This is just a list of my favorite character for each tier of power. I should note that a character being higher here doesn't neccesarily mean they would beat characters lower. Power isn't everything in who would win in a fight. What it does mean is that the character would beat all the characters who come before them in either armwrestling or a beam struggle. I can't include the same character in multiple spots so I have to pick a level for each character, though I can use alternate continuities of the same character as a completely seperate character since they have a differnent characterization.
Below Average Human Level:
Diana (Sailor Moon)
Why she's below average human level: Diana is a small kitten and doesn't scale to the superhuman feats of either of her parents due to lack of feats and her young age plus small size.
Why do I like her: I mean, look at her she's so cute! Diana is not just adorable, but I also really like her character, her attempts to being heroic despite her small size and she even did save the universe once by watching the spacetime door for Sailor Pluto so Pluto could join the other senshi.
Average Human Level:
Kyoya Ootori (Ouran High School Host Club)
Why he's average human level: Kyoya is a normal human physically and lacks any superhuman feats.
Why do I like him: Well because he's an intelligent host with a serious exterior and a sensitive emotional interior. He's got a sad home life as the neglected third child of the Ootori family. Episode 24 centered around him was so good. There was obviously a lot of competition for this spot, but Kyoya is my current pick, possibly because I am currently in the middle of a rewatch.
Athletic Human Level:
Yugi Muto (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Why he's athletic human level: While he's not exactly superhuman, little Yugi came along way from being the weakling he was at the start. He chased a thief through a city, survived being brought through fire unconcious and survived briefly the lifeforce draining game of darkness.
Why do I like him: Yugi's a really sympathetic protagonist, just wanting to make friends and his relationship with his other self was really sweet. I also liked seeing him slowly develop himself not just as a duelist but as a man.
Superhuman Level:
Shadow Moon (American Gods)
Why he's superhuman level: Fought evenly with the Leprechaun Mad Sweeny who broke a wooden bench in half with a kick
Why do I like him: Well I mean first off any character written by Neil Gaiman is going to gold. Beyond that Shadow is such a sympathetic protagonist, the start of the novel being basically a string of sympahetizing things that happen to him and his gradual coming to awareness of the reality of the situation after being locked away from several years going from prisoner completely unaware of the supernatural to Odin's bodyguard and eventual demigod was a really well written progression I thought.
Wall Level:
sans (Undertale)
Why he's wall level: Survived the temperature of Hotland which could evaporate a styrofoam land and is relative to Frisk who could survive a large explosion.
Why do I like him: I don't think I have to explain this too much. sans is incredibly well regarded in general, being one of, if not the most popular characters to come from the 10s. My reasons are not much different from most people. He's funny, charming, cool and relatable.
Low Building Level:
Cutie Honey (Cutie Honey)
Why she's low building level: Cutie Honey is described as being stronger then any normal human weapon, including anti-tank missiles, and has a larger mech form which is this approximate size.
Why do I like her: Cutie Honey is a fun relatable heroine with cool powers and is also quite pretty. I really like her backstory and her title as the warrior of love. She's also sort of the blueprint for the relatable magical girl protagonists of later years and the first magical girl warrior.
Building Level:
Harley Quinn (DC Comics)
Why she's building level: Harley scales to numerous building level feats from DC street tiers including Killer Croc tanking bullets and train collisions or Atlanteans surviving deep underwater. Harley herself has kicked the head of the building sized Cerberus away.
Why do I like her: I think Harley is a cute, fun and interesting character. I find her progression from villaint to anti-hero to hero to be realistically written and her romance with Poison Ivy really sweet. I know in recent times some people have dismissed her as a "lol so ranDUMB XD" character ala Deadpool, mostly because both are villains turning into heroes and both have fourth wall breaking, but just like with Deadpool I find this analysis to be mostly either surface level or based of adaptations and think she has a fair amount of depth in her actual comics.
Large Building Level:
Umi Ryuuzaki (Magic Knight Rayearth)
Why she's large building level: Numerous feats in this range even strictly going by the manga, most notably Umi surviving a blow from Lafarga which vaporized the ground without even touching it calced at 9.8 tons of tnt.
