: The death could have been a bit more satisfying, if it hadn't been literally
: the first level. If they had maybe sent Osiris in to retrieve Halsey's
: original mission, fighting through light resistance as an introductory
: level, before launching their attack on Kamchatka.

: I do get that you have
: to kill off Jul so Osiris can come across as major players in the Halo
: universe,

No, you don't. I realize that 343i has been desperate to prop up their new characters, especially since the previous attempts to make Locke look like a badass have fallen flat on their face, but throwing away Jul was the wrong way to do it. He's a smart guy. He's run rings around Lasky and Palmer and... OK, so he's been a clever villain in need of a decent protagonist, and he has come a long way from that prisoner-of-war who wanted to exterminate every last Human.

By the time Osiris burst in on his hideout, Jul had to know that he was in trouble. The Prometheans have turned on him, he's got dissenters in his ranks, and just maybe one of the Covenant announced Osiris's presence over the battlenet before they were killed.

Jul should have had an exit plan ready to go when Osiris busted in. The thrust of Osiris's success should have been "Jul escaped, but we overcame the trap laid for us and managed to steal Halsey from him", not "We killed an Elite that was completely unprepared for us, after we killed several dozen that were."

: but honestly, he's been the most interesting villain the Halo
: universe has had since Ackerson, and he deserved a better sendoff.

He's the only good villain from 343i's stables.