History Characters / YoungJustice2010TheLight

* ShoutOut: His history, goals, and AbusiveParent tendencies are very reminiscent of the Emporer of Mankind from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He goes out of his way to console Black Manta after Kaldur is accidentally [[MindRape mind-raped into a vegetative state]] by Miss Martian, admitting that were he put in the same position, as a father, he would stop at nothing to get back or avenge his child. Some of his children are seen in the episode "Evolution", where he expresses considerable trust and subdued pride in his daughter, Cassandra, as well as [[spoiler:grief for his daughter, Olympia, whom he kills once it becomes clear how far gone her mind is telling Cassandra that any daughter of his deserves a funeral fit for the gods]].

** Kaldur's arc in ''Phantoms'' has Vandal engage in a complex scheme to bring the whole of Atlantis under his thumb, a plan that hinged on obtaining his son Arion's crown, which was imbued with the power of the Lords of Order. His plan goes off without a hitch... right up until his agent attempts to use the crown, at which point the Lords of Order smite him for attempting to steal their power. Fate even drops by after the fact to subtly mock Savage for thinking the Lords of Order wouldn't respond to such blatant disrespect.

-->'''Cassandra:''' Vandal once wrote: "[[Creator/SunTzu It is better to capture an army than to destroy it]]. He had learned that more can be gained controlling men in peace, than in the chaos of war. For war is death. Death is waste. And life should not be wasted while it may yet be controlled to serve a greater purpose." [[note]]Sun Tzu was one of the many identities Vandal took on throughout history.[[/note]]

* VillainHasAPoint: He comes before the Lords of Order and Chaos to convince them to stop The Child's rampage, arguing that he's just as much a protector of Order as the former. They don't buy that argument, pointing out his actions to maintain that order have caused nothing but chaos. Savage doesn't back down, and points out that when his pact with Darkseid ends, or if the Lord of Apokolips gets his hands on the Anti-Life Equation, Order and Chaos will both cease to exist since one will be eradicated, and the other will become redundant. Like it or not, Savage is the only thing right now keeping that from happening, and both groups need him to survive. They agree and yank their support from The Child, which he deems acceptable.

* GutturalGrowler: Savage's voice, in addition to being [[EvilSoundsDeep very deep]], has a distinct gravelly, rumbling quality as well.

* GutturalGrowler: [[spoiler:His voice is extremely hoarse in Season 3 as opposed to the deeper voice in his first appearance, showing his fall from grace.]]

** Ocean-Master definitely has it worst, being the only team member who never serves as an episode's main villain. He does not even have any lines while in his Ocean-Master identity, the only times he speaks he is either in his concealed L-5 persona or in his civilian identity as Prince Orm. In the second season he has been ousted from the group following his defeat and imprisonment in Atlantis and makes no appearances. He does show up in Season 3, [[BackForTheDead but he dies in the same episode]].

* AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler: "Evolution" implies that the Light has existed in some form under Vandal Savage's leadership since Bronze Age Mesopotamia, though the shift in focus to developing Earth's metahuman resources and becoming a galactic superpower did not happen until [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Vandal's time as Genghis Khan]], and the "official" formation of the Light in it's modern form happened more recently in response to the founding of the Justice League.]]

* AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler: "Evolution" implies that the Light has existed in some form under Vandal Savage's leadership since Bronze Age Mesopotamia.]]
* AntiVillain: Although still horrible people, its individual members are portrayed far more sympathetically than their comic book counterparts, being both more {{well intentioned|Extremist}} {{visionar|yVillain}}ies and more ''human'', some of them shown to have sincere concern about certain people. The exceptions are Klarion, Queen Bee, and Ocean-Master, who are depicted as psychopaths, and even then the latter simply didn't get more relevant screen time.

** Savage and Darkseid formed a pact centuries ago to conquer the universe, with the intent to then fight each other for control over all existence. In modern times this alliance extends to trafficking metahumans to Apokolips in exchange for technology and Boom Tube transportation. Desaad, G. Gordon Godfrey, and Granny Goodness act as representatives for their [[GreaterScopeVillain distant master]], with Granny even joining the Light's council for the third season.

* TheChessmaster: Pretty much effortlessly manipulated the heroes at every turn and still managed to profit even when their plans failed.

* GalacticSuperpower:
** Their ultimate goal, according to Vandal Savage, is to make Earth "take its rightful place at the center of the cosmos," which, according to Aqualad, means instigating a war of conquest that would lead to the Light controlling the entire Milky Way.
** [[spoiler:And according to the BadFuture we’ve seen, this is a terrible idea.]]

** Ocean-Master definitely has it worst, being the only team member who never serves as an episode's main villain. He does not even have any lines while in his Ocean-Master identity, the only times he speaks he is either in his concealed L-5 persona or in his civilian identity as Prince Orm. In the second season he has been ousted from the group for unexplained reasons and has yet to make any sort of appearance. He does show up in Season 3, [[BackForTheDead but he dies in the same episode]].
** In the second season the focus is mostly on Vandal, Lex and Manta. The other four members have mostly just appeared in cameos during the Light's video conferences and have had few if any lines.
** They get especially hard with this in ''Phantoms''. Only Vandal Savage, Klarion, and [[spoiler: \a cloned Oceanmaster]] get any serious screen time, and even then the driving conflict for the season is not related to the Light at all.

** They seem to fully expect their partnership with [[spoiler:Darkseid and his forces]] to end in betrayal, and the feeling is mutual. Despite this, they've maintained this partnership for centuries to shared advantage, though as shown by Season 3, they're not above [[EnemyMine a little bit of sabotage]] to ensure Darkseid doesn't get too powerful to need the alliance.

!!''ComicBook/BlackManta''

* NotSoWellWellIntentionedExtremist: Downplayed, yeah they indeed want to ensure humanity evolution by getting rid of the heroes, however it's implied that even if they accomplish their goal they want to make sure they are the ones who lead humanity instead of anyone else.

* NotsoWellWellIntentionedExtremist: Downplayed, yeah they indeed want to ensure humanity evolution by getting rid of the heroes, however it's implied that even if they accomplish their goal they want to make sure they are the ones who lead humanity instead of anyone else.