Would you use a Death Note?

[FortyTwo]

After finally finishing the Death Note anime, I knew that I had to make this thread because the concept is so interesting. My question is, in all seriousness, would you use a Death Note if you stumbled upon one?

In case you don't know: A Death Note is literally a notebook of death, originally owned by a god of death. The purpose of a Death Note is to kill any human whose name is written on its pages.

These are the rules:

1. The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
3. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.
4. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
5. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

If you happened across such a notebook, would you use it? How? If you haven't seen the anime or movies or read the manga, then your reply might actually be a lot more interesting.

 

[FortyTwo]

I have no idea what this is about, but can I write down Tom Cruise, struck by a tsunami while attending the largest gathering of Scientologists in known history?

Yes.

 

[K-II]

I'd make it my personal duty to fill every line on every page.

 

[Freesia]

I would rather have a book that helped me distance myself from annoying people or jerks, and make them invisible to me, kind of like a real life ignore or block feature.

 

[KLS52]

I'm pretty sure my answer is no...the fact that that I am only pretty sure kind of scares me, lol.

Questions...when you say would I use the book, what exactly is it that I have to do?

What happens to the person if I don't use the book?

Is there a way to cancel it out if I find it and don't use it? Like burning the book, perhaps?

 

[Virpukka]

This is quite easy for me. No I wouldn't because I would feel quilty from it rest of my life if I would do it. I'm the person who carries bees and spiders out when they accidentally comes in so knowing that my action would kill a person...I could never live with that.

 

[yakherder]

For starters... Kim Jong Un, fatal dysentery, because we need to free North Korea so we have an alternate source of cheaper than slave labor for when China gets too expensive. That is, assuming I had some blank spaces for any names that came up in the ensuing power vacuum.

 

[yakherder]

Elvis and Tupac, trampled in a velociraptor stampede... Nothing personal, just to settle the debates and bring back velociraptors while I'm at it.

 

[yakherder]

And someone has to die from the moon getting knocked out of orbit and landing on their house because that would be awesome, but I haven't decided who yet.

I'll stop now. Don't let me get ahold of this book

 

[AeryFairy]

I... Probably would, in all honesty. I'd start out all righteous about it, and then somebody would torture a kitten or something and I'd snap. And then I'd get all power-crazy

 

[mlp]

I... Probably would, in all honesty. I'd start out all righteous about it, and then somebody would torture a kitten or something and I'd snap. And then I'd get all power-crazy

Me too.

 

[mlp]

When I'm done with the fast food chains we can take a trip to Saudi Arabia.

It's a deal.

 

[Envy]

Of course, you get a candy-eating super-genius after you if you use the notebook.

 

[K-II]

Ok, this has potential then. I could probably rid the world of meat eaters in less than a year by getting to know the names and faces of folk who love to eat at Burger King and KFC and wishing for them to be struck by tsunamis at peak hours. muahahahahaha!!!

After the first time it happened somewhere far inland, you'd probably have gotten rid of just about everyone regardless of diet.

 

[Rosie1]

I'd just put "mosquitoes" on the list.
We can pretend they're human.

 

[kazyeeqen]

I'll pick someone arbitrarily and state the cause of death as the sun going super nova.

Suckas.

 

[Muggle]

I would. My father. To die from his ***** being cut off and then choked to death with it whilst making him relive all the abuse he did to his children and wife but from our point of view.

 

[mlp]

I'll pick someone arbitrarily and state the cause of death as the sun going super nova.

Suckas.

Hmmm...like it. But I'd change the cause of death to a new, fast spreading super virus with a 100% fatality rate that only humans are vulnerable to and that first creates a state of bliss during which humans feel compelled to release every captive creature in their control, followed shortly therefter by said humans falling into a deep sleep from which they never awaken.

 

[FortyTwo]

Oh, forgot to mention something:

When writing the cause of death, it has to be something that is plausible for the person to do. For example, the protagonist (!?) of the series does an experiment where he makes a criminal draw the face of someone he doesn't know on a prison wall before he kills himself, and the criminal is unable to do that before he kills himself because he hasn't seen the person before. Also, it must be physically possible for the death to happen, or it will just be a heart attack. Anything that is physically possible will try its best to happen when you write it down.

Which actually means, you could potentially pull anything off.

How I would try to use it, if at all, is I would use it to simply control actual events to prevent terrible things from happening. As long as it ends in a death, is physically possible, and can be written in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, you can manipulate everything. Instead of using it to actually kill people, I'd have someone die, yet put that they were resuscitated in a nearby hospital with no complications. Of course this would probably **** off every shinigami (god of death) in the area, but what are you gonna do?

 

[das_nut]

The unintended consequences of deaths would probably end up biting you in the ***.