Solfadore posted...
That's actually a pretty good argument, but I wouldn't say the Death Note by itself had any influence over him. It's a book, not the One Ring. He started out with good intentions (misguided as they were) and then turned heel over time, but that's not because of the Note. It's because of the *power* the Note granted him. There's a big nuance there. Light got drunk on power and started to abuse it because he saw himself as the god of the new world - and he abuses it from very early on. He became a villain because of his inherent flaws, not because of some external force. This is why I'd say he's definitely a villain.
While the Death Note might not be in the same class of pure evil as the One Ring, it is a powerful, supernatural object made specifically for killing and meant only to be handled by Shikigami. It's not just a book. I don't think Light's transformation from the kid who threw up after first testing the Death Note into the god of the new world can be completely attributed to personality flaws. There is an unnatural element at work, as the Death Note was not meant to be in human hands for a reason.