Best/Worst 5 POV characters?

[Lord of Blackhaven]

Great thread!

Best/Favorite

1. Jon. I find him incredibly compelling and his presence was definitely missed in AFFC. Throughout the first two books I was hooked with his chapters and kept waiting for him to pack up and leave the Wall to join Robb in the war in the south. Practically shouted at him in my head to get his ass moving down the Kings Road!! His start in AGOT was a bit slow but he really picked up speed as his story became much more interesting.

2. Tyrion. I’m not as huge a fan of the Imp on a personal level as most people are (kind of implausible to an annoying level how he’s managed to not be killed yet), but there’s no denying his chapters are damn entertaining and keep you turning the pages.

3. Jaime. Started the series as a jackass, but the POV chapters are all very entertaining and he’s a compelling character who has shown real development as opposed to flipping Sansa or something. Jaime keeps you turning the pages and thinking about where he’ll go in the future.

4. Davos. Again, he’s an interesting character and that makes all the difference in the world. He’s not as flashy as Tyrion or Eddard, and he’s not as malevolently loathsome as Cersei or Petyr Baelish, but he’s a character I want to read more about because he adds depth to the story and I like his personality. He’s not some privileged member of the gentry simply fighting to maintain their own power and privilege, he’s a regular guy who has hitched his star to a lord (Stannis) and is willing to follow him to the end, rightly or wrongly.

5. Arya. Man, I feel kind of corny for going for so many obvious POVs as my favorites, but I find that Arya, like the four above, keeps me wanting to the pages. Her interminable sojourn across the Crownlands and Riverlands got to me a bit in the 2nd and 3rd books, but she was always piquing my interest and I wanted to see where her character went.

*I really like Ned Stark, but since he only appeared in 2/3 of one book out of 4 and counting I couldn’t justify placing him on this list.

Worst/Least favorite

1. Bran. Absolutely and excruciatingly boring most of the time. Even the first time I read the books I found myself skimming many of his later chapters because after the fiftieth time (seemingly) he dreamt he was a wolf, or agonizing about being lonely it all got very repetitive and tiresome.

2. All Greyjoy chapters of AFFC. See above. So freaking boring. Failed to move the plot along and the whole Iron Islands story arc fails to grab me.

3. Sansa. Very wooden character. Not only that, but of all her chapters only a few have really had me eagerly wanting to find out what would happen. Most of the time I’m not too bothered about what she’ll whine about next. It took three full books for her story to become even halfway interesting and then Martin goes and sticks her in the middle of nowhere for the fourth book! Frustrating. She has potential to improve, but she has a lot to make up for after being such a ridiculous idiot over the first 2 books in particular.

4. Samwell. I liked Sam much more before he became a POV. I know his POV serves a purpose, but I’m not sure he was all that worthy of being a POV. His “Poppa never loved me” and angst ridden inner monologue got old fast. That said he does have potential to become much more interesting now that he’s not stuck on the Wall complaining about being too fat and frightened all the time.

5. Catelyn. Her chapters sure advanced the plot and they were always a good read, but I put her here because most of the time I wanted to ask her what the hell she thought she was doing and if she had been dropped on her head as a child. How many stupid decisions and ill-informed assumptions can one person make?

Apologies for the lengthy post. Good topic I guess!!

[Whatever]

Worst (im really very sorry, but somebody has to be the worst)

5)Brienne....I like her less than the other POVs

4)Bran...I liked him at the very beginning of asoiaf, but then he became boring

3)Davos...I like him as a character. But again - borin, boring boring

2)Asha's uncle, non victarion, the other....Who?

1)Oakheart...I'm glad he's dead, no more POVs from him.

Best (this is an hard, hard choice)

5) Sansa. I use to hate her, but her changes, her world falling apart around her, her evolution and littlefinger made me love this POV

4) Cersei. I hate that bitch. and i love hating her. Everytime i read her chapters, i don't know if laugh or cry...

Harder choices.. The three characters i like the most

3) Jaime. First time i saw "JAIME" as a chapter title i though "WTF? I want to know what is going on with sansa at KL and with JS and the wildlings... and you give me this(censured)?" Now he is one of my favorite characters, but some his POV are not that exciting as the POVs of the numbers 1 and 2 of this list.

2) Arya. Sometimes her chapters are not that exciting, but arya herself is entertaining to me. Her POV shows us a great part of westeros (and beyond) and i absolutely love her - and her tragedy.

1) Jon. Jon is on the wall since the AGOT and this setting is repetitive. If he is not gonna move from there, i think i won't like his chapters anymore,they will be soo boring.

