Thursday 27 July 2017

Gilmore Girls and Some Thoughts on the Revival

Gilmore Girls was my jam in my mid-teens. For one summer, the series was shown on repeat in the UK, on E4. I'd wake up, and put the channel on while eating my breakfast. I loved the interaction between sweet, intelligent Rory and quirky, business-minded Lorelei. I loved Rory's bookworm tendencies, which I identified with myself. I loved the backstory on Lorelei building up a life for herself and Rory out of nothing. I loved the Gilmore's, who for all their faults really did love Lorelei and Rory. And I loved their best friends, the town of Stars Hollow and the people who lived there. And the love interests! Jess was best for Rory, no?

Spoilers for both the Revival and the original series under the cut:

So, like many people, I was looking forward to the Revival. I hoped it could iron out some of the problems in the last season. In particular, I was hoping it could put Rory's character back on track. I was hopeful she'd become a well-known reporter and journalist. Surely she'd manage to stick it to the naysayers like her 16-year-old self did, and become one of the best in the business?

Okay, maybe that was a little unrealistic. To be honest, I've no problem with them showing Rory as struggling with her job - that's been the reality for way too many of us in this generation. However, I didn't like how she was shown to never put any work into it, at all - so unlike her studious, hard-working teenage self. I didn't like the way that Rory's issues were juxtaposed with the 30-Something Gang, who were made to be laughed at, despite facing the exact same issues that Rory was. Many issues with the revival have been talked about in detail by others, so I will not go into them here. But while watching the revival, an idea started gnawing away at me, one that many people are using as a throwaway joke line, but something I think could actually work.

So, with the last line, we find out Rory is pregnant. Having a child could force her to grow up and start taking more responsibility for her actions. A case could be made for her not being ready to have a child, and I like that abortion has been mentioned as a possibility. However, I think it's enjoyable to imagine how her life might develop if she does have a child. Also, I am assuming she will have a girl, because, y'know, Gilmore Girls.

So, I will say: I Actually Hope Rory's Child's Father is the Wookie.

Could you see it? She'd be intelligent, but less of a nerd, more of a geek. She wouldn't be as good at school as Rory was, but more because she's up late, writing fanfiction when she should be studying. As a child, she quickly developed an unexplained interest in Star Wars, and has been able to school her mother on trivia for the franchise since she was young. She develops an interest in other geeky things, like comics (and gives her Grandmother a talking-to about why Marvel movies are not forgettable) and video games. She reads LOTR when she's in Junior High, her love of reading passed down from her mother. She's socially awkward, and her Great-Grandmother is often exasperated in trying to talk to her.

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