Episode 317 - Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 7-10

Episode 317: Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 7-10

I know you're lying and that this kit was made by my dead twin brother because my one-dimensional prop girlfriend told me so.

Having run out of Gundams to beat up, Kale decides instead to beat up plastic toy robots from other shows instead. His team reacts to this decision in the most basic and obvious of ways that would come naturally in such a situation: they run around making strange noises, force comparisons to episodes of Gundam 00, wonder about Kale’s pre-pubescent brother and if he’s getting his rocks off (ewww) and find new ways to humiliate Darren. Throw in a trip to the biggest Gundam convention in all of Maryland (with attendance figures in excess of three) and the return of Kale’s infinitely more interesting evil twin brother (goatee optional) and you have the non-definite un-conclusion to this replacement fic for a replacement fic for a show about the fandom of a show! Eargblergh!

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

Episode 314 - Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 5-6

Episode 314: Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 5-6

Mine is a cross between a Bogmips Wimple and a Magenta Zonedweebie, with the Zorkblonker Floonburper and a full set of QQ Wompnurgles, which allows it to go fully Gronknuts with its Turgledome Squarkblork.

Not content with being the most miserable human being on the face of the planet, Kale Cassel heads to Gundam Junior Camp so he can share his misery with others and crush any love they may have ever had for anything in the universe. But it’s not all fun and games for our cruel mockery of a protagonist. Personal tragedy abounds as Kale gets a deranged stalker and Monica’s family die because she took so long in the bathroom. And so as Kale passes an important milestone on his path to manhood (hint: not Zabanya), Lyle figures out what a girl is (hint: also not Zabanya) and guest star Mister Plight does that thing that we all know he always does, we continue on our painful march to oblivion. I mean the next two chapters of the fic. Really.

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

Episode 312 - Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 3-4

Episode 312: Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 3-4

Yes, you have to take part in a sport that you've dedicated your life to anyway for the sake of a girl who clearly likes you. Suck it up, princess.

Getting to take the day off school because a pair of big names from the sport-like substance you’ve dedicated your life to have come to visit in order to heap praise upon you sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it? Unless you’re Kale “I Like Zabanya” Cassel, in which case it’s just another bleak drudgery that the universe has chosen to heap upon him that he will complain endlessly about. Between that, his being considered at the top of his sport, a girl loving him unconditionally for no real reason and the entire universe arranging itself for his convenience, life is obviously one never ending cycle of bleak misery. But on, the upside, people do get to talk about what parts their plastic toy robots are made out of, and in the end, that’s what’s good in life.

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

Episode 309 - Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 1-2

Episode 309: Gundam Build Fighters: Life's Gunpla Battle Championship MkII, chapters 1-2

Raymond collapsed and passed out several minutes ago. I didn't help him, because this near-total stranger's model kit is more important than his health. I know he'll understand.

When you’re writing fanfic about a show that’s about the fandom of a show, you’re already pretty metafictional. But when you replace your fanfic about a show that’s about the fandom of a show with another fanfic about a show that’s about the fandom of a show, then it begins to get really crazy. Case in point is this lovely little piece which is a replacement for My Way to the Championship which improves upon it in ways that we can’t even begin to describe. (No, really, this fic cannot be described in any rational terms) So join the cast of Gundam 00 save for that useless scrub Setsuna Kale and his buddies plus the Obligatory Pale Quiet Girl as they mercilessly pummel any feelings of joy and happiness out of the universe and fail to understand how school uniforms work!

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.

Episode 269 - My Way to the Championship OC Profiles

Episode 269: My Way to the Championship OC Profiles

Imagination. Get some..

You thought that you had managed to escape the festival of plastic toy robot madness that was My Way to the Championship. You thought you were safe from its ABS clutches, free from the insanity that infected every last scale model inch of it. Well not so fast, boyo, because for your reading pleasure*, we’ve got a special presentation. That’s right, it’s a compilation of the submitted OC profiles that bought you such memorable characters as like the guy who beat Darren, the guy from the model shop and the guy who looks like the guy from Gundam SEED. And not only that, but it also lists the parts that their customized toy robots are made from in excruciating detail! So grab some model cement, a hacksaw and the parts bin and get to work on the epic appendix to this alleged fanfic! You’ll never look at the colour teal the same way again!

*Actual pleasure not guaranteed. Consult your doctor if Trans-Am persists.

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

Episode 268: My Way to the Championship, chapters 10-12

Episode 268: My Way to the Championship, chapters 10-12

Suddenly, the narrative stopped.

After an endless eternity of listing what bits everybody’s plastic robot toy is made of, My Way to the Championship ends. Well, not really as it just kind of halts dead in its tracks without any effort to resolve anything in any way shape or form. Still, it does manage to achieve a lot in these last three parts; blowing half a chapter on a recap, a really awkward and forced romantic subplot that isn't romantic at all, block character introductions and, of course the canon characters sucking up to the Self-Inserts. Throw in Raymond’s obsessive-compulsive and possibly self-destructive behavior for laughs and some shouted forced exposition and you have the indefinite non-conclusion to the sequence of words that was My Way to the Championship.

Well, almost.

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

Episode 265 - My Way to the Championship, chapters 7-9

Episode 265: My Way to the Championship, chapters 7-9

Shining Finger unto others as you would have them Shining Finger unto you.

As the Gundam Tournament gets underway, things get more intense! And there's nothing more tense and dramatic then lengthy introductions of random user-contributed OCs and their custom plastic robot toys, right? Oh sure, you could give Darren a focus chapter that exists solely to crush his spirits or maybe introduce people that look like other people and have the same name as other people or even decide to jarringly shift the tone and talk about Monica's dead hooker mother, but that's not what we're here for. Because, in the end, it's all about Kale and how he should be allowed to godmode his way through the competition. That and the filler chapter. I'll let you decide which is more interesting.

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

Episode 263 - My Way to the Championship, chapters 4-6

Episode 263: My Way to the Championship, chapters 4-6

It's another log for the fire of Darren's burning resentment.

What could be a good subplot for a light-hearted and goofy tale of plastic robot toys? If you’re thinking a murdered prostitute, then you’re off to a good start with the next chunk of My Way to the Championship. But enough of jarring tonal changes, because this section gets down to developing one of its key characters by constantly reminding us that not just does Darren suck and fail at everything he does, but that it’s okay to constantly hammer on him for it. Throw in the secret network of bunkers that Dad Kassel built under the town with secret access to everyone’s home (even yours) and some Toad Elevating and then you’re all done with the next three chapters of this fictive odyssey! And don’t forget to submit OCs!

Seriously. Do it.

I know where you sleep.

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

Episode 262 - My Way to the Championship, chapters 1-3

Episode 262: My Way to the Championship, chapters 1-3

Kale strikes me as the type who builds and paints in an enclosed, unventilated room.

When you're reading badfic about a show that's about the fandom of another show, then you know you're in for an interesting (and likely painful) experience. This fic is definitely more of the latter then the former, coming in the form of a moving tale of one man and his love for his plastic robot kit. Throw in a mysterious bum who his mother invited in off the street and allows to walk around the house unsupervised and a fighting tournament that goes out of its way to accommodate the Designated Protagonist and you're beginning to get close to the fun that is My Way to the Championship. So sit back, pull up a tube of model cement and enjoy the show!

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