Story wise, who is the most powerful character.

[MadBoar]

These 11 characters can each be passionately argued to be the most powerful in Fodlan. Who is it? Let's have some fun!

[Etrurian emperor]

I think Lysithea almost immediately falls off due to being sickly and frail. While she has great magical power I imagine that if anyone gets too close that she's pretty much toast. I think Hapi also has this to a lesser degree in the sense that aside from her ability to summon monsters she comes across as a mostly normal person. Probably good on the battlefield but not on the top 11.

Thales naturally falls off due to being Thales and thus a joke character.

I think a good case can be made as to Rhea being the strongest. She defeated Nemesis in single combat which is something Claude and Byleth can't do. And while Claude's probably a bit weaker than the other two lords I think this also implies that Edelgard and Dimitri can't do it.

The Deathknight should probably also be up there. As far as gameplay goes he's significantly stronger than Jeralt or Rhea who he can kill if he encounters them on the battlefield. 

[Sooks]

Rhea can turn into an absolutely massive dragon who is the final boss twice. No one else here can do that.

[lenticular]

None of the above. It's Sothis. Whose powers include but are not limited to time travel and interstellar travel (or possibly intergalactic if that one advice box about the distance of the Blue Sea Star is to be believed). She's far and away above anyone else. If we disqualify her on account of being sort of dead, then the winner is Byleth for being the person who carries Sothis's power. If we say that Byleth hasn't yet learned how to use that power, then I agree that it's Rhea.

[Jotari]

52 minutes ago, lenticular said:

None of the above. It's Sothis. Whose powers include but are not limited to time travel and interstellar travel (or possibly intergalactic if that one advice box about the distance of the Blue Sea Star is to be believed). She's far and away above anyone else. If we disqualify her on account of being sort of dead, then the winner is Byleth for being the person who carries Sothis's power. If we say that Byleth hasn't yet learned how to use that power, then I agree that it's Rhea.

If only Sothis didn't have a crimpling weakness to the true enemy of Fire Emblem...bandits!

But yeah...it's kind of clearly Rhea. Sure other characters beat her, but they always do that with a full army. Crimson Flower even specifically focuses on the fact that Edelgard and Byleth are doing it together.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I would cut out Balthus, Hapi, Lysithea, and Claude right out the gate. Balthus is very fit physically, sure, but not to an overwhelming degree. Hapi and Lysithea have cool magical powers, but also vulnerabilities and frailty. Claude, meanwhile, is a schemer - he overwhelms opponents with trickery and diplomacy, not with supernatural powers or raw might. Of those that remain...

Teach has a goddess inside their head, and the ability to turn back time. If these are factored in, they're a genuine contender.

Dimitri became a legend on AM for his ferocity and ruthlessness on the battlefield. He's perhaps physically the strongest one here.

Edelgard has two premier Crests - a minor one from Saint Seiros herself, and the legendary Crest of the Goddess. She's more than competent giving orders - or fulfilling them.

Nemesis is the legendary "King of Liberation", who sought power and built an alliance that revolutionized Fodlan. That said...

Rhea, as Seiros, has a 2-0 record against Nemesis. And at least one of those times was without turning into a giant Dragon. She's the one to beat.

Shez... I haven't played Three Hopes, beyond part of the demo, so I don't really know how much power, say, Arval gives them.

Thales is perhaps the most effective among the Slithers, but even he finds his efforts foiled by Rhea.

