What Happens If You Write Your Own Name In The Death Note Notebook?

Question

Found this in the Death Note manga and it's bugging me. Does Light Yagami's rule about writing your own name apply to Shinigami? Thinking there's a loophole.

Gritija Chodankar · Answer

This brings up an interesting point, however: according to the rules of the Death Note, the user is not immune to their own writing. Thus, writing one’s own name in the notebook while visualizing their own face would result in a very quick and irreversible suicide. This powerful concept of names as able to kill is explored in ‘The Name She Wrote in Blood’, where a young girl finds a magical ledger that she uses to write the names of people she wants to kill. However, in order to stop killing, she must use the notebook to write her own name, which she does not wish to do and in the end she is forced to kill herself in order to end the cycle of blood that she had created.

Owen · Answer

Trying to write your own name in the Death Note would be a weird plot point in a meta horror story. Of course, if you write your own name then you die. But would the Shinigami even care if you wrote your own name with the intention of dying? Ryuk is supposed to be entertained by all of this, so maybe he would just laugh at you. Or maybe you’d accidentally misspell your own name or something.

This also highlights a major aspect of Death Note; it doesn’t matter whether or not you intended to kill someone. It is, essentially, a tool of immense consequence and he who wields it is ultimately responsible for the mass amount of death. Of course, you could always test it out on yourself. But then again, that is the point of Death Note; it’s not to gain any kind of god-complex like Light did. No, stick to doodling in regular notebooks, they’re much safer.

Gavin · Answer

Just write your name in Death Note and see what happens. Death Note is ruled by very cold and calculating rules, no exceptions. But the most disturbing thing about this kind of mass murder is the mindset behind it. You must be either very carefree or have an overly inflated sense of power, like Light did.

It’s also an exploration of the question of agency and how far the Death Note can warp someone’s judgment, or if they are entirely responsible for their actions. Like in ‘Death Note’, every choice has consequences of dying, and I choose to remember the thrilling intellectual struggle between Light and L rather than risking my own mortality by writing my name in that Book.

Grace · Answer

I wouldn’t worry too much about the rules of the Death Note not applying because you’re discriminating against someone. As long as you write their name, it’ll be all over for them. Most likely, Ryuk wouldn’t even find it interesting, especially when compared to Light Yagami’s plots to control the world. And the rules don’t apply when it comes to indifference from a Shinigami.

So it would be pretty terrible to be reduced to a name on a page with a timer beside it with no chance of a takeback even if you regretted it immediately. I wouldn’t like to be a human in that world.

Reagan · Answer

The rules for Death Note are rather simple to follow, but for some reason I decided to ponder this scenario. According to the notebooks rules, writing your own name in them would result in a heart attack within 40 seconds unless you specified otherwise. I suppose it would be up to Ryuk’s amusement whether or not he let you die or not. Would he find it amusing to watch you kill yourself?

Now that’s a profoundly, psychologically complex set of ideas. This is a tool that preys on people’s greatest ambitions and greatest desperation and anyone that even attempts to find out if they can off themselves via the Death Note has to be in a pretty dark place already. Like I said, the Death Note brings about a pretty rapid, extreme descent into moral haze and I’d far rather spend a weekend re-watching the films than risk experiencing that for myself.

Doug Mitchell · Answer

Yeah, you die. But does the notebook die too? Does someone else instantly own it the moment you die? If no one else ever knows about the notebook, then your suicide could very well be the last death caused by the Note. The notebook could sit in a drawer for decades, a harmless piece of paper with your name scrawled on it. In that sense, writing your own name could be the act of neutralizing the threat posed by the Note. A final public service, of a rather grim sort. Unless someone were to happen upon the notebook, that is. And then you'd have left a rather powerful weapon of mass destruction lying about. Oops.

Arvin Bonotan · Answer

My friend and I had a discussion regarding this point. He commented that suicide using the Death Note would be an unnecessarily complex means to an end. My response to him was that the point of this scenario is the statement. By utilizing the ultimate murder device to take his own life, the suicidal person is employing the instrument for its intended purpose, inside out so to speak. In much the same way a dictator would use his own execution device, this method closes a loop as it were. As to whether or not the Note itself cares about any of this, likely not. It is a mere tool after all. But humans are preoccupied with such symbolism, and thus this particular conundrum is continually posed.

Julius Kingori · Answer

This is the nuclear option. When all else fails and the net is closing in around you, the ultimate secret is taken to the grave. The enemy is denied the victory of capture, trial and understanding of the adversary. The same weapon that started the conflict is used to bring an end to it all on the most drastic of terms. This is the ultimate act of defiance, wrapped up in the ultimate defeat for a man such as Light. He would hate the fact that he is not God-like in his passing of sentence upon his enemies. He is just another low-life to have used the ultimate weapon in the most cowardly of ways. And he would never do such a thing.

Mel Dixon · Answer

Straight to the point: you die. The Death Note does not have a loyalty program, it is a tool, which do not distinguish between owner and user. Recall the rule for the eye deal: a Shinigami is able to read the name and life span of any human, except for the owner of the Death Note that he or she is connected to. Note the specific exception made for the owner of the connected Note. The lack of a similar exception for writing one’s own name within the rules would necessarily indicate that it is possible to write one’s own name in the Note. Ryuk would likely inform Light of such a possibility in order to lead him astray.

What Happens If You Write Your Own Name In The Death Note Notebook?

9 Answers

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