Light Yagami's Laugh Is Criminally Underrated

how do you make something as deranged as this work its maniacal maddening euphoric instinctual crazy a rush a climax and alleviation but most of all it's truthful it's a truthful depiction of what light has become under his facade of lies it's a truthful enactments of lights emotions it's a truthful behavior in a series where every one deceives each other and no one tells the truth this is why for me at least lights laughs our significance and worth looking into it's why his laugh is one of the most impressive aspects of his characterization thematically psychologically as well as emotionally by impacting the audience evil laughs in fiction have become heavily stigmatized because of how ridiculously excessive they can be in the right context they can be pulled off well for comedic effects but a lot of the time when authors attempt to pull it off in a serious context it tends to be poorly executed and even unintentionally funny because of its sheer absurdity more often than not people aren't even disturbed by it they don't gain anything out of it and perceive it is just an unnecessary melodramatic trope that breaks their immersion out of the story so how the [ __ ] does death no get away with this how can it pull off this trope successfully and gain the intended emotional response from the audience this is [ __ ] melodramatic but it doesn't miss the intended targets it was aiming for it's supposed to be a disturbing dark and almost sadistic portrayal of events that succeeds in immersing the Audion rather than breaking their immersion despite all of the stigma the author manages to execute lights laughter as a surprisingly impactful piece of characterization central to his psychological development plausible to the audience and of crucial thematic importance it's a difficult task for authors to consistently pull off something this ridiculous successfully but the fact that it's done engagingly multiple times throughout Death Note is a testament to the skills of everyone who worked on it so how did they even pull this off well they made it believable little bits of characterization such as lights laughs here is important because well characters are important the Death Note itself is only important because we care what effect it has on the characters characters are essential to making a story interesting and the methods a writer uses to make a character believable is called characterization light never lived in the real world but people who have watched the story feel as if they've actually known him and a good author can cast the illusion that a fictional character is real essentially what makes a character interesting is that it has recognizable human qualities that resonate with us the action of the plot interests us because we care about what happens to people and what they do some of us at times may identify with lights desires or aspirations or at times be disgusted by his sadistic actions and selfishness characterization is effective in getting a response from us and when done correctly it can give us insight into a character's true nature and deepest thoughts so what characterization in death no is good in getting a strong response from the audience as well as giving us insights about a character nature his love sometimes showing a small physical act like this can communicate way more about a character's deep-rooted qualities than any amount of words ever could every time he lost its in a dramatic situation he's killing criminals killing a pursuer revealing information announcing everything's gone according to plan or perceived some victory throughout the series the dramatic stakes and tension in these scenes escalates as well as the rush he gets from winning it's right here where Lights is physically shown to indirectly reveal his true nature death no goes above and beyond then handling this type of characterization in an exciting and artistic way that immerses the audience rather than a simple description statement or dialogue that light is emotionally deranged and twisted we get a [ __ ] crazy laugh and a distinguished lead II tailed reaction in his eyes and face to indicate his motivations and emotions and I for one think that has so much significance specifically in the context of death though a major theme of the series is deceits verbally lying to others and hiding behind a facade for lights the words he's saying don't [ __ ] mean anything because he's constantly lying there for emphasis is instead put on his physical reaction to get the truth and understand him so why is this even important well it makes him convincing his actions are motivated and there are valid reasons for his behavior it was already established early on that he was a narcissist and wanted to become a God after gaining the Death Note he already excelled at everything valued in society by being popular intelligent smart intuitive good-looking competitive and gifted in all the right areas causing this superiority complex there was enough legitimate setup and motivation provided in the story that made his actions plausible no matter how [ __ ] crazy they were lights laughed in the first episode because he got a rush out of how successful and efficient the death notes power was in fulfilling goals of eradicating criminals no one at the time suspected him he had the means to access secret information and most of all he now had actual excitement and purpose in his life after being endlessly bored for years lights laughter eles funeral because he finally got rid of every obstacle in his way and won against a worthy opponents he finally got to release his pent-up emotions that he's had since episode [ __ ] to the fact that was as lights hubris and god complex grows he gets from a rush from killing people is completely consistent with his character although we might be taken back by his insane laughter at the end of the series we don't have to suspend disbelief in any way because this behavior is completely justifiable and compatible with his temperament consistency plausibility and motivation are all useful in making characterizations like this actually believable and if you take any example of him laughing in the story you can see that Death Note went above and beyond succeeding in this deception is a big theme in Death Note and light sloth has surprising significance as it symbolizes how he's deceived well himself light has to constantly keep his emotions and reactions under check in order to deceive others so they don't know what he's thinking even if he wants to proclaim his victory or say that everything has gone according to plan he has to keep his behavior regulated to hide the truth and deceive others he's always had a facade and acts in front of other people and that's that makes him seem kind-hearted and caring to others when in reality he's completely unsympathetic he's a lying monster America toga toga arun deskah but if you pay attention to the story you notice that the only thing that breaks his facade is his laughter a dark representation of his true nature where he can unsympathetically celebrate his own superiority as he judges human lives with death lights started out as someone who puts on a facade of kindness and care for other people when in reality he never cared or valued them he was simply bored that the world didn't meet his expectations towards the end of the series you see that whilst his facade is similar his inner nature has drastically changed he initially saw Kira as a mouthpiece and representation of the dark desires of the public but eventually he became Kira instead the facade that he puts on is off the character Light Yagami whilst underneath that lie he truly believes himself to be an ideal a god Kira even ruku Akita [Music] Cynthia will come and whilst he undergoes this transformation throughout the series so does his laughs he becomes someone who doesn't judge himself of the same moral