Characters who fascinate you and make you feel the most intense or complex feelings?

By most intense, I mean someone who makes you feel very strong feelings (e.g., hating them with a passion). And by complex, I Mean someone who triggers a combination of very different emotions, like anger but also love.

What happened was that I was having a chat with a fellow reader who said he likes Of Mice and Men, in particular Lennie Small, for whom he feels only one thing: Sorrow. He pities the guy. That's it. Kind of like how he feels about animals because they are innocent.

I appreciate that perspective and at times I do feel the same way, being drawn to characters who don't trigger too many feelings in me.

Sometimes those feelings can be intense though. Like Palpatine in Star Wars. You just feel negative feelings toward the guy. And hate him with a passion.

But I feel that more realistic characters usually trigger a combination of different feelings. That is how a friend described her feelings toward Heathcliff. She said she feels compassion toward him, yet hates him. I said for me it's very difficult to feel any affection for him. When he was young, yes, but later, no.

Things were different with Holden Caulfield. She just hated the brat, whereas I felt a lot of different feelings toward him: anger, compassion, sorrow, confusion, etc. Not initially but when I reread the book as I got older and felt I understood him a little better.