Protagonists (Protagonisti?) Meme

[ffutures]

Gacked from gonzo21

The protagonists of the last three things you read/watched/played are the members of your zombie apocalypse team.

How screwed are you?

OK, I appear to be on a team with The Doctor, Phil Coulson (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and either The Flash or Danger Mouse, can't remember which I saw first.

I think that the zombies are screwed, but I'm likely to end up as collateral damage...

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Do I get all three of Sergeant Sue Smith, Elaine Barnaby, and Jack Reed, and both of Gabe and Delia Ryan? Putting them together with Baru Cormorant (though I haven't quite finished that one just now) gives me two police officers from different centuries, two people trained in swordsmanship, a gaming geek, and a medium, which is moderately useful, at least. I note that the climax of Halting State brings all three protagonists together in a hotel that's being mobbed by zombie larpers. . . .

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not quite a dream team, but interesting.

[aadler]

The last three things I read were a Buffy/Gilmore Girls crossover and two of Gillian Flynn’s books, so I’d be totally screwed. Never a good idea to be on a team where I’m the strongest member.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I would have thought a vampire slayer would be useful; wasn't there one in the Gilmore Girls story?

[aadler]

Two, actually — Buffy and Faith — but only in passing, and when the prompt says ‘protagonist’ I take that to mean main character, which they weren’t in that story. So, a more specific breakdown:

“Gone Girl” — Nick Dunne, not the Ben Affleck (movie) version but the character used as the foundation for Affleck’s portrayal. Intelligent, even ingenious under certain circumstances, but passive by nature and of utterly undemonstrated (and thus unknown) physical capabilities.

“Dark Places” — Libby Day, the 4'10" (or maybe 4'8") PTSD-ridden survivor of a family massacre. Eventually demonstrated some survival capacity, but utterly no aggressive capabilities.

Buffy/Gilmore Girls crossover — perspective more or less evenly split, so I could get either Xander (which would be a solid advantage) or Rory Gilmore: apparently sensible and stable, but once again of totally unexplored combat capabilities.

Nope; without Xander (and I’m going to rule that Rory is closer to ‘protagonist’ in that one), I’d still be the strongest member of that particular team, meaning that survival would be not out of the question but not remotely guaranteed.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

I'm replaying Baldur's Gate 2 (with Sorkatani as the PC, and they've reached Chapter 7); zombies don't even register on their threat meter. All I'll need to do is remember that Sorkatani doesn't drink coffee and be suitably humble when in proximity to Viconia.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Although, if it means only one protagonist from each... previously I had watched Only Connect and Mock The Week, so as well as looking after me Sorkatani is going to have to protect Dara O'Briain and an exceedingly pregnant Victoria Coren-Mitchell. Perhaps I'm screwed after all.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Maybe so, but it ought to be interesting...

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Well...

The last three things I read were webcomics, but I'm going to pick the last one from each of the sources, Watched, Read, and Played.

Watched: Alton Brown
Read: Guy, from the Two Guys and Guy a webcomic
Played: Candamir from the IOS Catan video game.

So a chef with some MacGyver skills, a homicidal red head with anger issues, and an overbearing barbarian who's into building cities and roads, and has a thing for sheep.

Zombie Jerky anyone?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Slice and dice! With a suitable sauce, of course

Amazingly I know the web comic, and I can see exactly what you mean about Guy. The big problem is that she'll happily throw you to the zombies to improve her chance of survival. Or because it looks interesting...

Don't now the Catan game, I've only played the board game, but there are probably some useful "convert shopping mall into fortress" skills in the character somewhere.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Know, not now!

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of webcomics. That would give me Florence Ambrose, Julie Finster (84), and Marten Reed, an interesting mix. . . .

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Florence would probably engineer a zombie zapper but would be too ethical to use it. Don't know the others.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

84 is from PS 238, a comic about an elementary school for students with superpowers; she's the eighty-fourth flying brick in her world. Marten is from Questionable Content, which is slice of life with substantial near-future sf content.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I read neither; used to read PS 238 years ago but lost interest somehow, not sure why, and can't remember character names.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Macbeth, Liz Lemon, and Barney Stinson. Can we have zombie apocalypse laser tag?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Don't see why not.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I'm doing fairly well - Arrow and the Men From UNCLE... and Paul Hollywood - helpfully driving an Austin Martin DB10...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Arrow definitely, and UNCLE thermite ties ought to be useful against zombies, and the car should make for cool getaways.

[coth.livejournal.com]

!Ha! Orphan Black, West Wing, and Rincewind and Twoflower. I would think we could handle most things in a civilised world.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

There's probably West Wing zombie apocalypse fanfic out there, but I agree the resources available to Jed Bartlet ought to be useful. Multiple Orphan Black clones should have some handy skills, and Rincewind and Twoflower... well, I suspect the Luggage would do most of the work.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Mort, Rick Grimes From The Walking Dead, And Victoria Coren-Mitchell. I Might Just Make It.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The first two sound like a fairly solid team, especially since Mort can probably give the zombies orders. Don't know the third at all.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I get The Doctor, Leslie Knope of Parks and Recreation and... Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. The first two are going to be too busy trying to save the world in two different ways and bickering, and then Jeff can write a song about how we're all doomed to die.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I really only know The Doctor, so yes, it sounds like the world's OK but you're collateral damage.

[eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm with:
- Ballista the Roman legionary commander from Harry Sidebottom's Warrior of Rome novel series. Very handy with a sword.
- Caine Riorden from Fire With Fire novel. Not read much of it but he seems to be very smart and fairly hard and knows how to shoot.

Then if the 'watched' only counts dramas I'm with Liv the Zombie from iZombie. Highly appropriate. Perhaps she can negotiate?

If the 'watched' is any telly at all, I'm with Springwatch presenter Chris Packham and some banded demoiselles (damselflies). At least I'll get to talk the science of zombies with him before we're eaten...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Liv the Zombie probably has strong feelings about zombie apocalypses, they disrupt the food chain. The damselflies might distract them, I suppose. And science is always useful.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hmm - I've got Alexander Armstrong and Richard on my side - with Anita from the Antiques Road Trip as well.

I'm just wondering if I can run faster than Anita... Alexander and Richard would be prime targets as they both have big brains!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good tactic - run faster than the expendable members of the party!

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I tried to check the plural form. From looking in Liddell and Scott, I find that the original Greek root was agonistes (with the o and e long)/agonistou. That looks like second declension, but it's irregular, so I'm not sure what the plural would be; it might be agonistoi or agonistai.

If the word was adopted into Latin it would come out as protagonistus or protagonistes, I think; the plural of the first would protagonisti. But Latin words adopted into English take Latin plural only if they retain the -us ending: hippopotamus/hippopotami, but not laureate/laureati. So I would go with protagonist/protagonists. Avoiding the need to find out the actual Greek plural is a fringe benefit. . . .

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sorry, must have previously missed this - many thanks for checking, I thought the s ending was probably better English, but I had a vague memory of an RPG that used the i so I went with both...