Tier Lists

Given that all of the fear powers are representative of human emotions, they're naturally very subjective, and it's hard for me to rank each of them definitively, so before I try to, I want to establish criteria I can check each of them against. Given that one of the categories is avatar of, and going by the rules of the Magnus universe, you can only be an avatar of one power, agreeability is an important factor, so I'm going to start with that. I would define agreeability as how much I agree with the avatars of each power in the series as well as how much I'd like each power's post-ritual ideal world. We don't actually get to see these worlds, but I'm going to venture a guess knowing what we do about the fears.

Agreeability

• The Buried - 7/10 agreeability. Many of the buried episodes are among my favorite episodes, and I have a weird affinity for The Buried in a similar way to the avatars. Lost Johns' Cave in particular is one of my favorites, and while it was one of the scariest episodes to my friend who I listen to the series with, it just made me genuinely want to go caving. The episode that most informs my thoughts on the buried is probably A Gravedigger's Envy. The way Hezekiah Wakely describes his envy of the buried makes a lot of sense to me, and I think I would be fine in a world where everyone was just buried. Something about the idea of being blanketed in earth just hits a little bit different. That said, I also think it would be boring, so I'm not that into it. There are also the more abstract aspects of the buried, such as deep debt, that do not have the same potential feeling of comfort, and those complicate things, but I don't think that the ideal world of the buried would be as heavy on those. Taking debt as an example, that debt's existence relies on a world with an economic system and all of the hustle and bustle that comes with that. It acts as a manifestation of the buried, but only through circumstances that clash with The Buried. This may be my personal bias towards the interpretation of the buried that Hezekiah presents, but I think that an ideal world of the buried would not make an allowance for those things. Debt requires a creditor with the capital to give a loan, and in an ideal post-Buried-ritual world, that creditor should be buried too.
• The Corruption - 9/10 agreeability. I think that a post-Corruption-ritual world is harder to conceptualize in detail than some of the other powers, and while it would definitely be unpleasant to humans in many regards, particularly as The Corruption relates to infection and disease, I still have a strong affinity for The Corruption. My rating is largely based on that as I don't know what the world it would create would be like. I think my love of The Corruption can be traced back to a similar reason as why so many queer people love horror. Something something kinship with the disgusting or horrific. I also have so much appreciation for the role that decomposers play in sustaining life on Earth, and I think the beauty of it is underappreciated. Making use of the decaying masses that other species don't want and using it to make a life for yourself is poetic and efficient in the best way. I love creation from limitation in so many ways, and this is a perfect example of it. The disgust that is induced from rot is also an anthrocentric concern. A rotting corpse is to a maggot or other decomposer what a buffet is to us. Is the joy of a maggot enveloped in delicious food not beautiful in the same sense as ours? Once you look past what we see from that corpse and think of it from an ecological standpoint, you can come to an appreciation of it. It's not a 10/10 because of the suffering induced by the infection aspect, but writing this made me realize the extent to which I have a deep, probably deeply strange, love for The Corruption.
• The Dark - 9/10 agreeability. The dark episodes are some of my favorite episodes in the series. I particularly love the statement of Manuela Dominguez. The way she describes her own personal theology and how it connected to the People's Church of the Divine Host genuinely speaks to me, probably to a slightly concerning degree. On a personal level, I have a great love for the dark. I recently had a period where I spent most every night going into the woods alone at midnight without using a flashlight or wearing my glasses. I had them if I absolutely needed them, but I quickly reached the point where I could navigate the entire woods area I walked through from memory without the need for any light. I found this whole experience therapeutic in a sense. Outside of this, I just love the dark. I love laying in a dark room. I love laying under a blanket and covering my eyes. The nature of light is that it reveals one's surroundings, and in a similar way to the buried, the absence of surroundings to worry about is very comforting. You simply have to worry about your own body and your own mind. I also agree with Manuela's case that the default state of the universe is in darkness. Even ignoring the existence of dark matter, we know that what we call matter and what we call energy are not too dissimilar or distinct from one another. When defining darkness as simply the absence of light, a form of energy, it seems clear that prior to the big bang, which we consider the starting point of the universe, there would have been dark. There may not have been light to contrast it against or anything/anyone there to label it as darkness, but the darkness itself would have been there. I'm not a physicist, so I can't guarantee that all of that is entirely true, but I think I have at least an above-average understanding, and it fits that admittedly limited perspective. The only thing that stops The Dark from being a 10/10 is the fact that we are, as Manuela admits, creatures of the light. In a world where the People's Church completed their ritual and the universe was simply 100% dark, there wouldn't be many of the parts of the universe that I understand and appreciate. In other words, I differ from the beliefs of People's Church primarily in that I see light not as a perversion of pure darkness, but as a parallel or complement to it that is necessary for us to even perceive darkness.