So I'm giving this to Rhea overall. With Teach in second, by merit of the sassy lost child in their brain.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Are we talking about Rhea and Nemesis 1000 years ago, or modern day? Because modern day Rhea would probably have to rely on the dragon stuff instead of carefully disarming the most powerful relic weapon before sandbagging with hand to hand, while modern day Nemesis is a rotted corpse. The answer is probably Rhea both times. But Byleth is a good second answer with the time travel stuff. Could Byleth defeat Rhea on his own and armed with a dozen divine pulses? In gameplay terms, it is possible, we've seen a Byleth solo on Silver Snow, but that's only in a reality where Byleth criminally neglected her students and took on all the enemies of Fodlan herself for that sweet sweet experience. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn

[SnowFire]

Agree with others that alive Sothis is obviously on top, Rhea is obviously next. Byleth is probably #3 because a fragment of Sothis's power is still pretty potent - the whole Jeralt / Monica thing suggests that Byleth's powers don't always work for reasons (???), so lesser than Sothis, but even limited time travel is pretty godlike.  And if we're including "political" power, Byleth's BS main character magic charisma that causes even brash young nobles to defer to them is obviously crazy powerful.

Having knocked off the big three, I am going to grudgingly give Thales his due.  TWSITD plot is a mess, but he has at his command A) missiles (that mostly kill nameless nobodies off-screen that the plot fails to reflect upon, but did kill Sothis in the backstory), B) Spies (who seem very difficult to detect when they're not being catastrophic jerks like Solon), C) Seems to have taken a VERY powerful position for himself (assuming he's really Lord Arundel) that, considering that Arundel seems to have run the Empire before Edelgard put herself in charge and still seems to have been influential afterward, is pretty big, and D) General pre-disaster super technology, including potentially arranging for Nemesis's resurrection as seemingly a pet of TWSITD (the plot really does not give us tons of details here, but Zombie Nemesis and his undead pals seems to be happily working with TWSITD), even if he's dead by the time this happens.  That's a lot of personal, magical, and political power.

Everybody else way brings up the caboose.  The game is hella vague on just how potent crests are, but it also emphasizes that non-Crest characters really can compete - Edelgard, Miss Two Crests herself, compliments Miklan for example.  I guess the most interesting possibility is Hapi, who explicitly has some Super Ultra Special Dark Magic Curse on her.  But even if we accept that she could control it, she isn't a jerk, so it's unclear how useful it actually is in practice.  It means she could be a powerful villain in some alternate 3H fictional setting I guess?!  Just summon tons of monsters in enemy lands to terrorize and murder the populace?  That's about it, though.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Byleth/Sothis if you consider the ability to rewind time, which is just incredibly powerful beyond belief. It obviously has limits; it can only be done so many times, clearly. The game doesn't spell it out, but I always imagine that the pulse to save Jeralt was the last one Byleth had left after using previous ones to save the lives of the trapped students and/or the ones in Byleth's own class, and that Byleth falling to their own "death" in Chapter 12 was the least bad option trying to save all their allies from Rhea or Thales.

Among non-time-rewinders I'd vote for Rhea, for reasons already said

[SnowFire]

Agree with others that alive Sothis is obviously on top, Rhea is obviously next. Byleth is probably #3 because a fragment of Sothis's power is still pretty potent - the whole Jeralt / Monica thing suggests that Byleth's powers don't always work for reasons (???), so lesser than Sothis, but even limited time travel is pretty godlike.  And if we're including "political" power, Byleth's BS main character magic charisma that causes even brash young nobles to defer to them is obviously crazy powerful.

Having knocked off the big three, I am going to grudgingly give Thales his due.  TWSITD plot is a mess, but he has at his command A) missiles (that mostly kill nameless nobodies off-screen that the plot fails to reflect upon, but did kill Sothis in the backstory), B) Spies (who seem very difficult to detect when they're not being catastrophic jerks like Solon), C) Seems to have taken a VERY powerful position for himself (assuming he's really Lord Arundel) that, considering that Arundel seems to have run the Empire before Edelgard put herself in charge and still seems to have been influential afterward, is pretty big, and D) General pre-disaster super technology, including potentially arranging for Nemesis's resurrection as seemingly a pet of TWSITD (the plot really does not give us tons of details here, but Zombie Nemesis and his undead pals seems to be happily working with TWSITD), even if he's dead by the time this happens.  That's a lot of personal, magical, and political power.

