Innocent!Light- nice or nasty?

[the_gabih]

Having gone on something of a fanfic binge lately, I've come across a rather wide variety of portrayals of Yotsuba Arc!Light, and Light without a Death Note, ranging from having him as just as much a villain as Kira, if not worse, but limited in scope by not having a Death Note, to ones where he is sweet, almost naive and generally rather adorable

Comments

[kumaradosha]

To me, canon Yotsuba Arc!Light seems basically good. Not perfect, but generally a good person who tries to be ethical (a bit more so than L; an example being Light refusing to use handguns because it's against Japanese law). Now, I don't think he's very uke or naive. Light didn't lose his brain cells, and he didn't go through a complete personality transformation. He still has his confidence and some pride (and an uke wouldn't punch L in the face on several occasions). But he considers himself to be a law-abiding citizen doing his duty to bring justice to society (the difference being, Yotsuba!Light doesn't think himself above the law, I believe, and he doesn't have such a puffed-up ego). It's obvious he's not just a fakey, charming nice-guy, though. Unlike the way Kira!Light acts when he's pretending to be innocent, Yotsuba!Light can get angry. He can be irrational or irritable or spiteful. It's natural.

On the other hand, I RP as L with a friend who plays Light as somewhat evil even when he's not Kira. He still thinks it's all about power. He likes/wants to be on top, likes to best L, to control him, make him weak. He's manipulative and somewhat sadistic. Even though this isn't how I think Yotsuba!Light really is, I think it's possible for him to become that, even without the Death Note. The seed is there; it's just up to Light which direction he will turn.