Death Note: Light Yagami (INTJ)

Ni:

“No matter what the world is, the god of that world creates the rules. In truth, you have been defeated by the rules I created. And as punishment for defying the god of the new world, you will die…”

“Our battle will be concluded, and I will begin my reign from the summit of victory!”

“If we catch Kira, he is evil. If he wins and rules the world, then he is justice.”

Light Yagami from Death Note displays Ni dominance. He prefers to anticipate actions, and forms elaborate plans in order to give himself a large safety net. The moment he gets a hold of the Death Note, Light sees the potential for using it to create a better world and immediately begins testing out it’s capabilities and limitations. Once discovered, he wastes no time in enacting his newfound vision. He creates traps within traps in order to protect himself and the Death Note from being discovered. For instance, he hides the Death Note within a diary, inside a trap door inside of his desk drawer, but has a way to trigger a house fire in case someone other than him accesses it. Essentially, he has three layers of contingency plans. You can see him do something similar with his bedroom door. It’s worth noting that he does all of this prior to L emerging as a threat, so it isn’t as a result of being put on the defensive, but instead a natural tendency to exercise extreme caution.

Ultimately, Light’s greatest strength lies in his ability to plan rather than execute. In addition, Light always prefers long term strategy over action or brute strength. He maintains his cover within the police force for 5 years, never attempting to seize power or utilize his hoards of followers to realize his vision. He banks on his ability to anticipate the actions of others, like L and the police. He’s frequently shown making statements about how he knew something would happen, or anticipated a certain event. He ultimately gets caught because he fails to anticipate correctly, gets over confident in how he foresees events playing out, and gives in to his urge to gloat – an example of Ni tunnel vision.

Light focuses heavily on the concept of justice. An interesting point worth noting is that he recognizes himself as evil under the world’s current set of rules, yet declares that if he wins, he will be justice, because whoever rules the world defines its laws. This could be seen as Ni’s tendency to seek out and take advantage of loopholes. (i.e. – I’m not evil unless I lose.)

Te:

“If I’m serious about trying to create an ideal world that’s free from evil then I need to make the most of my time.”

“I can’t develop feelings. That’s how most idiots screw up.”

Light has pronounced Te. He is very put together and makes very efficient use of his time. He states in the series that he hates waiting and shows up to things, like exams, only a few minutes early. He has little patience when it comes to anyone working with him making errors, and he is seen yelling at both Misa and Mikami for deviating from his orders. When receiving the Death Note, he quickly devises a plan that allows him to stay healthy and on top of his life, but still maximizes the amount of time he can write names in the book.

He is rather blunt and matter of fact when speaking with others, only softening his responses a little for the sake of politeness. He also has a tendency to think out loud, which is a trait that can point towards having Te. A better proof of Te is the way that his thoughts and statements come out. Light’s observations and comments frequently come out sounding like statements of fact. He usually has to state that he is speculating beforehand to let people know that’s what he is doing. In addition, he sees things in a very black and white manner. As mentioned above, he has a pretty extreme view of Kira’s actions, stating if he wins he was right, but if he loses he was wrong.

Some people like to call out his lack of empathy as proof that he is a Te dominant, citing examples like him lacking any remorse when his father died. However, please realize that any healthy personality (ENTJ, INTJ or otherwise) would feel sorrow as a result of a loved one dying. The fact that Light does not makes him a psychopath, and is not a valid argument for Te dominance, since that logic implies that Te dominants are the only types capable of being psychopaths.

Fi:

“I want the world to know of my existence. That there’s someone out there passing righteous judgement on the wicked.”

“Ryuzaki… As much as I wanna help you and as important is the Kira case is to me. I can’t manipulate a woman’s feelings like that. Please try to understand. To me, exploiting another persons feeling for personal gain is unforgivable and I won’t allow myself to stoop that low.”

Light starts off in the show with a fairly strong moral standing. However, because his Fi is only tertiary, Light’s morals end up taking a back seat to his vision and his goals. Overtime, he lets his morals slip as he continues killing people to evade being captured or pronounces judgement on people that are making things difficult for him. Some people suggest that this may be inferior Fi. However, with Ni and Te higher there can be a tendency to prioritize vision and efficiency over morals, even with the tertiary Fi users. Light doesn’t completely lose sight of them like an inferior Fi might.

First, in spite of his moral degradation, Light always views himself as being morally superior to everyone else and views himself as the only one truly worthy to judge the evil in the world. He phrases things in terms of morals, and recognizes that under the current set of laws, he is evil. As a result, he wishes to change the rules and redefine the laws of the world, because he ultimately does not want to be viewed as evil. This suggests higher Fi. In addition, throughout the show, we see L call his morals into question, and Light gets offended as a result, because he does not want to viewed as evil. He feels the need to defend himself and justify his positions to L.

When pretending not to be Kira, we get a glimpse of Light’s original set of morals, and we also see his morals return back to their original state after he loses his memories from giving up the Death Note. Light is somewhat chivalrous, claiming to L that he can’t manipulate a woman because it was against his principles. However, not only that, but Light, after the memory loss, claims that exploiting someone for personal gain is unforgivable and he will not allow himself to stoop that low. What’s worth noting here is not the moral in and of itself, but the personal standard. He can’t imagine betraying that ideal and views such a betrayal as unforgivable.

Se:

Light has very weak Se. This is emphasized by the fact that every time you see him exercising it, he is either (1) doing it in a very impulsive, manic, or crazed way, and (2) Every time you see him using his Se it either backfires on him or very nearly does. Whenever put in a situation where he has to improvise, Light doesn’t get any kind of thrill from it, like many tertiary Se users tend to. Instead, he panics. (An example can be seen in the situation with Misora.) This just drives home the fact that he is not accustomed to using his Se, ergo does not use it well. With Light, you never see any good Se use, which points to it being his inferior function, not his tertiary.

In addition, you can note the detached way that he executes his plans. Light prefers to remain in the background and get other people to execute his will. Of course, the Death Note is an ideal weapon for an inferior Se user, allowing him to kill without actually committing any physical acts. However, note that Light never actually learns any physical skills to help aid and support his plan. He relies solely and completely on the Death Note and his ability to manipulate others, like Misa. He never learns physical skills of any kind, because he does not want to commit the physical acts.

When Light is finally cornered by N and company, he falls back into the grip of inferior Se, and his actions get erratic and impulsive. He laughs maniacally, loses all patience, hastily rips out his backup scrap of Death Note paper, attempts to flee for his life, and etc. All sense of careful planning completely disappears as he begins acting purely on impulse out of desperation and fear.