Subject: Re: Swat Kats World
From: Daniel Pawtowski
Date: 9/12/1996 3:13 PM
To: kats@maxie.com

Admittedly, the real reason for this is yet another standard Cartoon
convention in the U.S., where the writers try to make no reference to
the location of the show's settings.  Theoretically, I think the standard
excuse given for this is that the kids the show is targeted at are
supposed to end up thinking that the show is set near them.  

  However, we have to work with what we've got.  I, too, support the
"City State" theory as the best fit, although it's not perfect.
Manx sure dosen't _act_ like he's the sole authority over a city of
millions, he goofs off way too much for that, and Callie can't be 
doing *all* the work herself.
  On there other hand, there certainly have been occasions when Feral
would have at least _tried_ to go over Manx's head or appealed to 
some sort of "MegaKat City Council" if one existed.  There are plenty
of unanswered questions floating about:  Do they _have_ a military?  We
saw an aircraft carrier in "Ghost Pilot", but the Enforcers seem to 
have zero sea capability otherwise.  The lone appearance would seem to
suggest that it was a Navy ship that had come in to drop off the Blue 
Manx fighter, and left afterwards (er, after getting it's bridge repaired,
that is :-).
  On the other paw, if there were a military out there, then *somebody*
else should have shown up to shoot at Mutilor's ship.  Draining the
ocean would threaten the whole planet.  If there was time to build the
ThunderTruck, get into combat, and _then_ go back and fix the TurboKat,
then there should have been time for jets from some other City-State to
arrive.
   On yet another manipulatory digit, *somebody* must be buying all 
those high-tech weapons that PumaDyne keeps building (provided they
actually complete one without it being stolen/blown up by a 
supervillian :-).  And we've seen foregin investors, oil tankers coming
from somewhere, etc.

  Admittedly, the SWAT Kat universe was just not designed to hold up
under this kind of scrutiny.  Heck, I can't even come up with a 
half-decent explanation of how MKC survived before the TurboKat was 
built.  "There were no major supervillians back then" just dosen't
cut it.

                                             Daniel Pawtowski
dpawtows@vt.edu