Jon Snow really is probably the most flat and paint-by-numbers main character in ASOIAF. A lot of fanboys do like him because he’s exactly what they expect to be the hero of a fantasy novel: he’s the outcast of his family, he’s honorable, he’s angsty, etc. I personally only find him interesting when he has some conflict with his Night’s Watch vows, as when he fell for Ygritte. For some reason, vows of celibacy just really grate on my nerves. I am interested to find out what happens with him, Melisandre, and Stannis.
Well, okay, Bran’s chapters are more boring than Jon’s. At least Jon fights ice zombies.
But just about everyone else is fantastic. Brienne is your stereotypical chainmail-bikini sword wench turned on it’s head. She’s this badass female knight who is ugly. Ugly. How often do you get a female knight who’s actually tall and powerfully built and has big shoulders and battle wounds and isn’t thinly-disguised fanservice? She’s also one of the most likeable and honorable characters in the series, apart from the dearly departed Ned. And she and Jaime have all this great UST. When he leaps into the bear pit to save her – I wibble.
And then we have Sansa and Sandor, or SanSan, possibly THE OTP of ASOIAF, edging out Brienne and Jaime. Keep in mind that GRRM used to write for the 1980s Beauty and the Beast TV show, and there’s a little of Catherine and Vincent in Sansa and Sandor (and, for that matter, a touch in Jaime and Brienne, too). Here’s two people who would never, ever have expected to find this connection. Sansa is this upper-class lady-in-training who fully expects to marry her shining knight and live happily ever after. Sandor is a hideously scarred cynic who disdains knights and everything they stand for and lives only for the sword. He can be downright mean to Sansa, but in his own weird way he’s also trying to protect her. She’s so naive that she honestly thinks that all beautiful people are good, that all knights are gallant, and that everything works out okay in the end. Sansa for her part is at once terrified and intrigued by him, almost against her will. There’s also all this fantastic subtext throughout the books – Robert telling Ned to get Sansa “a dog” after Lady is killed (keep in mind Sandor’s nickname is the Hound), him dropping his cloak and her snuggling up in it (btw, Westerosi wedding involve the groom covering the bride with his cloak), and even Sansa deciding that Sandor really did kiss her during the Battle of the Blackwater, even though it’s obvious he didn’t.
Robb and Jeyne Westerling is another great example of how well Martin turns traditional fantasy on its head. So here we have Robb, the golden boy, the rightful King in the North, and all that. And he falls in love and marries Jeyne, who’s family is allied with the Lannisters. Typical Romeo and Juliet. BUT there’s fallout. Robb was already betrothed, and when he broke the betrothal to marry Jeyne, he earns some new enemies. Jeyne’s family, as it turns out, were in on this plot from the beginning – they set up Robb to fall for Jeyne and when the shit goes down, they take a step or two up the social ladder and get in Tywin Lannister’s good graces. That’s chilling.
