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Maybe the reason why yotsuba Light and pre-kira Light is so vastly different in personality (he's more 'genuine' that is) is because yotsuba Light had L that kept him from feeling that mind-numbing boredom that pre-kira Light experienced prior to getting the death note.
Pre-kira Light literally had nothing to keep him entertained and that he was too powerless to change the broken justice system, so he's more closed-off and serious, literally just living through the motions like a dead man.
On the other hand, yotsuba Light met someone who's not just on par with his intelligence, but also one insufferable enough to annoy him that never made any dull moment possible with L around. Aside from that, yotsuba Light is literally working alongside the world's greatest detective helping him solve the world's hardest case that involved the justice system, so yeah, yotsuba Light really will take L's side of "justice" because detective L is legal whereas Kira's actions are not.
#death note#yagami light#l lawliet#yotsuba light#yotsuba#lawlight#tagging it not as a ship name this time but rather as a relationship dynamic analysis#idk i just wondered why Light would oppose to kira#ofc other than the feeling of getting 'false accused' or being used as a 'scapegoat'#i'm talking in a more personal feeling for light because he did believe criminal should die but not the innocent#but maybe even this take had been privileged because he literally had L on his side by this time#and no matter how ironic as this sound yotsuba Light does believe in L's justice more than Kira's#ofc in a way that L is directly working with the government and other worldwide police forces
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Death Note and Western Astrology - Part II
THIS IS A FOLLOW UP TO THIS POST. ( Here we talk about Sachiko, Ide, L Lawliet, Wedy, Ukita, Mello, Matsuda, Misa, Lester, Matt, Halle, Naomi, Light, and others)
I kindly asked @lux-mea-lex if she allowed me to finish this wonderful study in the astrology of Death Note, and guess what, here I am. To be true to her impressive work on Death Note, I will often be referring to her analysis. Mine tend to be rely on hers often anyhow so it doesn’t make a difference - and she has been more careful than me as she rely on pictures and text while I work from memory (careless Aquarian versus orderly Scorpion, I guess). So whenever there’s a link, please do take the time to read her posts, they will provide the evidence for what I am asserting. I am reminding you that you don’t need to believe in astrology to find interest in this post. Astrology is an amazing tool for writers, another way to construct characters and create oppositions in archetypes. I am convinced that Ohba did not choose the signs randomly. First, they took care of giving each character - even the super minor ones - a precise date of birth. Second, if you read Lex’s first part, then you must have realised the signs are all accurate, eerily so. This is only logical after all, that astrology can serve us to understand Death Note. Don’t be fooled, this isn’t another thriller, a complex crime story. It is first and foremost a story of fate, missed chances, what-ifs. A tragedy, in which the characters seek to escape fate only to fail, or die, or both (L and his encounter with Death ; Light and his inevitable downfall - a human cannot be a Shinigami ; Misa and her love, doomed to provoke her demise ; Mello, bound to lose, reaching for the stars and burning as a result, etc.) Death Note has always been linked to the supernatural, forces too great for humankind to grasp. It has always been about fragile humans and unfathomable gods. That second part explores the last signs, and among them, some of the most prominent ones : Libra (Sachiko Yagami, Ide, Kida), Scorpio (L. Lawliet, Wedy, Ukita), Sagittarius (Mello, Matsuda, Takahashi), Capricorn (Misa, Penber, Lester), Aquarius (Naomi, Matt, Lidner), Pisces (Light, “Jack Neylon”, Mido) I have to point out that the signs are evenly distributed - each sign gets three, and not one of the Yotsuba guys share the same sign, proving that the choice is not coincidential. These characters must be analysed together, the minor ones, perhaps, may serve to reveal hidden aspects of the main characters of the same sign. (This is exactly what happens in some stories, the minor one-arc character being a tool to make a point about a main character to the audience). My main reference is the fantastic website https://www.autourdelalune.com, written by an actual astrologer. It’s full of interesting resources, although entirely in French (but if you ever need a translation, feel free to knock on my door). I also am a big fan of http://songsdomain.tripod.com for the symbolism parts. The quotes all come from the latter website. We will always keep in mind this aspect : there are main, secondary and minor characters.
♎ LIBRA (AIR SIGN / CARDINAL) ♎
Characters: Sachiko Yagami (secondary), Ide (secondary), Kida (minor).
Main traits: principled, obliging, respectful, affectionate, delicate, elegant, moderate, romantic ; capricious, hesitant, fragile, easily swayed, absent minded.
Symbolism: justice, chivalry, harmony, artifice, balance, need for affection, empathy, love (Venus).
Tarot: Justice & Temperance.
Libra is the sign of justice, harmony and pure, selfless love. This should strike us that there is no main character to represent these qualities throughout the story. Justice, especially, is almost absent. The tale of Death Note is not one of temperance: it’s a tragedy, with no place for peace nor rest.
