Recommended for you
As Gilmore Girls fans age, we've all come to realize just how spoiled Rory acts during certain Gilmore Girls episodes. She whines, she's a bad friend to Lane, and TBH, Mitchum was write about Rory not having what it takes to be a journalist (and it's more than the fact she's unprepared). But there's one detail in Netflix's sequel miniseries that really emphasizes the worst parts of Rory's personality: her relationship with Paul. And if you're wondering, who? Well, you're not alone because Rory herself forgets about him the entire show. And that's the issue.
Here's why Rory forgetting about her boyfriend Paul in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is actually a huge problem.
Rory's treatment of her boyfriend in 'Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life' is "so wrong."
Netflix
Considering so many Gilmore Girls fans are torn between Team Logan and Team Jess, there was really no reason for Rory to date Paul in A Year in the Life...especially if she was just going to forget he existed. While it seems like an attempt at humor, it really just comes off as cruel.
"This is something you do when you’re a teenager, not when you’re in your 30s," jengabells writes on Reddit. "And her playing 2 YEARS with this poor dude is so wrong. The fact that Lorelai doesn’t react at all is not helping. Lorelai used to tell Rory when her actions were wrong. But I guess that now that she’s older and that Rory practically never visit her, she doesn’t want to start a fight and let her live her life in her own terms."
Lorelai and Rory's relationship never quite feels the same after their months-long fight comes to an end in season 6, but the characters in A Year in the Life don't even feel like the same characters from the original show.
"The writers wrote the whole thing like they were just taking a vacation in Stars Hollow and would never be back - which left the characters almost without a moral compass," mud-n-bugs adds. "They felt like caricatures of themselves with no real stakes or skin in the game."
And Rory "doesn't deserve him."
Neil Jacobs/Netflix
The characters feel a little bit thinner than their OG counterparts, especially with so much of the story taking place outside Stars Hollow, it's like the heartbeat of the show is removed. But in addition to straight-up questioning Rory's ethics, her treatment of Paul also opens up a whole conversation about why it's so hard for the Gilmore Girls writers to just make Rory single — and that it's not a matter of which man is good enough for Rory, it's whether Rory is good enough for any of them!
"She doesn’t deserve him and his little attentions. We don’t know much about him other than he is caring and extremely naive (and a little dumb), but he didn’t deserve to be treated this way," jengabells continues. "I think this character shouldn’t have been created. It doesn’t make Rory look good."
What did you think of Rory's arc in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life? Did you also forget Paul existed? Read up on This Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Season 2 Idea Would Make Rory Way More Likeable for my favorite sequel idea yet.
