I am team Logan. I think he's the best suited to Rory because he idolised her the least out of her boyfriends and saw her for exactly what she was - which was his counterpart in privilege and entitlement as well as her drive. He doesn't idolise her in the same way that Dean and Jess did

I feel like Rory is just…very much a self absorbed teenage girl. Not evil, but not the saint the narrative and side characters try to treat her as.

It's about dang time someone considers the guys' experience of Rory rather than just what they can do for her. I've always been team 'Rory-sort-yourself-out-and-leave-the-guys-alone'. Nice work.

Wow, I completely missed that Rory faces exactly what her past boyfriends felt during her relationship with Logan. A taste of her own medicine.

I’ve always felt that Rory and Logan’s relationship was by far the least toxic (although still somewhat toxic). This is for a multitude of reasons (especially the fact that they were both adults), but i think one of the main reasons was that logan felt secure in their relationship. dean and jess both seemed to feel inferior to rory, they idolized her and felt like they weren’t good enough to be with someone like her. this insecurity showed in different ways. dean responded to it by being extremely clingy and overbearing while jess would ghost and ignore her whenever he felt insecure.

I personally always felt really bad for Dean since he was a super sweet and dedicated boyfriend until Rory cheated on him. THAT breaking of trust was what ended up making him crazy. He was literally traumatized. He married a girl that he had only been dating for a few months because he was terrified of being betrayed/abandoned again. And although I can’t excuse his behavior in the later seasons when they got back together, Rory continued to be really not good for him. I have so much respect for the way that the writers managed to show flaws and trauma in believable (if not occasionally extremely frustrating) ways

I don't understand the " Dean shouldn't have broken up with Rory in public" argument. She's been literally humiliating him by flirting with Jess, which was also in public by the way... So what should he have done?

I’m going to be real… as much as the show does frame Jess and later Dean as not being good enough for Rory… they’re actually too good for her. Logan is really the only good match for her in background and personality. I’m not team Logan, but I’m also not Team Rory. I’m honestly Team Moving On because all these men can’t seem to move on from her very well… also she has cheated on everyone she’s dated except Jess, and I honestly think that part of why she didn’t cheat on Jess was because he didn’t stick around long enough… but she did use Jess to cheat which is also a pretty bad way to start their relationship… Rory was honestly a pretty bad girlfriend to all of them, and way to much work for the only real reward of having a special Main Character Girlfriend

Rory 100% led Jess on in Philly! She even says she intended to cheat on Logan but ultimately couldn't. Jess tells her he doesn't deserve to be treated like that.

Rory was somewhat of a decent girlfriend to Logan, but that went all out the window during the revival. Her problem is that she gets very possessive over her exes. When she had an affair with Dean she excised it as “my Dean.” Flash forward to the revival she had a full on affair with Logan even though he’s engaged and she’s with someone else all because she was with Logan first. She never takes responsibility for her actions. It drove me crazy! 😊

I’m team season 1 Dean and post-Rory Jess, because the Dean we got for the rest of the series is the sad clone they replaced him with after they assassinated his character 😭 S1 Dean was charming, a reader, and a movie buff who could keep up with Rory. They had to dumb him down to make Jess seem smarter bc “oh Jess reads!” but so did Dean? that’s why he was interested in Rory in the first place, he saw her reading and would ask her about her books. he even recommended her a few. degrading one character to make another look better isn’t that impressive writing-wise, especially since Jess’s intelligence never came up after he got with Rory. Jess developed into a great character, but he was more fun as a friend than a love interest. instead of Jess being attractive because he’s ‘smarter’, he should have genuinely just been Rory’s friend. Dean is still smart, but emotionally immature, and they break up because he was too jealous and possessive. S1 Dean could be rash too( aka the “I love you” breakup) so I think it would have been believable and less frustrating. Plus, it would’ve created an opportunity for Jess supporting Rory post-breakup, which probably would have been adorable. they could have still gotten together, they just dragged us through a poorly written love triangle to get there and massacred my boy ☹️

Could you do this with Lorelia and her boyfriends?

Rory treated all of her boyfriends similarly to the way Loreali did even Luke, disposable and she could just pick them up whenever she wanted.

I think Loagn is the best for Rory, even if he is not my favorite of the boys. Dean matched Rory morally, but he was not a match for her intellectually. Jess matched Rory intellectually, but not socially. Logan matched Rory morally, socially, and intellectually. Rory needs someone who matches her so that they challenge her to be their equal, if she thinks (subconciously) that she has something her partner doesn't, she will likely disrespect them and that's when it seems she walks all over them. Because her and Logan are on such equal footing, they develop a mutual partnership.

Only 11 mins in but regarding Rory’s lack of remorse: that’s definitely in her character. She wasn’t a good friend to Lane and was quick to drop her as soon as she got a bf. Their friendship was already in shambles when Rory started going to Chilton, only it’s hard to notice because as OP says, we see the story through Rory’s gaze.

I’m one of the few Dean fans. It’s not that I don’t like the other guys, but I feel like Deans faults are overblown (or even invented aka the way Jess is a “reader” and therefore better for Rory, even though he’s a reader too in season one. Just not as much). But then I see Jess or Logan acting like a jerk, and people don’t acknowledge it the way they do Dean.

I just don’t understand team Jess. Their relationship was terrible and then when Jess finally matured, Rory became a mess. I always felt that they were never on the same page and that they are best as friends. And by the time the revival came around, Jess became too good for Rory. With Logan it’s totally different. For me it always felt like they suit each other best. They’ve had a mostly mature relationship and are on the same wavelength.

