Now I've finished "A Dance with Dragons" and I've realized that part of the meaning of life is for George R.R Martin to complete the last two books: "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring". He's such an effective author that most of the main characters are too damn awesome and hilarious, but here are my top three:
1) Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy: used to be an Iron Fleet captain until Stannis Barratheon smashed the Iron Fleet, and Aeron almost drowned but washed ashore and was taken as a Lannister prisoner. Once released, he was no longer a positive individual who liked to sing and drink, but he became a ghostly man, with long black hair covered in seaweed and grim features. At the beginning of his chapter, he's initiating a boy into the Drowned God's service by drowning him in the ocean, and then performing CPR as the "kiss of life". Here's a badass quote:
"Euron is the elder brother..." began the maester.
Aeron silenced him with a look. In little fishing towns and great stone keeps alike such a look from Damphair would make maids feel faint and send children shrieking to their mothers, and it was more than sufficient to quell the chain-neck thrall. "Euron is elder," the priest said, "but Victarion is more godly."
2) Jaime Lannister: when you read later on in the books about him, he comes off as such a good character that you forget he crippled Bran Stark by shoving him out a window. I'm sure they'll have to face eachother in the end. People call him the "Kingslayer" for breaking his oath and killing the man he swore to the Gods he'd protect, but Jaime also had to stand outside King Aerys' bedchamber while he raped and abused Queen Rhaella. If Jaime hadn't killed The Mad King, he would have destroyed the city in various planned wildfire explosions, killing millions of people trapped in the city. Jaime Lannister saved the realm from a genocidal maniac who was about to light them all on fire, and they revile him for it.
3) Jon Snow: he eventually becomes Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and then you realize that he is starting to serve more of a purpose for the realm as a whole, as the threat beyond the Wall isn't just something in Old Nan's tales. With no wise maester to advise or counsel him, and at the same time hosting Stannis Barratheon and his army, he has to balance integration of the wildlings into the realm and the peace terms they must agree to, dealing with dissent among his Black Brothers, and he faces many other challenges including the coming of the Long Winter, and how to feed over a thousand starving wildlings.
But the most striking thing for me, is that since most of the Starks are dead and the surviving children are scattered, Stannis Barratheon offers Jon Snow the seat of Winterfell if he leaves the Night's Watch. Jon Snow would no longer be deemed a bastard, and would be formally acknowledged as a full-blooded Stark. But he reflects as a child how he wished he could one day have Winterfell, but then realized what being a bastard meant. He wonders to himself if he had "wished" all the Starks dead so he would be next in line. But I'm sure the realm could use Jon Snow's leadership on the Wall just as much.