Everybody else way brings up the caboose.  The game is hella vague on just how potent crests are, but it also emphasizes that non-Crest characters really can compete - Edelgard, Miss Two Crests herself, compliments Miklan for example.  I guess the most interesting possibility is Hapi, who explicitly has some Super Ultra Special Dark Magic Curse on her.  But even if we accept that she could control it, she isn't a jerk, so it's unclear how useful it actually is in practice.  It means she could be a powerful villain in some alternate 3H fictional setting I guess?!  Just summon tons of monsters in enemy lands to terrorize and murder the populace?  That's about it, though.

[MadBoar]

8 hours ago, Sooks said:

Rhea can turn into an absolutely massive dragon who is the final boss twice. No one else here can do that.

Edelgard can transform as well. We can also assume that Lysithea has the ability to transform. Lysithea is very secretive of her true power. 

7 hours ago, lenticular said:

None of the above. It's Sothis. Whose powers include but are not limited to time travel and interstellar travel (or possibly intergalactic if that one advice box about the distance of the Blue Sea Star is to be believed). She's far and away above anyone else. If we disqualify her on account of being sort of dead, then the winner is Byleth for being the person who carries Sothis's power. If we say that Byleth hasn't yet learned how to use that power, then I agree that it's Rhea.

Sothis isn't included in this poll because she exists inside of Byleth. Nemesis also carries Sothis's power. Byleth could only beat Nemesis in a 2 v 1 battle. 

8 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The Deathknight should probably also be up there. As far as gameplay goes he's significantly stronger than Jeralt or Rhea who he can kill if he encounters them on the battlefield. 

The Deathknight just takes orders from others. And he is a teenager in a man's body, stuck in his emo phase. 

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I would cut out Balthus, Hapi, Lysithea, and Claude right out the gate. Balthus is very fit physically, sure, but not to an overwhelming degree. 

In three hopes, we see a support conversation indicating that Balthus is a very very powerful fighter. I won't spoil it.

1 hour ago, SnowFire said:

Having knocked off the big three, I am going to grudgingly give Thales his due.  

 Ironically, I find Arundel to be much more intimidating than Thales. 

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

But yeah...it's kind of clearly Rhea. Sure other characters beat her, but they always do that with a full army. Crimson Flower even specifically focuses on the fact that Edelgard and Byleth are doing it together.

Crimson flower focuses on the fact that Edelgard and Byleth are doing it together, WITHOUT using the power of their crests. Thales states that Edelgard can "burn the gods," with her crests. 

1 hour ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Byleth/Sothis if you consider the ability to rewind time, which is just incredibly powerful beyond belief. It obviously has limits; it can only be done so many times, clearly. The game doesn't spell it out, but I always imagine that the pulse to save Jeralt was the last one Byleth had left after using previous ones to save the lives of the trapped students and/or the ones in Byleth's own class, and that Byleth falling to their own "death" in Chapter 12 was the least bad option trying to save all their allies from Rhea or Thales.

I interpreted that cutscene where Jeralt died as Thales having the power to anticipate and work around Byleth's divine pulse.  

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Another aspect of Byleth is his unique access to the convoy. Some of you might say "hey, he only has that because that's the usual ability given to FE protagonists", but I interpret this as an ability Byleth uniquely has in the world of Three Houses. Some kind or pocket dimension of Bag or Holding where he can lift all his possessions in and out of. What if Byleth could put HIMSELF in the convoy? Where does he go? Do we have any hope of catching him? I WILL REMIND YOU that pocket dimensions are canon in the FE multiverse. FE Fates canonizes the concept with Corrin's Castle.

Regarding Time Travel, I think it's most potent power is ALSO allowing you to Avoid any fight that's life threatening, rather than strictly winning fights. If the cops were closing in on me, I could rig some solution to get outta there, even with the limitations set by the gameplay version of Divine Pulse (max 12 uses, takes you back 30-60 minutes maximum). But no amount of divine pulse is gonna allow me to rig a victory in a mutual, fair fight against a professional fighter. Likewise, it's pretty unlikely you could rig a victory between your Byleth and the final chapter's boss in a fair 1v1. Not strictly impossible, but I think if most of us booted up an endgame save file of one of our typical playthroughs, we'd probably give up before exhausting our divine pulses. We just lack the numbers.

