A Random Interruption–An activity you can do for fun, and how I used it to my advantage.

Okay, so I found this fun activity on a blog yesterday, and I decided to do it. Actually, I confess, I was dared to do it, and while I usually ignore dares, I was planning on doing it already. I thought it was fun enough I decided to break the rules of my blog here and make a post about it for you. However, because I didn’t really want to interrupt my normal Monday posting, and because I didn’t want to wait to post it, I’m just adding it as a random little extra in the middle of the week. You can find the post I got the idea (and dare) from here on Forever Fictional.

The idea of this game is to write down thirty characters from books you’ve read. You put them each on a little piece of paper and put them in a hat, or bowl or something like that, and then draw two out for each of the following scenarios. Then, you decide which works the best for that particular scenario. Some of them can be a little tricky. Here is what I got.

1. You only have one more spot on your Spelling B team, who would you pick to complete the team?
It was between Sir Percy Blakney from The Scarlet Pimpernel and Robin Hood. I went with Sir Percy, because he was well educated, and though in many accounts Robin Hood has a decent education for that period, I don’t need somebody trying to spell in Old English.

2. Both characters want to kill you. Which character would you kill first so you have a better chance of surviving?
The options were Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables and Faramir from The Lord of the Rings. I would definitely go with Faramir. He would without a doubt be the biggest threat of the two. Anne wouldn’t hurt a fly unless it called her carrots.

3. You’re on the bachelor/bachelorette. You’re down to these last two characters, which would you give the rose to?
My options were Tomkin, from Tomkin and the Dragon, and Mrs. Rachel Lind from Anne of Green Gables. That made the choice obvious for me. Tomkin it is.

4. You’ve been chosen for the Hunger Games. Who would most likely volunteer in your place?
It was between Tom Bombadil and Saruman, both from The Lord of the Rings. I guess I might have to say Tom Bombadil since Saruman wouldn’t be likely to risk his own life for anybody else’s. Tom would probably manage to work his charm and get out unscathed without hurting anybody else, and singing the entire time.

5. You’re stranded on an island. Which character would you sacrifice to engage in cannibalism?
The choice was between Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings and Sir Guy of Gisborne from Robin Hood. I would have to pick Sir Guy because he is the bad guy and I could never wish to harm Sam.

6. You’re the next DC/Marvel superhero (with your own TV show of course), who would be your sidekick?
This was the hardest. I had to pick between Princess Eilonwy from The Prydain Chronicles, and Cyrus Smith from The Mysterious Island. At last, I decided that, although Cyrus Smith could be handy as an engineer, I would pick Princess Eilonwy, because she has more of the characteristics of a beloved sidekick.

7. You’re a manager of an avocado admiring company. Who would you fire for lack of communication skills?
I drew out John Carter from A Princess of Mars, and Fflewddur Fflam from The Prydain Chronicles. I love Fflewddur, but I would say he would be the one to go since he has a tendency to exaggerate the truth a lot.

8. You’ve just finished a book in which your favourite character dies. Which character is most likely to comfort you?
I had to pick between Angela the Herbalist from Eragon, and Thrawn, from the Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars). Definitely Angela. Thrawn wouldn’t be in the least bit sympathetic. In fact, he would probably just find a way to use the knowledge against me.

9. Ugh, it’s high school. Who would most likely be part of the popular clique?
This would be between Josephine March from Little Women and Joruus C’Baoth from the Thrawn Trilogy. I would say probably C’Baoth, since Jo doesn’t care much about that, and C’Baoth loves to be in a position of high power. If the popular crowd were the most powerful, he would place himself there.

10. The day has arrived; you’re finally a year older! Who would have the nerve to forget your birthday?
Between Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes, I would say Sherlock would forget. He is brilliant and remembers lots, but he doesn’t remember anything he doesn’t feel relevant. While a birthday would be a detail Luna would likely find important, Sherlock would think it far too trivial to worry about unless it had some connection with one of his cases.

