The 10 Most Powerful Star Wars Characters Ranked

Star Wars has never seemed interested in fleshing out the rules and limitations of the Force, but at the center of nerd culture, it hasn’t always had a choice. Over the years, some characters have clearly risen to the top, making power-scaling for this franchise surprisingly straightforward. Star Wars characters’ abilities definitely grow on a narrative basis when the story demands it, and the movies are generally pretty good about making these leaps believable. The TV shows are usually the same, and even the novels and comic books are pretty consistent, though the video games can skew the balance quite a bit. What’s perhaps even more important is how Star Wars maintains perspective.

Even when characters pull off something unprecedented, we’re left to believe that there is still infinite unrealized potential in this vast galaxy. That’s really the strength of a “soft magic system” like the Force, and it’s why this franchise has room for the 10 heavy hitters below. Read on for the top 10 strongest characters we’ve met so far.

#10 – Kylo Ren

Kylo Ren naturally lands on this list as a grandson of Anakin — meaning he is only two generations removed from an immaculate birth. Although he fights for the dark side for most of the sequel trilogy, he displays impressive control of his emotions as his actions clearly leave him with conflicting feelings. That helps make him an interesting character, but it also helps make him extremely powerful.

[RELATED: This Is the Best New Star Wars Character Since Baby Yoda (And It’s Not Even Close)]

Kylo — or Ben Solo — has some impressive Force feats to his name including helping to kill both Snoke and Palpatine as part of a Force dyad with Rey. He is still the only character we’ve seen use the Force to catch a blaster bolt in the air, which raises some unanswered questions about what blasters are and how the Force can be used directly on light and energy. On the other hand, he loses some fights that were clearly in his favor and his dalliance with the dark side clearly occludes his skills of perception, which is why he’s at the lowest position on this list.

#9 – Rey Skywalker

The other half of Kylo’s dyad, Rey Skywalker is a skilled Force user and a fast learner. She balances the heroic part of a Jedi’s role with the trickster aspect quite nicely, often relying on her enemies to underestimate her. However, by the end of the sequel trilogy, she displays some powers that rival anything we’ve ever seen before — all with minimal training or even studying.

Rey may even rise on this list in the years to come if she returns in new Star Wars movies, as planned. Last we saw her, she had helped finish off the First Order and was planning to begin building something new. If she can contribute to lasting peace in the galaxy, she might be more powerful than anyone else on this list.

#8 – Bendu

Bendu was a megalithic being introduced in Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow, and he appeared in four more episodes after that. Although not a Jedi himself, Bendu met with Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan Ezra Bridger and counseled the two of them from a place of authority. His wisdom hinted at his attunement with the Force, and at first, he refused to participate in any violence. Outside of combat, Bendu displayed some of the clearest precognition we’ve ever seen in a Force user, along with powerful empathic abilities that extended to both the light and dark sides.

When Bendu was finally pushed to defend himself, his Force abilities coupled with his immense physiology made him an absolute tank. He was able to weather direct blasts from AT-ATs and rifles. When it came time to strike back, Bendu changed form into a massive storm that stopped Grand Admiral Thrawn and his forces in their tracks. In the end, he vanished into thin air — perhaps changing his form once again or perhaps using some kind of local teleportation we’ve never seen anywhere else.

#7 – Darth Revan

Many of the characters on this list come from the video game franchise Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — and with good reason. In an age when both the Sith and Jedi were more numerous and more active, there were bound to be a few stand-out practitioners among them, including Darth Revan. The protagonist of the first game was a genius tactician, a fierce warrior, and another wielder of immense precognition.

Revan began as a Jedi who was essential to winning the Mandalorian Wars, but after the fighting was over, they disappeared. They returned later as a Sith, looking to install a new Sith Empire in power over the galaxy. Revan was then betrayed by an apprentice, proving the Jedi’s point that emotional attachment often clouds judgment.

