S1E13 Katastrophe

[Leon Mane]

You can see Feral's just had enough for one day. *Viper kicks Feral* Feral, thinking: Okay, that's enough out of you! *Blam*

[Kooshmeister]

Okay, I may have brought this up elsewhere, but this episode is a bit... odd regarding the SWAT Kats' culpability for the destruction of Megakat Biochemical Labs and the tunnel.

Callie: I hope you had good reasons for destroying half of Megakat Labs.
Razor: Several! Dr. Viper and the Creeplings were stealing stuff in there!

In what world is a theft in progress justification for blowing up an entire building? By that logic, I could blow up a convenience store because I noticed it was being robbed. Why doesn't Razor say what really happened? That it was an accident? Because it was. Razor targets Viper but misses due to the calibration being wonky. But he never tries to use that as a defense. Instead, he tries to act like he had to blow the building up.

Then there's the issue of the tunnel.

Chance: It's not our fault, Ms. Briggs! Razor says Dr. Viper and the Metallikats are working together!

So? Again, how does that justify exploding an entire tunnel? Again, though, it appeared to be mostly accidental, but again the SWAT Kats refuse to use that as a defense and I have no idea why, beyond Leopold not wanting them to appear culpable, even accidentally, framing the conversation in such a way that they appear justified.

And, also, why were the SWAT Kats so surprised to see Dark Kat on the TV? And why didn't Chance mention him to Callie? Even ignoring the Creeplings at the start, once Razor saw Viper with Mac and Molly, he should've at least floated the notion that Dark Kat was involved... to say nothing of the fact Viper mentions Dark Kat out loud, which Razor couldn't have missed!

[AkaneKitty]

Kosh, you've done it again.

I'm currently plotting out a Feral centric fic that puts the SWAT Kats and Callie in a not so flattering light. While it's mostly focused on what Feral thinks or feels I want to be fair to the characters in my works, despite how I feel about them at times. And I had been wondering if, being a huge Feral fan, if I was being too harsh on them.

Your post has removed a lot of the doubt.

One of my main problems with the SWAT Kats is their deflection of blame or refusing to take any blame. This episode is just one of the few that happen during the season one. They do something, a character asks why, and they deflect it and its accepted. Why can't they take any sort of blame (other than Feral)?

Take this example Koosh provided regarding the SKs destroying Megakat Biochemical. Why couldn't the SWAT Kats just say when asked "A missile got away from us. It shouldn't have happened and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again." Instead we get "The creeplings were in there!" as if that's a good explaintation. Now they could have added that creepling bit at the end but saying a missile got away from them would have been an honest response. Shouldn't heroes do that? Or at least reflect on what they did wrong if they want to be considered heroes? I know I consider them more like anti-heroes but is someone like the Punisher this blase about it? Why is taking blame so out of the picture for them?

Another part that makes no sense is Callie just accepts their explanation. She's a city official and just had valuable business blown up. Where is the reprimand for the SWAT Kats? Or even a gentle one? For all the talk of MKC trying to make money this seems like something that Callie wouldn't, or couldn't excuse. So why do the SWAT Kats get a pass here, when she would bend Feral's ear about not doing his job?

Speaking of Feral, I've raged in other Feral topics that I hated that Feral was made a bad guy for doing things he's supposed to do. Him complaining about destruction of property by a pair of very illegal vigilantes is something I would expect him to do. But you're supposed to think he's so awful for even mentioning it. Yet even when the SWAT Kats do something questionable, it still gets bounced back to Feral like he should have done something.

Like when the SKs dropped off that criminal they captured and flew off instead of waiting for the Enforcers to take custody. Feral gets blasted for allowing the criminal to escape, when he nor his men didn't get a chance to secure said criminal first. Meanwhile the SWAT Kats get no admonishment from anyone, even though they could have at least stayed around to ensure the guy went into custody.

To me this doesn't paint the SWAT Kats as someone very cool or likable. When I was younger it slid past the radar but now? All I see are two very selfish toms who can't take any sort of blame nor get over the fact their own actions landed them in a bad position. Perhaps they should be considered anti-heroes but even anti-heroes have standards. A literary example of this being Mack Bolan: He's fighting for a good cause (usually) but he's not the cleanest guy and has done awful things. But there are lines he won't cross in his righteous fight against whatever. It doesn't seem like the SWAT Kats have any kind of lines to hold them back.

[MoDaD]

One of my main problems with the SWAT Kats is their deflection of blame or refusing to take any blame.

