I think that Chyler would have been better in Sarah Palmer's role because she had a modicum of backstory to justify her brash, gung-ho attitude. Palmer's a blank slate. Chyler was a supranationalist who detested the organizations that opposed the UNSC, an opinion that would have been calcified by the Covenant's relentless assault.

Then there's the dichotomy between the lessons Lasky and Sylva would have learned from Corbulo Academy. Lasky saw the Chief as a hero, and learned that there are forces worth fighting (or whatever his character development was supposed to be about). Sylva, if she survived, might have seen the Spartans as soldiers who could stand up to the Covenant. And as she served during the War, troops under her command would have been slaughtered again and again because the Covenant have the weight of numbers and technology on their side, and there's not enough Spartans to shift the balance.

So, thoughts? Would Sylva have been a better character than Palmer in Halo 4 and the comic series?