Ask Us 10/9/15 · 3:10pm Oct 9th, 2015
10/9/15
Happy Friday everyone! I hope this one is treating you right. It is time, once again, to answer some of the questions in the mail box. As always, if you'd like to know something please don't hesitate Ask Us!
Additionally, Chapter 2 of Knight and Day is now available for readers. As a reminder, this is a non-canon story that is pretty much just for fans. I doubt I'll ever actually publish it. Enjoy!
Posted asked:
Silent Knight, How often does the guard get into interesting situations? Does this more often lead to visits to the parents of your fallen comrades or hopefully the hospital instead?
SK: I would say that the city guard probably gets into interesting situations all of the time. Ponies can do some weird things for sure. We generally have a good chuckle about the really zany ones Winterspear tells me about. Palace and House Guards normally lead fairly mundane lives. We just have to keep the overly excited ponies out and away from the Princesses.
In truth, we don't see a lot of ponies killed or horribly injured in the line of duty. These last three years have been anything but typical. It is almost like the world is just getting out of hoof. When Nightmare Moon showed up things just started to get weird. Villains have appeared, the gryphons have gotten surly, and there have just been a lot of odd things going on.
Shachza asked:
Anzel, What is your favorite thing about Alastair?
An interesting question! I don't want to give too much away or bias the readers by answering in too detail. Generally speaking, I see villains in two ways.
1. Villains that are in some way relatable that you feel bad for. You can sort of understand their motivation and even though you know they're bad you still kind of root for them.
2. Villains that are just plain bad.
Sometimes I want to write a great villain that tugs at your heartstrings. Sometimes I just want to write a cardboard cutout, mustache twirling, bad guy.
Alastair is more on of the second camp (although we'll see more soon) and I liked that for this story. At least for him. It actually surprised me that people were so down on SK for going after him.
GoexHdoK asked:
Anzel, So, the last few chapters of Silent Knight were pretty dark. Will there be any chances that Silent Knight overcomes his state of depression and finally moves on?
They have been darker, yes. One of the things I try to show in Slice of Life is that life has ups and downs. Sometimes problems are serious and can't easily be shrugged off. At the same time, sometimes we can't be stubborn forever and unwilling to change. Silent Knight is really struggling with survivor's guilt. That is the core of his issue. He came up with a plan to resolve it and it didn't really fly.
With that said, despite this run of darker themes, Q&B is generally a positive universe. Things tend to work out for a reason and for the better. There is a reason for what is happening ToD and there is a reason for what is happening Secrets. There is always a silver lining though and we know there are some positive things coming.
You have made it clear that Silent Knight was not authorized and went after him for the wrong reasons which makes it straight up murder as well as making Silent Knight quite a bit more grey. The only difference between killing in a war and murder is legal authority and since Silent Knight didn't have it, it falls clearly into the second camp. It is a very big and important distinction.
To hilariously make it possible that Silent Knight was even more in the wrong we got to see that Alastair might not have been playing with a full deck or could even have been a complete puppet. If it turns out that Alastair was possessed Silent Knight just did the equivalent of telling Princess Luna that she deserved to die when she returned as Nightmare Moon. Awkward.
3454916 I'm sorry but I'll have to disagree with you. Silent Knight did not get authorization. That is true.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. It isn't "straight up murder." You mention legal authority as your example and said SK didn't have it.
I simply don't agree. In the broadest sense of the term he has a duty to protect the princess. That does include killing if necessary. Obviously the intent is not for him to run out and go slaughter every potential threat, but then this isn't necessarily a "potential" threat. This was a threat that already made an attempt once.
Alastair was wanted for crimes by both Equestria and the Northern Kingdom. He was a soldier and/or enemy combatant depending on his backing. He doesn't get the same legal protections you're trying to use to call it murder. Equestria was at war with him and his group, more or less, in the same way the US can be "at war" with a terrorist organization.
Silent Knight had weak legal authority and no authorization. Career killer? Sure. Murder? Sorry, no. If you want to call it that and view it in that perspective I'm fine with it but, when this all resolves, I'm pretty much saying the world isn't going to view it as that. So I don't want a huge outcry of readers of "but it was murder, X should have happened."
Now, as far as the second part goes, that is something that could happen and might have been suggested for sure. It largely depends on what that was ;D
3454916
"went after him for the wrong reasons"
Er... what? I'm sorry, in what world do you live in that trying to kidnap and/or kill a princess and killing members of a military unit in a time of war isn't just cause for a retaliatory assassination attempt?
Please, direct me to it. I want to see it.
I'd also like to laugh at the fact that it doesn't exist in anything other than some black-and-white bullshittery.
3454953
I thought that having someone suffering mental health issues who pulls together an unauthorized kill mission which includes kids pretty clearly had questionable motivations and methods. His kingdom doesn't agree with his actions or he could have actually done his job through channels and with better resources.
3454985
You realize he's a commanding officer with the backing of the EIS, correct? The only other way this could have been more approved by Equestria would have been if Celestia or Luna signed off on the order and gave him a gold star after he came back. This practice of keeping things under wraps isn't exactly new, you know.
There is no time in history—I invite you to check—in which the assassination, attempted assassination, kidnapping, or attempted kidnapping of a ruler or member of the ruling family did not lead to someone's head rolling. This particular story also deals in a time most akin to the Medieval Age. Furthermore, the griffin in question committed an act of international terrorism, one that would've given Equestria full right to declare open warfare on the griffin nation. They didn't. Instead, they declared his band enemies of the state, or some shit (too lazy to go back and check).
Silent Knight's anger over his comrades' deaths and the betrayal during a diplomatic mission is quite justifiable. And I would argue that his mental health is not as in question as you think—he is not gleefully giggling that he killed, he has not expressed joy at having done so, nor does he make any plans to do so again. His response toward the whole thing was "I did my duty... it was not what I expected." That is quite a healthy response for such an act. In fact, he's coming to terms with the fact that what he did doesn't fall into a neat "right or wrong" category. It falls into "act of war".
3455015
One EIS member anyway. I am still not sure why Silent Knight didn't simply get an army unit on standby to wipe out the gryphons as they are the ones with the training and numbers in the first place. It seems like that would be a more sure method than gathering a few ponies and a month of training.
Typically black missions don't get you canned if other people in the know within your own people read into it, if it does you must be pretty far off the reservation. If Silent Knight had been worried about the information going public and that having consequences it would be more understandable.
It seems to straddle Modern and Medieval in a strange balance. On the hand you have Silent Knight as well a knight who will do-what-it-takes to protect his princess, on the other hand it is very heavily implied that knowledge of his actions would be a bad thing for him. Because of this I honestly can't decide if Silent Knight is incompetent (for not using available resources as a high ranking commander type) or performing illegal acts (If taken as a more modern setting). I've been leaning towards the latter, but maybe it should be the former.