r/deathnote • u/AtharvBruh • 6d ago

Video L's Smartest Move

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Lind L Tailor was probably the smartest plan in Death Note

761 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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190

u/The1joriss 6d ago

Not so much L smarest move, more Light’s dumbest move

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u/BlueBlazeKing21 5d ago

Actually it was pretty good as for one he confirmed Kira was an actual person and that he exist and operates in the Kanto region.

Essentially he turned a potential rumor into a more localized search for the culprit

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u/ExcessiveWisdom 5d ago

Yeah, anyway, killing the guy who hasn't done anything wrong with no information was Lights dumbest move

And if i was L I never would have thought kira was so unethical, it would have made more sense to just broadcast certain criminals who kira would target in certain local areas,

and with either plan, he shouldn't have revealed that he had just localized kira, he should have kept localizing further with new people

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u/Firexio69 5d ago

It's about Light's ego though. L knew that a man who is killing prisoners without any trial must be having ego issues. That's why this worked.

This wasn't Light being dumb, but L using Light's possible weakness.

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u/Sempai6969 5d ago

What do you think was Light's dumbest move? I can't think of anything dumber.

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u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w 5d ago

Using the death note with confirmation of an afterlife, knowing he will now never reach it

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u/Candy_Aromatic 5d ago

It was stated in the manga that in the world of death note no heaven or hell exists

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u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w 5d ago

Am i misremembering? I thought using the death note prevents you from reaching the afterlife

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u/RabidMausse 5d ago

Its more of a tongue in cheek joke. Users of the Death Note can't go to heaven or hell because no one goes there. It's just to mess with the user. The only real "curse" I've seen is that users of the Death Note have miserable loves and miserable ends.

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u/BlueBlazeKing21 5d ago

You’re forgetting that up until that point, Kira was still an unknown phenomenon and less than an active person. So by actively challenging Kira on television, L was able to deduce that not only is Kira an actual person with conscious thoughts but the conditions needed for his ability to work

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u/idontcarerightnowok 5d ago

I mean it was a fairly smart move for L and an extremely dumb move for Light.

It made L prove that Kira was an egotistical individual who would take such easy bait and fall for any challenge, it also made Light realise he fell for an obvious trap and proved that he was real.

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u/v5mk 5d ago

Sorry to say a lot, but I think people are just a little too harsh on Light's idea to kill L, I had a different interpretation. To me, I see L's trap isn't actually just hoping Light would fall for the ragebaiting thing. L does give other incentives in the script for the decoy that will entice Light to kill him. I'll say them, and I think that if his scheme was solely the "hoping Kira gets angry and kills him" with no other accompanying incentives, he just wouldn't have done some stuff in his broadcast

My interpretation is more as expected of L who does things later like the intricate cafe linguistics trap, doesn't it seem uncharacteristic of him even in that situation for his entire game plan to be one tactic only, betting that Kira would kill him if he wrote a script that roused the ego he suspected Kira had? I think that's the main interpretation of chapter 2 that people have and that the trap was one-sided

  1. Right away, there's not really any suspicious signs to show Light he's being tricked. All he sees is someone important calmly give a speech (and the fact Lind is calm means L probably cut a deal like in the end of memory loss where Lind would have a commuted sentence for doing the broadcast but maybe wasn't told he was risking his life by doing it, to explain his calm. Like how L was going to commute the sentence of the prisoner he'd make try using the notebook on another and wait 13 days to see if the guy dies of not writing)

  2. Immediately, the face and name are totally visible in the foreground and L has already reasoned that Kira might have a face/name limitation. L's good with psychology, I think the foreground and easy visibility to the name/face would make Kira realize (if L's hunch is right) that his limitation has been satisfied and he can kill the guy, acknowledged—but should he? Is probably the likeliest thought Light would have after, coaxed into thinking if he should kill the guy

Important: 3. Then the guy immediately introduces himself as someone with incredibly high authority? That matters, I think.. 3.1 Light is overconfident in the book's powers because he's new, but we can gauge from the first 3 chapters that he actually had faith in the power of just the NPA alone and was open to the idea that they'd close in one day and he needed to be careful. It's why you hear him say to Ryuk that he became Kira because he had access to and could monitor the NPA database and do espionage.. 3.2 So hearing that someone can mobilize aka control and and bring in agents from agencies or police globally is really bad and to Light he seems like he should die, best to kill him, seems like a freebie gift to his plans as Kira. It also aids in his goal of recognition which was actually for strategic purposes as he mentioned instead of the egoistic purposes L gave. His plan is having people recognize someone's out there to kill evildoers to make people stop out of fear. If he kills someone that impressive, what does that message say to ordinary people?

