Just discovered your channel. I enjoyed your analysis, and in the future if you ever decide to delve into this show again I would definitely be interested. You earned yourself a new sub ❤
Rory enjoys writing way more than journalism. And I wish in college and EVEN the revival she pivots to writing as her passion instead of journalism. Cause like Logan's dad said 'she doesn't got it'. Paris is more journalist that Rory is.
i have grown to realize that although rory's story arc really sucks, it's incredibly realistic. it makes sense that she failed so miserably at yale and in her future career as seen in "a year in the life" because she was coddled and made to believe she could do no wrong and she always had a safety net (as seen when she moves in with emily and richard once she drops out of yale). she does not realize that everything will not always be handed to her, and i honestly loved in AYITL when the up-and-coming magazine doesn't offer her a job even though she assumed it would -- yet again -- just be handed to her. she saw the magazine as beneath her and didn't even come to the interview with any ideas and really failed at pitching herself and what she had to offer. it's really hard to watch her struggle so much throughout the series but everything makes perfect sense in realistic terms
I completely agree with your view on AYITL (the job not being offered was so funny and so deserved, Rory was so entitled and rude honestly) but I'm curious about what you mean about her failing miserably at yale? She graduated from an Ivy league school with good grades, connections, and a job offer? How is that failure? She took a semester off which is normal, and many people do that and no one should be shamed for doing so, but she also graduated on time despite that. That's super impressive. I don't like a lot of Rory's character as she ages, but I often see people characterize things as failures that arent: taking time off of school, changing careers, not being the exact role you dreamed about when you were 16...
@@oliviaoconnor2201 hey! thank you for your reply! you're very right about her successfully graduating and having a job offer, as well as how it is normal that people take time off from college. when i said she 'failed miserably' at yale, i meant more so she was really struggling in life and was making poor decisions during her time at yale -- not necessarily her grades or whether she had made connections etc. mitchum told her she didn't have what it took to be a successful journalist, and instead of taking that with a grain of salt and trying to prove him wrong or just deciding she might need to change her major, she was reckless and stole a yacht, dropped out of college, and moved in with her grandparents and worked for the DAR. the reason i called this 'failing miserably' is because, for all intents and purposes, she was going down a path completely opposite from what viewers may have expected for her. she played the victim and just gave up. she was entitled, immature, and saw nothing wrong with what she was doing. for many students who take a semester off, they cannot go live with their wealthy grandparents and just be given a job by their grandmother. she was going down a very wrong path, honestly, and this is what i meant by her failing miserably while at yale -- not that she was failing academically.
@@sarahrainey3779 would you feel that way if she was a lower income student who took a job with a family member and moved in with her mom or her grandparents? She had a breakdown and broke the law, which are both bad (but high achieving/gifted kids have breakdowns all the time between 16-30) and she became a toxic person in a lot of her relationships. But having a break-down for a few months doesnt mean that you failed your entire experience? Im sorry I'm not trying to argue clearly we just see failure very differently in terms of meaning and implication, but she did as much as possible fix all those things that you cite as failures. AYITL destroys all and any scrapes of growth she had, so I could understand seeing that in that way, but to call her having a break-down as her being a failure to me feeds into the culture that creates people like Rory. But you're not alone in your opinion and it's super valid.
@@oliviaoconnor2201 i never thought about it that way! honestly, this adds to the point that her character depiction is so realistic. i admit that saying she failed was me projecting my own opinion on her experience at yale and how i personally viewed her breakdown/what she did afterward. it all just goes to show that rory's experiences are what many people go through and shows the reality of her decisions.
gilmore girls isn't a show about inspiration characters, it's more about generational truama. it's about an emotionally stunted teen mom who was traumatized by her stiff mother and passed her flaws into her daughter and projected her trauma onto her. they're flawed, yet we root for them. but the show never paid attention to that aspect of their characters, instead they put them on a higher moral ground and never acknowledged their flaws. for instance, no one mentioned how lorelie has commitment issues, and cant communicate properly with her partners, or the way she desires men after she rejects them, how she's obsessive of the people in her life, especially the men and rory, and how she never got what she wanted as a kid so now she has to get what she wants whenever she wants it or she freaks out. that's lorelie, and all of that had been passed down to rory who slowly grows into the spitting image of her mother. i just wished we had a redemption arc, or just a moment where someone calls off the bs like "hey what's up with that?" but never.
