I just played through Halo 5’s campaign for the first time, and I actually like Sarah Palmer (despite her having a fairly small role). I think it’s cool how she saved Halsey and herself from what could’ve been either a horrible death or abandonment at sea. I remember hating her in Halo 4’s Spartan Ops, but it’s been so long since then that I feel like I’m able to look past any flaws she had during those missions.
So anyway, I’ve been told that Jennifer Hale, Commander Shep–I mean Commander Palmer herself, confirmed awhile back that she’ll be returning for Halo Infinite. Despite the Infinity presumably being destroyed, I’m guessing she survived the wreckage. How should her character be handled this time around? I did some looking around, and it seems like people still really aren’t fond of her. Taking that into account, I assume most of the replies to this post are going to be “kill her”—but hopefully there’s some serious ones too!
Ok, so, I’m not “fond” of Palmer but her character needs more development. I’d like to see her return in Infinite, but as a side role. Like maybe you see her in a few battles on Zeta Halo. I dunno, I want her to return, but to have a minor role.
As humanity establishes a stronghold on the Halo ring, I could see her in command of fireteam operations such as supply runs, scouting missions, and salvage operations.
I hope what happened to Miranda Keyes and Sgt. Johnson in Halo 3 happens to Lasky and Palmer in some way.
Because they both have been in Halo 4 and 5.
I think it would make them more memorable and respected characters if something bad happens.
I really have no clue why some people like the character since I don’t feel like she has any interesting qualities except her character seems to be made just so the player can find a character to dislike.
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> I really have no clue why some people like the character since I don’t feel like she has any interesting qualities except her character seems to be made just so the player can find a character to dislike.
I’m pretty sure she was made to be the new Johnson. Hence the wise cracking, laid back attitude. The problem is it just wasn’t executed well.
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> > 2533274829873463;5:
> > I really have no clue why some people like the character since I don’t feel like she has any interesting qualities except her character seems to be made just so the player can find a character to dislike.
>
> I’m pretty sure she was made to be the new Johnson. Hence the wise cracking, laid back attitude. The problem is it just wasn’t executed well.
I feel like it had the opposite effect. Nothing she’s ever said has ever been funny and generally I found her to be condescending towards everyone with poor charisma plus I don’t recall Johnson ever having a bad attitude towards anyone since he liked making light of things and actually felt like he was trying to build up moral while Palmer does the opposite.
> 2535411993815954;1:
> I just played through Halo 5’s campaign for the first time, and I actually like Sarah Palmer (despite her having a fairly small role). I think it’s cool how she saved Halsey and herself from what could’ve been either a horrible death or abandonment at sea. I remember hating her in Halo 4’s Spartan Ops, but it’s been so long since then that I feel like I’m able to look past any flaws she had during those missions.
>
> So anyway, I’ve been told that Jennifer Hale, Commander Shep–I mean Commander Palmer herself, confirmed awhile back that she’ll be returning for Halo Infinite. Despite the Infinity presumably being destroyed, I’m guessing she survived the wreckage. How should her character be handled this time around? I did some looking around, and it seems like people still really aren’t fond of her. Taking that into account, I assume most of the replies to this post are going to be “kill her”—but hopefully there’s some serious ones too!
I feel like she doesn’t have any use in the story at all. But because you say that she’ll be returning for Infinite then I guess her role could be helping Chief set up a base for wounded and for coming up for tactics to take out the banished (probably Cortana too). I really hope it isn’t anything more cause I don’t want her role in Halo Infinite to be big, 343i made her into a small, annoying and hated character, I say we let her be a small character which isn’t dumb and then I might be able to come over her snarky comments and just the way she is.
Palmer is a lot more likable in Halo 5, which wasn’t a high bar to surpass. She pales greatly in comparison imo to some like Lasky, who was a great addition to Halo 4. Palmer is just really hard to like . I would like to hear more on Lasky and have him and Chief work together in Infinite.
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> I really have no clue why some people like the character since I don’t feel like she has any interesting qualities except her character seems to be made just so the player can find a character to dislike.
That’s how I felt about her way back when Halo 4/Spartan Ops came out. It’s been too long for me to remember exactly what she would say, but the writing was just awful.
I like her a lot better in Halo 5 because she’s not as excessive. A little cocky? Sure, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’d be lying if I said that part where she bickered with Arbiter didn’t make me smirk. And, like I mentioned in the original post, saving Halsey from certain death was pretty impressive—even if it was offscreen. Those injuries and her battered armor at the end said a lot about the hell she’d probably gone through getting back to the Arbiter. Couple that with the fact that she despised Halsey in Halo 4, and it shows how much she’s grown as a character.
