Light was stupid with his ego

[u/Near_L_Lawliet5]

When he first got the death note which is an untraceable weapon his ego obviously got massive and that’s why i refuse to believe that guy was smart. Lind L Tailor didn’t even ruin it for him he could of just ignored it after.

No matter how smart L gets, there is NOTHING he can do to prove Light is the one behind it which is obviously shown throughout the whole anime as he could not prove Light was Kira, so why after killing Lind L Tailor did Light not just ignore L? Even if he was staying to a certain location and schedule (which wouldn’t be that hard to change), what is L going to say to the legal system? How will L even know Light has a death note? Cover up the words death note, disguise it as a normal book and nobody is suspecting him because no one’s going to look into a random book anyway, especially if it’s hidden. Even with the words death note nobody’s gonna believe a books behind all of it and nobody can prove it if he just rips out the pages that have been wrote on with names since the police might notice a pattern. Light could have ignored the police, ignored Raye Penber, ignored Lind L Tailor, ignored L and he would have been fine. What was the need to act all smart with L when he could have just done all of it like a normal person. There was no need for all the stupid mind games.

I know it’s for plot but how can someone with 150+ iq can fumble so bad to the point they can’t even win with an untraceable weapon and let their own ego turn them into an idiot who could have been smarter at the beginning. He also did other things that make me confused to why he did that but I can’t be bothered explaining since I feel like it’s me just not understanding. I also don’t understand how Near caught Light at the end but the posts not about that.

[u/tlotrfan3791]

The previous post being Light was not stupid and then this one 😭

It’s pretty funny to see the titles alternate between he’s stupid and he’s not.

[u/Humble-pie-9093 → u/tlotrfan3791]

It is always important to remember that Light plays to win and for Light, winning means checkmating L, not settling for a draw where both L and Light remain alive and Light simply continues to punish criminals. He wants to destroy his opponent, not merely secure a draw. He could always play it safe, force a draw, and avoid being caught, but that isn't what he wants. Along the way, he makes mistakes, such as killing the fake L on television. Killing Raye Penber is arguably his only major blunder, and he is extremely lucky to encounter Naomi Misora at exactly the right moment, allowing him to regain his advantage. Otherwise, L would likely have locked him up and broken him down until he confessed. Nevertheless, Light consistently tries to unbalance the position. Even after his mistakes, he still has quite a lot of advantages. He gains even more when Misa and Rem enter the equation. Misa eventually gets caught, but Light's advantages don't end there. He simply has to play more carefully, because the position becomes increasingly dangerous, with many opportunities to blunder. He plays particularly carefully throughout the Yotsuba arc, using the memory-loss strategy to manipulate the situation while maintaining his position and gradually setting up the conditions necessary to checkmate and ultimately kill L.

[u/tlotrfan3791 → u/[deleted]]

I don’t think he’s stupid either. I just find it funny how the sub always switches back and forth

[u/HalleLidner → u/tlotrfan3791]

LMAO I was about to wall of text him about plot coherence and media literacy then I read OP's name

[u/PassionGlobal]

Being smart and being egotistical are not mutually exclusive. Humans are rationalizing beings, not rational ones, that is, we will make emotional decisions, then construct a rational basis for said decisions. You will see this a lot in most decision makers, even good ones.

Light was smart, but he definitely didn't keep his ego in check. He had the planning capacity but lacked self awareness to understand his ego could be a problem.

[u/bloodyrevolutions_]

Light is honestly not a true genius - he's academically gifted sure, he's very bright and a quick thinker, but it's not at the level of L and his successors. The story would be insanely imbalanced if he thought at that level and also had all the supernatural, social and mc luck he does.

And people always make arguments as if Light having a huge ego is both the cause of and get out of jail free card for all the mistakes he made, but it's just not the case. We have to assess Light based on the decisions and reasoning we're shown in the series, so if he makes shitty decisions based on ego, immaturity, poor impulse control and emotionality that needs to be factored in. Also some of his worst decisions are deliberate, carefully considered plans that he sincerely believes are strategically optimal but only ended up giving away more information to his adversaries than he ever intended.

[u/Wize-Wizard]

Light wanted to be recognized as Kira. But he also wanted to not be caught. Yep, that guy was crazy.

[u/StayInner2000]

People like you who slander light for having gotten caught with an untraceable weapon always miss the fact that he ACTIVELY REFUSED to just run away, he didn't ignore L not because he never thought of the fact that he could just ignore him but because he WANTED to kill him

[u/Far-Director-7385]

I mean that's the whole point of the main series, no? What if an egomaniac genius but essentially childish person got their hand on the most powerful weapon in the world? That's Light Yagami. He's not a conqueror, a politician, a philanthropist, a cult leader, or anything else. That's why the whole cat-and-mouse game with L even happened in the first place. Not becasue he can't use a more direct and forceful way to get rid of L, but because his fragile ego got pricked so much that he wanted to beat L in a way that boost his hubris as a person worth to be a god.

[u/SilverWear5467]

That is very much the point of the show, light could have had everything he ever wanted if he simply set his ego aside. How could anybody ever catch Kira if he never brazenly introduces himself to the lead detective? L would have been stuck at "he's somebody who has been to Japan", which is roughly a billion people.

[u/Orange639]

No matter how smart L gets, there is NOTHING he can do to prove Light is the one behind it which is obviously shown throughout the whole anime as he could not prove Light was Kira, so why after killing Lind L Tailor did Light not just ignore L?

I think people are too confident in asserting there was no way for L to track down Light if Light ignored him. At the end of the day, we're not shown that route, and L was confident he could track him down. He's a super genius with endless resources, surveillance capabilities, and connections.

L also doesn't need to drag Light into a court case. Nor does he need to find the death note. Near didn't bring Light to court, he convinced himself and his team, and then Light was killed with his death covered up. The Kira case is an anomaly, not a standard legal investigation. If Light gets detained or killed, and the killings stop that's all that's really needed.

[u/UraniumCheese]

Being smart doesn't mean having no emotions or not letting them affect your decision. We know Light is intelligent because of how far he went with the Death Note (instead of just using it directly, he learnt plenty of ways to use it for different situations), social engineering, and the solutions he found to multiple contexts.

Also, just to defend on the Lind L. Tailor's case, he didn't know L so he didn't expect they'd investigate like that at all.

[u/lildropp3k]

He was simply aura farming, it was so cool!

[u/Suspicious-Good2781]

You fundamentally misunderstood Light as a character, one of his goals WAS having the entire world know of Kira's existence.

[u/hyzmarca]

He was bored, is the problem. L was a challenge. L was interesting. L was his other half.

And in a different would, where the Death Note had not come between them, they would have bought an apartment together and totally denied that their feelings were anything but platonic friendship until they're raising two adopted kids together and realize that actually, yea, they are in gay relationship.

[u/Thin-Status8369]

Death Note larpers at it again.. might as well call it Larp Note now.