Ryuk

Basic Data
Name: Ryuk
Also Known As: Shinigami
Height: 6’0’‘
Weight: ??
Shinigami Rank: 6
Sex: male
Likes: apples, games
Dislikes: boredom
Death Note: yes
Mostly Haunting: Light
Anime Seiyuu: Nakamura Shido
Movie Seiyuu: Shidou Nakamura

The Character
Ryuk is pretty sadistical and the best way to describe him would be to say “You live life only once”. This of course, doesn’t really hold true for Ryuk since he is a shinigami and he can generally live forever. Ryuk however, is not at all like the other shinigami around him, he hates boredom and lives for excitement. Only for this reason does he take extreme steps like stealing another shinigami’s death note only to drop it in the human world to test what will happen. Ryuk is pretty scary looking, but in general is harmless, as we can see since he stays out of Light’s way and just observes. His favorite food seems to be apples (especially the ones found in the human world). Apples are actually so important that Ryuk undergoes withdrawal symptoms if he does not eat them.

History
Ryuk is first seen in chapter one along with Light Yagami. He comes from the shinigami world and drops a notebook on the floor, to wait to see if some human will pick it up. Ryuk, of course, doesn’t drop it “accidently” but more on the notion that something exciting might come out of it if a human does pick it up (which it does). Throughout the rest of Death Note, Ryuk is more of an observer and goes around with what Light Yagami says on the promise that something interesting might come out of it. Light is actually very good to Ryuk in general, and Ryuk is probably his closest friend. Ryuk in general, doesn’t do too much in the story, except just listen and go along with the plans that are concoted, that is, until the end…

Interesting Commentary : Friend or Foe? ( & Chapter 107)
What is Ryuk? Just a friend, or is he a foe? Ryuk himself states that he isn’t on anyone’s side, but I really think that Ryuk is not at all as bland as he puts himself off to be. Sure, Ryuk doesn’t help out Light from the beginning too much, but if he really didn’t give a damn, I doubt he would really listen to Light— entertaining or not. Although Ryuk’s primary purpose is to be entertained, I doube he doesn’t have any sort of feeling for Light. The only thing is, he might have a distorted notion… He doesn’t LOVE Light by any means, like Rem loved Misa, but he certainly respects Light and gets to know him well enough. In this case, he really will do things for Light if it means not totally getting involved.

We see that in chapter 107, when Light finally loses to Near, how he behaves. Ryuk himself does not bother to help Light in any way, but does this really mean that he doesn’t care? I really doubt it. It’s important to note that Ryuk says things like “Take a good look at yourself, this isn’t like you at all.” This means that Ryuk did expect something out of Light, and after he wrote Light’s name in the notebook he stated the following: “I was expecting to see how you could make your way out of all of this, but you leaned on me, and you are finished.” But by “finished” did he mean Light’s death literally or just mental death? Obviously, from the chapters before Ryuk even observed how Light potentially went nuts. His mind was broken, finally after such an intense cat and mouse game, always considering himself a God, Light himself has to face death. So hence, Ryuk finally endowed Light with the very death that he himself had given to the rest of the world. This was something that Ryuk had told Light in the beginning, and Light didn’t seem to care back then, but now it meant so much for him.

In actuality, Light’s pleading really meant that Light could no longer face up to the hardships of what he was, he lost his confidence, and really was acting out rashly, the same thing that had gotten Mello killed. Did Ryuk notice this? I believe he did. I believe Ryuk knew that after this move of turning to Ryuk for help, Light would constantly depend on other people instead of himself. I mean, he had already put too much trust into Mikami did he not? Even in the beginning, Light was careful to watch Misa closely, but Light was so confident that he no longer was the cool reserved person he was before. He transformed himself into a God, making himself believe that he was undestructible. This was what Ryuk detected, especially after this last pleading move to Ryuk. He knew that Light was done, that he had finally reached that point which only brought “Misery” to the user of the Death Note. Ryuk was Light’s friend I believe, to kill him at the point. He saved him from Near’s imprisonment, and even later we realize when Mikami went through the prison he killed himself (in either case). So who is not to say that Light would not do the same? Plus, Light was even worse since he himself was Kira, the beginner of it all, not just an partner like Mikami had been. Had Light been allowed to live, would he really be okay: NO! He had already gone crazy by the time 107 had come around, it was such a blow that I doubt he could recover. Even L had said that Kira was childlike and the thing he hates the most is losing. Ryuk knew this, and no matter how horrifying he just gave Light death like this.

If you think about, if Ryuk really wanted to kill him, he would have done so even sooner, back a couple chapters before when it was evident that Light had lost. However, he didn’t do so, he waited and watched until he finally saw the final desperate point that made him do what he did. Ryuk was a friend to Light, and he saw Light’s destruction. Sure, he didn’t want to be bored, but I really believe that he did it as a friend to kill him when he did. He did it to save Light before it went any further to the point of total destruction of this innocent boy that Ryuk’s boredom had turned into a ruthless killer. Light no longer had a resolve of any sort either, so it would only make sense this way. So at the end of it all, Ryuk did something for his friend, just like Rem had done, but this time he did it by killing him, not by allowing him to live any longer.