You don’t see a lot of Rory Gilmores on TV.
You can’t get away with making a lot of shows about the good girl who just wants to eat junk food, hang out with her mom, travel the world, and go to an Ivy League school. It’s not that exciting. She isn’t constantly getting into trouble and her plane doesn’t crash on a mysterious island and she doesn’t have superpowers apart from making 25 pop culture references a minute and consuming carbs and caffeine like it’s her job.
But I didn’t need to see a lot of Rorys; the one was good enough. I immediately saw myself in her and kept drawing the parallels for most of my life.
I thought it was cool that her mom was her best friend, and I’m still happy to say my parents are two of my best friends.
Rory is quiet and bookish; she keeps to herself. So, I learned I wasn’t a total weirdo for those tendencies.
I went through a weird preteen phase where I claimed to hate writing, but Rory wanted to be a journalist. I embraced my love of words and eventually became editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper.
At some point, everyone thought Rory would marry Dean.
Albeit relatively briefly, I’ve been in that relationship.
Rory dreamed of going to Harvard, but her pro-con lists told her Yale was, in fact, the right school for her. Naturally, I became convinced I should go to Yale. Several years later, my own pro-con lists directed me to attend UChicago.
So, yeah. Play along. I was Rory.
And I think that’s why I hated the Gilmore Girls revival so much.
For the entire arc of the original seasons, Rory was going places. She had her slip-ups and moments of intense uncertainty (um… steal a yacht lately?), but overall, she had plans and opportunities, and was kicking ass. Admittedly, I didn’t condone her final decisions about her love life, but to each her own. Still, the series ended, she was off to cover Barack Obama’s campaign. That’s cool stuff.
Why @EllenSlater wants to live like the original Rory Gilmore. #SweatPink #GilmoreGirls #FitFluential Share on XBut when we meet her again, 9 years later, she’s pretty much floundering. She’s in the weirdest relationship, and she keeps forgetting to end it, treating the poor guy in question horribly all the while. She’s contemplating all sorts of seemingly random career moves, floating from couch to couch, jetting back and forth across the Atlantic, and having an affair with an engaged guy.
She’s not the same character at all – aside from the witty banter and coffee addiction – and there is no resolution to the mess that her life seems to have spiraled into. I am acutely aware that life doesn’t always have an easy, happy solution. However, as a person who is currently trying to figure out my life and also relates so much to Rory, I would greatly appreciate it if she could get her career together, find some faithfulness in her relationships, and just act like herself.
All that said, I have no idea what I’m doing with my life, but I sure as hell plan to approach it like end-of-seventh-season Rory.
Translation: I’m going to seek out and seize career opportunities, stay connected to my family and friends, and go kick ass. The only difference? If Logan Huntzberger proposes, I’ll be saying yes.
When your favorite fictional character lets you down, be your own hero. #SweatPink #FitFluential Share on XYour turn:
Do you particularly identify with any fictional characters?
I totally see you as Rory Gilmore, but with way more sense (for example, season 7 would have been different, lol). I’m trying to think if I’ve every really truly identified with a fictional character. Not really, because I was always such a conglomeration of several! Apparently, they can’t even write my nonsense into TV arcs….
No no no. The writers couldn’t dream up your awesomeness ?
This was so well-written, Ellen! I can see your frustration and I feel it too. What I’ve read about the revival makes me mad. I do love your ending though 🙂 I never resonated much with a fictional character and, while that concept has its pros and cons, it would have been nice to see someone *similar* when I was younger. On the contrary…I’ve been told like I look like the girl from Orange is the New Black. But that’s the extent of it haha
Thanks, Emily! Haha I’d never thought of that, but you kinda do ?
Okay, the Logan ending during the actual season frustrated me SO much! I feel like she didn’t actually have a real reason to say no (but I could continue to rant for hours). And now, Paul. Ugh. That was just a stupid part of the plot. I liked the fall episode, but a lot of other things about the revival frustrated me. I hope she gets her life together. Its also frustrating because I feel like when it started, she did almost have it together, with so many job opportunities.
I think after seeing this, we can kind of see how easily life can be derailed. I think you’re strong willed enough to be very successful ?