@nooneproductions1556 rory's 'downfall' u mean? yes i suppose it is. my beef with the show lies in the lens through which it was viewed; the 'downfall' was portrayed as shocking. when in reality, the mess rory was in AYITL felt long coming. and i wished she had a moment of self-realization. lorelie, too (although i believe the self-realization moment for lorelie should've happened after her divorce). i guess, i general, i kinda wish the show leaned more towards the drama element of it, but that's kind of a me problem.
What I never understood about Rory is that she would stop after obtaining her Bachelor's degree. To me, she loved learning and being a student more than being in the workforce and showing how "smart" she was was super important to her. So, why she wouldn't do her Master's was always a mystery to me. I always thought she would give up on being a journalist because it was a childhood dream, just like she gave up on Harvard and went to Yale instead. I thought she would find something that makes her happier than writing articles and then grapple with leaving her lifelong dream behind and pursue a new one
Exactly! It's such a shame she was too prideful to take the Chilton teaching position that was offered to her. It's so frustrating how stubborn and hard headed she was. I don't think she's realized how important flexibility is in life and how much she can grow from it.
I personally can relate a lot to Rory and I am the same way, I would LOVE to go back to school and get my Masters but unfortunately, because I’ve had little to no real career success, it feels silly to go back and spend even more money on even more education that isn’t paying off career-wise (she probably wouldn’t have money be an obstacle to her because of her grandparents, but maybe she feels guilty for asking that of them after they’ve already done so much).
@@bryand6811also how much time/focus does she need to write a book about herself? Not a lot of research time is necessary. She could do both and it would just take her a few extra months to finish the book.
I don’t understand why people are so dissatisfied with Rory’s arch. The whole thing makes sense from start to finish. Is it disappointing yes! But it is real and raw.
I agree. I don’t understand the Rory hate. It feels like victim blaming because Rory is actually a case in generational trauma and being a parentified child. Plus it feels like everyone is upset Rory wasn’t the perfect person she was expected to be, and that’s, kind of the point? It’s a realistic outcome of the “goody-two-shoes“ “gifted” introverted child, because everyone who was a “gifted child” is now a disenchanted adult with adhd or other mental illness. The whole POINT was putting those kinds of unhealthy expectations on people make them “fumble the bag.” But that point is obviously lost on the majority of viewers/people who have the audacity to call themselves fans when they don’t even understand Rory at all. The point is that when you put people on pedestals and expect them to be perfect, they will always fall short of that unrealistic expectation…
The nature of disatisfying arcs. Generally ending things on a good note with a lesson learned and gained character development is what people want for their favorite main characters.
Rory was raised to ‘fix’ Lorelie’s ‘mistakes’- be a version of her that she didn’t get to be because of the rich- judgmental emotionsless (bordering on narcissistic)mother. She didn’t see Rory as a person- but a life project. That’s why she didn’t support Rory taking time off to work things out. Which is what you do- you support people even when they are not doing it how you think they should. She cut her daughter off for not being the daughter she wanted. She wasn’t playing the part. Lor planned out Rory;s life when Rory was barely a toddler. Based around what she though went wrong in her own life. She never thought about what her daughter might want- who her daughter might be and how her daughter might change- that’s why Rory at 32- was stuck. Because was never never given room to choose another path. She thought she had to be a reporter because that’s what she wanted at 4yrs old. Who can set their whole life plan at 4yrs? Rory is what become when you don’t see your children as people with their own path- and coddle them and not let them fail, and fail hard. Lor abandoned her daughter when she needed her most.
