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Best/Worst 5 POV characters?


reduxien

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Best:

Tyrion – A trully compelling carachter. “Deftly done”.

Theon – Yes, he is detestable as a person. But also very believable. Someone in his situation – raised as a semi-hostage from childhood – would pobrably grow up to be selfish and megalomaniac.

Jon – Can’t understand why so many people dislike him. He is the truest Stark, of all Stark kids, in my opinion. Granted, he doesn’t act his age, but neither does any of the Stark kids, except for Sansa. I mean, look at Arya, under realistic circumstances she should have been killed by Amory Loch’s men and instead she kept going, slitting throats and chopping hands off.

Daenerys – Love her. That’s it. –sighs– (By the way, her POVs also contain some of my favourite non-POV carachters, ser Jorah and Whitebeard).

Davos – Many people seem to find him tedious. I like his background, his simplicity, and also the fact that his POVs show us a lot of Stannis, the most interesting king in my opinion.

Worst:

Bran! Oh I just hate that unendable search for “the third eye” and the boring dreams. Yes, having the boy crippled at the beginning of the story was na unusual notion, but afterwards his whole subplot became so riddled with clichés that I can barely finish his chapters. When he was at Winterfell, he was at least surrounded by some interesting carahcters as maester Luwin and Nan; even so, I think his POVs were too long and void. His ending chapter in Clash of Kings is good enough, with him walking through the ruins of Winterfell and all; but from then on, his POVs became an ordeal to me. Mostly because I simply can’t stand the two crannogkids. The younger boy annoys me specially with his unctuous, third-age, self-help mumbo jumbo. Those chapters are the ones that most remind me of bad fantasy. You must find your interior eye, you must look into this and that, blebleble. That’s just too silly and boring. Moreover, Bran himself is a very bland carachter in my opinion. His defining traces are: he’s crippled; he wanted to be a knight; he dreams he is a wolf. Ok, I’d ask, and so what? Hope he loses himself behind the wall and just disappears.

Well, I know I should’ve pointed 5 least favourite POVs, but I hate Bran’s chapters so much that all the others seem pretty enjoyable in comparison.

First post too, hi people!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Best:

1-Tyrion (Can I say Tyrion twice? :D)

2-Ser Arys (I adored his brief PoV)

3-Arya

4-Dany

5-Cercei (watching the bitch slowly become more and more insane...priceless!)

Worst:

1-Jon. (I just can't stand his chapters. I don't get it. Everyone loves Jon...not me.)

2-Brienne (While I love her character, her chapters are just blah for the most part)

3-Any of the Greyjoys. I had to force myself to read these.

4-Bran

5-

Reek 2.0 Gollum lookalike, anyone?

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My favorites have changed from book to book and my least favs has stayed the same throuhout. As a whole here they are.

Tops

1. Tyrion

2. Jon

3. Sam (mostly for ASOS)

4. Jamie

5. Arya (though her part in AFFC just about gave her the boot).

Bottoms

1. Sansa (so hard to get through her parts)

2. Most of the step in POVs from AFFC (boring!)

3. Cat (she is not a likeable POV and many of her chapters are depressing).

4. Brienne (Not because I don't like her but because her chapters are very slow and uneventfull).

5. Theon (hate the guy but his part in the book is huge)

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Tyrion

Daenerys

Davos

Arya

Jon

^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top 5

Sansa

Jaime

Eddard

Brienne

Samwell

Cersei

Catelyn

Arianne Martell

Theon

Arys Oakheart

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Bottom 5

Aeron Greyjoy

Areo Hotah

Victarion

Asha Greyjoy

Bran

Here's my list of all the main POVs encountered so far. I wanted to put in the whole list as I felt Sansa should be included as my highest climber, but she still didn't make it into the top 5. I've really been enjoying her character on my current re-read. All the stuff that annoyed me so much the first couple of times just seems hilarious this time round. Also unique in being the only girl like POV. And I don't think anyone would enjoy Arya half as much without Sansa as a foil. Also it's fun to watch some of the nievity drop away by AFFC, although there's still panty to go. I suspect her and Arya's character arcs will be mirror images of each other.

