Sitting and thinking about how the most powerful players in the avatar game were made powerful based on how much they wanted nothing to do with the powers that recruited them. Seriously.
Look at the ones who leapt into their Fears’ service eagerly. Peter Lukas (fog and the S e a), Simon Fairchild (stuff is big, think about that), Jude Perry (oof ouch hot wax), Manuela Dominguez (I would like not to see so much, society has moved past the need for seeing things), Jonah Magnus (being a voyeur, has to rip out his own eyes to scramble his way into immortality***), Mike Crew (big fall goes wheee), Melanie King (enjoyed being aggro) Gertrude Robinson (used it blandly, just another tool, whatever, she’s got explosives) et al.
Not weaklings, but compared to the characters who turn out to be the real big guns? They ain’t shit.
Agnes Montague: Hates her destiny = Phoenix-level fire power
Oliver Banks: Empathetic, afraid of/disgusted by his death dreams = Semi-immortal undead psychopomp
Michael Shelley and Helen Richardson: Tricked and trapped into the Spiral with consumption as their only hope for relief = Cheshire Cat on steroids
Daisy Tonner: Ashamed and self-loathing when she gets temporarily freed of the Hunt = Snaps into full hulking monster mode the second she relapses
Annabelle Cane: Massive arachnophobe, wants to be in control = Forcibly conscripted into serving the Web and filled with an endless nest of spiders
Martin Blackwood: Hates the concept of being alone, of others being without a friend when he can give a hand = Branded and promoted by the Lonely to rule a domain of abandoned people who he can never, ever give relief
Jonathan Sims: Everything. Literally everything about this man who, while terrified and not wanting to die, repeatedly risks himself in pursuit of trying to save others, to gain more knowledge in the hopes it will help. Please, God, let him be able to help... = The Archivist-King of a nightmare hellscape that he was the key to inflicting on the world with the horror of its screaming inhabitants funneling directly into his brain. Forever.
The more they didn’t/don’t want it, the more eagerly the Fear loads its chosen soldiers up with itself, giving gifts of power it knows they loathe. In other words,
Eager avatars: We love you! We love this power! Keep it coming!
The Fear: hm :/
Reluctant avatars, sweating: Uh,
The Fear: You are hired :)
Reluctant avatars: We didn’t apply
The Fear: You are promoted :) :)
Reluctant avatars: No no no we’re not no thank you
The Fear: You are CEO of Fear Corp congratulations :) :) :)
Reluctant avatars: We hate this and also you
The Fear: Yes, keep that up :) :) :) :)