[mericatblackwood-deactivated202]

do u ever think about how luke was probably the first adult in his life to actually take care of jess and support him and be there for him and truly care about him, as opposed to his mom who was neglectful and who didn’t want him around and his dad who left as soon as he was born, and then jess finds out he’s not graduating and can’t take rory to prom and that’s already a punch in the gut bc he feels like a failure and a disappointment, which is what every adult around him has reinforced to him, his mom and his teachers and lorelai and everyone in stars hollow and his dad who just showed up out of nowhere to remind him of all this, and then luke tells him that if he’s not graduating then he has to go, the one adult who was there for him kicks him out, and it doesn’t matter that luke didn’t mean it bc jess has no reason to think otherwise, and he can’t say goodbye to rory because he knows he’s failing the only other person to believe in him too, and anyways i’m always sad about jess mariano and he deserved better

[maeviana]

It infuriates me that in the next episode they are all like oh my god Jess left?! And Luke goes to see how Rory is. Like Luke Jess didn't run away you. told. him. to. go!

[maeviana]

Lorelai Gilmore & Luke Danes Analysis & how I would change the story

A Lorelai Gilmore analysis because apparently I'm doing this for everyone on the show now!

Lorelai Gilmore...how do I begin to describe Lorelai Gilmore. There are times when Lorelai can be my favourite character and times where she can be my least favourite character. 

 I think Lorelai denying the fact that she is still very privileged despite leaving her parents world when she was 16 is one reason she can drive me up the walls. Lorelai is a conventionally attractive white woman who fits the trope of 'single mom but my child is really smart so men don't see it as a turn off' - she seems to be able to get any guy she wants, the whole town falls at her feet and are willing to do pretty much anything to help her, she was promoted to Manager seemingly above Michelle (who actually went to school to train to be a concierge or whatever he is and who we know started at the same time as Lorelai) Lorelai has all the advantages of someone who spent their whole life in a small town but whenever she needs it or wants it she always has her parents money to fall back on or their connections which I get makes her uncomfortable and I don't hold her privilege against her - no but what I can hold against her is the fact that Lorelai Gilmore is not a pay it forward kind of gal.

When I say that Lorelai is not very "pay it forward" I'm going to talk about three incidents where Lorelai benefitted from something in the past which she does not need anymore and which she very begrudgingly relinquishes.

1. The first is when Suki wants to ask her if Rune can sleep in the potting shed while he is out of work. Lorelai's response to this is "Suki that's where Rory and I stayed when she was a baby" Just to recap Lorelai was allowed to stay in the potting shed rent free when Rory was growing up until Rory was 11 until she could afford to get a place of her own. Which is fine. But Lorelai has her own place now and now she is in a position to help someone else who could use the same help that she was once given and her first instinct is to keep it for herself which is made worse by the fact that Suki is asking her - Suki is Head Chef at the Inn and so she equals Lorelai in rank - as long as Rune staying in the shed doesn't interfere with the running of the inn, it should not be Lorelai's place to deny her.

2. When Jess comes to town. When Jess comes to town Lorelai doubts Luke's ability to care for a rebellious teen - which again is fine. She tries to reach out to Jess twice and ....things don't go well which I also think is fine (except for her essentially telling Jess that Dean is better than him ummm wtf Lorelai he's 17) ...look I could do a whole other post about Lorelai and Jess' interactions (Jess is my absolute favourite character on the show so you can probably guess what I'm going to say) and why they don't get on but I'm going to focus on Lorelai's reaction to the car crash and what she says to Luke in 'Teach Me Tonight' when Luke tells her he has an obligation to Jess and she responds that he had an obligation to the town and to her and to Rory. We are shown and we are told that Luke has done a lot for Lorelai and would do a lot for someone that he cares about, however, I think again that on some level Lorelai thinks of Luke's generosity towards her as a special privilege just her own. I don't think Lorelai views Jess as someone like herself who needs a "Mia" or a "Luke" to help him get through a difficult time to let him stay in a metaphorical emotional "potting shed" but look having said that she does cut Jess some breaks and does help Luke understand things about Jess.

3. Her not wanting Mia to sell the Independence Inn because she wanted a memory home....ummm what. the. fuck?

Growing up Emily tried to control almost every aspect of Lorelai's life and this has impacted Lorelai by her being ultra controlling in her own life. I think her need to have complete control over her life made it very difficult for her to get serious with anyone because to do so you need to have a 50/50 say in a shared life. I think it's really telling that her two major love interests even over the guy she was engaged to are two men who have been in her life the longest.

