History Characters / DeathNoteLightYagami

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Initially, his goal is to rid the world of crime for selfless reasons. [[ItsAllAboutMe It doesn't last]], as a result of a combination of a fear of being caught and his increasing narcissistic delusions, to the point that Near calls him out on it and says that he's just a lunatic at the end of the series. The degree to which he sincerely desires to the right thing is to your discretion.

* PureIsNotGood: Light Yagami appears to be a young man who is [[NiceGuy kind]], [[WickedCultured impeccably educated, well-read, and intelligent]]. However, [[MoralSociopathy his highly moralizing and absolute sense of justice]] somehow distorts his judgment to the extent that he becomes [[BigBad the main villainous force in the story]]. It's precisely his twisted and seemingly "pure" sense of justice that makes him not necessarily a good person.

* PureIsNotGood: Light Yagami appears to be a young man who is [[NiceGuy kind]], [[WickedCultured impeccably educated, well-read, and intelligent]]. However, [[MoralSociopathy his highly moralizing and absolute sense of justice]] somehow distorts his judgment and sense of right to the extent that he becomes [[BigBad the main villainous force in the story]]. It's precisely his twisted and seemingly "pure" sense of justice that makes him not necessarily a good person.

* PureIsNotGood: Light Yagami appears to be a young man who is [[NiceGuykind]], [[WickedCultured impeccably educated, well-read, and intelligent]]. However, his highly moralizing and absolute sense of justice somehow distorts his judgment and sense of right to the extent that he becomes [[BigBad the main villainous force in the story]]. It's precisely his twisted and seemingly "pure" sense of justice that makes him not necessarily a good person.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: One of his {{Catch Phrase}}s is "I'm not Kira."

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[CatchPhrase "Just as]] [[AllAccordingToPlan planned."]]'']]

* CatchPhrase: Say it with me everybody...

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Light's growing arrogance and madness, as well as his refusal to believe he's not infallible, are ultimately the greatest reasons behind his defeat.

* VillainBall: He does this a disproportionately high amount of times.

* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide: He's often very well-dressed and at one point [[RealMenWearPink he wears a pink shirt]] when hanging with Matsuda in Aoyama when [[NotADate he's trying to meet the second Kira]] ([[SamusIsAGirl who he and the investigators assumed was male]]). When hiding pieces of the notebook Ryuk remarks on Light's [[TextileWorkIsFeminine sewing skills.]] He wears a pink butterfly belt-buckle in the first anime opening, and at one point in the manga he wears a corset in order to hide the Death Note (while in the anime [[TrouserSpace he just shoves it down his pants)]]. That, and his HoYay moments with L.
* IncriminatingIndifference: Although he tries to avert this.

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* PromotionToParent: In the TV Drama he is forced to take up this role after Sachiko's death, especially since his father is rarely home.

** Let's out a huge one when he gets his memories back.

** In the second part at least, Has his men do his dirty work for him and uses his Death Note whenever he murders his victims as using it requires no effort (Sloth)

* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Light's actions earlier on in the series could be considered a combination of exceedingly ruthless schemes and PetTheDog moments. Then, as the series goes on, he finds new allies, who are almost sycophantic in their devotion to him, and whom he treats as inferior and expendable, becomes ever-more consumed by his God Complex as the world slowly falls under his grip, and resorts to increasingly extreme and cold-blooded means to cover his ass and maintain his reign on the world.

* DeathOfPersonality: Played with, as in his case the death of personality was self-initiated and the result of being driven mad by excessive power. The end of the manga shows that there is absolutely nothing left of the human he once was, though the anime implies a minuscule part still exists. Light still identities himself with his old name, but very early on, he starts to describe Light Yagami, son of Soichiro, as a persona, while he identifies as Kira, God of the New World.