> 2535411993815954;10:
> > 2533274829873463;5:
> > I really have no clue why some people like the character since I don’t feel like she has any interesting qualities except her character seems to be made just so the player can find a character to dislike.
>
> That’s how I felt about her way back when Halo 4/Spartan Ops came out. It’s been too long for me to remember exactly what she would say, but the writing was just awful.
>
> I like her a lot better in Halo 5 because she’s not as excessive. A little cocky? Sure, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’d be lying if I said that part where she bickered with Arbiter didn’t make me smirk. And, like I mentioned in the original post, saving Halsey from certain death was pretty impressive—even if it was offscreen. Those injuries and her battered armor at the end said a lot about the hell she’d probably gone through getting back to the Arbiter. Couple that with the fact that she despised Halsey in Halo 4, and it shows how much she’s grown as a character.
Not sure about that development…it kind of felt like in Halo 5 like at some point like she was told off and then just kept to herself. I still have no clue how she got to be in charge since I don’t think she does anything for moral. Heck I’m surprised they didn’t try to make someone like Linda in charge yet.
> 2533274829873463;5:
> I really have no clue why some people like the character since I don’t feel like she has any interesting qualities except her character seems to be made just so the player can find a character to dislike.
I like her because of her rough around the edges personality. She doesn’t sugarcoat things, she’s very pigheaded about what she thinks, but given enough knocks she’s shown a willingness to be humbled (see after the Absolute Record arc in Escalation). And she’s loyal to Lasky even in the face of someone like Admiral Osman. I’d say that even exists to those under her command even if her attitude seems rude (but then again it is the military).
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> As humanity establishes a stronghold on the Halo ring, I could see her in command of fireteam operations such as supply runs, scouting missions, and salvage operations.
now i imagine her being as annoying as Preston garvey
“Hey Chief I’ve got word that a bunch of marines need our help”
I’d be unaffected either way. I found her to be an annoyance in Halo 4 and nonexistent in Halo 5 but I suppose they already have the character might as well use her.
When you really think about it, barely any of the Halo characters that matter have any “development”. Miranda Keys spent more than half of Halo 2 on a ship and grabs a key, and all of Halo 3 on a ship and dies conflicted. Johnson spends most of his time flaming the Covenant and we’re barely in missions with him as well… not to mention, he isn’t supposed to alive after Halo CE…
No matter Palmer’s character, she doesn’t need to have some development. Frankly, none of the side chracters had any anyways. People dislike her because of the first thing she said to Chief, thats all. In my opinion, when she neglect orders to arrest Chief, id say I justify her first approach. But nothing of her character really is bad, she is just serious.
If they don’t write her off, they need to keep her as a background character like they did in Halo 5. She was so annoying in Halo 4 and the Escalation comics. I bought the announcer pack in Halo 5 just so I didn’t have to hear her while I played Warzone. If she returns in Infinite, I hope it’s in a flashback where the Banished took her out during their battle against the UNSC on Installation 07.
I hope she gets fired, her morals are very questionable, and super reckless, and quite dumb and egocentric. the fact that she is in such a position is weird. And how they constantly try to portray her as the greatest person in the world is weird, why does Lasky like this person?
She has to be/mentioned in Infinite at least but I hope she isn’t a central character.
> 2535419166122192;15:
> When you really think about it, barely any of the Halo characters that matter have any “development”. Miranda Keys spent more than half of Halo 2 on a ship and grabs a key, and all of Halo 3 on a ship and dies conflicted. Johnson spends most of his time flaming the Covenant and we’re barely in missions with him as well… not to mention, he isn’t supposed to alive after Halo CE…
>
> No matter Palmer’s character, she doesn’t need to have some development. Frankly, none of the side chracters had any anyways. People dislike her because of the first thing she said to Chief, thats all. In my opinion, when she neglect orders to arrest Chief, id say I justify her first approach. But nothing of her character really is bad, she is just serious.
That’s honestly a really good point. I still think it’s interesting how she went from calling Halsey a war criminal and shooting her to being someone who’d put her life on the line for her, but there wasn’t much development to explain how that happened.
> 2533274947805189;17:
> I hope she gets fired, her morals are very questionable, and super reckless, and quite dumb and egocentric. the fact that she is in such a position is weird. And how they constantly try to portray her as the greatest person in the world is weird, why does Lasky like this person?
> She has to be/mentioned in Infinite at least but I hope she isn’t a central character.