I think at the end of the day when it comes to relationships Lorelai just wants someone to love her and to listen to her. She wants someone who would be willing to sleep on a park bench outside her window and someone to call at 2am. i think Emily and Richard we’re a real unit in their household and I think Emily was a Wife first, a lady of high society second and a mother third. Richard was well emotionally shut down and was all about appearances. But Emily and Richard work well as a unit, they are kind of like Lorelai and Rory that way they have their own way of doing things, their own language. I think it was hard for Lorelai growing up an only child next to that kind of relationship but not on the inside. 

The story line I'm most annoyed about the writers dropping for Lorelai was the story line of her now living her life as an adult woman without a child - about her not wanting to be pregnant. The offer from her Dad's friend to buy the inn and for her to go travelling by herself! But if there is one thing that comes for all television characters in shows in the 00s it's hetero normative ideals those relentless bitches! Because...here is the thing I think that the life Rory thinks she wants for herself travelling and seeing the world as an independent woman that life is really the life that Lorelai wants. Lorelai is very like her Dad and she even says that she wants to travel like her Dad always travelled and I'm so annoyed that THAT wasn't the major Luke and Lorelai conflict instead of April Nardini. (who I think was in part written as a way to give Luke a biological child of his own and still get with Lorelai ....because again hetero-normativity) (its a trope *cough* How I met your mother *cough*) That's why the whole "Wild" trip was written for Lorelai in my opinion it's because Lorelai does want to go out and have an adventure and she does want to find herself. What's more annoying about this story line being dropped though is because the seeds for it being a major Luke and Lorelai conflict are there. Dean telling Luke that Lorelai wants more than Stars Hollow, Lorelai's curiousity about the job offer from her Dad's friend and Lukes reaction to that, Lorelai realising that some of her aversion to certain paths in life come from her parents wanting them for her which may include "going corporate" which could open doors for travel. That’s how Luke lost the last love of his life - Rachel. It was potrayed that she was always leaving - but it could also be interpreted as Luke never following her. Then Lorelai wants to travel to run incorporations of an inn that Rachel introduced her to through her pictures. 

Think about it Luke's major character flaw is that he finds change very difficult. He lives in the same town he has lived in his whole life, he doesn't change his clothes, he can't make a move. This made sense for Luke before - he needed to be so solid because his family was so erratic, he needed to be there for his dad, he needed to be there to bail his sister out but at the end of the show Luke has no reason not to change, his business is well established enough that he could trust Ceasar to run it while he was away, he (would not have had) any children, any real reason to stay in the town other than stubbornness.

I don't find April annoying as a character - I find why she was written annoying. Luke didn't need a kid. The show is filled with biological parent child relationships that don't work, that show that bonds are more about being there for someone than being in their DNA. I feel like writing as if Luke needs to have a child is just weird (it's stated and shown on multiple occasion he in fact really doesn't like kids), when he's been a relative hermit up to age what 35/40 means that maybe he'd be ok without kids and the fact that Luke is loved like a father by Jess and by Rory but no Luke needs biological children because? why?

And then Jess (who was always ready to leave and never shows his cards when it comes to love) could show up and tell him that he should go be with Lorelai wherever , that he’ll make sure Liz and TJ don’t join any vegetable cults. Because Luke now has someone else in his family that he can rely on and he doesn’t have to plan funerals and interventions for his crazy family members on his own and also the this plot line would fall in nicely with the GG theme song but that’s not that big of a deal. 

[maeviana]

Rory Gilmore - everyone I think cringes at least a little on Rory’s character progression on Gilmore Girls after season 4 but here is my take on it. 

I think Rory grew up in “other peoples houses” a lot and was expected to be well behaved - you can’t really be climbing the walls at the Inn while your mother is working or when your in the diner or wherever. I think she was also out in public a lot being at the front desk at the inn etc. and so being in the public eye when you are very small of course the towns people watch you grow up and think you’re very polite and very cute and she grew to be used to people admiring and liking her. 

I think when Rory became a teen she naturally had some inclinations to rebel - this is really normal and actually should be expected but whenever she did rebel she was told “that she wasn’t acting like herself” or she told herself that “this wasn’t her” this is harmful reaction for two reasons

1. By other people telling her that something she did “is not her” it confuses her sense of self. More specifically her sense of self outside of her relationship with Lorelai.

2. By saying something is “not her” it stops her taking ownership and responsibility for her actions. She doesn’t notice patterns in her behavior or have to take responsibilities for anything she does wrong because she was “not herself” when she did it - and so instead of learning from her mistake she begins to view them as her just acting out of character.