* DoomedProtagonist: Kind of a given when you've picked up an ArtifactOfDeath; there's also more {{Foreshadowing}} when Ryuk informs Light that humans who come into contact with Shinigami have nothing but misfortune. Light assures him "[[{{Pride}} I'll show you the break in that pattern."]] The "How to Read" caption on that picture says that "Light suffered a pathetic end. This line reveals his arrogance."

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Light refuses the Shinigami Eye because he wanted to rule as God of the New World for a very long time, but if he had done it, it would have taken out a lot of tension and stakes between Light and L and needing to learn L's true name to kill him.

* HumanoidAbomination: If he really does end up becoming The Unnamed Shinigami, though he's approaching becoming a non-supernatural version before his death.

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: [[BrokenAce Light seems to be living his life under the assumption that he has to be]] ''[[BrokenAce perfect]]''. Perfect student, perfect son... and then he kills two people by accident just to satisfy his curiosity and his boredom. That ruins everything. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation It makes him a murderer, evil.]] The only way to become "perfect" again is [[ZerothLawRebellion to become Justice]], to become God. In his own words "If Kira is caught, then Kira is evil. [[WrittenByTheWinners If he wins and rules the world Kira is justice."]] [[BreakTheHaughty He gets caught.]] Also as per the trope at times he comes off as desperate to prove himself - especially in his interactions with L, where he seems to get overly-excited even when he gets simple answers right. And "feeling better about themselves by putting others down"... does the ''whole world'' count?

* LoveIsAWeakness: Light believes this. In the manga when Light meets Misa who is madly infatuated with him he thinks "I can't develop feelings for her. That's how idiots get caught."

* MockingTheMourner: Light Yagami tries to justify his heinous actions by saying that in such a CrapsackWorld, idealists like his father Soichiro Yagami will continue to look like fools. This prompts his erstwhile comrade Matsuda, an ardent pupil of Soichiro and until this moment Light's biggest fan, to shoot him five times, nearly killing him.

** ''Night god'', anyone? Also his first name is a name that real parents in Japan would never give to their child because the character for moon is written with [[FourIsDeath four strokes]] [[PropheticNames meaning his adult life would be dominated by death.]]

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Frequently lampshaded. Both he and L are genius [[TheChessmaster Chessmasters]] [[TheManBehindTheCurtain that hold vast power by remaining anonymous]]- L solves criminal cases behind his computer screen, Light judges humanity from the comfort of his bedroom. They're two sides of the same coin: [[VisionaryVillain Light has great ideals and no integrity.]] [[HonorBeforeReason L has great integrity and no ideals.]]

* OddNameOut: Light is the only Yagami not to have a name that starts with "S" (Sochiro, Sachiko, Sayu)

* {{Sadist}}: As he gets in the habit of killing, he starts to ''really'' enjoy it and often smiles and laughs as he slaughters people by the score. He also appears to get off on being a ManipulativeBastard, and can't resist the urge to [[EvilGloating gloat]] to his enemies that he's literally signed their death warrant, or take cruel pleasure in [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness discarding and betraying his own allies, even girlfriends]]. Some of his kills are needlessly nasty as well (eg. said girlfriend was forced by the Death Note to ''set herself on fire''), and on several occasions, he takes a moment to watch his victims die; for example, when he writes Naomi Misora's name in the Death Note, he reveals himself as Kira to her just because he wanted to see the look on her face.

* SerialKiller: By the end of the story, Light's body count is estimated to be around ''100 000''!