Why I like her: Umi is a character I'm really nostalgic for, having liked her since childhood. Much like how my favorite character showed me you could be a cowardly crybaby and still rise above to be a hero, Umi showed me that you could be overly emotional and sensitive and still be elegant and cool. She's both the emotional one with the comical reactions of the Magic Knights and the cool elegant one.
City Block Level:
Zagato (Magic Knight Rayearth)
Why he's city block level: Zagato scales dramatically above Lafarga whose casual blow vaporized the ground without even touching it, calced at 9.8 tons, nearly city block level. He might scale to Clef's magic blast that created an explosion up to the clouds but I've always been a bit hesistant to scale that way since it's implied the reason no one in Cephiro could beat him was not because his skill in magic but because of his Rune God.
Why do I like him: Zagato may not be my favorite villain but he's everything a good villain should be in my view. He's got a powerful commanding presence everytime he appears, and even when he's not on screen his minions are constantly acting to align with his will so you feel his influence. He's entertaining to watch, especially as the truth about him slowly unreveals and his motivation is surpisingly compelling and core to not just the first arc, but becomes a central narrative point in the second after he's died.
Multi-City Block Level:
Vlad (Magicka)
Why he's multi-city block level: Vlad is one of the strongest wizards in Midgard and should easily scale to the various feats around this level like the Wizards freezing a large amount of lava or a powerful wizard moving a small hill in battle with earth magic.
Why do I like him: I go back and forth between whether Vlad or Grimnir is my favorite magicka character, but right now it's Vlad who is defintiely not a vampire. Vlad the not vampire is constantly somewhere in the midpoint between mentor and manipulator trying to both guide the wizards to save Midgard as well as further his own aim. He's almost a villain at points, trying to gain power yet at the same time given how chaotic and nonsensical the magicka world is, it's kinda hard to call it malicious. Vlad is fun to watch and while he may not be quite as compelling as Grimnir, he's more versatile becoming basically the flagship character of the series. Vlad the definitely human also has one of the most shocking plot twists in all of fiction about him. I won't spoil it but this completely unvampiric being is not quite what you may think.
Town Level:
Spider-Man (Marvel Comics)
Why he's town level: There's a lot of reasons which I went into in my blog on him but basically he's got a lot of feats on this level including tanking hits from the God Wayep whose presence made a snowstorm, beat Electro who made an eletrical storm and absorbed the electrical power of the city to become supernova hot, scales to Luke Cage and Deadpool who survived a nuke, scales to Morbius who hits like an H-Bomb etc.
Why do I like him: Spider-Man is one of my favorite characters period. I thought his emotional struggles were really understandable and compelling, I think he's got a lot of really cool moments, I love the whole mythos developed during the JMS era with the scientist/spider duality, and teh Great Weaver Myth arc and I love the symbolism of Spider-Man being like the human will in it's tragic self-destruction and it's triumph against struggle.
City Level:
Mami Tomoe (Puella Magi Madoka Magicka)
Why she's city level: Mami's tiro finale obliterated a bunch of copies of a powerful witches, witches being able to maintain town to city sized dimensions.
Why do I like: Mami is a character I liked initially but I've only grown to love more with time and thought. In the original series I thought her emotional breakdown talking with Madoka was so moving, both her loneliness and her attempt to keep someone else from experincing it even if it would abate her own loneliness. I tend to really like maternal themed characters in fiction like Mami and her combination of elegance and compassion. Her struggle to attempt to remain controlled and unaffected by what she experienced was both relatable and emotionally compelling. It's sad how underrated she is in the fandom in general imo. I relaly love the metatextual idea that Mami represents the traditional magical girl archetype and that her death and inspiring of Madoka and Sayaka the next generation of magical girls is just like how the magical girl genre started with icons like SM and CCS, "died" during the dark age of the late 00s and was reborn with PMMM.
Island Level:
Alchemiss (Freedom Force)
Why she's island level: Alchemiss scales to supervillain tier enemies like Pan who levitated a floating island across the sky. In-game the island doesn't look very big but that may just be grapical limitations as it has it's own temple on it and is it's own map. Outside of that she scales to Nuclear Winter's whose passive presence caused a Cuban Town to have snowfall.
