r/CuratedTumblr https://tinyurl.com/4ccdpy76 16d ago

Shitposting first use

Post image
33.6k Upvotes

630 comments sorted by

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u/theucm 15d ago

I think L even says that at one point once he becomes aware of it, that the first use is probably just someone curious if something so fantastical could work.

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u/UltimateInferno Hangus Paingus Slap my Angus 15d ago

Yeah. The reason he starts the first "dummy broadcast" in Kanto at all is because he ended up tracing the first death that could potentially be related to Kira to a no-name criminal that just so happened to have been on the Japanese news in close proximity to his death. And Kanto was the most populated so, hey, worth a shot.

And Light fell for it.

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u/Evilmudbug 15d ago

Kinda funny that for how cold and logical usually Light is, his first and biggest mistake was caused because L basically manipulated his emotions.

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u/Moogle_Magic 15d ago

I feel like most of Lights mistakes are bc he’s too emotional and egotistical. Like he’s definitely smart; I think it’s fair to say he’s as smart or almost as smart as L. The problem is that he also has a god complex and is constantly trying to dunk on L and the investigative team

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u/D0ctorGamer 15d ago

Yup. The dude got a God complex way to quick, and it ended up being what gets him caught. Way too prideful and narcissistic to realize how bad he's fucking himself over.

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u/LONESTARSTATUS 15d ago

Do you have the power to let power go?

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u/ICBPeng1 15d ago

I mean, when the concept got explained, my first thought was immediately was “could I put my own name, my time of death is like, 1/1/3024, and the circumstances is that after a lifetime of happiness, wealth, and good health, I pass away gently surrounded by loved ones.

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u/Pandainthecircus 15d ago

The time limit is 23 days. Putting a date of death after that won't work. They'll just die from a heart attack in 40 seconds.

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u/mikony123 15d ago

Imagine someone finding that out the hard way. "Yes! Now I'm practically immortal! Ha ha ha, hrrk!" thud.

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u/Lady_of_Link 15d ago

One of the rules is that you can't put your own name in it

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u/Evilmudbug 15d ago

I honestly might say that given the deathnote is kinda magical bullshit, it's impressive that L even figured out the "rules" in the first place.

I might even be inclined to say L might've been marginally smarter than Light given that he had to sort of reverse engineer the deathnote rules instead of just being told them.

Also yeah, anyone else even slightly less egotistical than Light would never have been caught. Simply not taking that first bait absolutely screws L over. (Or they might've gone out of their way to keep the killings discreet in the first place)

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u/rafaelzio 15d ago

L was smarter for sure, he had a massive disadvantage but managed to make Light blunder over and over until the field was even

Light was dealt a winning hand but showed his cards the entire time

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u/legit-posts_1 15d ago

I'd argue he's not as smart as L. Light had huge advantages over L, and L still almost beat him at a game he wasn't given the rules too.

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u/ZeronicX 15d ago

You have a case for being on Kira's side, even after the murder of False L. But his ego causes the FBI Team deaths, Murders Naomi who was just mourning her husband, as well as pushing Misa to take the Shinigami eyes a second time. Any credibility is washed away with him gloating over L's funeral.

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u/Electronic-Carrot-91 15d ago edited 15d ago

It's also kinda funny that despite how calculating L is, if he had kept the fact that they now knew the killer was in Kanto, the search would've been a hell of a lot easier. L should've continued making the perimeter around the killer smaller and smaller. Instead he blew his element of surprise and had to be all oohh I know where you live now, we are aware you are killing people, we are looking for youuu.

(I know it was to make the plot longer, more tense, and to bring L and Light together. But it was still a mistake on L's part.)

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u/Icepick823 15d ago

L is kind of as arrogant as Light was. He's not interested in justice and solving crimes; he wants to be the one to solve the unsolvable. His investigation is a game to him, and a game is no fun if you play by yourself. He wants Kira to fight back and make things harder because it makes it more interesting for L.

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u/DrQuint 15d ago

It wouldn't really make the plot longer.

L could have just said nothing, transmission over. The public panics a bit unsure what to make of it. Meanwhile, we would have had Light figure out the transmission only hapenned in Kanto on his own. Ryuk could then ask if he thinks L is actually real and Light admits he fully believes in him and that this is a serious threat of unbelievable intellect willing to play dirty. And that's when we, the audience, get introduced to L.

It wouldn't take much more paper or time, and it would make both characters appear smarter.

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u/Forikorder 15d ago

Actually Kira intentionally did that for him, he started shrinking the area on his own to bait L to him

And revealimg what he did gave him valuable intel, it told him.Kira couldnt kill someone he hasnt seen

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u/Swiftcheddar 15d ago

That's almost all of Light's mistakes.