* TheSociopath: A particularly interesting example, since Light acquires sociopathic/psychopathic characteristics when the notebook controls his life. [[invoked]] The creators have explicitly stated that Light was not born evil or heartless, after all. However, as soon as the notebook controls his life and he gets into the habit of killing people, he exhibits all the characteristics of a high-functioning sociopath: he displays highly developed social skills, is exceptionally adept at gaining the trust of relatively naive and/or stupid people ([[FauxAffablyEvil superficial charm]]), has inordinate self-worth to such a degree to believe that he is a God [[MoralMyopia and an excellent person]], gets bored easily, frequently lies and cheats to achieve his goals, [[ManipulativeBastard frequently manipulates]] and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays]]; He lacks remorse, guilt or [[LackOfEmpathy empathy]]; He pretends to have feelings for Misa to manipulate her emotionally, [[HairTriggerTemper tends to throw a tantrum or physically attack people when things are not going his way]], and is controlling and possessive. Even Light's plan to establish a utopia is an absurdly [[PsychopathicManchild childish]] and unrealistic goal, which is common for sociopaths to have unrealistic goals. Considering that the Death Note can't directly psychologically affect him, he can't really qualify as a true sociopath (since it's either a result of childhood trauma or birth), which implies he managed to manually make himself stop caring and ends up making him '''even worse'''.

* StartXToStopX: He commits mass homicide to put an end to all crime. [[MotiveDecay at least at first.]]

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: With L, and Mikami.
** With Misa, as well, considering their opinions on how to go about creating a New World. "To defeat evil, there must be sacrifices, right?"

** The whole Mello and Near arc has Light {{nerf}}ed down hard, making great mistakes apparently to balance the odds of the two kids-nemesis. He loses the note, he loses Sayu, he loses his father... and one of his "best" responses is to confirm to Near he's Kira by ''sending a mass of stupid people at the exact location'' (and '''only there''') of Near's anti-Kira organization with the '''great''' expectations that they'll lynch someone of L's level. An extended period of complacency between arcs with no intellectual rival, and belief in his own [[AGodAmI hype]] likely have something to do with it, as does the fact that Near and Mello have far more information to work with than L did.

** After forty seconds pass and no one dies, Light realizes he's been tricked. Too bad for him that he just said "I win, Near." right before that, so everyone in the room knows he's Kira.

* YouWillBeSpared: Provided someone is useful to him and/or doesn't get in his way. i.e Misa and Mikami. Also the Taskforce for most of season 2.

* AloofBigBrother: Downplayed as he isn't very distant from her, but he definitely keeps to himself a lot more considering what he's been doing throughout the series.
* AlternateCharacterReading: Light's name is very unusual and this is {{Lampshaded}} [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude by several characters]]. It is read as Light but spelled with the kanji ''[[GenderBlenderName Tsuki]]'' or moon making it a MeaningfulName since the kanji has [[FourIsDeath four strokes]] and LightIsNotGood. Also a bilingual pun on "moonlight". Light or Raito is also a bilingual pun on ''Right'' or Righteous and ''Write'' as in writing.

* MirrorCharacter: L and Light are ostensibly on opposite sides of the plot, each trying to catch and stop each other, but...honestly, they're more alike than either are willing to admit. L, the detective, is selfish, childish, hates losing, is willing to resort to illegal, unethical means to pursue victory, and sacrifices criminals to do it, and Light is...selfish, childish, hates losing, is willing to resort to illegal, unethical means to pursue victory, and sacrifices criminals to do it. L's name "Lawliet" is even pronounced "low light" in Japanese.

* NothingCanStopUsNow: The second-to-last episode ends with Light boasting "Looks like I win," and by that revealing himself as Kira, while thinking the SPK members are going to be killed by Mikami's Death Note. However, when Near and the other SPK members don't die, it becomes clear that Light has been OutGambitted.

* OfferedTheCrown: L unexpectedly offers Light his title as the "Great Detective L" should he die. Light ([[MemoryGambit who no longer remembers that he is Kira and at the moment genuinely likes L)]] refuses [[LiteralMetaphor for as comrades chained together by a common destiny]] [[TogetherInDeath they would die together anyway,]] but then he realizes it was just [[SecretTestOfCharacter another test.]]

* PersonOfMassDestruction: He kills hundreds, if not thousands, of people[[note]]If [[WebVideo/GameTheory [=MattPat's=]]] calculations are correct, he kills about ''242,000 people'' himself[[/note]].

