Pre-ghostwriter Rachel is still my favorite, though overall, I'd have to give it to Marco. Rachel, pre-ghostwriter, was a well-developed character-- brilliant, beautiful, witty, ruthless, sort of the more gung-ho yin to Marco's yang. Later in the series she devolved into just a blonde maniac who I could no longer appreciate. Marco, to me, is easily the most relateable character in the series.
Granted, when I was first reading the series, Ax's social awkwardness, ridiculous antics, and "being an alien"-ness made him my favorite.
Chad, you and your TVtropes
I had to go look those terms up.
Honestly, Kelly, you raise an interesting point about Tobias-- you were unable to relate to that much existential angst, and therefore, you disliked the character. Whether someone likes or dislikes Tobias likely has to do with how well they relate to him. How well someone relates to Tobias likely has a lot to do with two things: 1) How much cause they had for angst in their childhood (or life prior to whenever they read the series) and 2) How they deal with said angst-making situations.
Basically, I'm saying that Tobias acts as the series' liaison to the downtrodden, but that those who've never really had cause for the type of angst and depression Tobias goes through won't really get it. Whether you consider Tobias to be your *looks back up at Chad's post to remember the words* woobie or your scrappy may say more about you than you realize
That said... I had a reasonably happy childhood, but I can absolutely relate to Tobias's feelings of depression. Even so, I am not a fan of Tobias.
Is anybody else a little in awe of the fact that the same author wrote all six characters, in all their different types of relateability?