Round 1 – Intelligence
Light Yagami is a very intellectually gifted Japanese student whose ambition was at first to join the Japanese police force and become a skilled detective solving mysteries and bringing down all those who are guilty of committing heinous crimes. Now of course this all changes when Light finds the death note and begins to use it to kill off every criminal in the world believing that he can achieve better results than the actual justice system ever could, and with his keen intellect and art of manipulation Light manages to somewhat achieve this goal in a sense. Now I say this because even though at first he starts to use the death note and takes down multiple criminals, but after time the death note takes its toll on him as he begins to spiral into complete insanity as he suffers from a god-complex and ultimately costs his life in the end, even though he manipulated almost everyone he came in contact with including his own family and friends he still wasn’t able to escape the undeniable fate that awaited him.
Now Lelouch on the other is a different coin all together, though he is just as intellectually gifted as Light, he was able to put these skills in use on the battlefield. As he posed as the rebellious Zero combating the Britannian forces he was able to implement strategic movements of attack and defence while keeping a cool head, this ultimately gave him the advantage in dominating Britannia. However after the war had ended, Lelouch’s fate was much like Light’s as he was dealt with a serious death, however his death gave more of a sense of victory and relief rather than Light’s death who suffered in pain and defeat.
However the true focus of this round is to determine who has the superior intellectual capacity and who implemented theirs better. Now we have seen that Lelouch has used his great intellect by commanding his subordinates and winning battles with strategy, however Light on the other hand had greatly impacted the world with this intellect alone. Light did not need to rely on giant mechs, strategic battle mechanics, nor gather the help of a rebellion; instead all Light needed was a death note that could kill and the mind to do it. Granted Light didn’t possess the same quality of resources that Lelouch had with the Black Knights and giant robots, Light managed to impact the world by only writing in a book whereas Lelouch had a large quantity of equipment and protection. After this analysis I can identify that Light is superior from an intellectual stand point and to prove it here are two exaples:
Example 1 – When Light confronted Naomi Misora, the fiancé of deceased FBI agent Raye Penbar at the Police Station in Death Note, she was extremely close to uncovering the identity of Kira. Light began to converse with her as they walked towards the Police Station, he realized that if she were to present her information to the Japanese Task Force they would be able to link the connections and evidence in the investigation to him and figure out that Light is Kira, so in order to prevent her from transferring this information he instead convinces her to give him her name after a long string of events in attempting this brilliant yet dangerous plan. He then writes her name on a page from the death note itself ,he writes that she shall walk away and commit suicide somewhere far from their current location, this example shows that Light was able to prevent his secret from being revealed whilst eliminated a great threat to him with the use of his intellect.
Example 2 – During the battle between Lelouch’s Rebellion and Cornelia’s knights in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion many of Lelouch’s subordinates had been ultimately defeated by the royal knights, at the time Lelouch was posing as one of Cornelia’s knights and was hidden from the battle commanding his subordinates. However this battle proved a failure to Lelouch and to ensure any signs of betrayal or deceit Cornelia ordered all of her knightmares to reveal themselves, since Lelouch is acting as a knight of Cornelia this would reveal Lelouch to her and thus reveal his identity as Zero ending his plans in obliterating Britannia and costing him his life. However he was saved by C.C as she posed as Zero distracting everyone allowing Lelouch to escape, this example shows that when Lelouch is in a tough situation whilst in a state of stress it can cause his judgements to go blind and his intellect to be clouded whereas Light Yagami however who was able to remain calm and think rationally under the state of stress. Even though Light’s situation may not have been as extreme or intimidating as Lelouch’s was, it still represents his intellect to be far superior to Lelouch hence why Light Yagami takes this round for now.
Round 2 – Trump Cards
In this round rather the talking about the character’s themselves I will be carefully evaluating the usage and significance of their trump cards, or in other words their most powerful weapons within their respective animes, those being “the death note” and “the geass”, so let’s start with the Death Note.