The reason? We have seen almost the whole north, now. At least the interesting part.

This is why jon's POV is my favorite right now - because of what his POV shows (and i like the character as well).

Somebody might not like jon, and this is not the right topic to talk about this. But his chapters are something simply awesome. Nevermind Jon's thoughts - if you don't like the character, you won't like his thoughts - but reading Jon's chapters we see the wall and the others, the wights and the wildlings. We see Ben Stark and the Old Bear, Noyle and Aemon and Edd, Mance Rayder and Tormund and all of the crazy, weird people who lives beyond the wall. Jon's chapters FTW :D

[Talleyrand]

Good:

1. Dany (i just like her whole conquering cities storyline)

2. Tyrion

3. Eddard

4. Cersei (it's funny to see her blunder around)

5. Not sure either Jaime or Sansa or Arya occasionally

Bad:

1. Bran

2. Ironborn, any of them

3. Sansa

[Rhaenys]

Best (in no particular order)

Arya

Daenerys

Jon

Jaime

Tyrion

Least favorite (cause they're not BAD, just at the bottom of the list)

Catelyn

Cersei

Any of the iron born

Bran

Davos

[Bronn is God]

Love all the "politicking in KL" chapters - so alot of Ned's, Tyrion + Sansa (though I think she is awfully boring).

Brann chapters bore me to tears, Dany chapters always have me in fear of Martin giving her an army ofcybernetic organisms with machine guns galore, Jon chapters for all of ACoK + most of SoS where nothing happened except "characterization".

Not a fan of Arya travels the world chapters either.

[tuthmoses]

Best

1. Arya (I love her character)

2. Jaime (Most awesome transformation ever)

3. Tyrion

and then after a bit of a gap ...

4. Jon - don't really get the jon hate, i think he's cool

5. Dany (she just about squeezes onto the list)

6. Cersei (even though I hate her!)

Worst

1. Brienne (most boring)

2. Samwell (sam saw his shadow and pissed himself ... sam heard a noise and pissed himself ... same saw a nice pair of tits and pissed himself - i like him in small doses i.e. when he's not a POV)

3. Sansa (most annoying ... but I still have hope for her)

4. Any of the Dornish POVs ... found them pretty dull

meh

Eddard - shock horror - he's and idiot but the characters around him are cool so his chapters are pretty good despite the fact that he is in them.

Cat - Don't like her as a charater but again she is surrounded by major events and cooler characters so her chapters aren't boring

Bran - I like bran but I just wish he'd finally get some powers and kick some ass

Most of the ironborn POVs are okay but just not wow - their characters just aren't as good/funny/well rounded/hateful as some of the others. Some of the early asha Theon stuff was good but then Theon just went downhill and Victarion and Euron and what not seem kinda 2 dimensional in comparison to say ... jaime for example

People who should have POVs?

Bronn ... (Robb but its too late for that sigh)Osha/Rickon The Blackfish ... Jeyne Westerling (but again prob too late)

[undertow]

Best:

1. Tyrion

2. Jaime

3. Arya

4. Jon

5. Eddard

Worst:

1. Samwell

2. Cersei

3. Bran

4. Damphair

5. Sansa

[tuthmoses]

ok well the votes are in ... pity we don't just have a poll for this but anyway according to this thread the 5 most popular characters in order are ....

Tyrion 67 votes (ie times mentioned in a persons top 5)

Jaime 55 votes

Arya 42 votes

Jon 36 votes

Dany 30 votes

So there u have it the Lannister brothers seem to be the most popular by far (there may be an error of a percent or two in counting lol)not certain but I think the number 6 spot goes to Lord Eddard Stark

[Myrish swan]

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.

Honestly, I think the point of Oakheart is so we can hear some more about how great Arrianne's boobs are. Did anyone else notice that for every scene she's in, we get a panting, five paragraph description of Arriane's fabulous rack? Honestly, both Arriane and Aery's seemed more like archtypes plucked out of a horny teenage boy's fantasies than actual characters.

At any rate, I agree with you totally about Danerys... could have been awesome, but turned up a rather poorly developed character.

[JJtheCrow]

Favorites in no particular order:

1. Jon

2. Brienne

3. Ned

4. Jamie

5. Tyrion

6. Honorable mentions to Dany and Davos.

Least Favorites:

1. Most of the Dorne chapters. The characters felt too rushed for me and i never really built up any kind of a attachement to them.

