For those who want to dive deeper into the lake and the wisdom of the panzer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commutative_property

Off-topic, but on-comment:
an amazing book with an intriguing story!
To those who like urban fantasy I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I do believe that the perception of the action of which Luigi got accused weighes orders of magnitude more than the perception of his appearance or his popularity.
It’s not him who was popular in the first place.
It was what was done.
Accusing him of it in turn made him popular. That would’ve worked for other people too.

Why let only judges make the jokes then and not the people in the jury too?
Imho that’s a fairness in a sometimes unfair system.