#the thing about jess VS logan is that jess introduced to us as a character first and a love interest later

[emmafallsinlove]

thinking about how people arguing about rory and jess doesn’t have a “you jump, i jump” moment but like. have you ever been 17 and a guy bought your home made basket for $90 and sat with you on a bridge by the lake, look into your eyes and told you “you know, ernest only has lovely things to say about you”? because tbh, it changes everything.

[gulmoregirls]

Motivated by my own 21st birthday yesteday, I decided to (re)watch the famous episode in S6 in which Rory turns 21.

Looking at it now, I can't help but feel like she was, indeed, so young. I get the entire "rory gilmore downfall" thing and agree that that version of the character was just... off. However, I really feel like they could've made an entire arc about rory losing herself and then finding herself. After all, is what she deserves as one the leads of the show.

Now being her age, I understand better how weird it is to be in your early twenties. Expectations, endless possibilites, the burden of having to actually make the choices for yourself. Rory's in a different environment, questioning the lables that were very prematurely put on her. She's not living the life she had envisioned for herself, turns out she's not good at the one thing she thought she had, all of her friends are doing stuff for themselves - while she, who was always on a pedestal, feels lost.

In a sense, taking Rory from that pedestal was key to her character and to the show. Making her have a identity crisis while entering adulthood and the real world makes absolute sense. It doesn't make her spoiled, or terrible, or mean. It makes her a confused 20yo girl, and speaking as another teenager in my twenties, it does get weird!! I just hate the way everything happened, and how she had little to no insight on it, no meaningful conversations with peers, how under developed it was - to the point that it felt like an individual flaw of rory's character, when it could've been so powerful to a young women audience to have someone relatable get lost but find herself again.

Again, I'm not the show writer, and, as much as I wish Rory had been done better, I can only stick to what is canon while annalizing the episode. So here are my biggest thoughts (as if this text is not long enough)

I feel like there's a reason why they wrote Logan as unaware of Rory's birthday, specially because it plays no role in a fight, or has to do with a lack in their relationship. It's not that Logan forgot, or that he should've known. It's purely that Rory didn't tell him.

In my opinion, it symbolizes what becomes a theme during this part of the show, which is "past rory" vs "current rory" and which one is the "real" one, if it's one of them. Logan not knowing about her birthday equals Emily throwing her a big birthday party with a drink Rory doesn't like but that has her name, or inviting random people she doesn't care about. Equals Logan getting her a Birkin bag, a symbol of power, when she didn't even know the brand existed. The parallel between the dream she used to have with her mother (the trip to vegas, playing 21, buying 21 things) and the reality of their fallout and rory surrounded by exactly what lorelai ran from. Money not being able to buy traditions.

Adding to that, the next episode is the famous one, in which Jess shows up and does more than delivering a passionate speech that, almost twenty years later, would become a tiktok trend. He actually wishes her a late happy birthday. He remembers it. Either intentionally or not, it adds another layer to the amount of parallels rory is facing.

Obviously, Jess knowing something Logan didn't doesn't make him better, nor it changes anything. But in a way, it shows a gap between past and present in a different way (one maybe even more intersting than just comparing "study freak" to "yale dropout", because people change over time), once we're talking about the relationships she's building, and how she wants them to be.

On a side note, I theorize that an explanation could be that Rory and Logan's relationship is very present/future-oriented. "Future" not in the sense of building a future together, a far away future. But "Future" as "the next adventure", "the next challenge", "the next trend". The way his character was introduced already shows that, and it was very important for Rory to let go a little, but I feel like it became easy for her, amidst her twenties-crisis, to live too much like logan, trusting that things would fall into place, relying on priviledges she had never had before, forgetting herself in the process, because actually thinking about the situation would make her spiral.

