Gargoyles and Death Note

[Sigmaleph]

I don't know how it turned out in the movie, but there are rules that Xanatos can use to make himself invulnerable. For instance, he could set his death well after it is feasible for him to die.

You can't set a time of death more than 23 days after writing on the note, though. The only exception is if you set the cause of death to be disease, in which case I think the way it works is that you get the specified disease at the time written down (within 23 days) and then you die at the appropriate amount of time for that disease.

Even if that wouldn't work, you can alter the time of death within 6 minutes & 40 seconds of writing it, therefore, he could use a computer to keep altering his own death.

I'm pretty sure it's 6 minutes and 40 seconds from when you first wrote the name, the clock doesn't reset every time you modify the cause of death.

Can a mod split off this derail, please?

Sure.

[PosthumanHeresy]

I'm pretty sure the disease thing is right. So, if he used, say, HIV, with the modern treatments (considering his wealth and all), he'd be functionally immortal.

[Sigmaleph]

It is not clear the HIV plan can work. The "live long enough to die of something else" thing might disqualify it as a cause of death, meaning you default to "heart stops after 40 seconds".

[PosthumanHeresy]

It is not clear the HIV plan can work. The "live long enough to die of something else" thing might disqualify it as a cause of death, meaning you default to "heart stops after 40 seconds".

I was pretty sure it would actually be "Live until that thing kills you", which means that only the HIV could kill him.

[Sigmaleph]

Right, but the point is the disease has to be a cause of death. A fair number of people with HIV and access to modern treatment (as Xanatos would be) don't actually die of it, or complications relating to it, or whatever. This is generally described as 'you'll live long enough to die of something else', that's the reference I was making. It's arguable, of course, but if this makes HIV not an actual cause of death, then you can't use it on the Death Note.

[PosthumanHeresy]

Right, but the point is the disease has to be a cause of death. A fair number of people with HIV and access to modern treatment (as Xanatos would be) don't actually die of it, or complications relating to it, or whatever. This is generally described as 'you'll live long enough to die of something else', that's the reference I was making. It's arguable, of course, but if this makes HIV not an actual cause of death, then you can't use it on the Death Note.

It could also be argued that, without a cure, the HIV will sooner or later win. It might take getting stranded on an island, but sooner or later you'll lose. It's inevitable.