The Round Stable

(?) · by **kidcoelacanth** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 4:47 pm

At kefka's beckoning for more threads, I present to you a youtube series good enough that I believe it can maintain it's own: Friendship is Witchcraft. FiW is made by Griffin who does the music and editing and Jenny who does most of the voices. They post the series under the name of SherclopPones.

FiW is notable because, quite simply, it is really, really well made. The editing is top-notch (episode 3's avalanche is the perfect example), the voice work is fantastic (they sound close enough to the original voices while still being an obvious parody), and the original music is a wonderful twist on the music of the show (this post sums it up nicely). The writing is clever and twisted without being outright vulgar or profane, and it is overall an incredibly fun series to watch.

There are currently four five seven episodes to watch:

The Perfect Swarm, parodying Swarm of the Century.

Read It And Sleep, parodying Look Before You Sleep.

Dragone Baby Gone, parodying Dragonshy.

Cute From The Hip, parodying Call of the Cutie.

Spike's Big Day, a short.

Neigh, Soul Sister, parodying Sisterhooves Social.

Lunar Slander, parodying Luna Eclipsed.

Cherry Bomb. parodying The Last Roundup.

There is some wonderful continuity between the episodes, so make sure to watch them in order.

Currently, they are working on episode 5, which will be released (hopefully) in late December. It will be parodying Sisterhooves Social, so we get some sweet Sweetie Belle action. There will be yet another original song which sounds amazing already. With any luck it will be as good or better than the already brilliant Pinkie's Brew from episode four.

Griffin and Jenny's tumblrs sometimes have updates on new episode progress, as well as in the youtube channel, so check out those sources for updates. Ideally all news will be posted in here too so we can all keep up.

What I'm getting at here is FiW owns and you should all watch it and talk about it here.

(?) · by **Grue** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 7:06 pm

Good idea for a thread, I'm a huge fan of FiW and try to follow their progress. Seems like they really took off in popularity since Pinkie's Brew extended version got posted. They promised a short in-universe video soon to appease the fans, so it's something to look forward to before the 5th episode is completed.

The new song snippet sounds cool, though I don't know if robotic Sweetie Belle can pull off a song (if it's her singing and not Rarity).

(?) · by **Ragnar** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 7:14 pm

I was going to make this thread as soon as I worked out what the hell is going on around here, but it looks like I don't have to.
Looking forward to more Sweetiebot. :crack:

(?) · by **Throbulator** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 7:20 pm

I liked Pinkie's Brew, and I'm liking it even more now that I've heard the long version. :-D

Can't wait to see what they do with Sisterhooves Social. I hope Sweetie Belle doesn't discover she's a robot though. That would be bad. :flutterdear:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:29 pm

Ragnar34 wrote:Looking forward to more Sweetiebot.

They'll have to make a Roomba joke now.

(?) · by **Scuderia Ferrarity** (?) » Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:21 pm

Bah - off topic

(?) · by **Kanthulhu** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 12:18 am

FiW is awsome. When I watched the first episode I didn't like it very much; it seemed just like any other parody fan remake that float around the internet. Of course, I was wrong. The editing is awesome, the voices are great and even the backstory is very good and deep. Now it turns out FiW's music is fantastic as well.

I'm damn!

(?) · by **Timall** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:53 am

A FiW short has been posted!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJoYq0wKc4I&feature=g-u 'Spike's Big Day'

It's very short but it's great.

(?) · by **blasmeister** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:49 pm

Spike does have a weak grip :v:

(?) · by **kidcoelacanth** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:03 pm

Shitting all over Spike's hopes and dreams is a family tradition!

(?) · by **Pocket** (?) » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:33 pm

I like the double-meaning in the thread title.

That's all I have to say for now.

(?) · by **kidcoelacanth** (?) » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:41 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGq1tOIi2qE

there are no words, really

(?) · by **Whitenoise Poster** (?) » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:34 am

Talk about eye candy.

