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Emergency Death Note Video 😆 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-11 19:21:35
Edited:
2024-12-13 05:27:41
Imported:
2026-09
Tags:

Content

I was responding to Death Note comments and felt that I needed to get to the bottom of this asap.

I know most of you will probably agree with Adam, but what do you think? If your behavior, morals, mindset, etc. succumb to changes in power, is that who you've been all along??

Files

Comments

Shalini Paul

I would possibly be a tyrant.. power corrupts people.. and it’s a fact

FullHeart

I think saying who someone is is more complicated than "are they" or "aren't they". People have the potential to get both better or worse, so it's not always who they were all along. And sometimes it is that they were that all along. People are so complex that it's impossible to reduce it and can only be taken on an individual basis

Everett

Personally I don’t think so, but it’s really hard to try and put yourself in those shoes since in the show they have the absolute power to kill anyone at anytime from any place which is NUTS. Without being exposed to that personally, I don’t think anyone could attest to what it would do to you. But I think to a degree yes. If, say in normal world, you get like more money or promotion at work and then you act differently or start treating others different o think that’s maybe who you’ve been see deep down. But in lights case, I can’t blame him much about the corruption (since your HP fans) it’s like holding every single horrcrux all at once for years😂 the influence of Ryuk and his knowledge that he can kill at will I think is an extreme that would change 99% of people’s behavior. Not quite to Lights extent (he def goes overboard) but I think everyone is susceptible to that to a degree!

sugar free

I’d say that every person shares the potential for corruption and tyranny: I’d imagine inheriting a godly power would influence every human being’s sanity, but whether or not it’d be the same extent as Light could be arguable. I don’t think any one human being is inherently good, though. It’s a variance, and any one person that did inherit the Death Note would genuinely be unlucky as L has said earlier in the show, as a power like that would eventually bring out the worst in anyone. I think this theme’s also really well shown in The Lord of The Rings, where a ring that grants omnipotent power is also shown to corrupt good people. So, to shorten the point, I don’t think it’s as black and white as one person being bad or wrong!

Liam Regan

Well if you believe that gaining power shows who people truly are and you believe that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Then you would be saying all people are corrupt and morally bankrupt.

Lixien

No. First of all, who's this "person you've been all along"? I don't think that exists, people change all the time, you're not the same person you were 10 years ago. Extreme power just happens to be something that can really change a person. And fast. Who you were right before you come across the thing that changes you (in this case the Death Note) definitely matters tho. I don't think Light would kill his own family before the Death Note but Part of who he was (good at everything and he knows it, strong sense of justice, bored of the world, etc) really influenced ehat the Death would do. What I'm trying to say is that him being a good person without the Death Note and evil with one are both real. But yeah, the person that you really are is your current self. That's it.

steve crandall

I believe there's a wide range in morality. I don't know when mostly sets for people, but like to think most people are basically moral. Power and money can corrupt some, but I suspect they weren't nice people to begin with. It's also possible that the desire for power is much stronger in those with lower than average morality. I believe in most people. It's fun to read a bit of moral philosophy to approach the question.. Michael Shur's "How to be Perfect" is excellent!

Stonewall Hackson

I don’t think it is who you are all along. I think power can change you. I also think how you change is dependent if you pursued that power and earned it or if it was dropped on your lap. But that’s reality, in the case of Death Note, I believe the death note has a corrupting influence on people. Not necessarily making them do things out of character, but amplifying their worst tendencies

SDCWW171

The saying is "power corrupts". I don't think becoming corrupted by power means you're true self is the corrupted you. Humans are equally capable of great evil and of great good. We are ever-changing, and are constantly altered by external stimuli. If you are a normally happy person, and a tragic event causes you to become very sad or mentally unstable, were you always sad/mentally unstable? When i think of power corrupts, I always am reminded of the Stanford Prison Experiment as a prime example of that.

masrer

If I had the chance to eliminate evil from the world (which would imply preventing a murderer from killing or torturing someone, for example), I would do it. After that, that power would probably corrupt me.

sergioandr.es

How do you watch the video? 😅

Terry Kusunoki-Martin

I think the reality is that it's a little bit of column A, little bit of column B. On the one hand, power absolutely corrupts people and erodes their sense of morality. Suddenly being handed unbridled power doesn't "unmask" someone; rather, it fundamentally changes who that person is. However, to Sarah's point, the EXTENT to which power corrupts changes depending on the core of your person. You can hand two different people the keys to the kingdom and one might become a tyrannical despot, while the other becomes a benevolent monarch. It's really an interesting discussion.

Sylvia ZX

I’m with Sarah, the idea of power never crossed my mind and even if it’s offered to me I wouldn’t accept it, because of the burden you need to carry with it. The way I see it, the moment I choose to use this power, I would no longer be the same person as I used to be. But, then again, what if it’s a power other than Death Note, what if it’s some ability to prolong someone’s life instead of taking it? Will I still be able to resist the temptation to use it on my grandparents, parents or even myself. I don’t know.

