I just now realized that Miko has access to exactly one form of healing.

[alwaysbebatman]

Oh, you, at least, have the excuse of several hundred extra pages of story during which Miko's character went steeply downhill to colour your opinion of her motives. There are totally legitimate reasons for having a dim opinion of someone who, e.g, tried to kill Hinjo in an irrational fit of pique.

But prior to the trial scene? Hell, no. Those people had no excuse.

Yeah, I completely disagree. Very early on it would have been conceivable from what we saw that she'd turn out to have a heart of gold hiding under the off-putting exterior, but it was never especially likely.

If course, it's not impossible for her to be relentlessly unkind and yet remain on the side of the angels. Eugene seems to manage it. But that's not the most dramatic option...

Just one example of a sign of where she was headed before she ever killed Shojo-- Belkar trying to provoke her to murder him. It's not just the fact that she would have done it if Shojo hadn't stopped her. But more the fact that Belkar saw that potential in her. As much as he hated her, he wouldn't have chosen that specific revenge except that he perceived that it would work. (He hated her, but sensed a kinship, I think. A similar lack of moral compass. They both chose a code in place of an intrinsic motivation: hers was the paladin code, his was "for the lols.")

I get the impression that some people don't want to see Miko for what she was from the start because some of the people arguing for that back then we're doing so for invalid reasons: ie, hateful misogyny. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.