Meme Time

Was tagged by Ami, so here's a "Fictional Characters Meme."

I've actually done something like this before, only with RPG characters I've played. That was a little easier, though, since most of them were from the same genre (fantasy). These are all over the place, making it a mite tougher.

First, select your ten fictional characters (from any medium) by whichever method you like best. Then answer the questions below.

1. Mister Terrific, Michael Holt (JSA)
2. Green Lantern, Alan Scott (JSA)
3. Power Girl, Karen Starr/Kara Zor-L (JSA)
4. Sir Parn (Record of Lodoss War)
5. Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
6. Harunobu Madarame (Genshiken)
7. "Kyon" (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
8. Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit)
9. Professor James Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)
10. Filby Pott (me! yes, I'm vain!)

1. Divide the list up by even and odd. Which group of five would make a better Five Man Band (like a Power Rangers team)? Who would you slot in each position: Leader, Lancer (second-in-command), Big Guy, Smart Guy, The Chick? If you think the team would be improved by swapping one character between the even and odd groups, which ones would you switch?

Evens: Alan, Parn, Madarame, Bilbo, Filby

Odds: Mr. Terrific, Power Girl, Ferris, Kyon, Moriarty

Odd wins out. Leader: Terrific. Lancer: Ferris. Big Guy: Power Girl. Smart Guy (and evil mole!): Moriarty. The Chick (not female, but still Daphne-esque useless): Kyon.

2. Gender-swap 2, 8 & 10. Which character would have the most change in their story arc? Which the least? Would any of these characters have to have a complete personality change to be believable as the opposite sex?

Ellen Scott, Bilba Baggins, and... Filbie Pott?

"Ellen" would have the biggest change in her backstory. Her personality and heroic identity wouldn't have to change much, but since women couldn't be engineers in the early '40s (not until Rosie the Riveter, anyway) or work their way up to business moguls, her civilian life would be considerably different. She'd also probably get stuck as the JSA's secretary instead of one of its leaders, though. :P

"Bilba's" life wouldn't be much different. A burglar is a burglar regardless of sex, and I don't think Thorin & Co. would be any more or less receptive to her.

And "Filbie"... hah... I don't even want to go there.

3. Compare the matchups of 1 & 8 and 5 & 9. (Ignore canon sexual preferences for the moment.) Which couple would be more compatible? Which couple would be more plausible to people from either principal's home culture?

Mr. Terrific/Bilbo and Ferris/Moriarty.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Welllllll, I don't think Bilbo carrying on an affair with a man twice his size would be very... respectable (not that he ever cared that much what the neighbors thought). And also, as Ami says, Sasha would rip the poor hobbit to shreds. So I'll have to go with Ferris/Moriarty, if only because they're both the same species. Ferris is pretty charming, he could make it work. ;P

4. Your team is 3, 4 & 9. The mission consists of a social challenge, a mental challenge and a physical challenge. Which team member do you assign to each challenge?

Power Girl, Parn, and Moriarty.

That's not too hard. Power Girl, with her innate Kryptonian powers, gets the physical challenge done without a hitch. Moriarty, as the greatest criminal mind of all time, gets the mental challenge. As a knight, Parn hobnobs with nobility and is expected to possess a level of refinement, so he gets the social challenge.

Being an utter blackguard, of course, Moriarty would be likely to betray me, but since Karen has super-senses and greater-than-human intellect, I'd have her remotely keep an ear on the Professor to see if he gets out of line.

5. 7 becomes 1's boss for a week in some plausible fashion. How's their working relationship?

Kyon as Michael's boss? That's... highly improbable. In fact it's impossible, since one's the smartest man in the world and co-leader of the most advanced spy organization on Earth and the other's just a below-average fifteen-year-old high school student. Not that they'd have a bad relationship, since Michael's an incredibly giving and understanding guy and Kyon would doubtless appreciate having a companion who doesn't speak in riddles and enigmas for once.

6. 2 finds him/her/itself inserted into 6's continuity. As far as anyone other than 2 or 6 is concerned, they've always been there. What role would 2 be presumed to have had in 6's story, and could they fit in without going wonky?

That would be weird. Madarame and his buds live completely mundane lives in a reasonable facsimile of the real world, and Alan would stick out like a sore thumb. Likewise, as a big-time American super-hero, he'd have no business hanging around a Japanese community college. I don't see Alan becoming a part of the Genshiken's story, but if he were operating openly the guys in the club might spend an issue/episode talking about how cool he is, before getting distracted by some new video game...

7. 3 and 5 get three wishes. The catch is that they have to agree on all three wishes before they get the benefits of any of them. What three wishes would they make?

Power Girl and Ferris? That's a toughie. Well, first I'll say that Karen wishes for Earth-Two to come back into existence along with her dead parent-figures Lois and Clark, which benefits Ferris because then he'll have a twenty-years-older doppelganger of himself to bestow wisdom upon him or something. Then the Ferrises Two would sweet-talk Peej into relinquishing her two remaining wishes so they could wish for unlimited days off and a totally sweet vintage automobile.

8. 1 and 2 are brainwashed by a one-time artifact that works even on people immune to mind control to attack and kill 4. They keep their normal personality, skills and competence level, except any Code vs. Killing has been turned off. Can 4 survive? How?

Power Girl and Green Lantern versus Parn? Geez. If he's on his own, he's dead, magic sword or no. That said, as the leader of a band of intrepid adventurers, it's only fair that Parn gets to fight alongside his friends. Since he's close friends with three powerful spellcasters, that would help him survive P. G.'s onslaught, since Kryptonians are vulnerable to magic. It would be a tougher fight against Alan, but Deedlit could summon elementals to keep him busy while Parn takes him out with a well-placed tree-branch, since his ring can't affect wooden objects. Power Girl would only be slowed down, though, since Slayn wouldn't unleash his full magical arsenal against her knowing she was mind controlled. So I think Parn could potentially win, but Karen would just as likely overwhelm the whole bunch of them.

9. 6, 7, 9 & 10 must help an orphanage full of small and depressed children have a merry Christmas. Who does what, knowing that at the very least the kids will be expecting a visit from Santa?

Oh geez, the two most useless plus the two most evil. This is further complicated by the fact that Kyon and Madarame don't speak English, Moriarty probably doesn't speak Japanese, and Filby doesn't speak either language. Well, being from a comedy series, Madarame has the greatest likelihood of getting stuck in an embarrassing costume, so he'd be Santa. Filby, of course, would be the elf, much to his chagrin. The good Professor would swindle the whole lot of them and leave the orphans out in the cold, leaving Madarame and Filby as the unwitting patsies. Kyon just stands to the side and snarks.

10. 3 and 8 are challenged to circumnavigate the Earth in eighty days or less, using only forms of transportation invented before 1900. Can they do it, or will they be fatally distracted by sidequests or their own personality conflicts?

Bilbo and Power Girl? Since Karen can fly around the world in, like, five minutes or whatever, yeah, totally. But assuming she agrees not to use flight or super-speed? Still possible. They're both pretty easygoing, so they'd get along just fine. Karen's pretty focused, which would help temper Bilbo's wanderlust. Plus Karen has all her other powers and Bilbo the Ring to help get them out of scrapes. So yeah, it's totally possible.

I tag... um, Adam and Ami have both already done it (Ami twice), and I don't wanna make them have to do it again. Tom Foss comments occasionally and Ragnell is probably at least tangentially aware of my blog if I've been linked by WFA, so I guess they can consider themselves tagged if they read this.