Best/Worst 5 POV characters?

[Ser Yberon]

Worst:

1. Catelyn. Although a major major character boring as hell, really horrible to Jon, a little whiney, just no fun to read her campaign of 'my children, my children, where fore art my children' all over Westeros. And she's still not bloody dead - dead.

2. Victarion. Has he actually got any charcter or charisma? Euron is alot more interesting to read with his exotic wierdos and magic horns n stuff.

3. Cersei. Not for any big reasons other than there are too many of her POV chapters when there are much cooler characters to read about. Cersei just bugger off n die you incestuous, murderous freak. Can't believe she would hate her own brother so much that she tries to get him executed. Even though he always professed his innocense.

4. Davos. Just a bit dull to tell the truth.

5. Sansa. Don't hate her. If anything she's lovely, sweet and fairly innocent, BUT her situations don't really make you sit up and get excited about whats coming next, except when we found out who was helping her escape KL. But I am looking forward to her later POV's because I want to see how Petyr bloody Baelish gets done away with (I hope).

Best:

1. Jon. The whole storyline of the Wall and the Others has me mesmerized, but the pattern of the books has set up Jon's POV to be such a major part that its hard not to want to read more. Plus he's gone from spoilt rich boy, to thoughtful charismatic leader (though his charisma is in his actions not his actual personality. Personally he is quite somber and quiet)

2. Arya. How everyone would like a little sister to be like :). Always scrappy and gets to go on adventures all by her lonesome. Bloody brave. Quite a fun character to read.

3. Dany. The dothraki part I found a little dull until the maegi pops up and screws her over. After that and her journey to Qarth, the visions and blue-lips, her conquests of Meereen and slavers bay very interesting especially when Belwas and Selmy join up with her too.

4. Tyrion. Some of his POV's in KL I found a little tiresome, but that was the situation he was in not the character itself. Tyrion is a star. The crap he has to deal with in Joff and Cersei, bloody hell he should be knighted, given Casterley Rock and then Warden of the West for that alone. With all the crap he gets given he gets on with his life and does a better job than even his esteemed father (Tywin Lannister was a complete prat to Tyrion aswell) could do given his status and his abilities.

5. Bran/Jaime/Brienne. All good characters for different reasons. Bran is gonna become this supercool warg and he's off on an adventure where the brotherhood haven't been yet (hopefully he'll find his uncle Benjen there). Jaime because of his amazing characteristic alteration, from selfish, uncaring murderer to thoughtful, slightly confused, and wanting to be honorable in what he does. I hope he gets there. Brienne is not the most exciting of charcters to be fair but she does have some decent adventures that will have a fairly large role a bit later. Plus the whole unrequited love for Jaime thing is tragic.

[Fez]

BEST:

Tyrion: the wit, the plots, the character, everything

Jamie: really good story and evolving characterization

Dany: always a refreshing change of pace

Jon: was slow at first but picked up quickly, like Dany is a nice change of pace from the southern plots

The prologues: always enjoyable, and allowed us to see an area we otherwise wouldn't

WORST:

Bran: too "magic kid masters powers and saves the day" for me

Arya: story took long; I get it, war sucks for commoners, move on

Cat: on a re-read when I was older I better understood her motivations but she was still boring

Cersei: she was just so stupid it was painful

Brienne: retread of Arya

[Jo498]

Best:

1. Tyrion: interesting morally ambivalent character and he is alway where the action takes place.

2. Arya: I just love the character, although her odyssey is sometimes too longwinded.

3. Jon: I do not share the dislike (although he isn't my favorite either) and I really like the "nothern arc".

4. Jaime: The first "bad guy" becoming more complex when we see the world through his eyes.

5. Bran: Admittedly, some dreams are a little repetitive and his arc is progressing very slowly, I loved him in GoT and I like the Northern arc.

