Tower of the Hand had a poll of the top 15 characters from their visitors and the top 30 are all being written up. Some fascinating read. Take a look if you haven't already.

Qoq - 15 is a bit much. My Top Five would be;

Daeny

Stannis

Jon

Tyrion

Davos

...but teh game ahs colored my assesment somewhat. Those are my faves in order though.

1. Jaime - I LOVE him by the end of the books.

2. Tyrion - the chapters I most look forward to.

3. Littlefinger - great politics, probably the most 'grey' character in the books (other than Varys maybe?).

4. Viper - wish we had him longer.

5. Tough...Ned maybe (but not long enough)...Davos is good, I will go with him. I want a 'good guy' like Ned or one of his sons, but they are either not in the books enough, or boring as all get-out (Boo Bran your chapters suck!).

Special mention: Thoros/Beric but they are in very few scenes.

hmmm... my top 5?

1. Drogon

2. Rhaegal

3. Viserion

...

haha, wait we're talking about people characters?

there's so many it'd be hard to choose. i really like Daenerys, Jon, and Arya's chapters. Jamie is a cool character, it's neat to watch him evolve. Nymeria, i am curious to learn more about what she's been up to. Gregor Clegane, because he is pretty much one of the best villians, even though i'm sad that Red Viper didn't get more story... the Starks are all good, but so short. At first i was very put off by Lady Stoneheart, but i find her pretty interesting... i'd like to know more about Jaqen...

eygji said:

You ser, are a man of taste and discretion (despite your semi sickening praise of the incestous king killer and murderer).

rings said:

One of my favorite characters and chapters. I'm very curious with this three-eyed crow and Coldhands stuff.

Rogue30 said:

Agreed, the Bran chapters are going somewhere BIG.

Based on epicness:

Littlefinger (That epilogue left me in awe)

Jaime (Self evident)

Yoren (Because your welcome to his head if you can separate it from his shoulders)

Jory Cassel (Cummon, he tried to cut his way back in )

Ser Arthur Dayne (For not bending his knees easily)

1. Arya - I love jaded characters.

2. Jaime - Never knew an author could make me love a character I once hated so much.

3. Tyrion - Everything he does is to survive. He makes the best out of nothing.

4. The Red Viper - Had more wit than Tyrion, but alas.....

5. Bronn - Gritty

Stag Lord said:

hahaha... i wasn't quite praising them. its more that their characters are interesting. Jamie, as most people have stated, in the first books he's pretty repulsive and by the later books i found myself rooting for him. i guess that may be more a factor of GRRM's writing, but his Jamie character is interesting.

and in a world where no one is innocent and everyone is backstabbing eachother and vying for power, Gregor puts everyone else to shame in his villany, and that is pretty impressive as far as characters in this story goes.

...i really do like pretty much every character in some way, they are all such interesting and deep characters.

Here's a different question: has anyone ever counted the number of indiviual characters named in the books? haha

Skowza said:

~It better be, to make up for the hundreds of pages of crap so far

rings said:

Haha, indeed, there better be some point to all those chapters. One use of characters that are not "important" in the overall story of the book, is to also present what is happening around them and reveal plot developments. This is not the case for Bran, so his chapters better have some good point to them

I love the Blackfish in the books, I am just sad we see so little of him. Tyrion is another awesome character, and so are the Martell brothers Oberyn and Doran (too bad Oberyn's part was over so quickly).

Zsa said:

On the contrary, when Meera tells the story about the Tourney at Harrenhal you learn a great deal of backstory, and how the seeds of the rebellion got started.

Personally, my favorite character has got to be Doran Martell. When we first see him at the start of Feast, I found him to be a simpering coward. By the end of Arianne's chapter, he is a cunning planner that puts everyone else, including Littlefinger, to shame. I wish they was a Martell build that really reflected Doran's attitude towards revenge.

Quick aside: I first "read" Feast for Crows as an Audiobook on my mp3 player. While listening to the chapter in question, the batteries died just after Doran told Arianne "You were promised!" I had about 10-15 minutes to ponder who he was talking about until I got a new battery, and I was ecstatic to learn my guess was right. One of those instances where reading the book wouldn't give you the time to consider such a statement, but fate let me stew over it and reach my own conclusions. That's one of the things I love about Martin's books. You really can never know everything that is going on.

Ah you're right about that one. Meera's tale was very good, but besides that one, which is like one chapter, there's not a lot else there no?

This is mostly in book 3 that I'm referring to, the book 2 bran chapters I liked.

Zsa said:

Oh come on! There is Hodor, wolf hunting... Hodor. Did I mention Hodor already?

Rogue30 said:

~Yeah, that never got old...

Funny, I was trying to think of cool things that happened, and mainly I kept remembering things that actually were not in his chapter but were only slightly boring (Sam going across the sea, some Arya chapters, etc.). Other than the Reeds who are okay, Hodor who is interesting the first time, some crow...I can't remember much

Interesting poll.

Like others here I must give my own top characters of ASoIaF in relative and changing order of preference:

Daenerys

Arya

Tyrion

Queen of Thorns

Rhaegar Targaryen

Barristan Selmy

Doran Martell

Penfold said:

Oh also Aegon the Unlikely Targaryen (Egg)