My hot take on Nahla Ake is that she's not being written as weird, she's being written as Old. The weirdness is incidental to that.
You know how little old ladies in their 80's say and do whatever the hell they want with absolutely No fucks to give?
Well, Ake is well into her fourth century. She's more than given up pointless societal standards while maintaining the important ones that actually Do matter.
She quite clearly has a very firm grasp on the internal politics of groups of people, groups of kids specifically, and in hierarchies as well. She demonstrated in episode 3 a very adept ability to micro-manipulate situations And people and how to turn it into a teaching moment. She knew exactly how the starfleet academy kids had to shut down the posturing from the war college kids and she didn't delude herself into thinking any amount of 'ignore the bullies' would work.
You don't get to be that old without learning something about psychology and she deftly worked around everyone in this episode. She's smart and acutely aware of normal behaviour and what will and will not raise eyebrows, and how to use that in everyday life.
Which is to say, she knows what she's doing and how she acts is weird as hell to everyone around her, and she both doesn't care And is willing and capable of weaponizing that to her benefit.
She clearly uses her posture and love of just flopping down on the nearest piece of furniture as a weapon to disarm everyone around her. She obviously does just like being comfy and doesn't see the point in sitting in a 'dignified' manner because she curls up in her captain's chair to read and lays down on her chaise to talk to her number one just because she wants to, but when she's trying to put off somebody who's being obtuse or whatever, she flops down even Weirder. The way she laid down on tea guy's sofa was So wild and So much of an example of an old lady not giving a damn that i'm still laughing. She doesn't care about your weird tea fetish and will actively mess with you by identifying it as a weak point.
She knows people find it weird that she doesn't like shoes, but that's another one of those pointless societal ones, not the important ones. She's doing that for her own comfort, and that's the important part.
You see this also in Pelia in SNW, too.
These women are just Old and all their fucks flew the nest hundreds of years ago. They have the spirit of the old ladies that they truly are and that is awesome because old ladies are awesome.