Worst (leaving aside ones like Arys Oakheart or the Prologues/Epilogues)

1. Aeron Damphair and Victarion Greyjoy: fanatic, cruel, not very complex and their plot really drags in AFFC

2. Cersei: becomes tedious quickly

3. Brienne: liked her before AFFC, but her arc there is rather boring

4. Arianne: works maybe better as nonPOV, just not very interesting, the whole tragic love affair with Oakheart feels strangely flat.

5. Sansa: generally important to stay posted on KL intrigue, but she is not all that interesting to me.

[Daena the Defiant]

Worst:

1. Catelyn. Although a major major character boring as hell, really horrible to Jon, a little whiney, just no fun to read her campaign of 'my children, my children, where fore art my children' all over Westeros. And she's still not bloody dead - dead.

Excuse me while I trot old my old axe.

Aside from her one moment of verbal cruelty to Jon at Bran's sickbed, can you cite even one instance of mistreatment?

And, please, provide one instance of her whining.

[Jo498]

It seems rather cruel to describe grief about a comatose and later crippled child, a falsely accused and murdered husband, daughters lost in action or taken hostage and supposedly murderered children as "whining".

Sure, Arya, Sansa and Bran also lose their family, but they are often "merely" ignorant of their fates and they are children who naturally will not reflect as much on these facts (but we see them all dealing with this horrible situation to some extent).

I can understand that all the reflections of Cat's POV bore some readers. It never bothered me, GRRM can be somewhat verbose with some characters, but that bothered me more with Bran and Davos and generally in AFFC where almost everything is spread out to long and to thin.

[Ser Sea]

Best

Tyrion

Dany

Sansa

Jaime

Ned

Worst

Bran

Arya

Cersei

Jon

Catelyn

[cat_of_the_canals]

Best:

1.- Arya

2.- Tyrion

4.- Jon/Jaime

3.- Bran/Ned

In the middle XD -> Sansa: first Icant stand her... now I think she is much better. And Davos.

Worst:

1.- Aeron Damphair and Victarion Greyjoy/ Arianne

2.- Theon/Asha

3.- Dany (I know that a lot of people'd want my head off, but I find soooo broing all Dortraky thing. Dragons are cooler in the other side)

4.- Cersei

[SummerKnight]

Best:

ALL

Worst:

NONE

seriously, all of these separate POVs weave one immense tapestry of a story. Liking one and not liking another is, to me, akin to liking the pistons in your car engine but hating the drive train. they are all necessary elements and drive each others plots. To me, the fact that so many people find some of these fantastical stories boring/annoying/stupid/etc is proof of GRRMs masterful ability to write about the human experience. these 'hated' and 'loved' characters are spoken of on this forum as if they are real people that strike a nerve in us (be it a good nerve or a bad nerve). He's actually transcended the genre and brought humanity, in all its glory and imperfection, to the forefront, which is something no other fantasy author can claim. In fact, that ability to humanize his characters is an ability that 99.99999% of authors lack, in any genre.

do i like sansa? hell no. do i like her chapters? hell yes. Is jon really living a charmed existance on a giant ice wall in exile w/ a bunch of westeros' worst criminal? Doesnt seem taht way to me, but i'm still rooting for him to stay good and honorable. Is danys road perfect and paved w/ flowers, utterly smooth w/ no bumps at all? i would say no, but some of you think this is so..

and on and on and on it goes...

still, I will have to say, after all that i just wrote, taht Tyrions chapters are probably my favorite :)

[Myrish swan]

Worst:

1. Catelyn. Although a major major character boring as hell, really horrible to Jon, a little whiney, just no fun to read her campaign of 'my children, my children, where fore art my children' all over Westeros. And she's still not bloody dead - dead.

Yeah, Catelyn has some nerve. Her two daughters are missing and she has no idea of there whereabouts, and she has the nerve to feel sad! Then she believes her two sons are murdered, and she whines and cries some more (how disgusing!) And as if that's not enough, she has the nerve to constantly think about her children, when they are all murdered, missing, and in danger all over Westeros. Why can't she be like that awesome Tyrion and always be thinking about herself and sex with hookers! Honestly, she's almost as bad as that Lolys Stokeworth-- crying and whining after she's been brutally raped by an entire city! Pathetic! Women.