Why do I like her: Freedom Force is such an underrated game. Alchemiss is arguably the central protagonist of the series (it would be either her or Man-Bot). She has a full moral and character arc that's quite cool to see, she's a hero but she's not driven by typical hero virtues but by base emotional wants and it's cool to see how that's interpreted. I'm also generally a fan of the magic heroes in most series.
Country Level:
Kurama (Yu Yu Hakusho)
Why he's country level: Kurama is an A-Class Demon in his base form and a S-Class in his Yoko form. A-Classes can do things like create massive volcanic eruptions calced in the teraton range and are directly stated to be threats to countries and Yusuke and Sensui in their fight as low S-Classes were performing casual gigaton to teraton feats of pulverizing mountains.
Why do I like him: The guys on team Urameshi are all well regarded, and Kurama being the one most popular with women means it probably shouldn't be surprising ;) Kurama is elegant and pretty, has a sweet motivation for his actions, and is a delicious duality of cold and merciless with sweet and protective, like a rose hiding thorns.
Continent Level:
Diana Cavendish (Little Witch Academia)
Why she's continent level: Scales to Akko who survived a relativistic broom collision and there's shenanigans with Shiny Arc which left a crater on the moon
Why do I like her: At first I thought Diana was going to be a stereotypical shojo school bully, but instead she proved to be my favorite character in the series, elegant, strict but understanding, and complex in her relationship with Akko. I'm not gonna lie the part about Diana struggling to live up to her mother's ideals hit me really hard in the feels.
Low Planet Level:
Superman (DC Extended Universe)
Why he's planetoid (low planet) level: A lot of people miss some of the DCEU lore, possibly from not reading accompanying guides and or taking the most immediate information. Superman was described as tougher then a planet, and survived the energy of the mother boxes which do not just terraform the surface as people seem to assume, but are stated to actually destroy and recreate planets. Also while much more inexperienced he survived the power of the world engine, a machine stated in the novels to dwarf mountains, adding enough mass to the Earth to rapidly increase it's mass dramatically.
Why do I like him: Superman is such a sweetie and his DCEU equivalent is not an exception; the way he calls up his mom to ask for her guidance or the way he comforts Lois or the way he humbly asks the priest if he should give himself up on just the chance to save mankind or allows himself to be handcuffed to make people feel more secure. The DCEU treats him as the insp.iring symbol, which is exactly what I view him. I also really love the part when it is said about him that "man has always made gods in our image. Maybe he's not a devil or jesus figure, maybe he's just a man trying to do the right thing." Because like yes, yes, exactly. That is the message people should learn, the thing I want to express to them, that we're all just people doing our best. And that beautiful first flight sequence is one of my favorite scenes ever. I love him so <3
Planet Level:
Samus Aran (Metroid)
Why she's planet level: Samus has defeated the strongest enemies of the galaxy, much stronger then living asteroids leviathans that survived planet level collisions. Her rival Dark Samus survived a planet sized dimension collapsing on her yet Samus beat her after she had fused with a whole planet of phazon.
Why do I like her: There was a lot of competition for this tier but Samus won out. She's just got everything. She's a walking moment of bad*ss constantly doing awesome things. Yet she's also such a cool personality. She's a stoic pained figure, who holds her emotions tight yet acts protective and defensive of the small and innocent showing her hidden maternal side. She is the Chozo's hope for the universe.
Large Planet Level:
Omi (Xiaolin Showdown)
Why he's large planet level: Omi scales to Chase Young in strength who split the Earth at relativistic speeds calced at large planet level and considers the power of the Shen Gong Wu irrelevant, including the Lunar Locket which can move the moon at relativistic speeds which would also be large planet level.
Why do I like him: I thought Omi had a really endearing character arc going from arrogance to humility. Despite his arrogance I found him endearing since the beginning since he always came off more as an overexcited young child rather then an arrogant adult, and despite being full of himself he clearly trained very hard and didn't just expect things to work out for him. I also found his cultural naivety and tendency to mess up sayings to be very funny and sympathetic.
Low Star Level:
Superman (Smallville)
Why he's low stellar level: Superman pushed Apokalips at relativistic speeds, calced at this level.
Why do I like him: Not a lot of low stellar level characters, but I do like this version of Superman, even if the show got a bit too soap opera-y. It was cool seeing him slowly (and I do mean slowly) grow into being the Superman. Maybe I just him a thing for the shy kind quiet boys who are modern protective human beings.
