Talmun said:
I must confess to being utterly confused by all the Miko-hateing that goes on around here... :\
Okay, reasons Miko is so hated:
1. She's the epitome of many bad stereotypes at once. She's the "I'm a paladin so I'm always right, and anybody who opposes me for any reason is Evil" Paladin, she's the "I'm a Paladin so you all have to do as I say because my God says so" Paladin, and as first introduced she was the "I'm a character from an asian setting in an otherwise normal D&D game, so of course I have to be uber".
2. She's a walking epitome of railroading and obnoxious DMPC's. She's utterly invincible whenever the DM wants her to be, and far more powerful than the PC's can ever be (even when they all gang up on her at once, she beats them all down, it was easier for the OOTS to deal with Xylon's armies and hordes of monsters en masse than Miko alone, think about that!).
3. In many people's eyes, she's barely a Paladin or should have long since been stripped of her Paladinhood for an alignment shift to Lawful Neutral. Rich even said on the OOTS forums that in her fight with Belkar she was on the edge of a complete psychotic break. She was moments from going Blackguard there. Xylon may have failed to turn her, but she's got enough anger and hatred in her that her zeal can be turned to outright evil very easily.
Miko is the sort of character that reminds us that Paladins aren't always the good guys and Lawful Good doesn't mean "good guy". I learned that lesson quite a while back in other D&D campaigns, nothing like watching Paladins hate each other and duel to the death because they came from religions which hated each other to the point of waging continent-wide wars over it.