Would You Kill Your Best Friend to Make your Greatest Wish Come True?

[Animeniax]

Maybe he's like the Japanese, so it's a marriage of convenience or social standing.

[David75]

No best friend? But you're married, so doesn't that make your wife your best friend? Or at the very least, someone who you love more than all others, and who cares about you the same way. I can see people with girlfriends seeing this question as not applying, because those relationships can be fairly shallow, but when you make a marriage committment, you choose to spend your life with someone, and that requires all the elements of a strong friendship to make it work.

Probably just didn't think of his wife as a "friend" even though she probably does fit that best friend description. Semantics, whatever.

I don't know for semantics, but to me, my wife is my wife. She's more than a best friend per the love committment and the public declaration of the union. Then there's the fact that we share everyday's life and the responsibilities of our household. There's also the fidelity committment that is clearly mentionned in both church and civil wedding. Sexlife is also something different from friendship.
There's some kind of definition to friendship that comes to mind:
"A friend is someone you love, but you know you'll never have sex with"

Clearly my wife does not qualify for the latter part

Maybe he's like the Japanese, so it's a marriage of convenience or social standing.

You could always argue that a wedding is always of that kind, since after all the wedding part is publicly announcing you're going to live with another person.
I guess the difference comes from the fact we've choosen each other based on free will and feelings.

[lelouch]

@archangel, ani, and abdula. Those were all very funny posts (archangel with the youtube clip, ani with the killing your best friend, and abdula with the "needing a best friend first, ani being suitable for the job").

I do believe that half-lives only pertain to elemental isotopes, such as carbon 14 and so forth. However, I could be severely mistaken.

@abdula: You are the reason why I do not drink from the fountain of youth. Hehe.

[Buffalobiian]

I do believe that half-lives only pertain to elemental isotopes, such as carbon 14 and so forth. However, I could be severely mistaken.

The term half-life is used do describe the rate at which things are broken down or removed. I can be used to describe anything in that regard. By definition, it is the time it takes for half (of the mass) of the matter to be removed. It's commonly used to describe the rate of decay of radioactive materials and the rate of elimination of a drug in the body, to give some examples.



If immortality means I can't die, screw it, it's a curse. If it simply means I won't age, then I'll take it

[XanBcoo]

It's not something I would kill any of my best friends for, but I think Immortality would be pretty bitchin. Provided of course that I could end it whenever I wanted to, as shinta|hikari mentioned.

That kinda potential is exciting to me. Also the thought that I only have a limited time in my life is also pretty motivating, considering the things I would want to accomplish given immortality.

[Uchiha Barles]

Probably just didn't think of his wife as a "friend" even though she probably does fit that best friend description. Semantics, whatever.

I really have no clue if I'd kill my friends or not for my greatest wish. I don't think I know what my greatest wish is. Right now, there's nothing I can think of that would cause me to kill my friends without them knowing it's coming. But in those cases, I'd be killing one or more of them for things that are less than my greatest wish, because I think of wishes several tiers greater than what I'd be killing them for, and none of those involves them dead.

[Junior]

When I first read this thread, I immediately thought: "YES. YES I WOULD"

And then I realized I wouldn't. My friends do quite a lot for me and they put up with me, so really.

Would not.

[Animeniax]

Yes but you wouldn't need friends to do stuff for you once you get a djinn that magics anything you need done. That would kick ass.

[DB_Hunter]

There is something ever so slightly morbid about this discussion, and leads me to question the psychological state of the the people announcing their intention to kill their 'best friend'.

For what it worth, I wouldn't kill a friend for a wish. I wouldn't even kill someone I don't like for a wish to come true. Its not my right to attain happiness at the cost of someone else's life when they have done no wrong.

[Buffalobiian]

Its not my right to attain happiness at the cost of someone else's life when they have done no wrong.

oh, but what if they have? Your friend may have done something unforgivable to you, something that caused such sadness that you can only obtain happiness is to kill him/her?

[Animeniax]

For what it worth, I wouldn't kill a friend for a wish. I wouldn't even kill someone I don't like for a wish to come true. Its not my right to attain happiness at the cost of someone else's life when they have done no wrong.

It's easy to claim you'd never do it because this is just a pointless discussion on an internet forum.

In real life, if faced with having your greatest wish granted, you would not be able to provide an answer so calmly and cleanly. It would trouble your mind for a few days so you couldn't work or be around other people, the shame of even considering such a proposition making it unbearable to even look at your best friend. Your friends would begin talking about you, wondering what was wrong with you, gossiping about you, and you'd overhear them and get paranoid. Then you would stay up nights thinking it over and over and over, until in a sleep-deprived and semi-psychotic state you would somehow justify it to yourself and go through with it.

[Junior]

It's easy to claim you'd never do it because this is just a pointless discussion on an internet forum.

