Perrin
Perrin is a tricky one. His story is really a single line of character development. The issues he has in his first PoVs in EotW & tGH are things on which he is still working to a degree in KoD. And maybe a bit in later books, but I have...issues...with their characterization, and thus tend to ignore all but the major beats of the character development.

Perrin starts out as the "good" one of the trio. His role is initially the contrast with Rand, the neutral or balanced protagonist, and Mat, the "bad" one. He is hardworking, dutiful and careful. He isn't constantly talking about gratification or balking at the "grown-ups" and for the reader in a book that is a little slow to get moving, carping or resisting the authority figures who are trying to make the boys have the adventure we expect, Mat's actually somewhat reasonable objections & Rand's hesitation, are a nuisance. And I think that comes with Perrin having already started down his intended life path, and having had years of discipline inculcated in him as a result of his natural size and strength (as well as being the eldest child in his family with many more resident adults than the others had; he had a lot of people ready to tell him off and restrain him from hurting his younger sibs). His profession has also been romanticized into the ideal of a dedicated work ethic, and he has had additional parent figures in the blacksmith & his wife, who stands out among the strong female authority figures of the Two Rivers, even to the point of ordering him to shave on the occasion of their reunion out of habit in spite of the profoundly inappropriate circumstance.

And that degree of obedience and deference beaten into Perrin at the outset of the story is good enough for the time and place where he was prior to Winternight. But it's not what the Pattern requires of him, and it's not what's going to be needed come Tarmon Gaidon, or even on the path there. Perrin is so obedient, that he has become passive and irresponsible in a different sort of way than Mat's more conventional form of the trait, in that he passively ignores responsibility, being content to take orders. It's probably not an accident that he's the one separated from the group's "grown-ups" after Shadar Logoth, while Rand & Mat have Thom to get them at least to the point where they just have walk down a straight road to Caemlyn. Alone in the wilderness, with only the company of a very dubious form of help, Perrin has to be at least minimally responsible for his fate, and actually stand up for himself against said company who is completely wrapped up in personal goals and indifferent to Perrin's concerns beyond mere survival (see for instance, the immediate reaction to Elyas' offer to shelter them from the Trollocs).

This sort of thing continues in Perrin's story, either finding himself under the authority of people who need to be challenged, or being presented with personal challenges and confrontations that prod him into making choices, rather than the path of least resistance. Later on, after he takes leadership, he still has to figure out how to grow into the role and is given the very accessible temptation of throwing it all off, with his wish to live a simple life in peace with Faile (while she was introduced relatively late among the love interests, she is the first one to become the major part of Perrin's life and they are married in the very next book - that would be like Rand or Nynaeve getting bonded/married/paternalized in tGH, or Egwene in tDRp; peace and contentment and conventional happiness are readily available to Perrin from the first third of the series, and he even has it for a time, between tGS & LoC).

Overall, the acceptance of responsibility and authority as the fulfilment of his duty (accepting & fulfilling duty are a big thing for all the WoT characters, but the shape of that duty differs for each one) are going to be a major theme in Perrin's best character moments of the series.

5 The journey to Tear, in tDR
As I've said before, tDR is the coming of age story for the three supporting Emond's Fielders, as each of Mat, Egwene & Perrin goes through a maturation process and accepts an aspect of adulthood. For Perrin it amounts to learning to stand up on his own. This is also the book where he learns of the possible dangers of being a wolfbrother, now that he has accepted it and moved past the denial phase, but at the end, he goes into the "Wolf Dream" and fights alongside Hopper, in a kind of prefigurement of his penultimate story arc, and role at Tarmon Gaidon.

And it's along the way to that point that Perrin begins to stand up for himself, first challenging Moiraine before they set out, and later treating her more and more as an equal; even barging in on her in her rooms. He talks to people without her permission, makes decisions without consulting her, such as freeing Gaul and even makes gestures of defiance, like refusing to mention to Moiraine everything he knows about their newest traveling companion. And the funny thing is, a lot of these are really stupid or petty things. Gaul was locked up for a damn good reason, and he totally deserved it. Walking in on Moiraine was rude, the Faile stuff was childish and a lot of what Perrin does is largely without consideration of the consequences, which is why he was so trained to passivity in the first place as a child. What's important though, is that he not only stands up for himself, he does it at a sort of zenith of Moiraine's competence, at point in the story when she and Lan are shown at their most capable and ruthless, as a set up for the next book in which she will largely be an adversarial figure to Rand. So just the fact that he's going against her is pretty impressive.