#6 – Darth Nihilus

Introduced in Knights of the Old Republic II, Darth Nihilus was imbued with immense power when he mysteriously survived an extinction-level attack on the planet Malachor V during the Mandalorian Wars. His new power came at a cost — he would now crave Force energy, and consuming it could draw the life force right out of anyone he stood nearby. This made him formidable even for fellow Force-users, as their attempt to manipulate the Force might simply make Nihilus stronger.

Even if you’ve never played the Knights of the Old Republic games, you’ve likely seen images of Nihilus online — especially in recent years. Many fan theories suggested that he would be the main villain of Rise of Skywalker, and to this day fans hold out hope for his return in the new canon timeline.

#5 – Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious — a.k.a. Emperor Palpatine — pulled off the boldest coupe the galaxy has ever seen. His feats are all the more impressive considering the near-extinction of the Sith, and the necessity to operate in the shadows. The fact that Palpatine was able to spend so much time around the most powerful Jedi of his era without being detected is hard to believe by itself, let alone to be pulling strings in the background all along.

As for his powers on display, we got to see Palpatine throwing things around, wielding a lightsaber, and casting Force lightning plenty of times in the series, though there is nothing too unique to comment on. He narrowly survives a duel with the Jedi’s greatest swordsman of the time, Mace Windu, and he fights the next entry on our list to a standstill as well. In the sequel trilogy, we also see that Sidious came closer than anyone else to truly conquering death.

#4 – Yoda

Master Yoda oversaw the training of young Force users and the direction of the Jedi Order for centuries, including several of the other characters on this list. Many of his greatest feats are now relegated to the Legends timeline, but even his canon abilities earn him this number-four spot. Yoda is estimated to have trained about 20,000 Jedi personally in his lifetime, all while working on behalf of the order.

Loyalty to the order may have been Yoda’s greatest weakness, as he blames the complacency of the Jedi for the rise of Darth Sidious. Still, he clearly found peace in hermitage at the end of his life, as well as the ability to become one with the Force after death and manifest as a Force ghost for years to come.

#3 – Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, briefly known as Darth Vader, is immensely powerful at every point of his life. He rose from slavery to become a Jedi Knight and Republic General, and he is shown to be thoughtful and studious in his apprenticeship. After a lifetime of war and grief, it’s hard to even blame Anakin for giving into the temptation of the dark side for nearly half of his life.

Anakin was born with no father, and Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn believed he was conceived by the will of the Force itself. Anakin’s Force-enhanced reflexes made him an exceptional duelist and pilot, while his unusually strong Force sensitivity granted him even greater telekinesis than others in his order. Of course, his real exceptional power was the strength of his convictions — he wanted the power Sidious promised so badly that he forced himself to fight his best friend and mentor nearly to the death, yet when the veil was lifted by his son Luke, he used the last of his strength to take down the man who had manipulated him.

#2 – Luke Skywalker

Once again, Luke Skywalker gets extra points here for learning quickly and under pressure, without the benefit of a vast Jedi order to shelter and train him. Luke overcomes the youthful urge to dive headfirst into the war and pursue the path of the Jedi — and to great effect. He becomes an incredibly calm, level-headed presence by the end of the original trilogy with abilities that rival any of the temple-trained knights we’ve seen in prequels.

The sequel trilogy maintains this trajectory for Luke, indicating that he may have been happier in peacetimes as a Jedi scholar or philosopher. However, when pushed by Rey, he pulls off one of the most impressive stunts of the entire franchise, casting an illusion across the galaxy to fool his former apprentice. If that weren’t enough, Luke was the catalyst that finally helped turn his father away from the dark side and defeat the Empire.

#1 – Tenebrae

Finally, we need to return to Knights of the Old Republic for the strongest Star Wars character we’ve ever met — the Sith Emperor Tenebrae. This despot maintained control over the galaxy for over a millennium, in part by transferring his consciousness into new host bodies making him functionally immortal, and in part by dominating the minds of thousands of Sith for years at a time.

The games say that many of Tenebrae’s powers were lost to history — both for the Sith and the Jedi, and we’ve certainly never seen mind control or compulsion on this scale anywhere else in the franchise. However, in the end, Tenebrae was defeated thousands of years before the main story of Star Wars, and we may never see his like in the current timeline.