Q & A's A'd! · 11:45pm Dec 17th, 2017
Hello all!
Last week, I put out a blog post asking for questions from you readers, and a few of you responded! Below are your questions and answers.
themouthofmush asked: why haven't the main duo kissed yet? everyone wants to know.
Because good things come to those who wait, my loyal reader.
HolyCross9 asked: Where did Philip learn how to fight?
After Phillip earned his cutie mark, he started studying skills that he felt he'd need to know, including hoof to hoof combat. He studied through books and by joining clubs at home and in college. By the time he joined the police academy, he was already well versed in Bartitsu, jujitsu, boxing, and stick fighting. He refined his techniques in the academy and on the street.
Seriff Pilcrow asked: What gave you the inspiration to put Daring Do in an noir? Not that there’s anything wrong with that or your story, but wouldn’t someone like Rarity or Octavia or Copper Top from “The Gift of Maud Pie” be the first pony to come to mind?
That's a very fair question, and it has a couple answers. The first, kind of silly one, is that Ponyville Noire is a reboot of my original Phillip Finder series. In that series, Phillip was shipped with Daring, and I wanted to carry that over to Noire.
The second, more serious answer, was that Daring fit with the character of the adventurous former thief trying to go straight that I wanted to go for. Also, I felt that her personality in the show—a daredevil with a sarcastic streak and a penchant for trouble—worked well with Phillip's ever-stoic, restrained personality and made for some great interactions.
The named characters might've worked in other ways, but none of them fit the mold I wanted. Rarity might have a good eye for observation and a penchant for getting information, but I can't see her having much of a stomach for truly nitty-gritty details (spoiler: I do have vague ideas of including her within Noire as a more important character who helps Phil and Daring, but nothing's definitive right now). Octavia, outside of the Mafia Octavia-verse, was too prim and proper to really work with Phillip, and Copper Top never even occurred to me as a possibility, simply because she had very little characterization.
The Bricklayer asked: I have a non Philip or Daring related question, what was the first real noir mystery you ever read?
Oooh, tough question. I think I'd have to go with Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, the first story featuring Philip Marlowe (who, by the way, was the inspiration behind Phillip Finder's name). I personally didn't like it much.
Does anyone else have a question they want to ask? Just drop it off in the comments! I'll update this blog with answers!
Wow, kind of like how Batman learned how to fight; amazing!
Huh, interesting...
I have another Question (it's an odd one too) regarding Philip: does he have the willpower to hypothetically become a Green Lantern?