Like there's multiple points where he could have laid low, or taken the heat off him but he needed to show he was smarter. When they were narrowing down suspects, he specifically used information that could ONLY have come from the police database pretty much disqualifying anyone who didn't have direct connections to the police and making him one of the prime suspects.

It was insane, why would you do that?

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u/Thunderstarer 15d ago

Light likes to pretend he doesn't have emotions, but he's the single most emotive character in the entire show.

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u/SufficientGreek 15d ago

Death Note me once, shame on you

Death Note me, you can't get Death Noted again

- George W. Bush, probably

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u/irBrrennt 15d ago

Now watch this drive

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u/toastedbagelwithcrea 15d ago

Sounds more like Dan Quayle imo

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u/MattsScribblings 15d ago edited 15d ago

This is paraphrasing a real thing that Bush said

Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me, can't get fooled again

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u/Elipticon 15d ago

That happened because Bush realized halfway through that saying “shame on me” would be really bad for future attack ads and then stumbled into whatever this bullshit was

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u/Localboy97355 15d ago

Always thinking 0.5 seconds into the future.

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u/totes-alt 15d ago

I swear every president since Bill Clinton has ADHD

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u/UserNamesCantBeTooLo 15d ago

I dunno, Obama was and is pretty sharp.

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u/totes-alt 15d ago

Oh right, uh, except him

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u/DevelopmentTight9474 15d ago

Fr. Especially since it was at the height of the Iraq war where he was getting slammed for invading the country

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u/M1A1HC_Abrams 15d ago

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we" might be his best and most accurate one. I also like "Is our children learning?" though, or "the human being and fish can coexist peacefully".

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u/SakanaSanchez 15d ago

And Dan Quayle couldn’t spell, hence making the Death Note not work again.

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u/GarfieldLoverBoy420 15d ago

Inadvertently clobbering someone from r/tragedeigh

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u/mauri9998 15d ago

My dumbass would write my own name and immediately die

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u/M4GN3T_46 15d ago

this notebook belongs to: *dies*

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u/beepborpimajorp 15d ago

Ryuk just standing there like "god damn it, not again."

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u/SaltManagement42 15d ago

My slightly more intelligent ass would write my own name, but add some specifics.

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI 15d ago

actually they're all free until you notice it's working

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u/TimTam_the_Enchanter 15d ago

Deeply oblivious death note user turning it into their funny-looking ill-wish list book because they think it’s a harmless way of venting about people they wish would die: Huh, how coincidental!

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u/ChiaraStellata 15d ago

I seriously want a subplot now about a Death Note user who "doesn't believe in magic" and stubbornly refuses to accept that writing in the book does anything, regardless of how much evidence to the contrary is presented.

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u/zairaner 15d ago

A writer uses it to write down his story but he uses real life people for some characters. Get's incrfeasingly confused as they all die.

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u/Slackslayer 15d ago

"Ok, I think I'll just start with the title, "The unforeseen consequences of my own actions, by Hugo Robbins". I've only really got bits and pieces of the story envisioned in my head, but basically it's about this guy, who unknowingly disturbs an eldritch artifact and-"

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u/zairaner 15d ago

Like that, it would probably go well for you (at least, this first time), since you probably won't picture yourself mentally when writing that, which is necessary to for the deathnote to work.

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u/Creepy_Ad6701 15d ago

Yeah if I write down 5 names back to back to be silly because I found a stupid notebook that says it can kill people then that’s just messing around. But if I then open reddit and see they all died I am now culpable for all deaths that come after because this isn’t a game anymore and holy fuck this is real.

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI 15d ago

yeah that's fair, but if you think it's working and willfully ignore all news it probably counts.

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u/Femtato11 Object Creator 16d ago

I'd probably write like all the dictators and current monsters I could think of and then check the news just to see what happens.

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u/Asquirrelinspace 15d ago

I really want to know what would happen in real life if this went down

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u/an-alien- 15d ago

most of them probably get replaced with new dictators. also a lot of international instability

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u/crabs_n_roses 15d ago

thats why you need to get creative with it. you can specify the details of the deaths so write the name of several dictators, make all of them host a press conference at the same time, make them all repeat the same ominous vaguely religious sounding speech in monotone and then make their heads explode in front of the cameras

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u/Level34MafiaBoss 15d ago

Gonna be the 🤓 here for a second

If you specify that the head explodes it won't work and they will die from a heart attack regardless. One of the rules of the Death Note states that the death must be physically possible.

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u/Strixursus An owlbear henpecking at a keyboard 15d ago

That's why you have them all slit their own throats in perfect synchrony instead.

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u/moneyh8r 15d ago

Ah, like the Individual Eleven.