* PrinciplesZealot: Falls under this trope during the Yotsuba arc. The entire Kira-mission falls under this as well.

* RealMenWearPink: Light does wear a pink shirt when hanging with Matsuda in Aoyama. Also, fear the God of the New World's mad [[TextileWorkIsFeminine sewing skills!]]. Light also wears a pink butterfly belt-buckle in the anime opening, and in the manga at one point Light wears a corset in order to hide the Death Note.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Light's growing arrogance and madness, as well as his refusal to believe he's ever in the wrong or that he can be defeated are ultimately the greatest reasons behind his downfall.

Light is a genius student who has [[FatalFlaw one major flaw]]... namely, [[AGodAmI one hell of a God complex]]. He has a hatred of the criminal element of the world, but for most of his life took a "what can you do" approach. Then, he finds the Death Note dropped by the Shinigami (Death God) Ryuk and his world is turned upside down. He begins using the notebook to kill criminals, believing that in doing so, he could scare the world into becoming more law-abiding. At first the authorities are powerless to stop Light's spree of vigilante justice, and with no clue about his hidden identity the public nicknames him ''Kira'', a Japanese pronunciation of the English word "killer".

** The TV Drama puts him here during the first few episodes as an UnscrupulousHero, as he uses the Death Note to protect others at that time.

* BornLucky: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. While Light's SuperIntelligence and being TheSocialExpert does make him an effective [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]], along with his status as an AcademicAthlete and the son of a Police Chief giving him a shield to prevent anyone from strongly suspecting him, sans [[ProperlyParanoid L]], one could make an argument that a lot of his {{Batman Gambit}}s worked out as they did mainly due to good luck. Case in point, his gambit to learn Raye Penbar's true identity through a bus jacking could've gone wrong in a ''number'' of ways and it's mostly because of Raye's own incompetence that made Light's gambit worked. Furthermore, Light's own {{Fatal Flaw}}s regarding his prideful and childish personality gives him obvious blindspots to how people, and by extension, the world, ''works'', which doesn't help how his string of successes after the 5-year timeskip worsen his flaws to the point he can't even '''fathom''' the idea that he can lose and it finally cultivated in him being OutGambitted by Near.

* ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive: He's done this on occasion: [[http://cdn.motinetwork.net/demotivationalposters.net/image/demotivational-poster/0907/gendo-pose-gendo-ikari-neon-genesis-evangelion-eva-anime-man-demotivational-poster-1249033157.jpg]]

* DeathOfPersonality: Played with, as in his case the death of personality was self-initiated and the result of being driven mad by excessive power. The end of the manga shows that there is absolutely nothing left of the human he once was, though the anime implies a minuscule part still exists. Light still identities himself with his old name, but very early on, he starts to describe Light Yagami, son of Soichiro, as a persona, while he identifies as Kira, God of the new world.

* {{Determinator}}: "Childish and hates to lose." Light as Kira is (from his perspective) on a [[KnightTemplar holy crusade against Evil]]. He's never going to quit his mission for the sake of his friends, family, or "true love." Sorry Misa and sorry fangirls.

* DevotedToYou: Misa is hopelessly obsessed with him and will do ''anything'' for him. She'd rather die than live any kind of life without him.

** The musical has him killed off just after L dies, all because Ryuk thought VictoryIsBoring. Again, he begs for his life, to no avail.

* DoomedProtagonist: Kind of a given when you've picked up an ArtifactOfDeath; there's also more {{Foreshadowing}} when Ryuk informs Light that humans who come into contact with Shinigami have nothing but misfortune. Light assures him "[[{{Pride}} I'll show you the break in that pattern."]]. The "How to Read" caption on that picture says that "Light suffered a pathetic end. This line reveals his arrogance."

* EngineeredHeroics: Well, he's perfectly happy [[SoProudOfYou soaking up lots of praise from the Taskforce]] for working to stop Kira... while being Kira.