She’s an effective side character in Halo 5, but they never boost her up as being the greatest person in the game. I don’t remember Halo 4 well enough to know much about what she does that’s reckless morally questionable, save for listening to ONI rather than Lasky and shooting Halsey in the arm.
> 2535411993815954;18:
> > 2535419166122192;15:
> > When you really think about it, barely any of the Halo characters that matter have any “development”. Miranda Keys spent more than half of Halo 2 on a ship and grabs a key, and all of Halo 3 on a ship and dies conflicted. Johnson spends most of his time flaming the Covenant and we’re barely in missions with him as well… not to mention, he isn’t supposed to alive after Halo CE…
> >
> > No matter Palmer’s character, she doesn’t need to have some development. Frankly, none of the side chracters had any anyways. People dislike her because of the first thing she said to Chief, thats all. In my opinion, when she neglect orders to arrest Chief, id say I justify her first approach. But nothing of her character really is bad, she is just serious.
>
> That’s honestly a really good point. I still think it’s interesting how she went from calling Halsey a war criminal and shooting her to being someone who’d put her life on the line for her, but there wasn’t much development to explain how that happened.
>
>
> > 2533274947805189;17:
> > I hope she gets fired, her morals are very questionable, and super reckless, and quite dumb and egocentric. the fact that she is in such a position is weird. And how they constantly try to portray her as the greatest person in the world is weird, why does Lasky like this person?
> > She has to be/mentioned in Infinite at least but I hope she isn’t a central character.
>
> She’s an effective side character in Halo 5, but they never boost her up as being the greatest person in the game. I don’t remember Halo 4 well enough to know much about what she does that’s reckless morally questionable, save for listening to ONI rather than Lasky and shooting Halsey in the arm.
It’s just the general image i’ve gotten from games, books and comics combined. A bit of a poorly written character imo. Didn’t mind her in Halo 4’s campaign, I actually kinda liked her at first, But the more they showed of her the more I though that she was just a bad person. I didn’t like the respect she got for that.
You know a lot of people speculate that the Infinity is destroyed because of that part where Chief and Brohammer Pilot dude (have we even learned his name yet? I forget if it was mentioned) were looking over a holographic localized grid of active units and saw a bunch of Infinity with symbols meaning destroyed. But that’s just it; why were there many blips listed as Infinity? If it was the ship, would it not just say one Infinity? I think that was the Infinity’s company of ships and units that may have been deployed, which would make sense because they would all be tagged as Infinity crew. So until I see the ship blasted into smithereens or see it just idly floating, I can’t believe it’s destroyed (unless there’s a clip I missed showing it actually destroyed.)
Tagging this next bit as spoiler in case someone comes along who hasn’t played 4, Spartan Ops, or 5, while probably not going to be many, still being careful. Some people skip games and wait until a few in a line up are out before binge playing or whatever.
As for Palmer, I admit I had a bit of a hate/hate relationship with her in 4, she was arrogant in her first confrontation with the Chief. Now we know soldiers on the field all bust each others bits now and again, a little friendly verbal jabbing is sometimes funny, but it only works if there’s history between the two (or more) characters. Simply because Palmer was an ODST beforehand does not count and if there is history between the two in an external source it can be hit or miss. In Spartan Ops she was borderline frustrating, I found myself getting annoyed whenever I’d hear her over the comms because I knew she was just going to make some comment that was going to push me further off the deep end. Her commentary in Spartan Ops was mostly bad and pretty forgettable. I also never understood her hatred towards Halsey, distrust I can understand, but the way she acted towards Halsey you swore she shot Palmer’s dog or something. The worst of it had to have been how the hatred continued through the episodes to the end and then we get to 5 and just…nothing. It’s like nothing ever happened between the two. (There’s like, one comment to spite the doctor and it was during the Guardian’s departure from Sunaion when Halsey is trying to not be sick from Palmer’s flying and being jostled about.)
No anger from Palmer for just existing, no bitterness from Halsey knowing that Palmer shot her -Yoinking!- arm because apparently something happened in a book or something that just made it all disappear. The Janus Key, so important, so carefully chosen for who would keep it safe since the planet was getting thrown into the sun, just, gone.
Though I find her to be more…tolerable in 5. I understand her character may have had some rethinking done to her for 4, she was supposed to be completely different from what I’ve heard. Concept art and potential lines she might have had paint her as a completely different character and I kind of wish we’d gotten the other version. So if they do anything with her in Infinite, can it be some more character development?
. I would like to hear more on Lasky and have him and Chief work together in Infinite. 