snowflake challenge #4

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In your own space, add something to your fandom’s canon.

A few headcanons for Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls (and one Rory/Jess), post AYITL because at first, I was disappointed with her arc (and still am a little) but have now rebelled and decided that she's going to be just fine.

Rory goes back and does her masters. She just loves school far too much and decides after finishing her book, she needs a secondary degree.

She becomes a teacher. Since she was very comfortable with the students at Chilton, she ends up back there, taking up the Headmaster on his offer. One thing she's good at is spotting students like her and encouraging them along.

She continues writing, but novels, the same type that she used to immerse herself in as a teen.

I'm a shipper, so I'm going to say she and Jess find their way back to each other. They're not Luke and Lorelai but they support each other career wise and get closer during the time they spent together and it leads to more. :D

Comments

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It is SO good. The reveal of his book is still one of my overall favorite scenes. How he tells her he couldn't do it without her? I melt every time. I agree on Logan - they had chemistry and I liked them, especially in comparison to the whole Dean fiasco, but they always seemed to be fighting the storm and as you said, outside of a little bit, were walking on eggshells and misunderstanding one another. The Logan/Christopher parallels were more 'they were are both irresponsible rich kids with complicated parental relationships and not all that dependable at the end of the day'. But the relationships definitely weren't exactly the same, mostly because Rory isn't Lorelai.

[royalblue31]

Oh, yeah I really loved that moment for Jess. As much as I hated how he was the shortest of Rory's relationships, I like how every time he came back, there was growth to his character.

Also, yeah, Dean was a complete fiasco. I cringe a lot watching the scenes where he comes back into Rory's life.

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That was one of my pet peeves with their relationship. There was so much build up and then we only saw some of their worst moments and most of the good stuff in the relationship happened off screen. I agree about Jess's growth. Even though a lot of it did happen while he was away, I like that we got glimpses into his potential even in s4, with his already showing appreciation toward Luke and reading the self help book, etc, even if how he dealt with Rory wasn't the smartest.

Same! I absolutely hated every second. So awkward.

[royalblue31]

I know what you mean. I was so bummed that we only got one season of official Jess/Rory. Barely a season. The only consolation is it was a packed one. That Thanksgiving episode alone is one of my favorite ones. That, and when he yahoo-ed the distance from Stars Hollow to Yale!

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They didn't even get peace, with Dean hanging around and being weird. But they definitely had a lot of cute moments and Jess yahoo'ing the distance was one of the best. It's a shame we never got to see them go to prom together but I'm guessing Milo's contract situation played a part in how quickly they had to make the relationship spiral.

[royalblue31]

That's true. The one good thing they did though was stretch the getting together part of their relationship. I think they had the longest build up and that's what made me really invested in them compared to Rory/Dean or Rory/Logan. I especially like the episode where Rory tutors Jess. Their conversations both in the diner and in the car, and then, later, when Luke walks up to Jess and he's smoking by the lake. That was good relationship development for them, too.

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Exactly, they really built up a connection and friendship between them, which was fun. Oh, I love the tutoring episode and the ice cream! Even MV said that it was his favorite R/J moment - "in cooonnness". The car accident was such a damper but also the angst! An it led to the episode where Rory visits Jess in NY, which was good. :D

For sure, Luke and Jess's relationship was great to watch. I like that Rory and Luke also had the shared moment in the diner over Jess too.

[royalblue31]

I'll admit, the angst of their relationship was part of the appeal for me. With Dean, everything was picture perfect fairytale in the beginning, horrible horrible in the end. With Logan, it felt like playing house—not exactly real. But with Jess, there was this sense that they were made of each other and good for each other, but everything else was working against them, complicating things, including themselves. And that is just *chef's kiss* for me when it comes to pairings.

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That's so true and I like how they didn't try to pretend that they were perfect. With Dean, it felt like everyone was trying to convince us that he was the best most perfect boyfriend and I could see differently. On the other side, he characters were openly against Jess and you could see that he was a good guy underneath it all. But you're right about everything being against them, which does make it interesting. I do think ASP wasn't very good at writing established relationships for long periods of time, adding to their troubles.

[royalblue31]

Yeah, ASP never let her characters' relationships stay happy too long. I do admire how fast she can change things. Like with Dean and Rory. I don't remember him being the kind of person who yells in his girlfriend's face. And as much as the fact that they have nothing in common is true, it's not like it was ever put under the spotlight. And then boom! He's yelling at Rory, and questions like "What do you and Dean even talk about?" come up, and I end up going, Oh yeah, girl, he's not the guy for you.

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Exactly, and some of it just seems so forced, like with Luke freaking out and dumping Lorelai or after their promises of honesty, deciding to hide a kid from her. With Dean, they did escalate his character but he did have a temper in s1 itself and the way he freaked out about her not saying "I love you back" really put me off of him then itself. In terms of them not having anything in common, it was highlighted in the forms of him being bored at the bookstore (but to his credit, willing to wait), not always understanding her determination to be all about Harvard, and the whole Donna Reed stuff showed they wanted different things. It was fine for a high school relationship though. But what you mentioned really does emphasize how wrong they were. I wish Rory didn't end up taking up all the blame and the show/Lorelai & Rory/etc put a halo on Dean even in AYITL.

