TWO MONSTER HUNTER CHARACTERS HAVE ACTUAL NAMES
Yeah, they confirmed the names of Aiden (Ace Cadet/Excitable A-Lister) and Julius (Ace Commander) in Iceborne's Fatalis update, as well as in the
Legends of the Guild movie that came out about a year after that. Lea (Serious Handler)'s name was confirmed in this movie's casting at the same time as Aiden's was. Several other characters are also given names in the
Legends movie.
Handler gets so much disrespect like wtf
And yeah, I also think the Handler's hate is really overblown. I admit that I don't super like it when she runs off ahead into dangerous territory, but apparently people don't mind that the Serious Handler canonically does that all the time as well (in-game dialogue), and honestly it only happens like, three times out of dozens upon dozens of canonical quests, not counting situations where the issue isn't even with her decision-making specifically.
It becomes apparent throughout her dialogue, investigation scenes, and even idle animations, that the Handler works really,
really hard, all the time. So much so that she's apparently the only one in the entire Commision who can keep up with your hunter's similarly insane skill levels to handle the flood of constant quests you're always going on, because your abilities are just that much in demand among five fleets containing some of the best hunters in the Guild. She's literally always working on paperwork one way or the other, and a ton of conclusions about the data you find she comes up with on her own - do note that the First Fleeters, like the Tracker, had been investigating the New World's secrets for over four decades, while you and the Handler realize the entire system of the Rotten Vale by yourselves in, like,
two quests. Hell, the way it's presented, she might even have figured it out at camp at the same time you fought the Odogaron. No wonder the Commander notes that you guys were specifically assigned together as the cream of the crop of your respective fields.
And she still finds the time to conduct a personal research project to record every edible item in the entire New World as a passion project and heads out into the field directly for all of her (and your) research, proving that she doesn't just push papers, but actually knows her stuff when it comes to the ecologies of this world. The Deviljho example is not even applicable... like, for anything, since Deviljho, a land-dwelling species, had never, ever been sighted in the New World before that literal day.
In comparison, the Serious Handler admits to feeling relieved she doesn't have to be your handler all the time after your three-quest jaunt, because of how insanely fast you work and how much paperwork your investigations turn out. Put together with the Handler tackling everything with enthusiasm and a smile, yeah. She's built differently.
The whole "You can do it! We can do it!" quote never even struck me as something odd until I heard other people bringing it up. It still doesn't even work as an argument, because it was very much a "final boss" thing to say, and you two had been working on this whole investigation together the entire time, one that concludes with Xeno'jiiva.
Do I think her Iceborne Velkhana-shard story and pseudo-familial(?) relationship with the Tracker could have been better realized? Yeah, sure. But overall, I like the Handler; she's hardworking, good-humored, and thoughtful. Literally any issues with her personality or behavior I feel can be ascribed to the medium, genre, storylines, and characters that Monster Hunter games have been putting out, not her specifically.
Edit: As an addendum, she's literally the
Sapphire Star of the Handlers, as far above them (and basically everyone in the whole
Commission in sheer work ethic) as you are to every other hunter. Hell, if not for you, she'd probably be handling several top-rank hunters at once, and still would be unable to perform at her full potential due to being limited by the hunting personnel of her time. Imagine having two agents
always ready to deploy anywhere on the continent and be fully confident in their ability to both take down any threat, and fully identify and record everything that happened in the nearest twenty miles while dropping a new fully-functioning campsite in an unknown land. After the Shara Ishvalda hype speech, to the Commission, there really was nothing you two couldn't do together. You're just as much a force of nature as the Everwyrm who could raze ecosystems to their foundation. The Handler is the only person who is capable of enabling this force of nature to be deployed as efficiently and effectively as it is.
