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(unmarked 5-5 and 5-3 spoilers) The Ends Justify The Means?Topic%20Title
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"To overcome evil with good is good, to resist evil by evil is evil." --The Prophet Muhammad

"To fight one evil...you must sometimes use another..." --Hawke (from the Advance Wars series)

This occurred to me a while ago, but I was hesitant to bring it up while the Dual Destinies spoiler rules were still in effect (not to mention I was originally planning on discussing the occurrence of such things in video games as a whole). Anyway, as the title might imply, I wanted to look into the idea of the ends justifying the means.

In 5-3, Aristotle Means, the man who most vocally endorses the idea of the ends justifying the means (something I've come to call the Means Doctrine), turns out to be the killer. Furthermore, the proliferation of such ideas is what made the Dark Age of the Law more than just the two cases that kickstarted it. Any way you slice it, the Means Doctrine is portrayed as a bad thing that should be avoided--though it's nothing new for the forgery of evidence and manipulation of witnesses to be portrayed as harmful.

However, in a sense, the game tacitly (and unintentionally, I hope) contradicts its message in 5-5 through a single incident. The truth behind the UR-1 Incident was one day away from being lost forever, and the state was not going out of its way to look into the matter. That all changed when Aura Blackquill forced the courts' hand by taking several hostages, Trucy Wright among them. In other words, it is thanks to Aura's use of the Means Doctrine that the UR-1 Incident was reexamined, thus allowing the truth to be discovered, exposing the Phantom and averting Simon Blackquill's execution.

Admittedly, unlike with Professor Means and his selfish pursuit of victory in court, Aura's goals are more open to interpretation. On the one hand, if we are to assume she was only interested in getting her brother exonerated, then her goals were just as selfish in that she did not take the hostages in the interest of finding the truth, thus making it a textbook example of the Means Doctrine, albeit one that had the unintended side-effect of revealing the truth. On the other hand, if we are to assume that she would have accepted Simon being declared the killer had it come to that again in the retrial, then the game has tacitly said that there are times when the ends really do justify the means, even if said means are illegal and/or potentially harmful, as Aura used illegal and morally ambiguous methods in order to pursue a just goal.
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Re: (unmarked 5-5 and 5-3 spoilers) The Ends Justify The MeaTopic%20Title
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Ah interesting, it does seem awfully contradictory.

Moreso when Phoenix himself has used forged evidence before 4-1. Perhaps the more experienced lawyers solemnly understand that the Means Doctrine can actually work at times. They don't like it and don't follow it but they know to deny it flies in the face of facts. Perhaps this is why no one SAYS anything when Means is blatantly talking about illicit court practices in 5-3.

Then again the difference between Aura's method and Mean's is that Aura just utilises the Doctrine to create a situation, she's not really looking for the truth at the time at least not a truth she can understand. The truth comes out through evidence (and human idiocy in the case of 5-5) in a legitimate way. Aura may have created the scenario but the actual End was brought about by legitimate means (assuming the Mood Matrix can be taken as legitimate).

I'd like to imagine even without Aura's intervention that Athena would have done SOMETHING seeing as her whole reason for becoming a lawyer was to save Blackquill. I'd like to think she'd have stepped in and arranged something but perhaps it's because I'm unsympathetic towards Aura but no I don't believe she was integral to it at least not in a meaningful way that condones what she did.
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Re: (unmarked 5-5 and 5-3 spoilers) The Ends Justify The MeaTopic%20Title
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General Luigi wrote:
On the other hand, if we are to assume that she would have accepted Simon being declared the killer had it come to that again in the retrial, then the game has tacitly said that there are times when the ends really do justify the means, even if said means are illegal and/or potentially harmful, as Aura used illegal and morally ambiguous methods in order to pursue a just goal.

I agree her actions are open to interpretation. I don't agree her goal can be considered "just" when she had a strong bias against Athena and refused to be convinced when Phoenix brought up the possibility of another culprit. Regardless of the result, her intentions for what should come about from the hostage situation were justified according to her point of view, but not anyone else's, and that, by definition, is selfish behavior. Once again, the game suggests the message that the application of "ends justify the means" is done with an ill-intentioned purpose.

(Consequently, her threats to the Prosecutor's Office gave Edgeworth the opportunity to allow the case to be re-opened for investigations. It's possible he could have found some other reason to pull off an unofficial trial, but Aura's actions sealed the deal.)
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Re: (unmarked 5-5 and 5-3 spoilers) The Ends Justify The MeaTopic%20Title
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I didn't quite see it this way, actually. Aura threatened Nick with Trucy's life, and the game does presume she is having charges against her. While it is true that the forced retrial led to the truth being unmasked, you can't say it wouldn't have been found otherwise. After all, it wouldn't be the first time :karma: (or the second time, or the third... doesn't this happen more times than not?) that finding a killer led to uncovering the truth behind a past trial.

Also, the ultimate evil isn't the corruption itself, but the darkness and distrust that leads to everyone's' actions. Phoenix himself utilized the fake card in 4-1.

I guess when I interpreted the Means Doctrine I took it that the phrase encompassed everything. So when the game disagrees with it, they aren't necessarily saying "ends never justify the means" but rather "end don't necessarily justify ALL means." How far you can go until it is no longer justified is a matter of opinion. I thought the way they portrayed Aura and her actions was perfect.
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