(?) · by **ComradeCosmobot** (?) » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:35 pm

Requoting thatbastardken's overly-detailed examinations of the FiW characters, mostly because I liked the way he described them.

thatbastardken wrote:The characterizations are not so much absurd than they are twisted mirrors of the originals, which is something that the Mentally Advanced Abridged Edition also hints at, if more crudely. I'm going to 'sperg about it briefly, so if you hate that sort of thing tl;dr.

Twilight in FiM is a nerd bookworm, but her social awkwardness is something she's aware of and tries to deal with by making friends, going to parties etc. She obsesses over what other people might see as trivia, but her knowledge is often useful (when it doesn't make things worse, anyway), and she does have other topics of conversation. She's the teachers pet, but she works hard to earn the trust and admiration of her mentor.

Twilight in FiW is socially oblivious (walking in off the street to a children's party to raid the snack table?) and insensitive to the point of cruelty (treatment of Spike, etc). All she cares about is writing creepy fan-fics and using her magic to gain social position over others. She harbors an unhealthy obsession towards Princess Celestia, who tolerates her publicly but is mostly just sick of getting a letter every day.

So FiM Twilight is a positive nerd stereotype, and FiW Twilight is more the kind of creepy internet shut in we are all depressingly familiar with.

I could write up the rest of them, and throw in the MAAE versions, but this really isn't the right thread for it.

thatbastardken wrote:The Mentally Advanced abRidged Edition (MARE) Twilight is a different kettle of fish. Here the stereotype is of the engineering/hard science/mathematics student who has been convinced that their field of study is intellectually and morally superior to "soft" sciences or humanities (ponianities?) Dismissive of the idea that friendship could have some kind of merit outside of a laboratory, interested only in continuing her studies into "real" topics while just doing enough work on her assigned project to keep the Princess off her back. Her relationship with Celestia is based solely on fear as MARE Celestia is a hybrid of Kim Jong Il and an Ork Warboss.

Rainbow Dash gets similar treatment to Twilight: In FiM she might be a clueless, sometimes insensitive "jock" figure, but she has dreams and works towards them, wouldn't abandon her friends and is often genuinely heroic. Her abilities match her mouth. In FiW she's more like a sad high school athlete who can't accept the fact that crippling sports injuries or other physical impairment means she will never make *sports team* and refuses to move on. In MARE Rainbow comes off as an idiot at first glance, the sort of person who prides themselves in parochial ignorance. At second glance she isn't much better.

Pinkie Pie follows the pattern as well. In FiM, a fun-loving, wacky prankster, the life of the party who breaks the fourth wall with gay abandon. In FiW, the smiles and jokes are just a cover for crippling abandonment issues stemming from the untimely death of her parents and harsh life in the orphanage, and rather than being a comic foil she plays a straight man to the slightly less stable cast. In MARE, Pinkie is supposed to be an actual insane person rather than a "crazy" cartoon character, and is unpleasant and frightening to be around.

The established pattern at this stage is that FiM characters tend to exhibit positive stereotypes, FiW characters twist towards the tragic types of those traits, and MARE shows an actively hostile version of otherwise very similar characters.

I'll do the rest later.

thatbastardken wrote:How can I tell you're being facetious when you had in your post? The saddest face!

Ahem.

Alright, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack.

FiM Fluttershy is shy and gentle with a hidden will of iron under her soft exterior. FiW Fluttershy is more like an iron fist in a velvet glove, with a soft spoken personality and and glib tongue that deflects attention from her destructive tendencies. Does she believe in the cult of Lord Smooze, or is that just one of her many tools of control? It's evident that Applejack fears her strength and influence, and the others are aware of her reputation for dragon-and-demon-slaying. Is possibly a pathological liar. The difference between FiM and FiW Fluttershy is like the difference between the Dalai Lama and Charles Manson - both are soft spoken, charismatic religious leaders, but only one of them will kill and eat your family. MARE Fluttershy is a simple wallflower, a shy and retiring person without hidden depths to her character, who has somehow gotten stuck in the company of these terrible ponies who do nothing but use her but she puts up with them because she can pretend they are friends.

