#kira!light

...but Yotsuba arc has the worst animashun ever too:

Well, this is just great.

Light shoved a rotted plank of floorboard off his chest and began taking stock of his injuries. By some miracle, his skull and spine had survived the fall intact, but one leg hadn’t been so lucky. Climbing back out of the cellar would be a pain--assuming the stairs were even sturdy enough to hold him. I should have known that floor wasn’t structurally sound. Fucking Near. Of all the places he could choose for a meeting....

Near.

Yes you’re right anon, I do highly prefer KiraLight. The differences in those ‘Lights’ come down to his goals, his agency in situations, and the power (or lack thereof) he has with regards to L’s investigation of him.

Goals: All three Lights have a similar main goal— the world is rotten so let’s do something to change it. pre-Kira!Light is unhappy and bored since he has no way to do so. He’s just a very bright student who will have to follow the usual winding road to a mundane but likely successful life, probably in the police. Yotsuba!Light sort of has a way to help the world in an immediate and extraordinary way since he’s met L, but L is frustrating him and holding him back. He’s forgotten his true goal and can only do his best with the knowledge he has, under torture conditions and immense stress. Kira!Light both has the means and the knowledge to enact the change he wants to see in the world. The stress and loss are still immense but those sacrifices are knowingly made in service of his true goal.

Agency: PreKira!Light doesn’t have much agency— he’s obviously doing and achieving things he doesn’t care about because he’s ‘supposed’ to. He defers to his parents and teachers. Yotsuba!Light has even less— he’s under the literal gun to prove he’s not Kira and to help solve the Kira case under L, who watches his every move. He doesn’t understand why he’s being put through any of that but sticks it out since he doesn’t know any better. Kira!Light differs because he does have the agency to act on his own and do things because he wants to. His hand is forced in many situations but the plan, the game, is clear and he has the confidence of the Death Note to move ahead.

Power: Pre-Kira!Light has none, he’s just a normal but very bright high school kid. He has some prestige and privileges because of who his Dad is but that’s nothing compared to the power L has, and would have made a bad rival for L because of that. Yotsuba!Light is at an active disadvantage when it comes to L’s power. At this point, he’s already under suspicion but has no knowledge of why. He has no Death Note, no plan, no way to cope with his situation and understand it. It’s kind of sad and pathetic. Only Kira!Light is able to balance the scales of power with the Death Note and make for a good rival in the story for L. L has his immense earthly power and Kira has his supernatural power, and so they can be true equals and opponents.

Hi anon. 

What if the yotsuba light wasn't the suspect first, would his goal agency power still be the same?

If YotsubaLight wasn’t a suspect, he’d of had no cause to meet L so the situation would be apples and oranges. The only reason L took any interest in Soichiro’s family was because he suspected Kira was among them, so YotsubaLight wouldn’t have existed. It would be To-Oh!Light, going to college and reading the Kira news like everyone else, or maybe getting tid-bits of info from Soichiro but no real information. His father may have let him help out on police work before but this case was very different and highly secret, and Soichiro did not have all the information about it at his disposal after he started working with L. His power and agency would be similar to PreKiraLight, and his goal might be to excel at college vs. capture Kira.  

And in fact, L would have never revealed himself to Soichiro, Matsuda, and the others because Kira hadn’t been meddling with the Tokyo police. That’s the only reason L formed his own team. L would have still been working from afar and made it even more impossible to meet Light. 

Also what if the death note appeared when light was around 21-23, and already part of the police force yet one day he saw the death note and picked it up?

I think that might have been pretty interesting since Light would have had access to a lot more information and never would have had to poke into Soichiro’s laptop. That was something that tipped L off to where Kira was (by design). Light would be able to cover his tracks easily or actually have an excuse to look into the case. One main difference would have been Light’s impulsiveness-- I think the benefit of age and police training would have made him more cautious than he was at 17. But he’d also be more tempted. A police database is a trove of faces and names of criminals, but since they would be local, focusing on them too much might give L another way to be tipped off that Kira was in or around the police. 

I think he would have the same goal and equal power as Kira!Light, but his agency might be higher than canon Kira!Light due to maturity, resources, and police/legal experience.

1. L never finds who Kira really is

2. The shit L did to Light would never make sense to him and he should hate L vs respect him as a rival

3. So much good drama of the series goes down the tubes

4. Light wasn’t any more or less cute/lovely during Yotsuba because he still agreed with Kira deep down without his memories but didn’t understand why

5. Light was brilliant enough to eventually realize he was in fact Kira, or had been, given the evidence in front of him

6. That knowledge would have probably destroyed him because he couldn’t get the power back or didn’t understand why he’d done what he had without the back-knowledge

7. L wouldn’t have given two shits about Light since what was interesting to L was Kira. Without that, Light was just another smart teenager. L got depressed and when he thought Light wasn’t Kira.

request: Light #1 & Kira #2