seren said:
Quote because he has to be load bearing.
I don't think he has to be any more load-bearing than Curly, she just happens to be the one always in need of towing.
Speaking strictly in terms of physical strength, I'm going to guess they're roughly even. Their body builds are
roughly the same, although Curly might be just a teeeeeeeny bit thinner to get a feminine physique. I think the difference in stock is negligible though, unless they're created with some sort of synthetic muscle that would substantially increase in strength with just a little more mass.
If you want to speak in terms of overall durability, you'd have to look at all the rough-ups and beatings each one has taken, and then try to qualify each bit from there. If you look at it in terms of getting knocked out... There are four times when Curly is knocked out; when you find her in Hell, when she nearly drowns, when the killer robot before the first core fight explodes, and when... Balrog slaps/punches her across the face in the labyrinth ("ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?"). Quote is knocked out twice; when Balrog lands on him at the end of the Sand Zone, and when the Droll jumps on him on the plantation.
We don't know what knocked her out in Hell, and Quote drowns just as easy as Curly, so we can discredit those two for sake of argument. You be the judge here: Which is less impressive, getting knocked out by an exploding robot or toaster bitch slap, or getting goomba stomped by rather large enemies? I think getting knocked out by Balrog's fist (Hand? Flipper?) puts Curly on the more fragile side. Balrog also smacks Quote at the same time, and he's largely unphased by it, but to be fair,
he doesn't fly back as far so I'm guessing he didn't get hit as hard.
I could go on listing different types of strength and weighing the two accordingly (fighting strength including skill/tactic, inner strength AKA willpower, etc), but I think I'll call it good there.