WOW SHINY!!! that looks amazing! You have it nailed...I was trying with the last edit to get a more cohesive color palette...it got close but i don't think I'm hue shifting enough!?!? As I'm still new to this I think I should work on palettes a little more. I've read a few tutorials but they never really mention how far to push it. Or is this simply sprite specific...As you mentioned the extreme hue shift is to amp up the cartoony feel of the sprite and I think you've nailed it there!
I think as far as my attempts go, I was over complicating myself and it was coming out all muddled, IT IS supposed to be cartoony and as such should be simple with lots of color and not a ton of detail other than, say, the face, for obvious reasons.
And it's no problem RedKnight I think the shirt in that sprite was all kinds of messed up! It's no wonder you thought it was a girl lol! And ironically it's the left hand that will have some sort of "Power" as you put it, cause the character is supposed to have a magical gauntlet on that hand that lets him cast spells.
Thank you both for your awesome edits...your amazing!