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.
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Have a thisrty for strenght and power (Te’s will) could be applicated in every position? Both Infp and Isfp could becoming power’s seekers? Same thing about Enfp and Esfp? I’m asking it because all this types got this aesthetic “love, flowers, feelings”, got it? Lol
This blog is getting better and better.
Hey! Thanks. And yeah, technically any type could develop a thirst for power. The Fi doms have a tendency seek power for some greater purpose. That doesn’t mean the purpose will be “moral”, but in their mind, it probably will be. However, that is technically not always the case either. They could potentially just embrace the mentality of “I’m just looking out for myself.” The same goes for the EXFPs.
If you watch other anime series, think Stain from My Hero Academia or young Gaara from Naruto.
Maybe you don’t belive me, but IxTJ’s emotion is alot stronger than you think, they are very sensitive. Because of Ter Fi, they secretly want good relationships (with just a few people), they just don’t show it because of blind Fe. They could destroy the world to save their love ones, but will rarely sacrìfice their love ones to accomplish thier goal.
Many people think INTJ have vision want to change the world due to their Ni dom, but what truely drives an INTJ into action is both their Ni-Fi, which mean the way this type choose what they what to do is very personal (Fi), it’s all about how they feel and interest in something, They don’t care about the people in the world and what other people think about them (blind Fe, and they just care about who they truely love), don’t care much about the outside world (Inf Se), and they only use Te as a tool to accomplish what they want, They’re very aloof, low energy (blind Fe and Inf Se), they could thirst for power, but will be too lazy to rule the world or a company with all the people thay just dont care.
Actually, I think “The Inventor” suit INTJ better than “The Mastermind”. This type good at creating something or seeking what unknown, they’re not the type jump right into action to change and rule the world blah blah.
Isn’t he Te dominant? I mean, looking at his way of thinking: he acts first, then observes(Te-Ni); He always makes plans using his thinking, knowing which steps to take; of course he has a vision(Ni), but was it before he got his notebook? Nope. He had NO interest, NO vision, which means that he firstly developed Te, and secondly Ni(after receiving Deathnote)
Also, I don’t think he has weak Se; he is pretty observant(as stated before); I find his Fi weaker(example: he was fooled to think that he saw Lind L. Taylor, thought that he is dangerous, acted on impulse(Se tertiary); also, his morals aren’t s seen well- he uses people, describing it as sort of a win at any cost(Te dominates Fi inferior); INTJs have more developed morals, and try to empathize more than ENTJ; Light has mostly NO empathy, he always asks himself how his enemy thinks.
I have to disagree. Do you have examples of this? From what I saw in the show, Light is always thinking first. He always had a vision of how he thought the world should be; however he was thinking on such a scale that as a high school student he couldn’t act on it. All the notebook did was enable him to act upon his already conceived ideas and beliefs.
For instance, let’s look at how things played out when first getting the Death Note. The very first thing he does is test if it actually works. Immediately, after realizing its power and the implications of his family coming in contact with it, his first priority is how to hide the notebook and otherwise protect himself. This is all thinking over acting. He goes through all the trouble to set elaborate traps and safe guards long before L even sets foot on the scene.
He 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. This just drives home the fact that he is not accustomed to using his Se, ergo does not use it well. Your example of Lind Taylor is a good example of this. Light immaturely acted on impulse. Dom Ni users are not above making mistakes and succumbing to their inferior function, especially when he was being jabbed in his Fi sore spot.
Light did have developed morals until he got the notebook and slowly spiraled into corruption and madness. As I wrote in my post, when he broke the pact with the notebook and lost all his memories, he defaulted back to his standard morals which, as I noted in the post, wouldn’t allow him to lie/ use a woman. What you are seeing in him is not a lack of morals at all; it is a moral decline as his brain becomes warped and twisted by his new screwed up sense of morality.
Nice article, Light is often typed INTJ/ENTJ at least until the appearance of Near (INTJ), from here Light seems to be more ENTJ than INTJ.
At the beginning of the series he’s a model student, good at everything (clear Te), but bored.
