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  • Abandon Shipping: The revival miraculously managed to put a lot of people off both Rory/Logan and Rory/Jess, the longest-standing ship war in the fandom. Rory/Logan lost a lot of sympathy thanks to the pair cheating on their respective boyfriend and fiancee, while a big reaction to Jess - who retained his character development - was that he deserves better than the now unlikable Rory and shouldn't still be pining after his high school girlfriend after literally a decade as the ending might suggest. Logan/Rory fans also thought they deserved better as a couple, especially considering how far they had come in the original series. There's also unity on all the characters deserving better than the writing they got regardless of shipping.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
    • Richard and Emily: judgmental, meddling and manipulative parents who only care about appearances and money? Or the Only Sane People of the whole Gilmore Clan?
    • Is Lorelai an immature, flighty parent, or a Bunny-Ears Lawyer-like mother when it comes to her parenting style?
    • Is Rory a sweet, doe-eyed innocent or a spoiled and manipulative brat? A Year in the Life hits the viewer with Protagonist-Centered Morality so hard, that it's hard not to lean towards the latter: this time she's having an affair with an engaged man, while also cheating on her own boyfriend, who is apparently such a Disposable Fiancé that it's supposed to be funny, and unlike in the original series this time nobody even attempts to call her out on this. Her professional attitude is not much better, making it weirdly satisfying when an interviewer catches her unprepared and (coincidentally) calls her a loser girl. One article even makes a case for her being an all out sociopath: [1]
      • Possibly explained by The Reveal that Rory is writing a book entitled "Gilmore Girls." It's possible that the show has been her book all along, making her an Unreliable Narrator when portraying herself.
      • If you watch the early seasons closely, you might also pick up on a lot of Character Shilling from Lorelai and the residents of Stars Hollow about what a great kid Rory is and how totally out-of-character her (regular) self-absorbed and bratty outbursts are.
    • Tristan's feelings towards Rory; Does he simply want to prove he can get her to go out with him through negging? Or does he truly like her and is too insecure and unable to treat her better for fear of rejection?
    • Was Marty an occasionally Innocently Insensitive nice guy who took Rory’s rejection badly and lashed out, or was he an entitled, passive-aggressive Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who was always a bit of a Jerkass? He does neg Rory the first time he speaks to her sober, but otherwise he appears to be a good friend to her until after she rejects him.
    • Jess and his feelings for Rory after his Longing Look at the end of A Year In the Life. Has he genuinely been pining for her for years or did seeing her again just bring up feelings of nostalgia that weren't a big deal? Alternatively, given Rory's behavior and her taking a level in jerkass, was Jess just sad that the old Rory was gone and finally letting go of who she used to be?
    • In-universe, Lorelai and Rory choose to view '50s children's movie Pippi Longstocking as a surrealist masterpiece.
    • Rory's feelings towards Dean in season 4 and beginning of season 5. Was she really still in love with him or did she simply miss how "special" and safe Dean made her feel (in her own words) in a season of living away from home and not getting close to any new people, next to how both friends and even her own grandmother were hassling her for not having a boyfriend? The fact that her relationship with Dean becomes very awkward once they actually try dating again and she moves on extremely quickly once he breaks up with her one final time gives support to the latter interpretation.
  • Anvilicious: In the second episode of season seven, Lane makes several arguments against sex and motherhood at the age of twenty, starting with calling it "a parasite" and going on to declare "that's what you get for making whoopie, folks!"
    • Justified in that she was raised by a very strict mother who influenced her views of sexuality (to the point of deciding to wait until marriage, despite her generally rebellious nature), and had only just gotten free of said mother when she managed to get pregnant (with twins, as she later find out) after a single bad sexual experience.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Logan. A Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Troubled, but Cute Prince Charming? Or an entitled, self-centered douchebag who does nothing but drag Rory down with him? A Year In The Life which has him lose all of his Season 7 development and cheat on his fiancee with Rory gives support to the second interpretation. However, his fans turned on this writing move, complaining it was forced and a cheap way just to ruin Logan and basically prove his detractors right, saying he (and, by extension, his love story with Rory) deserved better.