2. Arya (to me she might be the most unrealistic character in the series)

3. Bran (although i'm hoping things pick up really soon with him)

[Myrish swan]

Best

1. Jaime: I enjoyed the explanation behind why he did what he did, and his chapters were always exciting. However, I'd disagree with some people assertions that he's become a good (or even a better) person-- he was going to kill a baby if it suited him, for God's sake.

2. Catelyn: Smart and interesting; she has good (but far from perfect) insight into those around her.

3. Ned: I liked his chapters, even if the poor guy did miss a lot. And I kind of miss having him as a moral compass, since he has been replaced by the selfish, amoral Tyrion as a main character.

4. Arya: Very interesting in her own right, and very observant of those around her.

5. Theon: I dislike him, but he's fascinating.

Worst

1. Bran. I like him and loved some of his POV's in AGoT, but I wish his POV chapters in later books were sparser (and I do realize that they were relatively sparse already. I think a little Bran goes a long way. Still, I wouldn't want to get rid of him completely.)

2. Cersei: I still feel like GRRM turned an "evil" but complex, fascinating, multilayered character into a screeching caricature here. Apparently, a woman who desires power is incapable of love, compassion, or any redeeming qualities whatsoever. Also, all women who want power are inherently stupid, unlike the smart, funny, cool guys who crave power (Tyrion, Littlefinger.) I guess for all three readers who missed the message before-- female+ambition= PURE EVIL. And just in case we missed it, the only two other ambitious female characters we get to meet in AFFC (Arrianne and Sybil Spicer) are stupid and evil, respectively.

3. Greyjoy (not counting Theon): I'd like to include Victarion, Damphair, and Asha under this category... in short, pretty much all of the Greyjoy chapters in AFFC.

4. Samwell: Three words: Fat. Pink. Mast. Ewwwwww. (Poor Gilly.... first her father, now this. The poor girl needs a shrink, pronto.)

5. Jon: Actually, he's okay... but like with Bran, I could do with a little less of him.

[NW Deserter]

Awesome thread idea! I'm on a re-read right now to prep for the show and Dance so this is all fresh in my mind.

Best:

1. Tyrion, and it's really not even close as far as #1. His preparation for war and attempts to fix Kings Landing in ACoK are my favorite chapters in the entire series so far, just great stuff.

2. Arya, for (probably) obvious reasons.

3. Ned, the guy I rooted for through all of book 1.

4. Cersei, her spiral into madness in book 4 was awesome.

5. All of the ironborn, I actually enjoyed getting this close a look into their culture.

Worst:

1. Catelyn, gah so boring and "woe is me".

2. Bran, purely because of the first two books. Just really boring (got better in book 3).

3. Dany, because in book 3 and the latter parts of book 2, it got old seeing her conquer all these cartoony badguys so easily.

4. Jaime, I liked his for a while but it got old reading him think "sweet sister" so many times. It was ironic the first time, you don't need to keep repeating it.

5. Chett, what a douchebag.

[Andeimir]

Best:

1. Jaime. on top of what has been repeatedly said in regards to his character development, I enjoyed the flashbacks to his earlier days in the king's guard, and was in fact 'hooked' on his story from the scene in Riverrun's where Catelyn questions him.

2. Tyrion. Witty, bitter, cruel oftentimes, somewhat kind in others, human.

3. Sansa. Another character which has developed a lot so far in the books. I loved her interactions with Sandor.

4. Daenerys. While the character itself didn't prove to be too interesting, I liked the various cultures she encounters and simply knowing that she has those 3 dragons growing up made me anticipate the next chapter of hers when I finished the previous one.

5. Arya. Her PoV became really interesting starting from Eddard's beheading, and I really enjoyed how through her we're exposed to a lot of the World of ASoIaF which we didn't get to see from the other PoV.

Worst:

1. Aeron Greyjoy.

2. Asha Greyjoy.

3. Theon Greyjoy.

4. Victorian Greyjoy.

This is the only sub-plot in the series which bored me.

5. Samwell. You'd think spending a considerable amount of time on the frozen frontier and battling Others would suffice to elevate him from the weeping sack of pathetic #@$! he is, nuhuh.

