The EXACT moment Rory's downfall begins | Gilmore Girls 

Switching to chilton is where I'd put the start of Rory's downfall. The fact that the grandparents paid for it undid everything her mom had taught her by example so far about self-reliance

I’m sure that the whole famdom will agree with me on this: oviously, no one is perfect, I just think that rory’s devolopment is realistic for someone in her position. rory’s environment does contribute alot to this because everyone arounds her spoils the hell out of her. its not just Lorelai’s fault and Rory’s grandparents fault.There’s the fact that the whole town treats rory like a princess majority of the time. its Crystal clear that this went into her head and ego, cause the second someone doesn't like her, natually Rory goes crazy. I will also add the fact that Lorelei is not only too easy on her like you said, She also treats Rory like a friend more than her kid.

I say her downfall was when she skipped school to see Jess, and miss Lorelai's graduation at the business school. That was the only time she would get to finally see her mother walk on the stage, and she risked it to see Jess. Her mom only started the whole thing for her. It was nice that at least her grandparents came, but it was just a huge event that she shouldn't have even risked missing. I think what brought it home was when I thought of all the sacrifices Lorelai made just, so that they could be more stable (I assume that she made this decision before she got involved w/ her parents again).

The "study tree" thing made me SO ANNOYED at Rory, I started to see her in a totally different light. It was just so entitled and bratty. Glad some people tried to call her attention on that and she let it go, but it didn't fix the whole issue.

I honestly don't care that Rory is kind of a mess in the original show - she's just a teen / early twenty something. People aren't perfect and they do dumb shit at that age. What I found deeply disturbing however is that between the series ending and the reboot, she had literally not grown an inch. In my experience, so much growth happens between the ages of 22 and 30, but unfortunately the writers just let her completely stagnate. Same with Lorelai and Luke btw, even though I found it a little more forgiveable, because they were already older when the show ended.

One of my absolute favorite moments of Gilmore Girls is with that judge who calls Rory an entitled privileged kid right after she steals the yacht. It would have been nice to see more characters with that sense of judgment calling out Rory for her behavior.

i think my biggest problem with rory isn’t her but the fact that no one ever seems to tell her she’s messing up or confront her for anything, especially her lack of accountability. I think it can be argued that her lack of accountability comes from constant free-passes she gets from her family and community when she does things that should lead to growth. and even if there isn’t any growth, it’s as if no one notices her bad behavior. it’s like the viewer is being gaslit into thinking rory is the epitome of everything.

I actually think "The Moment" is when her and Jess crass her car. The way everyone bends over backwards and forwards to remove any accountability from her and dump in on someone else was so bad that even she got annoyed but ultimately it was a mentality she internalized for the rest of the series.

I would like to come in Lorelai’s defense and remind us all that she had Rory in high school. When you are such a young mother and have to navigate the world of parenting AND adulting (she did not even graduate high school or get a chance to have a standard growing-up experience) simultaneously, without support of a father and your parents, you have a different set of emotional needs. I suspect Lorelai needed a best friend and a figure of support, but since Rory was the only constant person in her life, Lorelai moulded her into what she needed. By being a strict parent and having to hold her daughter accountable, she would have had to risk of pushing away someone she was emotionally dependent on. Is that right of her? Not really, but if you had a child at 16/17 with barely any support from or good relationship with your family , your needs would not be the same as one of an emotionally developed, financially stable adult with a substantial support system of people around you

This is a topic I love analyzing! I feel like Rory was set up to be a spoiled brat from childhood. Time and time again, Loralai brags about having the perfect daughter who practically raised herself, and that’s the problem. Loralai never raised Rory, or at least never acted as a parent. Rory was brought up with a mom who would always buy takeout, candy all the books she wanted (Not that these things are bad, but it shows how the two them would indulge in whatever they wanted. It also rubs me the wrong way how they never seemed to any food in their house and how everything Loralai fed Rory was unhealthy.) Loralai also relied on Rory for emotional support instead of being a parental figure to her. I think that messed Rory up a lot. In addition, Loralai herself also often puts herself first, before Luke, Sookie, Max etc, and always acted like the victim. That clearly rubbed off on Rory.

She is 100% insecure. And I blame her mom and the entire town. Imagine growing up and everyone telling you how perfect you are. You feel like you can do anything and you do. Then you have a fe people tell you the truth or get upset with you and you lose your mind. Shes the worst but I love the stupid, problematic show.

In my opinion, Rory was indeed a great kid/teen. It's interesting that most of the comments and the video focus on Lorelai and the way she raised her, blame the grandparents, even the town but forget to mention Christopher. He was the father so he was equally responsible for Rory. Yet, he was absent, irresponsible and unaccountable. I think that this is the source of Rory's insecurity and the reason she always tries to find stability and please her partners, altering fundamental traits of her personality. Rory tried to balance between a life her mother escaped from and an entitled life she entered again when she started Chilton. And that wasn't easy to handle.

2:23 oh my gosh that whole “my tree” thing made me so upset. Who does she think she is?

As some ppl have said, her flaws made her realistic. But I think some self-awareness and attempt at correction would also have been realistic, and certainly a nicer example for all of us growing up. She did correct some things (like moving back home and returning to school), but it still felt kind of grudgingly? I think the unsettling thing was that we thought we knew her character and personality (people do change and evolve, but usually certain things remain constant), but were surprised when she did things that went against her supposed traits: being sweet and quirky. It was like seeing a child and a projected image of who they would become, and then watching them grow into someone completely different.

Idk why are people so dissatisfied with how Rory turned out. She was treated like some miracle her whole life so when she met the real world she crumbled. Plus she is the embodyment of burned out gifted kid.... There is plenty of people that were so talented in their childhood but the pressure and many more things gave them issues they had hard times dealing with. She literally had to tap-dance when she felt anxious for God's sake.... We loved her and it's sad to see her downfall but it was predictable and if you think about it it's totally normal. I'm not even mad about it because it's what happens to people like Rory.

