3. Wesley
Appeared in: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel If you follow the character growth of Wesley Wyndam-Price, it goes something like this: stick-in-the-mud antagonist, awkward comic foil, sidekick, then leader. Yes, leader. The annoying, pompous, know-it all Watcher that Wesley was when he first arrived on Buffy moved over to Angel mid-way through Angel's first season, replacing the character of Doyle, and was immediately met with resistance from the Angel Investigations crew (which was really just Cordy and Angel at that point) and fans alike. And then yet again, something marvelous happened - solid writing and character development turned a one-note character into a well-rounded creation that you wanted to follow, just to see where he would go. Wesley the coward, Wesley the timid, became Wesley the brave, Wesley the champion. When his heart was broken with the death of Fred you broke along with it, and you understood the moral compromises he made along the way throughout the show, even if you didn't agree with them. And if you were watching from the beginning, or at least from the point that he had first met Fred, his final words haunted you: "Lie to me." Alexis Denisof's character had come so far over the years, and it was devastating to see him go.