I would go beyond that. It wasn't to be the person Lorelai couldn't be because of her parents/childhood. Rory was raised to do the things that Lorelai felt her teenage pregnancy took from her. The mistake Rory was expected to "correct" was her own existence.
i think her arc is in credibly realistic and as someone who burnt out and was someone that people put their hopes on, i relate to her character quite a lot. I especially hate that most viewers forget she got back on track later on. Sure, her main focus wasn’t studying anymore, she now had more in life, bu those sloth that’s once again realistic and HEALTHY. I just hate that AYITL made her life still a mess. at that point it felt repetitive and annoying.
i think the tragedy is that lorelai let rory be so quiet and introverted and praised her for it as being a good student. if she'd been a boy she would have been encouraged to be much more assertive and outgoing and would've turned out much different. journalism doesn't fit rory's personality at all. also rory always seemed stuck at about age 11 mentally and emotionally and even in the sound of her voice. she was never allowed to grow up and develop the harshness and edge and express the anger and frustration people typically go through as teenagers.
I think even though it’s painful to watch her in the Year of life - her character is written in such a realistic way, considering the way she grew up, her relationships with Lorelei, and how everyone in Stars Hollow just praised her all the time for nothing. She is basically a normal human being who makes mistakes, but because she was shown to us as this “perfect” girl everyone is immediately disappointed if she does something wrong. 😢 Great review ❤
Cheating is more than wrong. That's just gross personality trait of being a cheater and dishonest. Stop defending that garb. I don't even watch this show lool. Why am I here. You ppl are freaks.
Exactly! Like even the audience puts her on this pedestal of “perfect person” and if she just does anything realistic or (god forbid) human, people are disappointed. But they totally excuse her mother’s less than perfect behaviors. It’s sad that people had “such high hopes for her” not realizing that’s part of the problem. Expecting perfection of anyone dooms them to fail!
"professional bag fumbler" is so real. For all the times the show pokes fun at Paris, she is one of my favourite characters and I would 100% prefer her as a friend than someone like Rory irl.
@@genregarbage I so agree! Even though she often took things way too personally, she was genuinely so caring and sweet and just down to earth. Though she did make some bad mistakes, she was always blunt about it, unlike Rory
@@danielleromao8651 Say what you will about Paris' personality flaws (abrasive, insecure, prone to push others' boundaries, to name a few), she was a good student. For crying out loud, she ended up in medical school. Rory was also a good student, but she's also got her flaws as this video discusses. Point is that Paris took initiative. She was action-orientated. Was she misguided with that energy, especially when it came to anything social or leadership related? (Cough, Yale paper, cough) Absolutely. But at least she did things, she put herself out there. In fact, she puts Rory out there too and encourages her to try new things, make mistakes, etc. throughout the show, which is particularly important because Rory almost always needs a cheerleader to do anything.
@@danielleromao8651how are you not a good student but accepted into every ivy law and medical school you applied for without having the money for some huge donation?
The last three seasons were all about her and Logan, that’s why they barely focused on her writing-just the brutal dance review she wrote & saving the newspaper deadline (with Logan’s help 😒). From season 1, Rory encouraged Lorelei to lie to her partners, and she continued that kind of relationship immaturity & superiority throughout. I get it, she’s flawed even though everyone around her praises her, but she rarely admits or even sees her flaws and thinks everything she does is right. It’s just so annoying that they had such an opportunity to have two great female leads and yet they led them down weird paths.
I think Logan's help if anything further exemplifies the the importance of class connections. The entire reason he is able to stall the conversation or appease the guy they were talking to is because he started talking about his father. It's the reason why the guy was willing to listen to Logan in the first place. I think it's important thus to credit Rory and how she was able to curate an entire paper in such a short period of time :-) Her charac arc was disappointing but I appreciated her here.
I would have loved to see Rory’s international journalist career but that always felt like too big a world for the character. She thrives in a smaller pool 🤷♀️
Why do people hate on this character? She was a nice enough person. She made a few mistakes in her personal life but I don't understand the condemnation directed towards her.