4 The Battle of Malden
While this plot alienated a lot of fans, especially with Perrin's mindset during the whole thing, and his refusal to acknowledge anything not at least tangentially related to freeing Faile, the execution was pretty good (on Perrin's part; RJ could have maybe tightened it up a bit).

Perrin was up against a considerable force of Aiel warriors, who, whatever their cultural congenital mental defects (see above re: Gaul's path from the Threefold Land to Tear, by way of Altara ), are really good at killing stuff and have hundreds of channelers not limited by Oath Rod nonsense. Against all of this, Perrin comes up with a pretty good plan, to both defeat the Shaido, nuetralize their channelers and have forces prepared to recover the prisoners. He prepares well enough that even with Galina's failure to pass along his warning to Faile, the rescue is still successful (and Galina's actions merely ensure that she & Rolan get what was coming to them).

The capability he demonstrated to his Seanchan co-belligerents could have been important to their willingness to deal with Rand later on, especially in light of the concurrent campaigns being fought by Mat & Ituralde. The knowledge of a higher quality of wetlander leadership ahead as well as the military defeats provide practical reasons to negotiate for the time being, rather than expecting the Ever Victorious Army to keep living up to its name. More significantly for Perrin, he seriously impressed Tylee & company. The Seanchan military personnel are professional soldiers, who are accustomed to measuring things by standards and workman-like qualities, rather than the brilliant tactics or weapon-craft that can be found in even amateurs. Perrin might be an amateur, but his approach is not unlike that of the Seanchan, and despite their knowing of his desperation to rescue his wife, it did not come through with his thorough and detailed approach to the rescue plan. the two prior books established the Seanchan as a benchmark of competence, admittedly in other arcs than Perrin's, but that just makes the respect shown growing in Tylee more of a win for Perrin, as is her promotion at the end, indicating that she's representative of their leadership, not a ta'veren-swayed outlier.

3 Accepting Alliandre's oath
This one is a bit off, because plainly it was a high-powered ta'veren moment, and there was a lot of stuff happening on the two days Perrin arrived at her location, between meeting Morgase's party, clashing with Maseema's people, reuniting with Elyas, meeting with the Wise Ones and ultimately, of course, the encounter with the Queen of Ghealdan. But while her swearing fealty had a lot to do with a situation not of Perrin's making, his association with Rand and her own assumptions about his intentions and actions, blended to optimal results with ta'veren-tuggings, and some detail work by Faile, it was Perrin's choices and the actual intentions motivating him that caused her to do as she did. For all his political ineptitude, he saw a woman who was afraid, and did his best to reassure her. Betweeen that and his trust of his wife, he managed to say just enough for a politician to hear innuendo and implicit threats of realpolitick, and then bow out so the professionals can settle the details.

At a point where Perrin is about to pay dearly for his previous leadership mistakes, and have to embrace his role with little to no margin for error, it is sort of pleasant to see acting on his instincts and better nature serve him well in that role one last time.

2 The battles at Emond’s Field
The culmination of another stage in his growth as a leader, the victory was not due to his heroism or military accumen, but rather a joint effort. As Perrin notes in his first days as the consensus leader of the village, the people of Emond's Field know what needs to be done, and take it upon themselves. His role is to be a symbol and maybe an arbitrator among the different courses of action, and he accepts that role with a lot better grace than he does at other times, probably because of the urgency of the Trolloc situation. And while Faile brought half the reinforcements, and by her own admission, had little to do with it herself, it is almost certainly the legend of Lord Perrin Goldeneyes that inspired them to act in concert.

And finally, there is his willingness to surrender to the Children of the Light in exchange for their help in the final battle. His offer is the ultimate duty of a leader and a lord, and might very well have played a role in the rehabilitation of Dain Bornhald (though that might have merely been getting away from "Ordeith" and other bad influences like Valda).

Also, it was a really cool scene.

Honorable Mention Wounding Isam in Tel'Aran'Rhiod
This was notable as a foreshadowing of their climactic duel in aMoL, as well as evidence of how effective Perrin can be when he stops whining and gets down to business. He had to figure out on the fly how to use the properties of Tel'Aran'Rhiod, in a deadly combat situation, as well as read and anticipate his opponent, an elite and skilled assassin of the Shadow, who appears to rank only a short step below the Forsaken.