Rory’s character decline is literally historical lol. It was so sudden, at least that’s what I thought. Looking back, it was always there.

I love Gilmore Girls and disecting characters and their decisions but I think it's pretty simple: the writers aren't as clever as people think or the writer themselves think. Gilmore Girls is great, don't get me wrong but Amy Sherman Palladino writes forced character drama, this is pretty visible with Dean, Jess, Rory, Lorelai, Christopher and more, she tries to do Jane Austen without fully understanding Jane Austen.

she is literally ghostin Dean all the second season and people expect that he doesn't get mad about it. She cheats on him. the guy who takes her to buy books, the same guy who never tried to forced her to anything and he decided to broke up with her, because she wasnt ready to say "i love you" (first season) and the entire town hates on him, (and beats him) without knowing that he doesn't do anything wrong. Literally he made her a car. A CAR that she crash with the guy who Dean was supposted "not to be worried about." And She never faces the consequences. Dean ruins his own marriage, but the fact that Rory enjoys controlling the situation with "he was mine first" says a lot of a narcissist personality and not empathy at all. she was like that all the time, since the first season. *sorry about my english is not my firts language**

I wonder what would’ve happened if she and Lorelei had had more of an open minded approach to therapy instead of referring to it as “having your head shrunk” or declaring rory a “nut” when the psych wanted her to come back weekly. Some therapy might’ve helped Rory adjust her worldview and self image.

I think it started long before even going to chilton. I remember her arguing with Lorelai when she didnt want to change schools because of Dean in the very first episode. It really showed how she was used to being treated as Lorelai's friend rather than as her daughter. She was already a bit spoiled at that point, and her grandparents made that 10 times worse, sometimes even sabotaging Lorelai's parenting.

For me its for sure this scene: "Rory wouldn't lie, right?" "No. Rory wouldn't lie" (Fading out with Rory talking with Jess in Luke's while Dean and Lorelai talked outside and looked at them) This scene gets me everytime. The good people believing in Rory while she is silently falling in love with Jess and not knowing how to alc who to talk to what to say and what to do. Also of course this whole Lorelai tells her to not tell Dean when she is doing something that couldt hurt him really bad adds to that. But standing there hearing how Dean and Lorelai put their trust in her as she was always the perfect girl always makes me sad knowing what will come in the next 5 seasons. But also when i watched it the first time i knew there was something wrong and bitter in this scene and that it would probably go down soon.

I love Lorelai and Rory's relationship, but ultimately, Lorelai is the parent and in her fear of putting too much on Rory and being like her own parents, she goes the other way entirely and behaves more like a friend. Rory has no reason to act out because she's given the freedom to more or less do as she wants as Lorelai believes she'll do whatever is best. She's not given the chance to rebel against things because - especially in earlier seasons - she's too busy trying to help her mother deal with her life or she's just quietly and independently getting on with her own life without Lorelai having much input. As such, this idea of being a failure is so hard for her to deal with because she's not used to doing anything wrong. She's The 'Perfect' Kid. She tries hard. She does her work. She goes out with the good guy. She takes care of things. She is her mothers emotional support from a young age. Her mother is the one who supposedly screwed it all up and now Rory will have it better. But then things start to go wrong when she starts wanting different things to what's expected of her and instead of this being safely explored while she was a child where her mother COULD step in, it's happening as an adult where there are real consequences (or would be, if not for her grandparents). It's why she sounds like a 14/15 year old at 20, she hasn't had the chance to overcome this boundary. I think you see some of it when Lorelai tries to drop her off at college but Rory doesn't want her to go. This is where she gets lost for me - it's the moment she's left around a lot of people who are very different to her and she begins to assimilate and emulate them, because she hasn't had the emotional growth and maturity to come into herself yet. She doesn't know how to fail and pick herself up, because she's spent her whole life trying not to fail because she wanted to be there for her mother and not make things harder for her. Things have to go to Plan and when they don't, she can't handle it because it's a failure. Rory needed a safe space to be a teenager and screw up in, then go through the consequences and grow from it. But Lorelai is young herself, and doesn't push consequences till the arrest and by then, Rory's an adult. All of this has grown out of Lorelai not wanting to alienate her child as she felt alienated, and Richard and Emily making allowances for Rory out of fear of losing her as they once did Lorelai. They throw their money and privilege at the problem, thinking it'll help when it ends up hurting. It's everyone trying to do their best not to make a mistake and then when they do, not owning it and moving on from it. Rory's decline is awful, but it's also heavily influenced by the things that happened before she was even born. What bothers me about her is that even when Rory works at the DAR, she's an incredibly hard worker, she's driven, she's personable, she has so much potential if she could only find it in herself to move past her need to cling to the view of herself as someone who has to do the right thing all the time. That fear makes her arrogant, because she can't acknowledge her mistakes: not unlike Lorelai or her grandparents. The cycle should have been broken by Rory and instead, she just became part of it and history repeats itself.

Unpopular Opinion: Mitchum wasn’t so bad. He constantly wanted Logan to be better, do better, finally mature like he himself once had. And he said to Richard that if Rory did have what it took to succeed, then she would be able to bounce back despite his criticism towards her. Plus he was not rude and disrespectful to Rory like the rest of Logan’s family was and he apologized for the way they had treated her when she had dinner at their house. I just don’t think he’s that bad. I think at that point in the show where he was introduced, I even liked him more than I liked Rory.