    • Jess. Jerkass who treated everyone, including Rory, like dirt? Or does his Hilariously Abusive Childhood and undiagnosed mental illness offer an explanation for his behavior? The Jerkass interpretation is less popular as of A Year In The Life, since he's actually retained his Season 6 character development, has his life/career together and manages to be more mature than Rory, Luke, and Lorelai put together most of the time.
    • Christopher. Charming, likable guy who made some mistakes in his past but is genuinely trying to make up for them? Or whiny Manchild who cannot get himself together and/or step out gracefully of Lorelai's life when he's clearly making it worse? After Rory goes to see him and tells him about Lorelai's wedding with Luke in the revival, he tells her that he's learned his lesson about letting her go.
    • Lindsay. On one hand, being the woman married to the man the town darling worships can't be easy and characters treat her as a disposable obstacle for Rory's happiness. Dean cheating on her isn't much better. On the other hand, Lindsay does expect Dean to drop out of school, work longer hours, and then complains that she's bored at home alone, instead of going out and getting a job.
    • Rory after A Year In The Life Is she a normal 30-something going through a quarter life crisis, with her failing career and vagabond existence justifying her poor decisions like having an affair with Logan? Or is she just a selfish, entitled brat who barely bothered with her career in the first place and has a history of cheating? There's also the problem that in the original series, a lot of fans viewed Rory in s5-7 (who partied with Logan and stole yachts) as wildly out of character compared to studious, sweet Rory of s1-4 but the revival suggests that's who she's really become.
      • It's worth noting that in both the original series and the revival, Rory either cheated with or on EVERY SINGLE BOY SHE DATED.note 
  • Better on DVD: Rory and Lorelai's estrangement in season 6 is significantly more bearable when binged over the course of a few days rather than being dragged out over months in the original broadcast.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Quite a few throughout the show.
    • "I just had a dream that Madeline Albright was my mother."
    • Logan, Colin, and Finn's interruption of Rory's class in "Not As Cute As Pushkin".
    • Lorelai's one bout of nerdiness to match her daughter's, when she memorized Luke's oven manual. Four seasons earlier she had no idea what a broiler was. She never does anything remotely similar again.
    • Lorelai's weird dream in "The Real Paul Anka".
    • The Stars Hollow Musical in A Year in the Life. And the weird Alice in Wonderland themed diversion with the Life and Death Brigade.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The original show ended with Rory joining the Obama campaign as a correspondent and beginning her dream of being a journalist. The end of the revival has her repeating Lorelai's life, though 16 years later, as a single, unemployed mother, who has cut herself off from Logan, the potential father who is about to get married. She has no job prospects and is back in Stars Hollow.
  • Broken Base: Regarding Jess's Longing Look at Rory at the end of A Year In The Life, indicating he might have feelings for her. Some fans are hopeful that Rory/Jess might get a happy ending after all and think they could be great together now he's matured from the original series. Others - including a lot of former Jess/Rory fans - don't like the implication that Jess is still pining for her and thinks he deserves better than Rory, given how her character has regressed. A final group still don't like Jess or Jess/Rory at all, and would prefer Rory with someone else (like Logan) or for her to stay single.
  • Creator's Pet: April. When Rory entered the college phase, some fans began to reminisce about the old days when she was still an adorable innocent. The producers introduce April on the show to take up the mantle as the brainy but cute know-it-all who could give the adults a run for their money.
  • Designated Hero: Rory, who was considered a paragon of virtue in the original series, spends the entirety of A Year in the Life casually disregarding and cheating on her boyfriend. Somehow, the disregard is Played for Laughs, though fan reaction suggests that the screen writers are the only ones who found it funny.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience:
    • Rory seems fairly oblivious to social things, though she cares about people's feelings. One theory is autism of the variety that was known as Aspergers when the show ran.
    • Kirk is quirky and extremely oblivious to social things. Some theories say autism, of the currently diagnosable variety.
    • Lulu has a habit of smiling impossibly widely whenever people talk to her, and throws tantrums in public over being asked to give up accessories she likes.
    • Jess Mariano deconstructs the bad boy trope because he only seems to be that way due to depression and attachment issues.
    • Tana Schreck is a prodigy who starts Yale aged fifteen. She is blunt and yet anxious about people's reactions to her, and when memorizing conversation topics she chose to instead remember useful tips about how to store belongings, so it's hard to think she's not autistic.