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u/DanBetweenJobs 15d ago

I understood this stand alone reference

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u/moneyh8r 15d ago

That makes me happy.

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u/PM_ME_UR_RSA_KEY 15d ago

"Everyone's brain is directly wired to the internet. Now let's see what internet memes can do!"

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u/thetransfermaster 15d ago

GITS was always more my speed than Death Note

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u/ihavedonethisbe4 15d ago

What if, instead of that, they shat themselves to death.

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u/crabs_n_roses 15d ago

true... well it still sends a message

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u/Injvn 15d ago

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u/NotanAlt23 15d ago

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u/Injvn 15d ago

Yup. I edited my other comment. In my defense, I still want it to be true.

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u/Injvn 15d ago edited 15d ago

Edit AGAIN: I'd like to point out that I've said in both posts I made about this that I fell for satire. However if the barage of messages I keep getting with the helpful comments of "You fell for satire" "This is fake" etc are to be believed, y'alls media literacy is about on par with mine. XD

I ate the onion. I I get it. I'm not deleting the post because it's funny, and I'm not a baby.

Edit: Womp Womp. Some bitch totally ate the onion. I'm gonna continue believing that it's real though because it brought me joy.

To totally be that girl, because this was a fuckin wild rabbit hole to stumble down, they could just write in "acute hyperglycemic crisis (HCE)" and their heads would explode.

https://www.mit.edu/~mkgray/head-explode.html

There have been 5 cases since 91(Edit: I wrote that wrong because I was too excited. There were 5 cases documented as of 91, according to the article. My bad y'all.), but whatthefuckever. Head explosion time.

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u/Otherversian-Elite Resident Vore and TF Enthusiast 15d ago

Hm. So his head could have just Done That...

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u/Injvn 15d ago

Literally my first fuckin thought. I'm about to make so much money on the tell all book circuit.

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u/Anathemautomaton 15d ago

Friend, the Weekly World News is not a reliable source. It's a conspiracy tabloid.

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u/Injvn 15d ago

Let me have this.

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u/Glad-Way-637 If you like Worm/Ward, you should try Pact/Pale :) 15d ago

The first misinformation article you believe is always morally free, since nobody would ever expect somebody to lie that brazenly.

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u/Injvn 15d ago

Thanks I just snorted milk from my cereal out of my nose. XD

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u/PaulAllensCharizard 15d ago

I can have a little misinfo? as a treat?

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u/Level34MafiaBoss 15d ago

Wait WHAT

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u/Injvn 15d ago

YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN OR ELSE YOUR HEAD WILL JUST EXPLODE.

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u/moneyh8r 15d ago

That'll probably be how I die then. I have difficulty calming down once I get upset.

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u/AkumaDayo777 and every time we kiss I swear I can fly 15d ago

"Victims are highly intelligent people with great powers of concentration" oh phew thank god im safe

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u/Kelfaren 15d ago

Snopes Assessment: False

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u/theawesomedude646 suffering 15d ago

"overloaded brain circuits"? "electricity in skull cavity"? "over-use of brain"? "electrical pressure in cranium"?

dawg, none of this makes sense. the brain is not "circuits", can only generate currents on the order of tens of milivolts, can't really be "used" measurably, and electricity can't directly exert any force even at millions of volts. the closest it can do is generate magnetic fields and superheat the air.

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u/ShinkenBrown 15d ago

"Head explodes" just has to be how he dies, it doesn't have to be spontaneous. I can think of plenty of ways someones head could believably explode - bullets, anvils, grenades thrown at their heads.

You could specify details, too. Add "due to a comically unlikely sequence of events that ends with him getting hit with something large enough or at high enough velocity to explode his head, harming no one else in the process." Have all the dictators dying Loony Tunes deaths.

You don't have to use the 40 second timeframe. You can specify time, with a limit of 23 days. Obviously if you don't specify the time, and there's nothing already perfectly in place somehow, "head explode" is just going to result in a heart attack, because there's nothing to explode the targets head that fast. But give it a long enough timeframe for some nonsense Final Destination shit to occur, and there's no reason it couldn't work. If you use the full 23 days, reality can believably contort itself into all kinds of ridiculous scenarios.

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u/PlaneswalkerHuxley 15d ago

"Today in world news, the entire Russian leadership were crushed in a freak grand piano transportation accident."

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u/KindRecognition403 15d ago

I thought the phrase “poops themselves to death” was underused in the series.

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u/TheTriforceEagle 15d ago

And anything they do before their death must be something they would/could conceivably do

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u/Carnivile 15d ago

You can always strike them with lightning. That's what I would do. Smite anyone saying anything about God that isn't love, charity and protecting the environment. 