Now this is a really interesting take. I always thought her decline started when she slept with married Dean. But you're right, actually started earlier than that

What i love about this show is that it reveals that bad people aren't always easily seen as such. You can be pretty, get good grades; love your mom; volunteer for charity and still be a bad person. Your character isn't defined by the good you do. It's defined by the choices you make when life isn't easy. Rory's choices prove she's not a good person and that's what makes her such a good character. Yes there are evil people in the world or people who want to be bad but also people who are bad that either don't realize it or refuse to change their behavior out of selfishness. She reveals this throughout the story and I believe that most people would justify her actions through her upbringing but she really did have all the tools. Everyone told me I wouldn't amount to anything because of my upbringing but they were all wrong. I make my own choices, we all do. It's okay to make a mistake, it's human. But to justify the pattern of choices people make in tv or real life because we idolize them or simply love them is discrediting to our humanistic all emcompassing instinct to be good.

5:08 this is such an interesting point to start the downfall and honestly, it makes sense. Lorelai definitely defended her actions all the time, and Rory also learnt the flighty avoidant non confrontational behaviour from lorelai. But also Rory is her own person, it’s interesting to see how instead of trying to avoid the mistakes her mom made, she did similar things

The thing about Rory's downfall is that it mainly happens because the people in her life always prevents her from facing the consequences for her actions, so she grew up without not knowing How to cope with failure and dealing with "no" from life

Its not just Lorelei, its EVERYONE especially Emily and Richards money! Rory would have never had an easy time of it as she did if she did not utilize the benefits or priveledge of being the grandchild of Connecticut's Elite. Richard and Emily gave Rory access and she reveled in it! Honestly, Rory started changing in episode 2 when she put on that Tiger Woods hat Emily got her and started using words like "quite". Rory pretended to not care but she so obviously ADORED the World her grandparents brought her into and has been walking towards that priveledged life since season 1. Lorelei, was too busy trying to be Rory's friend and the entire town paid homage to the Gilmore girls every 3rd episode with Rory literally getting a huge going away party in pouring rain because she got a job. WTF... lol.. What is funny is Rory was actually good at being an upper class society darling and would have done Emily proud.. she never really liked to work too hard, she loved to make fun of other people using her intellect and wit, and although she did study hard, everything else was given to her because her family name and her pretty east coast debutante looks. Remember when Rory still attended a party even though she had a BOYFRIEND ( DEAN) with Yale Bachelors.. she should have left as soon as she figured what her grandparents were doing.. she WANTED to be there.. she acted like she was so innocent but yeah she wasnt.. then Dean finds her with a bunch of rich, handsome guys after he threw away his whole marriage for her! She stopped liking Dean after Logan basically took her to a Gatsby party in the woods and Dean gave her some potato chips and was too busy to read her article because he was working.. I still love her but she is also the worse... Rory loved the Hamptons jet set life and Logan was literally the icing on the cake!! I am not sure why she turned down his proposal.. they were weirdly perfect for each other.. Jess deserved better.. Blair from gossip girl was totally right when she said she deserved to go to Yale way more than that Rory!

I like Rory's character. Not all characters must be likeable, Rory was really really flawed and that's okay. The idea of going down this spiral of bad decisions was to show how her mother and her are almost the same person, and it was done to put Lorelai in the place where her mother was when she left her home pregnant. This way Lorelai got to see how Emily felt all those years ago.

The moment Rory graduated from high school was the most rapid character decline I have ever seen. Sure she can be a realistic character, but when you compare it to the whole towns praising of her, as if she’s a literal GOD for any achievement, her flaws stand out A LOT more. She cheated, she forced others to cheat, she lied over topics that I wouldn’t even dream of lying about. Everyone had high expectations of her, and she had a burnout, in the Netflix 4 part sequel, you see she didn’t live up to her childhood prodigy glory, and suffered from this because she was never taught that things don’t just come to you, at least when it comes to having a job or romantic interest, and she really lingered in a relationship with one poor guy and FORGOT that he existed, a perfectly fine nice guy. Of course you wouldn’t expect the blind eye of Rory because of her mothers position of a single mom, so it leaves me wondering if her mom ever even taught her of the topic. Literally a WHOLE TOWN, sure a small one, but still big enough, loved her more than they might’ve loved their own kids, which of whom we never even saw because again, she was treated as a God.

For me, her downfall became solidified in the season 5 episode where her and Dean break up again, when Emily and Richard threw her that party to meet all the boys from Yale. She had a boyfriend, a normal person would’ve told them that their setup was ridiculous and left. However she stayed because she loved getting dressed up in a tiara and expensive jewelry, and all the attention she was getting from the men to the point that she lost track of time and left Dean outside waiting. When she finally went to meet him she had a trail of guys behind her and was being all giggly, she humiliated him. Then when he left, she let out a few sniffles but then quickly went back to partying with the guys for the rest of the night. When she showed up back at home in the limo, once again giggling with all the guys, you can see lorelai staring at her from inside the window.. in that moment starting to see the permanent changes in her and her fully embracing that life and the entitlement.

I've learned from the creator of the series --- Amy Sherman-Palladino. She made the decision to leave Rory’s story messy and open-ended because that’s generally how life works. To quote what she said, “Your life should not have a bow on it at 32. Your life should be a wide-open field at 32 years old.” I initially thought it would change in the revival but she never really grew up --- like Lorelai. Lorelai still acted like she was in her early 30s in the revival but what I like about her is that if the situation calls for her to act mature, she becomes one and makes proper decisions. Rory became entitled to having everything and she didn't know how to take rejections well. What I did love about this is that Paris really became successful as she should be --- she has the grit and she takes no for an answer. I personally think Paris would be the journalist --- and not Rory. Which we have seen during their college years --- the editor always found Rory's pitches boring and she didn't really grabbed that opportunity when she was an intern in Mitchum's newspaper company.

