Sirius all the way!!! he was one of my FAVORITE CHARACTERS, his "death", dobby's, and Fred's were the only ones I cried for...

James potter

Remus

I've thought about this an ungodly amount and I think I've got a reasonable list of pros and cons for each of them because.... I just do.

Remus - One of the better ones but also a coward? Like, he never stepped in to stop his friends from hexing people even though he was given the position of a prefect specifically for this reason. While most people develop as they age, he doesn't seem to actually change all that much? DH, he leaves his pregnant wife because he was scared of passing down werewolfness, unable to understand that he left her in a much more vulnerable position than before because he was worried?

You'd think him being worried means he'd stick with her. Harry hits the nail on the head when he says that James didn't have a choice to stay with his son, but Remus did. BUT he's a brilliant mentor to almost all of his students, and his teaching was brilliant. Really, it's better that he's a complex character with flaws rather than some paragon of morality.

Sirius - okay so despite being a somewhat good godfather to Harry in PoA and GoF he is almost a completely different person in OotP, encouraging his godson to risk his life and holding his dead father's opinion (who's opinion we and Harry cannot confirm) over him? Eugh. He also doesn't regret almost killing someone at 16, which... like yeah, it's Snape, but he did try to USE HIS BEST FRIEND AS A MURDER WEAPON??? idk how Remus forgave that tbh ew like Sirius KNOWS that Remus's worst fear is killing someone as a werewolf and woe behold that's what Sirius does? Still, he was raised in an abusive household and spent 12 years of his life in jail where all happiness was leeched out of him so, technically, he does get his karma - it also explains his actions. (once again, yeah, it does add complexity to his character, but in my eyes it does make him more bad than good).

Peter - people hate on him a lot but he wasn't born a scheming rat okay, irl I feel like there are many people who would do what they can to survive, even if they do betray their friends. There isn't much justification for anything he does, bc JKR often writes completely one-dimensional characters, but personally, I think he deserves Snape's redemption arc - for love of James or something he saves Harry. Adds complexity AND it explains more about him (basically he needs more fleshing out than 'he was a rat lol').

James - we know the least about him so basing an opinion of him is difficult. He became an animagus for his friend, took in his friend that was thrown out, sponsored Remus and Sirius when they needed it, saved Snape's life (however, we don't actually know his motive behind that). He also was made Head Boy, most teachers thought he was brilliant, joined the order after he graduated despite having been offered the position of a death eater (maybe? we don't know what 'defied the dark lord three times' actually means) three times, turned it around enough to have Lily agree to go out with him, and died for his son.

HOWEVER, he also hexed people with his friends for the fun of it, had a longstanding mutually harmful relationship with Snape behind Lily's back, pranked people all the time. I don't remember who said this, but 'James is good to the people he loves and awful to those he doesn't'. While I don't completely agree, it's quite true. He isn't awful persay to those he doesn't live, but he certainly isn't nice as a teenager. We can't actually assess anything about him because there's not much in the canon other than everything stated above.

SO, in conclusion, I think Remus's character is the best developed, with a good balance of positive and negative traits that all make sense given his character. Peter has the most potential - he could easily be a tragic hero and add nuance to is character but alas. Sirius is a hit or a miss - teenage and OotP are awful, but not for the rest, and being imprisoned and abused sort of makes up for it. James is a mystery, but from what we can tell, he does change - however, we see none of him other than supposingly his worst.

(given the pros and cons of everything, James is my favourite bc everything that has been said about him sort of reminds me of myself, but Remus is the best written)

Remus and Sirius for sure (I chose Remus though).

I LOVE HOW PETER DOSENT HAVE A SINGLE VOTE 💀💀💀

Lupin is the only decent person out of all of these.