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kimberly-stocks · 2 years

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Warning. A long rant about Rory Gilmore ahead.

I was doing a research for a story I'm writing (it's literati fanfiction), and after watching a few clips on YouTube from the show I kinda got sucked into this whole realm of Gilmore girls content. There's literally a ton of videos, and a lot of them are uploaded recently. Which is so fascinating, considering the show aired 2 decades ago. And while I was going through vids on analysis of the show and its characters, I kinda got stumbled upon a whole bunch of them called 'the downfall of Rory Gilmore' and the likes. I watched some of them... And it made me feel weird. I mean, there were several valid points they made about her character, but at the same time, I tried to reconcile them with my thoughts on her the first time I watched the show because they didn't necessarily coincide.

I first watched the original series a year ago, meaning I was 32, just like Lorelai was in the pilot. So, I wasn't a kid watching it when it aired. I was a grown adult with some life experiences under my belt. So I didn't just get automatically sucked into what the creators of the show wanted me to believe. And I remember I kinda liked Rory in the beginning. She was this studious introverted girl, kinda like myself at her age. She had a great relationship with her mom which I could relate to. It was a very cozy show, homey, and it was easy for me to remember what it was like to be 16 again. I had a harder time identifying with Lorelai, even though we were the same age, because her personality is way different than mine, and also she often times annoyed me a little. And I could understand the logic behind everything Rory was doing. I didn't necessarily agree with all of her choices, but I could understand them. Why she stopped spending as much time with Lane when she met Dean, why she didn't tell Lorelai about Jess, why she was mad when she saw him with Shane, etc. I could even understand why she slept with married Dean. Like, it was bad, i get it but I also understood why she did it. She wasn't perfect, and I could see her logic behind what she was doing.

But as the show progressed, I guess I started having problems with Rory's character and have a lot of questions for her, because the more I watched (from the late season 4, and then season 5, 6), the only thought I had about her was 'god, what a waste! What a waste of resources, potential and time'.

Personally, I don't think having negative thoughts about a character is necessarily 'hate'. I thought the writers did her dirty. And here's why.

When I was in college I had two girls in my class who were straight A's students and basically stars of their local schools in their respective small towns. They graduated with honors and whatnot. And one of them, Angy, was like a perfect little girl, her mom was a teacher, she was a straight A's student, she participated in every shindig her school threw, everyone loved her, her picture was even posted on a special school board of best students or whatever. And when she first came into a big city and a big college (our uni had probably more students than her whole town's population combined), she expected everyone to treat her like she was a star just like she used to be in her school, and she acted accordingly. But in a big city and a big school no one gave a damn, nobody knew who she was and they didn't care. That was a serious reality check for her. I remember one time my friend and I passed the exam and we got A's, while Angy went before us and got a B. And when she found out we got A's she got so mad! And she literally threw a temper tantrum like 'why did THEY get A's and I didn't???? I'm gonna go back to that professor and demand a retake' and she said 'they' in such a tone which implied 'such losers', because, my friend and I, we kinda struggled, especially me, so getting an A was a big deal, we were by no means excelling. To her credit, Angy later realized that she had to earn her status all over again, and she kept up good grades, and was even helpful to her fellow students, and later she even helped me when I really stuggled with my math assignments. So, in the end, she realized she had to work to get what she wanted, and it wouldn't just be given to her because she was The Angy. Season 5 Rory hadn't. She met Logan instead.

I don't blame any of her boyfriends in her short comings, it was more her upbringing I feel like. She was a product of her environment really, if you think about it. Her whole town treated her like she was a special snowflake, a gifted super child. Lorelai herself said 'if you see a girl with a halo above her head and a book, that's my daughter, Rory'. Her grandparents told her she was smart and talented and whatnot (which I guess was better than the Christopher's parents attitude), but in the end it didn't really help her in the long run. It's hard to accept you're not as special as everyone told you you were your whole life. And even though Lorelai encouraged Rory to pursue her dreams and such, it seemed like she didn't give her any room for error or exploring the world on her own. Rory was always kinda sheltered and lived in a bubble.