A quick survey of the qualities associated to Libra is telling : it fits our characters perfectly well. Often, it is more evident to see the influence of astrology with the minor characters. Those are archetypes, the author has no plan to develop them. As a result, minor characters barely diverge from the idealised portrait of their respective signs.
Kida is the textbook Libra : he was a good student, seems peaceful and desires a calm existence. His hobby consist in collecting glasses - it’s clear that he isn’t supposed to frighten you, or anyone. During the Yotsuba Arc, he demonstrates his need for security (harmony) as he is the one who hires Eraldo Coil (actually, L). The How to Read stats underline his fragile nature (he scores 4/10 for emotional strength) and his social skills (Libra are quite friendly and loved by many).
Now, this archetype is a guideline to better understand our secondary characters : Ide and Sachiko Yagami. One aspect that define Libra is their idealism - in the sense that grand Ideas inform their perception of the world. Love, especially, is an Ideal to them.
Interestingly enough, Ide and Sachiko Yagami are both strongly tied to the theme of love. You probably remember it. Ide’s official stats even underline this as his “Romantic Luck” is described. As for Sachiko, she symbolises the lost harmony of the Yagami household. She is tidy, orderly and loving. Her relationship with Soichiro is the only solid, healthy romantic relationship in the story. She seems to obey her strong code when it comes to love: she is loyal to her husband no matter what happens.
As for Ide, one of his most noticeable moment is the Hotel Room trick Light pulls to contact Mikami. Matsuda mocks Ide for his naive approach on the Light/Takada business (the amusing twist being that Light isn’t interested in her, making Matsuda sounds like the fool in the situation to the reader, but that’s just Death Note humour for you). We know that Ide’s love life isn’t successful and that is something that happens to the idealist Libra. They are often disappointed by real relationships, in opposition with the Idea.
Libra's idea of love isn't necessarily your idea of a warm, cozy, delightful tête-à-tête. More likely, it'll be one of his many theories on the nature of love and marriage, his ideals of the perfect relationship, his concepts about how people ought to behave toward each other, his urgent vision of a world where everything is absolutely balanced, polished, perfect, symmetrical, harmonious. It can drive you mad. This sign, whose symbol is the scales of balance, has less to do with ordinary sweaty human coupling than any other. What? Libra soil his hands? Never. Love, for Libra, must always be in the appropriate style: a ritual of courtly love, complete with the right gestures, the right words, the right perfume, the right satin sheets, the right scented candles, the right flowers.
In that regard, Sachiko, while being married, does not spend much time with her husband. This allow her to maintain this perfect idea of love : it cannot get ugly if they don’t see each other. She plays her role, Soichiro plays his, and everything stays pretty, beautiful, admirable. It is so typical of a Libra archetype, so bent on harmony that they become hypocrites. (In a way, Sachiko represents the human tendency to fit society’s expectations - the one thing Kira, the role Light endorsed, dares to challenge).
Finally, Libra symbolises Justice. A crucial theme in Death Note… or is it? The theme is represented by secondary characters, and not the most memorable ones. This is so, so telling. I don’t need to provide you with an in-depth analysis to prove it : Death Note is not a story of Justice. Justice does not prevail at all, for none of our characters manage to live up to the Idea. They are humans, and only death is fair. This is no surprise that Libra are underrepresented ! Justice is forgotten, a lie or a dream no one attains in the end.
(Libra) believes passionately in fairness, and this often causes him a great deal of unhappiness, because life and people aren't always fair. Again and again his idealism collides with an imbalanced world full of imperfections and rough edges.
Well. Of course, our Libra all end up miserable (Sachiko), scarred for life (Ide), dead (Mido).
♏ SCORPIO (WATER SIGN / FIXED) ♏
Characters: L. Lawliet (main), Wedy (secondary/minor), Ukita (minor).
Main traits: passionate, daring, ambitious, uncompromising, devoted, sensual, impulsive, firm ; unforgiving, diehard, resentful, obssessive, ambiguous, suspicious, inflexible
Symbolism: magnetism, death and sexuality, instinct, transformations, survival, endings, passion, suffering, self-destruction.
Tarot: the Devil, Death.
This one is fascinating. L is a complex, well-written character who often gets misinterpreted. Of course, he is a Scorpio !
First, I want to stress that most of what we see of him is likely to be (partly) an act - a HIGHLY suspicious, genius detective would never tear down his walls among people he might respect but barely knows, let alone with his main suspect nearby. at. all. times. during the Yotsuba arc. This is completely unrealistic to pretend otherwise. That doesn’t mean L is out of reach, though. As readers, we are in a position that allow us to decipher the character. With some help. Astrology, as I said, is a tool. Many of L’s traits are hidden, they’re not plain to see. Yet, if you know what to look for, some of his strange reactions become clearer.
