L lacked creativity? L had deduced that a killer previously thought to be a worldwide-spanning murderer was in Japan, and specifically in the Kanto region, by Episode 2 due to his creativity. He then kept narrowing it further and further until he got to Light. L was a human with human limits that was playing in a game rigged against him from the start, yet he played it so well he virtually won anyway. You really should read the light novel "The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases" if you haven't already. Mello gives a pretty nuanced perspective on what L was competing against.
Light also lucked out several times during that sequence, such as happening to come across Naomi Misora by chance, Aizawa just missing her in the street, etc. Sure, he deserves credit for ultimately getting what he needed, but he wouldn't have gotten there without some ridiculous luck in the first place.
I strongly disagree. In terms of scale, maybe, but the only reason L didn't outright win was that he couldn't obtain evidence that would damn Light.
Light pretty blatantly made the most of Rem's affection for Misa, and again, Light literally had a supernatural power at his disposal. L had human resources. The disparity between what the two had to work with was night and day, to say nothing of the fact that L was starting from far less information wise than Light was. And to say he didn't receive any help from Ryuk either is completely untrue - Ryuk wrote in fake rules that not only helped prove Light's innocence, but allowed him to prosper until Mello confirmed they were actually fake over half a decade later. Ryuk wasn't allied in the sense that he would side with Light over L, but he certainly enabled Light, because to him, that meant greater entertainment.
I won't break it in the quotes and focus to address it all in one go(lol)
L had a lot more experience than Light in being a detective and using deception. He was trained to be detective since he was kid. When the story started, Light was only doing light police work in helping his father, but not anywhere close to the world's great detective. For being new to the game in comparison to L, he did an outstanding job.
Due to his lack of experience, his reaction to Naomi fake identity was bad but he handled that flawlessly without losing his mind.
The reason L finds about the light so easily because, after the TV scene, Light narrowed L down to him. He wanted to get close to L to kill him and the best way to do that was to get L to suspect him.
Sure Light had luck but by the end, he always made these situations in his favour by his keen thinking. Not to mention, Misa only made things hard for Light who kept revealing sensitive information about the death note to the public. Misa forced Light to surrender himself and reveal the existence of the death note to a task force to save Misa since he was threatened by Rem.
He also understood Rem affection for Misa and used that to put Misa safety in danger so that the only way would be for Rem to save her by writing L's name on the death note. She admitted Light has surpassed Shinigami. See, Light was not only playing this cat and mouse game with L but he ends up outsmarting even the shinigami who had all the supernatural power at their disposal.
Also, Rem and Misa brought nothing but misfortune to Light without them he was going good.
If we are talking about luck then L actually had a lot of lucky instances as well.
L decided to use death row inmate as bait. He made a live broadcast with that criminal declaring his pursuit of Kira. Lights kill that fake L.
The plan was good, but the amount of Luck L had was also something else. If Light lived in another region of Japan, L's entire scheme would have failed miserably. The broadcast would have become public knowledge and Light avoided the bait, which may end up questioning police L ways of solving mysteries.
We also see them in a situation when Light doesn't have the death note. I would call it even ground. In Yotsuba, arc Light is either keeping up with L, is a step behind or surpass him that considering he doesn't have L experience and such yet doing this is pretty impressive.
L is creative, I meant L is not good at manipulating and acting his way out.
Anyway, L goal was not to find out Light is Kira, his goal was to prove it. L was never able to absolutely prove Light was Kira.
Put Light in L place with all the government resources, money etc and even he will be able to find out L is Kira. The game was always about finding out ways to take out each other.
Also after writing all this I realised. L vs Light debates can never end lol.
You really should read the light novel "The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases" if you haven't already.
I'll give a try. It sounds interesting.