EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- I am baffled by everything about the Pastmaster: I always assumed that Megakat was in an alternative United States, so, in theory, it has NO MEDIEVAL PERIOD. Assuming that the series does take place on Earth, and in an alternative United States, where did the Pastmaster come from? Did some British immigrant have the crazy idea of bringing that cursed chest, burying it next to a neo-Gothic tower with a clock and leaving it there? And another thing... Where did the Pastmaster get that pocket watch? He is supposed to be from the 12th century, and those clocks were invented in FRANCE in the mid-15th century!

As Mark already explained, Megakat City's country isn't necessarily analogous to the United States (despite some unused background art showing a US Postal Service mailbox). Ergo, it can have whatever history the writers choose to give it.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- I agree with Kooshmeister that in this chapter he leaves the friendship and rivalry between T-Bone and Razor well established.
I actually tend to claim the opposite. Namely that the episode portrays their (in my opinion, often petty) competitiveness more than their friendship. The whole "ten seconds at Mach 5" thing and Razor accusing T-Bone of cheating (ironic, as he himself cheats later on in The Wrath of Dark Kat!) might make it seem like they can't really stand one another to a first-time viewer, which is why this episode was, in my opinion, a poor choice to run first, despite its great animation.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- I'm not fooled: Callie is the Sarah Bellum of the series; not a deputy mayor. Even in Spanish dubbing they call her "assistant." When have you ever seen a deputy mayor do something like a story? It would be quite humiliating for her position. One day I have to make a topic for discussion.
I've already gone over this topic in some detail. Callie
must be the deputy mayor because that's what she's called. I agree that writing press releases and things like that are not things a real deputy mayor would ever do, and that for the most part Callie is treated like little more than a glorified secretary, but there are a few possible explanations for this.
The first is that the writers simply didn't know what a deputy mayor actually was. This seems most likely.
The second one is an in-world explanation, which is that
Manx either thinks a deputy mayor is a glorified secretarial position and/or he doesn't think very highly of Callie because he's a selfish (though not necessarily sexist) idiot, so he gives her meaningless and often demeaning jobs to do.
A third explanation closely related to the second is that Manx is such a penny-pincher that he has reduced his staff to a skeleton crew because less people means less paychecks. Consequently, he has no press secretary or speechwriter, so Deputy Mayor Briggs has to handle those jobs, forcing her to do things a deputy mayor in another administration wouldn't do.
In fact, Manx is so miserly he has no caddy for when he goes golfing, and no bodyguard detail. And I'm convinced he'd fire the drivers of his limo and speedboat and the pilot of his personal chopper (the only other people besides Callie we ever see working for him) if the vehicles could operate themselves.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- What kind of doctorate does Abby have? She talks about supernatural things as if it were the most common thing in the world; it is true that every archaeologist must know things like curses and all that, but she makes her look like Giles of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because of the broad handling and seriousness she puts into the subject. Either there were already incidents of this kind in Megakat before this episode, or... she's just a little crazy.
She likely has degrees in archaeology, paleontology, theology, etc.
And why is her handling the subject with such seriousness so unusual? The Pastmaster is an established historical figure in their world. There's an exhibit dedicated to him in the museum. And even if Sinian didn't believe in the supernatural
before this episode, she definitely does
after it. Note that she never mentions anything about the possibility of the supernatural until after she and Callie get attacked by the reanimated sabertooth. Prior to this, it never comes up. She discusses the burial chest in purely historical and rational terms, and even admits to not knowing what might've been buried inside it. But mere minutes later, a zombie sabertoothed tiger shows up and attacks them.
This has me wondering: when delivering the chest, did Burge and King tell Sinian about the living skeletons they'd encountered? 'Cause you'd think that would be a pretty important thing to tell the curator of the museum you're delivering a creepy sarcophagus-like box to. If they did, it never comes up when she's talking to Callie. She seems more interested in the press release, and only mentions the chest in a by-the-way manner after Callie points it out.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- Who would think of putting a museum next to a tar pit? It might be useful to attract more people, but anyway... I think it's very risky from a structural point of view. And let's hope a volcano doesn't come out of it, or Dr. Sinnian will be out of a job.

The real life La Brea Tar Pits are in the middle of Hancock Park, where the George C. Page Museum is located pretty much right next to the tar pit itself. There are also many other, smaller buildings nearby.
Admittedly, the museum and other buildings are only single story whereas the Megakat City Museum is two to three stories, but still. This is no different than asking us to swallow the 300-story Megakat Tower in
Destructive Nature. In fact, it's arguably more believable since we have real life examples of buildings built near tar pits, but a 300-story skyscraper is most likely a physical impossibility. The tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, is only 163 stories.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
What I don't understand is why the heck do they keep using their nicknames?
Habit...?
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
Jack and Chuck... I mean, Jake and Chance.
Interestingly, Chance (or at least T-Bone)
was originally going to be called Chuck, and in fact Chuck and Chance are both nicknames for Charles. Making it possible our heroes' real full names are Charles Furlong and Jacob Clawson.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
or the writers hadn't given them real names yet.
Despite airing first,
The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice was the third episode written and produced. The two episodes made before it were
The Giant Bacteria and
The Metallikats, in which they're not only seen in their civilian guises, but called Chance and Jake by each other and other characters. They were already named Chance and Jake before this episode.
And in fact in the script for this very episode, during the centrifuge scenes, they have their masks off and are identified as Chance and Jake. More evidence that, yes, they'd already settled on real names for them. Leopold doesn't switch to calling them T-Bone and Razor until they don their masks. You'll also note that T-Bone refers to Razor by his real name at one point ("Jake, Callie's callin' us!").
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- Ehm... We have a missile stuck in the clock of the City Hall.
This is the only damage the SWAT Kats are directly responsible for, and it isn't that bad. They just need to replace the glass in the clock face. They're way more destructive in other episodes.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- They'll come and fix it.
Well, yeah.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- There is damage in the downtown city for thousands of dollars.
That's on the Pastmaster. He was the one joyriding around on a dinosaur, not them. At at most all he did was crush a few cars, damage the street and then destroy the fence around the tar pit.
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- I'll take money out of the Enforcers budget and the Children's Hospital.
The first thing? Most likely. The second thing? Where'd
that come from? Assuming Megakat City has a children's hospital (which it probably does), yes, it is And, again, what little damage there is was caused by the Megasaurus rex's rampage and not the SWAT Kats. At worst, they're responsible for the cemented up sabertooth tiger plastered to the museum roof and some scattered debris from broken Octopus Missiles. The former didn't do any structural damage to the building, and the latter can be cleaned up by a street sweeper. Or collected by Enforcer crime scene guys to be studied and potentially reverse-engineered (a plot point I'm surprised the show never did, considering how often our heroes leave their weapons, vehicles and other tech lying around after battles).
EditorElohim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:06 pm
- We also have a huge dinosaur stuck in the tar pits.
- Free Brontoburgers for all Megakat City's homeless!
-...
I
have always wondered what happened to the Megasaurus rex. He never sinks past his jawline. In the script, storyboards and final episode, that's as far as he sinks. With his mouth and nostrils unobstructed, he can still breathe, so he's still alive, at least as of the end of the episode. My head canon is they extracted him and he's kept in a special enclosure at the zoo or some other facility. No way would Dr. Sinian - and other scientists - pass up the opportunity to study a live dinosaur.