[Areo]

I wouldn't point any POV as bad, they all have an important role to play. Sometimes it takes more time to see where things are going and most of the characters in AFfC suffer from that as the good stuff will probably start in ADwD or even TWoW. I do anticipate some characters more though:

1. Jon

2. Daenerys

3. Arya

4. Tyrion

5. Jaime

One thing to point out: Being for instance angry with a POV doesn't make it bad. On the contrary.

[Spoony]

Best.

Arya - I think she has the most interesting story arc.

Tyrion - Hands down the most amusing character.

Jaime - Almost as amusing as Tyrion, with great bits of back story thrown in.

Bran - I just really enjoy his character, and it is a lot of fun not knowing where his plot is going, but knowing that it will be important.

Davos - I enjoy his perspective on events, and his relationship to Stannis and Mellisandre.

Worst.

Catelyn - I didn't enjoy her character.

Ned - Some interesting chapters but nothing I really like to go back and read.

Arys Oakheart - dull and brief POV.

Arriane Martel - not a very well developed character.

Victarion - I enjoyed his last chapter, but kingsmoot and the ocean battle were not particularly entertaining.

[Spoony]

Yeah, Catelyn has some nerve. Her two daughters are missing and she has no idea of there whereabouts, and she has the nerve to feel sad! Then she believes her two sons are murdered, and she whines and cries some more (how disgusing!) And as if that's not enough, she has the nerve to constantly think about her children, when they are all murdered, missing, and in danger all over Westeros. Why can't she be like that awesome Tyrion and always be thinking about herself and sex with hookers! Honestly, she's almost as bad as that Lolys Stokeworth-- crying and whining after she's been brutally raped by an entire city! Pathetic! Women.

*laughs*

:commie:

Good work. I think a lot of people are a little unfair towards Cat too. The problem is that it is easy to dislike her from the start (Sansa POV shares this problem) - so people often times don't reverse their opinion of her.

Personally - I like her chapters, but I don't like her character. She makes a lot of bad choices, and she never seems the least bit abashed by them.

She hates Jon - which is understandable. Still the fact that she can't get over his existence doesn't speak very highly to her.

She abducted Tyrion - which started the war, and even in the context of what she thought at the time, was a really horrible decision.

And lastly - she freed the Kingslayer. I am actually really happy that she did so (I love Jaime's POV) - but the context of the release was unforgivable. Just as it was unforgivable of Karstark to murder those children.

To me - Catelyn isn't very interesting - and all she seems to care about is her own self interest (this includes the wellfare of her children). Catelyn needed to be more than a mother - she needed to be a leader, and she failed in this regard. (She also should have forced Rob to marry one of the freys as early as possible. It wouldn't have been the nice thing to do, but it would have been the right thing to do).

[DragonKnightress]

I'm not going to put mine in order because that would be too hard!

The Best:

Tyrion - He's witty, intelligent and funny. His interactions with people especially his sister are hilarious.

Jaimie - I was reluctant to like him because of his earlier portrayals but I just couldn't help BUT like him. He's quite human. I enjoyed his banter with Brienne. :)

Cersei - Okay, everyone is going to think I'm crazy but I find it HIGHLY amusing to read her epic fail of being Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms. She fancies herself so clever and as great a political player like her father. Pfft..

Dany - I like reading about the Eastern continent and following her struggles to regain her kingdom.

Jon - I enjoy his character and his direwolf, Ghost.

The Worst:

The Iron born - I trudged through those chapters except for maybe Asha. Damphair, Victarion, and Theon? No thanks.

Arya - I like the character enough but she ran all around riverlands and got NOWHERE. She was slightly better in AFFC.

