Genius and Hubris: Comparing Walter White and Light Yagami

Imagine for your entire life being told that there's nothing you can do but win. Imagine not having anything in your path. Imagine feeling like you're always above others. Imagine thinking you've got nobody on the same wavelength.

Now imagine, that one day you're given the opportunity for danger. Without any plot details, I just described both of the premises of "Breaking Bad" and "Death Note".

Structurally, they're fairly similar. A genius, bored with his mundane life, is allowed to wield power through an alter ego. Along the way, he has to deal with annoying allies (Jesse and Misa) and encounter more calculating and powerful enemies (Gus and L).

Both of their demises can be attributed to an increase in both impulsivity and arrogance. In the end, each protagonist goes from an anti-hero to an undeniable villain with a trail of death left in their wake.

Let's first take a look at Walter White. At first, he seems like a meek man who has been nothing but an underachiever. Having sold all his shares to an incredibly successful enterprise and leaving opportunities in industry and higher academia for a mere job as a high school teacher to support his family, Walt earns the audience's sympathy. And when he turns to a life of crime after a sudden cancer diagnosis, we can't help but root for him.

Now, let's move on to Light Yagami. The no. 1 student in Japan and the son of a powerful police chief. Tall, handsome, and popular, he's got everything going for him. But he's bored with his life. And when his world flips over and he encounters a peculiar black notebook, we are intrigued by his goal to become God of the New World.

Both Light and Walt display emotions to the victims of their first murders, emotions that weaken as time progresses.

Both Kira and Heisenberg masquerade as having goals beyond themselves. Kira is doing all he does for justice and Heisenberg is doing everything for his family. But in the end, both men do it for the one same reason, their egos.

Yet for all their similarities, they differ in their unique type of arrogance.

While both suffer from characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), Walter White is someone who, unlike Light, could be described as a textbook narcissist. Beyond the other’s mere hubris, Walter suffers from delusions of grandeur and feels the need to prove himself. As Mike put it: Walt needs to be the man even if his profits ultimately fall and his empire self-destructs.

Light, despite his god complex, is far less insecure than Walter, allowing others to do the dirty work for him without the need for taking credit. In contrast to Light's more healthy self-esteem, he's far more sociopathic than Walter White.

Walt sees his murders as merely for business purposes; Light revels in them. And even though one did all his crimes for money and the other did it for justice, intentions are not enough, and the one who did it all for "the greater good" ended up committing far greater and far more devastating atrocities.

After all their flaws, Walter White and Light Yagami remain brutally conscientious geniuses. And with enough planning, each villainous protagonist ensured the end of their respective rivals well before their shows were over.

But high intelligence is not enough, and hubris was more than willing to help take down Heisenberg and eventually catch Kira.

The endings of each series show off both characters' unique traits that let them last so long in the pop culture zeitgeist. Walt's pride was born of inferiority while Light's was born of superiority.

Walter admitted that he did it all for himself and Light admitted that he did it not out of greed, but out of benevolence. Benevolence for a brand of justice so vile that it cannot be called just at all.

L asked Light whether he told a single truth in his entire life. Walter White told the truth in the end and accepted his role as a criminal. Light, unwilling to be honest even to himself, tried to play God.

Heisenberg and Kira were both geniuses whose egos led to their demise. One's was just born off of inferiority and the other’s was born off of the opposite. In the end, neither man ended up serving their stated mission in favor of their pride.

Walter White never did it for his family. Light Yagami never did it for justice. They were as L put it, the worst kind of monsters, lying ones.

And as L's successor Near said, they weren't gods. Just crazy mass murderers. Nothing more and nothing less.