This is why I don’t like Batman’s whole “No Killing the Joker” thing. It’s all well and good to uphold Justice and Law and Due Process, but there ARE some situations where said tenets of society are a hindrance to the survival of the society itself. Such instances are rare, and it is very dangerous to tr and determine them, but they do exist.

Consider the biological body as a metaphor for a functioning society, in this case. The Justice system (courts, arbiters, juries, jailers and executioners) is the equivalent of the Immune System- rooting out and isolating or destroying bad cells. Now, normal day-to-day reactions- a sneeze, extra mucous, etc, is normal by-the-book stuff. Then you get the Fever- an immune reaction meant to do a total wipe of infection from the whole body. Your body only breaks these out in severely threatening cases- we could call the Fever a War Trial, perhaps.

Normally, a Fever is something to let run its course (it’s a major Trial for a major figure- say, the deposed head of state after a successful invasion). However, in some cases, the Fever is dangerous to the body itself- namely, when it runs long, or runs too hot. So too, can a Trial be dangerous. I feel that any trial that Taro is the subject of has just that sort of chance to run Hot and Long, and possibly kill the potential nation that might grow out of his defeat, before he’s taken care of.

IIRC, they also talked about the tubed players as a hardcore bunch who NEVER broke character in that same conversation.

(Sorry, still haven’t looked it up in the archives; busy weekend!)