Suffice it to say here that Scorpio has a great problem relinquishing control. This means control on a lot of levels. It may be controlling spontaneous expression or emotion outward - we all know the character that, even after a couple bottles of wine and a fifth of whiskey, still maintains his iron grip on himself, and will never, never allow himself to appear foolish or sloppy in front of others. It may be controlling other people - and this is a real problem in Scorpio's close relationships. It may be controlling life itself - where you find the arch-manipulators who pull the puppet strings all around themselves to keep the world in its place.
Nothing is left to chance in a Scorpion’s world.
Let’s start by a quick glance at our secondary/minor characters. The little we know of them is, again, fitting the archetype. Wedy is an attractive, intelligent, mysterious spy with a dangerous streak. She was, after all, a highly skilled professional criminal. I mean no offense by that, as I love the character, but she is almost a caricature (which is fine, it happens to secondary characters all the time). Sensuality ? Check. Leather Pants ? Check. Shady past ? Check. Secretive, alluring, daring ? Check, again, no surprise here.
Symbolically speaking, she fits the bill. Wedy is a thief, and this is no coincidence. She made a career out of breaking defences, penetrating buildings, stealing secrets, concealed truths. This is reminiscient of Scorpions passion for truth; or rather, pure hatred for lies. They tend to be portrayed as human lie-detectors:
It's said that you can recognize a Scorpio by his stare. That famous stare has become downright notorious in general astrology textbooks and sun-sign columns. Enigmatic, penetrating, probing while revealing nothing, apparently hostile or ruthless. The man with the x-ray vision.
If that sounds familiar....
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ukita. Is he our typical Scorpio as well? Without a doubt. Symbolically speaking first, he is one of the first important characters to die. Scorpio is strongly associated with death, more precisely, sacrifices. This is Ukita’s choice to risk his life to arrest Kira, and so soon into the investigation! A true Scorpio indeed: reckless, passionate about his case, willing to die to attain the truth.
Ukita’s death touches the reader and why? Because it highlights L’s emotive side. We feel Ukita’s demise through L’s reactions…and they are numerous. Narratively, it serves to link the two characters : they must be similar in some way.
[L cares about no one but himself! How about you give it another read first?] Here is what L has learnt to hide:
(…) Scorpio, regardless of his habitual smokescreens - and make no mistake about it, Scorpio has the best smokescreens of any of the signs - is a sign of profound feeling and sensitivity, easily affected by the emotional currents inside him and around him, susceptible to the feelings of others, easily hurt, sympathetic, compassionate, often intensely lonely, and driven by an almost voracious need for relationship.
One weapon Scorpios wield with verve is observation. Masks don’t fool them, they see the face beneath, the monster crouched within your stomach, the ugliness eating your heart. Naturally, it is a Scorpio who has the courage to accuse perfect prodigy Light Yagami. Only a Scorpio would have dared make that assumption, and how it cost him. The Task Force resented L for that at times, his obsession with this one suspect, a mild-mannered, kind student they all had affection for.
Scorpio has an uncanny way of perceiving what other people don't wish to be known. Often they don't know it themselves, which makes things even more uncomfortable. It is very unnerving to feel that somebody knows something about you that you don't know yourself.
By virtue of seeing what others prefer to deny, Scorpio is often the bad guy. L accepts to play the role, if need be. His methods certainly are questionable, and he is ready to cross moral boundaries to be proven right, or rather to unveil the hidden truth.
That doesn’t mean he wasn’t affected at times (please read this work of art). Yet, the Kira investigation is too important to let doubt eat at him. One aspect of L’s character I find is too often downplayed is the passion he has for the investigation. He is just as passionate as Light. He is just as involved. He was just as lonely and sad and bored.
if it interests him, then it will never be just a lukewarm job. It will be done with heart, soul and body thrown in. When you are really emotionally committed to something, you're going to put all of your talents and resources into it. (…) To Scorpio, skimming along the surface is offensive. He loathes superficiality almost as much as he loathes weakness of character. He must understand why he feels as he does, why he acts as he does, why others act and feel as they do. (…) Scorpio must ultimately understand himself, and come to some kind of truce with the warring forces of his nature which allow him no peace.
On the symbolic side, all our Scorpions are associated with an eternal cycle: they survive, even in death, in spite of the odds.