Could it be a Te-If loop?
His Se is quite present, he often had to improvise, as with Naomi Misora, he is impulsive, like when he was judged “evil” by Lind L. Taylor and without thinking twice he killed him (Se) because of its repressed Fi.
Or when he killed Ray Panber, yes he did it to make the police suspect L, but would an INTJ have been more cautious?
Light is similar to Lelouch, but different.
The Fi of Lelouch is there, he doesn’t kill because he wants, but because it’s necessary.
Light doesn’t have empathy, he only thinks about himself and his goal.
He kills the criminals not for “justice” but because he believes himself to be God, it’s a way to impose his power on the world, to control everyone.
He‘s more like Madara, who wants to impose his vision on the World.
The fact that he never killed with his own hands is the basis of the plot, he doesn’t need to get his hands dirty, the Death Note is the perfect weapon.
When he loses his memory he returns “normal”, he’s not a manipulator because it’s against his morality, but only because is an healthy ENTJ.
When in the last episode he struggles to hold back the laughs thinking he has won and 1 second before the end of the 40 sec he declares his victory seems more like Te-dom fighting the Fi, who wants to prove to be above everything and everyone, knowing that no one will be able to beat him, only to burst into psychopathic laugh when his plan collapses.
Near instead is calm, doesn’t reveal any emotion.
Don’t you think?
Light got lazy because he didn’t think Near was on his level. By this point, he had been fooling everyone for 5+ years. It makes more sense that he is an INTJ who laxed up after doing it for so long versus an ENTJ who only seems like one after Near (who is a novice and thus more cautious) shows up. Early Light is far less of a risk taker and was much more cautious than Near. His plans were more elaborate, and his safety net much larger.
If you noticed in the scene with Naomi, he struggled a lot with improvising. I explained my view of the Lind Taylor scene above in my reply to an earlier commenter. An Inferior Fi would probably be less indignant about being called evil.
Light actually has a smaller kill count when it comes to collateral damage than Lelouch does. Lelouch wiped out a whole town of completely innocent people that did nothing to him just to get rid of his enemies. Light only killed people who were chasing him or committed crimes. So in that respect Light is valuing innocent people more than Lelouch. Their motives are also fundamentally different. Light is on a twisted Fi mission to cleanse the world that quickly escalates into a god complex as his mental state deteriorates. Lelouch was seeking Fi revenge for what happened to him because he was ‘wronged’.
Light (after memory loss) literally states that he will not manipulate a woman because it’s against his morals so I’m not sure how you justify arguing against that. This is the quote:
“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.”
Clearly Fi.
Light’s biggest mistakes come from the fact that he has an ego, not because he is a Te dom. In the end scene, Light’s ego gets the better of him. Defeating L made him overconfident, believing no one can match his level of intelligence. Any type can become that way. Bursting into psychotic behavior is a prime example of unhealthy and uncontrolled inferior Se. After his Dom Ni is broken because he literally sees no way out, he goes completely into the grip of Se.
Near is a severely underdeveloped character who is portrayed in general to lack any kind of real emotions mostly due to bad writing in my personal opinion.
Interesting.
Maybe an ENTJ would have been less paranoid, for example the hideout for the Death Note, he wouldn’t have used other systems to understand if someone had entered his room (sheet of paper, pencil lead) also because if they had found it they would have started a fire and it would have been more than enough to understand it.
But there is still something that doesn’t convince me.
During the timeskip he didn’t relax, certainly he had no rivals, but he used that period to radicalize his power and move forward with plan.
It’s also true that 5 years are not few, and an ENTJ has already conquered the world, but the timeskip it’s more for the plot.
Also Madara had to wait for his plan (for other reasons).
He struggles with Misora but it’s due to the fact that Death Note is quite “realistic” to be an anime, Light is a genius but he had to think to extort the name.
Of course he was agitated, he risked being arrested in 10 minutes.
Yes Light and Lelouch are different.
Lelouch killed innocents but at the same time he suffered, especially when he learned he had killed Sharley’s father.
