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A question of rules
07-12-2008, 03:54 PM
I can't quite recall (nor find a list of) all the (real) rules for the Death Notes; in particular, I'm trying to remember if there were any limits on
the causes of death one can specify. The reason I ask is this: picture a wielder writing any of these as a cause of death for a victim:
•Vaporized by atomic blast
•Airborne Ebola
•Torn apart by zombies (could be a brief crossover with Romero series/Resident Evil/28 Days Later/etc.)
and the one that was the root of the idea:
•Disintegrated by alien invaders
-- The Twisted One
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."
--Voltaire
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Hmmm. I know the "How to Read" volume had the full list, but I can't remember where my copy is. Still...
The atomic blast one would be a problem, because of the rule about causing the death of another human. Difficult to arrange for atomic blasts that only kill
one person.
It seems like there's some rules on basic feasibility that might prevent zombies or aliens unless the world already contains those things.
I don't think Ebola violates any rules though. (Though how contagious diseases relate to the "death of another human" rule is never made clear.
Of course, they could just... not infect anyone else.)
-Morgan.
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i would think, based on the simplest interpretation, that the cause of death cannot directly involve another person... but the after effects can cascade. after
all, you can cause the death of "nigel smythe" ... who happens to be an airline pilot... while flying over nebraska.... and his co-pilot,
"george smothers" at the same time.... the heart attacks would be valid causes... but the after effects would be that the plane-load of passengers
would also die when the plane crashes....
but i haven't seen or read the series, so i don't know if that is explicitly against the rules
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
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One usage of the Note can only directly cause one death; it seems to me that any aftereffects have to be so far away that the writer cannot be in control of them. You could cause a massive fifty-car pileup, but no one else involved would be more than lightly
injured.
The Note cannot create overtly supernatural events, and in general, there are uncertain limits to its ability to twist probability. In all cases, if any part
of your request is beyond it, it defaults to death by heart attack in forty seconds, even if other parts of your request were feasible.
Airborne Ebola could work if there is such a thing, but again, no one but the named victim would actually catch it. Likewise, it could do the alien thing only
if there already were alien invaders on site.
Here's a list of the rules
that, as far as I recall, is both complete and accurate.
--Sam
"Oedipus is hurt and last night I almost had a lucid moment."
I think it really depends on how viable the death is within the time of effect...
For instance 'airborne ebola' could mean that someone that has died of ebola or a vial containing ebola is made airborne (flung from a truck, falls out
of a plane, out a window) and the target get squished by the impact. Or the Band called 'Airborne Ebola' manage to kill the target within the time
period.
I saw no rule about the Death Note having to kill someone in a method that actually follows the intention of the person that wrote the kill notice in the book.
Only that the method is actually possible in the time period. So if there was a zombie apocalypse going on and you wrote death by zombies... they'd be
killed by zombies. If they could be pushed into a random, nearby, dimensional vortex and then land somewhere full of active zombies is more of a question.
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The airline pilot one is an interesting question, because in theory it *should* be against the rules - it causes the death of someone whose name wasn't
written in the note. Except if that happens, the person instead dies of a heart attack... which would lead to the same situation.
Perhaps a reasonable default in such a case is that they'd die of a heart attack once their death wouldn't cause anyone else to die... ie, after the
plane had landed. It seems to fit the basic style used in the failsafes on the note. Or at least it's simpler than anything else I can think of.
I'd be surprised if the interpretation of method of death isn't based on the intent of the user. Again, not so much a rule as because it's
consistent with the style of the other rules.
-Morgan. I always wondered what happens with someone who can't die of a heart attack...
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It seems to be a basic rule that absolutely anyone can be made to die of a heart attack or to commit suicide.
--Sam
"If you're so evil... EAT THIS KITTEN!"
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I'm thinking of crossovers where you might have entities that could live through a heart attack. Or don't have hearts at all. '.'
-Morgan.
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Quote:-Morgan. I always wondered what happens with someone who can't die of a heart attack...
In our annual defibrillator training classes, they always tell us that "heart stopped" equals "dead", so don't worry about getting the revival process wrong. (The important thing is to perform the first aid quickly, and not worry about exactly-by-the-book.)
So, by (that) definition, nobody lives through a heart attack. They may come back afterward, but nobody makes it through one...
Edit: I guess "coming back afterward" would be the equivalent of writing names in a Death Note with a pencil, ne?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Perhaps the death of the pilot merely causes the plane to crash in such a manner that all of the passengers miraculously survive.
----------------------------------------------------
"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
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Or perhaps there happens to be someone on there with some flying experience, a very cool head, and a good ATC on the other side of the radio.
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Come to think of it, you can't kill both pilot and copilot, so there you go.
--Sam
"And now, I bake."
You can kill both... just not with the same use... unless you write down the method and spam write the names in 40 seconds.... on the other hand modern planes
can be landed will little skill on the pseudo pilots part... the automatic systems handle themselves with little help. So its not actually an issue, with any
plane up to code in a modern nation. Though I've seen news stories about some European airlines running planes with holes large enough to fit your hand in
in the hull. The inspectors that caught them where less then impressed.
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