So, having told you that, here is how I am relating it to this blog so I’m not entirely going off on a random tangent. I decided to turn this into a character development exercise and put the characters from Aviandria into the pot. Here are the results for that.

1. You only have one more spot on your Spelling B team, who would you pick to complete the team?
My choices were General Tarklan and Anthion. They would both present a problem since the Aviandrian way of writing is not the same. The alphabet has completely different characters, and it is quite phonetic, which could cause quite a bit of trouble, considering very few words in a spelling B would be phonetic. I’ll say Anthion because I think I would get along with him better as a person. I’m not very fond of General Tarklan.

2. Both characters want to kill you. Which character would you kill first so you have a better chance of surviving?
The options are Trendyl and Alayne. I like Trendyl, but he would have to go, because he would be much more dangerous to have as an enemy than Alayne, considering he is an incredibly skilled member of the Sky Corps. Alayne is much too nice to really hurt anybody, even if she could find it in herself to want to.

3. You’re on the bachelor/bachelorette. You’re down to these last two characters, which would you give the rose to?
Between Keagan (the legal advisor on the council) and Alvorach, I would choose Alvorach. Keagan is a bit old for me, and although he is nice enough, I think a date with him would get a little bit tedious. I don’t think a long term relationship would work out.

4. You’ve been chosen for the Hunger Games. Who would most likely volunteer in your place?
This is between Dillyn and Captain Downell. The more likely to volunteer would be Dillyn. He would consider it a fine adventure, and he has the brains and the skills to do fairly well, though he isn’t really keen on killing others unless it is for defense.

5. You’re stranded on an island. Which character would you sacrifice to engage in cannibalism?
I always thought this one would be hard to choose because I couldn’t even consider doing this to any of my characters. However, this time that wasn’t the case. This time it is hard to choose because both of the characters I drew are villains. After much deliberation, between Bartowe and King Ngaram, I decided to go for Bartowe, because he scares me slightly more, and I think I would have a better chance alone with King Ngaram if he didn’t drive me crazy.

6. You’re the next DC/Marvel superhero (with your own TV show of course), who would be your sidekick?
My choices were Grim and Perrian. Since Grim is far more likely to be the minion of a super villain, Perrian would be the best choice. In fact, I would be very lucky to have him as a sidekick.  Actually, he would be more likely to be the superhero himself, while I would be the sidekick.

7. You’re a manager of an avocado admiring company. Who would you fire for lack of communication skills?
Between Turner and Milanya, I would say Turner. Milanya has no trouble communicating. Turner would talk to people, but his glum outlook would probably be somewhat unsettling to most.

8. You’ve just finished a book in which your favourite character dies. Which character is most likely to comfort you?
Between Thrumbun and Kaelynn, I would say Kaelynn would be the better choice. I think Thrombun might try, but he wouldn’t be very effective. Kaelynn would totally get it and be super sympathetic and comforting.

9. Ugh, it’s high school. Who would most likely be part of the popular clique?
The choice is between Ebony and Brant. I think Ebony would be more likely to be popular, though she isn’t cliquish. Brant is just too ornery. He would be more likely to be a sycophant of somebody popular, and if he had a following, people wouldn’t follow him because he was cool, they would only stay with him because they would be afraid of what he might do to them if they didn’t. Ebony would be the kind of person that was popular because she was really cool and good to everybody, so everybody likes her.

10. The day has arrived; you’re finally a year older! Who would have the nerve to forget your birthday?
This one was way hard this time because both Priya and Karynnae would be likely to remember. Karynnae, because she pays attention to details, and Priya, because she would be wanting to make is special. If I absolutely had to pick, though, I would say Karynnae, because she would be less likely to make a big deal out of a thing like a birthday. Priya would probably be planning something special for it weeks in advance.

How about giving the game a try with characters from your favorite books? What results did you get?