It's quite obvious that they are both geniuses with amazing critical thinking skills. They both can analyse any situation from all angles in depth and come up with the best conclusion that would go over most people's heads. They're both excellent at the art of manipulation.
But who's smarter?
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I would like to say Light because he outsmarted L and outlived him, but it may just be because Light is more ruthless. I can't help being on team light for some reason :)
shareLight is smart but he only outlived L because he had no problem killing people to achieve his goals. I don´t think Light outsmarted L, he had the upperhand all the time and just killed anyone who got too close. L had to break the walls of logic and use a very clever thinking to guess what the hell was going on.
Light was smart, no doubt, but just got that far because he started with a huuuuuuge advantage.
Yeah, that was exactly my point.
Near said close to the end that he could kill Light and the other Kira and be done with it but he wouldn't do it that way because that's not the way L would do things. And as a true succesor of L, he had to play the same game.
Also, L trying to explain with Logic what Light already knew was all supernatural was another HUGE advantage for Light.
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L was smarter but he fought that war with a great disadvantage. He didn't know anything about the existence of the Shinigami, a clear advantage for Light who knew a lot more about how things worked with the Death Note and didn't wasted so much time trying to explain with logic supernatural things
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L did really well considering how the odds were stacked against him with a notebook and rules he had absolutely no way of knowing about or countering. The shortcomings of Light are what led him to being on the defensive more than L for most of there battles. (Light's arrogance of taunting L and deliberately fighting against the police is how L deduced and got so close to him in the first place)
Light has a more ruthless and academic sense of knowledge. He's manipulative but I wouldn't say he's a manipulative genius (Misa, Kiyomi Takada, and Mikami are fervently devoted to Light and the short comings they have are obvious) and Light does take more risks and gambits then L.
L went far taking advantage of Light's flaws and keeping himself guarded against him. He deduced Light's true motivations or at least always had a suspicion of where Light was trying to lead him. Light did win against L but it was on the basis of underhand tactics. (Which is kind of odd considering L did plenty of underhand tactics himself. If he was willing to compromise himself to stay in the game against Light then if he went even further he could have saved himself a lot of trouble)
The lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of sheep.
If Light was really bright (sorry) he wouldn't have ever let it slip that there even was a Kira. Although I suppose it would get tiring writing out methods of death alll the time, someone more concerned with their mission, or their impact, than their ego would not have exposed themselves so easily. Though how this reflects on L, intellectually, I have no idea. Presumably he was similarly driven by ego, so maybe in a role reversal he'd have had the same weakness. While I doubt L would have even used the Death Note, had he made the decision, I'd find it hard to believe he wouldn't cover his tracks better than Light from the outset.
- But then, he catches people like that for a living. So it gets a bit complicated trying to see all the angles. Mostly I believe L is more principled than Light whether that means he's more righteous or not, I think his nature is less paradoxical, more streamlined, so I believe he would have eluded capture entirely, because actually succeeding is more interesting to him than the projection of success to the world at large.
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Well Light made it quite clear that the reason he wanted people to know of "Kira" was so that they'd recognize that some sort of higher power was passing judgment on people.
They were even slightly reluctant to consider the more obvious heart attack method to be murder until L proved to them that it was.
Not to mention, there wouldn't be much of a show if he was that sneaky.
Light was more than smart enough to know that, which is why they gave him the "God of the new world" angle, which excuses this decision by making it a part of his grand scheme.
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If his goal was just to eliminate people from behind the scenes, then his choice to reveal his identity would be unintelligent because they wouldn't be conducive to his goals.
However, the fact that he was able to maintain a double life and ultimately defeat the best detective ever known in pursuit of his goal of world domination shows that he is clearly extremely intelligent, and at least as smart as L if not smarter.
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L
shareYes, but imagine that Light had gone through the same kind of training L went through, it would have been a much different battle strategically. Light was learning as he went where as L had previous experiences from numerous cases and specializing training. What does "academic sense of knowledge" even mean? There is no such thing as underhanded tactics, and asking for L to be a different person defeats the purpose of the rivalry.
shareLight Yagami.
L is super creepy and wouldn't have anywhere near the power he had if he wasn't backed by someone who is probably a multi-billionaire. In addition, he was able to capture and torture a celebrity, and keep someone in indefinite detention against that person's will. In ways, it's bizarre that Light and Misa Amani didn't press charges against L.
L was friendless, almost certainly never had a girlfriend, and it's largely Light's father's devotion to L that L had the sway he did over the Japanese police forces.
Light clearly has high emotional intelligence, can easily make friends, can easily be successful, and he was solving cases 'for fun' and could have probably gone into any career he wanted.
Actually, one of the main problems with Near and 'the other one' is that Light Yagami probably simply could have become the actual new L. He had already been solving cases, L himself acknowledged that Light could succeed him, Light already has the support of the Japanese police forces, etc. Near's somehow being able to get a meeting in the Oval Office and work with the United States is not believable.
Post-L, Light was 'dumbed down' some in order for it to be 'believable' that he'd be defeated by Near. It somewhat reminds me of the nonsense in Avatar: The Last Airbender that led to Azula being defeated.
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man [...] viewsshare
I think the whole point was that they were pretty much each other's equals in that area (dropping the whole 'there are different kinds of intelligence/the idea of IQ itself is falling out of favor' stuff.)
share'there are different kinds of intelligence/the idea of IQ itself is falling out of favor' stuff.
L. Light was so lucky that Rem was in love with Misa and he had the upper hand because of it, but if Rem had been just like Ryuk things would have turned out way different. I'm pretty sure Light would have lost.
shareI think you will find this interesting :
L's personality type is INTP and Light is ENTJ !
Read about that and you will find some interesting information.
I think you will find this interesting :
L's personality type is INTP and Light is ENTJ !
Read about that and you will find some interesting information.