If you went by the charges commonly flung at Finn you would absolutely think he’s a monster and the villain of this franchise. He’s been called traitorous, murderous, aggressive, obsessive, abusive, stalkerish. And now I’m dealing with TLJ stans saying Rose was right and he was hateful and violent for wanting to die for his friends. He was going to make the ultimate sacrifice, the same act Holdo is relentlessly lionized for, and I’m told the rules are different for him for Reasons and it’s a sign he’d given in to the Dark Side–and what’s more, he couldn’t turn away from it of his own accord like Luke did, he had to have Rose acting as his external conscience and physically beat some sense into him. Again. The way fans all but salivate at the thought of controlling and disciplining Finn with pain and physical force makes me want to throw up.

When he’s not demonized he’s dismissed as this pure cinnamon roll who is just too Kind and Good to do what needs to be done in war like, idk, murder and torture prisoners. Make no mistake, all the rampant war crimes apologism in this fandom is not only about rehabilitating Kylo Ren but also diluting Finn’s character. If the shooting of unarmed prisoners is a valid act of war, if torture is not a heinous crime but just something that happens between enemies in wartime, then Finn is no longer a conscientious and courageous soldier. He becomes simply a softie who is too good for this world, a weak-hearted deserter who didn’t have what it takes for the hard reality of war. Propping up Kylo Ren with these false premises always comes at the expense of Finn’s character. Always.

When he’s not being demonized or dismissed Finn is just… absent. In a lot of articles and fandom discussions you would not know that he is a major character, far less that he was the protagonist in TFA. When he comes up at all he is talked about like he’s just there, and not someone who is deserving of story weight and fan speculation like Kylo Ren and Rey are.

Spending time in fandom outside of a very narrow circle of Finn stans leaves me questioning my sanity and perception. Was he really a minor character like Qui-Gon Jinn or Mace Windu, both of which he has been compared to in terms of importance? Did I imagine his importance to his story, how revolutionary the character is in so many ways, what he means to me and so many others? Was I wrong in thinking the narrative would have been better if he had been given the dignity of making his own choices without having physical force used on him?

Responses to the character of Finn have revealed some truly frightening undercurrents in this fandom, so much mean-spiritedness and absolute refusal to give him any benefit of the doubt, to acknowledge his complexity, importance, or indeed his existence. I never dreamed I would ever be in a fandom where a character that commits mass murder and torture is treated like a hero and a conscientious ex-slave soldier like a villain or a bit character, yet here we are. The Star Wars fandom is like some kind of Bizarro World and it tires me out.