Rory was always quick to recognize privilege in others but never herself.

27:15 I doubt Jess ever asked a single thing of Rory. He didn’t have any other friends in Stars Hollow, so there were no social events to drag her to. He was a bit of a lone wolf with an independent streak. He worked at Walmart instead of taking a loan. And if he wasn’t with Rory, he usually seemed to be reading or working.

Growing up I fell for all the guys just as Rory did but I find it disturbing to see Dean's behaviour as an adult, his anger borders on abusive and I think he could have ended up getting violent. I also don't think it is an accident that Lorelei is never around for his outbursts. Jess was troubled but he communicated with Rory in a more mature way than she did with him. Logan always felt like a temptation for Rory to take the easy road, using her money and privilege as a cushion. I hated that he asked her to marry him without having a conversation about it first and basically making it an ultimatum. I personally feel Rory was the most herself with Jess and he challenges her without steering her off course, he is also correct in pointing her towards being a writer rather than a journalist in A Year In The Life. We rarely ever see her read the paper or show real interest in current events she is mainly consuming literature.

I don’t blame Dean for getting jealous because imagine your partner is hanging out with someone who you know is interested in them and then knowing that they’re interested too, him cheating on Lindsay but let’s not forget his behavior when Rory didn’t say I love you to him (I would have left him). It’s funny that Jess is paranoid when Rory hangs out with Dean (he deserves it) because he knows that Rory is willing to cheat but Jess was too emotionally immature and needed to work things out on his own but doesn’t excuse his behavior or the way he treated people Logan also cheated on Rory but I feel like he called her out the most and her self righteous attitude that oh I’m not privileged even though I went to a boarding school and an Ivy League school And Rory had issues herself and I wish that Lane or someone called her out in being a home wrecker she hates it when she gets cheated on but it’s okay when she does the cheating cause they were her boyfriend first? Like child grow up. Also to add Rory loves living in the past she can’t move on from it for example cheating with Dean and cheating with Logan due to nostalgia.

I personally think Jess was always more willing to understand and trust Rory than vice versa. He didn't want her to go with Dean at the stars hollow fair because he didn't trust Dean. He even confronts Dean and tells him that he knows what he was doing, and Dean confirms it. In most cases one partner can trust the other to not cheat, but I think Rory would have been influenced without Jess there. It may be an unpopular opinion, but I think even young Jess deserved to be with someone who actually trusted him. He may have been a jerk to everyone else, but he never gave her a reason not to trust him. He had a lot of growing up to do, but she was the only one who was allowed to see his soft side, and his potential. Maybe if she had trusted him, then he would have felt safe enough to open up more.

I'm team Jess, because I think he's the only one she really respects. She doesn't respect Dean because she thinks she's smarter than him, she despises that he didn't go to college. Shee doesn't respect Logan because she doesn't think she's as spoiled as he is, at least he confronts her about that at one point. She never looks down on Jess's life choices because he is the only one she respects as an equal.

I think this is the first video on the subject that I've seen where no one is cast as a villain - their actions and choices are presented as objectively as possible while taking account of the fact that all of them (including Rory herself) are teenagers or very young adults still sorting their heads out and making mistakes as they do it, meanwhile so many people seem to be after one or other character expecting them to act like perfectly mature and self-aware adults, and when they fail to live up to that, their minute actions are read as a sign of possible abusive tendencies and other horrific things.

Rory’s world was bigger than Dean and Jess’ when she dated them and Logan’s world was always bigger than Rory’s, both because of his family being richer than her grandparents and him being older than her.

Great video! I would like to mention that the reason Rory is jealous of Bobby is because Logan never mentioned to her that Bobby is a woman, and so Rory feels distrusting towards Logan because he is spending time with a beautiful woman and thinks highly of her, while not being open about it Rory. I love Jess' character, so I always want Rory to end up with him, but this video helped me see how Rory and Logan's relationship help Rory mature or at least be on the other side like Dean and Jess, and that was an interesting parallel. Rory does need to become a better communicator, but most of all she needs to become a more self-aware person who is less of a people pleaser.

I am team Jess because he is my favourite by far, but in terms of who is better suited with Rory it's probably Logan

About the article: we don't really know what she wrote. But i think it fits with Rory's writing on a whole: everything we hear about her writing feels like she is very good at the craft of writing, witty, well flowing, good research, delievering what is asked....BUT: she doesn't have a strong opinion about anything... She kinda likes the egalitarian view, but also supports the snobbish views, and whenever she is confronted about a thing she wrote she crumbles. Which is why i think Mitchum was an ass, as his feedback was not constructive, but he is not wrong. A journalist gets attacked when he makes a stand. So you should have a conviction to back it up Rory...doesn't.

I really appreciate you bringing up her privilege. It's not like she's a terrible person, but I wish the show would have had her confronting this more. Also, I hope you do some more Buffy essays.

I don’t think Rory is mature in her behavior with Logan. I think she’s insecure. She people pleases Logan and changes who she is to be Logan’s girlfriend. Of course she falls in love with the one who is emotionally distant with her. Her daddy issues really come out with Logan. It’s why she can’t let go of the relationship 15 years later. She wants to prove to herself that she’s good enough to be loved by him and every time he pulls away it just hooks her into the relationship more.