From one of the most beloved character to the most annoying today. I felt the producers & writers had butchered Rory's character so bad. I felt that is quite really bad and wrong in so many ways as many girls at that time was looking up to her inspiring role ... Sad ...
I can agree that many teenagers looked up to her and related to her. But, i think Gilmore girls is not necessarily about creating role models but about portraying real people with their own personal flaws and struggles. People are very nuanced. In the same way, the characters in this show have made both good and poor decisions with questionable morality. But it makes them real. I also want to say that perhaps some of the girls that were idolizing Rory realized that even someone as "perfect" as Rory can fail and doesn't have her life together all the time.
I see a lot of people saying that Rory’s arc was the most “realistic” which I am not going to deny, but my personal reason for not applauding this is most people did not tune into Gilmore Girls for any type of realism. Rory is facing the typical millennial issues in the Year in the Life. As a millennial, I have no desire to watch a fictional show that was never rooted in realism, to be rebooted with arcs that reflect “this is what would happen if they were in the real world” because they are not in the real world.
I think it was great of the Netflix episodes to show Rory floundering. So much American media is about lead characters scoring touchdowns, hitting home runs, winning awards, becoming the popular kid... Really refreshing to see a main role model character struggle for a change. Much more relatable and edifying for many more people. I appreciated Rory all the way through. Lorelai the pushy narcissist, on the other hand, got onto my last nerve. Really appreciated the arguments between her and Suki and the teacher fiancé when the show acknowledged it occasionally. Always factored into Rory’s issue that she had to develop under such a domineering if friendly presence.
What i like the least is their fake feminist attitude. When they are being "highly feminist" they praise Hilary Clinton😂 but they only appeal to feminism when its about them because they are horrible with other women, Rory mocks Lindsay abd blames her for Dean's unhappiness and thinks she's below her because she became a housewife, mocks Madeleine and Louise for being the typical preppy pretty girls who worry about boys and looking pretty but they are the same way too, they mock girls who exercise or get/look fat (Jannette and Asher Fleming's fans), Rory behaves terribly with Jess's expartner Shane, they hate blonde women, she even gets mad at Lane for joining the cheerleaders, etc. basically they put down any girl who is not like them but wont accept that they are oh soooo pick me girls, probably the biggest ones in the show.
Professional bag fumbler lol. Smart and wise are not the same thing. Lorelei was a bag fumbler too. I get it that she didn't want to marry her high school boyfriend but she didn't have to run off and be a single teen mom living in a potting shed.
I also think Rory was a victim of the narrative. I think the creators were so invested in making Rory and Logan the new Lorelei and Christopher that they neglected Rory’s journalistic ambition. I heard somewhere that they wanted Rory to end the show pregnant like Lorelei and have her have to make the same decision Lorelei did, but the og creator exited before that could come about so everything about Rory and Logan from season 5-6 was moving in that direction (and it’s where we end in ‘a year in the life’). When Rory was with Dean and Jess she still had plot lines that focused on her writing independent of her relationships. But with Logan they spent so much time on him and Rory’s romance that Rory’s writing wasn’t prioritized or treated as it’s own thing. She only had two main articles from season 4-7, the mean ballerina article and the Life and Death Brigade article (yes there were more but I mean ones that took up at least one episode) She didn’t even put a spin on those stories like the pavement article. She could have examined the body issues ballerinas are pressured to adhere to or that Logan and his friends rich whiteness insulated them from real world consequences (she kind of did when Logan had that rich company party but even that circled right back to her relationship with him). She called the ballerina a whale and just wrote about how a secret society existed. Even before Logan’s family took her down, her writing didn’t come up that much. It’s a shame because it would have been really cool if she was exploring something or unearthing some scandal at college.
I've been rewatching season 1 and 2 right now and I cannot believe how rude she was to Tristan, Paris, Madeline, and Louise and even her grandparents when Emily was trying to help her infiltrate the school. I've always made her this perfect, misunderstood girl in my head. But now that I'm 33, I cannot believe her attitude at times (even towards Lane and Dean in season 1).