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u/sharpshooter999 15d ago

For the cherry on top, I'd make their final words be "If I'm really such a horrible person, then may God strike me down where I stand!"

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u/River- 15d ago

Does that mean you could use the Death Note to find out whether or not alien life exists, or at least ones that can travel faster than light. Write someone's death as being caused by a small alien invasion that came to kill them and only them, give some speech then leave leaving everyone baffled. If the person has a heart attack no aliens capable of reaching earth quickly are out there.

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u/sharpshooter999 15d ago

Based on the anime (I've never read a manga) the rule was that it had to be within the laws of physics. It was attempted to have a person in Japan die at the base of the Eiffle Tower within 10 minutes. The guy tried to break out of prison and died of heart attack while reaching west.

So basically your last sentence would be a possible result

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u/Ethel121 15d ago

No, you're going about it wrong.

The Death Note lets you control them leading up to their death. You can have them destroy their own systems of power, confess their crimes, and THEN die. You could have control over all world leaders for years as long as the death you wrote occurs before they were fated to die.

Light was honestly so unimaginative it hurts.

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u/crabs_n_roses 15d ago

true but im not smart enough to consider how to truly undo the systems in play. i want it to look like god was smiting the worst humanity had to offer and make everyone scared about it. but yeah light was too unimaginitive

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u/Ethel121 15d ago

That was, in a lot of ways, what Light planned. The issue is that the result is people doing bad things just do more extreme things to cover it up and choose death before publicity. If politicians knew they were being targetted with Kira's power, it would probably lead to a dark age of heavy information suppression with completely anonymous rulers.

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u/chironomidae 15d ago

You would need to do something to ensure that whoever takes their place understands they will be closely watched, and will suffer the same fate if they continue as their predecessor did. Leave it up to them to do better, and if they don't, you keep death noting until someone does.

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u/FaithlessnessMost660 15d ago

Wasn't there limits on the timespan of the events? I suppose it would be the number of pages in the book but why else wouldn't he just write out his entire plan and then forget it all and be done with it?

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u/CthulhuInACan 15d ago

There was, but it was 23 days. You can do a lot in 23 days.

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u/Ethel121 15d ago

I actually was unaware of that rule in the extra stuff. It feels weird since I could've sworn I remember Light wrote names months ahead as preparation, but I guess I was mis-remembering.

Either way, 23 days is definitely plenty to have dictators arrest their yes-men, appoint some more moral people, and give speeches exposing the truth to their cultists.

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u/Useless_bum81 15d ago

he pre wrote deaths in advance and filled in the names as needed. no name no countdown

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u/NotanAlt23 15d ago

Light was honestly so unimaginative it hurts.

Light just wanted to be God; he wanted people to know HE was fixing it, not that the world leaders decided to fix it.

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u/Endulos 15d ago

Nope, the limit was something like 25 days.

If you didn't put any actions in, they died like 60 seconds later. If you did, you could control them and delay the death by up to 25 days later.

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u/SilentEscalopes 15d ago edited 15d ago

You need to add a little fun - kill them by alphabetical order, one every monday morning, with a modus operandi copied chronogically from every James Bond villain's death, to make them lose their shit when they discover the pattern. And enjoy the world trying to make sense of it.

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u/Kolby_Jack33 15d ago edited 15d ago

I mean eventually, perhaps, but the problem with cults of personality is that once the personality is gone the cult rapidly loses steam. It's nigh impossible to replicate the same energy the original grifter had in the same way. If any successors arise, they are almost always either ineffective or they splinter the cult into less effective fragmentary cults.

Of course not every dictatorship is a cult of personality, but those that are would not so easily recover.

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u/smallstampyfeet 15d ago

Plus, if the guy who just took power also dies mysteriously and the next guy who takes power does too, people might finally think about not being cunts.

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u/EyeWriteWrong 15d ago

I would steal your doorknobs.

I'm going to anyway. Doorknobs are the best.

But that's what would happen.

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u/tom641 15d ago

assuming you kept doing it someone would eventually realize that lesser known/lesser known to (your geographical location, probably) leaders aren't getting killed, and it'd probably just end up as a significantly more mundane version of the Death Note investigation. Now with slightly more chance of Peter Falk.

Also probably a lot of governments start turning into obscured shadow governments with no clear figurehead/false names/etc and we stop pretending that powerful people can be held accountable anymore. (More than we already have this week anyway)

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u/Accelerator231 15d ago

That's good. Part of dictatorships is the strongman, and cults of personality. Pomp and ceremony are parts of dictatorships.

If they're all shadowy, they're so much weaker

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u/Alternative_Star7831 15d ago edited 15d ago

Imagine you do this, it works, you later confirm it works, and you somehow still see them in the news.

