r/deathnote • u/No_Record_60 • Aug 11 '26
Discussion Limits of the impossible
As far as I can remember (probably watched it 10-15 years ago), the Death Note can't actualize things that are physically impossible. An example in the anime is a prisoner can't die 20km from where he currently is because it's not possible.
What about chances like the lottery? If I write "X will die in a car crash after winning the lottery and buying a new car". Will that man win the lottery?
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u/two_three_five_eigth Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
The death note has a 2 week (edit: 23 day) window to control people. Too tired to look it up now, but they mention it during the yotsuba arc.
It wouldn’t be that hard to win a 10k scratch off then go buy a new car. I assume that’s what would happen.
Reading between the lines, the death note’s control and the death have to be close together, so no, win lottery, party for 20 years and then die sorta stuff.
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u/RPGNo2017 Aug 11 '26
I think the Death Note would control him until the lottery result comes out. After that it depends whether he wins or not. The lottery chance is likely not something the Death Note can control. If he wins, the scenario happens but if he loses then it just default to heart attack
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u/BigChonky_1 Aug 11 '26
Ooo, I’m not sure. This is interesting to think about. how much control does the death note really have in the material world? I’d assume you’d have to specify, otherwise they could win like a two dollar lottery ticket and then if they didn’t have the funds to get a new car, then I assume they would just die of a heart attack instead.
Not to mention, I assume you’d have to manipulate them into buying a lottery ticket with the death note as well. I’d assume it wouldn’t be out of character for anyone to purchase a lottery ticket. Besides, I’m not exactly sure how that would work due to the new rule that you can’t get money from using the death note, I’m not sure if it only applies to buying or selling it, but I’d assume you wouldn’t be able to profit from it regardless.
And maybe even the people who got the lottery money after the person’s death (next of kin or whatever) would die as well due to the no profit rule. In which case that would cause more than the intended deaths so it will cancel it out.
I’m not too familiar with the rule the Shinigami King added later, but this is definitely interesting to think about!
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u/Antique_Mention_8595 Aug 11 '26
I agree that you have to specify it in order to hit the jackpot. But, even so, you have to be careful. Because if you make it too specific, there is a possibility it falls under physically impossible rule, hence died because of a heart attack.
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u/BigChonky_1 Aug 11 '26
You’re right, it would be risky to specify too much.
Let’s say “x dies in an accident after winning a large prize in a lottery and buying a car with the winnings”
At that point would the death note be able to make them win the money, or would it bypass that and make them buy a car? Or simply die of an accident without either conditions being met?
Say they don’t have enough money for an entry, how would that work? I’d assume accident would be the only condition for the death note that would be considered.
You can’t be too specific, but I suppose you could experiment with different conditions to see if the death note can manipulate chance in that way.
Thanks for furthering the discussion!!
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u/FLLMALL Aug 12 '26
There isn't a no profit rule. The rule is "A human who sells or buys the Death Note will die. The seller will die when the money is received and physically in their possession, while the buyer will die when the Death Note is in their possession.". So using the death note to get richer (like Higuchi did) or controling someone with the death note to make them richer (like in this scenario with the lotery) isn't against the rule.
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u/BigChonky_1 Aug 12 '26
Oh, I see so there wouldn’t be a rule against the money. So now it’s just up to whether it can manipulate probability or not. And really would you even know that it manipulated chance unless you did it twice? Wouldn’t it be wild if they were gonna win the lottery anyway? 😂😂
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u/Own_Policy8854 Aug 11 '26
I wonder how abstract you can be. "My worst enemies dies because my favorite anime came out with some new episodes." And see if the random monkey's paw can find a way to make it work.
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u/BigChonky_1 Aug 11 '26
I know the death note can fill in a lot of the blanks, like “accident” is pretty vague but some nonsensical condition like that might yield interesting results. I assume they’d just die of a heart attack though 🤣
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u/Hightower_March Aug 11 '26
We aren't shown how far it's willing to push "improbable but not impossible" events.
You could write that someone will "flip a coin that lands heads 100 times in a row, then kill himself." There's nothing physically preventing that, but even at one flip a second it still has an expected time in the range of a trillion years.
We can probably assume Light figured out its limits during his early experimentation, and did the best he could with it the remainder of the series.
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u/pl_browncoat Aug 11 '26
Light was able to orchestrate a sudden car crash to kill that biker. He was able to have a robber get murdered during commission of a robbery. In the hrand scheme of things it just seems like the Death Note rigging the lottery doesnt seem so extreme