Tyrion, Jon, Daenerys, and Arya

These are the fan book favorites too, as far as I'm aware.

Peter Dinklage is playing Tyrion the way Alan Rickman played Snape - wonderfully, of course, but so charismatically that you forget how much of a genuine asshole that character was in the books.

They've made Cersei much more sympathetic than in the books (where she's mostly Stupid Evil) but otherwise I think the characterization is pretty spot-on.

What is there to hate about Daenerys? In the book or the show?

I don't get a sense of Tyrion as an asshole in the book, Jessica -- he's a little blunt, often rude, but he's smarter than almost everyone else, and he has a sense of right and wrong that his sister, for one, does not.

Cersei seems pretty loathsome all around to me.

I understand Cersei's motives, but she is really hateable.

I think TV!Cersei is more sympathetic because we've gotten inside her head so much sooner. I don't think she's a POV character in the books until #3 and by then our view of her is so skewed by how she's perceived by others that it's hard to shake off.

I found the one conversation between Robert and Cersei made them both more sympathetic, although the whole thing was sad.

And I probably did feel a little bad for her last night, when her sense of her own power was crushed by a couple of angry words from Joffrey.

I think that person is wrong-headed.

Tyrion is easily one of the more interesting characters in the books. (Jaime becomes that way too.)

I pretty much can't stand Cersei - even when she is brought low.

Robb - is much more there in the show than in the books.

Sansa is more sympathetic on the show. (Being in her head does her no favors.)

he's a little blunt, often rude, but he's smarter than almost everyone else, and he has a sense of right and wrong that his sister, for one, does not.

Willingly participating in a gang rape of his own wife does not, to me, indicate a strong moral compass.

Willingly participating in a gang rape of his own wife does not, to me, indicate a strong moral compass.

Yeah, I forgot about that. But in the present he's one of the only people (alive) I would trust to do the right thing, at least in King's Landing.

I have to say, despite being an adult by Westeros standards - he was actually very young and in a family that is certainly psychologically abusive. How do we compute that?