Did L win against Light?

Question

Did L win against Light? Let me elaborate:

After L's death in episode 25, we assume that Light won. But in episode 26, L leaves a message in his computer (which Light deletes in the same episode).

Also, at the end of the episode, we see that some data is being sent from L's personal computer.

So, my question is: did he know/confirm that Light was Kira and sent the case data to Near?

Note:By "winning", I mean that L defeated Light in their mind game/battle. L had confirmed that Light is Kira( but could not prove it in front of the whole world). He was able to see that Light would come to kill him in the future and confirmed that Light is Kira (when Light smiles at L's dying body). This is purely a theory based on the possibility that the transmitted data can indeed be the case data stating Light as Kira.

Answer 1

It really depends on what you call winning.

• L had been suspicious, strongly suspicious and just a tad less strongly suspicious of Light being Kira throughout the entire anime (or, well: those potions wherein he was alive).

• L, however, wanted to prove that Light was Kira with evidence that would suffice to try him guilty. Collecting enough evidence to win a court case was also the police task force’s goal. They never achieved that or they would have arrested (and subsequently tried) Light.

In games like the board game Cluedo (or Clue, if you’re on the other side of the pond), you can essentially win by guessing correctly. In crime fiction or real-world criminal investigations, you don’t win by guessing correctly, you only win by proving you’re correct. Thus, applying the rules of Cluedo, L won; but he himself wouldn’t have considered him winning due to thinking in criminal investigation terms.

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Since you now clarified what you mean by winning:

L did not win the mind game. We was on a good track, but he was short of the goal. If Rem hadn’t taken action, it probably wouldn’t have been too long before L had proven to himself that Light is Kira, at which point he would have also told the world about it. However, he was stopped just short of proof.

Answer 2

In the end L won because it was his successors who proved Light was Kira. Kira being caught was the end goal, regardless of L being alive when it happened which is why from the beginning he said he had to prove he would risk his life.

He also told Soichiro that if he were to die, Light is probably Kira meaning he considered the possibility of dying and believed that Kira could be stopped.
L was considered to be slightly evil by the creator, I agree only in the sense that he was willing to do necessary evils, he was only bad in that Makeaveli way, by means to an end. If that meant dying so be it.
Remember he considered the murders to be atrocious and could not go unpunished.
Light had been punished and died before he could face trial, by the will of Ryuks Death Note.

Aside from personal beliefs, it was a draw. They both died from the hands of a shinigami because of the actions of people close to them.
Misa is the reason Rem chose to kill L, because she would have been executed or sent to prison. Near is the reason Ryuk chose to kill Light, because he would have been executed or sent to prison.
I love L so it is my own personal opinion that he won.

Answer 3

L knew the whole time that Light was Kira. The problem was the proof. Even when confronted with the 13 day rule, L knew he was backed into a corner, he knew that proving Light was Kira was a deathwish, that Light would not let this happen. The staircase / roof scene confirms L contemplating his death, He KNOWS he is going to die, and will die when he tries to hash out the truth of the death note. He tells light that they will soon part, and asks Light if he knows how boring that will be for LIGHT - because L was his greatest adversary. When he died all the info was sent to near, about the death note, that Light was Kira, about the 2nd Kira, how everything works, and instructions to take Light down. We don't get to know Near because after all he's just following L's plan the whole time. And the whole time Near is cheating, he knows the outcome. He's just watching the pieces fall into place because unlike how "L" had to contemplate all of his choices, Near never does - Near KNOWS and that's the huge difference and why some people hate Near, because he doesn't have to think. But if you rewatch it - knowing that Near already knows everything and how it ends - and I think he used the death note to kill light and described his death far before the scene in which Light dies - because LIGHT would never be stupid enough to admit to being KIRA - he was compelled to do so by Near. That was the plan the whole time.

Answer 4

I believed that Light was smart and did have a running start but there was so many other factors, each character has their own flaws and the two opponents used this to their own advantage by the middle of the anime the two was basically on equal footing. L was happy to find somebody to interact with on the same intellectual level and this ended up leading to his death but not downfall. Near was given the information that L had gathered outta the mud and deduced that L died because of his respect for light. Light held others in contempt and it also led to his downfall because near was smart and had all of L’s previous work within his disposal, this is why Near didn’t find Light special. Near and Mello combined put them on equal footing as L because like mello L wasn’t afraid to take risks and put his life on the line but at the same time he was as calculated and articulate as Near if not more. In the end L won because he knew how’d it’d end and he didn’t want to kill the only true friend that he felt he had.

Answer 5

Hold up. I don’t think we should think which of those two won, I think it’s who won. Many people might not like my theory, but I think both of them won and lost in a way. Let me explain why. L wanted nothing more than to catch and kill Kira/Light. It was his biggest wish. Now L won and lost. He completed the first part of finding Kira, because he knew that Light was Kira, just couldn’t prove it to others. The second part however, not so much. He died before he got to kill him, and Near had to finish off (I mean Ryuk in the end but well). So he got his wish, when Light died, but didn’t do it, because L died before he was able to. Therefore I think he won, but lost to Kira.

Now Light or Kira in the other hand. He wanted to become a god of the new world, and kill anyone who tried to stop him (originally criminals but later on innocents), but died trying to achieve it. He kind of stayed as some sort of a god even after he died, since he still had worshippers on Earth. And when Light became a shinigami (I believe the shinigami theory, cause it seems really possible and well proven), he became a GOD of death, he wanted to become a god of the new world, and he became a god of death, but died in the human world. For that I’d say he also won but lost. If he would remember his human life when being a shinigami, then he would have won, because he could just continue his killing as a shinigami, that’s not the case though. Therefore, I think L and Kira both won and lost to each other, both got what they wanted but suffered and died at the same time.