** In the TV Drama, he wasn't feeling comfortable with killing Raye Penber (or so he thought was his name) because he had a fiancee. It took Ryuk's goading to write his name down.

** Let's see, you've got like every background character in episode 1, [[MonsterRoommate Ryuk]] follows him around everywhere, [[SpannerInTheWorks Raye Penber the Stalker]], [[AntiHero L]] and his weird obsession and surveillance cameras, [[NiceGuy Matsuda]] and [[TheDragon Mikami]] the Fanboys, and [[CreepyChild Near]] with his creepy smiles and he keeps calling and hanging up... [[IncrediblyLamePun Kira is a wanted man.]]

* TheExtremistWasRight: During his MotiveRant, Light says that wars have stopped and crime has dropped 70% because of Kira. He succeeded in scaring the shit out of most of the world as an anonymous "God" and [[PersonOfMassDestruction walking deterrent.]] Downplayed in that he's still clearly insane.

* FaceHeelTurn: Before he picked up [[ArtifactofDoom the Death Note]] and became [[SerialKiller Kira Himself]], he used to be so [[NiceGuy nice, caring, good, and angelic]] to everyone around him, including his family.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He puts up a cool, polite, and friendly act, but in reality, he looks down on everyone around him. A particular example is when he's just written Misora's name in the Death Note. The moment she realizes that he is Kira and the Death Note takes effect, he asks her what the matter is and casually turns his phone back on, telling Naomi she can speak to his father now.

* AGodAmI: Eventually, he declares himself to be God, at least in his own mind. By the final few chapters, Light has become so convinced of his own superiority to everyone else that he can't even comprehend the idea that he might fail. Even after he's caught, he outright declares himself God to the police.

* HowDoIShotWeb: Light being [[TheChessmaster Light]], proceeds more intelligently than most.

* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide: He's often very well-dressed and at one point [[RealMenWearPink he wears a pink shirt]] when hanging with Matsuda in Aoyama when [[NotADate he's trying to meet the second Kira]] ([[SamusIsAGirl who he and the investigators assumed was male]]). When hiding pieces of the notebook Ryuk remarks on Light's [[TextileWorkIsFeminine sewing skills.]] He wears a pink butterfly belt-buckle in the anime opening, and in the manga at one point he wears a corset in order to hide the Death Note (while in the anime [[TrouserSpace he just shoves it down his pants)]]. That, and his HoYay moments with L.

** He largely favored Mikami over Misa and Takada. Mikami's screw up at the end of the series leads directly to Light's ultimate downfall.

-->'''Light''': What are you doing, hurry up and write his name down!... Now's the time to kill him! Kill him right now!!

** In the live-action movies, Light ''does'' try to kill Soichiro in order to prevent the Death Note from being analyzed; even [[SycophanticServant Misa]] is [[EvenEvilHasStandards shocked]].

* LeanAndMean: His official stats are 5'10, 119 lbs, making him quite thin.

* MaskOfSanity: The TropeCodifier, no less. Light ''seems'' to be a calm, stable, [[TheAce ace]], but in reality, possibly even before the series started, he has some serious mental problems.

* {{Bishonen}}: ''Very'' much so. Though his features do coarsen a bit as the series progresses as he becomes older and nastier.

* SatanicArchetype: Light has a very Luciferian element to his character. As Christian tradition describes it, Lucifer represents a FallenAngel, an example of beauty, talent, and intelligence, but his own fatal flaws caused him to lose heaven, eventually giving himself up to evil. All this context is related to Light: an attractive, intelligent, talented young man who was born in the light (he was raised by GoodParents, after all), but blinded by his [[SmugSnake arrogance]], {{pride}}, [[It'sAllAboutMe selfishness]], and thirst for power, he ended up being a threat to humanity. There's also the fact that "Lucifer" means "'''Light'''bringer".