People need to go into this show not expecting the characters to be perfect, or even likeable. They make mistakes, cause problems, and can be considered bad people at certain points. That's what makes the show interesting. Rory doesn't learn from her mistakes, which gets her into more kooky hijinks and satisfies the audience. Who wants to watch a show about a perfect person? How boring.
I’m watching Gilmore Girls for the first time and I’m so disappointed in Rory. I thought Rory was sensible and down to earth, trustworthy, but the first red flag was that she wasn’t such a good friend to Lane. And then everything went downhill from there. Now I can’t stand her. She’s so rude to Lorelai and doesn’t regret her horrible mistakes. It’s almost a mental illness at this point. Hmm.. nah, she’s just being a bad person. :/ her actions are wrong and inexcusable. She should regret, apologize and change.
I always had a love for this show bc as a middle schooler every sunday (?) Me and my mom would sit down & watch it together when ithe new episode came on tv. We were very invested! Rorys character is pretty frustrating to watch looking back though lol
For me, if you are given an advantage it's human and in some ways logic to take it, the real problem with Rory is that she did nothing with what she was given! Plus, if your dream is big enough it's not the words of one single person (even if a well known expert of the field) to take you down, come on, that's your opportunity to prove them wrong, it's sad but true and realistic, some times you have to be your own biggest fan
The point of Rory's arc is that it's what she deserves. it's what she earned for herself, its the best she will become due to the enormous privilege the girl had and was completely blinded by. I have heard many women be accused of having a victim complex, but Rory really had one. Only the strangest part of her story wasn't that but the fact that she is not a victim in any way shape or form. But she does not see it that way, because she doesnt think of people less fortunate than her like that, because no one ever made her -- and the writers of the show know that. they did not respect Rory, because she did not deserve respect. She was given the arc and ending a character like that, shallow and pretentious, should have. a non-ending. she doesnt deserve anything else.
?? how is any of this about 'loner complex'? this video doesn't mention her being a loner. she wasn't a loner, either. she liked her own quiet time to read, like an introvert, but she was absolutely very interested in all her relationships with friends,neighbours,family.....
I love the show big Rory is not my favorite character. I relate to the show since my mother & I have the same age gap but we weren’t friends til I grew up. I also named my daughter Lorelai but I just really like the name .
i can relate to the being friends as grownups chapter BIG time 😅. i actually read that lorelai's name had a huge uptick in popularity after the show ended. (which I find kind of neat😊) thanks again for watching!
The problem with Rory is that she is the child of privilege but didn't grow up in that world.. she grew up with her single mother, and they didn't use Lorelai's parents to help. She doesn't know how to exploit it, or live in it. She needs to stop whining, and take whatever starter job she can in the news business.
This made me realize that I don’t mind that Rory didn’t take full advantage of her wealth and privilege. I feel extremely aware that wealth, privilege, and resources have a great impact on success. And I acknowledge and maybe even admire Rory’s attempt to be successful as a result of her brain and not her privilege. I wouldn’t blame her for taking advantage of those privileges either. I mean if I were in here shoes, with rich grandparents, I would probably try to benefit from the social networking and resources. The thing that bugs me about Rory is that she came off as hypocritical. I feel like she always tried to identify as a naive, small town girl. Or like she had this vibe of trying to distance herself from that sort of lifestyle, yet she wanted and had the opportunity to go to a prep school and Ivy League. She should’ve just went all in. If you’re gonna take your grandparents money and benefit from all the social connections, that’s fine, but do it proudly I guess. Don’t act like you got here just because you’re uniquely smart and gifted. And then don’t give up just because someone says you’re not smart. Prove them wrong. Jeez
Rory was just like her mom in the sense that she had the opportunity to navigate the world & her goals through advantages of her rich background but pretended to hate the rich too much to use them. Meanwhile messing with a wealthy and connected man, showing affinity for the lifestyle he offered etc. They’re just hypocrites tbh Edit I’m not arguing with y’all lmao
@animezae what do you mean? Lorelai worked her own way from being a maid to being a manager,without help of her family. while being a single mom. you think that's easy? also, hypocrite? Lorelai was mistreated by her parents her entire childhood, emotionally negIected. in real life she would be much less capable of being optimistic and happy.