Or when he struggles to go against his sister.
But then he suppress emotions.
Light doesn’t care, yes he thinks that killing innocents is wrong but he cares little.
When his father dies he only thinks he didn’t kill Mello.
The only hesitation, and mistake, was when he didn’t kill his sister.
That’s why it seems more like a suppressed Fi.
Regarding not manipulating or hurting feelings is similar to Sanji, it’s his morality.
He returns “healthy” with memory loss.
True, anyone could end up in megalomania, especially if so intelligent and with enormous power in their hands.
Another thing that makes him more like an ENTJ are the stats
Creativity: 10/10 (Ni/Se)
Initiative: 8/10 (Te/Se)
Emotional Strength: 10/10 (Fi)
Social Skills: 10/10 (E)
Acting Skills: 10/10 (E)
Perhaps an ENTJ would have “initiative: 10” and “creativity: 8”, but Light has the maximum in social and acting skills.
These are more an extrovert quality than an introvert, as his way of relating to others.
And yes, Near is written really badly, at the end of the series is 18 but it seems to have 8 for the way to behave.
Of course he may be suffering from autism, etc. but the second part has dropped a lot compared to the first.
I forgot the reaction against Taylor:
the fact that he acted that way after being called “evil” seems to be more like a repressed Fi response because Light believes he is right while everyone else is wrong.
Therefore attacking him that way is the best way to make him angry.
This thing is also written in Jung’s book, where he says that a Te user, especially in first position, can exaggerate his convictions and see others being wrong.
Another thing, when L shows up hurts Light‘s pride, he feels beaten, and it’s the second time he loses his head.
Should a tertiary Fi be calmer in front of certain things?
In regards to the time skip, you missed my point. I was saying that the length of time made him comfortable and overconfident, so he got careless, which could make him appear like an ENTJ, when really he was just a confident INTJ. Also, an ENTJ would have likely progressed their plan much faster and taken power through his hoards of followers, versus Light just maintaining his cover within the task force.
In regards to Madara, it’s important to point out that Madara had no choice but to wait because he was (1) physically chained to the tree in order to stay alive and (2) literally dead, waiting to be revived. When given a choice, Madara preferred to overcome his opponents with overwhelming force. Long term strategy was a fall back when that failed. However, Light always prefers strategy over strength.
Another key difference between Madara and Light is that Madara, with his tertiary Se, finds improvisation to be exhilarating. Whenever Madara’s plans are NOT going as intended, he actually gets amused and somewhat excited. He is much more adept at improving so it stresses him out less. In the case Misora, Light clearly demonstrates inferior Se rather than tertiary Se. Light becomes stressed out whenever his plans don’t work out exactly as he wanted them to. This is also seen in other situations like when his father doesn’t kill Mello, Misa screws up his plans, and when L out thinks him. He goes into panic and needs to calm back down. He doesn’t relish it in the least bit, unlike Madara. Lelouch acts similar to Light in this regard.
When it comes to regret over killing innocents, you have to realize that Light is mentally unstable and a psychopath. Any type (ENTJ or INTJ) would and should be sad when losing a loved one, like a father. The fact that Light was not means that he has a mental disorder. Te dominants are not the only types capable of being psychopaths, and you’d be remiss to claim that.
In regards to Light’s morality, you missed my point, which had to do with Light’s self-imposed standards NOT his morals. Light states that he could never forgive himself if he stooped that low. This is a clearly defined Fi standard which points away from him having inferior Fi. Furthermore, you never see a lack of Fi standards with Light, and they never disappear; they only become warped. He doesn’t throw away his standards; he adjusts them to justify what he is doing. An inf. Fi would not be so obsessed with this. He wants to change the rules of the world so that he is considered good and recognizes the current rules define him as evil. He has to win so can can change the definition of good to his own standard – clear Fi.
In regards to the stats: Both these things you claim to be extroverted traits are skills. Anyone can be good at acting, provided they practice these skills. It’s a common misconception to think that the ability to be outgoing makes one extroverted. As for the rest of the stats, they appear to support INTJ over ENTJ like you said. Note: “Emotional Strength” is 10/10. Seems pretty strong for inferior Fi.