Star Level:
Bubbles (The Powerpuff Girls)
Why she's star level: Scales above Him who made a dimension containing it's own star and super casually reversed Earth's relativistic motion towards the sun calced at low stellar
Why do I like her: I don't know if this is narcisstic but I always like characters that remind me of them and Bubbles reminds me of what I was like at that age. She's good hearted and compassionate but doesn't have good control of her emotions and easily frightened. I fought the dichotomy of a powerful superhero being an insecure little girl to be funny and cute.
Large Star Level:
Bayonetta (Bayonetta)
Why she's large star level: Harmed the physical manifestation of Jubileus which could tank the violent explosion of Jupiter calced at large star level.
Why do I like her: Bayonetta is such a cool character. She's composed and confident while also being emotionally rich and responsive to environment. She's driven and her goals dictate the plot of the events of at least the first game as opposed to a lot of heroes that just react ot things and I just thought she was really cool and fun. I also like her deliberately feminine aesthetic and demeanor and the continued return to a powerful feminity as an ideal rather then the sad and cold trend towards androgynizing female heroes as an attempt to show their "strength".
Solar System Level:
Aziraphale (Good Omens)
Why he's solar system level: Aziraphale is depicted as roughly equal to other protagonist of Good Omens, his counterpart the demon Crowley who is stated to have created a nebula and by context probably didn't do it over a very long time. Also angels and demons are stated to be able to take any size, shape, and composition they want and the good omens universe, while smaller then ours, would take at least generations to cross in a starship
Why do I like him: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, what a dream team of writers! I know a lot of people find bad guys more interesting but I've always found the forces of light more interesting and entertaining. Aziraphale is such a great border between the ethereal perfect force of good that is angel while also being a completely believable downright human persona. I liked his adorable formal yet compassionate mannerisms and sweet nature. And his relationship with Crowley is obviously just immaculate.
Low Galaxy Level:
Post-Crisis Superman (DC Comics)
Why he's low galactic level: Post-Crisis Superman has 1 or 2 feats in this range like surviving enough anti-life to vaporize half a galaxy, scaling to Wonder Woman who has 1 or 2 feats in this range throwing Ares who could be so large his hands were the size of star systems, and scales to green lanterns who have a few feats in this range.
Why do I like him: Superman is one of my favorite characters of all time, if you can't tell by the 2 other canons of him on this list. It's almost hard to talk about because there's so much about him. There's Superman the heroic archetype, the ideal we strive towards who inspires us, Superman the man a quite humble guy who has the weight of the world on his shoulders, the alien who sees us and the beauty of humanity better then even we do and wishes to be like us...Superman is a character that fits in everywhere, a perfect icon, but beyond that whenever he's there he's one of the biggest presences. He's THE Superman and whever he is truth and justice follow.
Galaxy Level:
Amaterasu (Okami)
Why she's galaxy level: Amaterasu with her brush power spun the whirlpool galaxy and was hit by the strikes of Yami whose blows destroyed the constellations.
Why do I like her: I'm not sure well how someone who is culturally removed "gets" it but I found Amaterasu and Okami's relation to traditional folklore to be really sweet. Amaterasu despite not talking in wolf form is such a heroicly sweet character regardless bringing light both literally and metaphorically back to the land of Nippon that has fallen into darkness. Amaterasu in the game and metaphorically the symbolic sun is the light of our hopes and prayers that guides the way out of darkness.
Multi-Galaxy Level:
Manwe (Lord of the Rings)
Why he's multi-galaxy level: One of the 14 valar who helped build the universe together and each being a concept ruling over a large portion of it. Second strongest of them behind Melkor.
Why do I like him: I'm gonna be honest there wasn't many multi-galaxy level characters that I knew, that said I did like Manwe when I was researching LOTR. He was a wise and noble god-king and was a very responsible authority figure, whose sole weakness of not understanding and not being able to anticipate evil, I thought was an interesting idea.
Universe Level:
Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)
Why she's universe level: Sailor Moon's lambda power restored the cosmos from it's damage, the silver crystal is the source of all energy and can be used to create a universe and she's a lot stronger then Nehelenia who maintained her own mirror universe.
