After replaying Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians (and reading some of the various media supplying those games) for Halo Infinite, one thing that was a real shame is the post-Bungie Halo games failed on adding more solid, well written characters. The Didact in Halo 4 was a big ol' bowling pin for the Master Chief to knock down, returning characters Buck, Kelly, Vale, Linda and Tanaka were done so dirty in Halo 5, & Fireteam Majestic's comic appearances (post-Spartan Ops) are partially a reaction to the Spartan IV's = Frat Boys complaints. In the case for Palmer in Halo 4, she was just... fine.
I feel to be the outlier on this, but I had no issue with Commander Palmer. Yes, she suffered from 'Writer's Pet Character' syndrome, where 343 Industries aggressively pushed her in the likes of Spartan Assault, Initiation, and Escalation that turned fan's already tepid opinion of her into "Please stop shoving this character down my throat." But I never had any issue with her being this assertive, competent commander with shade of brashness. I get it, there are legitimate reasons not to care for Palmer, like her atrocious trigger discipline, her out of nowhere anti-intellectualism, or her willingness to uncritically swallow the party (ONI) line - though the last is just an extension of her lack of introspection, which is an actual character flaw and 343i did address it in Escalation, where she's portrayed as somewhat of a sociopath. Most of her detractors ignore these, and many of those who don't still open with "I tHoUgHt YoU'd Be TaLlEr." or "Egghead, this! Egghead, that!"
Of course, rather than building on her positive and negative character traits, Palmer becomes a piece of set-dressing with no real character to speak of during Halo 5's campaign. I'm hoping that Halo Infinite can touch her up in terms of character development and whatnot, as Jennifer Hale did confirmed that she would be reprising her role in that game.
What about you guys? Convert me into a digital intelligence if old.
