xy2345: Nobody likes Aerie? Doesn't she activate your protective instinct?
Hm... let me check. ...
No. No, she doesn't. Unless, by 'protective instinct,' you mean my tendency to leave her with uncle Gnome in the circus. There! All safe and protected.
Seriously though, the lack of Aerie mention doesn't surprise me. She tends to annoy quite a lot of people with her "woe is me" attitudes and general uncertainty. As Jonesy points out, it does make for a change from the run-of-the-mill heroic adventurer type, and her conflict with Korgan is a lot of fun. (Though not for her.) But I can't bring myself to like her and I dislike the romance, from what I've seen of it. (I've never gotten that far, but the baby thing I've read features in ToB sounds particularly stupid.)
Punkoinyc: I like Anomen's story line best though, even though he's a bit annoying at times.
Anomen indeed is a better example of a character who is annoying personality-wise, (what an arrogant clod) but develops in interesting ways and has a good plot-line that explains a lot about why he acts the way he does. I don't like him as a person, but I do like to bring him in my party. (Plus, it helps that he's one of the stronger NPCs in the game.)