: I don't mind the quick transition from the great Covenant empire destroying
: humanity to a big mess of crazies here and there. To me, it makes sense as
: it really points to the prophets being in complete control of the Covenant
: for so long that now that they've been dethroned, everyone is in utter
: choas. The unggoy are semi-naive and stupid and the kig-yar species went
: immediately back to their pirating/gun-for-hire ways.

: The elites on the other hand, possibly the most obvious 'threat' to humanity'
: from the Covenant, are trying to find themselves after being the
: intelligent, lethal arm of the Covenant/prophets for so long...not to
: mention first being usurped by the brutes in leadership roles by the
: prophets, realizing their trusted leaders lied to them all along, teaming
: up with humanity who very recently was their enemy and an affront to their
: religious deities and then being out on their own again as a species after
: being in the Covenant for thousands of years or MANY generations of
: sangheili. Add in the human subversion of the sangheili civil war all in
: the matter of a few years, and it would be pretty good reason for such a
: quick (and for most part easy) transition within the confused confines of
: the Halo universe.

: As for Palmer, did you all not feel that the Epilogue cutscene for SpOps
: season 1 painted her in a bad light after her "argument" with
: Lasky? I feel Lasky has been the consistent one to be a human hero since
: 343I took over. His desire to not kill Halsey appeals to our general love
: of human life as civilized humans, and Palmer's by-the-books, 'I always
: follow orders no matter what' is generally seen as robotic or even evil by
: the majority of civilized humans I'd say. I felt that put her as more of a
: bad guy than the 'new Cortana' or hero as most people seem to think.

: Just some thoughts...I really wish we could all sit down at a coffee shop and
: talk Halo universe sometime. I don't have the patience to type out
: everything I want to. These explanations and thoughts are always much
: better in my head. :)

: - MacGyver10

I think a lot of the Elites soul searching stuff is valid, however they aren't just coming off the shock of prophets betrayal, all of Halo 3 and the end of Halo 2 they were cast down by the covenant. All that time they had to transition or die by the hands of the Brutes. Sure, it was an easy sell to join humanity in that case, but the Arbiter should've also been able to smooth that process, at least for some. Definitely doesn't solve it, but it wouldn't be complete confusion.

As for Palmer, she's mildly likeable in Campaign. She's actually witty and admires the Chief, nice qualities, likeable qualities. In SpOps, she kills it. They write her as a blanket military supremacist. She is the perfect Spartan IV in ONI's eyes. And that may lead to a whole new war, or the subjugation of every non-human species.