    • Jason Styles, Lorelai's love interest in season four, has sensory issues that make him unable to sleep in a luxurious bed or next to a woman. He doesn't want to be in noisy restaurants or around a lot of people, and is a picky eater. He has trained his dog to act like furniture and obey the command "a little to the left".
    • Sookie is a master chef who has serious trouble focusing on anything for more than two seconds unless she's in the middle of cooking. Guesses include ADD and ADHD.
    • Paris displays a few symptoms of "high-functioning" autism. She is very focused and rule-oriented, tends to take things literally, and is by her own admission not good with people. She is however not averse to being touched, and has broad interests, thus averting Hollywood Autism.
  • Downfall by Sex: Paris blames not getting into Harvard on sleeping with Jamie (Lorelei calling Rory "the good kid" when she overhears the conversation), Lane's first time on their honeymoon and the awful experience it was, unexpected pregnancy (Lorelai, Rory, Sookie, Lane in a sense), Rory's decision to steal a yacht and sleep with Logan ruins her life (though not nearly as much as it should have) but not his, and all the times that Lorelai and Rory cheated on their boyfriends, with varying degrees of repurcussions.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Fanon Discontinuity:
    • Amy Sherman-Palladino's contract ended before she got a chance to execute the way she envisioned the series to end, and many fans choose to ignore the existence of anything after the end of season six (some disregard everything from the point April shows up). She has said some season seven plots will be blended into the revival since some parts have to be maintained for continuity, but probably the worst of it will be handwaved or never mentioned again.
      • Despite having Palladino serving as showrunner again, A Year in the Life was probably received worse than season 7 among the fandom, who was so unsatisfied for what the writing gave to the characters and the stories (in particular regarding Rory's worrying derailment, her Romantic Plot Tumor with Logan rather than making them properly get back together and her pregnancy at the end) that most came to say they prefer the original Grand Finale, defining the revival as pointless and useless, if not even harmful, and thus deciding to basically ignore its existence.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Lane's first love Dave is vastly more popular than her eventual husband Zach. Not helped by the suggestion that Dave was originally meant to end up with Lane note  but Adam Brody left for The O.C and Zach was written is as a replacement.
  • Genius Bonus: Rory (as well as other characters) is extremely well-read, and there are multiple references to literature throughout the series. If Buzzfeed is to be believed, there are 339 books referenced over the course of seven seasons.
  • Growing the Beard: While the show was considered good from the start, "Rory's Dance" and "Forgiveness and Stuff" are generally singled out as the episodes where the writing gets better, especially for fleshing out relationships like Emily and Lorelai's.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Lorelai delivers a preemptive speech about how upper class youth feel entitled to everything and can do anything they want. Rory steals a yacht at the end of season 5 and isn't on speaking terms with her mother for about half a season. And Richard and Emily defending Rory to the Huntzburgers after Mitchum tells her that she "doesn't have it", given Rory's personal and professional (or lack thereof) behavior in the revival. Especially jarring after her reaction to the crappy writing assignment that Paris gave her in "Nick and Nora/Syd and Nancy" and her efforts at the Yale Daily News.
    • Lorelai is relieved to find out that Rory hasn't slept with either Jess or Dean in Season 3, saying "I've go the good kid." Considering that Rory had already cheated on Dean with Jess, and would cheat with Dean while he was married, cheat on Logan with Jess, cheat on Paul with Logan and on Paul and Logan with the Wookie...
    • In season one, after Lorelai confides to Luke that Dean reminds her of Christopher, Luke tells her he isn't surprised, as Rory and Lorelai are a lot alike and could reasonably have similar tastes in men. Jess and Logan haven't even been introduced as characters and the revival has yet to make the Like Parent, Like Spouse Love Triangle explicit, so re-watching that scene in retrospect is just hilarious.
    • In the Season 2 finale, Lorelai says "Guess who's in the midst of breaking up?" Rory replies "Brad and Jen?" Fast forward a couple of years...
    • In the same episode, Paris runs for student council president. Does a smart, competent candidate who's unlikable enough to lose sound eerily familiar? Especially given how the second series has both several anti-Trump and pro-Hillary jokes.
    • In Season 3, Lorelai goes on a bad date. Their next date is supposed to be a Bowie concert; Lorelai cancels saying she'll see Bowie "On his next farewell tour." Sigh.