And if anybody disputes these points (the Convoy Dimension, and Divine Pulse's limitations set by the game) then I think it is you who is mistaken. You probably play way too many JRPGs to just assume with no evidence there's a layer of gameplay/story segregation we're not seeing.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Dark Holy Elf]

28 minutes ago, MadBoar said:

I interpreted that cutscene where Jeralt died as Thales having the power to anticipate and work around Byleth's divine pulse.  

I don't think that interpretation is correct. After all, you can use it against him just fine when you actually face him in battle later. We never see him react to divine pulse itself or step outside of time in any way. He just reveals himself to parry Byleth's actual attack (which he didn't have to do the first time Kronya scored her kill, because Byleth rewound time before attacking her).

Also, I'd imagine that if Thales could counter the Fell Star's power, the Agarthans wouldn't fear him/her as much as they do. That's why they go to the trouble of trying to lock Byleth in some special dimension where (presumably) divine pulse doesn't work.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, MadBoar said:

Edelgard can transform as well. We can also assume that Lysithea has the ability to transform. Lysithea is very secretive of her true power. 

 

What? No, we can't. While both Edelgard and Lysithea were experimented on, and received an additional Crest as a result, we can't assume that the nature of the experimentation - and other consequences thereof - are the same.

So, while I'm not saying that a hypothetical "Hegemon Lysithea" couldn't exist, I would say it's not textually supported beyond conjecture.

1 hour ago, MadBoar said:

Sothis isn't included in this poll because she exists inside of Byleth. Nemesis also carries Sothis's power. Byleth could only beat Nemesis in a 2 v 1 battle. 

 

Nemesis isn't known to possess the ability to Divine Pulse, either now or ever in the past.

1 hour ago, MadBoar said:

Crimson flower focuses on the fact that Edelgard and Byleth are doing it together, WITHOUT using the power of their crests. Thales states that Edelgard can "burn the gods," with her crests. 

 

What? Edelgard's relic, Aymr, has a combat art that literally depends on using her Crest. Same for Teach using the Sword of the Creator. While it's technically possible for either of them to refuse to actively use or benefit from their Crests, that's not a decision that either character takes in-narrative. It would purely be a function of the player's choices.

29 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I don't think that interpretation is correct. After all, you can use it against him just fine when you actually face him in battle later. We never see him react to divine pulse itself or step outside of time in any way. He just reveals himself to parry Byleth's actual attack (which he didn't have to do the first time Kronya scored her kill, because Byleth rewound time before attacking her).

Yeah I agree. Thales appears to show up because Kronya is being attacked, not because Teach uses their Divine Pulse power. Thales states that his intervention was out of a need to prevent her body from being discovered, so he almost certainly would've done the same if Teach had attacked her without Pulsing first.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, SnowFire said:

A) missiles (that mostly kill nameless nobodies off-screen that the plot fails to reflect upon, but did kill Sothis in the backstory)

The missiles don't even manage to be that relevant. Nemesis just snuck up on Sothis and  killed her while she slept. If it were the missiles then Zanado would look like Aillel.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

 

What? No, we can't. While both Edelgard and Lysithea were experimented on, and received an additional Crest as a result, we can't assume that the nature of the experimentation - and other consequences thereof - are the same.

So, while I'm not saying that a hypothetical "Hegemon Lysithea" couldn't exist, I would say it's not textually supported beyond conjecture.

Not canon, but danged if I don't want to see it in Heroes now!

[lenticular]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Nemesis isn't known to possess the ability to Divine Pulse, either now or ever in the past.