Which in turn makes me question where did that dream to become an international correspondent even came from? I was so surprised to hear that when she told Jess about it in Teach me tonight. She was so introverted, she didn't make any new friends at Chilton. If Paris didn't pursue her from day one, she might not even had any friends at Chilton at all, because she had Lane, Dean, her mom and books. Then at Yale having Paris as a roommate also didn't do her any good. It was a safely blanket. Instead of branching out and finding new people she just stayed with Paris instead. She said she wanted to travel and see the world and be a journalist. But you don't have to be an international correspondent to travel. And sure, she's good at writing, that's great. But why Christiane amanpour? Wars and trenches, Rory? Really? She couldn't even handle her first day at Yale on her own without her mommy. Which was kinda the point of chosing Yale in the first place, and a dead give away of the fact an international correspondent is not for her. The signs were always there, but no one in Rory's circle took them into account.

And then the Mitchum incident. When I first watched it, I thought, "my god, you can't possibly take everything he says seriously. He doesn't want you to date his son just like the rest of his family, that's why he gave you the internship and then critiqued you, so not to be a jerk at first at that dinner, but then mess with you. Isn't that obvious? Am I the only one who sees it???" Why was her first reaction to steal a yacht and drop out of Yale? Would she do the same if she was covering a war overseas, and someone told her, 'there's no place for you here, go away'. And she what, would be like 'oh? Okay'. The first criticism in her life and instead of retreating and regrouping and fighting back, she just decides her career is over before it even started? Like wtf??? There's a lot of different kinds of jobs where you could apply writing. Even if journalism was not for her, she could've figured something out without dropping out, especially considering she was majoring in English, not in journalism. That's a lot broader category with more flexibility. Why wasn't her first reaction to prove him wrong?

I struggled a lot in college. Granted, I was a STEM major, so the experience is not exactly the same, but still, the amount of people who told me I wasn't smart enough, that I didn't have it, was astounding. If i listened to everyone who doubted me, I would've dropped out after the first semester, and would not have a PhD I have today. That's why that storyline was not relatable to me, and I did not agree with her decision. Frankly, it pissed me off. I mean, it's easy to just give up when you have rich grandparents to fall back on, when they're gonna pay for everything, and you wouldn't have to work a single hour to pay the bills. I personally didn't have that opportunity and privilege, maybe that's why it made me react so passionately about it, I was fuming when I watched that episode. I was like 'girl, please! Get you shit together, Gilmore!' Her grandparents and Lorelai are extremely stubborn, but Rory in that situation seemed like she didn't inherit any of the Gilmore stubbornness and resilience. Maybe it's flaky Christopher genes, I don't know. And from then on I kept thinking what a waste of money that was. I wondered if she would throw that away if she had a student loan, or Lorelai was paying for Yale from her own pocket, and not her grandparents who basically just gave her money for free, and refused her offer to pay them in installments when she gets a part time job (Which she never did).

I don't know what's the point of this whole rant. I guess I can kinda understand her story arc was realistic in a way, and her being nowhere near successful in her thirties makes her relatable to the audience, but I still think it was a waste. Especially when you think about guys like Marty who had to bartend to cover his expenses and couldn't pay $70 for a meal. Rory never had to do that.

I guess, it makes me sad that her character turned out to be written that way. And I have a lot of questions to Rory, and maybe to ASP. When I first watched the show, I didn't notice a lot of stuff because I binged it. But after reading a hell of a lot of fanfiction and watching all those analysis videos and reading fan theories and whatnot, I watched bits and pieces more closely, and noticed a lot of discrepancies, which made me question the show and Rory's character. And I wonder if those things were just a sloppy writers' job, or was it intentional, and they dropped hints on what Rory's trajectory would be like all along.

