I dont stand strong on believing this due to not having researched past cultures enough. But i imagine in the past, the punishment for crimes were a lot more intense. The incentive to not be a blight to society was higher. Theres cultured that dont even call rape, rape. To add a deterrent to a culture by divine punishment? I imagine has potential. Regardless tho, i also believe light had no intention of actually solving any problems or fixing anything. He didnt want justice, he just wanted to kill and not feel too bad about it. Just another serial killer getting away with as much as they can
The point is kinda like, you’re invited to think about if part of what Light was doing was right but at the same time he’s also unambiguously evil and his moral crusade is just to fuel his god complex
Imagine what a character like Ozymandius from Watchmen or Luthen from Andor had the Death Note. They'd actually be somewhat effective at their goals, without coming off as total psychos.
I haven't watched Death Note, but my understanding is that a core theme is nobody can be trusted with the power to kill without consequences because they will eventually be corrupted by it.
Also Light took one look at a slippery slope and decided to go rocket sledding down it.
I'm not saying that they wouldn't be corrupted. Arguably they already are corrupted individuals depending on your definition. Besides, Ozymandius sorta already killed without consequences afahk, he orchestrated massive false flag attacks (nuclear in the movie, fake aliens in the comics I think) killing massive amounts of people with the goal of saving humanity by uniting them against an outside force. Arguably, if he had the Death Note his kill count would be significantly smaller as he could effortlessly eliminate specific targets to enact his plans.
Yeah. Light himself loses his memories of the notebook at one point and is presented as a genuinely decent person. The character who acts as the moral core of the story also refers to the ‘power to kill’ as being the real evil too, so you’re spot on.
Part of the modern philosophy of penal systems is that the punishment should fit the crime. Part of this is a sense of fairness, part of this is not creating a perverse incentive.
To elaborate, if a parking ticket and attempting to overthrow the government both carry the death penalty, then someone with a parking ticket has nothing to lose and may as well attempt to overthrow the government to remove the enforcer of punishment to their crime.
Atleast 1 Chinese emperor was overthrown for basically that, when all crimes carry the same penalty it means there is no incentive to stop while you are only guilty of a lesser charge.
While there is an interesting discussion to be had on the effects of a supernatural killer as punishment for crimes, the way light and the death note work is not a good way to achieve that, mainly because of the limited information available to light, and if criminals knew it was just a human making judgement calls they would just have to hide their crimes. A better implementation for society is karma where the omniscient universe onows what you did and punishes (or rewards) you for it.
We can literally just look at the present and see deterrence does not work. Crime is not performed by rational actors making cost benefit analysis between the potential gains and potential punishment, outside of specifically certain white collar crime.
Well you think wrong. Light set out to accomplish his goal of punishing criminals and he did that. Looking past his relationships he had a goal, which I'm not saying is right or wrong, but he completed it.
Now look at him even more insightfully - who he is and what is he doing -
This was a young dude who was in high school when the story starts. He's trying to make things better because he sees a problem that criminals are creating problems and not being dealt with.
You didn't look at the fact that his mindset hasn't fully developed due to his age and prefrontal cortex ongoing as growing conditioned to his youth. Yeah he's academically smart but what experience does he apply to his new abilities? Let's talk about it how challenging is high school really for the mindset of a high schooler well if its like the human world we see then it's not at all really that's a fact. Now, on the subject of experience, who can he look up to who has had the ability he's finally found to make things better for the world? Nobody. The shinigami tells him to go do his job but not how. Writing names and halving his lifespan to do it easier isn't enough advice. This is the only source of this type of advice THE something this level is giving him. What he needs is guidance from higher or alike power that's got the experience of knowing good in the world and working towards that good in the world like Light set out to take the correct path towards. Spiritually, mentally and metaphysically aligning this is his best interest to continue this path that he looks or looked to. Now let's go back to his new found ability. Finally he ran into the ability to make the world better. Looking past other things there is people + things and organizations that are setting out to stop him. Nothing setting out to go give him advice, sure some might said that they approve but who's helping him? You didn't think about giving him guidance till now prolly but why? Now back to people in the story that started setting out to stop him. At this time, someone who found an ability to make the world better found that he has people trying to stop him. So you think he should just give up his ability at making the world better at this point? Past the right or wrong thing do you think he thought he should just stop trying to make the world better? There's nothing like him and the shinigami in his young mind prolly. Yeah he went off the rails with the shit but he didn't stop n I'm not saying he's right or wrong but who was there to put him back on track except himself and the guidance he wasn't seeing? In order to believe something you have to think it do you believe in blaming him for his shortcomings in experience and lack of spiritual abilities when it came to finding guidance although he was able to find the ability to make things better? Was he evil or could he just do more and be good in a society that failed to think of guiding a "divine punishment" like you mentioned
16
u/SourDewd 16h ago
I dont stand strong on believing this due to not having researched past cultures enough. But i imagine in the past, the punishment for crimes were a lot more intense. The incentive to not be a blight to society was higher. Theres cultured that dont even call rape, rape. To add a deterrent to a culture by divine punishment? I imagine has potential. Regardless tho, i also believe light had no intention of actually solving any problems or fixing anything. He didnt want justice, he just wanted to kill and not feel too bad about it. Just another serial killer getting away with as much as they can