The Death Note is a mystical and powerful notebook originating from the Shinigami World, the rules are simple: if a person’s name is written within the death note then that person shall die, this rule along with many other elaborate regulations is what made the death note a very deadly weapon and is what gave birth to the almighty Kira. Light Yagami used the death note to his advantage after acquiring the notebook from the bored Shinigami Ryuk, Light began to walk on a path to justice as he physically symbolized the meaning towards the “power of pen” as one-by-one he writ the names of multiple criminals around the world and slowly earned the name Kira through the eyes of his anonymous followers. What was truly amazing about the death note was that Light was able to put it to use and utilized its rules as an added advantage, at times he would rip pages from it and write on those pieces of paper in a strategic manner almost manipulating the actions of certain events that would leave the average mind beyond comprehension, he even kept a piece hidden in his watch as a backup plan. The Death Note is indeed one of the most over powered utilities in Anime but is it superior to the geass.
The Geass is a power which has been nicknamed as “the power of the king”, the effects of the geass are a little more difficult to explain as the usage of the power is varied depending upon the user who obtained a geass, however as a preference we shall take in Lelouch’s geass for this round. Lelouch’s Geass contains the power of an odd type of mind control or hypnosis, for example: if Lelouch should make direct eye contact with a person and shouts a command that person will be under his control and will have to obey his every command, however this affect only works once per person so it must be used wisely. This ability is an even bigger advantage then the death note for 2 reasons
Reason #1: Unlike the death note the geass isn’t an object of any kind, instead it is used as an ability rather than a utility which gives it an advantage in hiding it away, as you would not need to hide it because it isn’t an object.
Reason #2: The geass has a wider aspect to its affects, meaning the death note can only kill a person whilst the geass can allow the user to take someone underneath their control which in the end is a far better benefit then the death note.
As you can probably tell already the geass wins this match hands down, purely because it has a better affect, its better utilized and is all out far superior to the death note.
Round 3 – 1v1 Situation
Scenario: Lelouch and Light have been informed by both Ryuk and C.C that they must find and kill one another, however they do not know the identity of the other person, and the only clue they are given is that both have enrolled in the same high school. One day these two sit an exam together and due to their incredible intellect they end up being the top two of the class, they begin to notice similarities between each other. Light introduces himself to Lelouch and asks for his name, Lelouch answers with the name “Lelouch Lamprouge” as this is his alias that he uses whilst attending school. Light invites Lelouch to a tennis match in order to further investigate his personality as he did with L; however Lelouch declines due to his lack of physical endurance therefore Lelouch instead invites Light to a game of chess, in which Light agrees since it’s a game of strategy and tactics. In the end Lelouch wins due to his experience and knowledge of the game, Light becomes more suspicious of Lelouch due to his vast knowledge of tactics indicating that this could be the man he’s searching for, while Lelouch starts to faintly ignore Light as a suspect after his victory over him in the chess game, however Lelouch mildly keeps his suspicions due to his high grade scores and the possibility that he may be keeping his true genius under wraps.
Light arrives home and attempts to attract his enemy by using the death note to kill off various criminals in the world, Lelouch begins to notice this up rise of criminal deaths and assumes this to be his target mocking him, as Lelouch thinks of this as a direct message he figures out that Kira can somehow kill from a distance which can stand as a menacing threat to his geass, he counter attacks by dressing as “Zero” and announcing to the whole world of his presence via television and announces a bounty on the head of this unknown figure named “Kira”, Light would see Zero on t.v. and begin to notice a strange resemblance in posture and tone to Lelouch and highly suspects him to be Zero, however Light must make sure for certain before jumping to conclusions.