FiM Rarity is compelled to be beautiful and to help others be as close to her as they can get.Things around her need to be just so, or she reacts badly. FiW Rarity has been badly traumatized by her experience in the military, and is now exhibiting classic symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (I'm pretty sure that's not the right classification these days, but roll with it) and crippling PTSD. Her need to disassociate herself from the war crimes she may have committed has led her to fixate on fashion, acting and disguises, and join a cult in which she gets the comfort of a religious belief that the world will be destroyed by a wave of ooze anyway. FiW Rarity is like a less comedic Cpl. Klinger, dressing up in a society of nudes to pretend she's someone else. MARE Rarity is perhaps the crudest of the stereotypes, a pastiche of every girl who wouldn't go out with you, but was always making out with cool footballers or whatever. Maybe she'll get more characterization later, but at the moment she's pretty weak.

Finally, Incidental Hat Pony #1 from FiM is a positive stereotype of a country person - understanding the importance of rituals, tradition and family, not afraid of hard work, with great reserves of hospitality (unless you're a zebra). In FiW she's a lot like Pinkie - less erratic than the others but not without strange foibles. Her twist comes from the way she uses the importance of family as a justification for war crimes, the way she uses the importance of tradition as an excuse to brainwash a child away from following her dreams. She gives off a vibe at times that wouldn't be out of place in the Wicker Man, And then...the apples. I'm really not sure what AJ's deal is in MARE, other than being a perfectly reasonable person who is put upon by being in the company of assholes. Like Rarity, she needs more screen time.

(?) · by **numsOic** (?) » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:38 pm

Wowie zowie look at all those words.

(?) · by **Daionus The 23rd** (?) » Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:57 pm

Random theory: when they eventually covers Owl's Well, Spike will be revealed to be much more creepy than first thought. Alternatively, he will be even more sympathetic.

(?) · by **FusionFox** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:27 am

Just noticed the background image on their Youtube channel...

(?) · by **brakeless** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:30 am

THE FUN HAS ALRADY BEGUN

Getting giddy for it. :yay:

I love Sherclop's creativity.

(?) · by **Starbucker** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:14 pm

I'm hoping they do something creative with the Sweetie Bot voice, because listening to that for 15 minutes straight could get old.

(?) · by **kidcoelacanth** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:55 pm

I just hope Sweetie Bot calls someone Wesley.

(?) · by **Whitenoise Poster** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:59 pm

It'd be funny if after all of our excitement it turns out to be really disappointing.

(?) · by **Starbucker** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:07 pm

Whitenoise Poster wrote:It'd be funny if after all of our excitement it turns out to be really disappointing.

Every episode so far has had at least one "what the hell that came out of nowhere?!" :starity:

moment, so even if one flops I'm looking forward to the surprises.

This series has lots of catchy bits and spot-on observations, and I'm always amused to see references to it mixed in with the general pony threads.

(?) · by **numsOic** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:57 pm

kidcoelacanth wrote:I just hope Sweetie Bot calls someone Wesley.

This. So much.

:nngh:

"She calls everyone Wesley. I don't know why."

(?) · by **Confounded Ponies** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:04 pm

When I first saw the fourth episode, and Cherilee started talking about THE ROBOTS and the kids in the background groaned "not this again" I laughed like a demon.

This whole series is absolutely amazing and does a huge credit to the source material.

(?) · by **Grue** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:05 pm

Whitenoise Poster wrote:It'd be funny if after all of our excitement it turns out to be really disappointing.

Well, unlike hotdiggedydemon who (like many of us) jumped on the bandwagon, these guys were MLP fans since episode 1 (or in case of Jenny Nicholson even before FiM). They can't let us down!