• The Desolation - 1/10 agreeability. The Desolation is a particularly cruel power. The Cult of The Lightless Flame prey on the weak and those who have unrealized potential. It's the manifestation of senseless destruction, and I don't find anything agreeable about that. There's the angle of "Might Makes Right" where the ability to destroy or others inability to resist makes it fine, or the perspective that existence is something afforded to those who can secure it for themselves, but I have no affection for these views. There's also something to be said about the necessity of destruction to make room for new creation, and I could respect that, but The Desolation seems either unconcerned with or hostile to that creation, so it doesn't get any more points from me for that.
• The End - 5/10 agreeability. The End is an interesting power because, given its lack of a ritual, I don't have to think about its post-ritual world. My agreeability score, then, is based on simply my comfort with the end. Everything ends, and that inevitability is both scary and part of what gives existence meaning. Nonexistence has a relaxing aspect, and I can state with confidence that I didn't have any problem with it prior to being born. That said, it's also largely uninteresting, and I appreciate the existence that I do have. When the end does come, I'll no longer be there to be bothered by it, so I can't say I have a distaste for it, but I also have no desire for it to come any sooner than it needs to. As much as life sometimes sucks, it's too beautiful to be actively thrown away.
• The Eye - 2/10 agreeability. Rating The Eye on agreeability is also interesting because it's the only power whose post-ritual world we actually get to see, and I think that, with the possible exceptions of The Desolation and The Slaughter, it's the worst one. This makes sense given that The Eye feeds on observing the suffering caused by all the other powers. We also don't have a real scale for how big the world is, so there's a case that it's the worst because all of the other powers' worlds exist within it. That said, I have a personal love for The Eye because I am a very analytical person and someone who loves absorbing knowledge like a sponge more than almost anything else. Even making this list and analyzing, considering, categorizing, and pondering the Entities is, in a sense, doing the work of the Eye, so I can't fully give it a 0/10 agreeability.
• The Flesh - 8/10 agreeability. I like the aesthetic of The Flesh, but it also is a fear that I find difficult to envision a post-ritual world for. Honestly enough of these powers are that it makes it almost a useless metric, but I don't know how else to define agreeability, so I'm just gonna run with it. Maybe the degree of pull I feel towards it is a better definition, but whatever, no thoughts, only flesh. I enjoy the dehumanization aspect of The Flesh in the same way that a nihilistic view can be comforting. When you're just moving meat, it doesn't matter much what you do, and that's freeing. There's also the idea that your flesh is the one thing you really own and also the host of everything you are. As much as we may identify with the idea of ourselves as a mind, soul, or spirit, we cannot be that without the flesh. There's also the transgender narrative with the flesh. Modifying your body to reflect the spirit as a way of becoming whole is a strong parallel with Jared's gym. That was more related to general body dysmorphia than gender dysphoria specifically, but that also makes The Flesh a more widely applicable power.
• The Hunt - 6/10 agreeability. I didn't initially like The Hunt very much, but I've come to find it very interesting. There's something about the unique horror of directing all of your energy into chasing a goal that may or may not be impossible. An obsession not with any particular higher goal but with a chase that will never satisfy you. There's also the primal feeling of The Hunt which has its own horror. The idea of being a target and having to defend yourself or run away to survive. As much as I don't like the cruel nature of The Hunt, I do have a slight affection towards it. I'm a person who constantly chases novelty and have struggled with the idea of finding any job I could consistently have to do for a long term and not get bored of. I sometimes feel like I can't be happy leading a routine life, and I can relate to The Hunt in that regard. There's also the possibility of a Hunt avatar who is more aligned with being a good prey which really interests me. The thrill of constantly escaping danger and continuing to live is something that I could see being thrilling to The Hunt in the same way that the role of the hunter is. I also once heard a woman say "you make such a good prey animal" and I haven't been the same since so +1 bonus point for that.
• The Lonely - 5/10 agreeability. The Lonely is a power I have an interesting connection with. I don't have as strong of any attraction towards it now, but having grown up feeling isolated from myself and others, I definitely feel some sort of pull. There's a certain freedom that comes from being alone. Nobody to percieve you, judge you, or pressure you to be in any specific way. You can get lost in thought and explore the reaches of your mind without any expectations. That said, I also know how much isolation can get to you, and I know how much I value all the beautiful people around me. There's a pain to The Lonely, but it's a familiar pain that comes with some comfort. I wouldn't want to go back to being alone, but I think I could live with it if I had to.