All of these are subject to plenty of change as well. If you'd asked in the first book then Danny would have been in my bottom 5. And I'm putting up with Bran in the hope that some of the interesting kid you got for the first 2 chapters will come back in some way.

Just a word on the top 3:

Tyrion - I just love the sardonic, diminutive wee bastard. Can't wait for him to raise his game and start playing the game of thrones properly.

Daenerys - Love how quickly she adapts and intuitively turns things to her advantage. I know people complain about her seeming ease with besting others but this is always the result of her astute descision making (still waiting for her couple of lapses in this department to come back and bite her - sending Jorah Mormont away).

Davos - I just love his unwavering moral compass and willingnesss to put himself on the line to do the right thing, and his grounding effect on Stannis. Try comparing him as an advisor to the guys Cersei picks. Also going from being thrown in the dungeon to saving Westeros in - what? - one chapter. Awesome.

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I'll just give best and worst.

My best is Dany. There is always interesting things happening to her ( to say the least ) , she is likeable , and her character allows us to see the rest of the world outside of Westeros.

My worst is Theon. ABSOLUTE without question Theon. He is such a douche bag and I hate him . The whole time I read his POV's I just want to reach through the pages and strangle him. Especially the chapter when he is hitting on his sister ....I wanted to puke.

When Theon dies I might feel even more satisfied than when Tywin died , or win Cersie finally dies. That's how much I hate him.

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Favorite.....

1) Jon - It is fascinating reading his transition from bitter emo teen to badass Lord Commander of the Nightwatch.

2) Tyrion - A fascinating character from start to finish. The underdog you want to root for and feel for when things don't go his way.

3) Arya - She seems to be just on the outside of some of the most significant events in the series: Ned's beheading, red wedding, etc. But her character is so much fun that a narratives that would be boring from anyone elses POV are fun.

4) Catelyn - Yeah she is a bitch to favorite POVs #1 & #2, but her POV covers some of the most pivotal moments in the series. I don't understand all the enmity she seems to evoke in these boards. What married mother of 5 wouldn't be a bit suspicious of a strange baby her husband brings home saying "Hey honey, uh yeah, my bad. I won't tell you who his mother was but it won't happen again." Also, say a childhood friend you trusted told you that some person who you had suspicions about anyways was actually responsible for the crippling of your child and gave you what seemed to be evidence. Is it too much of a leap to believe them and act accordingly? I know her actions led to some terrible things happening but I have trouble believing many of us would do things differently in her place.

5) Jamie - I still can't believe the POVs of this (former) douchebag were as interesting as they were.

Least Favorite....

1) Theon Greyjoy - An insufferable treacherous asshole......only fitting that he is undone by an even BIGGER treacherous asshole in Ramsay. Asha humiliating him were really the only parts of his POV that were bearable for me. After saying "Get a load of me, I am soooooo great." for several chapters, he has the nerve to complain about betrayal. His chapters aren't boring, they are just difficult because of how hateful he is.

2) Aeron Damphair - The Iron Islands Kingsmoot was the most significant event of his POV, and even that narrative was bogged down by his religious zeal.

3) Brienne (AfFC) - Her ASOS chapters weren't bad at all. Her AFfC chapters were a cure for insomnia.

4) Sansa - Some of her chapters are very VERY good I thought hers were the best in AfFC, but on average most of them are boring, and her character is not very likable early in the series.

5) Cersei - Her character and point of view is very unsympathetic. They have one redeeming quality in that her constant fuck ups and patting herself on the back for those fuckups has some comedic value. Her sex scene with Taena was kinda hot too.

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favorite

Arya-always look forward to her stuff, i felt like some of the stuff in Harrenhal got a little boring up until jaqen started killing people, but other than that all her chapters have been solid.

Jaime- it's cool to see his developement.

Tyroin- i liked him a little less in ASOS, but only becuase i found him less funny, but i geuss he didn't have anytime for funniness with how mad he was getting.

Dany- like Arya her chapters are always good

Jon- interesting stuff always happens with him

Honerable mention

Davos- has great champters, and they almost all have Melisande in them, who's great.

Sansa- i hated her at first, but after Ned died i felt real bad for the situation she was put in.

