Duel of the Fates is a great piece that was added into Star Wars at one point and it did manage to highlight the battle between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul quite nicely since it managed to capture the feeling and the intensity of the battle. When used in Tom and Jerry it’s kind of silly, but at the same time, it’s well done since it offers something else to the cartoon that wasn’t there, to begin with. And to be fair, it’s not all the time that Spike and Tom managed to get themselves into a sword fight, so the editing that turned this into a lightsaber fight was kind of fun really. To think that some folks have said, in the past and likely even now, that Tom and Jerry cartoons are exceedingly violent isn’t one hundred percent wrong, but leaving out the idea that they’re comedic at the same time is a convenient omission on their part. They are of course pretty violent, but on a level that’s funny since the pain that each character is introduced to and the struggle that is seen to go on and on is still something that isn’t to be taken seriously since no one is about to believe that anyone can take the kind of damage that cartoons can and walk away without a scratch only moments later.
Perhaps one of the most irritating qualities of those that vilify cartoons is that they don’t appear to take a wider look at the offerings that various TV shows and movies contribute to society and will apparently pick at random several things that stand out and offend their delicate sensibilities. Like it or not, Tom and Jerry cartoons belong to the classics that people have been enjoying for decades and they’re still a very well-respected and enjoyed set of animated short stories that can get people to laugh in a very effective manner. This cartoon is a part of a lot of peoples’ childhoods after all and has been around long enough that it’s been poked at, prodded, and analyzed in a number of different ways to figure out whether it causes violence in kids or if it’s just harmless fun that a lot of people somehow can’t see since they want to make certain that their point of view is proven right when it comes to stating that the cartoon is harmful in some way. Believe it or not, there are actual studies that deal with the idea that cartoons might cause undue violence in the household, and that they’re a negative influence on some kids. Really, when was the last time someone decided that a sword fight over a mouse was a good idea? It’s enough to make a person laugh when hearing that ‘cartoons cause violence’, since if that were the case, then the rate of violent acts caused by children at least three or four decades ago would have skyrocketed in a massive way since Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and many other cartoons were all allowed to show violence on a scale that would have caused a pandemic all on its own at some point.
But it didn’t. Does anyone want to guess why? Because they’re cartoons, they’re entertaining, and someone had the presence of mind to tell us that these things weren’t real and couldn’t happen. Or someone ran into a wall as a kid and found out that it hurt and they couldn’t just shake it off. One way or another, people found out as children that cartoons can’t be and shouldn’t be replicated, but that this didn’t take away from the fun and endearing nature that they promoted. That’s a lot to take from the Duel of the Fates, which was just another fun way of presenting a favorite cartoon, but the truth is that cartoons, no matter how violent they get or how senseless they become, are just cartoons and something to laugh at and enjoy as we watch them unfold. Reminding your kids that this isn’t real life might be necessary from time to time, but the first time that a kid gets hurt trying to emulate a favorite cartoon character, hopefully not in a way that’s too damaging, they’ll tend to figure out that reality is a bit different from what they see on TV. But stating that cartoons are in any way a problem when it comes to our kids or society is a bit ludicrous when in reality they’re meant to be enjoyed and taken for what they are, entertainment that’s hilarious and sometimes so over the top that one can’t do anything but laugh since to do otherwise would be to ignore the whole point of the cartoon.
So that’s my rant for the time being, and the video was pretty funny.
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