[royalblue31]

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, his freak out over Rory not saying I love you was a big tell. They were fine for a high school relationship. But yeah, I didn't like how we had to go back to Dean after Jess. That felt a bit unnecessary. You're right about the whole halo thing. Even in AYITL.

As for Luke and Lorelai, the whole hiding April thing was such a dumb storyline. Like I get it, but also...sigh. I much preferred when Lorelai did know, and then the birthday party happened, and then Anna got mad. That was some good tension there. More tension than the whole hiding it thing had.

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Yeah, there's one thing about being an emotional teenager and it understandable he is hurt, but he was just also such a jerk. Like this girl literally ran away after he kissed her for the first time and he was mocking her lists and her relationship with her mom? What a mess. It is interesting that the show had him behave in ways that other pivotal characters didn't see. Lorelai didn't see all the yelling, Rory didn't about Dean threatening Jess, etc. I wonder how Lorelai would've felt had she known he went to Luke and and was all "oh those GG girls won't be satisfied with guys like us" (which btw made no sense). Somehow he got a good ending though that made the most sense for his character.

It was! It also was wildly OOC for Luke and made him bad. Maybe a Luke pre-Lorelai relationship but not when they're together and engaged. I prefer that too rather than whatever we got. :\

[royalblue31]

It is interesting that the show had him behave in ways that other pivotal characters didn't see.

I love that you mention this. I swear, 95% of all the Gilmore Girl problems we see can be traced back to miscommunication and things like this. One particular example I noticed after a re-watch is how Lorelai hides that she was drinking with Christopher after Chris' dad died. Because, facts straight, it's not that bad a thing. But the only reason she hides it is because of Rory, and Rory is only acting on it because of her own experience with her dad, because she demanded he stay away from Luke and Lorelai thinking he would mess things up. It's so ironic how Rory's the one who ends up messing things up. It's so frustrating, but that's how most of the drama on the show was.

I think the OOCness is why a lot of the audience didn't like April. They blamed a new character for what was just actually an old character acting out of character. I appreciate the April we see in AYITL more. I liked her panicking and the nose ring and all of that. Weird though how formal in a way her relationship with Lorelai was up until that point. Because based on the birthday party in the original series, you would've thought they'd at least gotten a little closer.

Plus, I'm still shaking my fist at the fact that we didn't get a Luke and April and Jess scene. Or Doula! I'd hoped that we would have met an older Doula in AYITL.

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Oh yeah, I definitely agree. Both Rory and Lorelai's attempts to avoid conflict seem to result in hiding things, and even though they tried to make Rory the more mature one in the early seasons, her age did come through. Christopher left them both with issues. I also think that Lorelai up and leaving Max the way she did also played a part too, because she had gotten attached to him and he was out. She was too afraid to lose Luke, which was why she was lowkey against them dating in the first place. I think you see a lot of that type of drama in tv shows, but especially the teen/CW/WB type.

Exactly. They threw her under the bus for 'coming in between Luke and Lorelai', when Luke's actions did that for him. Lorelai didn't have any issues with April; she had issues with how Luke handled it all. I'm with you that it was nice to see April grown up and having her own problems. I think the relationships were really handled like it was the s7 ASP got to write. I know Lorelai and Jess were nice to each other in the final scene but it made no sense how Lorelai was still hating on him before that.

True! I would've loved to see Jess with either of them.

[royalblue31]

Christopher left them both with issues.

Honestly, I'd never considered this before you mentioned it. I think, maybe, because Christopher was barely around, almost an afterthought. But yeah, this really makes sense! Like, they never seem to know what to do when a guy "stays" because Christopher never stayed. A level of self-sabotage just kicks in right around that time. And they both always have this longing for "the one that got away," to the point that they delude themselves into thinking certain guys—cough, Dean, cough—are this guy, when really they should be saying good riddance instead.

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I've seen people talk about it before and it makes a lot of sense. When he's not there, he doesn't get mentioned by name a lot either, so it is easy to forget, but as you said, it does play out in the way they interact with the men in their lives and I feel like they go about it in different ways. People try to compare both Jess and and Logan to Christopher, depending on what side you're on, but I agree with the take that Rory's relationship to Logan can be much like Lorelai's relationship to Christopher while her relationship to Jess was more like her own with her dad, in the sense that he kept coming in and out of her life. I think that's why she wanted to stay with Dean, because Rory longs for stability and he was the one to provide her that, even if he wasn't the one she really wanted or fit with.

[royalblue31]

Rory's relationship to Logan can be much like Lorelai's relationship to Christopher while her relationship to Jess was more like her own with her dad, in the sense that he kept coming in and out of her life.

That Jess part right there just blew my mind. Oh my goodness, I feel like I'm suddenly looking at GG with brand new prescription lenses. And you're right, it totally explains the Dean thing, too!

I'm going to go sit in a corner and stare at the wall now haha.