Excuse me. An over 40 minute video?! What did we do to deserve this 🥺🥺 thank you for putting your time into this videos! ❤ tbh Rory just seems like the girl that’s IMPOSSIBLE to please but I always loved Jess!

"Who's right for Rory" well, I didnt realize this then, but if GG had happened in a different time the answer would obviously be Paris

i rewatch this show now and honestly, i'm amazed at how horrible Rory treated Dean. She literally kissed Tristan the night after Dean told her he loved her and started dating Jess a couple of weeks after Dean gifted her a car. No wonder he turned into obsessive stalker. I'm glad they give him a closure and a happy life in the mini-series, he deserved it

She really was the ✨ princess✨ of Star's Hollow.

This was a good watch. I never actually finished the series, so there were lots of things i was unaware of before. I always saw Dean as doing so many correct things very early on. After learning what happens after they break up, it really just strikes me as a guy who gave something his all, and it crashed and burned for him, and he never fully recovered from it. I see his cheating as an end result of him never actually recovering or coping with the way he was treated in the first place.

Please don’t apologize for your hard work! It’s us who should thank you for an insightful take on a show that has already been talked about by everyone and their mother. Loved it :)

Writing this before watching the full video. This is hard because Logan and Jess are both team Rory, but in different stages of their and her life. Younger Jess had so much sh**t he had to work out before he was mature enough to be a good romantic partner. But when he did reach that spot and found himself and a potential career, he did visit and support her and want the best for her and we see that in the revival. You won me over on Logan. Filled in a lot of the gaps that I forgot. Logan sees both the good and bad sides of her which is why they work. They find out everything about each other, their flaws, their interests, and passions. They can fight, but come back together again even if they have to separate for a while. That seems to be a mature and healthy relationship. But they do need to fix their stuff first before being end game. While I am future team jess, I am fine if she picks wither him or Logan, but in the right way. Meaning not through an affair. Edit: you and Serena Skybourne filled in some gaps.

I love how you analyze everything and all your details. You don’t just fill in gaps, you make it a conversation and fill it for the ppl who I don’t have to talk to about this show 😂❤ I feel validated and like I’m listening to a friend converse with me

I like Logan and Rory's relationship. She had the freedom to grow with him because he let her do her thing. But I'm still all for Jess. He was the only one who knew how to speak to her and make her think. He challenged her in a way no other boy would. They just never found their moment, and maybe that was the point. I wish they had done Year in the Life differently, I was looking forward to seeing how their relationship would've grown over the years. I saw them as always keeping in contact with each other. Not necessarily in a romantic way, but in a close friendship way. Especially because Luke and Lorelei were together, they would've seen each other over the years. It just would've happened, even if it was once a year around a holiday or something. I didn't like how they stunted, not only Rory, but Lorelei too. They didn't grow at all! Not an ounce. People naturally change over the years. It's just what happens. And I felt that Rory almost grew down instead of up when it came to relationships was just weird to me. They made it like she never actually learned anything about being in a relationship. But that's a topic for another moment.

I consider every guys’ flaws, which is why I don’t have a preference for any guy. I always felt like they were there to teach her something rather than there to actually be her soulmate. Both Lorelai and Rory ought to focus on themselves first before they got involved in the serious relationships that they did. Because Rory just ran to whoever was available at the moment.

Oh my god this video is just what I was looking for. Finally some objectivity. Great job!!

i have not seen a single episode of this show nor do i intend to. this was a great watch

25:31 I was on this episode on this part and that’s what made me search out this video. Because Rory was ridiculous in this scene and I just can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to be a guy that liked Rory. How frustrating and confusing her behavior could’ve been. Thank you for making this video and for including this part 🤧

I love the first 3 seasons and can watch those over and over. Rory makes mistakes that, to me, are mostly understandable due to her being a teen, though I hated how she hurt Dean. And she was so nasty for a bit there when she was mad at Jess for dating Shane. I like both Dean and Jess, even though they're so different. Dean is just a decent, steady, loyal guy who knows what he wants in his relationship with Rory. He was very good to her overall, and, as you said, really put up with a lot to be with her. He got frustrated at times, but I thought it was justified due to the way Rory treated him in seasons 2 and 3 (lying, cheating on him, expecting more from him than she was willing to reciprocate). Also, he was still really young. He was actually quite mature as a whole. He took good care of Rory. Jess has always been a very fascinating character to me. Milo Ventimiglia did a really great job portraying his complexity, making him lovable despite his rough shell. It's easy to see why Rory was so interested in him. She should have broken things off with Dean before pursuing Jess instead of stringing him along, but yeah. Logan just bores me as a character. I don't rewatch seasons 4 thru 7 much, partly because I can't stand how season 4 ended, partly because Rory and Logan bore me together, and partly because I just don't like the storyline/Rory's character arc. Rory started out so promising and is a total mess by the reboot. She and Logan are cheating on their boyfriend ajd fiancee, respectively, so tonke they deserve each other. Jess has his life figured out and shouldn't stay around to bail Rory out and help raise a child not his own, and Dean seems to have the happy marriage and family he always wanted. Rory needs to shape up! So I guess I'm Team Jess . . . for someone else! I love your videos! They are so fun to listen to, and you have great points. I like that you try to be fair, and you focus on characters most people don't. Loved the video about Jess and Luke in particular. I feel like I could discuss Gilmore Girls forever, so thank you!

