Thursday DE

[bjornwilde]

As far as criminals go, does your pup believe in punishment or reformation?

Comments

[student_of_impossibility]

Oh yikes. Wow. Uh.

I think Tavi's opinion on this is extremely fluid and depends highly on what the crime was. Most things, yeah, honestly reformation. Sure it might take some, ah, special kinds of manipulation, but he really doesn't like wasting lives or causing pain where he doesn't have to (as long as he's not personally angry for some reason and then it really only lasts until he cools off).

Honestly, even high treason he doesn't think is beyond reformation. Quite specifically, in fact. Depends deeply on circumstances, but, like, he's absolutely gotten past people who tried to kill him or his friends and family before. Sometimes.

And sometimes his evaluation is nope, not gonna change, and then it's less punishment as removal from play. Preferably without killing but, you know, things happen.

That said, there are some things he just absolutely refuses to compromise on, and most of those involve repeated behavioral patterns and some of them might have punishment-with-option-for-reformation but... well. Look. He has a problem with slavers. Some might get to live and maybe change. A lot he is going to just either have summarily executed or let ex-slaves sentence and execute according to due process.

I think generally he tries to leave the option of reformation open, even if it's after some kind of punishment, and where he doesn't think it's possible, well, it's less punishment and more "Well then I guess you don't get to be a threat anymore."

... which is all a long-winded way of saying he's an emperor who is generally pretty progressive but also a trained assassin so

[have_no_mercy]

My characters basically are criminals, so...

[bjornwilde]

Reformation seems like a very Jedi thing, even if they are not the ones who handle the legal system in the GFFA and I think Ahsoka would believe in it as well. She gives several people second chances, even Asajj in season 05.

Sabine is more tricky. Her people are very into punitive actions; you hurt my people, I will hurt you. On the other hand, she has learned the value of second chances and offers them when she can. But the legal power in her time is the Empire and you do not want them handling reformation which would likely be much more like brainwashing. I think if she were caught by the Empire, she'd hope for being punished until she can be rescued.

Jess used to be all about the punishment. I mean, she beats up bad guys for a living, punishment is part of the ppower fantasy job. Things have changed since she's taken on an ex-supervillain as a mentoree. I think she is realizing that while some supervillains are absolute idiots who make bad choices, some are more victims of circumstance.

Tybalt is a faux-feudal monarch and a cat, so he absolutely believes in punishment but he is willing to work with the guilty party at reformation after the punishment. Also, the punishment is typically not long and usually is quick, again he's a cat.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

I was about to say that the Chosen are all very much about reformation, but that's not actually entirely true. One of the major themes of Digimon 02 is punishment vs reformation, and they don't all agree -- Takeru, Yamato's brother, for example, very much believes in punishment over reformation.

Yamato will say he's big on reformation, and he mostly is -- he will err on the side of 'people deserve second chances and the most effective way to decrease crime is to reform' -- but he's also big on things like honour, and as a result he takes the tack that hurting innocent people is an indelible stain on a person's character that renders them perpetually unworthy of respect. There's a bit of a question mark hanging over how much you can really be said to be in favour of reformation if part of your philosophy is 'People who hurt innocents are inherently and eternally less than people who don't.'

But also, much like Tavi above, Yamato tends not to bother with reformation or punishment if he thinks someone's going to continue being a threat.