Let's look at the figure which symbolizes Scorpio. In very ancient astrology - Egyptian, Chaldean and Hebrew - Scorpio was represented not by the familiar scorpion, but by the serpent. This is a profound symbol which tells us a lot about Scorpio. Firstly, the serpent sheds his skin cynically, and was thought by the ancients to be immortal and capable of constant self-renewal. Now this pattern of outgrowing a skin, sloughing it and growing a new one runs through Scorpio's life. Often his life breaks up into distinct chapters, as he moves through one cycle after another. All come to ultimate destruction. Then he rebuilds and starts again. (…) There is a fascinating legend about the scorpion: if you corner him, and give him no avenue for escape, he will sting himself to death. The message here is that Scorpio would rather destroy himself, and go down in flames by his own hand - literally or psychologically - than submit to another's ultimatum or control.
All of this could be applied to Ukita - he dies but his sacrifice strenghtens the determination of the JTF - and Wedy, a spy who collects false identities and defies death. L, of course, can be seen through that lens. He is more than a man, he became a role and an Idea, a letter whose aura rivaled a God’s. (His Tarot Card? The Devil!)
♐ SAGITTARIUS (FIRE SIGN / MUTABLE) ♐
Characters: Mello, Matsuda, Takahashi.
Main traits: generous, benevolent, curious, zealous, dynamic, courageous, imaginative, risk-taker, enthusiasm ; (too) ambitious, reckless, excessive, utopian, self-centered, irascible.
Symbolism: faith, idealism, knowledge, philosophy, truth, independance, adventures, key moments.
Tarot: the Chariot, the Wheel of Fortune.
You probably need to be reminded of Takahashi’s face. Here. Chances are, no one remembers him. This is our entry to understanding Sags in Death Note, you see, Takahashi’s fate is to be forgotten. Matsuda and Mello follow that path.
Not that they deserve it! The How to Read states that Takahashi was scorned upon because of his impulsive nature (”tends to speak before thinking”). He couldn’t be a leader. And guess what? He existed only for Higuchi to look good in comparison. Tell me that doesn’t bother you on some level that he shares his sign with Matsuda and Mello.
Yes, this is depressing. Mello and Matsuda keep being underestimated. They are the second (or third, or fourth, in Matsuda’s case) choice, too brash to count on, too childish to rely on. Yet, they both intervene in crucial ways toward the end - changing it radically and forever (the Wheel of Fortune is their card). Mello and Matsuda’s moves shape the very last part of the story. We don’t see them coming because we underestimated their quest, the path they followed to get there.
The goal is really, after all, relatively insignificant. There is a basic attitude innate in Sagittarius that life is an adventure, a journey, a quest - and the real sport of living is to make that journey as interesting, as varied, as expansive, and as informative as possible. Arrival is not the point. (…) It's the ideal that drives them, the possibility of something new and exciting. The adventure, the unexplored mystery, the unobtainable goal, the one that got away (…)
Mello’s goal is never clear: revenge, personal accomplishment? To the reader, perhaps to himself as well, his moves are unpredictable for this precise reason. Sags don’t know where they headed to. They never stay still, though. Mello, as a character, is a wild card. He acts in mysterious ways, rarely unveils his true intentions to the point that the nature of his death is a debate in the fandom - was it a sacrifice on his part? Did he have a death wish? There are clues, but nothing definitive. This is the point! Sags act first, with all their heart.
Sagittarius loves to play roles - the more theatrical, the better. Being caught in the same costume twice is quite horrific for him. His restless mind is always seeking new ways to approach those goals, new costumes, new poses, new techniques.
Matsuda is one of the rare secondary characters - aside from L’s associates - to share the double identity motif with Light and Lawliet. During the Yotsuba arc, he played the role of Misa’s manager with pleasure.
His impulsive side shows again in this storyline and later when he volunteers for the Shinigami eyes exchange. They have a near unbreakable faith. This is the sign of mystics after all.
Sags are strongly tied to religion, a connection you could discern in Matsuda’s blind faith in Light (and sympathy for Kira). Religion is also a strong motif when it comes to analyse Mello’s character:
In a sentence, at the heart of Sagittarius there lies a great craving to explore and understand life. Whether orthodox or not, Sagittarius, like Leo, is a deeply religious sign, and the word religious is here used in its original sense: to reconnect. This means reconnection with the source, with the roots of life, with some sense of meaning. Whether you find him traveling as a salesman or an archaeologist, a poet or a scholar, whatever profession or job he lands himself in. Sagittarius is trying to broaden his scope, to enlarge his consciousness.
Others mistake his strength with stupidity - a recurrent problem Sags encounter - when Matsuda is a selfless, dedicated person. They love, trust, admire without any boundaries, and they’re bound to be fooled. Mello, unable to reach a star named L. Matsuda, betrayed by a man as perfect as an ideal.
How to put it…?
And in an odd sort of way Sagittarius is the biggest sign - in terms of horizons. Better to shoot an arrow high and lose it than to aim low.
Neither of them ever aimed low, and oh Light could not ignore both Matsuda’s and Mello’s bullets in the end.
