r/deathnote • u/Extra-Photograph428 • 6h ago
Analysis Highlighting L’s Long-term Strategy Spoiler
In being the protagonist, Light’s plans are oftentimes placed in the spotlight and rewarded with fast results. L on the other hand works in the shadows, utilizing more long-term strategies, and I feel like that that gets undermined because people don’t see the immediate impact of his planning right away like you would with Light. So let’s go through it!
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— The best case scenario for L was him finding out Kira’s identity, finding out how he kills, and then bringing him to the appropriate authorities— L wins! But considering the high stakes, a lot of unknowns, and knowing full well there was a very real possibility he could fail, L before leaving for Japan sets up a failsafe plan where if the worst happened to both him and Watari there’d be a way to let Rodger know to set off the plan for his successors to take over and finish the case for him (here).
— L makes it to Japan, things are going relatively smoothly at first, L even manages to name his prime suspect, Light Yagami. However, where things start going downhill for him is when the unexpected variable comes into the picture and that’s Kira #2 who can kill with just seeing a face, and by that point L had already moved in for the kill and made himself extremely vulnerable (exposed himself to the person he highly suspected of being Kira). He even witnesses this happen on live TV to a member of the task force— Ukita just drops dead. Kira #2 is proves to be highly dangerous and would be some serious bad news if they worked with Kira #1.
— This is the point honestly where I believe L genuinely gets kinda nervous and even desperate because he’s seriously in trouble if Kira #1 and #2 are working together (here). That’s when he sends Watari away (here) and brings Light onto the team. It’s a multifaceted strategy to have Watari in a place where Light can’t see him: 1. It creates the illusion that there’s multiple L’s out there— here, a seed he plants early on that becomes important when Light is debating on killing him, 2. Makes it so Watari can contact Near and Mello in case something happens to him, and 3. L might have been genuinely worried at this point and wanted to put Watari in a hidden position to keep him safe.
— Well then he has Misa and Light in custody and that’s when things get even more complicated because now there’s the potential idea that Kira can transfer powers somehow. This would mean catching Kira might be virtually impossible and more than likely would result in their deaths before they could even get close— here.
— Things had truly become a mess at this point, and so that’s when L starts kinda putting out the idea of Light being the one to succeed him, he puts that thought into Light’s head and the task force so they’d back up the idea (Here’s when L proposes it, and here’s when the task force bring it up afterward).
— Well skip skip skip until the point after they’ve caught Higuchi and at this point L just kinda knows things probably aren’t looking good for him. He just feels Light being weird and Rem was also being strangely evasive of his questions, something was wrong. He didn’t know 100% he was going to die, but imo this is what pushes L to take drastic action and decide to test the notebook. It’s kinda like what we see with his arrest with Misa. L didn’t want to arrest her just yet (here), not until he had more concrete evidence so there’d be no way to suggest letting her go. But then L had the sneaking suspicion that Kira #1 and #2 were working together and he knew he was cooked if he didn’t take action immediately. That’s kinda what we see with him wanting to test the notebook— he knows he’s close and he just needs to know without a doubt if Light was Kira or not so he’d know what direction to move the investigation next, but as we know from here that sets Rem into motion.
— But L didn’t die without a plan! Watari dying was definitely not something he predicted (one of the reasons why L seems so shocked when he hears something off with Watari— here), but he did take that into account earlier with the timer he set up all the way at the beginning of the series before he met the task force.
— Near and Mello were now on the case and Light walked right into L’s last big trap of taking the bait and taking over his position, putting him in a place that would make him easy to find! Without directly sending information to them, he has things ready to go for his successors to more easily solve the case and finish what he couldn’t— here.
Other notable strategic approaches:
— L feeding into Light’s ego. Even before he publicly challenged Kira he knew from get go Kira was an egotistical person with a savior complex, and we see this pay off immediately in the Lind L. Tailor strategy in how he chooses boldly challenge Kira, essentially humiliating him on live TV. L made himself to be Kira’s biggest opposition and kept him biting enough to very quickly narrow his suspects from billions to 17 year old Light Yagami. This is an approach L doesn’t drop even in person, going out of his way to boast about Light’s abilities despite us knowing from the author himself L had always thought very negative things about him.
— Within this same vein, L purposefully plays into his appearance on being unassuming— here. This wasn’t very difficult considering Light’s ego and thinking he’s better than everyone else, but L first got to know Light through being his classmate, contiously addressed him casually (using “-kun”), and infamously plays into the whole “friends” strategy (something even Light was bought by). While this never proves valuable in divulging any information to him about how Kira kills, it does overall help him in getting Light to undermine him and making his moves unexpected, such as his arrest on Misa.
— L keeping the peace within the task force by not disclosing just how much he suspected Light. By itself this move might seem a bit stupid to not be upfront with his colleagues about how much he truly suspected Light, but also imagine the situation where he was upfront from the very beginning that he suspected Light 90+%? His dad works on the task force and all the other members highly respect Chief Yagami. While this does make look a little crazy in his pursuit in investigating Light, it also keeps the task force, namely Chief Yagami calm enough to be able to continue to work and help with the case.
— Etc! Feel free to bring up anymore!
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Ik people always talk about L having an ego, but I think a notable difference between him and Light is that L allowed himself to fully consider the possibility of him failing. Even before things truly got grim and he remained confident, L still found it important enough that he set up and prepared for the ultimate worst case scenario. Light being the extreme egomaniac that he is always betted for him to succeed, never taking into account any other option. Light’s plan’s oftentimes only proved to be helpful in the short term, but also would come back to bite him in the long run, sometimes with even greater magnitude (ex killing Naomi, clueing L into suspecting someone who’s connected to the police, killing Raye Penber and the FBI agents).
L on the other hand proves to be humble enough to not bet everything on his success, setting up strategies for multiple outcomes utilizing his great understanding of human psychology, proving why he held the title of being the world’s greatest detective. Something I’ll always be curious about is all of the strategies that we never got to fully see simply because of Misa’s appearance, for example, I’ll always wanna know how L planned to get Light to reveal the death note prior to Kira #2 showing up? People really don’t give Misa the credit she deserves in understanding just how much she shook up the plot, particularly on L’s side. Without her Light wouldn’t have had many other cards to play with just how fast L was closing in on him. Or how about what L’s plan might have been after he proved the 13 day rule false? Light and Misa wouldn’t be proven innocent anymore, but that essentially just places him back where he was prior to Light and Misa’s confinement. How would he directly link the notebook to either of them? Lots of mystery that we’ll unfortunately never know.
People get wrapped up in Light’s fast results, but the long game is where you really see the extent of strategic planning. Imo in a way, you can say L directly helped Near and Mello obtain their victory. Even from the grave, L wasn’t going down without a fight and he (kinda) got his victory, even if it costed him his life to do it :’)
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u/Gold_Look_7964 4h ago
Nice one, I agree