Thursday, September 20, 2007

Meme: Coolest crossover ever!

I don't usually do memes, but this one sounds fun (if long) and what the heck -- it's a free day!

First, select your ten fictional characters (from any medium) by whichever method you like best.

I'll just pick my favorites in the order they occur to me until I reach ten...

  1. James Bond (the literary one)
  2. Sherlock Holmes
  3. Tarzan
  4. Wonder Woman
  5. Sasquatch from Alpha Flight
  6. Black Canary
  7. Rogue
  8. Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu
  9. Chewbacca
  10. Worf

Divide the list up by even and odd.

Team 1: Bond, Tarzan, Sasquatch, Rogue, and Chewbacca

Team 2: Holmes, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Shang Chi, and Worf

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?

Team A:

Leader: Tarzan-- At first I thought maybe he's too much of a lone wolf, but I was forgetting about the numerous times he's led groups of men. He's always the emergent leader wherever he goes. People are naturally impressed by him and look up to him.

Lancer: Bond -- It looks like we're building some kind of strike team and Bond's got the most field experience.

Big Guy: Chewbacca -- Not as strong as Sasquatch, but strong enough. He'd also be a good candidate for the Smart Guy, but...

Smart Guy: Sasquatch -- I don't know that his IQ's higher than Chewie's, but he's certainly had more formal, scientific training.

The Chick: Rogue -- I'd love to play against stereotype and not have the only woman on the team be The Chick, but Rogue with all her whiny angst actually fits the role pretty well.

Team B:

Leader: Wonder Woman -- She's a natural.

Lancer: Black Canary -- As much as I like Black Canary's leading the JLA right now, I'd like to see Wonder Woman do it more. But Canary would make a hell of a lieutenant.

Big Guy: Worf -- Not as strong as Wonder Woman, but the strongest of the rest of them.

Smart Guy: Holmes -- Easy one.

The Chick: Shang Chi -- He sort of falls here by default. I'm not really sure what defines the "Chick" role, but he is the odd man out in the group.

If you think the team would be improved by swapping one character between the even and odd groups, which ones would you switch?

Just because Chewie and Sasquatch are so similar, I'm gonna switch Chewie with Shang Chi. Chewie's got some feminine qualities and Shang Chi more than makes up in skill what he lacks in brutishness.

So, new teams...

Team A:
Leader: Tarzan
Lancer: Bond
Big Guy: Shang Chi
Smart Guy: Sasquatch
The Chick: Rogue

Team B:
Leader: Wonder Woman
Lancer: Black Canary
Big Guy: Worf
Smart Guy: Holmes
The Chick: Chewbacca

I think Team B is the healthier, more powerful team.

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?

That's Holmes, Shang Chi, and Worf.

Shang Chi would have the most change in his story arc because of his father's attitude towards women. Fu Manchu had a daughter in the one movie I've seen so far and he was pretty willing to just whore her out. Whereas Shang Chi was trained in kung fu in order to be an assassin.

Worf would probably change the least because he was raised in the Federation, which is much more egalitarian in its treatment of women than Victorian society. In other words, Worf would still be able to advance in Starfleet as a woman in the same way he did as a man. Holmes, on the other hand, wouldn't have been as popular with the police and his other clients.

Compare the matchups of 1 & 8 and 5 & 9. (Ignore canon sexual preferences for the moment.) Which couple would be more compatible?

That's Bond and Shang Chi; Sasquatch and Chewie.

I can't imagine a more different pairing culturally than Bond and Shang Chi. And neither are very open people. They'd respect each other, but they'd never be close.

Sasquatch and Chewie, on the other hand, I think would be great friends. They're very similar.

Which couple would be more plausible to people from either principal's home culture?

Ironically, the least compatible couple is the most plausible. At least they're both members of the same species.

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?

Tarzan, Wonder Woman, and Chewie. Though Wonder Woman would excel in all three, she gets the social challenge because the other two would be so bad at it. Chewie's pretty smart, but he's easily rattled, so I'm putting him in the physical challenge and letting the cooler Tarzan take the mental one.

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

Bond working for Rogue? Heh.

I don't think Bond's a misogynist, but he does see women as having definite roles and (Judi Dench aside, since we're talking about the literary Bond) I don't see him answering to a woman very well. Nor do I see Rogue putting up with his crap. At all. This isn't going to be pretty.

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?

Holmes visits the modern-day DCU. Didn't that sort of happen?

As far as fitting Holmes into Canary's story, that's pretty easy since they're both basically in the same line of work. Canary's cases are more fantastic than Holmes', but it's not a stretch to imagine their paths crossing at some point.

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?

Tarzan and Sasquatch. This is hard. Tarzan's a pretty content guy as long as his friends and family are safe. Sasquatch is a seeker of knowledge. Their goals are pretty different.

So, I'm going to cheat and go for easy ones:

  1. World peace.
  2. An end to poverty.
  3. Twenty billion dollars to split between the two of them.

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?

Bond and Holmes attack Wonder Woman? Good luck, fellas. The question isn't how Wonder Woman's going to survive. It's, "How will they?"

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?

Black Canary, Rogue, Chewie, and Worf.

Ha! Worf's the only choice to play Santa and he'd be hilarious! I can see Chewie giving Wookiee rides to all the kids while Black Canary and Rogue entertain them with stories and treats.

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?

Tarzan and Shang Chi.

These guys would get along pretty well and both have the willpower to stay on task. They also both have personalities that would be intrigued with the challenge. They'd make it.

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