: I think this hits the nail on the head. Palmer comes across as the result of
: the writer trying too hard to create a "strong female character"
: instead of focusing on creating a good character. The "you're just a
: mean sexist" defense is probably true for a marginal minority of
: people complaining about her: after all, most of those who seem to have a
: problem with Palmer also tend to be among those defending Halsey from the
: post-Nylund authorial smear campaign that's been going on -- and I can
: pretty safely say Halsey is, in addition to being perhaps the strongest
: (or at least most complex) character in Halo, at the very least the
: strongest female character.

: The core issue with Palmer really is that the way she's marketed doesn't
: match with her portrayal. We're told she's a great leader but when we see
: her leadership in practice she comes across as the kind of person who
: should never be put in charge of anyone. Now granted, we have since
: Spartan Ops heard and seen that she's a good foot soldier, a good grunt ,
: but this doesn't automatically mean she's fit to have responsibility over
: the lives and deaths of hundreds of people. And the Initiation comic only
: made this worse by establishing she never was an officer in the first
: place but is instead an over-promoted corporal.

: Adding to that, her other abrasive traits don't help either - her toxic
: attitude, unprofessionalism, immaturity and her baffling anti-scientist
: slant (you can interpret her "eggheads" verbal tic as harmless
: banter, but Initiation clarified people smarter/more educated than her
: actually make her uncomfortable -- and this is portrayed as a sympathetic
: trait ).

The thing is, any other portrayal of Palmer going forward would make no sense. Yes, it would "fix" the character, but then the character wouldn't be acting true to themselves based on what was shown. The concept of there being "no bad characters, just bad writing" doesn't hold up once the bad writing has created a deeply flawed and toxic character. This character most likely can't be redeemed at this point in a believable way based on all actions and things viewed. It'd almost be easier at this point to write her out, or basically never have her show up again. Not saying they have to kill her (though I'd love it if they did), but maybe just make her conveniently never show up again.