Agree with this. And I think that Byleth has other abilities that go beyond what other bearers of the Crest of Flames (Nemesis, Edelgard) have. Solon appears shocked when Byleth is able to escape from the spooky pocket dimension of Zahras. It wasn't just a case of discovering that Byleth had the Crest of Flames; they were able to do something beyond what even someone with that Crest can do. Crests are powerful, but they don't grant all the abilities of their originating Nabatean. I don't think there's any reason to suppose that Nemesis could rewind time any more than we should suppose that Hanneman can turn into a giant dragon turtle.

[Dark Holy Elf]

44 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Agree with this. And I think that Byleth has other abilities that go beyond what other bearers of the Crest of Flames (Nemesis, Edelgard) have. Solon appears shocked when Byleth is able to escape from the spooky pocket dimension of Zahras. It wasn't just a case of discovering that Byleth had the Crest of Flames; they were able to do something beyond what even someone with that Crest can do. Crests are powerful, but they don't grant all the abilities of their originating Nabatean. I don't think there's any reason to suppose that Nemesis could rewind time any more than we should suppose that Hanneman can turn into a giant dragon turtle.

Agreed. The key, I think, is that Byleth doesn't just have the Crest of Flames, but the Crest Stone of Sothis literally functioning as their heart. This is why Sothis is able to talk to them, and Sothis is rather explicitly the source of the time rewinding and the escape from Zaharas. Nobody else is in this position (the closest we know of would actually be Sitri, but there's no evidence Sothis ever "woke up" inside her the way she does in Byleth during the game's prologue), so there's no reason to extrapolate Byleth's powers to anyone else outside of past Sothis herself.

I recall a dev interview where they mentioned that, at one point in development, Edelgard was going to have the ability to, if not divine pulse herself, then counter it in some way (I forget the exact wording). Presumably this would be an ability tied to the Crest of Flames, so Nemesis might also have had it as well... and it would certainly explain why the Agarthans would want so badly to have a Crest of Flames user in their corner.

But that's rather clearly not what we got, so instead Byleth+Sothis feels very far ahead of the competition in this game; it would honestly have taken a bit of a contrivance for them to not win. I don't mind – Three Houses is interesting due to the how and why the characters act the way they do, IMO, not the suspense of whether Byleth's faction will win – but it's a bit of a contrast to how Fire Emblem will often frame you as the underdog.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Agreed. The key, I think, is that Byleth doesn't just have the Crest of Flames, but the Crest Stone of Sothis literally functioning as their heart. This is why Sothis is able to talk to them, and Sothis is rather explicitly the source of the time rewinding and the escape from Zaharas. Nobody else is in this position (the closest we know of would actually be Sitri, but there's no evidence Sothis ever "woke up" inside her the way she does in Byleth during the game's prologue), so there's no reason to extrapolate Byleth's powers to anyone else outside of past Sothis herself.

I recall a dev interview where they mentioned that, at one point in development, Edelgard was going to have the ability to, if not divine pulse herself, then counter it in some way (I forget the exact wording). Presumably this would be an ability tied to the Crest of Flames, so Nemesis might also have had it as well... and it would certainly explain why the Agarthans would want so badly to have a Crest of Flames user in their corner.

But that's rather clearly not what we got, so instead Byleth+Sothis feels very far ahead of the competition in this game; it would honestly have taken a bit of a contrivance for them to not win. I don't mind – Three Houses is interesting due to the how and why the characters act the way they do, IMO, not the suspense of whether Byleth's faction will win – but it's a bit of a contrast to how Fire Emblem will often frame you as the underdog.

I was thinking that it'd be more than just Byleth having the Sothis's crest stone, but also several generations worth of experimentation to give Byleth similarities to Sothis (after all, they didn't inherit the Crest of Seiros from Jearalt despite him being the biological father...I think). Though maybe Rhea's experiments were less gene splicing and more just trying to get a heart transplant to work using a fossilized dragon heart. For what it's worth though, Nemesis would have had Sothis's Crest Stone in his possession (even though it does seem absent on the obvious recess where it's meant to go in the opening, but that's probably a goof), he just never realize shoving it into his chest cavity would give him extra power.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I think the answer pretty clearly falls to either Rhea or Byleth. Balthus, Hapi, and Lysithea shouldn't even be in conversation.