Yes!! The problem wasn’t so much that Rory messed up. The problem was that she never learned from her mistakes. I was supper disappointed in how she turned out as an adult. Her and her mother never seemed to mature. As entertaining as the show was and though I enjoyed the mother/daughter relationship, I never really loved the show or the characters the way I do other shows. Even Eleanor from “the Good Place” annoyed me less and grew as a character more

Someone needs to do a commentary video entitled: Rory Gilmore and unrecognised emotional labour. Caveat: Rory can be toxic herself, we’ve all expounded at length on that now. But. No one talks about how amazing she can be at supporting the people in her life. Paris is the prime example: she grows so MUCH thanks to Rory’s friendship. Rory shows Paris kindness; teaches her interdependence. Paris wouldn’t have approached her relationships with Jamie and Doyle and she did, with vulnerability, and a measure of trust, and even devotion, without her friendship to Rory. Rory straight up became her bully’s best friend. Personally I don’t think she should have bothered, Paris was horrid. But it turned out well, and it’s thanks to Rory. Rory also offered Jess a connection (which, like Paris did initially, also took for granted). On the other end, Rory is parentified by her mum and made into an extension of Lorelai. Rory’s two biggest challenges are pointed to her by two men in her life long before Mitchum. Headmaster Charleston tells her straight up: you’re not an Amanpour type. Unlike mitchum, he has the decency to tell her who she could be (Cookie roberts i think?). And dean tells her: she basically does nothing and worse, thinks nothing, before checking with Lorelai first. I’m not saying this video did that (it’s actually a fairly open minded take on Rory I think) but the Rory hate is so unnuanced it has to stop.

No that was actually good advice… Rory wasnt together with Dean when the kiss happened. And I think what Lorelai says here is very true: she would only tell Dean to make herself feel less guilty but by doing so make Dean hurt unnecessarily.

I personally think rory has been slowly getting worse since the beginning. She ignored Lane for Dean when Lane wanted to have a simple teenage crush talk. She kissed Tristan right after he tells her that he loved her then made the town believe he was the villain. She got mad when Dean became insecure of their relationship while she spent her time with Jess who she kissed while they were still in a relationship and ditched her mom's graduation for him then guilt trips Lorelai. She blamed Lindsey for Dean's affair when she was actually a good wife and she's always thinking everyone is against her or has to love her.

One moment that, I believe, foreshadowed her downfall was when she ran to her grandparents ' when she found out about Lorelei and Max. Yes, absolutely, Lorelei should have told her (or... maybe NOT dated her daughter's teacher?), but running off and scaring Lorelei to death wasn't cool.

I think the story was always about how Rory was an entitled brat all along and her development is realistic. She never experienced any rejection nor failure, and she was told she could do anything, that she was perfect, everyone always wanted to make her happy… she’s literally described as an angel by the entire town. And she acts accordingly, she believes all of that, so when life proves wrong those statements she cracks, can’t deal with any criticism or anything that tells her she’s not perfect. Everyone makes excuses for her, so of course she never believes she did anything wrong, and when someone is hurt or points her behavior out they’re the villain. She was told so much that her destiny was to be perfect and successful at everything that she thought she was entitled to it but when things don’t go her way she throws tantrums, because her whole believe system is shattered, and she never got to mature in that aspect, that’s why her adult life is a mess. She could have self awareness and finally mature and make amendments, but a lot of people don’t, and keep being entitled and spoiled their whole lives. I think Rory is the last one.

It's crazy how one moment can have such a dramatic ripple effect. A moment that gets solved in a episode that leads to more and more that changes you dramatically

Honestly, I blame Lorelai for the way Rory turned out much more than I blame Rory. In fact, I never even thought there was a downfall of her character; she was a people-pleaser from the very beginning and rarely expressed her point of view on anything. While Paris might have been too straightfoward and even insensitive in that regard, Rory was trying too hard to be 'comfortable' for everybody; and how can you blame a person for that? She was RAISED in such conditions that she was praised when she did well in school, she was praised when she acted modest and quiet, she was praised when she did something not for herself, but for someone else. The Perfect Kid. I was especially upset when Lorelai overheard Paris and Rory's conversation and Paris's first sex and Lorelai got SO HAPPY Rory hadn't had sex yet herself she offered to go buy her new shoes for that. Now that's destructive. She wasn't actually allowed to be whatever she wanted to be at all times; she was always expected to be an angel instead. And when things in her life finally got complicated, I think that it was the actual lack of communication (!) between her and her mom that made her make bad decisions. Aftet years of surpressing her thoughts and feelings in case those were not 'too comfortable' for other people, she started igniting easily and getting mad at people. Fair enough. It's like she was just sick of it at some points and had no healthy idea on how to manage properly. Again, Lorelai's fault for always presenting herself as The Perfect Mother who thought therapy a thing for junkies and real talk unnecessary.

My personal theory is that Lorelei pushed all her unfulfilled dreams onto Rory. I feel like it was Lorelei’s dream for Rory to attend an Ivy League school and felt like Rory owed her in a sense for the sacrifices she had made. While Rory was smart & a good student, I think the pressure became too much and rebelled in a similar way that Lorelei did when she was a teenager. I think she was tired of living someone else’s dream and went in a completely opposite direction.