I think that when she was growing up a lot of her personality reflected her mother because that’s who she spent the most time with and whatever her mother was reading or watching or listening to that’s what she was interested in as well. I do think Lorelai (unknowingly) pushed the “Havard Dream” onto her a bit and I think it’s a shame this wasn’t explored more. The show seemed to deny that Lorelai did push Havard on her but at the same time whenever Rory strayed from the Havard path her mother got mad. 

I think it’s really disappointing that Rory didn’t flounder more at Yale - when she was away from her mother and that her semester away from Yale was treated as her just avoiding her problems or solely as a reaction to Mitchum. I don’t think that Rory just dropped out of Yale because someone criticized her work I think she dropped out because Mitchum Huntzberger newspaper tycoon told her she didn’t have it. I think it is interesting though that her first decision is to just drop out not re-evaluate or change her major especially as the Summer was coming up and she would have gotten some time then to consider what her next move was going to be. I think this might have been because as Lorelai says in season 7 Rory is used to getting what she wants. Unlike Paris who tries so hard and still fails at things she really really wants (getting with Tristan, getting in to Havard, becoming one of the Puffs) Rory has never had any real struggle. She’s and Paris are examples of failure making us stronger - through her failures Paris has gained an ability to bounce back and to change course something Rory has not become adept at.  I think it’s a shame Rory didn’t question her decision to become a journalist - why a journalist? why not a novelist? and that it’s interesting that when Jess tells her he’s surprised that she doesn’t explain why she wants to become a journalist but instead said that it’s what she’s been talking about it forever and personally I can’t help but think that she doesn’t feel that she can change her mind. 

Another thing can happens in the show when Rory is shown to have conflict with someone she is proven right or she is vindicated by someone else. I refer you to the Ballerina incident. When Rory writes that review where she fat shames the ballerina she only questions how much she actually knows about ballet after the ballerina confronts her and when she tries to change her article to put the ballet in a more flattering light she is told not to. The moral of the story appears to be that sometimes poeple need to develop thicker skins - which is disappointing because this could have been a chance to review some toxicity within the newspaper business and could have been a jumping off point for the show to explore whether Rory really does want to go into the industry. 

Rory is actually really privileged and not just in terms of her grandparents paying for Yale but also the freedom of not having to get a part time job for her own day to day expenses because her mom worked so hard and her boyfriend built her a car which helped facilitate the amount of free time she has to study - I’m not saying she didn’t work hard I’m just saying that not everyone has that much free time.  Not only that but Lorelai clearly starts making good money quickly enough because Rory’s CD and book collection would have been extremely expensive and so Rory never actually has to give up any free time for her want of material possessions.  

Rory also has the privileged of being someones number one priority and the most important person in someones lives and doesn’t have to compete with siblings or boyfriends, other family members or anything for her mother’s attention if she needs help studying Lorelai will help her, if she needs costumes for a Shakespeare play, Lorelai will make them. 

But I think there is a lot of pressure put on Rory. She is the bridge between her grandparents world and her mother - she at once is very privileged and is just from a small town. She is supposed to go to Havard and become a famous journalist and nothing less and this can take years. 

I think the pressure of having to be amazingly successful combined with the fact that no one becomes amazingly successful right away and even if you are talented because there are millions of talented all bubbled below the surface and gave us.....revival Rory dun dun DUN

[maeviana]

Headcannon:

Inej and Zoya are cousins

[maeviana]

ok ok ok but Jess Mariano grew up in a world where he was expected to take care of himself mostly by himself and where relying on someone else (i.e his mother or his mother’s boyfriends) would ultimately lead to very bad results or would set him up for disappointed. Liz was consistently moving so I think it’s likely that Jess was constantly changing neighborhoods and thus changing schools meaning he doesn’t have any real childhood friends or probably even go to school consistently and there were definitely periods where he would have been “between schools” and is used to just keeping himself company and relying totally on himself for entertainment and money - he was essentially his own parent. 

Then he moves from one of the most anonymous cities in the entire world to a town where everyone knows each other and has known each other since they were five and not only that but he moves into the house of a relatively public figure in the town - one whose personal decisions have multiple times been the subject of town meetings (e.g his decision to take Jess in, his decision to let the building next door to Taylor, his decision to date Lorelai) and he goes from having absolutely no supervision to being watched constantly. 

He is also expected to respect the authority figures in this town which is understandable but his mother, his stepfathers and his own father did nothing but betray his trust, leave or cause him to lose respect for them but he is expected to just blindly trust this Uncle whom he has never met and some random lady whose house he brought him to. Also the “cool mom” act Lorelai gives him - how many of Liz’s boyfriends do you think tried the “cool-guy-let’s-have-a-beer” thing with him to try to relate to him when they were sleeping with Liz and trying to impress her - god no wonder he lashes out. 