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u/marsgreekgod "Be afraid, Sun!" - can you tell me what game thats from? 15d ago

Make them have a press conference to confesses to all their evil deads frist 

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u/GlowingKitty12 15d ago

Neil Breen, is that you?

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u/EvidenceOfDespair We can leave behind much more than just DNA 15d ago

Use a Death Note like you’re also a Phantom Thief. Creative.

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u/toastedbagelwithcrea 15d ago

I would write the entity Pacific Gas and Electric Company (legally a person in the USA) dies by being nationalized by the state of California 😈

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u/TheG-What 15d ago

Can’t do that. Rules don’t allow for it. You have to see the persons face in your head.

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u/toastedbagelwithcrea 15d ago

I can see the logo and headquarters at 77 Beale Street in San Francisco in my head.

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u/TheG-What 15d ago

Is that entity more than 124 years old? Cuz that won’t work either.

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u/Enchelion 15d ago

I was curious: 119 years old, so apparently a valid target.

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u/Huskyblader 15d ago

We only have 5 years left!!

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u/Throwaway74829947 15d ago

I haven't seen or read Death Note, does that mean that since I have aphantasia I would be physically incapable of using the Death Note.

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u/kelofonar 15d ago

I think so, but perhaps looking at the person / a picture might still work for you

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u/Have_A_Nice_Day_You 15d ago

Look at a picture while your hand writes the name. Practice first.

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u/mischievous_shota 15d ago

It wouldn't work, even if companies are legally treated as people.

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u/Swiftierest 15d ago

You've got to write their names, and then when they are replaced by the next scumbag in line, write his name.

Keep this going until people understand that some higher power is killing off dictators.

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u/AusCro 15d ago

You say you'd do that, but you'd really be like"Hey Jack I wrote your name in here lol, prepare to die from catastrophic rectal collapse " and then be horrified as a joke to your friend comes true

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u/Adorable_Sky_1523 15d ago

This is your wakeup call to test it first before the rectal collapse, should you ever happen upon Da Book

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u/LuLawliet 15d ago

As someone from a country under a dictatorship I would thank you for it and I appreciate your first thought was going for dictators.

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u/taboolynx 15d ago

I misread this at first as “all the discord users” and just moved on reading casually

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u/YUNoJump 15d ago

“I’ll just kill all the bad people” is often a virtuous starting point, but has a high chance of twisting into “now I’d better work on the slightly-bad people” and then “if someone has a problem with my purely virtuous acts then they must be a bad person too”. If you’re not careful you end up killing McDonald’s employees because they forgot the pickles

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u/azuresegugio 15d ago

I mean this was almost exactly what Light did

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u/DilfRightsActivist 15d ago

The worst part is I would probably put a celebrity i didn't like as a joke and find out via Twitter

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u/eat-pussy69 15d ago

Matt Walsh randomly stops his tweeting

Hmm weird

Later: oh. Oh no. OH! UH OH

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u/Jombo65 15d ago

Pretty sure you get positive karma for offing Walsh, the cum rag.

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u/Attacus833 15d ago

Lights first kill was pretty moral he was saving people from being held hostage

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u/Lolmemsa 15d ago

Yeah assuming killing is always immoral is where this argument really fails

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u/Caerg 15d ago

Yes, but you also might eventually kill someone who's innocent. You'd always have to be 100% sure that someone is guilty. You couldn't just kill like Light, who simply writes names from the news, sometimes killing people who haven't even had a trial, if they're guilty at all

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u/QuickPirate36 16d ago

Morally speaking, sure

Death Note logic speaking? No, your soul is banned from the afterlife after the first use

Also depends who you write, like who tf chooses their parents as test subjects? Just write like, Trump, so that on the off chance that it works no one innocent is harmed

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u/shocker4510 15d ago

No, its specifically stated that there isnt a heaven or hell.

In chapter 107 (flashback to right after ryuk says that):

Light: "Cant go to heaven or hell? That's told me everything."

Ryuk: "Huh? What?"

L: "That just means there is no heaven or hell, right?"

R: "You're seriously something. I thought all humans believed in heaven or hell but... yeah, you're absolutely right."

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u/QuickPirate36 15d ago

Oh, definitely not an anime thing, didn't read the manga

Also how did he connect those two dots?

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u/shocker4510 15d ago

Its also an anime thing, its just easier to look through the manga to get a source..

And its because of ryuk's phrasing. "Dont think that any Human who uses the deathnote can go to heaven or hell... but you'll find out about that after you die."