standards as other people he believes he's the only person capable of creating a perfect world he has a complete miss belief that he is a God this is all effective to the audience in portraying his utter delusion by the end light has become so corrupted he believes whatever he says is the truth he believes it's a truth that he's the god of the new world he believes it's a truth that he was specifically chosen to use the death notes accepts we know those things aren't the truth light was never a God or above the moral standards of other people he was never specifically chosen to use the death notes he simply found it by chance and used that opportunity to enact his desires he was never an unbeatable person like he believed he lost grasp on the truth of reality which is what caused his downfall essentially what I'm getting at is that whilst deceit and telling lies is a big theme in death notes in the end rather than deceiving others lights deceived himself he was no longer grounded in reality and misled himself into believing he was something that he was not he was dishonest to himself as he viewed killing criminals and innocent pursuers as undisputable justice when in reality he never even gave them a chance at redemption he fooled himself into believing his own power was absolutes when in reality it was simply the power of a tool the death notes I think through lights character arc the author is commenting and even giving a warning on human nature itself if you have no barometer of self-awareness for how you act in your life you can go down a slippery slope like had no true support systems or meaningful human connection with others he couldn't communicate honestly were people as he was always deceiving them whilst he cared for his family he was willing to kill them if they ever found out the truth Luke was simply an onlooker who like can really turn to for emotional help and Misa was someone lights was mainly using for her power rather than full supports there's an obvious contrast in his psychological state from the beginning to the end and it makes you question if light could have truly been saved from the brink if he had a close human connection to someone without deceiving them maybe me thinking this is completely [ __ ] naive but I think at the very least the story puts forward the value of meaningful human connection and living truthfully so you don't lose self-awareness fall off the deep end and end up laughing light light does Death Note puts a detailed focus on the psychology of its characters after all it's basically a big [ __ ] 200 IQ battle of whit's lights character arc is something that interests me because as we know from the beginning to end there's a serious change in his internal mechanisms that affects his thought process and behavior there's a definite psychological reason why light goes from this so this some people think lights always had this potential for darkness whilst others believed he was simply corrupted by the death notes but I think it's a mixture of nature and nurture the Death Note gave him the opportunity to enact his desires it was an enabler a tool used depending on the individual I think it's undeniable that whilst light proclaimed he was doing this all for justice he definitely got a rush out of killing people and the alleviating feeling of authority whilst eradicating criminals the power of the death notes made light sense of superiority tangible as he continuously got what he wanted kept on winning and kept on getting away with crimes it's no wonder his hubris kept on growing and his darker nature kept on getting stronger as the Death Note provided lights with the opportunity to explore a side of him that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to this points out a disturbing Universal facts about the psychology of how people can change when given an opportunity to be bad throughout history ordinary people have been capable of doing immoral ruthless and unforgivable things and whilst in lights case he always had this sense of superiority without the Death Note he would have most likely just been a narcissist living a normal life not a serial killer with a god complex essentially the point that I'm making is that most people think they're good but in reality have never been put in a situation where they can be bad as soon as someone is given an opportunity to do something immoral and get away with it you'd be surprised at how many people give in to that temptation you'll never know until you're given that opportunity but just as light being tempted to use the Death Note led him down a twisted path of delusion if you let that temptation win the internal arguments then it grows stronger and you're more likely to go down a darker path many people think they wouldn't do something immoral if they know they can get away with it but people do often go down that path and if you give in to that temptation it wins and you get a dopamine kick essentially don't practice what you do not want to become because if you do neurological circuits can be built in your brain that cannot be removed as soon as that thought process begins where you give into that dark temptation it grows stronger you get rewarded for going down a darker path and you get a dopamine kick which interestingly enough is the chemical in your brain that causes laughter [Music] there's something to be said about these shift Ott's and meaning put into this small bits of characterization I can't help but be [ __ ] amazed that these sheer importance this laughs has and it's sad that people have a tendency to overlook it as nothing meaningful I can't help but commend the author's understanding of human psychology artistic use of characterization and thematic weights that was added to these scenes to comment on the darker side of humanity itself after all Death Note is a series that thrives on it's painstaking attention to detail and if it can make a scene as [ __ ] ridiculous as this believable meaningful and immersive it speaks volumes about what makes this series so special and unique if you ever see a piece of weird characterization from a story in the future maybe give it a chance and try to understand it because it might be more important than you think just like Kyra's laughs don't overlook small golden pieces of writing in fiction because at the end of the day more often than not they are criminally underrated [Music] well this was one of the more interesting videos I've made if you somehow enjoyed this video as [ __ ] random and left-field the topic area may have been then a like would be majorly appreciated and if you're new here you can always click Subscribe for future uploads if you'd like to support me to make future videos then you can pledge to my patreon below and I'd like to thank my current patrons for making all of this stuff possible in specific I'd like to thank HT to mass for making top tier analysis videos Satan for making motion manga videos on nanatsu no taizai and attack on titan julian Ray's Ali Mustafa def de sage and big underscore widths my goal is to reach a hundred thousand by the end of this year so let's see how that goes

Channel: Soul

Views: 749,031

Rating: 4.9655542 out of 5

Keywords: Kira's laugh, Light Yagami laugh, Light Yagami, Death Note laugh, Death Note, anime laugh, death note live action, kira death, light yagami dies, light yagami vs l, death note 2017, death note potato chip, evil anime laugh, l death note, L death, death note opening 1, death note OST, death note analysis, death note manga, death note trailer, anime analysis, death note meme, i'll take a potato chip and eat it, death note funny, light yagami theme, Death Note netflix

Id: ozK5IqV8HHU

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/rykkzy]

I'm sorry I watched Death Note like 6 times and I can't remember this scene in the graveyard. But it do not seem fan made. Can you tell me if I have just have a bad memory haha ?