‘Gilmore Girls’ Creator Wishes Fans Didn’t Focus on the Rory-Dean-Jess Love Triangle
In the years since it first aired, Gilmore Girls fans have developed a new outlook on the series and the characters, especially toward the leads, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. When it comes to Rory, her high school love triangle with her first boyfriend, Dean Forrester, and bad boy Jess Mariano, many are divided. But the show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, thinks viewers shouldn’t harp on it.
The Rory-Dean-Jess love triangle in ‘Gilmore Girls’
Gilmore Girls premiered in 2000. The series follows a young single mother who leaves her wealthy background to raise her daughter away from everything. Lorelai eventually reconnects with her rich parents when her daughter enrolls at Chilton, believing that studying at the prestigious school will set Rory on her Ivy League journey.
Lorelai trades Friday dinners with her parents in exchange for them paying off Rory’s expensive Chilton tuition fees. According to showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show was always about a smart, ambitious girl and her family. However, as time passed, Rory’s romantic life took precedence for many.
Fans became fixated on her tumultuous love life, especially her relationship with Dean, which wasn’t always the best thing. Rory would flip-flop between Dean and the newcomer Jess. The show even hinted that Jess was meant to be her soulmate, which didn’t come to fruition.
When they began dating, Dean was the perfect gentleman. But when Jess came into the picture, he became nasty and controlling toward her. This perhaps explains her inclination toward the calmer Jess.
Amy Sherman-Palladino wants fans to stop talking about Rory’s love triangle
In a 2016 interview with Time Magazine, Sherman-Palladino revealed that she wasn’t a big fan of the fixation on the love triangle. When asked about it, the writer said, “It’s a small part of who Rory is.” She stated that although the romance was a natural thing and a great element of the show, there was much more to Rory than what the internet wanted to focus on.
“Sometimes I wish that the Dean and Jess thing weren’t so prominent because in the grand scheme of Rory’s life who her boyfriend was when she was 16 years old is such a small event,” she said. The showrunner clarified that she didn’t have any issues about people feeling excited about the love triangle. But she felt that the two men were meant to show Rory’s evolution as a character.
“She picked certain boys for her depending on who she was at that moment. It was part of her character. it was part of her development,” Sherman-Palladino argued. The creator mentioned that having Dean as Rory’s first boyfriend and Jess as the man who took her attention away from Dean made sense for her growth as a character. Sherman-Palladino reiterated that Rory was only 16 years old when she and Dean began dating.
She challenged fans to “think about their boyfriend at 16” and decide if they would want that to be the topic of every conversation, asking for the discussion to shift more toward Rory’s achievements than her love life.
Fans believe Rory was a terrible person
Of course, that area is a bit fuzzy for fans, too. When Gilmore Girls debuted, Rory was propped up as an overachieving sweetheart. However, as the show progressed, many felt she became a terrible character and wronged those around her with zero regard for their feelings.
On the romance front, Rory knowingly slept with her ex, Dean, when he was married. She tried to portray his wife, Lindsay, as the villain when confronted by her mother. But that’s not the only reason fans didn’t like her.
During her time at Yale, Rory tried distancing herself from her friend, Paris to get an in with the Yale Daily News members, when they wanted to remove Paris from her position. Other examples include when she didn’t go to her mom’s graduation, the activities she participated in as part of Life and Death Brigade, and just generally how she treated her mom at various times.
