FimFiction Link - Short ID: 532616/the-witless
Published: Mar '23 — Jul '23
The Witless is a 51k word pony-fic-ation of the Hungarian classic that is The Witness.
It's rare that a fic manages to impress me over the first paragraph, but the opening poem's translation did just that, its simple elegance starkly contrasted what the film's subtitles provided.
Speaking of, I'd say watching the movie first was the right choice. The narrative largely follows it lockstep, but where it differs, it does so seamlessly. Moreover, it gave me an appreciation for how much the author worked to make it so that even those who don't care for cinema or communism could understand what's going on.
Many jokes are adapted from the film, supplemented with original gags which prevent the prose from drying out. The only criticism I have of those is that "agit-" has a J sound while "git" doesn't. The writing is polished, and errors are few and far between.
As far as the characters go, every one of them fits their role impeccably. I did find it strange at first how Virag was played by Pinkie rather than Rarity, but her performance turned out perfectly amusing and tragic.
To summarize, I greatly enjoyed The Witless, and I'd highly recommend both it and the film it was based on.