Bran - Slow paced. >_>

Davos - Even though he's our only POV involved with Stannis, I still groan when I see his name pop up.

Honorable mentions: Sansa and Catelyn got better as the series progressed. Though I wished Catelyn was dead-dead. I shudder at Lady Stone heart :S

[Ser Yberon]

Its not that Cat constantly complains, its just her demeanor. Understandable as her family is decimated in front of her eyes, but I just find that from the very beginning she was a bit of a moaner. The way she talked to Ned, the way she acted around Jon, and her actions were always very emotion driven. She always had a closed heart, and in general is a bit selfish.

If your looking to find an assassin's employer under no circumstances believe anything Petyr bloody Baelish says, you have to be cold,calculating and reasonable, looking for reasons of why it would benefit that person, and above all do not trust anything anyone from KL. Yes Cat was misled into thinking Tyrion was the assassin's employer, but she was never a person who could successfully deduce, or reason that Tyrion was in fact (or not as was the case) the assassin's payer. She runs around creating havoc, then bemoans the consequences of her own actions when her husband is beheaded and her children go missing, after taking prisoner someone who is in fact innocent of any crime she accuses him of. Its tragic what has happened to her, but she just isn't that nice a person to actually feel for her.

The one thing she does think that is reasonable is that she isn't pleased that Robb marries the Westerling girl, knowing that the Freys will want some sort of crazy recompense. Other than that she is irrational and emotional, and self-righteous to a fault. To be righteous is fine but she thinks she is completely within her rights to try and tke over at every possible chance to prove that she is right again and again, when in reality she screws it up more often than not. Whether anyone disagrees with me - fine. Like I said her actions are understandable, it doesn't make her a nice person/character, or right in what she does. Understanding her actions and condoning her actions are two different things.

[Lady Blackfish]

Yeah, Catelyn totally took over when Robb sent her to Bitterbridge or told Theon to go to Pyke, or when Ned forced her to stay in Winterfell, or refused to send Jon away, or left with Robert when she begged him not to at Bran's bedside, or when Robb made her Jason Mallister's ward. Man, that Cat, always getting her way with everything. I guess it couldn't possibly be that Cat's limited power and resources have anything to do with her success rate in the first place ...

She hates Jon - which is understandable. Still the fact that she can't get over his existence doesn't speak very highly to her.

[...]

Catelyn needed to be more than a mother - she needed to be a leader, and she failed in this regard. (She also should have forced Rob to marry one of the freys as early as possible. It wouldn't have been the nice thing to do, but it would have been the right thing to do).

Cat doesn't care that Jon exists, she cares that he is being raised in her home against all custom and poses a potential threat to her children owing to the favor that shows.

There was no foreseeable reason for Cat to slow down Robb's campaign to go back to the Twins and get him hitched. It's totally unreasonable to burden her with that obligation, as if she could've known that Robb would not only sleep with Jeyne but then proceed to marry her once already promised and honorbound to house Frey.

And I find it really strange to blame Cat for not being something (a leader) that her society very clearly does not allow her to be. And to any possible claim that it's easy to defy those norms, well, that it sure as hell didn't work out too well for Cersei.

[wyrdite]

I loved Jaime and Brienne's PoVs, mostly because of the different ways in which they interpreted the events that occured while they were together and because of their relationship--I also think they're two of the more complex and interesting characters around. xD I liked Sansa's chapters from ASOS onwards, especially in AFFC, and I never had the hate-on for her in early books that some people had--I think it's possibly because she had greater access to characters that I found more interesting than many other PoVs (Littlefinger in particular, but before that the Lannisters and Kingsguard and suchlike.) Danerys's chapters are fun because she encounters so many different places and cultures. I admit, I am a total sucker for worldbuilding, and her chapters are full of it. Even when the character gets a little annoying, there's still all kinds of cool stuff like Vaes Dothrak or Astapor or whatever. And naturally I love Tyrion, for all the reasons stated by everyone else. xD