1 Dumai’s Wells
Dumai's Wells is, of course, one of the favorite moments of the series for many readers, not least because of the low reputation of the subsequent books, but also as one of those moments that are immensely gratifying to fans who are invested in the successful characters, and satisfying for the way it earned the triumph by a lot of groundwork establishing the stakes and setting up the means by which everything was accomplished. And of all the people involved in that event, Perrin is the (important) one whose success was personal. Lots of other people did what he did, of course, but in large part, their contributions served as the measure of how poorly existing institutions are suited for the shakeup of the Dragon Reborn and the Last Battle. The armies of the nations are hampered by domestic politics, the Aiel are limited by their superstitions and inability to deal with reality and the shattering of their illusions and are forced to rely on fanatics on whom they normally look askance. The Aes Sedai are part of the whole problem, and the Shaido threat that emerges is largely due to the institutional failure of the Aiel leadership to date. Dobraine and Rhuarc and Amys and Sorilea do their best, but their best is a fragment of what they should be able to bring to bear. It's Perrin who brings them all together, and Perrin whose men have resolutely followed across two countries in order to be there for him, with no hesitation about facing Aes Sedai, despite their feelings on the matter.

It is later revealed via Min that Perrin's role at Dumai's Wells was critical to Rand's success. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, because his military contribution was not decisive, nor was the coalition of Rand's followers. The critical, and arguably, only necessary blow was struck by the Asha'man, whose arrival had little or nothing to do with Perrin. On the other hand, that arrival was extremely fortuitous, and with ta'veren present, that's the go-to explanation. Two ta'veren in the same place, with the same intention (help Rand escape), probably was the tipping point to ensuring their timely intervention.

And more than just Perrin's choice to come after Rand, was his presence among the rescuers. Without Perrin, Loial would not have been in the encampment and there would have been no one with outside knowledge of the fight arguing against Taim's recommendation for an expeditious departure. Rand really only needs an excuse to tell Taim to piss up a rope in any given situation, but the certain knowledge that his adherents and even friends were out in the battle gave shape to how Rand went about it and influenced his choices, such as raising his banner to let them know he held the encampment, the objective was achieved and they could press forward or pull back as practicable for their own safety. With Perrin's & Loial's eyes on him, Rand also probably felt more of a moral obligation than if he was trying to play the hardass for Taim and the Asha'man.

The consequences of following Taim's counsel could have been catastrophic for Rand's cause, especially if he left the Wise Ones, Rhuarc & Dobraine to die, and he'd have taken the Maidens he abandoned possibly as hard as Moiraine. The aforementioned leaders were the Aiel who were closest to Rand and most supportive, and Dobraine was at that point his most significant & trustworthy wetlander loyalist. If Perrin doesn't go to Dumai's Wells, or if he sits back on a hill trying to observe or chill with the Aes Sedai, Rand might very well have gone along with Taim and retreated to a hostile reception in Cairhien or Caemlyn or maybe the Black Tower itself, with who knows what disaster resulting from either. It seems improbable, but we have the closest thing to a Watsonian Voice of God in WoT telling us that Rand would have met failure or defeat at Dumai's Wells without Perrin being there. And Perrin showed up, even though it meant leading his friends from home and his wolf buddies into a suicidal assault against over five times their numbers of Aiel.

Worst moment Suicide by Whitecloak
Perrin's worst moment, aside from a string of minor blunders or well-intentioned crimes (like murdering the Children of the Light who defended themselves against Hopper, or freeing Gaul from his cage to murder still more Children) was his decision to drag Loial through the Ways yet again in order to surrender himself to the Children of the Light. Perrin's inclinations against fighting and his guilt over his prior encounters with the Children are pushing him to the path of least resistance, which is pretty stupid, since there is no guarantee they would leave the rest of the Two Rivers alone. Even consumating a personal vendetta against Perrin is probably not going to dissuade them from their course of action against the Dragon Reborn, whom he knows they are seeking, but Perrin's in a crappy headspace at that point, with his determination to passive-aggressively end his relationship with Faile by procuring a diversion.

The greatest condemnation of the practical grounds of Perrin's decision is in the fate of his family. Whereas Tam & with his help, Abell were able managed to escape captivity, the Aybarras fell into the hands of "Ordeith" and his followers, and all of them died. Thus when he arrived, Perrin had no one for whom to sacrifice himself, Faile was shocked into adult behavior by recognition of the stakes, and the birth of Lord Perrin was set in motion. There was little reason to massacre the Aybarras. Bornhald & Byar had personal reasons for wanting them captive more than the other two families, and Tam would have been the especial target of Fain's ire, Fain himself plausibly recollects the incident as a spur of the moment overreaction to an insult. Although he isn't truly responsible for their deaths, had Perrin come with something else in mind, it is possible his family might merely have been in a camp or hiding out like his friends' who adhered better to what the Pattern had in mind for them. Mat consulted the Aelfinn about going home and was warned of the lethal consequences of not fulfilling his destiny. Perrin's intention on leaving the Stone was to punch out early from meeting his own destiny, and sure enough, death was the result.