On one particular webpage in the Internet, someone once made a comment wherein he/she compared Death Note character Light Yagami to former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos (See mello, 2007). At first, one must wonder how these two individuals can be very similar to one another.

On one hand, you have a fictional young lad who became a power-hungry mass murderer wanting to create a utopia free from evil through the Death Note. On the other hand, you have a Filipino politician who served as the president of the Philippines for 20 years and became a dictator in the process. When one thinks about it, the two individuals do appear to share something in common.

This discovery led to a brief research on the matter. It was discovered that Light Yagami and Ferdinand Marcos share similarities not just in their infamous record, but also on their attributes as a person, aspirations, relationships with specific people, downfall, and their legacy. This essay presents those similarities.

It must be noted at this point that the author of this essay wrote this piece neither to condemn nor to condone the actions of both Light Yagami and Ferdinand Marcos. Rather, the author simply wishes to point out how a person from a work of fiction could compare with someone from history, and how their lives became tragic for them.

Contents:
I. The Potential to be Great
II. His "New World" and His "New Society"
III. Rivals and Roses
IV. Their Sad Downfall
V. The Legacy
VI. References