    • In a season 3 episode, Lorelai eavesdrops on a conversation Rory has with Paris where she reveals that she never slept with Dean, nor had done so with Jess yet, making Lorelai proudly say to herself how she "got the good kid." Come the season 4 finale, Rory sleeps with Dean while the latter is married to someone else, greatly upsetting Lorelai and having to listen to Rory childishly attempt to excuse the ordeal. Made even worse by A Year In The Life, where Rory is willingly sleeping with an engaged Logan while having a boyfriend she considers 'too forgettable' to actually break up with, and apparently ends up pregnant with Logan's child or possibly even a random third candidate, dressed in a Chewbacca costume.
    • In the Season 3 finale, when Rory is made valedictorian, Paris tells her that valedictorians often end up unsuccessful in later life according to statistics. In the revival A Year In The Life, Rory struggles with her lack of a career, despite all her academic achievements, mostly due to self-sabotage, immaturity, and irresponsibility.
    • The season one episode where Richard suffers a heart attack and Emily demands he won't die before she does becomes this after Edward Herrmann's death in 2014. It's been confirmed his character died with him in the revival as well.
    • Mitchum telling Rory "she doesn't have it" as a journalist in Season 5, completely devastating her. A Year In The Life proves he was more than right as her journalism career is stuck in a rut and, despite being a freelancer, she makes little effort to chase any stories.
    • In season 7, Lorelai reassures Christopher that he'll have plenty more opportunities to be a parent to Rory, as she is 'due for a quarter-life crisis.' This is much less charming once you know about the events of A Year in The Life. This one is two-fold, considering his angst was about only being involved financially in Rory's life, and the first thing he does when Rory walks into his office in the revival is offer her money. It's also implied he's repeating the cycle with Gigi, whom he does not live with and does not know anything about except she likes living in Paris with her mother.
    • Jess at one point berates Luke for being someone who pines after a woman without doing anything about it, and that he would never be that sad himself.About a decade later in the revival, Jess is implied to still be pining for Rory much like Luke did with Lorelai.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight:
    • While Rory and Jess had a turbulent relationship in the show and only stayed together for a few months, Alexis and Milo dated in real life, lasted for almost four years and even discussed marriage together.
    • In A Year in the Life, Rory is 32, the same age Lorelai was at the beginning of the original series. In a meta sense she's even older as Lauren Graham was 33 at the filming of the pilot and Alexis Bledel is 35 at the release of the revival.
    • When Sookie and Jackson are on their first (somewhat disastrous date), Lorelai comments that she'll wear blue to the wedding. Two seasons later...
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In season 1, "Kiss and tell", Lorelai thinks Rory has "killer blue eyes". Five years later, Alexis Bledel is in Sin City, where almost everything is black and white, except for her eyes, which shine bright blue.
    • In "Keg! Max!", Brian suggests the band be named "The We". This is three years before the Nintendo Wii.
    • Jared Padalecki plays a character named Dean. Think about it for a second...
    • In "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", Lorelai snarks that Jess must have watched too many Sylvester Stallone movies. Milo Ventimiglia was cast as Stallone's son in Rocky Balboa.
      • In the same episode, Jess's response to Dean's, "You think this is funny?" is, "Well, it’s no Lenny Bruce routine but it has its moments." Amy Sherman-Palladino would go on to feature a fictionalized Lenny Bruce in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (where Milo would cameo).
    • Sookie claims in one episode to have friends in the CIA. When Lorelai expresses disbelief, Sookie admits that she meant the Culinary Institute of America, not the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2015, Melissa McCarthy portrayed a CIA agent (this time referring to the Central Intelligence Agency) in Spy.
    • Sookie also has a line in Season 2, where she makes fun of one of Lorelai's wannabe suitors for watching Ghostbusters over 100 times.
    • In season 1, Rory quips to Lorelai that a recent antic was just "fodder for the tell-all." In "A Year in the Life," Rory decides to write her biography of her life with her mom.
    • The episode "Bridesmaids Revisited" had guest appearance by Leslie Odom Jr. as character referred to by Lorelai as "Pompous Princeton Guy". 9 years after that episode aired, Odom Jr. would be playing a "Pompous Princeton Guy".
