whoever picked up the Death Note to do exactly what he wanted them to do with it. He’s not a hands-off guy at all, and he’s also very good at getting people to do what he wants and working with whatever he has to achieve his goals, even when his hands are tied.

I wonder what he’d think of the human world if he wasn’t human himself? Would he care at all about the course of humanity or how they were treating each other if they were essentially just his prey/food?

I bet he’d be very dissatisfied with the lazy apathy of the Shinigami realm and the aimlessness of his existence, at any rate. He and Ryuk are fairly similar in this regard. Ryuk is one of the most ambitious Shinigami we meet when you think about it, even though he also seems like a laid back goofball a lot of the time. He’s seen as a bit of a strange pariah by the other death gods for how energetically he goes around trying to create entertainment for himself and all the mischief he makes!

I’d love to read a switcheroo fic like this honestly, I think it could be very cool.

[13eyond13]

your opinion on: AUs where Light ends up winning and continues being Kira ! would he really have his ideal new world. mmm

Ahhh this is such a good question and I’m taking forever to answer it because I find it really hard to imagine; I always love to think about this scenario, but am not very good at coming up with what might actually happen if Light won at the end!

I doubt he would feel regretful about the casualties at all, even if he had to kill off the entire Task Force and SPK and Mikami and everyone else who confronted him at the end. He was already nonchalantly contemplating doing that long before the warehouse showdown, after all. He would likely see it all as necessary collateral damage, and also good payback for failing or daring to oppose him all those years.

Light would probably try to coax his mother and sister into sympathizing with Kira; the world was already well on the way to supporting and accepting him as law/god by that time anyway, so the climate surrounding his name would make that much easier to do. I am not sure how his family would actually feel considering how much tragedy befell them and the other families of the Task Force because of opposing Kira, though. It would be crazy to see how things would go if the Yagami women definitely knew that Light was Kira and still had to try to have a relationship with him somehow. I also think he’d probably not hesitate to kill them if he had to in order to fully achieve his new world.

I don’t think there were any major organizations opposing Kira outside of the SPK by that point, and Light would probably be good at getting the governments of the world on his side. It would be very much a Totalitarian Dictatorship sort of atmosphere, where people were behaving well out of fear and not trusting their own neighbors rather than because they were simply religiously inspired to be good. Obviously there would be a lot of genuine Kira devotees as well, but Light would have to continue ruling with an iron fist and punishing the criminals the same way he’d always done, I think. Other rebellious organizations might rise up to oppose him again eventually, and I imagine he’d be so powerful that it would be extremely difficult to oppose him unless he had grown too arrogant or disillusioned to be watching his own back properly. I don’t know if he’d still need Misa to help him with her eyes or not. He’d probably try to find someone else to do the same stuff for him and do away with her instead of keep her around for the rest of her life if he didn’t have to be so secretive anymore.

It’s really interesting to imagine Light getting old, and imagining him actually fully achieving his Kira dreams, and/or becoming really disillusioned with his ideals once he sees what his new world is actually like. His godhood would not be able to carry on indefinitely as it requires him to be immortal, and not even the Death Note could extend his life indefinitely like that. He’d have to eventually pass on his legacy somehow, and I’m not sure if Light would ever be totally satisfied with anyone else in the driver’s seat of his new world than himself. I’m not the best at imagining how things like that would go, but I would definitely be down to read an AU of that sort!

[13eyond13]

Adding onto the "Light Win's AU". Mello's role in the story highlighted another flaw in Light's plan: the mafia. There is a whole criminal underworld full of people Light had no knowledge of or access to. L also confirmed this when he brought Aiber and Wedy onto the team. Even if Kira won I don't know if he would be able to stop every criminal.

That’s true, it would be impossible to eliminate criminals completely! People have always been extremely good at sneaking around no matter what kind of absolute bans are enforced. I think Light being openly accepted as Kira would make sneaking around much harder though, because he’d have all the most powerful organizations and governments not only refusing to oppose him but actively working for him then as well. Light had good intentions at the beginning of the story because he wanted to make the world a safe place that rewarded good-hearted peaceful people for their merits, but I think the reality of a world like his that consisted of killing anyone he deemed morally unsound or against him would definitely be much more of a nightmarish dystopia than a utopia.

[13eyond13]

how would he even go about enforcing that though??? like “everyone has to have an instagram account or you’re going to JAIL.” and also what about people who like live off the grid and don’t have records and such? idk this is a cool au to think abt (also to backtrack-would jail even still be a thing? bc like light sort of renders prisons unnecessary by killing criminals. idk!!)

LMAO God-mandated Instagram accounts for everyone!

These are the questions, aren’t they? That’s why I want to see it fleshed out realistically so bad, it could be extremely interesting. There’d probably be mandatory census type things that documented everyone’s identies meticulously; I wonder if there’d even be bans on things that obscure or alter your identities, like plastic surgery and the like?

I think the definition of “criminal” would change drastically under Kira’s rule over time, because Light would become the one creating and enforcing all the laws in the first place. It really would be a very slippery slope when it comes to how he determines who deserves to live and who deserves to die, as we already saw happening when he was working with the Death Note in secret on his own. 

I don’t know if jail would be the same kinda thing anymore, you’re right! Light definitely was a “one strike you’re out” type rather than a “sit in prison and think about your crimes / become rehabilitated” type, but he was actually mostly using the most heinous criminals as examples for everyone else, in the hopes that it would encourage people to stop committing crimes altogether. I assume he’d still need law enforcement to carry out his orders across the world, as he certainly wouldn’t be able to look at every single case of criminal behaviour individually himself, so… I assume there would still be systems for prosecuting and detaining lawbreakers, but I think the laws themselves and the definition of what crimes even were would drastically change (they’d become a lot more based on the sins of defying Kira’s ideals than anything else, that is). Ahh I wish I was better at thinking it all through!!