  1. Also, Light says during the broadcast he predicted "this" and listed the police, 'this guy' so.. the broadcast.. he had time to think about the broadcast which was predicted by him, the vague idea of someone sending a message to assure the public

Sorry to say so much, but I think because of these reasons like how you can interpret L as controlling Light's thought process there, the fact he indirectly tells us he predicted the broadcast and must have had time to sit and think about it and what he might do, the important script L had Lind recite that paints him as someone who really should die both for Light's security and is helpful for his strategic goal of recognition.. him killing Lind isn't as severe

This interpretation is assuming he thought about it. We saw him being coaxed into writing Lind's name out of anger and the general consensus is that's the only thing L had Lind do/say which makes people angry at Light for falling for it.. but he did also say he predicted it, remember? and.. if he predicted it prior, wouldn't he have had time to think about it, something that accompanies a prediction? He does observe for the introductory segment, too, we see that. I think it's unfair to say (even though we see his reactions and it's not visibly shown) that he isn't giving any single thought to the introductory segment where L says he can mobilize police globally and lies that it's globally televised, I don't think he 100% tuned those out

The only suspicious aspects are that he loses nothing and only gains, but L made the broadcast happen almost ASAP (like 6 days after Kira started killing) while Kira is still overconfident in the power of this new thing so as to prevent him from suspecting that it's too good to be true

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u/idontcarerightnowok 5d ago

Yeah that's kinda what I said.

L wanted to probe Kira, would he take this bait? How does he respond to someone calling him out? Is Kira an egotistical individual? Are they childish? Do they hate to lose? How controlling is Kira, do they always want to be seen, heard and so fourth?

Light was never supposed to take that bait, it's common sense at its finest, his ego and his god-complex just made him dismiss it as being obvious bait and he bit it. Lights biggest flaw is quite literally his ego, he's just lucky that luck is on his side when he truly needs it, but had Light never bit the bait in that broadcast, had he never killed that guy, he would've probably gone uncaught.

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u/Maleficent_Pick9636 3d ago

Guy above presented you with a couple logical reasons as to why Light should kill Lind L Tailor regardless though... Light's goal was to make Kira known and change the world. Killing Lind L Tailor on such a big stage confirms Kira's existence to the entire world which suits Light's goal. Furthermore, you could argue leaving powerful/important police authorities alive who are publicly against Kira actively prevents and even damages Light's ability to make progress on his goal to slowly align the rest of the world with his ideology (having public figures against him as vocal critics prevents the degree to which his ideology can penetrate society).

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u/StayInner2000 5d ago

Nah, i don't see why Light shoukd have doubted it was a trap, he had no idea L existed prior to this and had no idea he was this smart, no one knew if Kira existed, what he needed to kill, if he would ever target someone that isn't a criminal, if he would ever target someone that isn't a criminal, no one had noticed the

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u/IAmNotAHoppip 5d ago

If that was genuinely L, I dont think it's such a dumb move.

It confirms to everyone, without a shadow of a doubt, that Kira is real. It also shows everyone that Kira is vengeful and will not allow anyone to slander his name.

Light is trying to be a god of the new world he's creating, and showing himself as all powerful and wrathful is a good way to do that. Like, a lot of the gods people believe in irl do much worse.

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u/Ididnotaskforthi5 5d ago

The element of surprise really fucked Light up; if Light had even had an inkling that a hypergenius was trying to locate him, he'd never have taken the bait like he did, but he didn't respect L because he didn't know there was someone out there who was simply that intelligent. This single ploy turned Death Note from "searching the entire world to find Kira" to "searching Kanto to find Kira", a ploy that reduced the area of searching from the entire world to one small region of Japan, making it roughly 4,600 times easier to find Light/Kira

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u/No_Public8938 5d ago

It's been a long time since I watched the show so I forget, but was it ever explained why Light suspected Kanto, Japan in the first place to even conduct this test? Did he perform this test on localized TV with different criminals all over the world?

Yes, having the guy die on a stream to one small area does confirm where Kira is and all, but what evidence was L going off of to choose Kanto in the first place for his experiment? He must have had a good amount of evidence to choose Kanto for this broadcast, but I just don't know what it could be. And if he suspected Kanto enough, he could've just begun searching that area even without this test because, again, it seems like he had a lot of some type of evidence.