[SnowFire]

6 hours ago, MadBoar said:

 Ironically, I find Arundel to be much more intimidating than Thales. 

Apologies if you already know this and were just stating that the actions of "Arundel" are scarier than "Thales" (which...  is a good point, if we separate them out, for all that the game doesn't spend a lot of time detailing whatever shenanigans he was up to in Adrestria!), but just in case, for what it's worth, they are probably the same person (maybe 3 Hopes verified this?).  They have the same voice actor, Arundel is clearly a Slitherer, and the non-CF route where Arundel gets offed in battle (Azure Moon) is the one where Thales doesn't appear in the endgame.

[Dark Holy Elf]

If it needed any confirmation, Three Hopes does indeed confirm it (during the first couple hours of one of the routes, even... it's in the demo!).

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, SnowFire said:

Apologies if you already know this and were just stating that the actions of "Arundel" are scarier than "Thales" (which...  is a good point, if we separate them out, for all that the game doesn't spend a lot of time detailing whatever shenanigans he was up to in Adrestria!), but just in case, for what it's worth, they are probably the same person (maybe 3 Hopes verified this?).  They have the same voice actor, Arundel is clearly a Slitherer, and the non-CF route where Arundel gets offed in battle (Azure Moon) is the one where Thales doesn't appear in the endgame.

Funny enough, Thales doesn't appear in the literal endgame of any route (of Three Houses, he shows up in two of the end games of Three Hopes, though he doesn't exactly do much, which is funny as he's kind of the final boss of one of them).

[MadBoar]

2 hours ago, SnowFire said:

Apologies if you already know this and were just stating that the actions of "Arundel" are scarier than "Thales" (which...  is a good point, if we separate them out, for all that the game doesn't spend a lot of time detailing whatever shenanigans he was up to in Adrestria!), but just in case, for what it's worth, they are probably the same person (maybe 3 Hopes verified this?).  They have the same voice actor, Arundel is clearly a Slitherer, and the non-CF route where Arundel gets offed in battle (Azure Moon) is the one where Thales doesn't appear in the endgame.

What I meant was Thales in more intimidating when he is in the form of Arundel. Which is ironic. Thales is just cartoonishly evil and a joke. Arundel is vague with his threats, more realistically designed, and more mysterious, so he is ironically scarier. I figured out the connection at the beginning of crimson flower, my second route. On my first play through, silver snow, edelgard said that her uncle conducted experiments during a support conversation during white clouds, which corresponds to Thales. Also, on chapter 12, when edelgard is defeated, she gives her uncle the command. Then, Thales appears as the leader in the cutscene. Throughout silver snow, I assumed Thales was her actual uncle. Then, on my second play through, Arundel is revealed to be her uncle early in crimson flower. That is when I was 100% sure of them being the same person, even before the aftermath of chapter 16. I didn't notice the voice actor detail.

 It doesn't matter whether or not three hopes verified this, because its so obvious. In fact, if three hopes were to explicitly verify this in dramatic fashion, then it would be insulting to our intelligences. 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, MadBoar said:

It doesn't matter whether or not three hopes verified this, because its so obvious. In fact, if three hopes were to explicitly verify this in dramatic fashion, then it would be insulting to our intelligences. 

I wouldn't say it's revealed in a particularly dramatic fashion, but it is something of a shock for the characters. Tomas being revealed to be Solon gets a lot more drama to it, funnily enough, which is something that is, in no uncertain terms, revealed in Three Houses. Of course in both cases (Tomas and Arundel) it's early game stuff that's tackled before the plot really gets started.

[Etrurian emperor]

I think that Count Bergliez and Holst should also be taken in consideration. Both seem to be among the strongest non mythological figures Fodlan have to offer. Arundel is even on the record as rather not being in the same room as count Bergliez during Edelgard's coup.