Personally it's a pet peeve of mine when people try to say "no one's perfect" because yes, but it misses the whole point of why people are so upset by Rory: the show, most of the time, is not self aware. It does not hold Rory accountable. With Emily's flaws, for example, or even Paris, the people around them point out their shortcomings, but with Rory, they continuously treat her like she's some Disney princess, no matter what she does. That's what ruins it. If they held her accountable more, there wouldn't be all this fuss as much. Like you said we just wanted consequences to her actions! Would've made this show a lot better. I agree with your assessment of when things went downhill

This hits for me. When I was a kid, I would watch this show with my Mum (we were the only two girls and it was something we did just for us). When I was a kid, I thought Rory was this awesome person who i wanted to be like because she was witty, expressive, funny, smart- everything I wanted to be like. For a lot of years, I still had this show in rose coloured glasses and thought about it nostalgically. When it came to Netflix and I had some time off Uni, I went down memory lane- but instead of roses, I found a lot of thorns, especially where Rory and Lorelai were concerned. It was really off-putting to realize how AWFUL these characters I loved were as people- and yeah, a good writer doesn't just write about goody-two shoes because that isn't relateable to anyone, but neither Lorelai or Rory make any growth or seem to grasp when they've done something wrong and everyone in their lives still treat them as wonderful darlings. I mean Rory cheats in just about every relationship she has without remorse, she completely loses her mind if anyone criticizes her (like Mitchum and the Professor at Harvard), she never even feels bad for completely trashing the ballerina in the school paper, can never even see how privileged her life became after her grandparents started paying for everything (at least Logan knew and admitted he was an entitled, privileged asshole), and she keeps lying and badmouthing people who try to help her. And Lorelai is no better. When it comes to her parents she still acts like a spoiled 15 year old who thinks she is so hard done by them, and she never moves on from this mentality despite all the times she goes to them for help and they give her the help (I mean they give her hundreds of thousand of dollars for Rory's education and she acts like it's unfair that they actually want to see their daughter/grand-daughter), and then she gets worse in the revival.

Personally, I like Rory's character flaws. They make her more real and human then a lot of other TV characters. Rory didn't go out and take over the world like she was made out to do in the early stages of the show. Nope, when she went out into the world, she just fell flat on her face time and time again. Just like most of us do. Even with all her help and privilege, she still manages to fail. That makes her one of the best characters in TV history in my opinion.

That episode where Rory is late because of a deer in the road leading her to fail a test and her demand that she be allowed a do over was the beginning her downfall. Lorelai even gets involved talking to her teacher. And she gets what she wants. Rory never developed a healthy coping mechanism for criticism or failure.

You've got some really good insights. I've been watching this series over & over and I haven't even thought about everything you just mentioned. It's nice to know that there are people like me who are so into this show. Thanks for making my day 😊

Definitely disagree. I think her downfall didn't start till season 4 but the ground of her insecurity was laid in how she couldn't bring herself to break up with Dean even though she wanted to be with Jess, and many other moments. But she didn't actually start to fall as a character till season 4.

I'd say not showing up to her mom's graduation was a big one too, but for me Rory wasn't truly unredeemable until Year in the Life. When I was watching it I breathed a sigh of relief when she took over the Stars Hollow Gazette and seemed to be settling down there. I wanted her to pause and reflect and realize that she had all the love and fulfillment she could ever need right there. Maybe she'd even meet one of the townies she was making fun of and be happy with him. When that really REALLY didn't happen I ceased caring about her entirely.

I really didn't like most of "A year in the life" (Emily's arc was the best hands down) and I LOVE the show. As for your take, nailed it. If there has to be "one moment"... this is a GREAT point to look to.

I think the "this is my study tree" is a perfect example of what was wrong with Rory. Way too old to figure you're that cute and important. If I'd said that crap to someone at age 5 I would have been scolded. That's what you get when you have a character who is literally cheered for by an entire town.

Mitchum was right when he said, "You don't got it."

This is a brilliant take. I totally forgot about that moment in the show, and it really puts everything that happened in future episodes/ Day in the Life into perspective.

This is why I still love the Gilmore Girls. They are not perfect and this is like people in the real world are.

I don't think that it is Rory's obligation to stay at Yale because of Lorelai's dreams. I used to think that it was great that Lorelai motivated Rory to go to an Ivy League school, but now I feel that it was more about Lorelai wanting to achieve her own goals through Rory, which is understandable, but also very sad. Lorelai might seem confident, but after her daughter decides to leave Yale, she says that Rory was supposed to be more than her and she was supposed to have everything. So Lorelai has this inferiority complex, even after opening her own inn, because she couldn't go to a "real" college and she wants it so badly, that she refuses to see that Rory is not cut out to be a famous and influential journalist, simply because of her personality. This doesn't mean that she wouldn't make it at all, but aiming for the most prestigious papers and nothing else clearly wasn't a good idea. Not to mention, that attending college does not mean that you will be successful in the future at all, but believing that it magically sorts your life out has led to depression for many people in Rory's generation, so the portrayal of that process is very accurate in the show.

I think it started when she disregarded Dean's feelings to be with Jess and no one truly called her out

I somewhat agree. Rory wasn’t dating Dean at that time so it really didn’t matter if she kissed Tristan or not. I think Rory started sucking in Season 2 when she had a picnic with Jess even though it would clearly hurt Dean. Then she claimed that she did it for the sake of town tradition. Girl bye! Then they try to make the audience sympathize with her foolery. Honestly, Rory’s best boyfriend was Logan because he told her about herself. Dean was creepily obsessed with Rory and couldn’t tell her she was wrong. Jess had soooo many problems in his own life and shouldn’t have had a girlfriend. He treated Rory like garbage when they were dating. Logan was the only person to tell Rory that she’s not as special as she thought she was. 👏 👏Well done Logan!

her downfall began as soon as she became an adult. everyone still treated her like royalty and that she could do no wrong which fuelled her entitlement and caused her to lash out because she was old enough to fight back against the adults. her nasty behaviour grew during her college years beyond redemption.