In regards to Taylor, Light got offended, which is common for Fi users who are being accused of being something that they don’t believe themselves to be. Fi doms do this all the time. It is an example of valuing the image you have of yourself, which is not consistent with repressed Fi.
In regards to tertiary Fi appearing calmer, to everyone in the show, Light does appear to be calm as you would expect an INTJ to be. You are only seeing him not be ‘calm’ because the shows reveals his thoughts and internal feelings to us. The only time in the show Light doesn’t appear calm and composed is at the very end when he falls into the grip of inf. Se, or the brief moments where he snaps at Misa for doing something he views as stupid.
Bottom line – Fi is not his greatest weakness. Se is. You only ever see bad Se with Light. Fi > Se. Light’s greatest strength is his planning, not execution. Ni > Te.
Really good points and thanks for explanations, which make much more sense than what it can be find online.
Yes, I was referring to this, he appearing calm for the whole series and only lose it 3 times in an exaggerated way, that’s why I thought more of a repressed Fi.
Perhaps a Te-dom would have been more emotional and it would have been harder to maintain a cover as Light did right?
A Te-dom prefers to show immediately who is in charge and wouldn’t have resisted for 5 years.
It could be said that Death Note plot is made for an INTJ, maybe an ENTJ would also be more impulsive and would last less than Light.
Speaking of this, I had a doubt and if possible I would like to ask just another thing, off topic Death Note, but on the ENTJ/INTJ line.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the Zamasu Arc in Dragon Ball Super, in that case I don’t ask for a specific analysis but a brief opinion:
could it be that Black is an ENTJ while Zamasu INTJ?
Having Zamasu, INTJ, take Goku’s body, ESFP, could there be this case?
Black wants to exterminate mortals, is calm and calculating, but he starts to enjoy fighting and becoming stronger, just as an Se-user could do.
I just want to make clear that Light is not an INTJ.
First, Most people think INTJ have great vision for “the greatest good”. But in truth, this type is naturally selfish. They do some thing because thay like to do it, very simple. They are not INFJ.
Second, INTJ work on theory, not action. Think about the famous INTJs in real life, they all are creator/developer: Nietzsche,Tesla, Newton, Stephen Hawking, Beethoven, and Marx.!
Third, In term of detail planning, INTJs are not as good as xSTJ (lack of Si). In term of controlling the situation, they are not as good as ExTJ (weaker Te and Se and Fe).
Most INTJ will follow up on this progress:
– Find out an Idea/theory (Ni)
– Check Fi to see if they interest with it or not
– Use Te to find a way/ to create a method to apply it to work on reali life
– If possiple, test it to see how it work on reality, see it with their own eye. This is the most tricky part due to their inf Se.
When Light find out about the Death Note, after make some test to see how it work, he IMMEDIATELY want to take action, to put everyone in their place, to be come a god in people’s eye. If the Death Note fall into an INTJ hand, if this guy really interest in making an Utopia, he will take YEARs to create the system for this Utopia, and finally he will find some else (an ENTJ like Light) to do all the work for him. Just think about Marx, that’s how an INTJ would do to create an Utobia.
You see Near? he is nothing without his comrades, because of inf Se, he cant act alone (and blind Fe not help either).
Talk about INTJ villain, The Father in Fullmetal Alchemist fits more. He doesn’t control or rule anything, he created his children to do all the work for him, while he is the one work on theory of alchemy. He’s only interest in seeking knowledge, seeking perfection, seeking a way to be come a god. A true god with true power and immortality, not some half ass god trying to rule all other like Kira. He doesn’t care about the people in the country, either they are good or bad, he only uses them as a tool to make his wish come true.
You are welcome to your opinion, but we are no longer interested in debating this character. I personally think that you are mistakenly limiting the INTJ type, but whatever floats your boat. That aside, I will note that there is not enough evidence to type Near as anything due to his brief stint in the show and general lack of development.