Ned- he felt like the only person who was doing what was right and didn't have anything in it for him.

Worst

Sam- to much of a pansy for me to like him, he does really brave stuff, but he's always like "I'm a coward"

Cersei- a lot of chapters were boring, nothing ever seemed to really happen.

Brieene- I really like the charecter, but her journey is pretty dull, only like 3 exciting things happened.

Catelyn past AGOT- really liked her in AGOT, but after people started to die on her, it seemed like every paragraph we got reminded of how depressed she was. completely understandable, but not so fun to read.

Bran in AGOT and half of ACOK. i actually like the journey he is on right now, enjoy the Reeds and i have a soft spot for Hodor,but in AGOT his chapters were really boring, only certain ones were any good(the ones after Ned died and him being pushed) and it seemed to be that way though about half of ACOK.

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Favorite

1. Tyrion

2. Jon- at times is my number one but im in a tyrion mood right now

3. Dany- hers were good in the first and got better and better

4. Arya- as with jon sometimes shes my number 3

5. Jamie/Bran- Jamie whole transformation thing, Bran could be boring but i like to think where it could go

Worst

1. Brienne

2. Aeron Damphair- so annoying

3. Theon

4. Sam- For the most part not much action

5. Sansa- i actually liked her in Affc but the first 3 she was boring

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  • 4 months later...

Okay so I’m reviving this old topic. With ADWD coming up and it supposedly having lots of PoV chapters, I thought it was a good time to bring it back up.

Best

1. Jaime - I HATED this guy. He threw Bran out a window, he killed Jory, he was just a total bastard! But his PoV chapters just totally changed that. It shed so much light on all his motives, both past and present. It showed just how complex and complicated Jaime was. His PoV chapters are just sooo interesting and fun.

2. Jon - Jon is hardly the most complicated character and does have some Gary Stu qualities to him, but I see them as very small qualities and see a lot of Jon’s flaws. He is an interesting character and an easy to root for hero. He went from emo boy to a young adult with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

3. Tyrion - Sometimes I loathe this guy, sometimes I absolutely love him. He is just such a bastard, and I just can’t decide what to do with him. Sometimes he just seems like a really bad person but other times, he displays such humanity. He’s morally ambiguous and I love it. I have no clue where his ADWD story is going to lead.

4. Bran/Arya - I just like Bran’s innocence. With everyone else drowning in jadedness, despite all that’s going on with him Bran still has that innocence about him. Sure he’s chapters can get a little boring and his supporting characters aren’t my favorite(save for Hodor of course) but I like Bran. Mostly I’m excited to see where his chapters go.

I love Arya’s chapters. Sure sometimes they dragged with her traveling for two books and always coming across problems but I always enjoyed her throughout the novels. I just hope she and the other Starks start catching a break. Poor psycho Arya, she needs a break. I’m not a fan of blind assassin Arya, she was always a bit unrealistic as it was but now? Yeesh. I fear that she might be knocked out of my favorite character list.

5. Sansa/Ceresei/Catelynn - I find them interesting because of their position as women in the title and how each handle it. Sansa tries to be the perfect noble woman and it just dooms everyone. Catelynn tries to be woman and mother, trying to balance both her duties for her land and her duties as a mother, and again it dooms everyone. Ceresei is a psycho who is forced to marry a man she doesn’t love and is part of a family that is all about power and ambition, yet she can’t have any of it because she is a woman. The Seven Kingdom’s aren’t kind to woman. Only a few of the female characters seem to be able to break free of the mold that world tries to put them in.

I don’t exactly like Sansa but I like what goes on in her chapters and I like how she’s growing. I have a feeling by the end of this saga, she’ll be a totally different character than the girl who left Winterfell.

Ceresei I covered. Her fall was just great to see!

Catelynn always had interesting people around her. Tyrion, Blackfist and one of my favorite characters, Robb. Plus like I said though I was always frustrated with her choices and I didn’t exactly like her, I understood where she was coming from.

Worst

1. Samwell - I loathe this character. LOATHE. He is just sooo pathetic. Every little thing about the guy. His chapters are a chore to read, especially the ones in A Feast for Crows because his story was even less interesting than he was. It’s always “I’m a craven, I’m pathetic” and after four books of it, it’s just too much. He even brings Jon down when Jon focuses on him. He is my least favorite game in the whole novels(though I hate the Freys more, but that’s for story reasons. Samwell is just pathetic.)