I was significantly less fond of Arianne Martell, who reminded me a lot of the less awesome parts of Dany/Sansa/Jon etc., but without the excuse of still being a teenager; a grown woman should perhaps be slightly less sulky and slightly more aware of the fact that poor communication kills? Theon's PoV chapters were interesting, but Theon as a character is repulsive to me, and not really in a love-to-hate way. Bran has a similar problem; I like him but I get tired of seeing the world through a child's eyes, unfortunately. xD Err, who else... Davos is a bit blah, though I do like it when Melisandre does cool stuff in his chapters, and the Damphair is too religious (and thus has too much of his PoV devoted to it) for my tastes, but neither of them are exactly bad. xD

In the end I agree with SummerKnight. The large number of PoVs and the ways in which they intersect are part of what makes ASOIAF great, so there's really no PoV I dislike all that much.

[Ser Yberon]

I can see that my opinion of Cat obviously upsets some readers. I will try not to offend anymore by trying my best not to talk of aforementioned Lady again. I still dont like her and hope she goes away asap.

[thee young wolf]

BEST

1, Arya

2.Jamie

3. Tyrion

4. Jon

5. Ned

honerable mentions Sansa Bran Davos

WORST

1. Cat (the only good thing about her is we get the king in the north chapter)

2.Cerci ( her chapters are awesome but i hate her as a person)

3.Areon ( his chapters are good and i like the ironborn but he is dull)

4.Arrianne ( nasty a poor mans Cerci but darkstar is cool)

Dany ( loved her in book 1 but i hate her now)

[Doc Filth]

Best:

Tyrion

Bran

Daenerys

Arya

Samwell

...because I actually care about most of those characters and their allies.

Worst:

Aeron

Victarion

Brienne

Aerys Oakheart

Cersei

...because I don't.

[Jamie Lannister]

Best:

1. Cersei. Her chapters are brilliant - watching this conceited woman crash and burn is beautiful. In terms of sheer gripping interest, Cersei takes the gold for me.

2. Jaime. It was all-around brilliant to witness things from his perspective; his true motive for killing Aerys and the one-sided relationship he holds with his sister. Watching him earn some redemption, lose what he's good at, put his faith in Brienne, save his brother, and ultimately abandon Cersei in her hour of need... was just great storytelling.

3. Theon. Another character with a dark streak, but eh, I never really felt for him. He came across as a highly interesting character and it was amusing to see his downward spiral from his perspective.

4. Jon. The Wall always fascinated me, and Jon really grew into his own during his later chapters. His agenda while with Ygritte; his relationship with the Wildlings; his abandonment of them and his subsequent promotion to Lord Commander; all of which was rather gripping. He has some interesting chemistry with Melisandre and Stannis too, along with Mance.

5. Tyrion. Self-explanatory.

Worst:

1. Samwell. I can barely stand reading his chapters. For lack of a better term, I find him straight up boring. He comes off as the "token inept guy with confidence issues" and waddles through the story at a dishearteningly (yet perhaps aptly) slow pace. Some of the other characters do too; the difference being that I can actually bring myself to care about some of them. Not with him. Sorry Sam fans. :(

2. Bran. I'm not a huge fan of this "I'm the chosen one" thing he has going for him, though his chapters did pick up towards the end of ASOS. Sadly Mr. Tarly can't boast that.

3. Catelyn. I like Cat, but I always thought her chapters were more of a tool to see other characters through her than Cat herself, though I did find myself sympathizing with her all the same. It's... I don't know. Just when I found myself looking forward to her, the Red Wedding happens and that's blown out of the water. Lady Stoneheart is awesome though.

4. Aeron Greyjoy. What the hell was with this guy, seriously? Your creepy religion and your madman's facade do you no justice as a POV character, Damphair.

5. Brienne. Like Cat, I do like her, but her trip around the realm and 95% of the characters she encountered bored me to tears in AFFC.