Madkat

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Madkat
Gender	Male
Vehicle	N/A, transformed into a motorcycle though
Color	Yellow and orange
Hair	N/A
Eyes	Green
First appearance	Enter the Madkat
Voice actor	Roddy McDowall

Madkat is a villain in the animated television series SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron who appears in the episode Enter the Madkat. When failed comedian and escaped lunatic Lenny Ringtail went into an antique store called Katzmer's Curios to hide from the Enforcers, he stumbled across a "cat-in-the-box" that bore an uncanny resemblance to him. The shopkeeper, Katzmer, mistaking him for a customer, fills him in on the toy's history. It was originally the property of Madkat, a court jester from the Dark Ages. According to Katzmer, Madkat went insane after he was replaced by a funnier jester and was locked away in a dungeon, and sometime prior to his death swore revenge against his rival as well as the king, queen and knight who had imprisoned him. Ringtail, whose own life had gone down a similar path, wanted to own the toy, but was forced to steal it after Katzmer refused to sell it to him. Following this, Ringtail discovered that Madkat's ghost was in the cat-in-the-box, and upon making his presence known to Ringtail, Madkat offered him a deal: join him and get revenge against "all our enemies."

Ringtail agreed, allowing Madkat's spirit to possess his body, giving him the appearance of a cat with green eyes wearing a jester's cap and yellow and red tights. In this form, Madkat possessed a wide variety of magical abilities, including the ability to shapeshift into a yellow and red version of anything he wanted, as well as a scepter he could turn into weapons or various props. Unable to get revenge against the ones who had imprisoned him in the Dark Ages, Madkat instead sought vengeance against their modern day equivalents, the ones responsible (directly or indirectly) for Lenny Ringtail's imprisonment. First up was David Litterbin, who, as Ringtail's rival, became Madkat's "Jester." Despite the interference of both the Enforcers and the SWAT Kats, Madkat successfully captured Litterbin and imprisoned him within the cat-in-the-box.

Shortly afterwards, Madkat announced on live TV in an interview with Ann Gora that he would take Litterbin's place as Megakat City's new top comedian. But first, he said, he had to finish capturing his victims. Mayor Manx became the King, and Madkat attacked him at the Megakat Golf Course. Commander Feral, the Knight, arrived and rescued Manx, but Madkat gave pursuit in the form of a giant rubber ball. When blasted by the SWAT Kats' missiles, the Madkat-ball exploded into thousands of miniature versions of itself, eventually reforming into a fifty-foot Madkat who easily captured Manx, then used a giant sawblade yo-yo to cut Commander Feral's car in half and reach inside and pluck him out. With Litterbin, Manx and Feral as his prisoners, and their usual weapons useless against his magical nature, Madkat then challenged the SWAT Kats to get to the Queen, Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs, before he did.

Although the SWAT Kats managed to get Miss Briggs to Enforcer Headquarters in their custody, Madkat, taking the form of a giant octopus, appeared and snatched her through the window with a tentacle, imprisoning her within the cat-in-the-box alongside Litterbin, Manx and Feral. Luckily, the antique store owner, Katzmer, arrived and was able to tell the SWAT Kats Madkat's only weakness: the balls on his jester's cap. There were three of these, and they managed to destroy the first two, only to have the Madkat-octopus teleport onto the Turbokat and bring it down, forcing them to eject as the jet crashed into the Enforcer building's runway. Taking on the form of a skyscraper, Madkat devoured Razor, then, turning back into his normal (albeit giant-sized) form, attempted to kill T-Bone with a giant spiked die. T-Bone dodged, then used a laser to destroy the final ball on Madkat's cap, causing Madkat to explode with a cry of "Noooooooo!!!"

After the smoke cleared, Callie, Mayor Manx, Commander Feral and David Litterbin were all freed, as was Razor, and Madkat and his host were separated into the cat-in-the-box and Lenny Ringtail again. Ringtail was knocked unconscious and arrested, while the fate of Madkat's cat-in-the-box is unknown. Either it was returned to Katzmer, or it was confiscated by the Enforcers.

[edit] Trivia

The Madkat was supposed to appear on third season, in an episode that was initialy written, with the name "The Madkat's Revenge", where Madkat would come back to life with the purpose of turning Megakat City into a giant theme park.