Asterix and the Big Fight was published in 1966.
According to the spine, this is Asterix, Book #6. It’s a unique story and quite different from the usual travel-to-another-place-for-adventure story.
This story takes place mostly in two villages and the Roman camp of Totorum. One village is, of course, Asterix’s village and the other is the village called Linoleum. The leader of the village, named Cassius Ceramix, in Linoleum wants his village to act more “Roman”. He wears a toga and wants the village to look “Roman”.
Knowing this information, the Centurion at Totorum Roman camp decides to use this to his advantage. There’s a Gaulish custom. If a chief of one village wants to become chief of another, he’s allowed to challenge that chief to a fight. This is called the “Big Fight”. The Romans expect their toga wearing chief to defeat Vitalstatisix (Asterix’s chief), which will make all of Gaul part of Rome!
The only obstacle is the magic powers that Asterix’s village has. The solution conceived by the Romans is to get rid of Getafix, the druid that makes the magic potion. Things get a bit chaotic and Getafix ends up under one of Obelix’s menhirs. Getafix loses his memory and the village is in trouble because he has no idea how to make the magic potion. Will Vitalstatisix lose the battle? Will Getafix recover? Will the Romans take over all of Gaul?
The story is pretty whacky and was not easy to describe.
We are shown a village of Gauls that have submitted to the conquerers and are trying to change their ways. Being from Vancouver, I don’t think I’ve had to think about Canada being taken over, but over history many cultures have resisted such actions... even now, we hear about cultures that are not interested in changing their customs or assimilating, which is quite understandable.
It’s hard to find a central theme to this story since Getafix acts like a fool throughout (he’s crazy). This story does focus a bit on mental illness... in order to treat Getafix, Asterix and Obelix go to a psychologist and we have to see some people with “unique” disorders.
What can kids get out of this book. Well, maybe they can realize that certain cultures have unique customs. I heard in a certain part of Japan, they have a tug of war to determine which town will be stronger for that year... this is one example, but I’m sure there are countless more all over this big world that we live in.