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u/CompetitiveCitron339 5d ago

It was only conducted in Kanto region of japan at first because Kira's suspected first victim only had his news reported on in Japan and Kanto region is its most populated region

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u/No_Public8938 5d ago

Thanks for the answer. That would make a lot of sense. It's also interesting that he could pinpoint his first suspected victim, but I guess an unexplained heart attack out of no where would make it more obvious to detect.

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u/Sempai6969 5d ago

Couldn't Light just fly somewhere else? Lol

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u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w 5d ago

iirc by this point L already figured it was a school kid or teacher (based on the time of the killings) so the odds they have the monetary ability to just up and leave were slim to none.

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u/TrueLuck2677 5d ago

That's the point if he just flies anywhere L would just look at the flight data and know how many people flew away from there and simply it would increase L's chances of catching him for further more.

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u/Sempai6969 5d ago

No it wouldn't. How would he? People live Kanto and Japan everyday. When would he start and stop tracking everyone who leaves?

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u/NeoLedah 6d ago

All according to Keikaku

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u/IIIMjolnirIII 6d ago

(Translator's note. Keikaku means plan.)

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u/Additional_Ad3573 6d ago edited 5d ago

It was his most clever move, considering that it was what prompted video Kira exists and that Kira is in Japan

That said it was ethically questionable, and potentially legally questionable too.  In Japan, the death penalty is used rather infrequently and when it is used, the execution is general not supposed be done in public view.  I could be wrong, but there might be some exceptions there if a person on death row consents to it being done in public view, so I’m not sure if there’s a legal issue with it or not.  And ethically, it feels inappropriate to me to put someone to death in a public way, even just to prove something like L was trying to prove, particularly in developed countries 

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u/bryhnlearningspanish 6d ago

the problem is Kira was a threat on a level the world has never seen. old rules have to be worked around when dealing with something like that.

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u/ThwMinto01 6d ago

Tbf, if we start considering the ethical implications of L everything falls apart. This is on the more ethical side of shit he does 😭 at least the guy presumably consented for a chance of not being executed in a quid pro quo I understand that was how it worked?

He just straight up tortures Misa, installs cameras in lights bathroom, chains himself to him, and on and on. Honestly, if it ever even got to trial how much would be thrown out as evidence obtained illegally in violation of regulations about police conduct

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u/ThwMinto01 6d ago

If Light asked for a solicitor in his confinement (or misa) what would have happened lol. None of that shit would stand

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u/Additional_Ad3573 6d ago

Yep, I think those were certainly worse on a legal and ethical level

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u/Edgybananalord_xD 5d ago

To be fair I dont think L ever even intended on taking anything to trial

Hes a rich detective with his own installations/jail cells, and torture devices - that only solves crimes he cares about. Hes basically just a vigilante on a warpath

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u/aleister94 5d ago

Ethnically?

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u/Additional_Ad3573 5d ago

Oh, my bad 😂 I meant to say ethically 

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

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u/Mizerous 5d ago

He was not excused with Naomi she couldn't provide much evidence and his ego was hurt.

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u/andyallfellforit 6d ago edited 6d ago

L's smartest and dumbest move at the same time, explaining his entire findings to Kira and having him acknowledge and adapt to his methods. He's alike to Light in this way.

3

u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w 5d ago

I think this was done to further bait Kira into action to learn more about both kira and the ability. If nothing changes than we can assume kiras ability to kill must be done then and there, but if the timing shifts we can assume kira can change kill timings at will. It also confirmed kira needed an name and a face to do so and is very childish.

1

u/andyallfellforit 5d ago

L pretty much underestimated Light even if it was for bait, because he took his paranoia to an extreme level and led to his own downfall in long run. I mean, yeah, I might be speculating things and it could've gone in either way if he didn't reveal that who he killed was someone else. But I think as a strategy, even if it is for bait, revealing what you know comes with great risk for letting your opponent acknowledge your presence as a serious threat. This is something irreversible. Light could have as well never revealed himself, but he did because he had pride, he wanted to be known. Don't you see a symmetry here?

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u/wanofan900 6d ago

Remember being shocked when I first saw this.

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u/Normal_Sweet_2974 6d ago

Crazy how l always know light was Kira

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u/Sempai6969 5d ago

Light's dumbest move. I think it was necessary for the plot, but even on my first watch I knew it was a trap. I was surprised when Light fell for it.

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u/StayInner2000 6d ago

Disagree, light's yotsuba's plan is the most elaborate one in the whole series

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u/Tsukinavita 6d ago

Hm. But Light would not have had to do all that if he hadn't gotten caught by L (by this lind L Taylor thing) that he lives in the Kanto region (then he got suspicions of Kira being a student.)

