The Nerdiest Meme Ever

Courtesy of Jaq, a role-playing meme that plays as if written by a combo D&D-addict/fanficcer:

First, select ten fictional characters (from any medium) by whichever method you like best.
1. Captain America
2. Green Arrow
3. Anakin Skywalker
4. Locke
5. Indiana Jones
6. Willow
7. Hermione Granger
8. Starbuck
9. Gimli
10. Claire


Divide the list up by even and odd.
Team One
Captain America, Anakin Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Hermione Granger, Gimli

Team Two
Green Arrow, Locke, Willow, Starbuck, Claire

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 One. Captain America is ALWAYS the Leader, leaving Anakin as the Lancer, a position he is used to but chafes at. Gimli is the big guy, ironically enough, with Hermione as the smart girl and Indiana Jones as the chick, which in some very strange way, works.

If you think the team would be improved by swapping one character between the even and odd groups, which ones would you switch?
I'd trade Dr. Jones for Claire. An indestructible team member? Always a good thing. And as much as I love Indiana Jones, he doesn't strike me as someone who'd play well as part of a 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?
Green Arrow becomes a woman, Starbuck a man (hah!), and Claire a boy. Green Arrow's story kind of depends on the fact that he's a macho jerk, so as a woman, I could see a good deal changing. Starbuck's romantic entanglements would have played out much differently, but as a character I think she'd much the same. Claire, on the other hand, is defined as a classic female archetype ("the Cheerleader"), so her character would have to be rethought a bit. But a "complete character change?" No.

Compare the matchups of 1 & 8 and 5 & 9. (Ignore canon sexual preferences for the moment.) Which couple would be more compatible?
Captain America and Starbuck. Or Indiana Jones and Gimli. An easy one. While Starbuck's self-destructive tendencies and disrespect for authority might chafe, we've seen the good Captain attracted to similar women before (Diamondback, Sharon Carter).

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?
Anakin, Locke, and Gimli. Locke gets the mental challenge, easily. Anakin the physical. And we throw the social to Gimli because all of the three are distinctly socially handicapped.

7 becomes 1's boss for a week in some plausible fashion. How's their working relationship?
Hermione becomes Captain America's boss. Assuming it's the Hermione we see at the end of Book Seven, I think they'd have a great relationship, actually. Captain America has no problem answering to women (or men) he sees as smart and capable. The experience issue would rear it's head, but as I can't see Hermione ignoring Cap's expertise anyway, I think it would work itself out.

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?
Green Arrow is inserted into the Buffy-verse. Actually, as a street-level, none super-powered hero with an affection for snark, I think he'd fit in fine. I can easily see the Scoobies coming across a vigilante visiting Sunnydale and going through the usual distrust and fighting yields to teaming up dynamic. And he and Willow would spark off each other nicely, with his macho, bullying personality and her mellow, eager-to-please traits.

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?
Anakin and Indiana Jones. Anakin is a knight pledged to abstain from worldy goods and Jones is a treasure hunter. But Jones' practicality and cynicism would let him forge a mutually beneficial deal with the Jedi. What three wishes? I'm sure Jones has a laundry-list of lost artifacts he's love to discover, and Anakin craves power. I could easily see a pretty compelling story spun out of Jones' compromising too much to get his hands on the biggest lost artifact of all, and then of having to stop a power-mad Anakin. Given the disparity in power, I see a bad ending for Dr. Jones.

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?
Captain America and Green Arrow are going to try and kill Locke? Locke has about ten seconds before a shield decapitates him, leaving Green Arrow to grumble that his arrow would have done the job just as well.

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?
Willow, Hermione, Gimli, and Claire. Gimli would make a simply grand Santa Claus, Hermione and Willow could magic up some gifts and food and fun in a jiffy and Claire would, um, help out by blowing up balloons?

Until Whenever