Ignacio Garcia

Light Yagami is now an innocent man, here is my reasoning and then you can judge me in the parking lot Our sense of justice is composed of two parts, the emotional side and the practical part: - On the emotional side, we as social animals have an inert desire of "fairness", we need to punish people that we consider to have wronged others since we get this gut feeling that someone who makes others suffer, should themselves suffer. On this side, not much to do, if we give in to this we end up with "eye for an eye" and a never ending feud. - On the practical side, we need to rehabilitate people who do wrongful things or lock them away if they can't get rehabilitated, this way, we put a stop of those behaviours, we created all kinds of judicial systems to accomplish this goal. So, while "unfair" Light Yagami is innocent (If you believe Kira to be a different person) or at least rehabilitated. Now, is Light actually Kira? I would again say no, Light became Kira for sure but this is a Ship of Theseus situation, there was not a single moment were Light becomes Kira, but there is absolutely a point were Kira rolls back into being Light, who was originally, an innocent person. Since he reverted I think it's "unfairly" innocent once again. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Petey Poo

Finally the philosophical questions have started to surface

Esquirebob

I think pre-Death Note Light and post-Death Note Light are, more or less, different people. Pre-Death Note Light surely wouldn't actually kill, but that's only true with the normal non-magical ways of killing someone. However, the Death Note is such a special thing, a fantastical thing, an unreal enough thing that it does flip some kinda switch in Light. And then for him to erase his memories of the Death Note, he knows the killings still happened but doesn't know how, and is probably pretty confused.

jamesnightblade

Sarah i think you’re close to being right i think it comes down to if someone is capable of using the note for selfish reasons that seed of evil/selfishness/Machiavellian tendency is awakened, what adam said in the past about absolute power corrupting comes into play. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens if a ‘good’ person has the note. what they would do with it.

Ali Hassan Liaquat

I think Humans have capability to do both good and bad. Everyone is born with that. Everyone is “able” to allow their conscience to become a slave to their evil thoughts and instincts. The more you do evil, the less guilty you’ll feel and the more normal. Light was stunned the first time he killed a person, but as he kept doing it, it became normal for him. Like it was routine. I understand that, I think it makes sense. To him, his evil is good. A necessary evil, he wants to be a God of a new world. Was he always like this? His morals? Would he choose this again? I think.. yes. His morals crumbled instantly at a God-like power that allows him to kill people at his own will. He forsook it all for that power, and sort of became a slave to that. I think the best way for me to think of it, is that there was nothing pulling him in the other direction. His morals are feeble in comparison to this power, so he succumbed to it. Had he a strong conviction in his heart of why not killing people is such a wrong sin, then yeah he wouldn’t do it. The whole difference is that.. he just didn’t have a strong enough conviction to resist this power. That’s my take.

Maurice Chai

This reminds me of the question around sports: Does it build character, or does it reveal it? I do think morals/behaviour can be fluid, particularly when someone is younger. While a lot of core beliefs hold true as I've gotten older, there are definitely differences in my moral code compared to 10 years ago. Power may just play to certain predispositions of a person.

Ronald Bohne

The whole point of the show is to highlight that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is the nature of humanity. Sarah, you might believe you wouldnt but until you are in that position there is no guarantee. Personally I would like to think I would be morally above resorting to evil and power etc but until that happens can any of us truly be 100% confident we wouldnt succumb? I think we would be lying if that notion was absolute. One way to look at it is if you believe someone acts the way they truly are when very drunk. Kind of a gray area right?

Randy

Yes, it is who you were all along. A gun doesn't cease to be a gun just because it never had bullets loaded in to it; that it did not shoot something is due to external factors but not because it literally isn't a gun. Light was always dangerous given the right situation. He is extremely intelligent and has a father who has struggled his entire life to combat criminals. Consequently, he is extremely self righteous and has a god complex that manifests itself into a naive morality/low resolution dichotomy wherein those who do crime=evil and those who don't do crime=good (and those who stop vigilantes are also evil). A lot of people would behave similar to Light if given the opportunity; but, most are never tested. Luckily, humans have managed to create a society where most of us are greatly incentivized not to harm others through code of law, lack of material scarcity, and trial and error.

