I'd love to hear your opinion on the main similarities and differences between Lorelai/Luke and Rory/Jess :)
Thanks for the question! I’ve always thought Lorelai and Jess and Luke and Rory are very close as personality types, which I’ve discussed below:
http://ksfd89.tumblr.com/post/132206840160/luke-and-rory-show-emotion-through-actions-and
http://ksfd89.tumblr.com/post/140115564895/pairs-of-introversion
Lorelai and Jess deflect with sarcasm and wit, which is probably why they get off on the wrong foot - Lorelai tries to get through to Jess with humour and he feels mocked, so responds with sarcasm - and both of them have put up emotional walls out of vulnerability. Luke and Rory are very quiet, stoic people who mull things over in their minds until something pushes them over and they can’t hold their emotions in. They often respond with gestures - when Rory misses Jess, she doesn’t call him, but she goes all the way to New York, and when Luke wants to show he loves Lorelai, he builds her an ice rink. When they are angry and hurt Luke snaps at everyone and is rude to his customers, and Rory makes spontaneous, occasionally destructive decisions, such as stealing the boat. So all four share a kind of introversion, demonstrated in different ways.
This ask is about how Lorelai and Luke are similar though, and Rory and Jess. My main thought is that all of them share a similar background. While Lorelai grew up rich, she and Luke both had to grow up suddenly. Luke’s mother died when he was a teenager and Lorelai got pregnant. They both had to begin navigating adulthood and, while Luke and Lorelai are extremely successful at managing businesses, they occasionally show arrested development - Lorelai in particular. Neither of them were able to fully experience early adulthood, where you go to college or simply have the years of not knowing where you’re going, or think you know and then mess up. Luke had to run the store, and then his father died when he was still very young, and Lorelai always had Rory. Neither of them had time to just be kids, or rather, very young adults, and so have cultivated a fierce independence. Luke and Lorelai also had distance from their parents. Whilst Lorelai’s are living through the original series, she had an almost Victorian relationship with them as a child and then barely spoke to them after leaving as a teenager. Even when Emily arranges Friday Night Dinners, Lorelai resists telling her about her personal life, largely as she knows her mother will use it to hurt her. Luke’s father died, but it is implied that he was tough on his son, never discussing emotion and focusing heavily running the hardware store. There is a kind of bitterness with Luke too but, like Lorelai, he channels his energy on running the diner as she does with the inn. They both struggle with asking for help or admitting weakness, even to themselves, and yet when they do, the other completely understands. In anger, they push each other away and can be cruel, but are also ready to forgive as they understand each other so strongly.
Rory and Jess grew up without fathers. They were both brought to new worlds without a say - Rory first to Stars Hollow as a baby and then back to the rich world she can’t remember, and Jess to Stars Hollow from New York - and neither of them fully fit into either. Rory may have been born into wealth, but she wasn’t raised in it, and always feels out of place in Chilton. It dazzles her though, and she comes to enjoy the fun of it for several years, before seeing the shallow side. While she enjoys life in Stars Hollow, it’s not where Rory wants to stay. Her early aim is for Harvard, then Yale and later, after moving home again, Rory still feels out of place. Jess grew up in New York, almost definitely in poverty and abuse from some of his mother’s boyfriends, yet resented living in Stars Hollow. It’s all the things his uncle complains about - twee, small and has a kind of mob mentality - but as it’s not his home, he can’t see the good side Luke and Lorelai do. He eventually chooses to move back because of Rory and better life with Luke but still resents elements of it and eventually leaves again. Much as Rory doesn’t see the negative elements of her grandparents’ world, Jess doesn’t see how good, if perhaps stifling, it was living with Luke until he goes to California and then back to New York.
While he and Rory move in and out of these worlds assigned to them, they find solace and a centre in books. In her Valedictorian speech, Rory talks about how she has two worlds - not Chilton and Stars Hollow, but the worlds of fiction and reality. Books are a home for her, just as they are for Jess, especially in times of uncertainty. Jess’s mistakes, and arguably Rory’s too, are linked to their biological fathers. Jess felt unwanted for most of his life, sent to his uncle’s by his mother and then being kicked out by his uncle after a fight. Rory, while knowing how loved she was by Lorelai and all of the town, kept hoping that Christopher would eventually stay and marry her mother. Initially believing that Lorelai pushed him away, and later abandoned by him, Rory sees leaving as the greatest kind of sin. She never ends relationships, afraid that she could be alone, or that she could push people away. Rory sees Jess leaving as much worse crime that Logan cheating on her. She holds on and yet, often emotionally leaves without fully seeing it in herself.
Rory and Jess both falter, make mistakes and are aimless at times, but after encouraging each other they are able to put the other on path. The goal and aim for both of them is to write a book. Through the worlds of fiction they come to write their own stories, and their own place. Their first meeting is based around Jess writing in the margins of Rory’s book, and their last is Rory showing him the first chapters written of hers. Luke and Lorelai encourage each other’s independence but can also see each other’s vulnerabilities and are patient, willing to support the other when they need it. They occasionally struggle to communicate, but know each other through and through. Their first meeting involves Lorelai giving Luke her horoscope and, though Luke claims not believe in fate, goes with his heart over head with relationships and keeps the horoscope in his wallet for the rest of his life. Like Rory and Jess, they complement each other well, and have a deep connection and understanding.
Thanks for the ask!