I honestly can't help but wonder, how much of Lanolin as a character was planned, and how much was the result of audience reaction?

There's a part of me that feels the part of her that got carried away with the whole leader thing wasn't planned, that they caught on people weren't thrilled with the idea of an inexperienced nobody going full-Willow mode and decided to run with that (considering that's the reason Starline was made genuinly fruity, because Ian noticed there were positive reactions to the idea) to the point the exaggerated depictions ended up becoming canon. Even her weak "apology" and admittance that she has no experience at the thing she immediately volunteers for afterwards feels like it's agreeing with the reader perception of her.

At the same time, I'm left wondering if Lanolin's plot was a good idea in the first place. Considering that Sonic can't really be "wrong" in the first place, her whole "we're doing things the RIGHT way" gimmick never had a chance to go anywhere, but at the same time her turning into Mimic's patsy and becoming an annoying self-righteous cunt wasn't good either. I'm not sure what the point was in the end, or if the intent changed somewhere down the line, I feel the journey of how they got there is potentially more interesting than the character herself.