27566


This question is inspired by the following rule of the Death Note (source:
deathnote.wikia.com):

> If a Death Note owner accidentally misspells a name four times, that person
> will be free from being killed by the Death Note. However, if they
> intentionally misspell the name four times, the Death Note owner will die.

  * Does writing an alias, when you assume it is the real name, count as accidentally misspelling a name or intentionally misspelling the name?
  * Does it matter if the alias is similiar to the real name?
  * What happens if the alias is similiar to the real name and as a result of a misspell you actually write the real name? Will the victim die?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-24T19:35:33.060
27564
2015-11-24T20:16:32.680
2015-11-24T19:46:40.700
34
19294
question
death-note
Does writing an alias in the Death Note count as misspelling the name?


In order for a person to be killed by the Death Note there are only 3 relevant
requirements:

  * They have to be alive...obviously...
  * You have to write their true name.
  * You have to picture the person as you write it.

Every person has a true name which can be seen with Shinigami eyes. That name
does not change. There are several details we don't know about how that works
but a nickname will never appear there.

You have two questions:

  * Are repeated writings of an alias considered by the Death Note to be intentional misspellings, unintentional misspellings, or just invalid input? 
  * What happens if I accidentally write the correct name thinking it is an alias?

If you write the correct name (spelled correctly) while picturing that living
person, that person will die. You do not need to know what you are doing as
you do it. So in the case of you last question, the answer is: "Yes, the
victim will die."

We don't, however, have enough information to answer the first question. When
Light was writing the name of the victim from the first episode he kills in
the street, he writes at least 8 different spellings of his name. He knows
only one of those could be correct. As the name is among the first 4 (third I
think), the victim dies. Light does not die for writing the final 4 nor does
the victim retroactively become immune. This is the only time we see so many
misspellings of a person's name. The last 4 either seems to be considered
invalid input (as he is already about to die) or misspellings that don't make
him immune as he is already doomed.

We can speculate that if the person thinks he knows a person's real name, he
cannot be intentionally misspelling the name to make that person immortal.
Therefore, the owner will likely not die from this course of events. This,
however, is just speculation with a limited amount of evidence.

What we do not know at all is whether the Death Note will consider the
correctly spelled alias to be a misspelling of a person's given name at all. A
correctly spelled alias is technically not a misspelling so might not count.
If the name is very different, it is possible it might not be recognized as
belonging to that person so that person is not impacted at all. This is the
key point to the question and at no point in the anime or in the part of manga
I've read has there been anything to clarify this further. I personally would
go as far as to say the Shinigami probably don't know the specific answer to
this question.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-24T20:16:32.680
27566
2015-11-24T20:16:32.680
3561
27564
answer