What villain actually had a good point?
For this one, let me dig up my anime phase and talk about Yagami Light from Death Note.
Let me be completely honest, I do not agree with writing someone’s name on a death list just for being under suspicion. And I have always been against capital punishment since I was old enough to understand what it is.
That is until my eye was opened to the injustices going on in the society. I realized just how much unfair the world is, and how the system is there not to protect the vulnerable but the powerful and influential.
When I first watched Death Note, I was instantly gripped by the concept of the series. A Shinigami, a god of death, owns a notebook where he writes a person’s name while thinking of their face to kill them and extend their own life. Bored, he dropped the notebook into the human world, where it ended up with a guy named Yagami Light.
At first, I was in total support of Light killing the bad guys. After all, they were ‘bad guys.’ I didn’t think much of it. I just thought ‘good, at least he brought about justice.’
He brought justice, and he brought it fast. Isn’t that nice? I mean, if we think about our court system, this kind of vigilante work would seem really appealing. No more waiting for years to get a verdict that is less than the justice we wished to see.
I was rooting for him and his newfound purpose of taking down ‘evil people.’ That was until he started killing innocent people due to unverified information. He also started killing innocent people to hide his identity. A chain of murders that only pushed him further from his original ideals.
It was a reminder of why there is due process, why, even if unfortunate, the said process takes time.
When you’re the victim or a close family member, it is only natural to wish for a speedy trial and fair verdict. However, it is also necessary, even if it demands time, to put an accused to a fair trial. By doing so, we avoid wrongful convictions and false sense of justice.
Yagami Light, though his intentions were not necessarily malicious in the beginning, was bound to make irreversible mistakes the moment he assumed absolute power and judgment over life and death. It’s true for all of us. People are so easily consumed by power.
I believe that claiming moral superiority and upholding absolutism undermines accountability, because accountability requires external checks on power. Without accountability, there can be no genuine justice.
So, while I think Yagami did have a point, I believe it was flawed. He hated corruption, yet he became the very same thing he despised because of unchecked power.
Ultimately, every villain may have always started with a fair point. But there is always a reason why they are, in fact, a villain.