There is so much to say that I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Game of Thrones, mostly because I’m a die-hard book fan. I enjoyed the first season (though definitely still had issues with it), but starting in season 2 the plot and characters started to diverge so radically from the books that I was getting very, very annoyed. With the introduction of Dorne and the exclusion of Arianne Martell, I quit watching the show entirely, because it was just painful to watch by that point, but I started tuning in again on and off during season 6, mostly just watching the Sansa Stark scenes. I watched season 7 a bit more closely but still not religiously, but with everyone talking about the final season and me having serious FOMO all the time, I decided to watch every episode.
Before I get into my grievances with the final season (and there are…grievances), I just want to say that despite everything, I’m just so amazed with what this show has achieved. It’s been a decade-long labor (I started watching this in high school!), and while the writing has often been sub-par, the show has done absolutely incredible things in set design, acting, music, and cinematography. And more than that, it introduced high fantasy into the mainstream cultural zeitsgiest in such an unprecedented way! A Song of Ice and Fire is a classic high fantasy series that started in the late ’90s, and now it’s one of the biggest worldwide phenomenons in television history. It’s inspired so many emotions – yes, including anger – but I’m so in awe of anything that can bring people together in such a massive way that I can’t help but be appreciative and thankful that this show existed. I can’t believe it’s over.
Sansa & Petyr (A Song of Ice and Fire NOT the garbage show which takes a completely different and unwarranted direction with these two): Initially I thought this prompt indicated not pairings that went from hating each other to loving each other, but pairings that I love even in the face of blistering shame. Sansa Stark and Petyr Baelish fit that category rather well, because, well, have you ever seen a more messed up dynamic (well, there’s Jaime and Cersei, who happen to be my other favorite pairing from ASOIAF – do you see a trend here?)? Sansa is the daughter of the woman Petyr once loved. She didn’t love him back in the same way, and ended up marrying someone else. Petyr never moved on. Now, he has attached himself to Sansa, who happens to be the spitting image of her mother. Petyr’s interest in Sansa alternates between fatherly love and lovers’ lust, a rather disturbing contradiction. This bizarre combo is also interspersed with Petyr’s ambition: he claims to want to marry Sansa off in order to help her win back Winterfell, but whether he is doing this for Sansa or to further his own power (or both) is not quite clear, though he is certainly vocal about declaring his love (and lust) to her, and her consent to his sexual advances is dubious at best. Sansa’s feelings for Petyr are equally ambiguous – she admits she cares for him, but also recognizes that there are two sides to him, one kind and friendly, one scheming and ruthless. She has trouble telling the two apart. At the same time, he’s the only person she has left in the world, so she can’t help but rely on him. Their relationship is so bizarre, so 
Alina & The Darkling (The Grisha Trilogy): Remember what I said about loving messed up pairings? Alina and the Darkling don’t start out hating each other either, not exactly, but their relationship certainly devolves into a complex interplay of hatred and attraction. Initially believing that The Darkling is a force for good, Alina allows herself to be swept up into his seduction of her. He beguiles her with his declarations of their similarities, their burgeoning powers, and how they are going to change the world together. Alina is drawn to his power and his stature, the fact that they are indeed two of a kind, but she quickly realizes The Darkling is bound to be her enemy. Despite this, I don’t think she ever forgets the hold he had on her.
Jannik & Felicita (House of Sand and Secrets): These two are interesting because they didn’t start out hating each other at all. In the first book, they’re friends well on their way to becoming more, but tragedy tears them apart. In the second book, they are in a marriage of convenience. Even at this point, neither of them hates the other, but their relationship is fraught with their tenuous social status and Jannik’s precarious position as a hated minority. Misunderstandings blossom like thorny flowers between the pair, leading each to believe that they are hated by the other, when in fact they are so in love with each other they can barely see straight.
Hanani & Wanahomen (The Shadowed Sun): I always thought I hated romance until I read N.K. Jemisin’s Shadowed Sun. In this book, she crafts a love story that I didn’t even realize was a love story until nearly the very end. It starts with Hanani and Wanahomen on opposite sides of the spectrum in status and personality – Hanani is the only female Sharer-Apprentice from Hetawa, and Wanahomen is a prince-in-exile fighting to take back his kingdom. Hanani is calm, level-headed, compassionate, while Wanahomen is rash, hot-tempered, and ruthless. Their relationships starts out quite tense, as opposite personalities clash, but as they live together among the Banbarra tribe, both as outsiders, their feelings for one another intensify from intense dislike to intense love. Jemisin’s talent shines through here; this is such an incredibly subtle and well-crafted romance.