@@bryand6811 rory didn't blow all her money on flashy, expensive items. It just ran out because she would rather exploit her family than work to support herself
Rory likes the narrative of her mom, strong independent, but in reality, she’s more fond of her grandparents connections. Logan is the only one to call her out on it and she’s UNCOMFORTABLE. I think deep down she knows she’s a shitty person, but she doesn’t want to admit it. Because admitting it means letting go of the “perfect girl” narrative she has made up in her mind.
But did she make it up in her mind? Or is she just trying to live up to some unattainable expectations everyone else (even the audience) put on her to be a “perfect person.” Perfect doesn’t exist, and if you expect someone to be perfect, then you are dooming them to failure because they are bound to be less than perfect aka human.
I honestly can't understand why people love Lorelai so much and demonize Rory so much. The reason she gets worse and worse over time is precisely because she never managed to be a child at the right time, as the roles of responsible adult and spoiled child were reversed throughout her relationship with her mother. I think Lorelai is a very overrated character, like everyone loves to talk about how she was always a great mother to Rory, but I really can't imagine a good mother kissing a teacher inside her own daughter's school, I can't imagine either a good mother making her daughter run away with her in the middle of the night because she simply decided not to get married at the last moment
@@TheMarkmcrYes, I totally agree. But that wasn't my point here. In the same way that Rory was no longer a teenager when she took these bad actions in her adult life, Lorelai was also already an adult woman when she deliberately decided to sleep with her own daughter's teacher and then run away from the marriage taking her daughter with her. And, as everyone loves to say, just as Lorelai's fault for being this way is partly her parents' fault, Rory's fault for growing up and becoming this way is partly her parents' fault too.
@@liciayasmim7039 lorelai's able to afford the day to day expenses and had no problem starting off with a low wage housekeeping job. By ayitl, rory is: a serial cheater, still obsessed with getting high profile work, and preferring to exploit those around her instead of asking for a paycheck. Clear sociopathic tendencies
@@TheMarkmcrWhy are you ignoring everything I just said? I'm not saying that Rory doesn't have flaws and you don't need to attack one to defend another. Both have flaws and clearly need therapy.
I think the way they portray most things in this series is bad. Like lorelai and max, i think theres too much max into the picture. He didnt end up staying. I think it would be interesting to see rory more outside of school… more alone interactions with grandparents and they should have fed into lorelai and luke, even if its a little strange match. Truly believe they broke rory when she couldnt even say i love you to dean but obviously we know she did because she cheated with him later. It all down spiraled from there. Jess and rory had a lot in common but yet another max we didnt actually we need. Logan is her fun. Logan is making her smile stupidly like dean did with his chananagans, so why couldnt they just make it work for either of them for real, commitment from young age could be something people really need to see. I also think they ruined emily when her man died and she let the help move in with entire family. I get shes broken but this is not in emilys sphere at all. She had the most personal growth of all i think, until that second. It would be fun seeing more to paris aswell. Who’s also got ruined by settling unhappy with that guy. I dont know what message all these failed relationships are supposed to but its just annoying and sad. And for the last part when rory finally got pregnant, its also incredibly sad, her not being manageble or ready in any way. Not familiar nor economoc. Whats this supposed to teach ppl. Its not like in the movies oh she gets pregnant and everythings just turns right for her… no. In real life what happens is abortions, adoptions, abuse, neglect in many forms and houselessness… just saying
I've been reading more comments about the realistic aspects as well as the things that should've been more fleshed out. I guess that's why people still have differing opinions on everyone's situations. (especially in a year in the life special) thanks for sharing and watching! 😊
Its so funny how people are so bored to make a video on a complete fictional character to discuss her inner life..sth that was created each day instead of being thought of longterm.