11 minutes in and I am loving this analysis, spot on!!

what a fantastic channel!! keep up the great work, I love these deep dives

I think we tend to forgot she was a young teenager having her first experiences with love, heart breaks etc. At this age, most of us were sometimes selfish, sometimes wrong, sometimes not acting in the best way. It's part of growing up and getting experience. None of us can say they were perfect right away. With Dean and Jess she had never broken up with someone before. She didn't want to admit it was over and she liked Jess. She wasn't ready to do the mature and grown up thing of breaking the heart of someone you still care for. She dragged it out and was very immature about it. But to me, that's very realistic. Breaking up with your first love, realising that you fell out of love but you have nothing really bad against the person is so hard and you sometimes make wrong choices to avoid dealing with it. For me that was a good representation of how a good person can sometimes act wrongly, not making her a bad teenager but just.. a regular teenager. The problem is that she doesn't learn from her mistakes and doesn't grow, she continues to be selfish and continues to prioritize her needs over and over

I found your videos earlier today, and I’m binge-watching them. I love your videos, not because I always agree with you, but your deep dives into these characters are thoroughly fascinating, entertaining and you raise some insightful points that linger with me. As a longtime Gilmore fan, Thank you for making these❤!!

I don’t think you bit off more than you can chew, your videos are really good and a lot of fun to watch! I can’t wait for the next one 🙂

TL;DR: Jess is my favorite, but I think there’s something to be said about how each of the boys family life’s compares to Rory. Logan has the old money, but his only good family is his sister. Dean comes from a family with two married parents and a sister. Jess was raised by a single mom, had no relationship with his dad until he was 17, and didn’t get a sibling until he was an adult. In that way Jess’s home life actually makes him the most similar and relatable to Rory. Also a year in the life established that Logan is Rory’s Christopher, Dean is her Max, and Jess is her Luke. While I am forever and always Team Jess, my high school friend coining the phrase, “Jess is dream man, number always,” to describe this feeling, I like what you pointed out here with the ages everyone was at the time of their relationships. Rory handled her relationships with Dean, and then Jess, more immaturely than with Logan because she was a teenager when she was with them. The second time she was with Dean was sort of a regression in maturity, since their relationship seemed primarily physical. They were basically acting on all the teenage horniness their relationship didn’t have the first time around. Another thing to keep in mind is how Rory’s family and home life compared to each of them. While she certainly had many of the privileges that Logan did when it came to her grandparents, she didn’t grow up with that. It wasn’t until she was a teenager that she got the benefits of coming from money, like not worrying about private school tuition, and even then almost all the money that was given to her was used for school. Even when her grandparents got her a car for graduation, Lorelai didn’t throw up a fuss, since that was something Rory would need to have at some point. The money that was given to Rory directly by Richard for Fez was spent on the trip she and her mom had been planning for years. He gave it knowing that she would use it well. That’s where the similarities to Logan stop, as pretty much the only person in his family who isn’t awful is his sister, versus everyone in Rory’s family genuinely cares about her. With Dean she has the biggest contrast in home life, as shown by the way he reacts to her not saying I love you back. I liked what you said in the Lindsey video, about Dean’s apparent expectations on what his marriage should be like. Something I wanted to add is that when Rory points out that her parents, who aren’t together anymore, said, “I love you,” to each other his response was, “you don’t get pregnant from saying I love you.” My dude, she knows that. What she was trying to say is that you don’t always stay together either. She hasn’t grown up with married parents, or even parents who were together. So she has every right to feel anxious about responding to the words, “I love you,” when she has no reference of it lasting. And it wasn’t until she was a teen that she started to get to know her grandparents better, so she couldn’t use their marriage as a reference. The person she had the most in common with when it comes to over all family dynamics is Jess. They both have parents who aren’t together. She sees her dad very rarely, versus he didn’t meet his dad until he was in his teens. They were raised primarily by single moms. They also were only children until gaining a little sister as a teen (Rory) and an adult (Jess). They had extended family members try and take them under their wing and impart life lessons, with mixed results. Even though he and Luke didn’t always agree, Luke was always there for him. Luke was hard on him with Rory, because of the fact that Rory was like a daughter to him. He knew she could be a good influence on Jess, but he also knew that Jess needed to work through some issues before he would be good for Rory. If a year in the life showed us anything it’s that Rory and Dean’s relationship has come full circle in that they are truly friends, or at least friendly, aware of their mistakes, but mature adults about it. Rory and Logan’s relationship seems to have become a sort of codependency safety net for the two of them, where they’re not being fair to each other, or their respective partners, but are unwilling to fully commit to each other again. Jess and Rory’s relationship is a friendship, even if he’s still carrying a torch for her, if that look in the window is any indication. I think that Jess will be for Rory, what Luke was for Lorelai. Logan is Rory’s Christopher, and Dean is her Max. I’d be very interested to see where this characters end up in another revival.

You know, I really appreciate you doing this because I’ve tried for a long time to see from the guys’ point of view but I always get so caught up in the show that it’s hard to be objective. I especially liked you pointing out some of the foils between Logan and Rory (some of which I caught, some of which were completely new to me and tbh I don’t know how I didn’t notice before). I think after this I’ve formed a new conclusion: Jess is my favorite PERSON out of the 3 boyfriends, but Logan and Rory deserve each other

this video was a masterpiece and must have been a beast to edit. Thank you

I’m Team nobody - now that I’m an adult

Loved this, and the length!! :)

Hey! Just wanted to say I really enjoy your GG videos. Love that this one is so long! I would really like your perspective on "a year in the life", especially reflecting how the characters are portrait cause I was really baffled by how weird they all got. I dev would watch that video! ❤

I loved Dean the best, he was the most stable and loving boyfriend for her imo.