♑ CAPRICORN (EARTH SIGN / CARDINAL) ♑
Characters: Misa Amane, Anthony Lester, Raye Penber.
Main traits: calm, honest, cautious, discreet, responsible, hard-working, resolute, determined, loyal ; stern, stubborn, easily hurt, introverted, anxious.
Symbolism: integrity, willpower, solidity, success, silence, time, reason, ambition, humility.
Tarot: the Hermit, the Tower.
Capricorns tend to be unlucky. Well, Raye and Misa can certainly confirm. Lester makes it out alive, but he arguably has the worst job in all the SPK. He never gets any of the spying and action. No, Lester is a cautious, calm, discreet man. He the rock, that unwavering presence Near needs (a Virgo, one of Capricorn’s trusty friends).
Often he'll play the humble servant, the one who has no ambitions, who only seeks to help, while he waits and assesses and plans. But there's no time for wasted time with Capricorn, no space for useless leisure and play. Serious? Yes, you might say that about Capricorn too.
One archetype the Capricorn is close to is the Monk. They are devoted to a cause they deem worthy, willing to fight for it in the shadows. Ambition comes second if the cause is right. They will obey. And they never give up. It’s a matter of pride (oh, they are prideful, have you met Raye Penber?)
Many Capricorns follow the classical goat's pattern of having to carry responsibility or hardship very early in life. The goat doesn't take kindly to having his secrets probed too quickly. He must first know exactly where he stands, and exactly who you are, and exactly what you want, before he is willing to show his hand. Suspicious? Yes, you might say that. Suspicion is a natural propensity with Capricorn; sometimes it goes the wrong way and becomes profound mistrust of life and people, but the better face of it is caution and realism.
We do not much about Penber and Lester. Misa, though, has had a miserable life up until she found a cause in Kira. Hardship, yup, that’s the word. She grew to despise humanity’s failings, chose to hide all her bitterness, turn it into an iron will to succeed and to spread happiness. This is how I read her ambition to become a star. She wanted to shine: she succeeded. It is often overlooked! Misa is hard-working, dedicated to climb up the social ladder. Without the Death Note, she would have won at the game of life, finally letting her past go to write a better, beautiful story. She would have become a symbol of hope.
...Have I told you that Capricorns are unlucky?
Survival is another key theme for Capricorn. To the goat, the world isn't always a friendly, bountiful place. It's as if his antennae are always plugged into what might go wrong, rather than what might go right. .. Nothing is ever taken for granted by the goat, least of all luck, which to Capricorn is a highly untrustworthy and often nonexistent commodity. He'd rather replace luck with good, solid hard work
The Death Note prevented her to move on from the past. She got stuck in a cause that ruined her life. That happens to Capricorns: forgive and forget is something they have trouble doing. The Death Note forever closed that door for Misa Amane. Death Note is a story of masks and hidden motives. Don’t pretend to know about Misa Amane right away. She has a mask, same as the others. The naive, air-headed idol is a scarred child, a resentful young woman who needed a cause to believe in. Someone who has nothing will give up even herself for a promise of hope. Light was that, to her.
Capricorns might be hard to convince, but once you have their trust, you’ll have to work hard to lose it. They will do unspeakable things, if the cause is right.
Saturn is also often portrayed as a ruthless figure in mythology, who will stop at nothing - even his own father's destruction - to seize power. Ruthlessness may often be seen in the goat, and the field of politics swarms with Capricorns. But it's always a necessary ruthlessness, and rarely stems from a wanton malice or cruelty.
Never forget that Misa is far more devoted to the cause than Light ever was. She has none of his hypocrisy on the matter: Misa without her memories still support Kira. It is clear to her: Kira is right. She only stands by Light’s side because she remembers loving him (yet, doesn’t know why). This show that Misa, while sharing Kira’s ideas, deems emotional security more important. Indeed:
Work and success aren't the whole picture to Capricorn. Because he's very concerned with tradition and structure, his family life is also often highly important. Structure is yet another keynote for the sign, and marriage and family commitments are often taken with great seriousness and responsibility. Capricorns don't like to break promises, they like to be thought responsible, and it's important to their self-image to have the world see them that way.
One of Misa’s most important moments comes after she accepts L as a friend. She will never betray her friends. Her sincerity in that instant is touching: the Death Note also twisted her fate, woke all the worst parts of her. She wasn’t destined to this.
He's often more of an idealist than you'd expect, in that he may have a vision of how to improve the world, or the small corner of the world he inhabits. Mystical, he isn't, and his ideals are always attainable ones. He makes sure of that, and also usually makes sure he has the resources and the skills to achieve them in his lifetime. He won't sit idly by and let others bring to birth his vision; he hates to delegate responsibility, and usually believes he must do it himself.