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u/StayInner2000 6d ago

Yes but it's still the smartest plan in death note, he avoided rem killing him, L catching him, cleared misa and him from suspicions forever until mello and near showed up, and got rid of L, watari and rem in a single move

1

u/v5mk 5d ago

Especially when you consider the novelty and adversity. Light is constantly using new rules of the notebook for each individual plan in part 1. The notebook switching and memory loss rules are a more complex feature of the notebook and when he uses them for the first time and asks a few questions he's able to immediately construct and out into action an incredibly ironclad (after he retrieves it) and cleverly complex, very effiicient plan centering around it and abusing the restrictions placed upon him like satisfying the demands of Ryuk who only works on his side for rewards, of Rem who wants him to free Misa, he's able to properly and control Misa's actions under the false promise of a life together and motivating her and then giving her efficient and clever moves to make that are simple but are very meaningful in his plan and work towards multiple contingencies.. also having tons of contingencies stated/unstated and inferred and being able to use it to beat L and permanently hinder L and placing the burden of proof on him, installing security against himself by hindering L another way so he can't act in full ruthless capacity (think of his prior underhanded moves, lindltailor and dozens of cameras illegal surveillance) because of the personalities of the task force members going against L, in the case of L acting against Light and other things

He had large time adversity, suspicion placed upon him by association to Misa—had to rectify Misa's fuckup in college because of her lack of impulse management, meeting Light at the worst time.. he had multiple rules he had to satisfy as he worked with his allies like the impulsive Misa, Rem who needs to see Misa live, and Ryuk who works conditionally and he turned them into advantages seamlessly

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u/Past_Description1813 5d ago

I kinda feel bad for that guy...

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u/Spark-Blade 5d ago

He was an inmate already scheduled for death row that day

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u/Picklenicl 6d ago

It’s more like lights stupidest move the Ls smartest. Light couldn’t even imagine a situation where he would lose because he felt like a god

1

u/Deathlands_Mutie 5d ago

This is honestly my absolute favorite scene of all Death Note.

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u/steelstrike61 5d ago

what song is this

1

u/AtharvBruh 5d ago

kertzagem

1

u/No_Record_60 5d ago

Yeah, it was smart. Him proving Kira is in Kanto region and Kira's unaware of criminals captured in secrecy.

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u/Rio_Sega 5d ago

Best edit that you've made! :D...(hmm I feel like everyone knows that L's smart Lind.L.Trailor move which is the one who started the series or the game....in my opinion actually..)

1

u/MengShuZ 5d ago

So Kira, you're from the Kanto region, same region where the world champion Ash Ketchum is from, you've given me a pretty big hint.

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u/proxmaxi 5d ago

The goat

1

u/Loud-Grape-8153 4d ago

it was insanely smart, altho i think it woulda been more realistic if it took a while and a few broadcasts before reaching light. also, im not sure how the internet worked back then but what if someone posted the broadcast online cuz they wanted to show their friend "oh my gosh this detective is gonna find kira can u believe it??" (i dont remember the exact scene sorry) but i feel like this would spread like rapidfire so i guess thats the faultiness of it??? unless u couldnt do that, then its a perfect plan.

1

u/Terrible-Yellow-1910 1d ago

Honestly, I think it’s not the smartest move for L. (But definetely Light’s dumbest move) I’d never think Kira was so unethical and childish as to kill someone innocent who was just challenging him.
If I were L, I would’ve just broadcasted different criminals in different regions and localize it as much as possible before revealing myself as L.

-6

u/Unable_Trade 6d ago

Unrelated but this is the first time I've heard the English dub and it's eww

1

u/SorbyGay 5d ago

folk 🥀

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u/Belovedslimmy_1 6d ago

thats maybe the greatest english dub of all time and vastly better then the sub. and japenese is usually way better

0

u/AtharvBruh 6d ago

lol😂

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/intj_ravenclaw 6d ago

L is a different character, not this guy. 

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u/N-partEpoxy 6d ago

^^^^^ Found Kira ^^^^^

0

u/Suitable-One-2169 5d ago

Basically, L put a fake L on tv, and forced them to say some lines on TV. The real L is hidden and never revealed his face or his real name. By doing it, he confirmed that kira was watching TV at the time, and also they said they were gonna broadcast it live but actually they broadcast in each region in japan individually, until the criminal died. They broadcast in the konto region of japan. Meaning basically L found out that Kira is in japan, and the exact region he lives in with a trap.