I always hear people talk about how great Death Note is so I tried watching it a few years ago and it just made me very uncomfortable the whole time. The show made sure to point out how great things are goin in the world when ever it could, like one point after the time skip it said that wars have stopped(???). At no point did it ever try making a point about how there could be a flaw in the justice system where someone innocent could be in jail and thus a casualty of the MC. Every non “criminal” he kills is someone who could potentially put a stop to his actions and thus comes off as as antagonists that the viewer Shouldn’t feel bad about dying. The whole thing feels like the author thinks that Light is actually a good guy.
I wouldn't say the politics in it are great, but L and especially the ending go pretty hard against Light's politics. The entire show is predicated on the battle of their ideas and wits, so for it to favour one side explicitly defeats that theme. I do wish L was more of a leftist-revolutionary instead of a status quo-pusher to Light's semi-fascism.
The show is following Light's fall down the path to be the bad guy as he starts out thinking he's being the good guy by ridding the world of criminals. To him it matters less if they are absolutely guilty and more that he created the sense that there is a new god of death that people fear and so they won't commit crimes in the first place. It's also worth noting he tested with a live shooter case and started with ones on death row anyways iirc.
He rapidly descends into a power trip with it though deciding that he will be that god, and quickly breaks his own rules to kill innocent people trying to stop him. So the issues you see you are supposed to, that's the point of the series.
but that’s where my problem lies. The show isn’t saying that he’s a bad guy because his views and actions are inherently wrong or evil (they are!). The show is saying that he only becomes the bad guy when he starts taking actions to stop the people trying to stop him. The show’s stance is that if someone goes to jail, the world would be a better place if we killed them Instead.
The intended message is not that killing them is better than jail but that while Light did make progress because people stopped committing crimes out of fear a god they couldn't escape would kill them, that still made Light a bad person and the "progress" he made was only by happenstance of that fear.
I'm not gonna say the author was particular good at getting their message across as the series definitely hits a point where they just didn't know how to wrap it up, but the intent is that you do take issue with the presented stance as the story's heros do in their pursuit of catching him and be evident as Light becomes willing to kill anyone in his way, family included.
who does he kill that's an innocent? L does massively unethical psychological torture on people to extract confessions.
FBI agents, one of their girlfriends, his own dad (albeit that one was indirect), one of his followers to prevent her possibly revealing him and he attempts to kill the other investigators at the end.
Deff not gonna put FBI agent in the innocent bystander catagory.
The only one I'd be willing to put down as innocent is the agents gf. I'll call trolly problem on this one. He saves enough lives to justify dropping the ball here. It was however still dropping thr ball.
The shows has Kira's plan work. Maybe in real life it wouldn't. However thetext of thr work has those cops seeing thr world become a better place, identify its cause and then try to undo it. Nah, they get the note as well.
You know that media doesn't have to hold your hand and scream "this is the bad guy actually!!!" right?
Yes I do understand that. What I am trying to say is that the text of the show will say over and over again that Light is the bad guy, but the subtext will say that everything he did was very good for the world and there are no negative consequences for what he is doing
I mean if the world is ruled by what is effectively a demigod who can murder anybody, anywhere, at will, with no defence or retaliation possible, only knowing just their name and their face, i'm pretty sure wars and shit WOULD stop.
The question is: is it worth it? the answer being fuck no
That was what was running through my head in the second half anywayHe doesn't have to be good. He is better than the current system we have. That isn't an critique of Kira, that is mark against the system. Light is a good guy by the standards of the world we live in. He might actually be a bad guy outside of context but that is a meaningless assessment.
I'd argue that it's actually a lib show and not a fascist one. Unmistakably the show paints Light in a bad light (lol), and Near holds him in total contempt at the end and finds his idea of a clean world to be ridiculous. But the implication is that Light is bad because he went way above the justice system and dished out judgement by his own hand. Outside of Light himself there's literally zero bad cops in the show (Melo, while trained to be a cop, instantly becomes affiliated with a gang the minute he deviates from being a cop), like they're super dumb and sometimes real cowards, but they're fundamentally good guys who do good stuff. You could argue that it's because the fodder for Light should also be unmistakably good precisely to avoid people reading that the show is in support of Light's sociopathy, so the show can't afford more nuanced takes on justice and criminality, but still, deep within the shows carries an implicit faith on due processes and the justice system. Again, all part of the liberal system of beliefs, not necessarily fascist.
As a tankie I have complicated feelings about a man killing enemies of the people and cops.
He really should have gone after more CEOs
I was rooting for Near anyway, I saw the end as a triumph over evil.