    • In season 5 episode "Blame Booze and Melville", Rory is thoroughly sickened by the idea of childbirth.
    • Louise in season 4 has a throwaway line about her writer boyfriend being disappointed that The Simpsons would be off the air by the time he graduates college. That episode aired in 2003 and the animated series is still going.
    • Over the course of the series, Lorelai would sometimes joke about other girls being into Rory. Alexis Bledel's latest two roles of note both see her playing a lesbian.
  • Hollywood Homely: Paris apparently has skin problems, her chest wouldn't bring any male attention, her handsome boyfriend is her "lobotomy victim" and any guy interested in her would be blind. Liza Weil has great skin and is one of the bustiest females of the show, and remarks about her character's unattractiveness admittedly come from other girls, who hate her. It's rather clear that what makes her unpopular is her Insufferable Genius personality.
  • Humor Dissonance: The revival frames Rory forgetting about Paul as an amusing Running Gag and clearly meant to be Played for Laughs. However fans and reviewers generally found the whole thing tasteless, dragged on far too long (literally to the final scene) and any amusement ruined by the fact that oh yeah, Rory was cheating on him.
    • Similarly, the revival takes a lot of jabs at millennials, in particular with the mockery of the Thirty Something Gang portraying them as unemployed pathetic layabouts...somehow missing that a huge portion of their target audience are from that generation and don't enjoy being the butt of the jokes. (Especially with the context that young people are struggling with jobs and housing because of the impact of the Great Recession not because they're off having milkshake-drinking competitions like the Thirty Something Gang are).
      • And the jabs are being delivered by a mother and her 30 something who is unemployed, burned through multiple trust funds, doesn't prepare for a job interview, and falls asleep while working. We are supposed to judge the gang, but Rory is awesome and it isn't her fault she has difficulties unlike the children of working class adults in the gang.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Emily in the episode "The Third Lorelai". For most of the series she's an uptight snob who disagrees with Lorelai on everything. But she's treated as a servant by Trix, who demands everything to be a certain way "right down to the last shrimp fork".
  • Just Here for Godzilla: More of a reaction to A Year in the Life than anticipation for it, but the revival had a lot of viewers finding Rory a Designated Hero for her infidelity and self-entitled behavior and thus only enjoyed the episodes for Lorelai and Emily's storylines, or only Emily's (with the added dosages of Kirk).
  • Karma Houdini: Rory, especially in the revival. And Logan.
  • Les Yay:
    • Lorelai often teases Rory that other girls find her cute.
    • Paris lurks behind Rory's shadow so much in seven years (begging Rory to get her into the student sorority and be her student body vice president, swinging things around at Yale so Rory must share a room with her, etc.) that she might as well be a Stalker with a Crush. Paris and Rory share a kiss on Spring Break (although it took place a month before sweeps in actuality). Way back in episode 2.9 ("Run Away, Little Boy"), Tristan and Rory are set to play Romeo and Juliet in a school project, and Tristan spends most of the episode taunting Dean about how he's going to be kissing Rory on stage; at the last moment, Tristan is sent to military school, and Paris takes over the role (but does not kiss Rory).
    • Lampshaded/parodied in a cutaway gag on Family Guy, where Lorelai and Rory exchange repartee before sharing a French kiss. (Daniel Palladino, the creator's husband, works on Family Guy as well.)
    • Madeline and Louise learn that they can manipulate boys by kissing each other during their freshman year of college.
  • Magnificent Bitch: Trix. Emily's skills in manipulating people sometimes get her into this territory as well, although when actually confronted with her mother-in-law, she stands no chance.
  • Memetic Mutation: "I hope Rory's child's father is the Wookie." note 
  • Moe: Rory, especially in early seasons, because of her shyness, innocence, and Nice Girl nature. She's seen this way even in-universe, as everyone in Stars Hollow is protective of her.
  • Moral Event Horizon: While Rory's romantic slip-ups during high school could be chalked up to inexperience, sleeping with the married Dean as an adult is a hard no for Lorelai, and a few others as well. It also marked a turning point for fans, being the first of Rory's many selfish and entitled moments in the latter half of the show.
  • Narm: A lot of the more emotional moments are undermined for some viewers by the Sam Phillips "la la la" or "pa pa pa" soundtrack under those scenes.