Your points are very well reasoned, but imo there’s no definitive downfall moment. Sure, going by the details you provided, we can see why she became more comfortable with lying. But nothing explains why she started doing so many things that required her to lie. Fans always write off her sense of entitlement as realistic, but she was raised by Lorelei in Stars Hollow her whole life, so being entitled should’ve already been part of her character from the beginning. Clearly not the case. And even after meeting her grandparents, the only major change that occurred was that she switched her mother’s dream for her grandparents’ dream, an identical dream she worked hard to achieve. Her sudden change was neither realistic nor organic imo. ASP stated that she wanted Rory to become Lorelei over time, so Rory randomly started doing things that Lorelei would do or had done, particularly in her relationships, even though they were out of her character. So it wasn’t that Rory changed, ASP just didn’t let her be herself. This is clear via how all her love interests mirrored Lorelei’s: Jess = Luke, Logan/Tristan = Christopher and Dean = Max. Her movement away Dean towards Jess was the catalyst that set her on the path to becoming Lorelei 2.0, but it never fully made sense, nor did the behaviour that followed. And because she had no baby to add self-less single mother to her narrative, she comes off looking and doing worse than Lorelei did.

The whole Dean Situation taught her how to play her mother against her grandmother. She plays everybody like an evil mastermind since then.

I watched Gilmore Girls when I was younger and overlooked/didn't observe a lot of these things as problematic. Some months back I decided to rewatch it and I saw videos talking about her downfall and privilege. It is from these same videos that I realised that a lot of her behaviours weren't acceptable, but that everyone in the show gave her a free pass.

I think also seeing her mother cheat on her boyfriends and sleep with her dad when he had a GF was a breaking point for her and why she acted as if its okay to cheat and sleep with a married man

love your channel!

I do think this is an interesting take on where Rory declined. However - she chose to take what her mom said and use it to feel entitled. Sorry, but I think Loreli was correct in how she explained the Tristan situation to Rory. Rory felt guilty; she wanted to get rid of her guilt. To do that, she thought she needed to tell Dean, and then she would feel better only then doing what you said she had done all along. - hurt those that care about her. All that guilt would have passed on to Dean, not in a way he would feel guilty, but that he would feel awful. Then she would feel better and justified that she had done the right thing in her head without acknowledging what she had done. Loreli giving her advice isn't what made her avoid consequences; she would have felt justified either way.

i was watching gilmore girls again yesterday and i do agree with you analogy, her lack of accountability caused her decline, and i feel that the very moment it all started was when jess crashed the car and we saw the whole town babying her even though she asked jess to keep driving while being in a relationship with dean, she wanted accountability for the incident but it was a harbringer of what exactky caused her downfall

I know it probably started a bit before this but it sucked that just as Luke and Lorelai got together - which I, like imagine pretty much everyone watching the show, had been waiting for several seasons - she had the affair with Dean, like literally the same night, which took the shine off that moment. And then what was supposed to be a happy time of Luke and Lorelai starting dating was clouded by Rory and Lorelai falling out and not speaking to each other. It's a shame bc Luke was such a father figure to her and it would have been so nice to see the three of them as a family dynamic in that particular, exciting moment in time when everything was just starting to fall in place.

I think you make a really cool point. Because while it's realistic for a person to simply change as they age, in story telling it's important for decisions to signify change and how she WANTS to tell Dean but then her best friend talks her out of it (then she faces no consequences so we see the character learn that lying and getting away with stuff) would be really good long term story telling.

It was everyone round her. The whole town idolized Rory (and to an extent Lorelai too) One of the biggest signs of this was when everyone thought Dean dumped Rory for no reason. Rory never mentioned what caused Dean to break up with her, she just let everyone think he did it out of the blue and broke her heart so carelessly when he was more heartbroken when she didn’t tell him she loved him (Dean was immature for that yes). They didn’t know the whole story, the didn’t NEED to be so involved in some teenagers’ love life, and they were so quick to villainize Dean. It’s honestly a lot of unhealthy behavior from adults towards kids. This only got worse over time tbh.

i think it started the moment that girl chose yale over harvard

i get that rory's love life was a turmoil and that affected her academic skills. but here instead of judging her downfall or blaming her mother or one of her boyfriends for the loss of grace, shouldn't we accept the fact that this happens in reality? i can vouch for Rory because i relate to her. sure i found her actions annoying at times but that's what humans are - annoying sometimes! they make mistakes, sometimes even big ones. i relate to Rory because just like her i used to be the most brilliant student at school, participating in competitions, winning scholarships. but in tenth grade everything started going downhill. i started facing minor setbacks. heck i was so entitled to being a topper that when a teacher or a parent scolded me i used to cry!! i face setbacks and stay depressed and embarrassed about it. one minor inconvenience when things don't go my way and bam! it's like the end of the world. so in conclusion after watching the entire show, i loved Rory because that character is just like me!

I have to say even though I think Rory definitely has her flaws I think that people exaggerate her downfall. Are we gonna forget how Lorelei had a downfall too? She would steal her parents liquor at 15 with her boyfriend and literally got pregnant. Of course Rory made mistakes and it made us angry to watch but maybe the real reason it made us angry was because it’s realistic and it reminds us of ourselves and how we aren’t perfect either. The reason the producers created Rory’s downfall was actually because they felt her character was too perfect. Rory is a perfect example of what it’s like to be human and I think people spend way too much time hating on her character instead of focusing on how it’s realistic

ok so when rory was a teen/early 20s it was forgivable bc tbh were all rly dumb at that age but the fact that she still is like that when shes like 30 makes her the worst character in my opinon

The point where i lost it was when Logan and Rory stole the yacht, and after picking her up, when Rory tried to tell Lorelai that it was her idea, Lorelai IMMEDIATELY tells her its Logan's fault. SHE is ALWAYS blaming other people for critcizing rory, even if it was true. She literally calls Mitchum an asshole for telling her the truth and that pissed me tf off. It's always the boys fault for things going wrong and for ONCE when Rory tries to take accountability she defends her and says "stop trying to protect him". The reason is that she thinks her kid is an ANGEL, when in reality she isn't. Rory doesn't listen or take accountability because of how her mom let her go off so EASILY, and then Lorelai gets mad and upset when rory doesn't listen. Pathetic.

