This Magnificent Baddie was Headlined on December 2024.
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“
Naturally, I'm very interested to know how you're able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you. Let's meet again soon... Kira.
„
~ L Lawliet tricks Kira/Light Yagami into exposing himself to the world.
“
It's not a sense of justice. Figuring out difficult cases is my hobby. If you measured good and evil deeds by current laws, I would be responsible for many crimes. The same way you all like to solve mysteries and riddles, or clear video games more quickly. For me too, it's simply prolonging something I enjoy doing. That's why I only take on cases that pique my interest. It's not justice at all. And if it means being able to clear a case, I don't play fair, I'm a dishonest, cheating human being who hates losing.
„
~ L Lawliet
L Lawliet is the main antagonist of the anime/manga series Death Note as well as its multiple adaptations. L is a young detective whose past is ambiguous. He worked with the Japanese police at the time that the Death Note was being discovered and used by Light Yagami (Kira).
He attempted to stop Kira at all costs from committing more murders, so he used his tricks constantly to find ways to get him caught and arrested for his crimes. He ends up speculating that Kira is actually Light Yagami, to which he attempts to enter Light's life for a closer look on his prime suspect.
He has a tragic backstory as he lost both of his parents at an early age, forcing him to live in an orphanage.
He learned how to fly a helicopter proficiently at a very young age.
When he was a child, L was able to knock out five of the orphan children by himself.
After obtaining a computer, L was able to find ways to invest in stock, with him guiding Watari in his investments. In just two years, L was able to make Watari make a fortune almost twenty-thousand times bigger than he had previously.
He stopped World War III at the age of nine.
He worked with multiple police agencies from all around the world to catch and imprison many notorious criminals before Kira.
Most notably, he worked with Naomi Misora to stop and capture his evil clone, Beyond Birthday.
At some point in his life prior to becoming a detective, he was also able to identify a mass murderer despite the case having no leads.
He learned and mastered the Brazilian Martial Art of Capoeira at a young age, which served as useful for him in physical confrontations when needed.
Present[]
He correctly deduced that Kira was in the Kanto Region of Japan just by tricking Kira into thinking that he killed the real L when it was a fake news channel that only streamed in the Kanto Region.
He correctly deduced that Kira was a teenager and a child of one of the police chiefs because of how he accessed information about criminals that nobody outside of the police knew about.
He was able to deduce that the apparently random, unrelated deaths of criminals in Japan and worldwide were actually systematic serial murders instead of unexplainable deaths at the random.
Furthermore, he was also able to deduce that Kira was actually a human serial killer who was somehow able to kill criminals without even being present at the time of the murders and/or have direct physical contact with them, and not the god-like figure exacting divine punishment on the wicked many others thought he was.
He was able to deduce that Raye Penber (and the other FBI agents) were killed by Kira. He also knew that Penber was with Kira at the time of his death.
He is always certain that Light Yagami is in fact Kira, even though he doesn't have clear evidence of it.
When he first meets Light, he reveals himself as L because if Light decided to kill him, it would confirm that Light is Kira, which is one of many moments of L outsmarting Kira.
He was able to deduce the existence of Misa Amane as another Kira.
To take the previous few points further, he imprisons Light and Misa to confirm whether they are Kira or not.
He handcuffs Light to him and keeps a strict watch on Misa to ensure that they are not Kira.
He tests Light to see whether he is Kira or not by asking Light if he would overtake L or not in case he died.
He tells Soichiro Yagami to not rush at Yotsuba and arrest all its members. This is to ensure that the new Kira/Kyosuke Higuchi does not escape their grasp.
He managed to learn about the existence of the Death Note after arresting Higuchi.
He deduced that the Death Note possibly had fake rules (the 13 Day Rule) to fool anyone who finds it.
His secrecy allowed him to evade Kira until Kira manipulated Rem into killing him.
Overall, L was always calm under pressure, even when he died by Kira's hands.
Legacy[]
His work and his influence helped Near and Mello to finally catch Kira and end his reign of terror.
Exclusive to the Film Adaptation[]
Having deduced that the Thirteenth Rule was a fake to erase the trail to the original Kira, L writes his own name in the notebook and schedule his death to die peacefully 23 days later to test the Notebook's effects and immunize himself from Kira's attacks.
Fakes his own death so that he can bait Light into exposing himself out of Kira in a fit of pride. Due to this, L is able to see his intellectual rival die pleading for his life.
Upon learning his partner K is the leader of an ecoterrorist organization out to decimate humanity, L refuses to let himself die before they can be stopped.
He sees through K's facade and prepares an escape plan using a crepe truck, using his FBI guardian as a decoy to throw Blue Ship off.
Has an antidote created and enwraps K on a Xanatos Gambit that will see no matter the outcome the virus being destroyed and humanity being saved.
Has set up various orphans such as Near and his later successor up to succeed in life.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
He may be doing what he does for justice, but his goal is also to win, which makes him an anti-hero, deciding to solve only the cases that pique his curiosity.
He is not above using highly questionable (and sometimes unethical) methods to catch criminals:
An example of this being when he used a fake L (Lind L. Taylor) to bait Light Yagami into revealing his location to the true L, even if it meant that he got killed by Kira as a gambit. Soichiro scolded him for his unethical choice that led to Lind L. Taylor's death (although to be fair he was a death-row prisoner and was scheduled to death the same day, and L used it to later warn the world to not share names).
He illegally planted secret cameras all over Yagami and Kitamura's house, including the bathrooms.
He risked the life of the pop star Hideki Ryuga by using his name as an alias, since he used it as a trap. Light may have written down that name and accidentally pictured the pop star in his mind instead of L.
He imprisoned Light Yagami and Misa Amane for weeks for information, with the two of them not having any memories of their crimes (which L didn't know). In Misa's case, he had her blindfolded and all her movements restrained, putting her in a very uncomfortable position to the point that she asked to be killed, although he would save her life from suicide.
He hired two criminals, a conman Aiber and a cat-burglar Wedy to investigate Yotsuba, and even let Aiber make a large amount of money from them.
He is fine allowing the Yotsuba Kira to continue killing in order to gain more evidence on them.
He planned to use a death-row prisoner to check the 13 day rule.
✓