  • Only the Creator Does It Right:
    • This show is practically the poster child for this trope, with the marked difference between Amy Sherman-Palladino's auteur style on the show versus season 7 following her departure.
      • Subverted by A Year In The Life where ASP has full control, but the reactions have been from mixed to completely negative, with many even praising the series finale over the events of AYITL, especially the ending and the (in)famous “Last Four Words”.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Many considered Zach to be this as Lane's Love Interest after Dave Rygalski's actor, Adam Brody, left the show to join The O.C., due to Zach not being a very liked character and pretty much every viewer thinking Dave had fit Lane much better.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
  • Romantic Plot Tumor:
    • Rory and Dean in the latter half of season 4. Because of having ended their relationship abruptly over Jess, it's established that they're not entirely over each other, but the amount of focus spent on their New Old Flame tension gets old fast, particularly as Dean serves no other purpose in the season but to be a Satellite Love Interest while Rory's character regresses to eventually cheating with a married man. Thankfully season 5 picks up the slack somewhat as their rehashed relationship is short-lived and Rory finally moves on. Whether Logan was an improvement from Dean (or Jess), however, is up for much heated debate, as mentioned below.
    • The Logan/Rory affair in the revival, which made both characters look horribly unlikable and barely offered any insight as to why they were cheating on their significant others rather than properly getting together.
  • The Scrappy: April for many reasons, mainly the fact that she's introduced as Luke's long-lost daughter and his handling of the situation is what drove a wedge into the Luke and Lorelai relationship in seasons 6 and 7.
  • Seasonal Rot: The last three seasons come under a lot of criticism. Season 5 was criticized for Rory becoming more unlikable (sleeping with Dean while married in the S4 finale and their pointless rehashed relationship, then her becoming much more entitled and stealing a yacht after meeting Logan). Season 6 had the unpopular Rory/Lorelai argument, dividing the fanbase, and the utterly loathed plotline of April turning up purely to break Luke and Lorelai up. Then Season 7 lost Amy Sherman-Palladino altogether, had Luke and Lorelai separated for most of it and the hated Lorelai/Christopher marriage.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Sweet Jesus, the arguments that erupted over which of Rory's three boyfriends were better for her still go on to this day. Any site that even mentions the show will have commenters arguing over Jess, Dean, or Logan, with some outliers for Tristan and Marty and quite a few passionate arguments for her to be with Paris. When one of Buzzfeed's staff threw their weight behind Logan, the comments predictably started arguing. And when it was announced that the show would be available on Netflix, even more articles sprang up debating which boyfriend was the best. Scott Patterson (Luke) apparently thought Dean was the right one. Milo Ventimiglia, when asked about his time on the show, seemed to prefer the Anchored Ship idea. Then at the Gilmore Girls reunion panel, Milo said he liked Dean while Jared and Matt liked Jess, and then Scott Patterson interjected that all three of them were crap. For those few who ship Marty and Rory, Tumblr has pretty much recast him in retrospect as Entitled to Have Her because he was a "nice guy" who Rory rejected; the season seven passive-aggressive version of his character really didn't help.
  • Shipping Bed Death:
    • Luke and Lorelai spent four seasons as Just Friends and the most popular ship of the show, with most viewers dying to see them get together, but they just didn't work as a couple. The writers went on by literally shipping off Luke for several episodes, giving the couple forced conflicts and at best having the characters putting their engagement on-hold because of unrelated circumstances (such as Lorelai's conflict with Rory in Season Six), overall leaving the impression that the pair worked better as friends than in an actual relationship.
      • To be fair, Luke and Lorelai's relationship was pretty well-received initially and popular when they were actually together throughout Season 5 and the first half of Season 6, plus fans were happy when they got engaged. It was only when the writers threw in the angst of Luke lying about April, Lorelai sleeping with Chris and their breakup during Season 7 that people turned on the relationship. It was more the pair worked better as friends or while still in their early days as a couple, but since they weren’t capable to keep the relationship steady at all as they were too different and immature, apparently they were also not meant to be: in fact, in the 2016 revival the two do have rekindled their relationship, but neither of them seems happy (Lorelai herself openly questions it), plus after literally 10 years they are not married yet and even though this happens at the end, they go through another crisis right before…
  • So Okay, It's Average: Unfortunately for many, the original series' finale, which felt more like a Fix Fic. By then, many fans had already abandoned the show altogether. Even at the reunion the entire cast agreed that outside of Rory's 'wide open future', it pretty much failed as closure on all counts (and counts as the only time in real life Kelly Bishop and Liza Weil expressed any frustration at Warner Bros. for the abrupt end).