She’s just a normal late teen/20 something, it is COMPLETELY underrated how difficult it is, there was no decline, this was just a utterly realistic view of what it is like growing up

I think it’s her first bad grade at a Chilton which is only like 3 episodes in. She nearly quits the school because of one bad mark and you can see that lorelai is disappointed in her lack of resilience. It’s the same with every problem she hits. Everyone keeps saying “Rory is different. Rory is special. She’s the sweetest kid. She wouldn’t lie”.

That’s very interesting,I just restarted the show two days ago so I’m gonna look at it with this in mind! 👌

Although I don't believe you can really pinpoint an exact moment when it happened, I think you hit the nail on the head. No accountability and no true consequences will (most of the time) result in a downward spiral. I too, have watched the series from beginning to end multiple times (watched it first on Netflix back in 2018). Now I'm gonna go back once again to try and really analyze the show; it's just too entertaining to concentrate on the "work" lol.

You worded this perfectly! Lorelai shielded Rory from reality and the truth she basically made her think she didn't deserve the consequences of her own actions, plus Lorelai acted more like a peer than a mom. but it wasn't just lorelai who did that, it was the entire town that hyped her up and told her she was the perfect innocent girl from grades,personality to life in general. That leaded her to never really reflect on her mistakes but to always pin them on someone else. at first I really loved her character but she just never learned from her mistakes but who can blame her since she was raised in privilege and entitlement.

To be honest it makes sense that Rory’s downfall began when she started entering into romantic relationships. She never grew up with parents or anyone around her who had a long lasting, healthy and committed long term relationship. For example her parents were split up since she was a baby and Lorelai never settled down with anyone. She just casually dated and brought many men to the house. Lorelai wasn’t a good role model / example when it comes to love and relationships and she clearly had commitment issues. She literally slept with Christopher the night her and Luke broke up. That was just selfish and cruel. Therefore Rory was brought up her whole life being exposed to a careless and selfish attitude towards relationships so no wonder she adopted this same attitude towards her own romantic relationships too.

i think that rorys true downfall comes from when Jess is introduced and she becomes interested. almost all of rorys worst decisions are because she's boy crazy which is normal for a teenage girl but these bad habits she falls into because of it, never leave her when she becomes an adult. loralie keeping her love life more private from rory for a long time maybe wasn't a good thing. maybe rory needed an example of how to act in relationships because she clearly doesn't know how to act

My impression was that the Series was the book Rory wrote, all sweetness and light not mention carefully curated to make it seem perfect and a Year in the Life was the ugly reality of the situation where the flaws are up-front and center.

As someone who is currently watching GG in S5, I still really hated the fact that Rory never got a proper "punishment" for cheating with AND on Dean. Although she was treated badly by Jess and karma got her, the fact that there was little to no intervention that happened about it. It just sort of became nothing. Lorelai knew that Rory cheated on Dean with Jess and did nothing but still condoned Rory. She scolded Rory for cheating WITH Dean on Lindsay but after being verbally "sorry" it just became okay to her. Nobody is perfect but god, Rory is such a princess.

I actually like Rorry getting bad, at least until the Revival. It's feel logical and an natural evolution of her life style and her mother relationship. Just like Carrie Bradshaw both are entitle and self center, but they are intresting and realistic. ( And i kinda see indentify with them because i also am entitle to my parents and talk a lot about myself or only think of my interst. They help me notice it and grow from it, If every character were nice and perfect tv would be so boring)

yeah yeah, can we all agree that jess was fine though?

I honestly think that lorelay is one of the most classist character on the show as well as her daughter. She claims to want to run away from the word that emily and richard forced upon her but takes rory to a private school implaying that a public school would not be enough to get in a good college... there's just too many contradictions

Very good points! I always thought that was horrible advice Lorelai gave. I so wanted Rory to be honest with Dean so he could forgive her and move on - and you know he would have! (After a little pouting, maybe, but he still would have forgiven her!)

For me it was when she chooses Yale over Harvard. It sucks the writers did this for the convenience of keeping all the characters close by. But on a narrative level Rory gives up her entire dream to attend a school without any good reason other than being near Lorelai and her grandparents--and then lets them pay for it. I think Harvard would've forced Rory to grow up more and find her own identity.

Such a cool vid!

wow wow wow the second you played that clip I SCREAMEDDD!!! That is seriously the moment of her decline👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

4th grade was way too young to be watching Gilmore Girls.

I think her whole problem started when Lorelai asked her parents to pay for Chilton for Rory. You have to realize that Rory grew up in the poverty her mother chose to put herself, and therefore her daughter in, to get away from her rich family. Rory has had to settle for what her mother could afford for her, and what those around her basically were willing to hand down to them. So she worked hard to get as closer to her dream based on what she believed was their income level. Once Lorelai brought her rich parents into the equation, Rorys belief that she HAD to work hard in everything she did, like Paris, to get into Harvard was thrown out the window. It has now become easier to get ahead, sure she still has to work hard, but some hard parts of her life have become easy to solve with money. At this point, she is no longer the only daughter of a single working mother, but an heiress, the only granddaughter of the Gilmore family. At some point, Rory no longer identifies herself as Lorelais studious daughter, but instead she becomes a Gilmore, as is most blatantly seen in the episode "But I'm a Gilmore". Lorelai on the other hand grew up learning that while money gives you better and easier opportunities, it also comes with strings attached in the form of family traditions and obligations, which prompted her to run away after she got pregnant in the first place. Even when Rory is introduced to these aspects of their wealthy family, she too runs away from it. Unfortunately, she does not gain Lorelais perspective to work harder,and improve herself to gain independence but instead because she has been accustomed to her doting grandparents, she knows that as their only granddaughter she is their only heir, and therefore remains dependent on the fact that she is and always will be a Gilmore. Funny thing is that in the later part of her life she starts to become like her half sister Gigi who she thought was a spoiled brat.