Well, I guess they can, but they're pretty chill people as anyone who attended their livestream can attest.

(?) · by **Aurora** (?) » Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:16 pm

I want more eye blinking to Smashmouth music.

(?) · by **kidcoelacanth** (?) » Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:56 am

News!

http://griffinilla.tumblr.com/post/1399 ... -episode-5

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:04 am

Woooo, :iceburn: against DRESS.MOV :gotcha:

(?) · by **Scuderia Ferrarity** (?) » Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:14 am

Confounded Ponies wrote:When I first saw the fourth episode, and Cherilee started talking about THE ROBOTS and the kids in the background groaned "not this again" I laughed like a demon.

If you listen closely to the note passing scene you'll hear about how she got her increasingly emotionally distant husband declared a robot.

But she talks about him in the past tense, so we can only assume that he came home from work one day and she shot him in the face and chest repeatedly at point blank range so that his robotic body wouldn't be able to react as she reloaded the clip. She dissolved the body in acid so that it could not come back to life
and then went on to follow her dream to become a teacher of small children. :iamapony:

(?) · by **ComradeCosmobot** (?) » Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:07 am

Also, congrats Artrix! You've made the big time (in ponydom)!

(?) · by **Kally Wally** (?) » Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:47 pm

Why would you want to make the big time anywhere else?

(?) · by **Chaos Sonic** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:50 am

ComradeCosmobot wrote:Thatbastardken's stuff

What is this MARE he keeps referring to?

(?) · by **Whitenoise Poster** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:30 am

The Mentally Advance abridged series. It's not as good as witchcraft but much better then any of the other awful attempts at parody.

(?) · by **thatbastardken** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:31 am

edit* ^^ Whitenoise Poster!! :applejargh:

Chaos Sonic wrote:
What is this MARE he keeps referring to?

thatbastardken wrote:Mentally Advanced abRidged Edition

It's another fan abridged/edited series, and I needed to make the acronym a horse pun because of my disorder.

(?) · by **Confounded Ponies** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:24 am

Scuderia Ferrarity wrote:If you listen closely to the note passing scene you'll hear about how she got her increasingly emotionally distant husband declared a robot.

But she talks about him in the past tense, so we can only assume that he came home from work one day and she shot him in the face and chest repeatedly at point blank range so that his robotic body wouldn't be able to react as she reloaded the clip. She dissolved the body in acid so that it could not come back to life
and then went on to follow her dream to become a teacher of small children.

Holy shit, I completely missed that.

So much hilarious stuff in these videos :awesomedash:

(?) · by **Frosthawk** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:52 am

These guys have a livestream?! Where! :crack:

There is just something unique and precious about this series and it never fails to make me laugh my head off. And everytime I watch I catch like five new things. The amount of humor poured into every minute is just incredible.

(?) · by **Nissl** (?) » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:34 pm

Per EqD, the series creators will be interviewed Thursday at 3 PM on Celestia Radio. You can email questions to qcom53587@gmail.com with the subject "fiw"

(?) · by **Daionus The 23rd** (?) » Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:44 am

Shame I'll be busy at that time.

(?) · by **diribigal** (?) » Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:28 pm

Nissl wrote:Per EqD, the series creators will be interviewed Thursday at 3 PM on Celestia Radio. You can email questions to qcom53587@gmail.com with the subject "fiw"

Is there a recording of this somewhere? I only found this thread now (I'm still acclimating to the lack of megathreads, even though it's a good idea).

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:38 pm

I used to think FiW was stupid, but then I actually took the time to sit down and watch through it- and it is incredible. The editing and the voices are really great, and the random gags and jokes are absolutely hilarious. Consider me converted. And I still laugh every time Sweetiebot shows up, and I'll often have the ten minute extended version of their eyes blinking to All Star going in the background while I'm doing something. I don't understand how I possibly hated it.

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