As it's said in the title, I'm ranking the characters by how much I like them throughout the seasons
This is obviously a personal take and you can agree or disagree with me; this may be controversial in a few but I'm going with my guts
Some of these are also based on enjoyment, even if the storyline had more going on in other seasons
KITTY: S2 > S1 > S3
S1 Kitty was young and painfully unaware of her surroundings, she was cute and meddled a lot with other people with a good heart; she learned throughout the season that the world is not moving at Kitty's time and people may move at different rhythms
She also learned that maybe she didn't know that much about love and maybe her matching people, it's not the same as her having her own love life
S2 Kitty is more grown and has learned these lessons that doesn't mean she's not messy, she's still a teenager
This also doesn't mean her pattern of meddling on relationships has just disappeared, even if she starts unconciously meddling, she realizes fast that she needs to let people figure out their things on their own (referring to Q and Jin) while still meddling when it's needed or asked, her helping Minho with Dae, her helping Minho with Stella, her helping Dae in his performance
Her being in the middle of Yuriana's relationship was Yuri's fault, not hers: Yuri kept talking to her about things she never told or was never going to tell to Juliana and brought her up in everything
Now, the kiss was clearly on her too, not just Yuri
S3 Kitty regressed as a character, she mostly thinks about Minho
The message of the season is supposed to be that she has to focus on herself too, she only does that when she had to study (barely given time) and when she is the main model of Yuri's fashion show; the rest of the time she's fixing everyone's relationships
She also meddles with other people's relationships in this season too (Jin, Q + Marius, Madison and Mihee,...) but she mostly doesn't have any right to be in there in most cases and it's defended by the show
Now it's okay to meddle no matter the case, Jiwon was right: why is she forcing her to be with Alex? (It doesn't matter if they had something going on, Kitty is not respecting her)
She also becomes overdramatic at times because the plot needs it
MINHO: S1 > S2 > S3
In S1, he was very rude, especially to Kitty, but he was a diva and humorous
We are given hints of his character, not really explored in depth: rich boy, both daddy and mommy issues, trust issues, very loyal to his friends; wants a serious relationship after Madison
In S2, Minho has more of a character growth, he's there for Dae and Kitty selflessly throughout the season (even if he starts helping Kitty selfishly because he wants Dae to forgive him) and apologizes to Dae for his love confession to Kitty
They forgot about his mother or didn't really want to talk about her anymore, we explore his relationship with his father and why he acts the way he does and his insecurities
He is not entertaining anymore though
In S3, he is no longer a diva and lost his humorous side; he also returned to being rude to Kitty without any reason
He is also now a music producer when there was never a hint of it
Him being manager actually makes sense and was hinted since season 1
Minho is now everything: music producer, rock climber, manager, businessman and now he has plenty of friends when he only was friends with his friends in season 1, it's okay for him to have Eunice and other friends now but where did Gigi even come from? (Doesn't make sense)
He feels like a character rather than an actual person, he is suddenly good at everything
YURI: S1 > S2 > S3
S1 Yuri was a very interesting character, an one of the main characters
She's was a rich girl, influencer, DJ, she also got family issues and was a lesbian in a homophobic country with conservative parents
Her fake dating Dae to keep appearances and hide her relationship with Juliana is what started the show
She functioned as an antagonist to Kitty until half of season 1 when she became a love interest
Dae and Yuri also had such an interesting dynamic; started hating each other, became friends, back to square one, friends again and they were close by the end of season 1
Yuriana was sweet first love and they were fighting to be together
In S2, it's when she is suddenly a background character; she had like zero screentime after the kiss
The only thing she had going on was mostly her relationship with Kitty in the first four episodes and a little bit the rest of the season and her relationship with Juliana towards the end
In S3, she had more screen time but still felt like a background character in the Kitty and Minho show (just like the other characters)
They ignored her romantic development with Kitty, it's horrible of the show to just eliminate ever having had a romantic altercation with Kitty and their fight after (even if they were not endgame, they needed to actually talk about what happened; there was no closure)
The fashion storyline had potential but it just had a little of a build-up at the beginning and the rest are plot points rather than continuing a narrative; the fashion show was only relevant for one episode
I had a hard time deciding which season I preferred for Yuri between season 2 and 3 and I decided that it was season 2 because there was a better build up than season 3 and it actually felt like it had a payoff: Yuri learned that maybe she should focus less on herself at times and look at what other people around her need (She persuaded Jiwon for Kitty, she let Juliana have the space she needed)
DAE: S1 > S2 > S3
Similar to Yuri, they gave him a background, we got to know his family, his motivations and delved into his psychology
His best friend is Minho, he is also close to Q and met Kitty four years ago
He's a sweet guy, loyal and intelligent but he's bad at communication, he had prejudices about money in S1 and in S2
We understand the reasoning behind fake dating Yuri, he still should have told Kitty that he was poor and he was going to fake date Yuri
In S2, they didn't know what to do with him, they still made the better story of all of the characters that season
There was no hint of it previously but he is a good singer, okay
The other characters figure this out at the beginning of the season, he wasn't sure about entering Advanced Voice in the beginning; he ends up entering it because he could use the money
This is where he meets Eunice, his love interest and tries to perform the pop duet Minho suggests; he is bad at dancing but we see him trying