Contrary to popular belief, Misa isn’t a mere follower. She takes initiatives, and she’s the one to find Light, to strenghtens his power and cause. (I know I barely talked about Raye, but the few moments he has are all very Capricorn-y: he is attached to tradition (to a fault), seems to be stern and hard-working and unlucky).
♒ AQUARIUS (AIR SIGN / FIXED) ♒
Characters: Naomi Misora, Halle Lidner, Matt.
Main traits: visionary, progressive, mobile, independant, altruistic, non-violent, sensitive ; excentric, nervous, restless, touchy, impatient, individualistic.
Symbolism: individualism, a stroke of genius, transmission (electricity), surprises, cooperation, marginality, revolutions, unpredictability, hope, freedom, ideals.
Tarot: the Star, the Fool
Aquarians do not mind standing behind a friend. I know, I’m one of those. I tell you, Ohba chose the signs carefully. Look at all our water-bearers here: they all stood, loyal as a shadow, behind someone. Naomi sacrificed her life to discover the truth behind Raye’s death. Halle managed to remain loyal to both Mello and Near without betraying any of them - she tied them together - in a sense, it’s the idea of L she was loyal to all along. She made that happen, a true “stroke of genius” (a symbol of Aquarius). Matt existed as a character to help Mello, and to highlight an unseen side of him, calm and caring.
Narratively, they all exist to complete another character. They would see no shame in that. Aquarians always look at the big picture : what are their life worth in comparison with a desirable future?
Aquarius is about love and brotherhood. Or perhaps, we should say, with more accuracy, that it is about ideals - and the ideals of love and brotherhood are among many which are formulated in the forward-looking Aquarian mind. Particularly ideals about the group, the welfare of humanity, the future of society.
This is telling that you cannot detach any of these characters from the ideals, groups or people they serve.
He often has a horror of being what he calls 'selfish', which is very noble but not very psychologically healthy. Regardless of his personal likes and dislikes, his dedication to his beliefs is unshakeable. And this dedication is often to the objective perspective, the broad canvas, a code of ethics or principles by which he believes he should live. And, of course, he is often dedicated to Truth. Yes, it's capitalized, that word Truth. For Aquarius, there is generally only one Truth (…) On the other hand, he doesn't much like individuals. Aquarius is the fellow who loves humanity and doesn't like people. He can be brusque, cool, unfeeling, insensitive, rigid, dogmatic, and downright stupid when it comes to the subtleties of human relationships.
Aquarians are humanists who prefer a solitary life: Halle seems to fit the bill, Misora probably wouldn’t have loved the tranquil life Raye was offering her. As for Matt, he embodies the Aquarius archetype: detached, aloof and yet able to maintain a strong friendship (Aquarians need at least one strong friendship). Still, they all seemed like independent people.
I also believe that Misora, while being very intelligent, was a bad judge of character. It fits with the Aquarius archetype that she understood Kira’s intricate plans and failed to see the monster Light was carrying with him. (He didn’t hide it that well, but Aquarians tend to trust the wrong people).
And most important, with all this obsession about the rights of others and what they ought to do and be, they forget about themselves - to such an extent that they mince their own emotions to pieces through simple lack of expression.
Well, we all know them thanks to the ones standing before them on the stage. Without these brilliant minds acting as their shadows, neither Mello nor Near would have won. All that selflessness, for friendship, for ideas, for a better future (their card symbolises this: the Star shining above us all).
♓ PISCES (WATER SIGN / MUTABLE) ♓
Characters: Light Yagami, “Jack Neylon”, Mido
Main traits: charitable, devoted, patient, compassionate, shrewd, observant, unassuming ; sensitive, ambivalent, resigned, submissive, dreamy, indolent, vulnerable, shifty.
Symbolism: illusions, prisons, secrets, contemplation, guides, transcendence, madness, psychology, escape, solitude.
Tarot: The Hierophant/The Pope & The Hanged Man.
Really now, I will not dwell on Neylon nor Mido because the only thing we know about them is this: they are weak. And this is our guideline to understand Light Yagami. You don’t need a map nor a guide, no. Weakness. Mido, especially, is explicitly connected to Light: his father is a powerful man, his hobby is fencing (Light and L were supposed to be fencing at first, instead of play tennis), he graduated from To-Oh University’s Law department, and he is full of contradictions: he despises finance and works at Yotsuba. Mido resembles a man who couldn’t choose his own fate. Weakness. Here’s your key.