In real life, if faced with having your greatest wish granted, you would not be able to provide an answer so calmly and cleanly. It would trouble your mind for a few days so you couldn't work or be around other people, the shame of even considering such a proposition making it unbearable to even look at your best friend. Your friends would begin talking about you, wondering what was wrong with you, gossiping about you, and you'd overhear them and get paranoid. Then you would stay up nights thinking it over and over and over, until in a sleep-deprived and semi-psychotic state you would somehow justify it to yourself and go through with it.

This is totally true for the every day, average person IMO. People can't deal with such big decisions. And even once they've made the choice, in the end, they'll always be like: WHAT IF? WHAT IF I HAD KILLED THIS LOSER AND GOTTEN THAT DAMN WISH?!

I think the most I'd do is slowly grow more and more resentful toward any of my friends if I actually faced that decision and turned it down.

"Oh, you can't make it for my birthday...? That's cool I guess..."

"Oh, you forgot to invite me to that party? No problem man...these things...happen..."


Those are some drastic examples, but even the little stuff could add up. Under normal circumstances, your best friend not having time to listen to your problems because he's busy is acceptable, but once you've given up your greatest wish for his sake it can be some pretty unforgivable shit. Certainly not something I'd like to imagine myself doing, but I wouldn't rule it out.

You've made a great point here. It's amazing how your affinity for someone can rapidly decrease by such things.

D: But I'll admit, I am greedy as hell, but still, I wouldn't give them up. I prefer to work for my rewards in life. =) roflmao.

[Abdula]

There is something ever so slightly morbid about this discussion, and leads me to question the psychological state of the the people announcing their intention to kill their 'best friend'.

For what it worth, I wouldn't kill a friend for a wish. I wouldn't even kill someone I don't like for a wish to come true. Its not my right to attain happiness at the cost of someone else's life when they have done no wrong.

Whats this, we discuss hypothetically killing a few people and you gotta call our psychological state into question. You guys really need to get down from your moral high ground. I wish I could see the world like you guys do, from behind a wall of moral boundaries, laws and psychological barriers but I can't and I really don't see the need for any of that to be a part of this discussion.

Saying no, and then going on to discuss everything that is wrong with killing your best friend is rather boring and its just going to kill this thread, the flip side is much more entertaining.

[saman]

lol wow, ani. you've really given this some thought.

i, however, agree with DB. it's not even really something that i need to think about twice, let alone lose sleep over. probably not even if it was proposed to me in real life. the thought of intentionally hurting someone, good or bad, makes me cringe. the reason is a combination of a few things. mostly, it's similar to TwisT's, though with the opposite effect. the concept of death is so incomprehensible to me that i can't stand the thought of intentionally condemning anyone to that fate. i have no right to do so, and especially if it's for such selfish reasons. also, there's nothing i want badly enough that i would kill my best friend, or anyone really, to get it. not to say that i don't have wishes, just that my greatest wishes aren't something i so desperately want that i could justify killing anyone for them. as for the "they did something to wrong you" argument, if your friend did truly do such a thing, they wouldn't really be your best friend, so they wouldn't be applicable anyway. the only reason i could see myself wanting to kill someone would be if they purposefully killed or otherwise harmed a member of my family.

[Animeniax]

I know it's easy to say what you would or wouldn't do when it's just fanciful supposition. But when faced with these decisions in real life, I think it'd be a lot more difficult to choose.

[XanBcoo]

I think the most I'd do is slowly grow more and more resentful toward any of my friends if I actually faced that decision and turned it down.

"Oh, you can't make it for my birthday...? That's cool I guess..."

"Oh, you forgot to invite me to that party? No problem man...these things...happen..."


Those are some drastic examples, but even the little stuff could add up. Under normal circumstances, your best friend not having time to listen to your problems because he's busy is acceptable, but once you've given up your greatest wish for his sake it can be some pretty unforgivable shit. Certainly not something I'd like to imagine myself doing, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[Animeniax]

That shows some balls admitting that could happen. I didn't even think about that side of it, but I know I'd feel the same way. If I gave up my greatest wish for someone's sake, they'd better be worth it. I'm not proud of it, but I think I would want them to know about the deal, so they'd realize how much of a friend I am to them, and how close they came to death.

[Buffalobiian]

...and how close they came to death.

Lol, sounds like you gave the option some serious thought Ani. If you really want to scare the guy, tell him you can take up the option anytime you want.

[Kraco]

I think Xan is also neglecting the fact that if you kept thinking like that, you would actually be severing the friendship bond on your side. Naturally some amount of skepticism is allowed in any relationship but the moment you start to seek reasons to lessen the bond in order to carry out the grim mission, you aren't anymore looking at a best friend, or a friend at all.

If the deal is explicitly for a best friend, it should be carried out soon or totally rejected. If you take time to look for excuses and convince yourself, you have actually already stopped to consider the person a friend and view him/her as a mere tool anymore.

[Animeniax]

I don't know, I think you could still be best friends if you don't put too much weight on the possibilities if you had taken the wish. It would be like if you had a chance to cheat on your wife, but decided not to. You could still be a loving husband and your wife could still be your soulmate, even if there are other chances to cheat.