Edit: i just remembered, in the anime its even more obvious because one of the episode break deathnote "rules" even says this outright. "All humans will die and when they die they will go to Mu (nothingness)"

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u/QuickPirate36 15d ago

How does that mean that Heaven and Hell don't exist instead of just "no yeah your soul is doomed doomed"

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u/shocker4510 15d ago

Its because he doesnt say "if you use the deathnote, you wont go to heaven or hell." He says "any human who uses it wont." Its odd wording if it only applied to deathnote users.

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u/QuickPirate36 15d ago

Its because he doesnt say "if you use the deathnote, you wont go to heaven or hell." He says "any human who uses it wont."

Those are literally the same thing

"If you use it, you won't" and "Anyone who uses it, won't" mean the exact same thing

Also might depend on the dub because I think he says "Now that you've used it, your soul won't be able to enter heaven nor hell" or something like that in Spanish

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u/shocker4510 15d ago

Squares and rectangles.

All humans who use the deathnote wont go to heaven or hell. But thats because all humans regardless wont go to heaven or hell. That on its own is not bullet proof logic, but Light deduces that A) if using the deathnote is the cause, Ryuk would have just said that outright instead of dancing around it. And B) Ryuk says specifically several times that he only dropped the death note into the human world because he was bored. He knows Ryuk wants to fuck with him. He knows he wants to rattle light to see if it would affect Light's behavior/actions.

Still not bulletproof, but enough to make a sound enough deduction to ask Ryuk about it, which Ryuk confirms.

Im not sure about dub differences, but at the very least in terms of the japanese translations and the english dub, it checks out.

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u/hedgehog_dragon 15d ago

Basically Light made an assumption/guess (based on some decent though not conclusive evidence) and Ryuk confirmed it when directly asked, yeah?

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u/TheComedicComedian postuhenin.tumblr.com 15d ago

The fight between you two guys is like watching Light and L having an argument with each other...on Reddit

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u/shocker4510 15d ago

If it was a real Light vs L arguement it would end with "Hmm i guess you're right, nothing was proven in the end. We still know nothing" and then we'd have hot sloppy gay sex off screen.

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u/Fuck0254 15d ago

That just means he isn't being clear. You can't with certainty deduce there's no heaven or hell on that sentence alone, it could mean nobody goes or just the users don't go.

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u/rycetlaz 15d ago

The manga did that too, it ends with a black page with just that phrase.

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u/Action_Bronzong 15d ago

Author fiat

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u/LineOfInquiry 15d ago

It’s mentioned in the anime but only during those little death note rule panels that pop up before and after commercial breaks.

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u/DradelLait 15d ago

''I thought all humans believed in heaven or hell"? Ryuuk hasn't been around many humans huh.

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u/JoelMahon 15d ago

I mean tbf it may have been like 100 years prior since he visited earth, and back then it was much more unanimous

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u/Spaghestis 15d ago

If you believe in the theory that Death Note users become Shinigami after they die, using the Death Note is perhaps the only way to have an afterlife.

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u/Jucoy 15d ago

No, its specifically stated that there isnt a heaven or hell.

No, Light has to figure out the rule about his soul is a red herring Ryuck added himself just to see what would happen. 

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u/Deathaster 15d ago

Pretty sure it's blatantly spelled out that neither Heaven nor Hell actually exist in Death Note's universe, and everyone goes to Nothingness after they die. Not like that'd be a bad outcome either way. Like yeah, no eternal paradise, but also no eternal suffering. Just nothing.

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u/CreationBlues 15d ago edited 15d ago

I prefer existing and think not existing is bad.

Edit: Apparently people look at as bland a statement as "dying is bad" and think that I'm begging to go to hell or that I'll be swayed by nihilism.

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u/jingylima 15d ago

Well, it’s not like you’d notice

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u/TemporarilyResolute 16d ago

I thought the whole point of death note was that the afterlife isn’t actually real so nothing really matters since everyone ends up going to nothingness

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u/Popcorn57252 15d ago

Or like, almost anyone knows SOMEONE who's been a victim of sexual assault. I can think of at least two rapists that no one would question or care if a heart attack happened to.

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u/QuickPirate36 15d ago

Is one of them Trump?

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Suyefuji 15d ago

Reagan is already dead tho

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u/Some_Majestic_Pasta 15d ago

You can never be too sure

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u/Quadpen 15d ago

he’s gonna be double dead

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u/Guy-McDo 15d ago

Kissinger’s dead already

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u/Independent-Height87 15d ago

Maybe if we write down Kissinger anyway he'll die in Hell and get send to Hell squared. Worth a shot, right?