For example, it still surprises me to this day, that Rory only realised she needed extra curricular activities to get into Harvard when Paris told her about it in JUNIOR year!! Like, wasn't it your dream school since you were a little kid? You had at least a decade to do a thorough research on this school, and memorize everything about what kind of stuff and grades and things they were looking for in their potential students. How come Rory didn't know that having just good grades wasn't enough? Like, how? It seemed like Rory's dream of going to Harvard was exactly that, a dream, not a realistic plan. And she kept living in a fantasy world where she's so special and would get into Harvard no sweat just because Babette told her she was smart. How come she didn't have doubts? Also, Lorelai, who encouraged her Harvard dream, how was she going to pay for that if she couldn't even pay for Chilton? It was like Chilton price came as a total surprise to her. Didn't you know the cost before your kid applied to that school in the first place?

I understand that going to Yale was a plot device to keep Rory close to her mom, so that the show could still be 'Gilmore girls', not 'one gilmore girl is going to Harvard and the other opens an inn'. But I think, character wise, it would be better if Rory went literally anywhere else. Maybe not necessarily to Harvard, because I feel like it was more Lorelai's dream anyway, and she already dreamed about it for too long, which builds expectations, that the school might not meet in reality, and that would lead to another identity crisis. I think Rory should've gone to some school that was further away than Yale, so that she couldn't visit as often, and so that she would have a chance to do her own thing, without the pressures of constantly being a perfect unicorn child, or a perfect granddaughter, Lorelai 2.0, where she could just be herself, and try new things and meet new people, and just explore the world outside of stars hollow and Hartford and her grandparents house.

It makes me sad. I understand she had a lot of flaws and did some questionable things, and that made her character so realistic and appealing to the audience, but she had so much potential, and it makes me sad the writers wrote her the way she turned out eventually.

And I guess, it also bugs me that after all those vids it's harder for me to ship Rory with Jess, which I need to be able to keep doing for the sake of my story 😄🙈 because I can't get those mean things said about her out of my head. Also, Jess had the best character development on the show, in my opinion. Of course he did a lot of stupid shit too, and he was by no means perfect or better than Rory. But seeing her so helpless and flailing while he's going steady is disconcerting.

What I liked about the show is that the characters seem very realistic, they have real flaws and great treats as well, they act like human beings, that's why it's such a beloved series. Also, while I was watching i could mostly understand not only Rory's logic but everyone else's logic behind the things that they did. I loved the chemistry between Jess and Rory, and that's probably the reason i shipped them from the start, from the first episode he appeared. I was like 'ooh, this is gonna be fun' 😏 and it was super entertaining and I wanted more, and discovered a beautiful world of literati fanfiction. Which is the only outlet for fans to get Rory and Jess the relationship they deserved. I really hope I won't burn out, and finish the story I started after all. 🤞 Maybe I should stop with those analysis videos 😬

There are literally keyboard wars unfolding in the comment sections of those vids. The comments range from 'rory is the worst, i wish she died' to 'why is everyone hating on rory, she's so sweet'. I guess, my point of view is that I'm not a crazy Rory fan that would defend her no matter what kind of shit she does, but I don't hate her either. After reading so many stories about her and Jess, after discovering so many beautiful plot lines people came up with, where Rory still does screw up and make mistakes, but she learns from it, it makes me more disappointed in the original canon writing, more than anything. I mean, there are so many different ways ASP could've gone, and she chose to go with this? I mean, really? Dude!

I think she said something like she wanted the show to resemble life, and you not always get what you want, and not all of your dreams come true eventually, which is understandable. But the show started as this portrayal of mother-daughter relationship who had this amazing bond, and I feel like, a lot of people don't have that, so it was nice for them to watch that kind of close relationship. But then it turned out like Lorelai only loves Rory as long as she does everything Lorelai wants her to, but the moment she deviates, Lorelai flips out or stops talking to her. What is the moral in that? That motherly love is conditional? That you only deserve to be loved when you try to follow unrealistic expectations of perfection? That's not exactly nice and comforting. It's like the show digressed from being a sweet family show to a depressing therapy-needing mess.

Also, many people view the series as a comfort show, the one they watch to feel better. Of course, ASP didn't intend it to be a comfort show, so she didn't have to do what the audience wanted, but a happy ending, at least to a certain extent, would be nice.