Franina

I agree with Sarah 100%

Yang Dou

This discussion! It’s very in line with the research I’m doing now and I agree mostly with Adam. The idea that succumbing to power reveals someone's "true nature" might feel intuitive, but it really oversimplifies how morality works. Current research is more in line with the idea that our moral decisions are way more influenced by context than we'd like to admit. Light’s transformation isn’t just about revealing an inner "evil," but about how his environment and power shape his choices. Take, for example, Yudkin et al. (2019), who found that even very young children (as young as 3 to 4 years old) adjust their punishment behavior based on their social role and power. Kids assigned to be "police officers" punished ingroup members more harshly. There is a developmental trajectory of this trend, though, in terms of older kids being more indiscriminate regardless of their power status. But you can make the argument that with the power given, Light has returned to a more primitive state without much social and moral reasoning, like a younger kid. From a moral philosophy perspective, Light’s actions can be analyzed through both deontological and utilitarian lenses. Deontological principles prioritize rules and duties—like valuing human life regardless of outcomes—while utilitarian principles focus on maximizing benefits for the greatest number (Bentham, [1789] 1948). Light starts out framing his actions as utilitarian: eliminating criminals to create a better world. But as the story progresses, his decisions increasingly align with a deontological view—he begins to see himself as a god whose rules must be upheld, regardless of the consequences. It kind of aligns with research which shows that power plays a key role in these shifts. Lammers and Stapel (2009) found that power increases rule-based moral thinking (deontology) and decreases outcome-focused reasoning (utilitarianism). Light’s position as Kira gives him unparalleled power, and this may explain why he becomes more focused on enforcing his moral "rules" than achieving his original goal. However, none of this research suggests that power is implementing new ideas and moral standards into people’s brains. They are more like evidence of how power and environmental contexts could amplify existing ideologies and nudge the way one approaches morality. So, does Light’s behavior under power reveal who he’s been all along? Maybe. But it’s more accurate to say that power interacts with who he is and the context he’s in, creating a version of him that might not have existed otherwise. Morality isn’t this fixed "core" we carry around—it’s a fluid interaction between who we are and the situations we face. All in all I think Adam is right in thinking that given that much power no one can make an accurate prediction on how they would act, since contexts can really mess with our minds, consciously or not. Although, there are so many individual differences at play here, and I think in Light’s particular case, he always has a radical side and is a more susceptible individual vulnerable to contextual influences compared to Sarah, haha. Citation if anyone’s interested: Bentham, J. (1789). From An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Printed in the Year 1780, and Now First Published. In Literature and Philosophy in Nineteenth Century British Culture (pp. 261-268). Routledge. Lammers, J., & Stapel, D. A. (2009). How power influences moral thinking. Journal of personality and social psychology, 97(2), 279. Yudkin, D. A., Van Bavel, J. J., & Rhodes, M. (2020). Young children police group members at personal cost. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(1), 182.

Terry Kusunoki-Martin

Great comment! Love seeing someone versed in moral philosophy give their 2c on this discussion. The way I see it, yes, the version of Light we see is the result of power interacting with the person that he is. It's not Light's true morality being unmasked so much as it is his morality being fundamentally altered. However, where I agree with Sarah is that the way power influences a person's morality absolutely depends on the individual person. Two different people will have two different reactions to being granted power. And that does mean something about the core of their being.

Brandon Guzman

That “evil part” of light was always there but that doesn’t make him evil. Let’s say he’s 5% evil manipulative. Even using the death note for “absolute moral reasons” (violent crimes with concrete evidence) would require Light to use that 5% of his “evilness” more often just do the nature of the work. In order to survive and continue working, he has use his dark side but that doesn’t make him inherently always bad

Neko Cat

This is bringing me back to the dilemma between nature vs nurture. Light’s father is a police and kind of look like that like grew up with some moral pillars. However, when he encountered the death note, he began to justify his actions on what he believed fit. Also, Light is an adolescent in which morality is in process of shaping but still poor self-control, lying, and poor decision-making can also contribute to ethical dilemmas in that age. Up front, there can be exceptions among adolescence populations (I’m not generalizing) but maybe Light isn’t one

Ricardo Cabrera

Very insightful my dude, I completely agree

Lauren

Where I think the nuance lies is that people generally don't spend a lot of time thinking about where their lines are and why their lines are there. Because of this, people can do terrible things while genuinely thinking they're good people. That's why people can learn and grow and potentially regret. History is littered with stories of oppression where the people at the time thought was the natural order of things until enough people started to think about whether what they were doing was "right". Also, the definition of good/evil or right/wrong is not a real thing. It's a social construct that allows people to live together in close proximity - that's why we still have conversations on LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights, etc.

Yang Dou

Thank you and I 100% share your sentiments! Light would never become who he ended up being if it was not for the Death Note, so it is not fair to say that this has been who he is all along. However, the person he ended up being is indeed a combination of environmental factors AND his beliefs / personalities. If it was someone else in the same situation maybe they would not go as far as Light or even have gone off a different direction, hence that’s Light’s personal cause

Josh Mightguy99

i think I'm more in Sarah's camp here. like, if you cant control who you are when nobody's around you were basically preforming when you're in front of everybody and not genuine.