‘Gilmore Girls’: Marty Wasn’t a Great Guy, Some Fans Think
Gilmore Girls has been a pop culture staple for more than two decades. The series originally debuted on The WB and quickly became a hit, introducing fans to characters like Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, portrayed by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. The series went on to spawn a merchandising empire, as well as a reboot miniseries in 2016.
Fans have never stopped discussing Gilmore Girls, breaking down their favorite characters and moments – and while most fans of the show are united in their belief that many of the characters are truly lovable, there’s one specific individual who has managed to divide the fan base.
‘Gilmore Girls’ is an iconic TV series
Gilmore Girls follows the lives and loves of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a mother-and-daughter pair who reside in a charming small town where everyone seems to know each other. Rory, a teenage intellectual, is driven and ambitious, with the goal of attending an Ivy League university – and her mother, Lorelai, supports her dreams.
Rory attends an exclusive private school in Hartford, but by the end of the third season, she has graduated high school as a valedictorian and gets accepted to Yale. Rory’s time at Yale started in the fourth season of the show, including the new friendships that she forms. One of those friends, Marty, becomes an important figure in Rory’s life, one that pops up frequently in the years that follow.
The character of Marty became a mainstay in the fourth season of ‘Gilmore Girls’
Marty quickly develops feelings for Rory, feelings that she is unable to return. After Marty shares his affection for her in the fifth season, she turns him down, which causes the young man to leave her life in a huff – only to return several seasons later as Lucy’s boyfriend. For fans, Marty is a complex character without a lot to recommend him.
“During their freshman year, I really liked him, but he’s just another guy with a stupid ‘nice guys finish last’ mentality,” one fan on Reddit said. “He was mad at Rory for not liking him back and felt entitled to dating her.”
Several fans slammed the way his return was written in the seventh season, in particular the plot point where he pretended not to know Rory after he resurfaced as Lucy’s boyfriend. “I feel like a lot of Marty hate stems from how his final appearance in the series colors all his other interactions,” one Reddit poster detailed.
“It’s like how Dean is generally disliked because of the affair and subsequent failed relationship. I think you have to separate the two versions of Marty we saw: early Yale Marty and then ‘BOYFRIEND!’ Marty.”
Some ‘Gilmore Girls’ fans like Marty
While many fans of the show don’t have complimentary things to say about Marty’s character, there are some who find him to simply be an immature young adult. “He was a young adult who dealt with some situations poorly, but nothing irredeemable. You have every right to dislike him—but calling him a bad person seems like an exaggeration,” a fan on Reddit said.
Some critics have even expressed the opinion that Marty and Rory could have been a good match. According to Hello Giggles, Marty would have been a good boyfriend for Rory because the two shared many of the same niche interests and had the same deep love of food and good conversation.
Ultimately, many fans of Gilmore Girls might disagree with this assessment – but Marty will certainly remain a controversial figure in the fandom for years to come.