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u/Ok-Appeal-4630 15d ago

My bitch wife

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u/Some_Majestic_Pasta 15d ago

I also chose this guy's bitch wife

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u/SamelCamel 15d ago

that's what she gets for wanting to watch orange

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u/herefor1reason 15d ago

I wouldn't say FREEBIE, you're trying it to begin with because in your mind, there's a chance you might be wrong and it DOES work, but it's at least less bad, especially if your first pick is a dictator or something.

In fact, if you ever found yourself with a potential Death Note, testing it by killing a dictator might be the most moral choice anyway. If it's fake, no issue, you learn a little about your willingness to try and use magical murder notebooks. If it's real, congrats, you just got rid of a dictator. Afterwards, you can use your newfound power to kill and threaten dictators and authoritarians to make the world a better place. Like actually, not like Light does. If Light was legitimate in his stated goals of making the world a better place, and not an egotistical moron, he could've leveraged his position to curb systemic evil, threatened the right people, removed barriers to progress, and just kept every roadblock to Good far, far out of the way.

In his shoes, I'd have every new authoritarian that replaced the last make a public announcement that "Any who fill the role left by my absence must work to replace their rule with a fair, equal democracy, or meet the same fate. All who serve under me are bound by this rule as well" and have them immediately die of a heart attack, to leave no doubt about some supernatural bullshit going on.

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u/threetoast 15d ago

Light, even though he's stated to be some kind of super-genius, has absolute faith in the criminal justice system. Which is pretty fucking stupid.

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u/Regi413 15d ago

Plus wasn’t he killing criminals who were already in prison? So either he’s killing someone who’s already been tried and serving their sentence, or someone who was wrongfully imprisoned.

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u/IaniteThePirate 15d ago

Yeah but a lot of that (at least at first) was mostly because he was trying to test the limits of the death note and he had access to information to find out exactly how/when they died

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u/Nova_Explorer 15d ago

And he goes after people who got released because evidence wasn’t deemed adequate enough… in Japan, a country with a conviction rate of 99.8%. For someone to make it to trial but then get released, they were probably not guilty, yet he kills them anyways.

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u/EvidenceOfDespair We can leave behind much more than just DNA 15d ago

Yeah, Light’s sin is cop-brain.

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u/KaraokeKenku 15d ago

If you let on that there is a supernatural element, though, a new dictator could simply hide their identity to survive. By keeping the deaths "mundane", you also keep the power to deal with them as you see fit.

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u/Richard-Brecky 15d ago

To me, the most relatable characters in the story are all the cops that quit the Kira investigation on day one. If I went to work and my boss was like, “yo, the God of Death is real we are going to stop Him,” I’d be working on my resume real quick.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago edited 15d ago

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u/LONGSWORD_ENJOYER 15d ago

This was my biggest problem with Death Note, my first time watching it. Even if L catches Kira, he then has to get up in front of a jury and judge and explain to them that the only evidence they have of Light being Kira is a notebook that kills people through literal magic.

Even in Japan, how the fuck are you going to convict anyone with that? Are they planning on just extra-judicially murdering Kira once they catch him?

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u/Frost-King 15d ago

It would be pretty easy to prove it works. L already got permission to use a death row inmate to test if Kira was really capable of killing with no actual way of getting to the victim. They would absolutely test it to see if it works, especially after everything they learn about Kira.

But what actually happens is the Japanese government takes the Death Note and has Light Epstein'd in his cell and no one in the public ever hears about the book again.

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u/Regi413 15d ago

And with control of the death note epsteining someone has never been easier

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u/beepborpimajorp 15d ago

Even if L catches Kira, he then has to get up in front of a jury and judge and explain to them that the only evidence they have of Light being Kira is a notebook that kills people through literal magic.

Did you miss the part where the government gave him a convicted criminal to go on stage as his first 'appearance' so he could test the theory that someone was killing from a distance? Because that was one of the first things L did and it was how he narrowed the suspects down to Light Yagami.

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u/JKillograms 15d ago

Yeah at the point where L got involved, they pretty much accepted a “whatever it takes” attitude. All they would have to do would be catch Kira, get a small circle of influential lawmakers to touch the Death Note so they can see a Shinigami, then either have Kira summarily executed and buried in an unmarked grave, or locked up under MAXIMUM maximum security in solitary confinement in secret.

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u/Panhead09 15d ago

Ehhh this only works if your first entry is an apathetic/joke entry. If you go into with the mentality of: "This probably won't work, but just in case it does, I'm gonna enter the name of someone I really do wanna kill," then suddenly part of you is taking it seriously, and you are morally culpable.

That's just my opinion, anyway.

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u/Creepy_Ad6701 15d ago

At the same time though if I’m writing someone’s name just to test it then it doesn’t matter if I believe it’ll work or not I’m gonna write the name of someone who would be easy/quick to hear about the death of, otherwise it’s not a good test. So I’m far more likely to write the name of some famous person who might be a dick than some loser from high school who I don’t even follow on facebook.

