For today's blog post, I will be talking about Light Yagami from Deathnote. More specifically, I will be talking about how smart I think Light really was. There will be some spoilers for the Anime. So if you haven't finished it, don't read this yet. You have been warned. Now then, on with the post! Now I know that Light was actually very intelligent. But, did he still make some mistakes? The answer is: yes. Yes he did. To start with, he made the entire police force aware of a serial killer by killing all criminals exclusively with heart attacks. This in itself is his first mistake, since this decision was ruled mainly by his ego. Secondly, he easily let his guard down and displayed cocky behavior. He thought that his intelligence alone made him completely exempt from failure, making him extremely overconfident. Now some people may say "Well he is the one who killed L". And to that I say, not entirely. He may have been the pushing force, but he ultimately wasn't the one who did it. Instead, he just manipulated other people into doing his bidding. Although this can sometimes be a good tactical move, it still wasn't the best idea. At any point in time Rem could have just changed her mind and decided not to do it. He also made it almost completely obvious that he was Kira because of how he would praise Kira, even when he knew L was watching him. Along with this, he went and killed all of the FBI agents sent after Kira when he got desperate. Because of this, the police force was able to find out who the FBI agents had been investigating. This mistake is actually the one that lead L to believe that Light was Kira. With just these few mistakes, it's easy to see why L often had the upper hand. Even though Light was incredibly smart, he did not always make the best decisions. These mistakes, along with some other ones made throughout the series, are what ultimately ended up leading to Light's failure. Despite all of this, he did make some smart decisions and actions as well, like how he hid the Death Note. But, that's not what this post is about. I personally think that Light actually could have succeeded if he had carried out his plans with a bit more caution and planning, and a lot less ego.