[Kit]

Okay, so just out of curiosity (and based off only one read through of the series so far), I first went to Wikipedia and listed all the POV characters. We have:

Beginning in AGoT: Eddard, Catelyn, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Jon, Tyrion, and Dany

Beginning in ACoK: Davos and Theon

Beginning in ASoS: Jamie and Sam

Beginning in AFfC: Cersei, Aeron, Areo, Asha, Victarion, Brienne, Arys, and Arianne

Prologues: Will (AGoT), Maester Cressen (ACoK), Chett of the Night's Watch (ASoS), and Pate (AFfC)

Epilogue: Merrett Frey (ASoS)

20 POVs proper, four prologues, and one epilogue

Overall, my favorites are probably the following (no particular order):

Tyrion, for having great dialogue and some great political intrigue going on

Dany, simply because it's a whole different world, even though Dany after AGoT has been a little too Mary Sue for my tastes

Cersei, for being insane and highly amusing

A mix of all three POV Stark legitimate children, especially Sansa and Arya

Least favorite:

Theon, can't stand the guy, generally, although Asha reeling him in in ACoK was pretty entertaining

Areo and Arys, although they each only had like 1 or 2 chapters each so they barely count

Catelyn, except for the Red Wedding, since even though she gets a lot of important events, it seems, in her POVs, she just kind of bores me as a person

Victarion, again only like 1 chapter, but it didn't particularly move me

I'm generally pleased with all, or else I wouldn't keep reading the series, but that's the way it breaks down for me. I actually enjoyed both the Dorne and Iron Islands subplots but didn't particularly care for many of the POV characters in those, except for Asha.

What are people's favorite prologues? I'm partial to Maester Cressen's and to Pate's; I didn't care as much for Chett's, and I still had no idea, really, what was going on when I read Will's.

[NW Deserter]

My favorite prologue was Maester Cressen's, by far. I didn't really understand it that well on my first read-through just because it was an entirely new setting after the locations of AGoT, but on subsequent reads it's pretty heartbreaking.

And like I said before, Chett's pissed me off, although the ending when the third blow of the horn just echoes and echoes is pretty cool.

[Kit]

And like I said before, Chett's pissed me off, although the ending when the third blow of the horn just echoes and echoes is pretty cool.

Yeah, Chett definitely seemed like an obnoxious bag of douche. Pate's POV actually confused me the most, probably, besides the "what is this?" newness of Will's POV, but I still really liked the feel of Oldtown and whatnot. I guess that makes Cressen's the best, possibly because Melisandre just blew me out of the water there. I hated her on first sight, which I suppose is GRRM's point. :D

[SkynJay]

Best

1. Jamie

2. Sansa

3. Cersei

4. Arya

5. Tyrion

Worst

1. Breanne

2. Bran

I enjoyed most the others. But I despise the Chapters with those two with a passion.

[Myrish swan]

My favorite prologue was Maester Cressen's, by far. I didn't really understand it that well on my first read-through just because it was an entirely new setting after the locations of AGoT, but on subsequent reads it's pretty heartbreaking.

And like I said before, Chett's pissed me off, although the ending when the third blow of the horn just echoes and echoes is pretty cool.

I agree with you, Cressen is my favorite prologue POV by far. I think that his six or seven pages gave me more insight into (and sympathy for) Stannis than the numerous of chapters later provided by Davos. Honestly, I was surprised how unsympathetic Stannis turned out to be; when he was first introduced as the "sad, sullen boy" by Cressen, I felt great pity for him. After the Renly, and Lord Penrose murders and the accompanying denial and hypocrisy... not so much.

[John (Snow) Doe]

Bran is actually my favorite POV character. His chapters remind me of "Ender's Game" because he is incredibly introspective and perceptive for such a young kid. Reminds you that children have a certain wisdom and worldliness that is lost during adolescence. I think GRRM employs the right tone - it is simultaneously naive, like a Sansa chapter, and weary, like an Eddard or Cat chapter.

I'm also a big Bran fan because he's emerging as a non-stock protagonist. Whereas Jon Snow, while flawed and excellently developed, fills a lot of the stereotypes of the fantasy-genre protagonist, Bran is by no means your typical hero.

My least favorite POV character is probably Dany. Her chapters in AGoT were awesome, but I feel like she's been lagging ever since. I like that GRRM uses her conversations with Jorah and Barristan to reveal a lot about the past, but being removed from the Westeros-drama, she just seems to lack the momentum the other POV characters have.

[AtoningUnifex]

Best:

1. Jaime- really hard not to enjoy every conversation he engages in. Plus, his wry, often self-mocking thoughts are very familiar. It seems to me GRRM loves to write him.

2. Tyrion- see above.

3. Dany- often beautifully written and evoke stunning imagery in my mind.

4. Jon- I like him, I don't find him one-dimensional or predictable, and I think GRRM does great things with him, especially his time north of the wall.

5. Bran- there's a ton of wonder in these chapters, and given GRRM's admitted difficulty in writing them, I thing he really pulls it off.

Worst: N/A