The Justine puzzle box is not a fair puzzle, and dad's note is a red herring

[PugPug]

You know from the notes that Justine would put two characters facing the same direction and that that was wrong.

What you do not know is whether Justine altered the mechanism to make this correct (she did).

All the other clues -- that she likes the man facing the right, that she never picks the man with the sword (though later she is the one with the sword), that the kneeling man appears to be praying or begging -- are made useless by the note left by her father. There is no way to know which to trust. You know something is a red herring, but not what.

There is also nothing suggesting whether the man with open arms should or should not be included.

It's very, very easy to read too much into it and what the symbols might represent.

To make matters worse, on attempts 2 and 3, the prisoner doesn't make a sound, making you think that perhaps you got it right.