Ethics [Tuesday, September 2, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

"There's a very famous story on this world," Anakin began. "Of the lady or the tiger. For those of you not from this world, the short version is there was a fictional king with his own sense of justice: instead of a court system, he had an arena with two doors. Behind one door was a beautiful woman, handpicked by the king. Behind the other was a tiger. If you chose the tiger, you were eaten and declared guilty. If you chose the lady, you were considered innocent and married the lady. The king didn't care about your previous marital status or sexual orientation, apparently."

He began pacing. "One day the king discovered that his daughter had been having an affair with someone far below her station, so the man was arrested and tossed into the arena. Now the princess knew which door has what behind it, and her lover looked up to her for advice. She had two choices: watch her love die, or marry another woman. The story ends with the princess telling him which door to open, but leaves us hanging as to what waited behind it."

Anakin smiled. "Your task today is two-fold. First, pair up with a classmate and decide what the princess did. Then tell me what you would have done in the princess's place."

Comments

What would you do?

[sith_happened]

Tiger chow or happily ever after?

Re: What would you do?

[bad-nose-job.livejournal.com]

"I would have let him marry another woman," Penelope answered, completely sure of herself.

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"Why?" Anakin asked.

Re: What would you do?

[bad-nose-job.livejournal.com]

"If I truly loved him, I would rather see him alive than dead."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"But alive, happy, and with someone who isn't you?"

Anakin forgot that not everyone came with his truckload of issues.

Re: What would you do?

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

"I'd let him marry someone else," Ella said firmly. "You'd have to, if you truly loved him."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"And if you didn't love him?" Anakin replied. "If this was just trying to get your father's attention?"

Re: What would you do?

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

"If I didn't love him, why would I care who he married?" Ella was genuinely puzzled. Wryly, she added, "I generally try to avoid my father's attention."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"Why do you try to avoid it?" Anakin asked.

Re: What would you do?

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

Agnes frowned. "I'd tell my father to go stuff himself, help my lover escape, and run away to another kingdom."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"I don't remember a third option," Anakin said with a small smile.

Re: What would you do?

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

"The fictional princess may have only had two options," Agnes replied, "but you asked what I would have done in her place."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"I didn't say you were incorrect," Anakin replied quickly, still smiling.

Re: What would you do?

[endsthegame]

Answering the question was easy. "Marry them off," he said. No blood on his hands.

He still couldn't make it applicable in any way unless it was Val, though; and even then, the exercise seemed a little pointless. He'd already lost her several times, and he knew he'd have to give her up again eventually. It was just how things worked.

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"Why?" Anakin asked.

Re: What would you do?

[endsthegame]

"It's better to be alive than dead," he said, without a doubt, "And since you're giving the other person up either way, it's not much of a choice."

Re: What would you do?

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"It's not like a princess is going to be allowed to pick her husband anyway," Dōjima answered, bored. "Have him marry the other woman, and deal with the rest of it once you're on the throne and Daddy isn't."

It was what she had planned for if (more like when) her father arranged a marriage for her, anyway.

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

"Do you think he'd wait for you, even married to someone else?" Anakin asked. "What if he moves on before your father lives out to a long and healthy, non-poison assisted old age?"

Re: What would you do?

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"A king behaving like this isn't going to live out a 'long and healthy' life," she answered. "If the population doesn't overthrow him, someone else will."

"If he did move on, well, I don't know. I guess it would be a good thing I didn't elope with him or whatever, if he's that fickle. I can always make life miserable for him later, and I probably saved the tiger indigestion."

Re: What would you do?

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper rolled her eyes.

"Most beasts I am knowing, tigers also, is not much liking taste of human meat," she said. "So tiger is probably only eating human because he starve. So, I feed tiger proper meal first."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

Anakin smiled. "That's a very sensible answer."

Re: What would you do?

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Make more sense than giving tiger meal he not like very much and killing human too," Firekeeper said. "Maybe if king then see tiger not interested, he let human go," idly, she hoped Queen Valora never heard this story, because it seemed like the kind of thing she would love to try.

Re: What would you do?

[grasshopper-mol.livejournal.com]

Molly fidgeted. There might have been thoughts of tigers.

Re: What would you do?

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"It depends," Dick said. "Is there any reason to think that my love could fight off the tiger? Because I've seen some pretty tough people around."

Re: What would you do?

[sith_happened]

Anakin blinked. "I suppose we could consider that." He smiled knowingly. "It tends to make the audience quite unhappy when the meal fights back."

Not that he'd ever been tied up in the middle of an arena. Really.