Neither L, Neither Light Are Good People, But The Pair Of Them Effectively Acts Like A Good Person When

Neither L, neither Light are good people, but the pair of them effectively acts like a good person when they work together, as evidenced in the Yotsuba arc. Probably the greatest tragedy of the Death Note is that the fact of Light being Kira prevents any geniune long-lasting parthnership between them, even though we can see a glimpse of how they could have been positive influence on each other.

There’s so much tragedy in DN it’s hard to say which is the biggest (like there’s dozens of contenders) but I’m always of the firm belief that L would never have been interested in Light if he wasn’t Kira. Without the game between them, Light was a just a normal, boring, albeit pretty and brilliant, teenager. L’s already in the habit of ignoring brilliant teenagers, even the ones the really should pay attention to (all the Wammy’s kids!). He’s in the habit of ignoring absolutely everyone in fact, because there’s very little about people that interest him. And one of the big reasons that L was so fascinated by Kira was because of how similar he appeared to be to L— I’ve said before that L used himself as the template to understand Kira. This gives insight into L and what he’s compelled by, and it’s no surprise given how big the man’s ego was. Someone out there stumping him? Daring to challenge him? Not having the common courtesy to be caught right away like every other criminal??? The gall. The only answer in L’s mind to this conundrum was that Kira was as clever/sneakysmart/childish/selfish/hates to lose/etc as L, and that had never happened before. That was amazing to him and the ultimate game he had to win.

If Light had just moseyed into L’s orbit as a police officer or even a rival detective without the Death Note, L would have yawned, because Light would have only displayed his ‘good’ qualities. All the devious and morally grey things that L did and was wouldn’t be reflected in that Light, just like in Yotsuba arc, because it takes an extreme amount of power to get that to manifest in Light. That Light would not be ‘like L’, and thus of no interest or just marginal interest as a useful person. L was bored and depressed in Yotsuba arc too for this reason. Light was still helpful, brilliant, and useful, but L had pretty much checked out until he had some leads that Light might be Kira after all.