Most Important Aspect of a Story

I think both plot and characters have to go hand-in-hand, and that's what I feel like is the most important aspect. I mean, I've read stories that have awesome characters with a lackluster plot or an intriguing plot and flat characters, and sometimes that works, but I feel like, as a reader, if a story has really strong characters but they're thrown in a situation that I have no interest in reading about, I'm not gonna care about the story. Vice versa, if a story has an intriguing plot but I'm not invested in the characters, I'm not gonna care about the story in that case either.

So yeah, I think that interplay is the most important part.

I actually think plot is the most important aspect. If a story had interesting or well thought out characters, I can't read it if there's not a good plot that's happening with them, whereas I can still read a story with poor character as long as there's a good plot.