When I first watched GG back in the 2000's, I thought Rory was a lot like my sister. She was an above-average student, but got too much praise from everyone. Everyone in our family thought she could do no wrong. She thought she was entitled to get whatever she wanted from her siblings, thought she was smarter than everyone else, and nobody ever said no to her. But when she got to college, things went downhill. She joined too many extracurricular activities just for the attention, her grades went down, and she slid into underachievement.

Honestly, with a mother like that, who believes the entire world revolves around her, I won't blame Rory for turning out to be the way she did. I quit the show after 2 seasons cause Lorelai was such insufferable character, though I really liked the cozy vibes and witty humour of the show I couldn't take Lorelai anymore. Had me rolling my eyes to the back of my head every 2-3 mins.

Her boyfriend was so jealous, controlling and prone to anger outbursts that she was afraid to tell him about a kiss that happened when they were not even together. She's not the one to blame there.

Hm I have to (partly) disagree. You also have to take into consideration what the writers' intentions were. Rory was always portrayed as *the* perfect girl. She had good grades, was ambitious, kind, docile and was well-liked by everyone in her town because of all her good attributes. Still, she wasn't the stereotypical nerdy underdog you might expect; she had a great relationship with her cool mum and was really into pop culture as well. But then the showrunners decided to make her portray more human. Even if your grades are great and you're doing very well (academically), you can still struggle due to the personal stress you are confronted with. But because of that, people try to find reasons why she became who she eventually became and I kind of think the showrunners didn't think much of that....Like, yes, Lorelai and other people kept praising her, but I mean.... *for a reason*. She was really talented as a journalist ans academically gifted. So I actually think people are reading way too much into Lorelai's behaviour regarding Rory, as I think that this was not the showrunners' intention. Also the thing with Mitchum....I truly do not understand why he said that as she was portrayed as someone who is easily capable of being a journalist, and even editor. She was open for criticism with Doyle, but most of her articles were highly praised by her school and university. So I can understand why she did not understand where Mitchum's judgement came from, especially since Logan pointed out what a jerk he was. So imo the show intended him to be the bully trying to intimidate her, and not him talking the truth. Because, again, she *did* become editor of the Yale Daily News, had a great internship with a different newspaper, etc etc. But yes, she did become more unlikeable and entitled when she met Logan and *really* entered the world of those rich kids. Before that, she was willing to participate in this world but only to please her grandparents. She did not need all those things, she was not a materialistic kind of person and also more introverted. But then she got really into fashion, got showered with presents by Logan, befriended all the other privileged kids...and, sorry, almost became a bimbo during social events. But I think you are reading too much into this Dean thing. Lorelai was mostly right. Rory did not cheat with Tristan as her and Dean were broken up, and Dean was always eeeextremely jealous. So him knowing would only complicate things, and since Rory did not have romantic feelings for Tristan and, again, did not cheat on Dean, I do think that was the better choice. And also Jess coming over... Rory never invited him and she, AGAIN, knew how Dean would react, no matter what she would tell him. I mean, he completely freaked out which I found very problematic. Ofc at the end he was right about not trusting her with Jess, but still. She only lied because Dean had such an obsessive jealousy going on. So I really do not think all those later problems root in her not telling Dean about Tristan. That's a bit far fetched imo. Sorry for the essay!! Just wanted to put in my two cents

tbh can we agree this is great writing , character writing and show that you can have essay and essay on the characters and how they grow and react to the world around them

I think Rory's downfall was her getting into Chilton and being reintroduced into Richard and Emily's lives- we can see the parallels of Chris's parents treating every thing that went wrong in his life as Lorelai's fault even things that had nothing to do with her and being put of this pedestal is why he has the Peter Pan syndrome, Richard and Emily never think anything is Rory's fault and actually it's a running gag that Emily can turn any mistake of Rory's into Lorelai's fault. Since it was never their fault there were never any consequences to their actions they never learned. Now this is contrasted to me at least by Logan who even though he grew up in the same environment his dad is incredibly hard on him and constantly reminds him of his own faults (which has it's own issues) and the same with Lorelai constantly told growing up that she was too difficult and they did do a lot of crazy things but the major difference is they knew when to grow up. When Lorelai left with Rory she put everything on hold for her and when Logan graduated he actually had a career plan that had a lot of thought for money and putting his connections to work and the time it would take. It'll be interesting to see in AYITL season 2 if the baby will be a catalyst for growing up for Rory the same way it was for Chris, I mean the foundation is already laid cause she's "finally" figured out her career the way Chris had right before Sherry got pregnant and even her going to Chris of all people first for advice about telling the father. I hope they redeem her character because at this point it's more painful to watch and who knows maybe the book will be cathartic to realize her lack of accountability in her life

I love how so many people see how problematic Rory and in essence the entire show is. I still watch it whenever I am working on a project for ambient noise but I can not stand Rory!

The difference is…. When things dont work the way lorelai want it, she tries to work them out. Meanwhile when things dont work the way rory want it, she becomes her own worst and gives everybody the fault but herself.

Good job piecing all the scenes together.

I'm.not sure why people hate her or cringe at her? People want well written characters, she is actually a well written character. Even realistic.