• The Slaughter - 1/10 agreeability. I feel a similar way towards The Slaughter that I do about The Desolation. It's a senselessly cruel power, and I don't feel any attraction to it. Some of the Slaughter episodes are among my favorite episodes in the series. It's interesting to think about the circumstances that bring about slaughter or the guilt that comes with it. The horror of war, the effect it has even on those who come out physically unarmed. In terms of the power itself, however, I have no real positive feelings.
• The Spiral - 10/10 agreeability. I can approach The Spiral from a million angles because I think about it a lot, but I think a particularly strong approach is the idea that much of what we fear is that which we don't understand. The vast scares us because we can't comprehend its scale. The nonsensical winding architecture associated with The Spiral is scary because we like to understand our surroundings so we can ensure our security. I find that there's a way to interpret basically all of the powers through the lense of The Spiral. While that view varies in strength depending on the power, I think it's a part of what attracts me to The Spiral. On a personal angle, I spent the majority of my life feeling like I wasn't real, and that makes The Spiral a deeply attractive fear. I'd cast my mind into the universe looking for understanding and only find more and more incomprehensibility. That experience feels very consistent with the avatars of The Spiral, so I think if there were any power I'd choose to associate myself with, it would be The Spiral. I think that, were The Spiral to be successful in their ritual, the world would not necessarily be worse or even all that different than it is now. It might be more explicitly chaotic and incomprehensible, but every aspect of the present world is so complex and messy already that I don't think we can truly know anything for certain. In a world where what we perceive through our varies wildly between humans and even more wildly between different lifeforms, we can truly have no certainty. As someone who is, by nature, on a perpetual search for novelty, a world of constant strangeness is quite appealing, and I've a disturbed enough psyche to be entirely unbothered by the nonsensical nature of it, so I think I could come to quite enjoy a post-Spiral ritual world.
• The Stranger - 6/10 agreeability. I think about The Stranger a lot. There are so many angles to approach it mentally and it has such a cool aesthetic. I love the detail that when Wolfgang von Kempelen, the Stranger avatar who built the Mechanical Turk, speaks to Abraham Janssen, the chess player who controlled the Turk, he does so in French and not his native Hungarian, so his manner is less disconcerting, but whenever Janssen sees someone speak to him in his native Hungarian, the other person is filled with obvious terror. It's one of my favorite little details in the entire series because it says so much about how our backgrounds influence what we expect. It's harder to be afraid of someone who seems just a bit off when you aren't as familiar with what is expected. There's also the idea that we know very little of most of the people that around are us. That status of being a stranger can free you of expectations and meeting standards when you aren't something that anyone has a concept of.
• The Vast - 7/10 agreeability. I have quite mixed feelings on The Vast. On the one hand, I'm a fan of The Buried, so it makes sense that I would dislike The Vast, and in some ways, I do. When I think of a world that's infinitely large and empty, I feel an obligation to explore it as well as a fear of not finding anything. The sense of insignificance that comes with being compared to something so much bigger than you that your best efforts mean nothing. However, I also feel a fascination with the possibilities it brings. I also think of the concept of infinity and the bounds of how large something can get before it becomes effectively infinite due to the limits of our comprehension. If something can be so incomprehensibly large that it makes you feel insignificant, you can also go the other direction and see that there are so many infinitely small, beautifully complex processes that all compound to create you. Scale has the power to make you both infinity and zero, and you can see yourself and know that you aren't zero, so it seems obvious what answer is correct. That idea is so beautiful to me that I have to love the vast in that regard despite any discomfort I might have with it. The idea that the existence of the infinite mandates that you push yourself to explore and find something in it loses a lot of its power when you find that same infinity within yourself. Me when The Vast turns me into a motivational speaker lmao. Anyway good power thumbs up
• The Web - 9/10 agreeability. I love The Web a lot. I love the concept of inevitability; I love convoluted plans and manipulation; I love the idea of a lack of free will; I love the idea of unknown connections and unforeseen influences. In the context of The Web, I usually think of the question of free will and the horror and comfort that come from a lack of real control. The idea of being controlled and not having responsibility for what you do is freeing, but it also turns the idea of who you are on its head. If you sacrifice control, what identity do you have? If you aren't in control of what you do, does anything you do matter? You go from conceptualizing yourself as someone who has to find the right things to do and the right ways to do then to just being a force that has to somehow get something out of the circumstances you find yourself in. I don't really believe in the idea of free will, so The Web is naturally a power I quite like, but I also don't like the manipulation aspect of it. I think of the lack of free will as meaning that you have an inherent nature that combines with circumstance to bring you to the things you experience in life. I generally believe that most people aught to go down their own path, so I always try to let people do what makes them happiest and not interfere with it. That said, I also quite like being controlled and wouldn't mind a world where I was less expected to think, make choices, and exert my will, so I think I'd enjoy a world that The Web controlled very much.