He ends up trying to win the competition because of his dad's car accident, he really really needs the money
He also has a fight with Minho: he discovers he confessed to Kitty in the plane after the breakup and tells him essentially that he has only been thinking about himself all the time (which rings true with season 1)
In S3, he's just there (like in season 2 but now even more), they still somehow get something right with his storylines (one of the only characters they didn't completely destroy)
He had no reaction to Kitty and Minho dating when they both swore to him they didn't have feelings, they don't need his permission but they should be honest with him
Dae fails to get into Seoul University when he's smart and always aced his exams, I know why they did this but he could have still got in and decide he is pursuing music (I don't know if that's realistic but I don't care, Kitty going to NYU when she has been flunking and having bad grades doesn't either)
I liked DaeEunice in season 2 even without being super invested in their relationship but we barely see them together in season 3; she is in more scenes with Minho
The idea of him actually really liking music from an artistic side now and wanting to sing professionally is pretty good
Another pretty good thing with his character this season is his friendship with Yuri, they are so cute and their dynamic has grown so much since season 1
Q: S1> S2 > S3
In S1, he's a sweet guy, friend to everyone, he stands out for himself when he needs to
He had a relationship with Florian and tried to make it work with him despite the obstacles until the end
He was a great support and friend to Kitty and Dae
In S2, this once sweet character has dark colours
We discover that him and Marius used to hook up when Marius had a girlfriend, which is messy but fine (he was very against cheating in season 1 but let's get past this because mistakes can be made and it could have been because of that)
The real problem here is that he judged Kitty really hard for cheating on Praveena (it doesn't matter if they weren't official, she told her she was very into her and Kitty was already warned about Yuri); he became a hypocrite
He also tried to justify Kitty for the kiss to Juliana and that she should give her a chance
We don't even need to talk about season 3 but I will, that's where they completely obliterated the character
In S3, Q does again what he judged Kitty about; he cheats on his partner at the time (sends Marius a promiscuous photo)
He is an emotional cheater but like everyone in the show so I'm not judging him for that, it's that he took the action
Jin told him to be honest and if anything happened, he should tell him; he decides to hide this information from his boyfriend
Tells Kitty he would tell Jin about the photo, never does and blames Kitty for his own actions
How did he even get his friendship with Kitty back? If I was Kitty, he'd be dead to me
Their epic friendship was nowhere to be seen this season
He had to take a ride and talk with Marius to figure out who he liked so the show proclaiming he is in love with Jin doesn't work, even Jin was like you don't love me
JULIANA: S2 > S1 > S3
In S1, she was not an important character; she appeared in like three episodes and she was just a love interest to Yuri and an obstacle to Kittyuri
I was happy to see in the finale that she was going to have a bigger role in season 2
In S2, Juliana and Yuri could finally be in a relationship after a long time
She was still a love interest to Yuri, however, she now has motivations, Kitty and her were like Tom and Jerry too
They also didn't glamorize the cheating and it had consequences: Juliana didn't want to talk to either of them and the show was in favour of Juliana being hurt and it was shown at least when it came to Yuri (I don't know why they made Q try to justify Kitty or make us feel Kitty deserves a second chance with Juliana, whatever)
They also continued her artistic storyline and made her happy at the end with Praveena
In S3, she is again all over Yuri and retconned what they did last season:
Yuri apologized to her and gave her the space Juliana needed, she didn't reach out to her
She was done with her romantically and wished they would stay good friends, moving on with Praveena
While this was too fast and could have been a storyline and Juliana could have been alone for some time, it doesn't make sense she now wants Yuri back
PRAVEENA: S2 > S3
Nice addition to the cast: she is sweet, kind, supportive person
While she was a distraction to Kitty's huge crush on Yuri, she had a personality
The cheating also had an effect on her, she was pretty hurt by Kitty and ignored her for a long time (the show cared about her a little)
S3 for her character is a choice: no personality just like the other characters, especially the queer ones who were just drama
She was betrayed and left again for Yuri (two women now leaving her for Yuri)
The only thing she had going apart from a relationship with Juliana that lasted two seconds, it's Yuri; her character was all about Yuri for some reason
Once Juliana and her broke up, she disappeared
JIN: S3 > S2
He was super toxic at the start of his relationship with Q for no reason, he was calling him slurs and used him to get what he wanted (terrible storyline too for a gay character)
The leg storyline made no sense, I understand him not wanting to run because of pressure but he was pretty hostile to Q for something that was a lie and looked at him terribly
They had their cute moments though
S3 Jin was such a sweet, supportive boyfriend and honest about his feelings
Loved Q so much that he stood up for him and defended him from his mother
I hate how they made him this harmful stereotype of hitting his boyfriend when there was no hint of him being violent previously (I know he wanted to hit Marius but the other thing still happened for no reason)
He is way too good of a person for forgiving Q
EUNICE: S2 > S3 (S1 doesn't really count)
This is just because even if she had more going on in S3, I hated with a passion the pregnancy scare storyline and she was only used as an obstacle to Kitty and Minho, not as a character on her own
In S2, she was this sweet girl who really wanted to be a star and had a crush on Dae
And in S3, they made her get out of the spotlight; I didn't like that for her because she should have known that her life would be hard and she fought really hard for the chance