2. The Iron Born(except for Theon) - I just don’t care about them. I was never invested in their story. I didn’t like one of them. I didn’t care who get the throne or the crown, because let’s be real it won’t matter. None of them will get the Iron Throne. They were unlikable and their chapters tedious. Asha and the whole crew were just....grrgh.

Theon is a horrible person but at least it’s fun reading his downfall.

3. Brienne - I really like the character, I do but her chapter’s AFFC was horrible. It didn’t go anywhere and we knew it wasn’t going anywhere so how could we care? The whole story could have been done in two chapters. Interesting were her cliffhanger will go, hope she survives it!

4. Davos - Well since I included the Iron Born, not as many people to put...Sometimes his story drags but as long as he’s attached to Stannis he’s at least interesting.

Oakheart - What was the point?

-If you couldn’t tell I wasn’t a fan of most of AFFC.

Undecided:

Dany - It isn’t that I hate her chapters or her, but I don’t love them...Dany has a great supporting cast and sometimes I really enjoy her as a character but sometimes..not so much. At times she is just ‘too good” and too much of Mary Sue. This isn’t someone like Jon or Robb who was trained from a young age and was around other men who were skilled at war and such.

She spent one or two chapters as a scared little girl than suddenly had this shift and by the end of the first book she is just this AMAZING commander, Queen and woman. Then she become the most beautiful woman in all the land, the prophesied hero who would save them all, the three headed dragon, the freer of the slaves, this and this. She’s 16, with no past training yet seems to be better than every single character at almost everything. Everything always goes her way. She’s just too good, too perfect and so I can never really care about her. Here is hoping that ADWD changes this. I don’t hate her, I just can’t care about her all that much.

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1. Jon - His character is very good in the first 3 books but now that he's LC, I don't know if he'll stay that way.

2. Bran - Just innocent but wise at the same time

3. Dany - Love how she conquers everyone and rallies people to her cause

4. Jaime - Best quotes ever

5. Davos - Such a truthful man and humble

Worst

1. Arya (by far the worst character, definitely skimmed most of her chapters the first time around and found I didn't really miss all that much, 12 year old kid? Nope. Not written like one.)

2. Brienne (so stupid in AFFC, we KNOW where Sansa is and must GRRM keep telling us how ugly she is? We get it, she's ugly.)

3. Tyrion (While his POV'S are necessary and I enjoy some of it, it's just always "Oh, I'm a dwarf" references throughout the chapters)

4. Sansa (Uninteresting)

5. Catelyn (She basically lost the war for Robb and is just so stupid)

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Favorites:

1. Theon - the most human, interesting character in the series, in both his past and present life - people that name him a villain make me laugh. Theon is easily my favorite character, miles ahead of anyone. But most important to this discussion, every single chapter of his is thrilling, which can be said of very little characters. I look forward to his ADWD chapters more than anything, and I felt like I had been gutted when I read his spoiler chapter. Long live Theon.

2. Jaime - like Theon, he is always interesting. While his character isn't exactly groundbreaking, I do quite like him. Importantly, he views a great deal of interesting goings on (like Catelyn, but without the pretension of Catelyn.) Also, just the way he views the world and narrates things through his POV are extremely interesting and often amusing.

3. Davos - when I first came to the internet to read about this series, I was dumbfounded that so many people found him boring. Through him we see Stannis, the most interesting of the kings, as well as great characters like Mel, Sallador Saan, Patchface, etc. He is also a great character in and of himself.

4. Tyrion - while the favoritism GRRM gives him makes me groan, no other chapters make me laugh out loud like these. While I think it is preposterous that he goes into battle, his battle scenes are great. And the characters he sees closely... Bronn, Tywin, Shagga, Oberyn, Varys, Cersei pre POV... simply top notch.

5. Cersei - Well, this list makes me seem queer for Lannisters, but such is. Like her brothers, her POVs are simply very interesting, though for different reasons. I always liked Cersei, and I feel that her POVs really took her down a notch as a character, but it doesn't stop them from being splendid.