I am so happy that I discovered your channel your videos are so entertaining, It's so comforting to watch them :)

I have no problem with an hour long video essay. I watch these while working on spreadsheets, so I have nothing but time. Keep them coming!

i love how u have such a deep understanding of healthy relationships and ur applying that to rory's diff relationships ty for the video!

I’ve never thought about some of these perspectives before. Great video!!

I grew up being team Jess but apon my 5th rewatch I realized that I think Logan is best suited for Rory. I’ve been on the fence of my what team I’m on ever since. I have never been team Dean but looking back there’s plenty of times where I feel bad for Dean and not just like “oh I feel sorry for the guy” like genuinely awful. Imagine getting attacked by Luke in the street and then KNOWING your girlfriend likes someone else but is still dating you. But to be honest I started hating Rory in season 4 and on just because that’s when she was considered “an adult” and was still making awful mistakes. S1-3 was just a teenage girl doing what ever teenage girl should MAKE MISTAKES but plenty of people around Rory always justified her actions. I wish more people pointed out in the show how bad she treated Dean. But my final statement must be: Justice For Paul.

I'm very surprised you didn't include the sprinklers scene - I think this scene really shows how much Jess truly cares about Rory

The way Rory handled Jess' black eye situation is something that I, too, had issues with from when looking at both points of view. She was definitely more disrespectful not just towards Jess, but also towards Emily who decided to just act oblivious when she could have spoken up. Rory is her granddaughter anyways... I don't want to overthink the other possible outcomes if Emily had stepped in, but I do feel as if a lot of the dysfunction within the Gilmore household starts with not so much Lorelai, but with Emily and Richard themselves. It just boggles my mind how the writers decided to handle Emily's character in that particular scene.

Kudos on this video. Well researched and entertaining. Happy new year!!

I really like your essays! Make them longer 👌

“Never pick a team” - Lauren Graham

Logan is the best, but Jess is my guilty pleasure. Honestly I think fan fiction does a far better job at portraying all the nuances of their relationship than the show writers were. I think if Rory had had the opportunity to try again with Jess later on, it probably would've worked out a lot better. However Logan still worked the best for Rory overall.

unpopular opinion ik but how isn’t jesse the most hated boyfriend? how are people hating on dean so much? i feel like im really missing something.

Cleaning while listening 💜

I love this show ❤️ I’m currently on season 2 and I hope to watch most of all of it before I watch this!

I really like you're videos, keep up the good work ❤

this gonna be good! 🍿

Not to mention how Logan cheated on his fiance with her at the end. Even if he was being forced into a marriage it wasn't right for the girl. Rory literally cheated on or cheated with all of her bfs

the entire show for the most part revolves around rory struggling to fit into both worlds. during her chilton time, she's most happy at stars hollow but still wants to maintain the connection with her grandparents. in her yale era, we see her slowly shift into that world of wealth, privilege, lavish lifestyle and logan represents that. even if she does enjoy the perks of living wealthy in the yale era, she struggles to respect herself when she sees her there. this is exactly the reason she writes that article in s7 excluding herself from the world of logan, because she is ashamed to admit that she is a part of it, she doesn't respect herself when she is a part of it especially when people see her as one. also exactly why she turns down logan's proposal and follow's obama's campaign. i have always seen rory as someone who fits in both stars hollow and her grandparents world, but she respects herself and finds it fulfilling when she is independent. being independent meant lorelai's world when she was a 16 year old. but, she's not a kid anymore, so for rory, being independent now means a world that exists outside of stars hollow, and the gilmore or huntzberger dynasty. cut back to the short amount of time she stays with lane after going back to yale, and how she gushes to lorelai after they reunite, about finding a new job, doing things on her own etcetera even if it's not anything that big. people always want to classify rory as either lorelai or emily but i think shes neither. she doesnt despise the privileged life like lorelai does but nor does she see it as the only way of living like emily did. lorelai hates emily's world but rory does like attending emily's parties. but, also emily gushes on and on about the burkin bag rory's gifted, but rory's like "yeah its cute. i like it". that was pretty much her reaction and rory doesnt realize what that bag would mean to girls like honor who is a part of that world, that some girls would die to have it. she isnt blinded immensely by it. finally, rory has lived her entire life, under the expectations of lorelai in the stars hollow world or the standards of emily/huntzberger family from the privileged world. rory has to branch out, has to find her own path away from both of these worlds, and stick to it for a longer period of time to succeed. i don't think her renting an apartment in nyc, that is told in ayitl is a coincidence either. jess is the only person on the entire show who breaks the dichotomy of lorelai and emily's world. he is depicted as someone who doesn't belong to either of the worlds and is a free-spirited soul. rory has mostly been family bound her entire life and it would give her character a new dimension if we let her find her own way. but, shes still a very community/people oriented person at heart and thats never going to change. teen jess was the opposite of that. the adult jess we see in ayitl though, is still the free-wandering soul he always has been, but is now trying his best to be a part of the community more. helping liz & tj out, visiting them, being a support for luke and from what we see in s6, he has developed friendships too which might have only grown further by "a year in the life". he represents exactly what rory wants now. i also dont think its a coincidence that in ayitl, emily has given up the lavish lifestyle and has conformed to finding herself. so, there is not even the concept of an "emily's world" anymore, one less pressure to rory. analyzing all this, it's almost obvious, the path, amy sherman palladino has chosen for rory in the future, even if it is never explored in another revival. plus, the circle of life in gg diverged with lorelai making a new path for herself, with her stepping out of the gilmore house, so the circle would end there too. rory is not helpless like lorelai was at 16, she has her mom, luke, enough money from richard's fund. she would not have to raise her kid in a "potting shed" even if she sees no success in her career. you contradict your own points. you say in the first para that rory itself is wealthy and is about to inherit a fortune but end your comment with "she would not choose to raise her kid in a potting shed". why would she have to? logan is not her saviour nor is jess. she could very well raise the kid on her own, if she wants to. now, this doesn't mean jess is who she should end up with. it just means rory should find someone who she is genuinely interested in and who can offer something unlike the stars hollow world or the lavish world. whether it be jess or anyone new.

