While many characters have driven me to intense emotions, these are favorite characters:
Sylas (The message of bringing down authority out of a deep sense of betrayal after years of obeying and believing wholeheartedly.)
Aatrox (The sense of nihilism that comes with a life so imprisoned by extraordinary circumstances and the agency and zest that comes with fully embracing it.)
Tanya Degurechaff (the anger toward a world that acts so impulsively and the frustrations of pushing and encouraging rationality upon a world that seems unable to recognize the irrationality of human beings and the detachment toward the passions of this world and the pragmaticism that accompanies it)
Eren Yeager (The drive to become total and to be free in a mirred, disgusting world, whatever it takes, out of a genuine conviction to do the right thing, out of a genuine integrity, earnestness, sensitivity, and honesty, to protect, to save. This is all encapsulated in what he told his father when he told him to stand up: "And keep going forward. Even if you die, and even after you die." It reminded me of the absolute drive that possessed me all these years after experiencing trauma, especially regarding my younger brothers and my inability to do anything by them when it mattered most.)
Erwin Smith ("Stop. Don't regret it. Memories of regret only dull your decisions later. You'll entrust your decisions to others. Once you do that, you'll die. No one knows the results of anything. A decision only has meaning when used to make the next decision. If I do not lead the vanguard, none of them will follow. And I will die before anyone else without ever learning what's in the basement. I... I want to go to the basement. Everything I've done until now was because I thought this day would come. So many times, I thought death would be so much easier. But, Levi... Can you see them? Our comrades? Our comrades are looking at us. They want to know what become of the hearts they gave. Their lives... Were they meaningless? No, they weren't! It's us who gives meaning to our comrades' lives! The brave fallen! The anguished fallen! The ones who will remember them are us, the living! We die trusting the living who follow to find meaning in our lives! That is the sole method in which we can rebel against this cruel world! My soldiers, RAGE! My soldiers, SCREAM! My soldiers, FIGHT! Advance! ADVANCE!" "Sir... How do we know there aren't more humans outside the Walls?")
Luffy (The almost irrational inability to watch a comrade be hurt and the drive to do anything to save that injured comrade's face or dignity, as he and his crew did with Nami. "YOU ARE A HUMAN TOO! YOU DESERVE TO BE RECOGNIZED! NOT TO ABANDONED LIKE NOTHING! EVERYTHING THAT I DO IS SO THAT YOU WILL FEEL THE WEIGHT OF YOUR FLESH AND THE UNYIELDING CONVICTION THAT YOU ARE ALIVE!")
Gon (The smoldering rage he showed Pitou when she didn't heal Kite like she said she would and the outburst of rage and confusion he showed when Pitou started healing Komugi. The "deliciousness" of being consumed by "absolute rage" due to a desire to protect and anger at the perpetrators resonates with me.)
Yeon Si-eun (the violent rage at the end of the live action in season 1 after seeing his friends get brutalized and a close friend betray him)
General Zod (From the live action 2013 film Man of Steel. The absolute role he played to save his people, whatever it took.)
Minsu Kim (similar reason to Aatrox, being betrayed by an absurd reality and the desire to become absolute, the vindication of letting the trauma dictate how I treat the entire world)
Joker (from 2019 film The Joker, for the desire to reach your self-actualization after all the helplessness, humiliation, betrayal, and abandonment, to become one with the spirit, to become one with the becoming, to express your most honest feelings, to be.)
Arthur Shelby Jr. (for his violent instability due to trauma, for the self-hatred and desire to die for what he did, for the absolute rage he showed when it came to protecting his brothers and being his younger brother Tommy Shelby's sword and beast, for the fragile childish hope he showed his father and the betrayal he incurred as a consequence)
Adam (from Record of Ragnarok, "What is it with you guys? Hatred? Revenge? I don't need any of that. There is no "why". Does anyone need a reason to protect their own children?")
Hyper-competent characters like Fang Yuan, Han Xiao, Shin Youngwoo (Grid), Boxxy T. Morningwood, Klein Moretti
Fizzy Rustblood (for the traumatic way she handled what she went through by turning into a numb metal golem, finding a new empowered path forward, even as she did get closure from Boxxy apologizing to her and asking her to be equal partners)
Unintentionally charismatic or scum-hero characters (Lloyd Frontera from The Greatest Estate Developer, King from OPM, Cale Henituse from Trash of the Count's Family)
Super good characters even if they're weak like Mumen Rider, Takemichi Hanagaki, Usopp, Hobin Yoo
Nagyunn (from The Ember Knight for his competence in charisma, deceit, intimidation, and intelligence despite his lack of power)