Phew, rant over. I guess.

P.S. I also saw a lot of posts and comments saying that Rory gets way more hate than any other character on the show which isn't fair to her. I guess it's true, but at the same time, she IS a main character, next to Lorelai she has the most of screen time, hence the most of footage and material to analyse her behaviour. And it's a general knowledge everyone loves Lorelai and god forbid you criticize her in any shape or form. So, by elimination Rory gets all the shit, unfortunately.

#gilmore girls #rory gilmore #rant

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love-geeky-fangirl · 2 years

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Jen and Pacey are both banished seeds from NY but they cannot be more different in personality. Jen was really nice and wanted to fit in, but she was judged by the town people (like that teacher in the ‘Dentition’ episode) because she was from NY. Also, I never saw her as the blonde bad girl bomshell the show wanted us to think she was. She doesn’t really give off NY party girl vibes, she always seemed Midwestern to me.

I agree with you about Pacey not being an angel (so does the OP of the post because she has posted about people overlooking Pacey’s flaws). I do think Jess is a punk but that’s why I found him entertaining. I think I liked him as an agent of chaos more than Rory’s bf. I was getting bored of Rory/Dean after they dumbed Dean down so I didn’t mind Jess’ antics (though I still think they were shitty). I enjoyed Jess’ dynamic with Luke, and I think it made sense for Rory to be attracted to him. I just don’t think he was mature or stable enough to be in a relationship with her.

Unrelated:

I wish Rory could have dated the more mature version of Jess. I always had a feeling that the show wanted Jess to have a bigger role in Rory’s life. Jess was the only one of Rory’s whose perspective we got, and he wasn’t just built to be Rory’s love interest, he was introduced as Luke’s nephew. Its obvious the writers wanted Jess to be Rory’s Luke, and the guy who knows Rory best but couldn’t portray it in the narrative because Milo’s contract wasn’t renewed.

In S6 Jess said he knows Rory “better than anyone”, but considering he hadn’t seen her in years, I doubt he knew her better than her friends or her mom. Thus, his speech felt unearned (I felt the same way when Dawson’s Creek kept telling us that Joey changes men and inspires them to be better. This is who they wanted Joey to be but didn’t portray it in the narrative). Gilmore Girls kind of relegated Jess to the guy who occasionally pops up in Rory’s life, gives her advice, and pops out.

Maybe in personalities they aren't all that similar other than being rebellious teenagers with a self-destructive streak but at the same time quick-witted and snarky. They also both have parental traumas and "daddy issues" (as much as I hate that expression). Where they are the most similar is the town's treatment of them. No matter what they do they're always outsiders. When something shitty happens, it's their fault. I have ranted about it already here:

As for you pointing out that Jen doesn't really give off party girl vibes I sort of agree? It's like the whole town stereotyped her for being a pretty blonde girl from New York and immediately assumed she's a dumb party girl. Like she tried to start anew and make a good impression. She pretended to be this innocent girl: "I like to party and have fun substance-free" but it didn't work. Meanwhile Jess acted out because he didn't actually want to improve his reputation and start anew, he WANTED to be kicked out and go back to New York.

You preferring Jess as an agent of chaos and not a boyfriend to Rory is your own preference which is totally valid.

I also wish Rory got back with Jess in season 6 and it did look like she was going to and I still believe that if Logan hadn't gotten into that accident, they would've broken up and she would've gone back to Jess, much like in season 3 when they got together right after her breakup with Dean. Even their last kiss parallels their first.

I think people misread Jess's statement that he knows Rory better than anyone. I think he was saying that he knows her better than anyone else HE knows not anyone else that knows Rory. He wasn't claiming he knows her better than her own mother that would be ridiculous. But he does know her and understand her very well, sometimes even better than Lorelai imo.

#gilmore girls #dawson's creek #answered #parallels #jen lindley deserved better #jess mariano defense #jess x rory #literati #anti rogan #anti logan huntzberger

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