I never hated Dean. She was generally good guy, who made some mistakes. Gosh I felt his pain when Jess appeared. It wasn't nice from Rorys side. Rory never loved Dean in real way. I think she liked more the way he treated her.

The boyfriend she was horrible to was Paul. I thought he treated her the best of all her boyfriends and she was horrible to him.

I think the three boys helped Rory to grow up Dean was so sweet with Rory and loved her with all his heart, he was her first love and they learned together how to be in a relationship, he was always there for her when she needed him and, honestly, I felt so bad for him because of the way Rory treated him. She knew since season 2 that he they weren’t meant to be, when Jess mentions the things he sees to think that they aren’t compatible, she just sticks with him because se likes to have him, and even when they broke up she still acts like she deserves some type of loyalty from him. She made him go mad because she kept playing with him while cheating him. I always loved Jess, I don’t excuse him for all the wrong thing he did, he was a jerk, especially in the beginning, but I can understand him, he didn’t felt loved by his mother and that affected all his relationships, he made it difficult for Luke to love him but step by step they ended up with a solid relationship. I remember one scene with him a Lorelai, when she offers him chinese food, at first he rejected it and acted cold but after a few seconds he saw that Lorelai was being genuine with her kindness and the he softened a little. We have to remember that they were 17 years old kids. The reason why I love him and I think he gave a lot to Rory’s development is that he always told her when he thought that she was doing something wrong, he wanted the best for her and at the end that’s why he left, and even after that he had no problem pointing out Rory’s wrong decisions when the met again. I don’t remember a lot about Logan, I think that he also really loved Rory, he was different from her previous boyfriends, he came from a rich background and introduced her more in that world. I didn’t feel comfortable with Rory’s actions and how she let that world to absorb her but I understand that it was something meant to happen, her grandparents were from the high society, she wasn’t living with her mother (who always tried to teach her have her feet on earth), and was dating a rich boy at university. At the end what stopped them from being together was that Logan wanted compromise and Rory wasn’t ready, the problem is that she also didn’t let him fully compromise with other person and they didn’t knew how to let go their relationship. In A Year in Life Rory treated her boyfriend terribly not even remembering his name, and was cheating him with Logan, who was also about to marry. I think they wanted to end with a beginning of a story that we just saw. Rory’s gonna have her baby alone with Lorelai’s and Luke’s help, Logan’s gonna be to her and her baby Like Chris was for her and her mother and maybe, she learns how to be an emotionally responsible adult and finds love. My theory is that Jess is always going to be there, just like Luke for Lorelai. And for Dean, I really hope for him to live a happy live full of love.

I'm team Dave❤😪

First. I love your videos and even thou english isn't my first language, I really enjoy how you talk about characters and relationships from my favourites shows. Now, about the video. It's hard to choose... these are really good points about the three of them. But I think when Rory dated Logan, she dated herself. Just like you said, with him it was her time to be the one who has to make all the sacrifices, the one who feels awkward and out of place. He was what she needed to grow up and become a better version of herself. Because now she'll know how it feels to be treated like that... Buuuuut. We all know what happened in AYITL... Btw. I would love if you make a video about the revival, I really want to know your thoughts about it. Anyway, great essay as always. Ps: Love Jess (but I think he's better off alone or with someone else 😂)

I totally agree with another commentor about wanting to know your opinions on AYITL! And of course I love your analyses on the characters and the show.

Jess has always been my favorite, and while I rooted for him, I also with like ‘dude run!’ 😂

I've always been a fan of Dean (partly because, my goodness, Jared is so charming), but I also loved Logan. Dean's actions have pretty clear triggers, and in his own way, he suffered a lot from Rory's manipulation. They were young minds (I consider 18-19 still young, to be honest), and you do foolish things for 'love' or when trying to hold onto it as it slips away. I don't necessarily think he was justified, but it definitely makes sense(why he does what he does/behaves in certain ways). Rory is selfish as hell, but hey... aren't we all at that age? Logan was thrilling in that he saw right through her and she couldn't stand it (she is a "I can fix him" girl for sure).

omg this video excites me so much because as much as i hate dean and love jess, i always reflect on how messed up Rory can be too! nobody is perfect, of course. ESPECIALLY teenagers haha and I know it’s easy to be on her side always since she is the protagonist but sometimes im like… girl what. so THANK YOU for doing this! gilmore girls is a constant comfort show for me! one of my all time favorites!

