Among The Wild Flowers

I feel like when people compare Akechi to Light Yagami, they fundamentally misunderstand his character. Their similarities really end at their designs, and Light is the kind of person Akechi would despise. Light Yagami lives a pretty privileged life at the start of Death Note. He has a stable home, with two parents and a sister who care about him. He's a successful student. There isn't really inherent tragedy to his life. The whole reason he starts using the Death Note is a mix of curiosity and a jaded worldview, and when it works it empowers him, very quickly goes to his head, as he believes he is one who can be a god of a "new world" once the shock of his initial kills wears off. While his first kill was to help someone, that altruism didn't last. He is in charge of his choices, while Ryuk mostly vibes and maybe eggs him on a little. Fundamentally, Light has something Akechi lacks: agency, and a comfortable life he took for granted. Meanwhile, Akechi is someone who lived on the bottom rung of Japanese society. His very existence is shameful there, between his mother being a sex worker, his status as an illegitimate/"throw away" child, and his mother's suicide. Years languishing in a foster system that is notoriously inhumane, in a country where 90% of the adoptions are grown men for inheritance and patriarchal reasons, while very few children in the system find permanent homes. When Akechi awakens his power, he approaches Shido not because he wants to kill people but for a stupid revenge plan cooked up by a traumatized child who's been nudged along by a malevolent god. He wants to build Shido up so that at the height of his power, he can expose him for the monster he really is, while another part of him genuinely wants to be useful to Shido, as Cogkechi later calls out. His feelings are a mess of contradictions, and so it's no surprise that Shido was able to mold him into his assassin at only 15 years old. It's also worth noting that Akechi only approaches Shido with his ability to cause psychotic breakdowns. Shido is the one who teaches and instructs him to do shutdowns. He's still complicit, very sunk cost with his revenge plan, but as I spoke of here, even if he wanted to quit, he couldn't alone. Shido's cleaner and control of the law and ability to effortlessly turn him in would render the Metaverse his only safe haven. I think people look at 11/20 Akechi and Akechi in the early parts of the engine room and assume that's just his "true self," when in reality it's another mask. Royal makes it very clear because in Rank 7, he outright warns Joker of what's to come via a pool metaphor and offers an out (though he's MUCH happier if you don't take it/stick to your principles), and in Rank 8, he goes on that big "I hate you" speech... while Sunset Bridge is playing. Y'know, the song that plays at the end of most confidants to reaffirm bonds. So when he smiles as he shoots what he assumes to be Joker, that doesn't mean he's genuinely happy. More likely, he's an emotional clusterfuck, given he also is disoriented enough to namedrop "Shido-san" over the phone, and in the subsequent meeting with Shido, tells him not to kill the Phantom Thieves and that Morgana is "just a cat." Yes, he says they'll make them fear for the rest of their lives, but remember, he's talking to Shido. The things he says are likely all incredibly calculated to sound appealing to Shido. And when you consider that he planned to utterly destroy Shido's reputation after the election, the "delay" makes even more sense.

sorry for how long what I add here is but i really liked this post and wanted to add more of my thoughts of how light differs from akechi signficantly - but also how they have a few interesting similarities. I do agree with practically all of this honestly, I do think goro akechi and light yagami are fundamentally very different characters. however, as a big fan of both, i definitely think there's something very interesting about the way masks/personas play different roles in their lives, and how they both have this persona of being a gifted, perfect student. in light's case its a lot more effortless, to the point of it being boring. whereas although i think akechi is very intelligent, i believe that due to his background he needs to put a lot more effort into maintaining that appearance (and juggling being the detective prince + an assasin while light is just doing school like a normal kid - again, privilged.) however, i think the way they both put so much stock into the way they are percieved and crave being Seen so desperately, and navigate social interactions as games to be won in which their natural charisma makes them very adept at is super interesting. ultimately akechi is like, dripping with the desire to be seen but is terrified of it (the horror of being known yadda yadda) and so he gives pieces of himself with every conversation despite his best acting but also contradicts his character at every turn because he's a fractal of masks and persons and never got the space to fully figure out who he *is* (which on a different note is another way that he's such a good contrast and parallel to joker - but i digress). light on the other hand, has a pretty stable sense of self, even though that self signifcantly warps throughout the course of the series, you get the sense that you never lose the fundamentals of what light yagami is (unlike how you are constantly puzzling out akechi's "true nature" altho part of that is bcs we never get to directly be inside his head). light meeting L is the only time he ever gets truly "seen" in death note imo, but the tragedy kind of is that he will literally die if he shows part of his true self (kira - i say part because i dont think kira IS light's true self but just a part of it), so then L is still confronted with light's many masks and his obsession with kira makes you wonder if he could ever see light for all that he was. and like. as @casuistor 's yotsuba light analysis showed, light was also still pretending/acting during the yotsuba arc, that wasn't his whole genuine self, so yk. light is very much an icarian protagonist - a tragedy, a victim of his own making, if you will. things would have always ended up this way for light imo because of the nature of who he is and what he grew up around, and he honestly would have been genuinenly unfillfiled and unhappy in a no death note universe too. light is obsessed with proving to himself that he is a Good Person, and that he did not fail, because when Light accidentally killed two people it freaked him out so bad that he decided he'd become god because god decides what's good or bad, and cannot be judged. the mental gymastics he does to justify his actions to himself is quite frankly hilarious. light is aware althroughout that murder is wrong and bad and that what he's doing is evil but he believes himself a martyr, and justifes bloodying his hands for the sake of Greater Good.

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