Why do I like her: Sailor Moon is my favorite character of all time, and I can't go over all the reasons here. But I guess the biggest reason is what she taught me. I'm not a very brave individual by nature. I worry often and I'm terrified of people being angry at me. I'm kind of a crybaby who gets too emotional and takes things too seriously like Usagi. Usagi showed me that someone like me could still be a hero for our loved ones, because love can inspire even a crybaby into being courageous. She is the most relatable character I know and she showed me how to not run away from something scary.
Low Multiverse Level:
Kratos (God of War)
Why he's low multiverse level: Kratos and Zeus by word of god scale to Polygon Man who fused dozens of universes and is well over the level of most high end olympians who have a large number of universal feats.
Why do I like him: Kratos pre-GOW 4 was a very underappreciated character and I'm glad he's getting some love now. He's different from a lot of the strong uber masculine anti-hero types by his emotionality. As pointed out most masculine anti-heroes are cool, collected, maybe say some witty lines and have one moment of pathos rigth near the end to show they can be scary and animal. Kratos on the other hand is constantly driven by his emotionality, most often his rage and in so he is a recreation of the classic greek tragic hero who is undone by his fatal flaw (in this case rage, much like Myth Hercules who Kratos somewhat resembles). The scene where he kills himself in GOW 3 to end the cycle of patricide haunting his family has a lot more symbolism then people appreciate and his newfound attempts in GOW 4 to put aside his monsterous path and be a good father to his son are quite endearing.
Mid Multiverse Level:
Doctor Fate (DC Comics)
Why he's mid multiverse level: Doctor Fate in his merged state could affect an entire multiverse with his magic (though it's unclear whether this is the infinite multiverse of the bleed barrier or the local multiverse). For conservative assessment, I assume the latter.
Why do I like him: There's not that many mid multiverse level entities but again I do really like Doctor Fate. I like magic wielding users and I like how he's really on the border of the human/inhuman divide due to being so entrenched in the magical world. I also really like all the symbolism of having to find the balance between the lords of order and chaos, between actuality and potentiality. I have a natural and strong tendency towards order, towards tradition and safety and the known but am trying to be more comfortable with chaos and spontaneity and I thought it was very resonant.
High Multiverse Level:
Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura)
Why she's high multiverse level: Sakura by EOS had transcended the magic of even Clow Reed who could warp the entire infinite multiverse with a single thought and overpowered Fei Wang Reed's spell that was going to destroy and recreate the multiverse.
Why do I like her: Sakura is one of my favorite characters of all time. Not only is she really cute and endearing but she is almost a force of pure hope and optimism and always believes things will turn out ok. If you compare my liking for Sakura to my liking of my other favorite characters, Sakura is probably the simplest but no less potent. If anything she is potent in her simplicity, she is the perfection of the classical style of magical girl trope, a girl who has the magic to make anything happen, the magic of hope. She is a friend to all she comes across, and while her presence on the panel may not be the most explosive it is still nontheless always there, shining like the star that is her symbol.
Omniversal/Transcends the concept of power
Dream of the Endless (DC Comics)
Why he transcends the concept of power: Dream is an Endless, a being that transcends creation and the sixth world, the plane of reality beyond the first five worlds including the fourth world, the world of platonic concepts and archetypes like power. The dreaming encompassess all of creation and includes beings like the leviathan of stories, an infinite hierarchy of meta-stories.
Why do I like him: As mentioned before I love Neil Gaiman's writing but Dream of the Endless I like even more so, being one of my favorite characters. Dream of the Endless is on a metafictional level the stories we tell themselves, the narrative and so reading a story about him is reading a story about stories themselves and his nature. I love that shamanistic personification thing where you humanize concepts to better understand them, and Dream's character arc is somehow both a tragedy and a beautiful transcendence, as he endeavors across The Sandman to right the wrongs he has done and to not be such an island, the lonely dream king in his castle, always weaving stories for other people but never having one himself. His personality is so entertaining to watch, being just cruel and inhuman enough for you to believe that he is some inhuman cosmic entity that is just a lawful neutral being overseeing existence, but just human and warm enough that you can understand why he does what he does. Reading about him really stretches one's mind to understand the transpersonal better then could be done normally.
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