That's an attribute I've noticed before, and if it were actually something that was deliberate in the writing and was embraced from a storytelling perspective it'd be really entertaining. But, I get the feeling that a lot of that isn't intended to be examined too closely, and as a result it makes them look really petty. But, I suppose that one has to keep in mind that the SWAT Kats origins (as we're lead to understand them - I still lean toward the unreliable narrator theory) were founded in pettiness. A great story arc to explore (and there are some hints at it in the evolution of their interactions with Feral over the course of the series) is the idea that the SWAT Kats are immature, petty, self-centered and doing the whole "hero thing" for all the wrong reasons in the beginning, but over the course of time they mature and earn respect for truly selfless deeds. Now, whether or not that throws a wrench into the soft anti-hero framing of the show is another discussion...

All I see are two very selfish toms who can't take any sort of blame nor get over the fact their own actions landed them in a bad position.

It really makes me wonder what the average person or outsider in Megakat City thinks of the SWAT Kats. I was always hoping for some kind of episode based on this, where someone like Ann Gora could be having some kind of exclusive where she has to do a special on the SWAT Kats. She interviews characters and there's some more nuanced perspectives given (I think Batman TAS did something like that at some point...or possibly X-Men/Spider-man in the mid 90s...). And, it wouldn't be a clip show

[Kooshmeister]

I wasn't really intending for that to be read as an anti-SWAT Kat diatribe. I always saw it as simply a peculiar quirk in the script.

[AkaneKitty]

I wasn't really intending for that to be read as an anti-SWAT Kat diatribe. I always saw it as simply a peculiar quirk in the script.

LOL Koosh I didn't mean to hijack your comment Like I said, I was working on my plot that ties closely to your observations. In my story, after a critical moment, I was going to have the SWAT Kats show up and try to deflect what they did. And due to the nature of said incident, Feral is having none of it. I kept looking at this potential scene at all angles, trying to ensure I was being fair with the SKs characterization in that scene. And due to your observations, I was being fair.

That's an attribute I've noticed before, and if it were actually something that was deliberate in the writing and was embraced from a storytelling perspective it'd be really entertaining. But, I get the feeling that a lot of that isn't i

Now, whether or not that throws a wrench into the soft anti-hero framing of the show is another discussion...

ntended to be examined too closely, and as a result it makes them look really petty.

Yeah. The same universe that twists itself into knots to ensure a Feral/Enforcer failure, also twists itself so the SWAT Kats so that they don't get any blame. And it takes some leaps to do so.

I'm not sure why the SKs admitting something was their fault or admit blame was something to avoided. If they did that, it would take the edge off some of their pettiness and actually show some growth.And this could have continued throughout the seasons. Callie could have been perfect this role instead of being the cheerleader who accepted everything they did, even when it didn't make sense.

Now, whether or not that throws a wrench into the soft anti-hero framing of the show is another discussion...

I guess they wanted show the SKs as cool people who don't have to apologize and can cause massive amounts of damage without a care in pursuit of their rouge gallery. But in this frame it reeks or recklessness, so the universe has to twist itself to just to justify it. They could still be cool and action packed without some recklessness, it just needed a tweak here and there.

[Mikazo]

It really makes me wonder what the average person or outsider in Megakat City thinks of the SWAT Kats. I was always hoping for some kind of episode based on this, where someone like Ann Gora could be having some kind of exclusive where she has to do a special on the SWAT Kats. She interviews characters and there's some more nuanced perspectives given (I think Batman TAS did something like that at some point...or possibly X-Men/Spider-man in the mid 90s...). And, it wouldn't be a clip show

I wonder if they would try to spin the story a certain way. Would the media necessarily be the Swat Kats' friend? Imagine if they interview a large number of citizens, and then only show the interviews where citizens are hostile or indifferent to the Swat Kats. How would they respond to this?

Let's also not rule out the possibility of less-than-flattering portrayals in other forms of media.

"Grr! Jake! Look how they depicted us on that KSI episode! They made us look weird and creepy!"
"It's just a show, Chance. Don't let it get to you."
"But what about the Katty Fair article? That wasn't fiction now, was it?"

[Felix Kayne]

Funny what you see when you decide to slowly move the DVD speed slowly frame by frame, manually...

[Felix Kayne]

Also random pause shot that I couldn't just not laugh at. XD

[Cait]

Also random pause shot that I couldn't just not laugh at. XD

LMAO That's a good one XD