I guess my point is that talking about Rory's past was not a priority - symbolized about how he doesn't even know her birthday. It worked well for them, as Rory was unconsciously doing it herself, hiding it because remembering meant actually getting in touch with who she used to be, and how things were changing, and questioning everything. Once she was able to taste how living was like for Logan - both because of him and because of her grandparents, that shared similar values and priviledges - it was easy ignoring the past, exactly because it was a big contrast that, maybe, meant that she needed to take a step back and to really think about what version she wanted to be.

(not that it matters, but it almost feels like their talks, ideas and challenges were very logan-coded, once rory was eager to ignore aspects of her life and he was eager to show her the perks and fun of his. on the other hand, her relationship with jess was very rory-coded, because everything in stars hollow brought her memories and stories she wanted to share, whereas jess was the one who wanted to escape himself, always failing to communicate, guard always up, even for small things)

In her party episode, Richard, Emily and Lorelai discuss about Rory, and have different views.

To Emily, they haven't failed her - not until she repeats Lorelai's story, showing up pregnant. Until that, there's still time and efforts. She doesn't care Rory is unhappy, or lost, or confused. She just cares about keeping her under her watch, thinking that, by doing so, she won't become like Lorelai.

To Richard, they have failed her by giving her everything she needed to run away from her responsabilities and her old self. He says something similar to what Jess later tells Rory, about how it isn't her to drop out of Yale and be in the DAR. However, he feels like that can be mended with the right incentive - a new car, a new house, in exchange for the old Rory back.

Lorelai, very wisely, knows that if the "old Rory" is bought, it is actually not her daughter. She knows the problem is not Rory not being in school, but Rory not even *wanting* to go back.

Still, none of them actually say any of that to her face. Having Jess be the one doing it is one of the few nice parts of that season, because it makes sense. He knows her, not an idealized version, but the flawed, real one she showed him. He returns exactly to show her he made something for himself exactly like she believed he could, reminding rory of how she can trust her own judgment, and how she can make something for herself as well. He doesn't hesitate in comparing how different the two versions of her are, even if he might be wrong or sound jealous. Mostly, he points out that it is not normal for rory gilmore to ignore her mom. Everyone from her past could see it, and someone needed to say it. For some reason, Lorelai, Lane and even Paris couldn't, and Jess checked all the boxes.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1155

Monday, March 13, 2017

 I wonder how many workers screw up daylight savings time and are an hour late today? I hate being late for anything. I'm so obsessively early that it's annoying but I am reliable.

 I cannot wait for it to get warm outside again. These cold snaps are getting to me more as I grow older. My mitochondria don't seem to functioning as well to keep me warm. The physiological changes of aging suck. I just might have to start wearing long johns with the flap in the back.

 Man-Thing #1 - R. L. Stine (writer) German Peralta (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). This new book certainly has a nostalgic feel to it as it harkens back to the horror comics of the 1980s. I was expecting the usual shtick of "whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch" but the swamp creature can talk now? I didn't see that coming. Doctor Ted Sallis regained his consciousness and speech (when did that happen?) but not his human body so he tries to make it as an actor. Yes, it was a "what the?" moment. I like seeing new takes on old characters but this one didn't work for me. There's a nifty little back-up story by R. L. Stine (writer) Daniel Johnson (art) Mat Lopes (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters) that was more entertaining than the creature feature. Too bad they didn't call this book Adventures Into Fear. That might have made us older fans less critical.

 Detective Comics #952 - James Tynion IV (writer) Christian Duce & Fernando Blanco (art) Alex Sinclair, John Rauch & Allen Passalaqua (colours) Sal Cipriano (letters). Part 2 of "League of Shadows" has Lady Shiva creating chaos in Gotham City and putting the Bat team down a few members. I don't know if the new piece of personal info about Orphan was common knowledge but it sure shocked me.

 Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys #1 - Anthony Del Col (writer) Werther Dell'Edera (art) Stefano Simeone (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). "The Big Lie" is a murder mystery worthy of these iconic teenage sleuths and mature readers, many who may have read their adventures when they were younger. I never did so I am seeing these characters with fresh eyes. I get the feeling that this is similar to how the Archie gang has been updated and I like what they're doing over at Archie so I am sticking with this new version of Nancy, Frank and Joe.

 Jessica Jones #6 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Michael Gaydos (art) Matt Hollingsworth (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). One mystery solved, another to go. But first Jess has to square things with Luke. This was a very satisfying end to the first story arc.

 Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #16 - Robert Venditti (writer) Rafa Sandoval (pencils) Jordi Tarragona (inks) Tomeu Morey (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). What a fantastic fight that Guy Gardner has. I had Marvin Hamlisch's "The Entertainer" going in my head after reading Jessica Jones #6 because it reminded me of The Sting. Now I have the theme from Rocky stuck in my head. The art this issue was so very nice.

 Josie and the Pussycats #5 - Marguerite Bennett & Cameron Deordio (writers) Audrey Mok (art) Kelly Fitzpatrick (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). Loved the cover by Asami Matsumura. Women sure talk about relationships a whole lot more than guys do.

 All-New Wolverine #18 - Tom Taylor (writer) Nik Virella (art) Michael Garland (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). So that problem's solved. Laura figures out a way to get out from under Kimura's thumb. I hear the Logan movie didn't suck. I'm glad they introduced Laura/X-23 in that movie. I wish all the folks that went to see it would give this comic book a try. I've liked it since it started.

 Wonder Woman #18 - Greg Rucka (writer) Bilquis Evely (pencils) Scott Hanna (inks) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) Jodi Wynne (letters). Part 2 of "Godwatch" explains why Cheetah hates Diana. Friendships play a very important part in this story.

 Lady Killer 2 #4 - Joelle Jones (writer & artist) Michelle Madsen (colours) Crank! (letters). Josie and her husband find themselves in tight spots at work and I'm sure the clamps will get tighter in next issue's conclusion of this second story arc. There are a very few artists that write their own stuff that I really like and Joelle is one of them.

 Old Man Logan #19 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Filipe Andrade (art) Jordan Boyd (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is Jeff's last story on this book. I'm going to miss him. He has made Logan interesting again. Jeff is setting it up for Logan to go back to the Wastelands to maybe change the fate of the place that he came from. We'll see if Logan actually makes it there next issue.

 Spider-Man/Deadpool #15 - Joshua Corin (writer) Scott Koblish (art) Nick Filardi (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I wasn't going to read this issue because it's part of the "'Til Death Do Us…" crossover story where Deadpool fights with his demon wife Shiklah, but I'm glad I did. Josh threw in a few good pop culture references that made me smirk. Nothing laugh out loud funny but enough to make me have a good time reading. That's all I ask from a comic book. This means that I will read issue #16 too and I might even pick up Deadpool and the Mercs for Money #9 and #10 to read the other parts.

 Star Wars Doctor Aphra #5 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Kev Walker (pencils) Marc Deering (inks) Antonio Fabela (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Aphra and her father find what they're looking for and it's her dad's archaeological dream come true. That dream may turn out to be a nightmare though. It's another exciting cliffhanger that makes you want to read the next issue as soon as it hits the racks on April 12.

 Inhumans vs. X-Men 6 - Jeff Lemire & Charles Soule (writers) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Leinil Francis Yu & Gerry Alanguilan (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). That's all they wrote folks. The threat to mutants by the Terrigen cloud is neutralized at last. Inhumans and X-Men don't suffer any great losses. Some characters change and that's what I expected from this great big war. Let's not have another one for a while okay?

 Kingpin #2 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Ben Torres (art) Jordan Boyd (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). This story is more about the writer that Wilson wants to hire than it is about the big Fisker. I love this version of the Kingpin though. Ben has modeled him after John Romita Sr. and Frank Miller's massive, powerful interpretations. The last few pages made me decide to continue reading.