Worst

1. Jon - I would iterate more about this, but who hasn't covered this already? He's a Mary Sue, the Wall can get very boring, blah blah blah.

2. Arya - while her chapters involving the Brotherhood, Roose Bolton, and the Hound are interesting, her GoT and AFFC chapters are terrible. She's also poorly written - I didn't read this series to read about a 9 year old invincible tomboy assassin.

3. Brienne - I didn't particularly like her as I side character, and I still don't understand why she got a POV. Podrick Payne and Hyle Hunt are alright, but really, nothing too interesting went on here.

4. Sam - uninteresting. Can't say much more than that.

I don't thing any others deserve to be on the worst list - Bran can be super boring, but we find out so much cool stuff about politics of the North and whatnot. I don't much like Catelyn, but what happens around her is tops.

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Best

1. Jon

2. Tyrion

3. Eddard

4. Daenerys

5. Jaime

(Davos is a close 6)

I've got no problem with Mary Sue characters, at least as long as they're part of an interesting story.

Worst

1. Cersei (still see her as a villain, and not a very bright one)

2. Catelyn (blame her for most of what happened to the Starks)

3. Theon (interesting character, but sometimes painful to read)

4. Arya (mostly because of AFFC, like other people said)

5. The other ironborn (Aeron, Victarion, Asha) - the only chapter I really liked was the kingsmoot chapter

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Best five (in no particular order):

(Lord Commander) Jon Snow. While a bit of an archetypal hero himself, his setting is awesome and from reading the first Sam chapter of AFFC and the two Jon spoiler chapters of ADWD it seems there's real character development there.

Arya Stark. A small kid as a main character who kills almost indiscriminately? That's some real potential there. And I like counting the "stupid"s.

Jaime Lannister. I hated his arrogant and selfish ass in AGOT. I sort of liked his blind arrogance in ACOK. In ASOS he turned pretty great. In AFFC he was one of my favorite characters.

Brandon Stark. Mature for his age (and as such, not cringeworthy to read about), obviously has some sort of destiny, has a cool retinue of two crannogmen, a dead man, a giant elk, hundreds of ravens and Summer by the end of ASOS. Much, much potential in ADWD.

Tyrion Lannister. Has the wit, skill and advantages of high birth, but a poor physical form. I'm sure almost everyone likes him though, so I needn't mention my reasons here.

Other good characters: Davos Seaworth, Samwell Tarly, Sansa Stark.

Worst five (in no particular order):

Catelyn Stark. Maybe because I am not a woman and a mother and terribly insensitive, but reading about her wasn't as interesting as reading about others.

Daenerys Targaryen. While her setting is alright, as a character I don't really remember anything of her except the marital rape and lesbian sex scenes. She has dragons, though. That changes everything.

Cersei Lannister. She's just, bleh. Not likable in any sense, and does not redeem herself near the end either. Not to mention incompetent at the Game.

Arianne Martell. Absolutely useless, boring, uninteresting, incompetent slut. Worst character in the series.

Asha / Aeron Greyjoy, I suppose. Couldn't think of anyone else in this spot, and they're not that interesting. Victarion meets Euron more than those two, so he's not mentioned here.

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In no particular order:

Best:

1. Arya - every chapter advances her character and I don't think any direction Martin takes her in the future could disappoint me.

2. Sansa - hate her, but she always seems to be conveniently in the middle of intriguing political developments.

3. Tyrion - like Sansa, only I like the character as well.

4. Davos - Hasn't done much, but I liked the character.

5. Supplemental chapters - I wish Martin had time to develop the Greyjoy and Martell perspectives more (and maybe throw in some Tyrells), but these were satisfactory.

Worst:

1. Jon - Started out great, and then just sort of lost all semblance of self-agency.

2. Brienne - wandering around, doing nothing.

3. Sam - least favorite character, on track to maybe redeem himself but still hasn't done much towards that end.

4. Bran - so much potential, but again he's mostly just been wandering around without developing much.

5. Theon Greyjoy - he'd better be on his way to screwing with the Ironborn's heirarchy, because otherwise he should have stayed dead.

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