Arya is ok, but I just don't understand the appeal. Maybe it's a female thing, but I just don't see why she's so overwhelmingly compelling. I like her, but only nominally. She's just another character for me. Tyrion I completely agree on, obviously. He's undisputedly the best character in the series, probably the most popular, and he's Martin's favourite. I don't understand the "love to hate" thing, I just love characters and hate them and want them to go away, not hate them and enjoy hating them. Jaime is one of the better characters, regardless. Viserys is awesome, he's so much better than Dany. It's a shame he didn't make it out of the first book, I love a good villain. Well, in most cases, I do hate Joffrey, but that's just because I hate kids, not because I hate villains. I tend to cheer the bad guy all the time. 9 times out of 10, they're the ones who make the story interesting, not the heroes.