* SatanicArchetype: Light has a very Luciferian element to his character. As Christian tradition describes it, Lucifer represents a FallenAngel, an example of beauty, talent, and intelligence, but his own fatal flaws caused him to lose heaven, eventually giving himself up to evil. All this context is related to Light: an attractive, intelligent, talented young man who was born in the light (he was raised by GoodParents, after all), but blinded by his {{SmugSnake arrogance}}, {{pride}}, selfishness and thirst for power, he ended up being a threat to humanity. There's also the fact that "Lucifer" means "'''Light'''bringer".

* DramaticIrony: His very character ''thrives'' on this. Very few knew the true depths of his crude, childish greed and excessive {{Pride}}. Following the TimeSkip, while he's seen throughout the world as a MessianicArchetype set to bring the world's salvation, every single good thing he's done is simply for the sake of PR and he sees the whole of the world as merely a means to reach greater heights. This makes him {{no different than SatanicArchetype Satan Himself.}}
%%* DracoInLeatherPants: He gets this treatment both in-story and out. [[invoked]]

* DramaticIrony: His very character ''thrives'' on this. Very few knew the true depths of his crude, childish greed and excessive {{Pride}}. Following the TimeSkip, while he's seen throughout the world as a MessianicArchetype set to bring the world's salvation, every single good thing he's done is simply for the sake of PR and he sees the whole of the world as merely a means to reach greater heights.

* SatanicArchetype: Light has a very Luciferian element to his character. As Christian tradition describes it, Lucifer represents a FallenAngel, an example of beauty, talent and intelligence, but his own fatal flaws caused him to lose heaven, eventually giving himself up to evil. All this context is related to Light: an attractive, intelligent, talented young man who was born in the light (he was raised by GoodParents, after all), but blinded by his arrogance, pride, selfishness and thirst for power, he ended up being a threat to humanity. There's also the fact that "Lucifer" means "'''Light'''bringer".

* HumiliationConga: Most explicit in the manga: Light is outwitted by Near and given a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech thorough verbal beatdown.]] After nearly killing Near in a desperate move, he's shot up and nearly killed by Matsuda, a man he has only ever looked down upon as something of a pet. Begging Mikami to come to his aid, Mikami instead angrily [[KickTheSonOfABitch screams Light is no god and has completely ruined his life.]] Now drowning in a pool of blood and facing arrest, Light [[DirtyCoward begs Ryuk]] to write the names of his enemies down. When Ryuk [[KickTheSonOfABitch instead writes Light's name down,]] surmising his life is already finished, [[PsychopathicManchild Light goes out screaming and cursing he doesn't want to die]].

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Potato chips. Barbecue to be exact. He exploits this by hiding a mini LCD TV in a bag of barbecue chips because he's the only one who eats that flavor.

* AmbiguousStartOfDarkness: Whether or not Light was a good person before the Death Note is unclear. While it could be that he numbed himself to death and convinced himself what he was doing was alright, he showed some sociopathic traits beforehand. For his part, Near is convinced that Light was ''always'' messed up in the head, arguing that he wouldn't have used the Death Note like he did if that wasn't the case. In-depth examination of the character makes all of this even more confusing considering that we know very little about his interaction with his peers and his personal life before picking up the notebook. It is vaguely implied that he was adored by his peers and was a model student; however, when his memory is extinguished, we notice that he has an incredible lack of emotional intelligence and a HairTriggerTemper, even without the influence of the notebook. However considering that he was dedicated to stopping Kira after losing his memories he could possibly have traits of a SociopathicHero.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Light's growing arrogance, madness, and refusal to believe he's ever in the wrong or that he can be defeated are ultimately the greatest reasons behind his defeat.

* KickTheDog: Once he picks up the Death Note, he starts doing this at least 3 times out of 4. Some noteworthy examples include him [[spoiler:cruelly taunting Naomi Misora as she dies, having Kiyomi Takada set herself on fire after she called him tearfully begging for help, and murdering Lind L. Tailor simply because he insulted him and [[CantTakeCriticism told him what he's doing was evil]].]]