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • The season 3 episode where Lorelai's birthday is celebrated has Rory arranging for the "world's largest pizza" to be made (that ends up being Hartford's biggest pizza instead.) When the giant pizza is being lowered to the ground by a crane machine, the image is very obviously photoshopped.
    • Sometimes the snow in winter episodes looks fake.
  • Squick: The sight of 18-year-old, barely out of high school, Paris making out with Asher Fleming (played by a very obviously 61-year-old Michael York). Rory wasn't the only one disgusted by this discovery.
  • Strawman Has a Point:
    • Viewers are supposed to see Lorelai's parents as uptight, judgmental rich people (they are), but their criticisms about her immaturity and irresponsibility are still very often spot on.
    • Mitchum is presented as a heartless monster for telling Rory "[she] don't got it" to make it as a journalist, except that some would say he's completely right. As was pointed out in the episode itself, Mitchum determined that she wouldn't be able to make it as a journalist and that she would be better suited as someone's assistant.
      • Additionally, Mitchum isn't being nasty when he says it, and it seems that he very deliberately couches it as gently as possible. He emphasizes that he's been wrong before and could be this time, and he also gives Rory some other career recommendations based on what he's observed of her.
      • However, come the revival, he was proved quite right.
      • That's if you take his comments on face value, disregarding that Mitchum had a strong personal motive to curtail Rory's career. May fall into Alternative Character Interpretation.
    • Rory rips into a ballerina for a horrible performance in the Yale newspaper. Richard supports it because Rory would be doing the ballerina a favor since she can now pursue a different career. This is completely forgotten when Mitchum essentially tells the same thing to Rory.
      • Likely Truth in Television, as it's common for a grandparent (or parent) to want better treatment for their grandchild (or child) from others than they expect toward non-relatives. And Richard adored Rory.
      • Additionally, Richard and Emily are written with some very obvious narcissistic tendencies - narcissists generally lack empathy and are unconcerned with how their actions might impact other people's lives or feelings, but are very sensitive to anything that they perceive as criticism of themselves or their family members.
    • In "One's Got Class And The Other One Dyes", Debbie and a few other parents become enraged when Lorelai says that she didn't regret having Rory when a bunch of high schoolers asked her about her pregnancy while Lorelai was trying to give a career speech. While whether or not the mothers' accusations that Lorelai was glamorizing Teen Pregnancy were justified is a debate of its own, they do bring up a good point that Lorelai could've just turned down answering the questions in the first place to ignore any potential unfortunate implications. Definitely doesn't help that Lorelai's only response to the statement was a Nazi joke.
    • Lorelai is supposed to be wrong when she dismisses Logan as being the kind of irresponsible guy who gets drunk with his fratboy friends, then the next morning skydives wearing a stupid costume, which is merely the way he's getting to the next stupid stunt he's going to do... a season later, Logan turns out to apparently be planning to do just that.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Jess coming back home to find Lorelai in Luke's bed in "A Tale of Poes and Fire" could have made interesting drama, but the episode doesn't show any reaction from him at all, so we assume that he went straight to bed without any thought about what might be going on.
    • In the revival, quite a bit of time is dedicated to Rory trying to revive the old Stars Hollow Gazette, this goes nowhere and it's never resolved. One of the main problems Rory encounters is the lack of staff and the outdated systems they use. Another plot point that goes nowhere besides as a throwaway gag is the Thirtysomething Gang. Now where could a group of tech-savvy millennials with nothing better to do than drink milkshakes go to find useful employment?