This was a fantastic video

When people ask if I have a team I answer in a ‘what was my favourite relationship?’ way. but when people ask who I think Rory should have ended up with I always say “None of them” I don’t think Rory met the love of her life by 22 and that’s okay lol. I think they were great dating experience where she could learn about healthy dynamics not taught to her by her mother and could learn about herself. But no, I don’t think she needed to spend the rest of her life with only these 3 options 😂

I love the Oz clip!! So good

I'm so glad that thanks to this video I found your channel! And I think is great you used this prospective as I've not seen anybody analyzing if she's good to them before. Liking and commenting and hoping to help bringing more attention to your content! :)

Off topic but you’re so underratedddd

Thank you for the interesting video essay and your interpretations. It only kind of bothered me that the (abusive) scene with jess and rory it the parents bedroom at the house party wasn't included or commented on.

As someone who never watched that show bc is not my thing and came here completely neutral : - Dean was mostly always doing his max or near max for Rory and she most of the time doing the bare minimum and the rest of the time no effort at all , so if Dean was my friend , I would not want him anywhere near Rory because she cheated and rarely, if ever put the same amount of effort as him, so I would hope Dean finds a girl that puts the same amount of effort as him into the relationship... (and seems to me by the comments that Rory cheating make just another case of hurt people hurt people, so Dean becomes kinda shitty in his next relationships and somewhat with her as well when they rekindle, but again, it's a reaction of something she did) (As well, Dean cheating his then wife was shitty too, but still doesn't change that they are not good together at all) - Jess : Well, a relationship that started out of an affair will never be able to hold a solid trustful foundation , so the relationship doesn't seem like it would last anyways, as well, because it seems like Jess was more an adventure than because she actually liked him for him , hence the constantly trying to shape him... Again I only see that is another boyfriend who is most of the time doing his max and her doing the bare minimum , seems like with Jess she did more often her max than with Dean , but still not as often as Jess did his max for her, it's the typical relationship I would look at it and say it would last max 2 years or 3 pushing really hard , again, they are better off , if both were my friends I would tell both that seems like this relationship will lead to a dead end eventually and that they are more likely to end up hurting each other, so no Jess Thanks. - Logan : It started with the reversed position of her doing the max and him doing the bare minimum until eventually evened out in the end , about the "cheating" I don't know if Logan cheated on her bc it was said on the video "they were on a break" and for me it's not cheating , but, if they weren't then, it is cheating , also Rory cheated in him too, so if both cheated on each other they have to chose either to keep the relationship or not, even though Logan cheated in a way worse way than Rory did , I guess their dynamic was the last toxic for both of them, would I recommend them to get together ? Nope, they either cheated on each other or Logan got cheated on, I would say for both of them to try if they want to, but I don't see that being a life long commitment, but it's up to them. Having to pick one I would say she definitely should be with Logan, they were almost never toxic for each other, besides all the cheating they could actually get along and have a healthy relationship , so I guess I am "Team Logan" if I have to pick one , but if I can say with all honesty : I am team neither ... Rory needs to do a lot of inner work and to find someone who as well done such inner work and make it work together.

I think Jess and Rory are probably the best for eachother in the present day. Rory is a mess at this point and time, but I feel like timing was always their enemy. Jess to me was a terrible boyfriend. Heartbreakingly bad. Terrible. It ruined Rory to me. Like I feel like that abandonment sorta had her all messed up and had her running back to Dean because of the trauma of him just leaving like Christopher always does. So I feel her to be just this lost soul who doesn't really understand men. She was terrible to Dean and I feel like Jess was her karma. In the heaviest way. Logan, to me, is an absolute dumpster fire of a boyfriend. Absolute trash. Hot, burning garbage. Such a waste of time. He is rude, classist, egregious, self-agrandasing, self-absorbed, etc. I felt there was redemption for him during the double date getaway weekend episode in season 7, yes I felt for him, but just not great at all and Rory breaks her neck for him. So doting. Not to defend Rory to an extreme, I get it, we are supposed to hate her, but I like season 7 Rory, even that article she writes is like, whatever to me, tbh. I hate when people prop up Logan when he sticks it to her for the article. Yes, they both have privilege, sure, but their are levels to privilege. We see that his family thinks SHE is a pauper of sorts, so it really is not the same. She is a Gilmore, sure, but she also grew up living in a potting shed...so...no, not the same. Sure her Dad and Grandparents have cash flow, but she has to beg for it usually. Until 16, did she really have money? Did she really GROW UP in D.A.R world...no, not quite. He jumped off a cliff (reference) trying to get in her ass about her privilege. She's not THAT privileged to the extent Logan is. Let's be real. It's apples and oranges to me. They come from 2 different worlds and that's just what it is. I think we look at white, pretty, affluent privilege very harshly these days and that is valid and yes, she does have that, but Rory and Logan are not the same. Does she use those things to her disposable, yes, but is she the female Logan? Absolutely not, I'm sorry. I don't buy it. It's a bridge too far for me. I watched this in real time for the original run and we didn't use privilege as a lens like we do now, but in real time (week to week) I think it came off more that Rory wasn't really like the rich Chilton and Yale kids. Was she becoming MORE like them as time went on? Sure, but does that take away her potting shed upbringing...no. I get it, Rory has villain eras, but I think she was just being a judgemental brat who was sorta confused about how to navigate a world she was slowly seeing herself slip into, but not actually or technically coming from that world. I think it's just a little more complicated than people make it out to be. All those things mentioned about how those people for the start up are completely a mystery to Rory and that is sooooo valid, yes, but she made a mistake and she was a terrible brat with that article, yes, she's a bit of a dumb dumb in social settings. But I think she was uncomfortable at the party because she's a simple small town girl, so she judged what she doesn't understand, and why doesn't understand? Because she doesn't come from that world, because she didn't grow up with glitzy stuff like that. If she was as privileged as we claim she is, would she not just fit in effortlessly at that party? I don't think it's as simple as privilege or no privilege, I personally think it's more like levels of privilege and I think Rory is fairly new to the game of privilege at that point and even with this I think she's pretty low on the privilege totem pole as pointed out by Logan's own family, professionally at the paper and with the mother. I would love to see her with someone like Jess where money and privilege is just less of an issue because if we are being honest, Rory could live without the privilege if it came down to it, because she is Lorelai's daughter and she would make it work, because I do belive LL showed her what it means to work hard. We have seen her do jobs at the Stars Hollow Bookstore, the Independence Inn part time, Yale's Cafeteria and by the reboot she is freelancing to the point where she doesn't even have a place to live of her own, idk, it doesn't quite scream cashmere, pearls and champagne to me...but I fully understand and respect that people see her as a rich brat I get it, but I think the writers really gave us something a bit more nuanced than that. But this is such a great video essay. I don't agree with it all but hey, that's just how it is. This is so well-structured and well-made and so meaty. Thank you so much! This was honestly my Saturday night. Congrats on getting this out. It deserved all the attention and views!

