My favourite description of Light Yagami : a man who saw a slippery slope, and grabbed his sled.
Honestly I really like when things aren't so damn formulaic. Most media is so damn predictable I get mad when I know what's coming and it comes.
I know there's a rule not to make the audience feel dumb, but if the audience is already dumb then you're just making even dumber media...
There’s a saying in software development: If you make something foolproof, someone will build a better fool.
Why shouldn't you make the audience feel dumb? Is there rationale beyond people's pride?
I feel like making the audience feel dumb is the key to good mystery. "You had all the pieces, you just didn't put it together."
Because more people watched any Adam Sandler movie than people who watched Schindler’s List.
The majority of people, even if they’re not dumb dumb, prefer to watch easy movies at the end of a long day. And studio execs prefer to make more money than less.
There are studios that focus on smart and well done plots and movies, but that’s not what we’re talking about.
I’ve always wondered if the notebook is what made him into a sociopath or the tendencies were always there and the notebook just gave him an outlet.
Oh that’s an interesting tidbit. Those episodes were soooo long that I’ve forgotten most of the initial story. I’ve yet to finish the show. Hopefully will get to it one of these days.
I have always leaned towards the tendencies were always there and he finally had an outlet with the notebook.
So you know how there's a superhero that is blind and orients himself via sound, and there's a superhero that doesn't have any superpowers and just goes against villains with the gadgets he made himself? One of them is named Batman, and the other is Daredevil
I don't know the details, but my guess is sociopath versus person who loses sleep at night trying to spend more time helping people.
If the villain is a sociopath, they are going to make sure they always look presentable, it's a pretty important part of getting people to trust them.
In this instance it's:
Light, guy on right - police chief's son, genius student with good grades and a tennis champion for extra curricular to get into a good school. Has ideas about what people should die for and what isn't being punished. Loses same sleep as guy on left, or so we assume, but hes a sociopath so the loss of sleep is more to do with thinking and less to do with fear or regret
L (just the letter), guy on the left - internationally recognized detective. Also genius. Also really good at Tennis.. I guess. It comes up once. Works with police and police chief to find the bad guy. Suspects Light, tells him so and his dad and enrolls in the same college. Does care about people, will make decisions where others are hurt if necessary but does clearly have morals. Weird dude, sits funny, likes sweets.
Only thing you missed is that the "good guy" doesn't necessarily care very much about helping people. He just loves the thrill of the chase.
Light Yagami, one of my favourite characters. A single reason why is this; he looks unassuming as this description described. One of other reasons, he is just relatable.
You've had villain protagonist, and you've had relatable villain, but only in deathnote do you get relatable villain protagonist. Usually gotta read a century-old russian novel for that kind of stuff.
I'm currently having this experience with Marple (BBC version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series). 4-5 young to middle aged British men in each episode, virtually indistinguishable. The ladies come in three flavors: young+pretty, young+plain and old. If there are two of any category they are also indistinguishable.