He goes to a school where once again everyone has known each other since they were five and he doesn’t like sports or have any wish to join a sports team which is a way to make new friends when you move to a new town (look at Dean) he is in a situation also where most people his age don’t want new friends and are not expected to make them look at Lane who rejects people trying to befriend her at Stars Hollow High, there was an entire story line about it being “unfair” that Principal Charleston wanted Rory to make new friends at her school but Jess is expected to do this anyway. 

Jess also up until this point was in charge of his own education. I can’t imagine Liz being too much of a disciplinarian about school attendance. He has read extensively and as Rory says “is probably smarter than most people at the school” and I would imagine this includes the teachers. It’s really hard to listen to someone talk about a subject you know more about, that doesn’t interest you or listen to someone talk about something you know is wrong. What if when you are learning about the American revolution and you’re teacher talks on and on about how amazing George Washington is and you know he was a slave owner and sanctioned the slaughter of Native Americans or what if you don’t agree that Columbus “discovered” America because you know there were already people living there. How hard would it be to respect an English teacher when you’ve read more books than them and have a greater understanding of literature and poetry. 

Furthermore, aside from Rory in ‘Teach me Tonight’ no one actually asks Jess why he has no interest in going to school he is just told he “has” to go. When Rory does ask him why he doesn’t want to go to school, why he doesn’t study he actually comes back with a very valid answer - he doesn’t think there is a point in him getting a High School Diploma. There is two really fascinating elements of this first of all he doesn’t think that he is going to be able to “make something” of himself because people have always said he won’t (including his mother) but also no adult he knows is using their High School Diploma not Liz not Luke not even Lorelai, Suki or Jackson furthermore Jess can’t afford to go to college or to continue his education and any job he can imagine himself getting at that moment in time wouldn’t require a High School Diploma.  He’s almost 18, he’s been taking care of himself by himself for most of his life and no one is actually consulting him on his life decisions they are just telling him that they are wrong.

Also side note I have never seen a faculty of teachers get so mad at someone for just not participating - the one time we actually see Jess in class he’s just quietly reading in the back - I know the teacher said that he was sometimes hostile to teachers but I would bet those are the teachers who are trying to get him to participate when he literally just wants to be left alone and again nobody asks him why. 

[johnaeryns]

GILMORE GIRLS 1.08 “Love, War, and Snow” | 2.16 “There’s the Rub”

[maeviana]

Hear me out, a regency era/pride and prejudice-esque Gilmore Girls Literati AU.

Lorelai left her life of luxury and married for love. A scandal arose when her baby was born 2 months early and it is thought that she was conceived before wedlock. After Lorelai's husband Mr. Hayden dies, she has to turn to her parents who now have had to supply her with a home after her own home was inhereted by the next male heir - Dean Forester. Dean takes an interest in Rory and they begin courting.

Now once again indebted to her parents Lorelai allows her parents to have some influence over Rory's social life and education and begins a romance with Rory's new tutor - Mr. Maxwell. However, she ends up breaking off thier engagement.

Mr. Lucas Danes owns the neighbouring land to where Lorelai and Rory are now living. His nephew Jess (with a regency era sounding last name) is set to inherit his land after Luke dies and when he comes to stay with his uncle and survey the land he will one day inherit. Jess has a bad reputation from the beginning - he is thought to have been conceived out of wedlock, his parents then eloped to prevent a scandal but his father left the family and later died. He begins courting Rory but once he wins her affections he is unable to maintain their relationship and he leaves for London when Mr. Danes bids him to leave the manor.

Lorelai begins to secretly court Mr. Stiles who is the man who is set to inherit her father's estate after his death but breaks it off due to her family.

Rory is alone after Jess leaves and Dean has begun to court a new lady - Ms. Lyndsay and he has asked for her hand. Before the wedding can take place, however he and Rory begin to renew their courtship causing him to offer cut off his engagement to Ms. Lyndsay before Rory can accept her Grandmother offers to take her on a grand tour of Europe. When she returns she returns Dean's affections before Dean can propose however her wealthy grandparents set up a ball for her to meet rich suitors including - Logan Hunztberger.

[maeviana]

Head cannons I have about Jess Mariano:

After season 4 Jess' "guilty pleasure" is self help books which he formerly held a prejudice against because Liz was always on a new kick fuelled by some random book she picked up.

Jess' favourite food is burgers and fries because that's what Luke used to make for him.

Jess is bisexual.

Jess Mariano watched period pieces where the male lead walks with his hands behind his back and thought it was really charming.