Alabaster & Syenite (The Broken Earth Trilogy): Yes, another N.K. Jemisin example. I swear, this lady is brilliant at everything she does, and if one day she decided to forego fantasy and just write straight-up romance, I would totally be there for it. Initially, Alabaser and Syenite don’t like one another at all. They have two competing worldviews, though Syenite’s is born more out of naivete and lack of experience than anything else (Alabaster is significantly older than her). The two are sent on a dual mission, to answer the call of a city that fears a geologic anomaly, and along the way, to get pregnant. What begins as a fraught relationship burdened by mechanical sex blossoms into a we-only-trust-each-other type of thing. As Alabaster and Syenite embark on a relationship with another man (yes, all at once) and have a child together, their bond strengthens and deepens.
Severus Snape (Harry Potter): I had to start out with the apex of unlikable characters, didn’t I? Snape is a horrible person. Abusive, borderline racist, selfish, bitter, just an all-around terrible person. I wouldn’t even want to be in the same room with him, let alone be his friend. And yet Snape is undeniably fascinating: he has spent nearly all of his life regretting and attempting to atone for getting the love of his life killed. None of his intentions were honorable – he thought he was getting another family killed, and even when he realized it was Lily he didn’t give a damn about her husband and infant son dying. He just wanted to save her, and whether his feelings for Lily were love or obsession is, I think, irrelevant. Lily died anyway, and Snape switched sides to atone. He also – and this is just my personal headcanon here – isolated himself and did everything he could to make other people hate him, because he believed he deserved it. He kept fighting not necessarily because he believed in the cause, but because he felt he owed it to Lily. Like I said, fundamentally not a good person, and that’s not even getting into how horrible of a teacher he was (he was Neville’s worst fear for God’s sake!). But so, so multi-layered, complex, and fascinating.
Adelina Amouteru (The Young Elites): Adelina grew up with her sister and abusive stepfather. With a parent like that, it is no surprise that Adelina is reserved, wary, and bitter. However, as her powers begin to manifest and the friends she thought she had abandoned her, Adelina swerves sharply into villain territory. She sets out to get revenge, abandoning any and all morality in the process. She wants revenge and she wants power, and she will do anything she can to get it, even as she struggles not to lose her mind. Being in Adelina’s head is one hell of a trip; the girl is half insane at this point. She’s such a compelling, dynamic character. I’m excited to read the final book in this series!
Isyllt Iskaldur (The Necromancer Chronicles): I don’t know if Isyllt would be considered widely unlikable by everyone, but I find her an unusual female character. She reminds me a bit of a noir detective. She’s taciturn, pragmatic, and no-nonsense. After spending her teens in the streets, Isyllt was taken in by the King (sort of) and turned into a kind of spy/necromancer/magician (in other words, she’s super cool). She’s kind of closed off in a way that female characters usually aren’t, which makes her super intriguing.
Nassun (The Obelisk Gate): Essun’s daughter Nassun is not necessarily unlikable, but pitiable. After experiencing the unimaginable trauma of witnessing her father murder her brother, and then being kidnapped by him as he struggles not to kill her for simply being who she is, Nassun transforms from an ordinary young girl to an unbelievably cold, cynical young woman. By the end of the book she has veered into such strange, nihilistic territory that being in her head becomes pretty uncomfortable.
Petyr Baelish (A Song of Ice and Fire): This is kind of cheating, since I don’t know that I would call Petyr a protagonist, necessarily, but whether we like it or not he is essentially the lynch pin of the entire series. He set most of the events in the series in motion. Some thing he did just to create chaos, to see what would happen, in true chaotic neutral form. Petyr is sneaky and subtle and brilliant (forget TV show Petyr, I’m talking about book Petyr, who is a fundamentally different person). He’s one hell of a strategist and he’s incredibly ambitious, but like Snape, he is also caught up in a past romance which pushes him from “ambiguously motivated” to “supremely creepy” territory. Despite that, the dynamic Petyr has with Sansa Stark, his lost love’s daughter, is the most fascinating in the entire series. The pair of a somewhat disturbing dynamic, but I love it all the same, just as I am fascinated with Petyr Baelish.
Hadeer Elsbai 