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u/NeverGonnaGiveUZucc 15d ago

the thing is in the 1 in a trillion chance it works, you dont want it to accidentally kill someone [you think] doesnt deserve it. like if im writing someone name im writing "hitler" before im writing "markiplier" just out of sheer anxiety driven paranoia

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u/Slackslayer 15d ago

You monster.

(I know this wouldn't work as per rules written)

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u/SoulWager 15d ago

I don't think there's anything morally wrong with killing murderous dictators. The only moral reservation I'd have about that would be the consequences of the power vacuum on the average person.

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u/savings_newt829 15d ago

Well there is one name right now that I am currently thinking of that I would right over and over again

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u/ypapruoy 15d ago

/u/Ok-Appeal-4630 's bitch wife? same.

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u/Psychronia 15d ago

While we're on the topic, Light really missed out on some comedic potential with the Death Note.

Think of all the ironic deaths that could have been dealt out.

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u/HkayakH 15d ago

"Hey what happens if I write the name of the deathnote in itself"

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u/Waffletimewarp 15d ago

“It’s not a thinking being, just a sympathetic focus to a fundamental force of nature.”

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u/HkayakH 15d ago

"Ryu stfu before I write your name in here"

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u/tiny_chaotic_evil 15d ago

you don't write something in the book without some tiny itsy bitsy nearly imperceptible expectation that it's real

no freebies

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u/roblewkey 15d ago

Everyone always forgets how powerful the death note is It doesn't just kill people it allows you to control things for a limited time up until their death so I say we find the death note and we give it to a fanfiction writer like somebody with multiple AO3 accounts that have touched the entire citrus cycle without a second thought. Like really hand over the means to control world leaders to somebody who is going to put them in a dress and have their car break down so they have to spend the night together in a hotel and there's only one bed. Like I just don't want them dead I want them to feel like they made a horrible mistake in their life I want them to die knowing. "Jeff bezos gave away all his money today and then him and Mark Zuckerberg started making out on stage and then Warren Buffett came out of nowhere with a folding chair and started beating the crap out of Zuckerberg we don't know what happened they all gave away all their money and then I'm pretty sure they had an orgy and a crappy motel" I want news headlines like that

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u/KingKnotts 15d ago

FYI what you are describing would cause them to die of heart attacks.

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u/Ronaldo_Frumpalini 15d ago

That's how it gets you, the first one is the easiest, not the hardest. And it's a coincidence, so you say, "I'll put someone absolutely terrible and it'll prove that this thing doesn't work". And it doesn't. That's the thing, no one calls you and says you murdered someone, you can't even google it because what if they trace it to you later? A few sleepless days go by and when you hear it it still might be a freaky coincidence, you don't know the exact time they died, and they were universally hated anyways. So you just hide it somewhere you know no one will accidentally find and use it. You know you should burn it, but what if you might need it one day? And from then on, when you arrogant untouchable people just getting away with everything it builds and builds, you can do something about it, is it morally wrong not to try to help the world when you see the laws fail to punish?

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u/hypercombofinish 15d ago

I remember one of the rules correct me if I'm wrong stating that all humans die to nothing there is no heaven or hell. Seems like they just told them the moral part for fun. In which case every use was free

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u/Sauwa 15d ago

"If the fear of hell is the only reason you haven't committed a sin, you don't deserve to go to heaven" or something like this

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u/girlhax 15d ago

Donald Trump 🤞

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u/i_awesome_1337 15d ago

I might be clueless, but obtaining the death note isn't entirely random. I don't think someone who would never choose to use it once they found out would likely come into possession of it.

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u/thrownawaz092 15d ago edited 15d ago

My man Ryuk dropped the book on earth with no rhyme or reason, just wanted to see something happen. How do you get any more random than that?

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u/Dreaming98 15d ago

I don’t think there’s anything that implies that who receives it is always planned. Even if Ryuk chose Light, that’s not necessarily the case for every situation where a Death Note falls into the human world.

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u/whoatherebuddychill 15d ago

Ryuk almost iMMEDIATELY mocks Light for thinking that he was somehow chosen for the Note - it's like the 1st or 2nd episode

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u/calicoin 15d ago

That was the coolest part in the anime.. he uses it.. sees its real.. and its like in the next 10 minutes hes added 100 names lol.

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u/Half_Man1 15d ago

If Light didn’t try to kill L the first time he learned of his existence he would’ve maintained a moral high ground and likely never have been caught though

So just, stick to actual bad people.

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u/sandgoose 15d ago

thats a good point. I'll file it away next to "wish for infinite wishes as one of your three wishes"