Liz was a fortune teller for a while and bought a book about "reading people"

Jess' love of reading came from him having to be quietly sit in the corner of restaurants/the apartment while Liz was working.

Jess was used to Liz giving him 10 dollars and telling him to head out for the day in the Summers when she was working or smoking or drinking with her latest man.

Liz was not invited to the Truncheon Books open night and Jess specifically asked Luke not to tell her about it.

Jess' moved back to Stars Hollow for 6 months when he was getting his GED and Luke didn't give him the wifi password because he thought you didn't need wifi to study and he remembered Jess' lack of concentration in High School.

Jess "type" is organised nerds.

One of Jess' best friends or love interests gave him the nickname "Darcy"

Jess was the best man at Lorelai and Luke's wedding.

Jess has been referred to as "the new Luke" when he helped out at the restaurant when Luke was away...this annoyed TJ who thought he would be next in line to be the new Luke.

Kirk has tried to get Jess to publish multiple novels and Jess always reads the manuscripts which are always the weirdest things.

Jess shows love through acts of service and physical touch but finds words of affirmation difficult.

Jess is the harshest and best editor at his press. He is known for cutting down the length of manuscripts by over half every time he reads them. He thinks sometimes people use 500 words when they only needed 20. Rory is the opposite, she finds that often people need to say and refer to more in their work.

[maeviana]

Nina: It's a sloppy Jessica. Mac n cheese, chili, pizza on a waffle. Its everything I've wanted to eat for the last 48 hours.

Matthias : What happened? I thought you were gonna 'last forever bitches.'

Nina: Turns out I gave up easy. You hear that bitches? I gave up so easy.

[maeviana]

Do you guys ever think about how Luke said in 'Teach me tonight' that Jess needed to see someone he respects doing the things he should be doing and so he got Rory to tutor him but it was only when Jess saw that Luke got himself that self help book, showed up for Liz (even though she didn't deserve it) on her wedding day and put himself out there with Lorelai that Jess began to turn his life around and become more open with his emotions....because I do.

[maeviana]

[maeviana]

It drives me absolutely feral the way Lorelei speaks about Jess to his own family.

At his mothers wedding she says that it looks like Jess is getting "career advice" from an ex-convict which she says to his uncle.

At the same wedding she talks shit about him having a self help book (to be fair she does apologise)

In the revival when Luke says he thinks of Jess as somewhat of a son, she says "someone you can throw a ball with not at"

[maeviana]

honestly Jess Mariano has main character vibes maybe even more than Rory.

[catchymemes]

[maeviana]

but the whole point is that it’s not spells that are protecting them it’s challenges. There would have been no point in protecting the stone simply through spells and hexes Voldemort would just break through - they used riddles, magical creatures and games because he didn’t respect these kind of protections, protections that even someone with no magical or historical knowledge would be able to figure out, things that would take him longer to de-code. It took him a whole year to find out how to put Fluffy to sleep, and that’s the thing he had to put her to sleep because otherwise it would have alerted Dumbledore. 

[stellaluna33]

You know what I really love in There’s The Rub? The fact that, when Rory comes back to the kitchen after talking to Dean on the phone, Jess is in the middle of telling Paris that he “can’t get into poetry,” (Lies! But I digress…) because that means they just carried on with their literary discussion without Rory being in the room. That Jess was enjoying actually conversing with Paris BY HERSELF and felt comfortable sharing his opinions with her, and Paris was interested in hearing them.

The conversation didn’t just die awkwardly when Rory left the room, as if both of them were only there for her. I really wish the show had given these two lonely, awkward, and prickly teenagers the chance to really be friends, because they genuinely seemed to enjoy one another’s company and respect each other as intellectual equals, and that was so rare for them.

[stellaluna33]

You know what I really love in There’s The Rub? The fact that, when Rory comes back to the kitchen after talking to Dean on the phone, Jess is in the middle of telling Paris that he “can’t get into poetry,” (Lies! But I digress…) because that means they just carried on with their literary discussion without Rory being in the room. That Jess was enjoying actually conversing with Paris BY HERSELF and felt comfortable sharing his opinions with her, and Paris was interested in hearing them.

The conversation didn’t just die awkwardly when Rory left the room, as if both of them were only there for her. I really wish the show had given these two lonely, awkward, and prickly teenagers the chance to really be friends, because they genuinely seemed to enjoy one another’s company and respect each other as intellectual equals, and that was so rare for them.

[maeviana]

Hot Take : James Potter is Draco Malfoy with Harry's beliefs and Severus Snape is Harry Potters personality with Draco Malfoy's beliefs