'But Tail Whip Doesn't Even Do Damage!'

[rionaleonhart]

One of the things I very much like about Death Note is the fact that, whilst there is a huge number of rules for the use of the Note, many of them do not actually come into play in the story. The Death Note seems much more like a real object if not all of its rules exist for the convenience of the narrative. Not that I want Death Notes to exist, of

Comments

[futuresoon]

I approve of all of these things, and the last one made me hold back a hysterical giggle so I wouldn't startle my mom. IT WOULD WORK BEAUTIFULLY AND YOU KNOW IT.

[rionaleonhart]

It would be so difficult to hide the fact that you have the Faint Note, though! If Pokémon keep mysteriously fainting in battles against one particular trainer, people are going to notice. I suppose Light would eventually resort to Team Rocket-esque disguises.

It would have to be written in a very overblown, dramatic style. The first time Light encountered a trainer who had some idea of what was going on and lied about the nickname of her Pidgey, it would be treated exactly as seriously as his realisation that Naomi had given a fake name in the canon.

[wolfy_writing]

Maybe Light would end up joining Team Rocket!

[rionaleonhart]

I am torn between 'Light is probably too proud to make himself one small part of an organisation' and 'LIGHT AND JESSIE AND JAMES WORKING TOGETHER IN TEAM ROCKET UNIFORM, AMAZING'.

[subtle_rift]

The Pokémon whose name is written in this note shall faint.

But all pokemon that share a name look the same, so they'd all faint, people would realise something was going on, and the match would be declared void... unless the opponent was using Ditto!

[rionaleonhart]

Hmmm, that did occur to me. It's easier with nicknamed Pokémon, but people often don't give their Pokémon nicknames, and if every unnamed Bulbasaur in the world faints at once then, yes, it's going to seem a bit suspicious. What if the Note requires picturing both Pokémon and trainer? (This would make the Death Note impossible to use on wild Pokémon, of course. Perhaps picturing the trainer is advisable but not required.)

Ooh, using an already-transformed Ditto would be a very cunning way of escaping the Faint Note. 'Perhaps I'm misspelling the name' or 'perhaps its trainer gave a false name' would probably occur to the Faint Note user before 'perhaps I am picturing the wrong Pokémon'.

[subtle_rift]

Unless Light had a Horsea or something - it could use Ink Jet on the enemy pokemon, then light could picture the ink-stained version, and people would think it was like the most powerful Ink Jet ever.

[rionaleonhart]

SO WOULD... wait, you don't mean the Death Note/Pokémon crossover, do you?

In any case, SO WOULD I. Clearly it must be written!

[wolfy_writing]

a tentacled Pyramid Head

You enjoy making people never sleep again, don't you? Admit it.

There, after many an attack from monsters that mysteriously resemble now-dead criminals and possibly stumbling across Naomi Misora's perfectly preserved body hanging from a gallows, he will slowly come to realise that he is Kira before actually regaining his memories related to the Death Note, and so there will be the conflict for which I was so desperately hoping and which the canon sadly failed to provide.

I completely and totally approve of this all, including perfectly preserved Naomi. That would be too perfect. And memory-less Light being horrified. Probably starting out with the same somewhat-unexamined "Murderers are evil and deserve to be stopped at all costs!" stance that eventually lead to the Kira thing, only being confronted with evidence of his own crimes.

The final boss in the innocent Light's Silent Hill, of course, would be Light-as-Kira himself, trying to seduce the innocent Light back to his unremembered stance of 'one

[rionaleonhart]

Probably starting out with the same somewhat-unexamined "Murderers are evil and deserve to be stopped at all costs!" stance that eventually lead to the Kira thing, only being confronted with evidence of his own crimes.

Oh, yes. Light's been too close to, well, himself to see that what he's doing is far worse than anything those he punishes has done. Now, approaching himself from a different point of view, he can see what he really is

[wolfy_writing]

Actually, no; he should probably see everything Light does, because then both he and Light can draw conclusions. L works out that the town is telling them that Light is the amnesiac Kira a little before Light does. He doesn't mention it; he wants to see how long it will take Light to realise it himself.

That's rather brilliant, and you should write this.

I'd love to know what L's stance would be on how the innocent Light should be dealt with regarding what Kira-Light has done. In a sense, the innocent Light is innocent, but in another they are the same person. Light has murdered people, but without his memories of the Death Note Light isn't a murderer.

Hmm. Tricky. I'm inclined to think of L being conflicted, because he likes the whole "Just keep Light away from Death Notes" solution (possibly hoping that Light will defeat Kira-Light, so they can be all "We found Kira, and Light killed him," and have it be metaphorically true), but on the other hand, being aware that this whole friendship thing can lead to bias (something he

[rionaleonhart]

The trouble is that the innocent Light, in most respects, is just a person with the potential to kill, were he to, say, get his hands on a method of quickly and cleanly killing people without implicating himself. That's certainly not enough to warrant punishment. However, he has already killed, before losing his memories and reverting to the man who merely has the potential to begin killing under certain very specific circumstances, which complicates things. Character-wise, there's no difference between the amnesiac Light and a Light who never found the Death Note; the only difference is the unremembered bodycount.

Death Note morality is difficult.

Killing or imprisoning the innocent Light would achieve nothing, and I think L would probably recognise that. When he outright said he didn't have any doubt that Light and Misa had been Kiras, even if they weren't now, he didn't appear to have any sort of punishment in mind.