I couldn't quite get past all the times it was said that "Rory was a pretty good girlfriend to X this season" when that was almost always qualified by "she cheated on him".

I'm hazy on other parts of Gilmore Girls, but I have one nitpick about the scene where Dean is mad than Jess came over: he didn't really give Rory a chance to explain herself, if I remember the scene correctly, because he had kept yelling without giving her a chance to talk. Paris came up with the lie to cover for her, and only at that point did Dean calm down. Granted, Rory could've come clean when he had asked her if what Paris said was true, but I do empathize with her in the moment. I think Rory does have manipulative tendencies, especially towards Dean, and she did end up in the situation in part by giving Jess all the signals that she likes him throughout the season. But in that moment, I feel like her white lie was kind of understandable. (also I remember this in detail bc I'm a Paris #1 fan). Overall though, I really enjoyed this video and how empathetic and detailed your analysis of these characters was!

The only reason Rory told Dean about the car accident was because she knew he was going to find out even if she didn't tell him.

Sometimes what i feel is this fandom overly criticize men for doing the same thing that Rory has done with her every relationship. We can see in one part where she is doing lane's hair colouring, she has you don't want to someone too much that at one point it will feel boring. Which speaks everything about her and later on rejecting Logan's proposal. She wants her bf to be there, call her, ask her about her days and so on which exactly what Dean did for her. But later, she started acting like it was too much and dean not giving her space. But then when jess doesn't do those things, she gets mad. She doesn't like when jess doesn't pick her phone or doesn't call her. But she does exactly the same thing to dean. Rory was emotionally equally abusive as Dean was. I think sometimes people forget that Dean was also 16. He was with her for 2 years and never actually tried to have a sexually relationship with her without her consent while jess being a bf for 1 week and getting mad for not wanting to sleep with her was equally red flag to me. And also, i think rory cheating on Dean, kind of fucked up and very messy. Dean thought that jess was responsible for her cheating on with him. He kind if idolize her. Which we can see that he hadn't moved on. He blames jess but not rory. That's why he was nice to her even after breakup. But the scene where he comes to Yale carrying Bookshelf when tells rory about leaving school. I don't think it's Rory fault, but i think at that point where he feels was rory still loves him and cares about him and his future rather then Lindsay ( i can be totally wrong on this). And after that he starts being around her.

“when it comes to jess i think rory was a fairly decent girlfriend, there was nothing i wouldnt expect from a 17 year old” this is why i’m team jess. jess taught her how to be in a relationship. i think they were so good for each other tbh. they both learned a lot from each other, they should’ve been end game imo. they actually have the same interests (plus chemistry!!) that i feel she didn’t have in her other relationships

She should have ended up with Jess. He ended up being more her type. But they drove Roy's character into the ground.

Rory grows and her relationships grow. They match in their own time

I always thought that all three of their relationships have a lot to do with the age of the characters and their experience. With Dean, their relationship seems very naive and more build on a vague sense of romantic attraction then shared interest or dreams, which is also why rekindling the relationship later on didn't work out. Jess and Rory are very teenage, they have more in common then Rory and Dean, they like the same books and music and in some way come from a similar background (chaotic teen moms, absent fathers), but they also can't communicate and especially Jess has a lot of emotional baggage. Their relationship was fast, passionate and, for a lack of a better word, angsty. It all seems very YA romance. I personally am team Logan, because I they seem the most compatible and stable, but I think it gets overlooked that they are the only adult relationship on the show. When they met they are still pretty young adults granted, but they aren't super hormonal anymore. They are also at a point in their lives, where a lot of people start choosing their partners more deliberately

Great video! I think Logan is the best for Rory although I don't actively ship her with any three of these guys(I ship her with Paris lol). I used to ship her with Jess quite a bit when I was younger. I do like both Jess and Logan as characters, and I think them being more fleshed out, who have something to them apart from their relationship with Rory is why people come at Dean harder. I also think Dean sucks but people are too harsh on him at the same time! Like all of his actions have the worst possible interpretation, but Jess gets excused for Kyle's bedroom cause he was sad or whatever.