  • Take That, Scrappy!: April in A Year In The Life is a pretentious MIT graduate who says she 'only watches German silent films' and acts, in general, like an overly-entitled hipster. Of course, when she's alone with Rory, she has a full-blown panic attack and was faking the whole pretentiousness in order to fit in at MIT.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Rory and Logan in A Year In The Life as they have an ongoing affair while she has a boyfriend and he's engaged. The show plays it like they have some star-crossed lovers-thing going on even though they could get together in a minute if they wanted to, as Logan never explains why he has to marry his fiancee and the only reason Rory hasn't broken up with her boyfriend is she keeps forgetting he exists. Plus, Rory at some point has a one-night-stand (cheating on both her boyfriend and Logan) which she treats like no big deal, making the idea that she and Logan still have "true" feelings for each other come off as rather questionable on Rory's side. Which is quite hypocritical considering how upset she got with Logan for cheating, especially after all the time she's cheated on her boyfriends.
    • Also Rory regarding her career: yes it sucks that her journalism dream isn't going the way she wanted it to, but it is a very tough field and she's apparently spent the last ten years floating around cherry-picking whatever articles interest her, complains about being "broke" despite her inheritance from her grandparents and makes little effort to get steady work. When she has an actual meeting for a job, she comes in totally unprepared, spending the preparation time looking for her interview dress, and then starts insulting the woman when they don't hire her because she's unprepared. When she's even given a pitch for an article, she skips out halfway through because she didn't want to do it and ignores an interesting story that could have worked better.
    • Rory's treatment of Lorelai in A Year In The Life, from apparently coming back to stay out of nowhere, insisting on writing a memoir despite Lorelai's objections and getting mad at her for objecting. Then spoils Lorelai's wedding day by announcing her pregnancy.
  • Unpopular Popular Character:
    • Few people tolerate Paris on the show, but she's one of the most universally loved characters by viewers. Fans find her entertaining, a good foil to Rory, and also admire her determination and dedication to studies.
    • Kirk is the town's Butt-Monkey, but is very popular with fans.
    • Jess is hated by the entire Stars Hollow for his bad behavior and equally bad attitude. However, he's the most popular of Rory's love interests with viewers, mainly because he's a snarky Troubled, but Cute bookworm who is Rory's intellectual equal.
  • Values Dissonance: Miss Patty. She is constantly on the prowl for men, often much younger than her (some she hits on are even in their teens). It is played as a character quirk and Running Gag. Viewers today probably would be wondering why this lady is allowed to constantly harass the teenage boys/younger men in Stars Hollow without consequences.
  • Wangst:
    • When Luke and Lorelai break up in 'Say Something', Lorelai takes to her bed for at least two days and cries like a child, even needing her daughter Rory to come back and take care of her. However, this is Luke her best friend of the last 10+ years, and who she had feelings for almost as long but held off admitting it because she didn't want to risk them breaking up. Having that fall apart (especially over something so petty) would be utterly devastating.
    • Rory dropping out of school and having a full on Heroic BSoD because her boyfriend's dad (aka super important media personality) told her that she didn't have what it takes to be a journalist. Especially irritating as in the first season she had hordes of people (Paris, Headmaster Charleston, Madeline and Louise, Tristan, Max, even Lorelai) doubting her ability to manage at Chilton. Despite the odds she insisted she could manage and worked her way up. She buckled down and became valedictorian. The difference in her reaction speaks volumes about how Rory's character regressed.
    • Lorelai melting down at the end of season 6 because she thinks that she and Luke will never actually get married feels pretty darn unearned and hypocritical after she spent the first half of the season refusing to set the date because of her own struggles with her kid. You would think she’d have a little more empathy and patience for Luke needing an adjustment period, making it feel more like an adult woman throwing a tantrum instead of compelling relationship drama.
    • Rory turning down a permanent position as a full-time writer for a newspaper in order to chase a six-week internship and then whining about how she's never going to get a job after the internship doesn't pan out smacked of youthful naivety at the time of airing. Now that getting a job straight out of college in your chosen field has become incredibly difficult thanks to the 2008 recession, it comes across as incredibly childish and self-indulgent.
    • Rory's freakout on the phone to the CEO of Sandee Says when she isn't hired. Considering how unprepared she was, it wasn't surprising that she got rejected. She apparently didn't learn from the "You don't have it" that Mitchum gave her.
    • Rory being so hurt that Logan wants her to stay in a hotel like the good mistress she is, because his fiancee is in the town really can make eyes roll.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The revived series is placed on Netflix Kids, despite being a TV-14 rated show.
    • Similarly; the Christian-runnote , family oriented UPtv carried reruns of the show for years, though most likely in edited form.

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