What do you consider a strong character to be?

[Lomyril]

Being able to say no. =)

 

[Roland_Pine]

A character's strength is relative to what story is being told. In ETA Hoffmann's The Golden Pot, Anselmus is, in my opinion, strong by the end because he has thrown away his former life and fully embraced the magical world of Atlantis. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the monster is weak because, although it is physically strong, it lacks the one thing it needs to go on living—a place to belong. No matter how it threatens Frankenstein, he will not create a mate for it, and so its physical strength is meaningless. On a similar note, Victor Frankenstein himself is an example of strong-to-weak, for he begins a confident and intelligent scientist but by the end has found himself powerless to protect those he loved from his own creation.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Usually, a strong female character is one who makes money.

 

[RepresentingThree]

I think looking at their ability to affect their surroundings tends to be a good way to measure strength. Let's say a "Que" is is the unit that measures intelligence, a "Grip" measures strength, and a "Magi" measures magic capacity. In this instance let's say 1 Magi used in it's most raw form can form a 1 Deci-Meter(thats .1 Meters) round hole in some relatively loose soil. 2 Grip can do the same. The question is how much Que does one need to form that hole? There is not a basic move like a punch or an energy blast. The easiest way is probably to ask someone else to do it. This requires knowledge of language. The others can be done as a small child arbitrarily. A child could still achieve the event using Que, but the bare minimum age is higher. I'd say you would need at least 10 Que to achieve a Deci-Meter round hole in some loose soil. The moral of this story is that one order to beat someone when utilizing intelligence you have to to be way better at being smart then they are at being physically strong or magically apt.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Strength cannot be measured in isolation. A strong character must be able to overcome adversity. That is the only requirement.

A child with no physical ability, no education, and no family can still be strong if they push past those obstacles and come out intact or even as a better person than they started.

A summoned Hero with cheat like strength can still be weak if he panics and runs away at the first sign of real adversity.

A scholar with access to all the knowledge in the world would still be useless if he refused to accept new knowledge because it contradicted something he read elsewhere.

Any kind of strength is meaningless if the user can't make use of it. Contrarily, a character that takes a weakness and uses it to overcome a stronger character is 'strong' despite lacking the other's strength.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Using his cunning to get his job done.

Not everything can be resolved through force anyway.

 

[SakeVision]

When they are consistent and memorable

 

[BearlyAlive]

A strong character is a character that leaves a strong impression. At least for me. They can be weak, broken, the token jokester and so on. As long as they are memorable they are strong characters.

If we're talking about prowress, though, then it's someone that turns the tides to their favor (excluding PLOTARMOR and bad writing). Physically or mentally strong characters are usually the ones that overcome their conflicts instead of succumbing to them.

Important is that even "weak" characters can be strong characters as long as they leave an impression and don't break under their conflicts (or bad writing).

 

[Alfir]

For me, a strong 'character' is someone who is relatable to readers. I am answering the question from a different perspective. Powers, skills, and traits are just the medium that tries to express this 'character'. If strong is one of the adjectives to describe a character, its meaning may be varied, and won't stay on only one dimension like how Saitama is physically strong, but also had extreme ignorance to the point of heaven transcending.
I cannot think of a better analogy, but that's it.

 

[OsiriumWrites]

Mentality/commitment: A person who can watch billions burn to save trillions more.