I’ll echo a bit of Gill’s sentiment in that cross-verse comparisons tend to be more complicated than some people really consider.
Your general author/group doesn’t say “gee, this is going to be on Death Battle or fan forums some day, so let’s calc some picojoules and newtons and whatever and really figure out the scope of our plot”
Generally the longer a series goes, the more dire the consequences of the plot become – the stakes get raised – but your ‘god killing hero’ can still just as soon as take an arrow to the knee, or an axe in the back if it were, and they’re out for the count.
Stories tend to follow a ‘rule of cool’ and add in extra effects because it visual flare, or special effects or this that or another resonate better with an audience than a megaton times x whatever calc on power scopes.
Similarly, some fan comparisons tend to make up rules that doesn’t really have to apply to the situation (“equal and opposite reactions, therefore character ‘x’, can withstand that explosion”) because the capacity for these ‘powers’ to even exist tends to mess up ‘physics’ or ‘laws’, as we know them, as is.
D3 is a oddball imo because the whole nephalem plot is both shark jumping, and a bit of a buzzkill on the tension of the story. I’d be more inclined to think the victory over Diablo and Malthael is more circumstantial rather than just “oh, their birthright is just that OP”
“Strongest” type comparisons tend to assume that cuz ‘x’ character was beat by ‘y’ character, therefore ‘y’ character is stronger. Some people can break through walls without any tools; just trained fisticuffs and the right spot. Cool. Some snake bites are lethal. Just because the snake killed ‘x’ person doesn’t mean that snake is going to break through a wall.
So in that sense, I’d be more inclined to think mankind’s victories in D3, and expansion, are more circumstantial than just “The hero is *justI that OP” Here’s Diablo sitting in the midst of heaven trying to unmake his diametric opposite and ‘win’ an eternal battle; I’d think being in the heart of heaven to be more taxing on it then they’d think and it’s less “Diablo Prime” was utterly defeated, but the unstable power of the black soulstone gave way. (old NES platformer, the hero just has to hit the weakspot a dozen times to win!)
Similarly, part of the gimmick of Malthael is his state of ‘undeath’, and the player syncs that state with the help of the family/friends/whatever. Okay, so they’re a spiritbomb type thing, cool. Simlarly, would malthael taking in the black soulstone really do anything for him?
That pretty much seems like ‘rule of cool’ manifest. Okay, he’s on the ropes, so he’s going to try something desperate, and may have just undercut himself in the process. Yea, there’s the “Tyrael saw them obliterated” comment, but I’m not so sure it’s “totally annihilated” and instead just “He Izualed himself” (Lore books in D3 point out that Izual, or rather his ‘replacement’ has spawned from the Crystal Arch, but it was revealed that Izual respawned from the burning hells instead; if Malth joined with the essense of the main evils, he may has just gotten tangled up in their mess)
But that’s more ‘wishiful’ thinking on my end as a aspiring writer and prefer super power creep being the deus ex machina of my stories. Esp if there’s gonna be a sequel.
So that bit aside, the main thing going for some D3 feats is that Diablo has super door opening powers! WoOOOOOooo Act 2 Leah blows up a door (after a really long time) instead of, I dunno, the crazy powerful nephilim just pushing the handle; and then Diablo screams open the pearly gates
We don’t see the Neph corrupting/unmaking realities in their wake, we just seem them drop the HP of one thing by hitting it enough times.
In Starcraft and Warcraft, hitting stuff to lower HP is a valid strategy; Kerrigan has been impaled, cut, zapped, etc etc; a big point for her is regrowing lost parts, and not necessarily being immune to a well placed bullet set in her eye. Malfurion (who is kinda lacking in mention in this topic) took an axe in the back when he’d pretty much otherwise just wave his hand and cyclone everyone away; or super roots people to oblivion or whatever whatever.
Yea, I get Warcraft is ORCS and HUMANS, and other factions are lucky if the writers remember those characters exist, let alone know how to deal with the ‘power’ shown from one expansion/book to the next, but aspects of that lore are fairly unbecoming for characters to… unmake themselves for the convenience of the plot.
So some of the back-and-forth of these topics are frustrated by the “LORE” people want to use because a key part of the escalation of affairs follows “rule of cool” rather than the almighty power creep players like to imagine for ‘winner takes all’.
Power Scaling assumptions are a bad call and many of the listed characters are prone to the ‘snake bite’ wins type scenarios because in a lot of cases, the ‘scope’ of damage in that universe doesn’t really change, even if they got to level 10, 20, or paragon 8889 in-game.
But all that said, all that written, clearly the most overlooked answer to this is in one neglected detail: who has the most love?
Afterall, love is the most powerful force in the universe.