The next day Light arrives to school and notices that Lelouch is absent, then all of a sudden a fleet of soldiers come bursting through the school and appears to be under the control of Zero, Zero then announces that he has taken over the school and that each one of the students must be taken in for private questioning, realizing he has been cornered Light quickly forfeits ownership of the death note and folds a piece of paper into his assignment book that he places in his locker. Later Zero brings Light in for questioning, Lelouch askes many fake questions to pass time and then uses his geass on Light asking him if he knows the identity of Kira, however Light denies any knowledge or information of Kira and says he does not know, Lelouch is shocked by this discovery and sets Light free and returns him to class. Light returns to his locker to grab his assignment book and sees a piece of paper fall to the ground, he picks it up and his memories return, it is now revealed that Light had placed a piece of the death note in his book so that he may lose his memories and regain them later on in order to avoid any possibility of Zero uncovering his identity, Light now suspects Lelouch as Zero due to the fact that he has not seen them in the same place at the same time. Meanwhile Lelouch is puzzled as not one student confessed to being Kira as he used his geass on every single student, however Lelouch only guesses that perhaps his opponent possesses some sort of anti geass power or temporary memory loss which can explain why his geass did not work, however Lelouch thinks of another brilliant scheme to draw out his opponent. Meanwhile as Light studies in class he begins to plan out his attack on Lelouch while Lelouch himself enters the classroom claiming he was late due to oversleeping, Zero then comes bursting through the door and attempts to apprehend Lelouch, Light is shocked by these sudden turn of events as Zero instead decides to shoots Lelouch square in the chest and dies instantly, Light however still feels this to be a trick and writes “Lelouch Lamprouge” in the death note to be sure, he notices Zero still standing meaning that Lelouch was not Zero and his suspicions drop immensely. However as Zero leaves the school he unmasks himself as Lelouch it is revealed that Lelouch used geass on a soldier and made him pose as Lelouch’s double in order to fake his death in front of the entire classroom in hopes that his enemy believes that he is dead and diverts his attention away from him.
As Light returned home he tried to piece together the events at the school, first of all he knows that Zero is the target that he needs to kill, second Lelouch was killed by Zero meaning he cannot be Zero, however Light starts to rethink the situation and asks why did Zero kill Lelouch in the first place and no one else for any reason, meaning that he could have been a double faking Lelouch’s death which would only mean that Zero was Lelouch all along. Light then conducts a brilliant strategy to defeat Lelouch once and for all, he uses the death note to control his teacher into posing as Kira and call out Zero into a one on one confrontation to a disclosed location at the edge of the city, Zero accepts knowing this to be a trap he departs wearing a ballistic vest and a handgun ready for action, as Light leaves he hides his death note away in his room in case he may be overwhelmed whilst out and departs to the location as well. Zero then arrives to the location standing face to face with a hooded man, the hooded man reveals himself to be Kira and explains that he will kill off everyone in the world if Zero doesn’t meet his demands; Lelouch is puzzled in trying to figure out how he is able to kill from a distance, but he eventually calls this to be a bluff and demands Kira to demonstrate by killing him. Meanwhile Light is shown on the side of an abandoned building near the two watching from afar as its revealed that he is instructing the hooded man who in actuality is his teacher with Light’s control over him with the death note and his death only to occur when Light speaks the key phrase “shinigami” to the hooded man, he then instructs the hooded man further. The hooded man then laughs manically and demands he unveil himself as he briefly refers to Zero as Lelouch, Lelouch is shocked by this outcome and receives a phone call, when the phone call ends Lelouch gains a confident look as he then reveals himself by stating his true name “Lelouch vi Britannia”, the excited Light then opens the piece of paper in his watch and begins to write Lelouch’s real name, however Light is apprehended by two unknown men and is taken to Lelouch and the hooded man. Lelouch then reveals his plan as he had suspected someone in his class to be Kira so used geass on the police to raid each students house thoroughly and they eventually found Light’s hidden death note underneath the floorboard of his house, and found the names of the recently deceased criminals along with Lelouch’s fake name indicating that it was Light who was Kira all along. Lelouch discovered this as it was revealed that his squad had told him via phone call, in fact the same phone call that Lelouch had earlier; they also informed Lelouch that Light had left and eventually figured out that he was nearby. Lelouch then grabs his handgun and points it at Light, out of desperation Light shouts the word “shinigami” and the hooded man begins to kill himself with a knife, with everyone distracted Light breaks free and flees the scene whilst writing Lelouch’s real name in his watch, Lelouch already onto Light’s plan shoots him repeatedly in the back until he falls down. As Lelouch looks over Light’s dead body with Lelouch’s first name written in his watch he realizes he has won and rejoices his victory
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