Discarding the Imperial Favor (L5R rules board)

A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.

A player, 9 January 2008

General question here concerning taking the imperial favor away from an opponent. Suppose player A has the imperial favor and Doji Masako in play. Suppose player B plays Warrior Challenge in a battle against player A and wins the duel (thus taking the imperial favor away from A) Can player A react with Doji Masako's ability to retake the imperial favor? (What I'm wondering at the heart is, if another player takes the imperial favor away from another, is it considered "discarded", or was it just "moved" to another player's control?)

Warrior Challenge Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities: He challenges a target Personality opposing him. Destroy the loser. The winner’s controller takes the Imperial Favor.

Doji Masako Political Reaction: After the Imperial Favor is discarded, bow one of your target Personalities with 4 or higher Personal Honor: Take the Favor. If the discarding paid a cost from one of your abilities not on a card, you can use that ability an additional time this turn.

Zen Faulkes (rules official), 9 January 2008

(I)f another player takes the imperial favor away from another, is it considered "discarded", or was it just "moved" to another player's control?

http://rules.l5r.com/Non-card_physical_game_elements: "To discard the Favor as a cost means to pass it from your control to the uncontrolled state. By contrast, effects that discard the Favor will make the favor uncontrolled no matter who controls it."

Thus, if an effect specifies who gets the Favor, it has not been discarded.