(Okay, last thing. I half wished (aka very strongly) that Logan would just say something like, “Rory, just say it, and I won’t marry Odette” and choose her ?)
She had no reason to say no to Logan, but what was her reason to say “yes”?
Haha I just rewatched the original series ending and was kinda hoping she’d just change her mind and marry him 😛
Same about Odette. I feel like original Logan would’ve been like, “Psh, I don’t do what my dad tells me.” And this Logan was like, “What am I supposed to do? My family says we’re getting married, so we’re getting married.” Ugh. SO MANY FEELINGS. (Good luck with finals!)
Hi Ellen! Freaking amazing piece right here. I agree that Rory shifted a lot. But watching the revival for me made me realize that her shift happened during the original series. Sometime around when she meets Logan(not blaming him, he’s just at the center of a lot of her bad decisions). She slept with Dean when he was married, she SORT of joined the Life and Death Brigade who to me just feel like a bunch of assholes doing dangerous crap just because they have the money to do it. Around her second year of college, Rory became unrecognizable to me. And while she figured things out by the time the series ended, the revival Rory didn’t surprise me at all. She had it in her already to become this aimless irresponsible and often reckless woman. But this piece spoke to me because I agree. Original Rory is one of the few truly awesome role models for quiet slightly nerdy girls.
Ahh hi Danni! I agree that she always had it in her to do some reckless stuff. I tend to think by the *very* end of the original series, she was moving in a better direction. But yeah, dropping out of college and joining the DAR and stealing a yacht… whaaaaat was she thinking?
Oh man, I’ve stayed away from Gilmore Girls because the amount of episodes were daunting, but I’ve heard so much buzz about the show and the bits and pieces I had watched made me super curious who she ended up with. But hearing that cutie-pie Logan (who I heard was a jerk but he also had a woobie backstory?) proposed really makes me consider taking this behemoth on!
Not to mention, Rory seems like an A+ role model. I’m sad to hear that the new season didn’t do her justice, but if it’s like you mentioned in your last post about the ending being open, hopefully there’s room for improvement in the next season?
I highly recommend watching it! If you have some downtime, it’s such a fun show. 🙂
I totally resonated with Rory Gilmore when I used to watch Gilmore Girls all of the time and I agree that I was SO bummed by the revival. Especially her relationship with Logan…and with Pete at the same time…huh? And then I felt like all of the episodes & characters were way exaggerated, and way more so than the original ones. So disappointing! Luckily, neither one of us will end up like Rory 🙂
YES. All the characters are already pretty quirky, and the revival totally exaggerated that.
Soooo, I’ve never watched Gilmore Girls… ever 😛 But it sounds like Rory has some of my character traits too!
I don’t know if I’ve ever related to a character. I think I have such a multi faceted personality that any character that was like me would probably have to be a basket case 😛
Haha well real-life you is a rockstar 😀
This is so well written! And the way you ended it…. PERFECTION
Thank you so much, Mackenzie! 🙂
As someone who is a few years out of college I think the revival captured being an adult perfectly. Life comes at you fast with successes, failures, and confusion. I loved the parts with Logan and trying to experience which to me signified trying to go back to a different time in your life and instead being affronted by the realization that your life doesn’t work like that anymore. We all have the relationships that somehow bring out the worst in us. We all have some kind of regret, and the acceptance that what happened in the past wasn’t necessarily the best choice but what *should* have happened. The revival helped the series to “grow up” from a high schooler’s dream (mine too!) into reality of life- extremely rich, unexpected, and always unfolding before us whether we like it or not.
That’s a really interesting take on it, Zoe! I’ve heard that opinion from some other recent-ish grads. Maybe my perspective will shift in a few years.
I’ve read so many Gilmore Girls pieces recently and this is one of my favorites. You know TV is good when you learn actual life lessons from it!
Aw thank you so much, Talia!
I havent watched the revival yet, but this post is making me want to do so! I definitely watched this show growing up and thought Rory was awesome, and I absolutely adored Dean. Watching Rory on tv. while I was growing up made me realize that being smart WAS cool!
I’d love to hear what you think if you do watch it!