Could These Cosmere Characters Be Trusted with the Death Note?
The "Death Note" from, well, Death Note, is a book that, if you write a person's name in it, will cause that person's death. Now, could these Cosmere characters would be trusted with such power over life and death?
Having received an incredibly powerful item that can bring death, Kaladin would be like, "Oh, no thank you" and then he would literally give it to whoever happened to be standing next to him. And that's how Moash would end up with the Death Note.
To be fair, Szeth would not use the Death Note for his own purposes. No, he would use it for the purposes of whoever happened to be in charge of him at that moment. And Szeth wouldn't just be writing people's names and waiting for them to die of a heart attack, no. He'd be writing incredibly elaborate death scenes involving, like, back flips and props and a lot of screaming. It's unclear why.
First, Kelsier sits down and carefully writes down every single noble's name from the list that OreSeur found for him. The rest of the book is him trying to find out what the Lord Ruler's name is. Don't get me wrong, I would read this, but Kelsier? With a Death Note? He'd have the Cosmere under his thumb in like a month.
Rock takes his "No fighting, no killing people" oaths incredibly seriously. Maybe he'd write down one name just like one time (Amaram. It was Amaram), but then he'd immediately give up the Death Note and accept his punishment.
Jasnah would be like, "I will only use this power to kill people who are demonstrably evil and whose deaths will make society better" and then she'd be cruising around back alleys looking for people to kill while Shallan starts to regret all of her life choices that led her to be there too.
Vivenna would be like, "I will only use this power to kill people who are demonstrably evil and whose deaths will make society better" and then Denth would be like, "You see that guy? He's demonstrably evil and his death would make society better" and Vivenna would be like, "Okay! Yay!"
I think the urge to experiment would be too much for Navani. Can the Death Note kill a Fused? A Herald? A Shard? She just...she really needs to know!
I actually think Lift would be able to resist the temptation. Like, maybe for a minute she'd contemplate whether she should write "Darkness" in there, but then she'd realize she doesn't actually know that dude's name and anyway maybe she should try talking to him instead.
I shudder to think of Nale with a Death Note. He'd just get a list of every Radiant and anybody in jail and just go to town. Even the shinigami would be like, "This guy nuts."
Wayne would use the Death Note only one time (maybe to kill Telsin, let's be real), and then he would suffer from the worst guilt and shame for the rest of his life. So, while he wouldn't do anything terrible to the world or anything, he'd do terrible things to himself. Wayne doesn't deserve that.
Steris would, I think, just be unable to forget how useful of a tool the Death Note could be. Like, she wouldn't want to cause people's deaths. But she wouldn't be able to forget that it's a tool in her belt. And before you know it, she's gone mad with power. Maybe controversial, but I think Steris would go down a similar path as Light Yagami.
Vin would ultimately figure out that the Death Note was bad news, and then she would give it up. However, this was unfortunately only after cites were bathed in blood, so
Lirin might be the best person in the Cosmere to have the Death Note. He'd put that thing away on a shelf and neither use it nor let anyone else have it. His shinigami is SO bored.
Raboniel sits down, carefully writes down her daughter's name, takes a moment to process that she finally ended her daughter's suffering, and then systematically writes down every Herald and every Radiant and wins the war in like twenty minutes.
To be fair, Taravangian would be exactly the sort of person who would make best (?) use of the Death Note--we're talking precision strikes, making careful use of pre-death actions, even (dare I say it?) taking a potato chip, and eating it! But holy hell would the rest of the Cosmere be fucked if Taravangian had a Death Note.