I have always argued against the “Kira is Light’s other personality” interpretation, as it diminishes Light’s character. He has consciousness of his actions. That said, Kira is very much a mask, a persona that Light crafted BUT he forged it using materials others provided, as evidenced from the start. Light made Kira out of his supporters’ hopes, it is a God people created. Read this, and think of Light working hard to become Kira:
(...) the tendency Pisceans to become the people with whom they are strongly involved causes many of them to be subsumed. Sometimes texts refer to Pisces as 'wishy-washy', because there is a passivity, a kind of inertia in these people that shows most clearly when a crisis is upon them
There is a kind of passivity with Light’s relationship with Kira (an Ideal, in the purest sense of the word, NOT a person). Deep down, Light understands the sentiments that led people to believe in Kira - that despair, that lingering, poisonous sadness. Yet, he disagrees with the ideas Kira represents. His education taught him better. He also tends to mimic his father during the Yotsuba arc, and L after the Detective’s death.
It is crucial to remember why Light started to kill : boredom, and dare I say, sadness. A moment of weakness, from a teenager who longer for ... anything, something else.
(...) perhaps the task of every Piscean is to come to terms in some way with the transpersonal realm, and to have the courage to be its mouthpiece. Here we find the poets and musicians, the great actors and playwrights, the visionaries and mystics who attempt to bring to ordinary life a glimpse of something else.
Pisces is the sign of the mystic. And this mystical streak means several things. For one thing, many Pisceans are deeply religious - although not necessarily in an orthodox way. But they have a longing for, and a sense of, some other reality, something transcendant, magical, elusive, that makes ordinary life seem drab and meaningles
As @lux-mea-lex demonstrated it many times, Light broke his own fate. He wasn’t destined to fall. The Drama provided an excellent take on this: Light is tempted to end his own life after the first murder. This is perfectly sound to think so - Light knew he acted on his feelings, that he was weak, that Soichiro Yagami was right and that no man should decide to judge humanity. Light’s sentiments were dissonant. It contradicted all he had been taught.
But Light’s feelings are the core of his actions. He is intelligent, yet, how often does he end up being betrayed by his own irrationality? Pisceans are prone to emotional outburts they fail to understand themselves. Light is his own worst enemy : he knew he couldn’t continue on his killing spree, his brain, his soul would suffer (why is it so often downplayed?
And then came Kira. Light threw himself in the arms of Kira, the God people wanted, because it gave him a cause. It made his suffering worth it: he was a martyr, he was a saviour, “the God everyone wanted”. He was a Chosen One, just so. How romantic is that? How Piscean are you, Light.
And Light voluntarily put his life, his soul, his emotions on hold (as much as he could) in order to become that God (the one everyone wanted - this phrasing is telling) Everything about this analysis fits our Pisces archetype : the need to sacrifice oneself, the chameleon aspect, the connection to the Martyr.
Pisces is the last sign, the completion of the cycle. Every sign leaves its trace in Pisces; there is not so much a particular Piscean dilemma as that Pisces embodies the human dilemma. In this last of the zodiacal signs is represented all of man's helplessness, his longings, his dreams, his needs, his powerlessness in the face of the universe, his delusions of grandeur, his longing for love, his sense of a mystery or a divine source which he strives for, yet cannot wholly reach without great sacrifice.
To understand Light, you have to reconcile idealistic memoryless!Light and cynical Kira!Light. The worst cynics are made of the same fabric as wide-eyed idealists: both refuse to see the world as it is. Light is one of those. I wrote once something along the lines of : “the world could never be as tidy as his mother’s home”. Light has a tangled state of mind from the start, he was bound to be disappointed someday but the fall wasn’t destined to be fatal. Ohba says that he would have worked with L, in the end. The Death Note gave him the opportunity to work with L, to become L, and to fall all the same. Let’s put it that way:
You might say that in every Pisces, symbolized by the two fishes trying to swim in opposite directions yet bound together by a golden cord, there is this dilemma of the meeting of two dimensions. There is the ordinary mortal side, which is used to facts and realities of a tangible kind. Eat, sleep, make love, and die - or bread and circuses, as the Romans used to say. And there is also a melusine - or, in the case of Pisces women, the masculine equivalent - which inhabits the dark depths, and which occasionally flashes its tail above the water, catching the sunlight, entrancing the mortal on the shore. How this meeting is dealt with is the story of each Piscean life. Some Pisceans simply follow the mermaid down, forgetting that human lungs cannot survive underwater.
