Episode 276 - Midnight, chapter 1

Episode 276: Midnight, chapter 1

Midnight has all the balanced and reasonable powers of a five year-old crybaby playing shoot-em-up in the back yard

Writing a compelling and interesting villain protagonist is never easy, and making the audience cheer for them is even less so. And when your main motivation for doing such is ‘a friend double dog dared me to do it,’ then you know that the results are going to be painful. And so we have the tale of Midnight, a sixteen year old stripper try-hard supervillain whose master plan is to steal the first piece of junk she liberates from a museum and try to flog it to a pawn shop maybe. However, her laughable plan is stopped by some obscure superhero nobody’s ever heard of (“man bat” or something like that) which means that she needs to fall back on her array of contrived super powers to carry the day for injustice and petty theft. Oh, and also there’s something about a city-wide spree of people spontaneously turning into murderers. Maybe. But it’s probably not important anyway.

Riffers: Dan, Rebecca Bartley, Tsuneo Tateo and Rick R. Mortis
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Fanfic Retrospective - My Way to the Championship

My Way to the Championship was an important Fanfic for us for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was something that was new and current; up until that point, most of our source material was taken from older sources. Many of the fics that we were working with could have existed (and often did) during the “classic” Elmer Studios era. In My Way, we were working on a fanfic that was, in turn, based on a series that was currently being broadcast.

The second was its status. For the most part, we had been handling fics that were either long ago completed or, more often, long ago abandoned. In My Way, we were looking at a fic that was in the process of still being written, with new chapters coming out as we were working on them. That’s about as current as it gets.

My Way ran to twelve chapters, plus the OC profiles that were worth several more in and of themselves. The result was that it is one of the longest fics we’ve ever done here, both in terms of chapters and actual wordcount.

Rebuilding Elmer Studios - The Voice

When we were rebuilding the cast in preparation for the Rebuild of Delta, there was one incredibly important matter that had to be considered - who would it be that was sending them the fic? Almost immediately the answer came as a "rebooted" version of the original Elmer Studios host, The Voice. However, that then raised a lot of other questions, many of which had been around since the original series.

The result was that while a very literal off-screen character, the Voice would need a lot of work.

Episode 275 - Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 2

Episode 275: Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 2

Yes, I am glad that such an improbable development was properly foreshadowed rather than being thrown in at the last minute.

A convincing, deep and well-realised villain with well thought-out motives and goals can be an incredible asset to a narrative. I only mention this because the second half of Bubblegum Climax: Freefall doesn’t feature anything remotely like that. Instead it gives us Demond, a goony, one-dimensional clod who has no motivation, no background and no plan beyond ‘blow stuff up with the nuke I have for no real reason’ and goes out of his way to ruin his own operation and generally make things hard on himself. But he’s also incredibly fun, so we’ll let him do it anyway. Throw in a rampaging secret weapon that’s doing more harm to its master than anything else and a Deus Ex Machina that will shock you with just how forced it is, and you can call it a day. Save for the inevitable sequel, of course.

Riffers: Dan, Rebecca Bartley, Tsuneo Tateo and Rick R. Mortis
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.

Episode 274 - Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 1

Episode 274: Bubblegum Climax: Freefall, chapter 1

Leaping to conclusions, the fanfic!

Despite its title, this fic is not actually a lemon. Yes, I was actually surprised as well. What is it then? Mostly it’s a Bubblegum Crisis sequel fic that actually acknowledges the existence of Crash! and could be best summarised as “Knight Sabers In Space, kinda sorta maybe”. Being honest, for the most part it’s about a black jumpsuit that is both enigmatic and strangely fascinating, and certainly a lot more interesting than the person wearing it. It’s also about restating the obvious, exposition news, flubbed lines and airport waiting lounges, so if you are fans of any of those, you’re in for a treat. So sit back, relax, fall in love with a dead robot and enjoy the thing that is Bubblegum Climax: Not a Porno Set-Up, No Really.

Riffers: Dan, Rebecca Bartley, Tsuneo Tateo and Rick R. Mortis
Written by: Zogster and Rick R.