finally the shame brings understanding

[musesfool]

I was discussing Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life with a co-worker, and this morning I read this discussion on the AV Club: Does it matter if Rory Gilmore is the worst? and I started thinking about how it does matter, if only in terms of ...I'm not sure how to put it, if there's a term for it I'm not remembering, but when as a writer, you want the

Comments

[kita0610]

I don't get the hate. I mean, unless you didn't like her in the original series, Bc she has not changed. I guess people hoped she would grow up- but why would she? I love Lorelei but she was not a parent, she was a friend. Rory's only parenting came from her grandparents who DID treat her as the Chosen One. She's a little girl Bc nobody has shown her how to adult in a world that isn't the godam snow globe of Stars Hollow. Yeah, this might have played better if she was younger but they didn't have much choice on that. And I gotta be honest, fandom likely would have hated her anyway. There's nothing new under the meta sun.

sun.

[musesfool]

I think people - including me! - did expect her to mature from who she was during the series, though. But she clearly didn't. I mean, I watched the show as it aired, and very few people hated Rory then that I was aware of, though it has definitely grown into a thing over the years on rewatching - what once seemed excusable no longer does.

[kita0610]

I started watching late so maybe yeah, I saw the hate from the beginning and just thought, oh. Typical.

Right now my feelings of annoyance at it are muddled by the pregnancy reveal. I keep seeing people slam Rory for cheating but nobody mentions, you know, Dean was actually there
too.

There's also been a lot of "she should have learned from her mother and made a better choice!But I'm pretty sure Rory was *happy* growing up
as she did, so.

Meh. IDk. I always love main characters in shows I love. Fandom usually doesn't

[musesfool]

I actually don't mind the pregnancy reveal at all, because I saw it coming but also because it kind of makes sense, and as you say, Rory had a very happy childhood. And she'll also have a lot of help.

I'm not sure if you mean Dean or Logan, but since most of the fandom that I've seen hates both of them and has for a long time, I just take the slamming them as a given. (I admit to not liking either of them either, though Logan's grown on me a little over the years. I was always in favor of Jess or Paris as Rory's endgame pairing.) Though I also got the impression that Logan at least would have dropped the fiancee and married Rory had she asked him to.

(I feel the writing is definitely at fault in terms of how it frames the female 'rivals' for Rory's affections - they very rarely get any kind of sympathetic portrayal. Maybe Lindsay did, once Dean was cheating on her regularly. But Odette doesn't ever even appear except as a sleeping body during one of Rory's phone calls to Logan.)

[tavella]

I don't dislike Rory, because I don't think she's a bad person and you can see how she ended up so sheltered. But I don't love her either.

One thing I liked about the series was that it showed us that in fact she's a pretty terrible reporter. Whatshername in the UK may be a self-regarding monster, but that is the sort of thing that makes for great copy and yet she can only doodle? And a talented journalist could have made something of the lines story, if only from her mother's way of backdooring them, but we don't even see her try, just ask people some very dull questions and then apparently never write anything.

So actually, yeah, I can see solipsistic autobiography along the lines of Eat Pray Love working a lot better for her.

[musesfool]

Well, I started disliking Rory at the end of season 4 when she slept with Dean, but I do think that a lot of her behavior then could be explained as youth and privilege and entitlement that she would hopefully grow out of.

And it wasn't the job stuff that made it worse in the revival, though it certainly proved that she wasn't a good reporter, but the way Paul was treated. I get that that was probably supposed to be funny, but it only would have worked for me if they'd been going out for two months instead of two years, and if she'd broken it off with him after the first time it was mentioned that she should.

But the treatment of him (and Odette, who wasn't even worthy of being shown onscreen!) made me feel like that was not just something she could grow out of, but a real disregard for other people at her core, rather than entitlement she could be made aware of and work on to change.

[magnetic_pole]

Honestly, both the show and the revival perplexed me. I felt as if I were supposed to love and admire Rory, and yet the writing never bore that out. It's all very confusing. That scene showing Rory and Paris returning to Chilton to talk to the students? Were we really supposed to laugh at Paris and enjoy Rory's talk? Because I experienced the opposite. As a sweet, sheltered, lost, and still fundamentally immature woman, Rory's not badly drawn...but I don't think the Rory I see is the one I'm supposed to be seeing.

Anyways, enough of me chatting. Just a quick comment to say thanks for the link. good to know I'm not alone in my assessment. M.

[musesfool]

Rory's not badly drawn...but I don't think the Rory I see is the one I'm supposed to be seeing.

That's the question, isn't it? Because she comes off very badly to me in the revival, because she no longer has youth and inexperience to explain her behavior. And I guess the Palladinos thought treating Paul so badly was funny, but it was the main thing that didn't sit well with me, because it wasn't - it was gross.

[thistlerose]

I think I'd have more sympathy for Rory if she showed remorse for anyone other than herself. I mean, 30-year-olds screw up, even privileged genius ones. So I would have been on board, if Rory had felt even a twinge for Paul, or for Odette.

[musesfool]

Yes, exactly! The job stuff made me roll my eyes, but I could have accepted it as Rory finally running into reality, but the treatment of Paul and Odette was unconscionable. And the fact that we were supposed to laugh at how Paul was treated made it even worse.