Verdict+JennyP

In the trial today, I think Position 2 won because of several factors. First of all, they were prepared and ready to go from the beginning of the trial. I personally believe that my side, Position 1, had failed to put everything together as a group and present one united theme throughout the trial because we did not communicate with each other effectively prior to it. Another reason is that Position 1 had a unified theme and followed their main argument throughout the trial. They supported their argument well using different evidence to prove that there is meaning to life, such as when the Shaper said that people still sing his songs in funerals even though he does not exist anymore. Also, during cross examination the witnesses of Positions 2 did not hesitate and answered calmly to what the lawyers of Position 1 asked questions. I also believe Position 1 failed to argue clearly that Position 2's beliefs and evidence are all based on what they "make up". However, I do believe there was a disadvantage for us, Position 1, because we did not have enough time to cross examine the other side's witnesses. Also, the fact that Position 1 only had two characters as witnesses limited the variety of evidence for our side. Even though Grendel and Dragon are characters with major roles in the book, once their roles were divided into three parts it was difficult for us to provide a variety of support unlike Position 2 that had one person for each witness. I think the key to Position 2 winning the argument was when the lawyers asked the Dragons "If you live and sit on gold for happiness that means there is meaning to life because you live to be happy, right?". This is because they just pointed out directly that the Dragons were going against their main arguments that life is meaningless. The lawyers did a great job finding the moments where our position went against ourselves and pointed them out during cross examination. I think this was the key to their winning the trial. The statement "The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters." was disproved in the trial due to the lawyers of Position 2 being able to point out our weaknesses during the direct examinations.