This week’s Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge question is: which book, TV or movie characters would I invite to dinner?

At first this sounds easy. Pick your favourite characters, put them around a table, done.

Except… no.

There are plenty of characters I adore whom I would absolutely not invite into my home. Some of them attract danger everywhere they go. Some would be exhausting. Some would probably bring their enemies with them. And some are wonderful to read about but would be an absolute nightmare over dinner.

So I started thinking less about favourite characters and more about the people I would genuinely like to spend an evening with.

Somehow, I ended up with this lot.

Lucy Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Lucy was one of my first thoughts.

Not Queen Lucy the Valiant holding court at Cair Paravel, necessarily. Just Lucy, sitting at my dinner table and telling me about Narnia.

Because I have questions.
So many questions.

We get glimpses of the Golden Age at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but I want all the ordinary details. What was it actually like to rule Narnia? What did they do when there wasn’t a war happening? Did Mr Tumnus regularly pop over for tea? What was Cair Paravel like when it wasn’t hosting important diplomatic business? What other adventures did they have that we never got to hear about?

Basically, Lucy thinks she’s been invited to dinner and discovers she’s actually agreed to a very enthusiastic oral-history interview.

Sorry, Lucy.

Viv (Legends & Lattes)
Viv feels like someone you could simply be comfortable around.

She’s lived this enormous adventurous life full of swords and monsters and danger and then eventually realised that maybe what she actually wanted was coffee, cinnamon rolls and community.

I love that.

I want to hear the adventuring stories, obviously, but I think I’d be even more interested in talking about what came afterwards: building the coffee shop, finding her people and creating this completely different sort of life for herself.

And no, Viv is not making the after-dinner coffee.

She’s a guest.

Although if Thimble wanted to bring dessert, I wouldn’t exactly stop him.

Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
This one isn’t even a question.

If I can invite fictional characters to dinner, Jean-Luc Picard is coming.

History. Archaeology. Literature. Shakespeare. Exploration. First contact with alien civilisations. The development of the Federation. All the planets he’s visited and cultures he’s encountered.

We could be there for DAYS.

I think I’d particularly want to talk to him about his version of humanity. Star Trek imagines us eventually getting through all the mess we’re currently making and becoming something better — not perfect, but curious, cooperative and determined to keep learning.

I’d want to know what it’s like to live in that future.

Although there’s a reasonable chance everyone else will have gone home by the time Picard and I finish discussing Shakespeare.

Donna Noble (Doctor Who)
Every dinner party needs Donna Noble.

Actually, most situations could probably be improved by adding Donna Noble.

She’s funny, compassionate, gloriously unimpressed by people who think they’re important, and exactly the person I want at the table when Picard and I have disappeared down some academic rabbit hole and need someone to tell us we’re being ridiculous.

I also desperately want to watch Donna discover that Lucy was once a Queen of Narnia.

And hear about everything Lucy went through.

Because I suspect Donna would have opinions about adults allowing children to repeatedly save magical worlds.

Loud opinions.

Possibly directed at Aslan.

Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)
And finally, Anne.

She would turn up and within approximately fifteen minutes she’d have decided that Lucy was a kindred spirit, demanded to know everything about talking animals, become fascinated by Viv, asked Picard seventeen questions about the stars and found something unexpectedly poetic about the TARDIS.

And Donna would either adore her immediately or spend the first hour looking slightly shell-shocked.

Possibly both.

There’s something about Anne’s sheer enthusiasm for the world that makes her exactly the sort of person I’d want at this dinner. She notices things. She cares enormously. She tells stories. She makes ordinary things feel magical.

She would also ensure there was absolutely no danger of an awkward silence.

Ever.

So… how does this dinner actually go?
The more I look at this guest list, the less interested I am in having a sensible dinner party.
I want Lucy and Anne comparing Narnia and Avonlea.
I want Viv quietly watching Donna become increasingly outraged on Lucy’s behalf.
I want Anne asking Picard what space looks like from the bridge of the Enterprise and then describing it back to him in considerably more poetic language.
I want Picard and Lucy comparing experiences of leadership.
I want Donna asking Picard whether humanity really does eventually sort itself out.
And somewhere around dessert, I want everyone to realise we’ve been talking for five hours.

Honestly, I think that’s the common thread between all five of my choices. They’re from wildly different stories, but they’re all characters who are curious about people. They’ve experienced extraordinary things without losing their capacity for kindness, wonder or connection.

Which probably says something about why I love them in the first place.

Also, nobody at the table is likely to murder anyone.
When you’re inviting fictional characters to dinner, I feel that’s an important consideration.

Now I just need to figure out what on earth I’m cooking.

What about you? Which fictional characters are getting an invitation to your dinner party — and which favourites are you keeping far away from your house, no matter how much you love them?