Is Light Yagami a protagonist or an antagonist?, what do you think?

[Draconis^.^]

Title pretty much sums it up, i've always wondered this and I wanted to get everyone's opinion!

[Anime Forum]

Light Yagami is an antagonist. No matter how you try to slice up his actions, he is easily the villian of Death Note.

[Inactive_Account]

"A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic or musical narrative."


"An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution that represents the opposition against which the protagonist or protagonists must contend."

Light is the protagonist. It doesn't matter what his actions or morals are, he is the main character and therefor the protagonist. Just because Light is the villain (which is very subjective by the way) doesn't make him the antagonist.

Villain =/= Antagonist. Hero =/= Protagonist.

[The Blue Baron]

Gotta agree with matas's post, Light is for sure the protagonist in the series by being the main character or center of attention. N, L, and Mello would be more or less the antagonists of the series.

[wolfgirl90]

Title pretty much sums it up, i've always wondered this and I wanted to get everyone's opinion!

Light is a protagonist because he is the focus of the story. We are seeing the story unfold from his point of view as the main character, so he is the protagonist. The antagonists are the police, including his father, who are against his ideals and want to stop him.

A protagonist doesn't have to be good and an antagonist doesn't have to be evil. One is merely the focus and the other is the force against them.

If I wrote a story about Queen Beryl, a clear Sailor Moon villain, she would still be the protagonist.

[DenjaX]

I'd consider him an anti-hero to make it easier for me. But yeah, he's still a protagonist.

[Draconis^.^]

Ah, yes I agree with you all I should of phrased it "Villian" and "Hero" or something along those lines, I was aware of the meaning of both however I didn't think through the context of it all ^.^

[Anime Forum]

I'd consider him an anti-hero to make it easier for me. But yeah, he's still a protagonist.

I guess I agree with everyone with the definition posted, but can he really be considered an anti-hero? Thats like saying Mr. Freeze from the 90s Batman is an anti-hero.

[DenjaX]

I guess I agree with everyone with the definition posted, but can he really be considered an anti-hero? Thats like saying Mr. Freeze from the 90s Batman is an anti-hero.

From what I understand about that term, Light has a waaay different ideology in terms of justice compared to the society. He thinks that he is right but society thinks otherwise. Since he is still a protagonist, anti-hero still fits because it has to be a central character. xDD

Mr. Freeze could not be an anti-hero since he is not a main character in the series in the first place. Villain, yes. xDD

[MistaCloudStrife]

Well, it all depends on your perception of his character. He did things that would easily be considered socially and morally unacceptable, but it brings up a lot of different questions. I think that was the whole point of Deathnote. Does the end justify the means? Who is good or bad when both parties want what's best for the world? Or at least that's what drew me into Deathnote in the first place. After a while it was less about all that and more about Light just trying to outsmart everyone, which was kind of boring to me. It's easy to compose an elaborate problem/solution scenario when there's a [s]writer[/s] mangaka behind it all.

Anwyay, like I said, it all depends on how you view his character. One countries terrorists are another countries freedom fighters. He's both good and bad depending on how you want to see him.