Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-25176701-20150119013621/@comment-78.145.165.152-20150819174416

My own opinion: Bellamy and Finn's massacres were both bad. However the fact that Finn's was in person did make it worse because he was literally gunning people down  in person. Bellamy was being a selfish bastard, but his crime is more akin to manslaughter for me, because he was *allowing* people to be killed to protect himself rather than actually murdering them all.

Also, Bellamy *was* a nasty piece of work at the start of S1. But he's had a lot of character development since then. He's become reasonable, loyal, brave etc. So he's redeemed himself imo (much like Kane). Finn's character development went in the opposite direction. We find out really early on that he's cheating on his girlfriend. Sure, he didn't sleep with Clarke until he thought he'd never see Raven again, but he was flirting with Clarke from the get-go. He then strings both girls along when Raven actually arrives. So that already lessens his appeal. *But* he still had the 'peacemaker' thing going for him. Then in S2, his personality is completely derailed into this single-minded vengeful murderer. Even at his worst, Bellamy didn't seem *that* unreasonable or off-the-rails. The finally nail in the coffin for me is the fact that everyone calls Bellamy out on that shit (though he does get forgiven), whereas everyone but the Grounders waves away Finn's actions.

Tldr: It's a lot easier to forgive a character whose personality/morals who improve over time than a character whose personality/morals degrade over time. Finn might have been able to redeem himself eventually, but he died so the massacre is what he'll be remembered for.