Strength

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"That man won't quit as long as he can still draw a breath. None of my teammates will. Me? I've got a different problem. I feel like I live in a world made of... cardboard!"

—Superman, Justice League Unlimited

One of The Six Stats, abbreviated as STR.

This is the stat that determines how strong a character is. This is usually broken down into two levels: how much a character can lift/carry/push/pull, and how damaging a blow from this character is. Of all the stats, this is the most historically blown-way-outta-proportion of all of the stats, and is usually the choice stat of an action or martial arts hero, and especially comic book characters.

Typically a Dump Stat for more intellectual characters, though obviously a Genius Bruiser is the exception to this trend.

Here's a guide for Examples:

12-15: The character is reasonably in-shape to athletic. The high-end stat-wielders are your typical good high-school athlete.

16-19: Professional athletes, fighters, etc. Expect most Olympian athletes to be pushing 18 or 19

20-23: These are the beginning of your super-heroes. Expect car-lifters to be common in this group, if not guys that make their own doors... through brick walls. Also expect a fight against a typical muggle to end with one punch - in that their skull will probably be a fine mist.

24+: So you've upgraded from lifting cars to juggling Abrams tanks, eh? These are your most-powerful superheroes, a lot of mythical figures, and typically anyone who can wrestle a dragon.

Examples of Strength include:

12-15:

Anime and Manga

  • Makoto "Sailor Jupiter" Kino from Sailor Moon, untransformed, has a reputation for physical strength unheard of for a middle-schooler, even allowing for the fact that she's a Huge Schoolgirl.

16-19:

Anime and Manga

  • The Kunos from Ranma ½. And given that Kodachi has been known to grab large objects -- including her brother -- with her gymnastics ribbon and sling them with great force, she may actually be in the next category even though she shows no other evidence of unusual strength.
  • Tsumugi from K-On!, who can maintain a normal walking pace while carrying a Marshall amp (that weighs over 30 lbs) down three flights of stairs and across a high school yard, and even when she pulls her punch manages to send a prepared person across the room with a single slap.

Comic Books

  • Batman, being a badass normal, pushes the upper-levels of this tier, shying just short of being able to regularly lift a car. Mind you, this means he's still able to lift more and fight harder than Olympic-level weightlifters and grand-master martial-artists. Not surprising, though, since he is the poster-child for Badass Normal.

Web Original

  • Most trainee Huntsmen and Huntresses from RWBY.

20-23:

Anime and Manga

  • The typical level of power for fighters in Grappler Baki. As the comic goes on, it becomes more and more common for the fighters to kill mooks or bystanders with little effort, and sometimes even each other. At one point, Baki is thrown - not in one go, mind you, but through successive hits - through a series of concrete walls.
  • Most everyone in Ranma ½, except maybe Ryoga. Even Akane, the physically weakest of the main characters, can easily pick up half-ton boulders, hold them over her head, and throw them a fair distance.
  • Shinobu from Urusei Yatsura, for no readily-apparent reason.
  • Fanon frequently attributes strength of this level to the Sailor Senshi; there is some but not conclusive evidence to support it.

Web Original

  • Trained and experienced Huntsmen and Huntresses from RWBY appear to be at the bottom end of this range. Some, like Penny, Qrow Branwen, General James Ironwood and Ghira Belladonna, definitely are in the top end, if not the next category entirely.
    • Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie are noteworthy in that their strength starts out quite high, and can get higher -- Yang absorbs physical damage and turns it into strength, while lightning empowers Nora.

24+:

Anime and Manga

  • Goku. If you don't know that Goku can break the moon the earth the freakin' SUN with a single punch, you were apparently asleep from 1997-2004.
  • Depending on the version, Ryoga from Ranma ½ may be in this category.

Comic Books

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