Light drowned for 12 volumes. This is why I associate Light to the most beautiful part of Lorenzaccio: “I, during all this time, have dived; I have plunged into this rough sea of life; I have traversed all the depths of it, covered with my diving-bell; while you were admiring the surface, I saw the debris of shipwrecks, the bones and the leviathans”. The mistake is to analyse Light’s motives rationally. Intelligence does not mean coldness, or rationality. Light becomes cold, never rational. His actions are rooted in all kinds of deep, powerful feelings: despair, pride, mostly despair. He will never stop for as long as these feelings live within him, and anyway:
The Fish is a creature which lives underwater. And Pisces does too. He moves in the depths of a world which is difficult to fathom if you are an airy, earthy, rational type. Everything is seen double, or in quadruplicate, nothing is ever simple or clear. Every thought and action has thousands of associations which ripple out into infinity. Pisces does not understand boundaries (…) Everything to excess. It's because he doesn't really understand how to discriminate, how to limit, how to choose (...) What he has to compensate for this rather disturbing failing is a boundless imagination. For here too, the Pisces has no limits. He can envision anything. Einstein was a Pisces, and a good example of where a brilliant intellect can go when it is not hidebound by conventions and dogmas.
This might be the crucial part: Light does not follow a strict guideline; Kira, to him, was an excuse, an opportunity, a miracle. The gateway he needed not to kill himself after breaking a sacred rule. Kira was never, ever, synonym with a dogma. He inflicted one on others, because that was his role as a godly figure. Light himself, though, he was never coherent. It is most telling when Light says Kira will become Justice when his opponents are all dead. Mikami and Takada already think Kira is justice : Kira is inherently good and just to them, there is no discussion! They are ideologues, they follow a strict guideline. Light, deep down, knows the truth: Kira is not the incarnation of Justice, or Humanity’s new saviour. Kira is is personal saviour, the one who rescued Light from death and self-loathing. Nothing more, nothing less.
How could I put it in fewer words?
Pisces has a real problem coping with reality. That is, with the one bound by time and space and structure and facts. Although his intuition may be lightning-quick, and his intellect brilliant, he will often overlook something simple, like the electricity bill.
Light is willing the overlook Kira’s true nature for his own sake…oh, and humanity’s too, because part of him surely believe criminals deserve to die. But that was never the point: Light could have murdered as many criminals as he wanted without creating a pattern.
He wanted people to NOTICE him. He had to, because that gave him legitimacy, a status, a role to play. As a solitary criminal no one noticed or remembered or named, Light would have ended up killing himself. So he welcomed the name Kira, with all the contradictions it entails (”Killer”), and used Light Yagami as his best weapon. After all, Pisceans are masterful when it comes to hide their passionate, emotive nature. They tend to be ashamed of it, even, and young Light certainly knew how to hide beneath his good grades before the Death Note:
Many Pisceans simply cannot accept the size of the challenge. And, after all, who can blame them? It is not easy to make peace with melusine; and our education does not help us, since it tends to emphasize that anybody with the secret life of the Pisces must be at best a lazy daydreamer, and at worst emotionally disturbed. (…) Pisces is more easily distorted, more easily pressured by a hostile environment, than any other sign. So the melusine calls unheard from the depths of the soul, and the average Piscean disguises himself from himself by a rationalistic attitude toward life.
Light perfected the role of Kira, he embraced it because he relished the influence he could have on a world so hostile to him. Also, Pisceans are attracted to godly motifs:
The Fish is one of the great symbols of Christianity; and in this symbol can be found many important themes that pertain to Pisces, both in this broad way and in the individual life of the person born under the sign. Firstly, there is the aspiration. Before the coming of Christianity, man and God were two different things; there could be communication between them, there could be enmity or friendship; but man was not like God and God was not like man, and never the twain could meet. But one of the essential meanings of the Christian myth is that God incarnates as man: that there is a halfway point, an intermediary, a bridging of the two worlds. We are back to our friend the melusine here. But, instead of melusine, read soul or spirit. So, we can, if we want to consider the religious aspect of Pisces, say that there is a strong awareness in many Pisceans, especially the more mystical ones, of themselves - and the whole of mankind - being some kind of halfway house between animal and divine.
Be attentive of what-ifs when analysing a character. Why if Light had stopped killing after the first murder? After all, he was tempted to at first. He could have continued on his path, with acute awareness of the psychological impact of suppressing a human life. He could have made himself a better person out of this experience. That is without counting on one pivotal aspect of Light’s personality, something strongly linked to his Piscean nature:
Pisces may often be found searching desperately for a cause to which he can devote himself, even sacrifice himself. (…) Pisces is also an incurable romantic. He may have many defences to hide this innate tendency, but romantic he was born and romantic he will die. And romance doesn't just mean about love affairs. It means about everything. The house he lives in must be a castle, with moat and drawbridge; the car must be exotic, the bed revolving with platforms and coloured lights….well, you get the idea. He lives in his imagination.
Light couldn’t face the real world, hide underwater, drowned. The Dreamer ruined himself. That’s all you need to know.
#death note#dn meta#light yagami#l lawliet#misa amane#dn epiphany#justice will prevail#at last!!!!!!!!!!!#fyi death note is the reason why i took an interest in astrology when i was young so#it was important to me to finish this amazing idea Lex had
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