Laura Sirikul was on a mission. To the rest of the world, it was just October 4, but to movie fans like her, it was a galactic holiday—Triple Force Friday, when toys and merchandise from three upcoming Star Wars projects finally went on sale.

Sirikul ventured to big-box retailers around Pasadena, California, in search of items featuring her favorite character: Rose Tico, the quick-witted engineer played by Kelly Marie Tran. After hitting Target, Walmart, Hot Topic, and the Disney Store, Sirikul found herself asking a question that has since become a hashtag on social media: #WheresRose?

At the end of September, preview videos hyping the new merchandise showed a white T-shirt using the word “Rebel” as a backdrop for the character as she struck a heroic pose. “That ‘Rebel’ shirt was at the Disney Store, but she wasn’t on it,” Sirikul told Vanity Fair. “There was no Rose Tico at the mall.”

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Below is an example: On the left is an image from the preview video; on the right is a snapshot a fan took from another Disney Store.

Other shirts, posters, and images teased in the preview materials have also turned out to be inexplicably Rose-less on store shelves, leading to frustration and confusion from those who take pride in her as one of the first major Star Wars characters played by someone of Asian heritage. It echoed a similar #WheresRey? movement during the release of The Force Awakens, when toys and clothing featuring Daisy Ridley’s character appeared to be in shorter supply than products featuring male characters.

Sirikul, 35, a Thai-Chinese-American journalist for the site the Nerds of Color, said Rose’s absence “feels like a diss,” and she believes diverse representation in toys, apparel, and posters is just as important as having it onscreen. “Star Wars is totally a lifestyle. Everyone wants to show off their love for it. Star Wars is everyday,” she said. “It’s so important to have her on [products] to represent that ‘this is my fandom.’”

Including Rose Tico sends a strong message to all fans, regardless of their personal identity, said Jess Shitara, 32, a Japanese-American activist, podcaster, and writer for the site #SWRepMatters, which chronicles diversity in Star Wars storytelling. “What we see in media, especially as kids, is how we see the world,” she said.

The character is especially meaningful to those who have seldom seen themselves represented in sci-fi/fantasy storytelling, let alone in merchandising. “To have a character as an action figure, or a Funko Pop!, or to have her on a shirt is Disney saying, People who look like you are important,” Shitara said.

Hasbro hasn’t revealed a new action figure for Rose, but there is a Funko Pop! collectible, and she does appear on some T-shirts for girls, boys, and women. She’s absent from some apparel for men, although other female characters are present. A full rundown of the Rose-themed products on the ShopDisney site shows cell phone cases, bags, the Rose T-shirt, and a water bottle featuring her new imagery.

There was no official comment from Disney consumer products, but a source close to the matter inside the company told Vanity Fair on background that the division takes the #WheresRose inclusivity concern seriously. Star Wars products draw from thousands of pieces of individual art that are meant to be mixed and matched, the source added, which is why the Rose Tico illustrations sometimes appear with the “Rebel” logo, and sometimes the logo is used on its own.

The same goes for many of the character collages that appear in posters, calendars, and other materials. A general template may exist for the piece, but supporting characters and aliens can be swapped for each other, the source explained, insisting the character was never deliberately removed from products.

Shitara said she was more perplexed than angered by the hit-or-miss availability of the products. “I think it’s weird. I don’t really know what to think about it,” she said. “There’s some overreaction on Twitter, and it’s hard to gauge what’s real and what’s people just jumping to conclusions. I’ve seen the Rose-less options, but I have seen the designs that have Rose. It is confusing.”

Some third-party retailers said a production delay on art was one reason for Rose’s absence early on. Brian Rood, an artist who designed matching “light side/dark side” posters for The Rise of Skywalker, said on Twitter that his early design didn’t include Rose because the reference imagery for the character was slow to arrive, but the final version does include her.

You can see the effect of the mix and match assembly in this tweet comparing an illustration from a Rise of Skywalker storybook with a similar collage sold by shirtmaker Absolute Cult.

Not only is Rose missing from the shirt on the right, but Chewbacca has been replaced by Keri Russell’s masked character Zorii Bliss, and the droids BB-8 and D-O are absent.

When confronted with the #WheresRose? issue by this concerned fan, Absolute Cult wrote, in a since-deleted tweet: “We would never remove her - she wasn’t included on that design asset from Disney when we first designed the shirt. Will look at addressing this asap if there is an updated asset… Our Rose tee from The Last Jedi was one of our best sellers!”

Within a day, the company updated its sales page and tweeted that it had added Rose to the collage.

Rose was first introduced by writer-director Rian Johnson in 2017’s The Last Jedi, joining John Boyega’s Finn on a renegade quest to save the remnants of the Resistance. Not only was the actress Asian, but she was another young woman joining a storytelling universe traditionally dominated by men. Plus, she was a different kind of hero from Ridley’s tough, battle-ready scavenger Rey. Rose was a gearhead, and kind of a Star Wars geek herself—her starry-eyed impression of Finn from stories she’d heard led him to try harder to live up to that noble image.

Fan affection for her soon shifted to a defensive crouch when online trolls began targeting Tran with atrocious racism and sexist harassment, leading the bubbly actress to delete her Instagram posts and pen a column in the New York Times about the abuse.

Fans of Rose don’t just love the character; they remain fiercely protective of her, and many felt overjoyed when they learned that in this December’s The Rise of Skywalker, she has been promoted from mechanic to a Resistance commander. At Star Wars Celebration in April, director J.J. Abrams told the crowd: “Rian did a ton of great things, but the greatest thing he did for me was cast Kelly Marie Tran.”

When The Rise of Skywalker opens on December 20, fans hope #WheresRose? isn’t a question that they’ll need to ask.