I Don't Care Who Gets Hurt Now.
I loved this animatic of 'Stalemate', one of Light and L's duets from the Death Note musical, by caramoccii on YouTube. Great sense of the characters, great sense of drama, great scene transitions; it's just very cool!
The rest of this entry consists of assorted semi-coherent thoughts about Death Note I've scribbled down over the course of the last few days.
Light's definitely more murderous than your average teenager, but I think a large part of the reason he embarked on his 'kill hundreds of criminals' plan is the fact that, to start with, he killed two people to test out the Death Note. When he realised it was real, he had to try to cope with what he'd done, and the way he handled that was by convincing himself that he was doing the right thing. They deserved to die; he was cleaning up the world.
Basically, in Light's mind, it has to be okay to kill these people, because otherwise Light is just a murderer. He can't let himself believe anything else, because that means he won't be able to live with himself.
Death Note doesn't focus much on Light coming to terms with using the Death Note itself, because it's more interested in how he tries to avoid being caught, but I do really love the moment it hits him that he's killed people, he freaks out, and then he starts desperately trying to rationalise it. (I posted the relevant manga pages to Tumblr yesterday, so I can gaze fondly upon Light having a breakdown.)
Does Light take pleasure in killing? The short answer is yes; the long answer is that he takes pleasure in feeling powerful and clever. I don't think he necessarily takes sadistic pleasure in every name he writes, but he definitely experiences very strong satisfaction when he kills someone who's posed a tricky challenge for him.
Sometimes I think about how the amnesiac Light was tricked into thinking his father was going to murder him. What an insanely traumatic experience. Poor kid.
I realise 'poor kid' may seem a strange thing to call a staggeringly prolific mass murderer, but I stand by it.
In chapter sixteen of the manga, Ryuk says, 'Hey, Light, since nobody seems to be home, how about we play a game of Mario Golf?' Given that this doesn't sound like the first time he's suggested this, we can conclude that Light and Ryuk canonically play Mario Golf together.
There are a few things that stand out to me about this.
Firstly, this tells us that Light Yagami is really good at Mario Golf. Light has to be the best at anything he tries. I can tell you with confidence that, if he struggled with Mario Golf, he'd either stop playing entirely (probably dismissing it as a stupid game) or spend hours playing on his own to master it. I bet he's spent ages testing out all the playable characters and courses to work out which combinations are objectively the best. I bet he seethes on the rare occasions Ryuk beats him.
Secondly, there's a good chance Light plays Mario Golf with his sister Sayu. Mario Golf has a single-player mode, but I believe it's more multiplayer-focused, so, if Light owns a copy, there's probably someone in the household he plays it with. I just think that's cute.
Thirdly, I find it striking that this is something Light does for fun! The Death Note quickly consumes Light's life; I don't think he's taking much time for recreation. But he does play Mario Golf with Ryuk. See, Light, there's more to life than murder; you can also play the occasional party game (with the god of murder who gave you the power to murder).
I originally misremembered the line as being about Mario Kart, wrote most of the above, then double-checked and was horrified to discover that Ryuk actually asked if they could play Mario Golf, thus potentially invalidating the most important piece of meta I have ever written. I did some quick research into Mario Golf and rewrote things a bit, and I think my observations still stand!
The rest of this entry consists of assorted semi-coherent thoughts about Death Note I've scribbled down over the course of the last few days.
Light's definitely more murderous than your average teenager, but I think a large part of the reason he embarked on his 'kill hundreds of criminals' plan is the fact that, to start with, he killed two people to test out the Death Note. When he realised it was real, he had to try to cope with what he'd done, and the way he handled that was by convincing himself that he was doing the right thing. They deserved to die; he was cleaning up the world.
Basically, in Light's mind, it has to be okay to kill these people, because otherwise Light is just a murderer. He can't let himself believe anything else, because that means he won't be able to live with himself.
Death Note doesn't focus much on Light coming to terms with using the Death Note itself, because it's more interested in how he tries to avoid being caught, but I do really love the moment it hits him that he's killed people, he freaks out, and then he starts desperately trying to rationalise it. (I posted the relevant manga pages to Tumblr yesterday, so I can gaze fondly upon Light having a breakdown.)
Does Light take pleasure in killing? The short answer is yes; the long answer is that he takes pleasure in feeling powerful and clever. I don't think he necessarily takes sadistic pleasure in every name he writes, but he definitely experiences very strong satisfaction when he kills someone who's posed a tricky challenge for him.
Sometimes I think about how the amnesiac Light was tricked into thinking his father was going to murder him. What an insanely traumatic experience. Poor kid.
I realise 'poor kid' may seem a strange thing to call a staggeringly prolific mass murderer, but I stand by it.
In chapter sixteen of the manga, Ryuk says, 'Hey, Light, since nobody seems to be home, how about we play a game of Mario Golf?' Given that this doesn't sound like the first time he's suggested this, we can conclude that Light and Ryuk canonically play Mario Golf together.
There are a few things that stand out to me about this.
Firstly, this tells us that Light Yagami is really good at Mario Golf. Light has to be the best at anything he tries. I can tell you with confidence that, if he struggled with Mario Golf, he'd either stop playing entirely (probably dismissing it as a stupid game) or spend hours playing on his own to master it. I bet he's spent ages testing out all the playable characters and courses to work out which combinations are objectively the best. I bet he seethes on the rare occasions Ryuk beats him.
Secondly, there's a good chance Light plays Mario Golf with his sister Sayu. Mario Golf has a single-player mode, but I believe it's more multiplayer-focused, so, if Light owns a copy, there's probably someone in the household he plays it with. I just think that's cute.
Thirdly, I find it striking that this is something Light does for fun! The Death Note quickly consumes Light's life; I don't think he's taking much time for recreation. But he does play Mario Golf with Ryuk. See, Light, there's more to life than murder; you can also play the occasional party game (with the god of murder who gave you the power to murder).
I originally misremembered the line as being about Mario Kart, wrote most of the above, then double-checked and was horrified to discover that Ryuk actually asked if they could play Mario Golf, thus potentially invalidating the most important piece of meta I have ever written. I did some quick research into Mario Golf and rewrote things a bit, and I think my observations still stand!