In Defense of Logan Huntzberger: Team Logan VS Team Jess
Since the elections are over we can now focus on the second most heated debate: Team Logan VS Team Jess. I’ve seen some interesting arguments on the subject and figured I would put in my two cents. *This article is pre-revival – see how I feel about Logan & Rory’s relationship post revival here!*
While I absolutely adore Gilmore Girls now, I did not watch it when it came on television – I know, I had no idea what I was missing. I am an avid Netflix binge-watcher (I love super cheesy, feel good shows like Hart of Dixie & Supernatural haha! Guilty pleasure!). I saw that they were having a Gilmore Girls Revival so I got cozy and tuned in. I had very little knowledge about the show other than the very basic-basics. Team Jess, Team Dean & Team Logan was all I knew of Rory’s relationships. All I knew was that the teams existed and they were pretty cut-throat. I was excited to see where I came out! After watching the whole series, I am astonished that there is even a Team Jess at all – much less a massive cult of them.
First, let’s talk about Jess. I don’t hate Jess. To be honest, I didn’t really feel like I saw him hardly at all in the series and when I did see him he was running away – constantly. Like abandoning Rory without even saying goodbye. How hard is it to leave a note or a simple call – just let the girl know I mean, jeez! I felt like Rory was always chasing him. I love this quote from an article about Jess: “I’m sorry but if you abandon me, run across the country, ignore my calls, and fail to make any communication with me, then show up, shout that you love me in the middle of the street, and then proceed to run away again, I’m not going to be impressed.” Ditto, girl.
I totally agree with this person’s outline of Jess and Rory’s relationship:
“Ok, I’m sorry if this gets a little long, but i just finished rewatching season 3, and I actually broke down Jess and Rory’s relationship, and it is ridiculous.
3.07 – Dean breaks up with rory, jess and rory admit they like eachother
3.08 – First kiss
3.09 – Rory feels weird with PDA, but gets over it
3.10 – Jess won’t go to an event with rory ‘because he has her now’ so he can treat her like crap, ends up going because he’s jealous of Dean
3.11 not seen together
3.12 not seen together
3.13 not seen together
3.14 Jess is a total asshole at Friday dinner, rory thinks he fought with Dean, then he lies to rory. but they make up
3.15 – Rory spends all episode annoyed at jess cause he won’t call, and he sort of makes up for it at the end of the ep with Distiller tix.
3.16 – not seen on screen together
3.17 – Rory questions jess about skipping school and he lies to her.
3.18 – Reasonably happy episode
3.19 – Jess won’t talk to rory about failing school, then forces himself on her, yells at her, fights with Dean and storms off.
3.20 – Jess skips town without telling Rory, and barely lets her know that he can’t take her to the prom which she was so excited about.
3.21 – Lorelai has to tell rory that her boyfriend left town
3.22 – Rory officially calls it off over phone and Jess is too much of a coward to say anything.
They have a maximum of 4 EPISODES where they actually seen on screen happily together!!!! LIKE HOW CAN ANYONE SEE THIS AS THE BASIS FOR A LEGIT RELATIONSHIP?!?!?? k rant over”
I also think Jess was super disrespectful to Luke and Lorelai on a regular basis. For Rory and Lorelai to be so close I can’t imagine Rory actually liking someone who was so horrible to her mom. When Lorelai invites Jess to her house for dinner, he steals a beer, tries to bail through a window, and disrespectfully inquires about Luke and Lorelai’s physical relationship. I think this was the real turning point for me that put him being on the shady side. I did not like when Jess refused to take Rory to the Winter carnival even though it was important to Rory – he only decided to go when he saw Dean was going and he was jealous. Jess left a really baddddd taste in my mouth after he was pressuring Rory to have sex with him at that house party. She literally had to yell at him to stop. Then he gets mad and yells at HER. What?! You cool it, boy. The whole angsty, bad boy teenager phase was all an eye-roll to me.
Did Jess grow as a person towards the end of the series? It seemed that he absolutely did (giving Luke money and pursuing his publishing company and book) and he probably grew up in to a presentable man, but I never saw anything that made me like Jess – much less root for him to be end-game. I think Jess gets WAY too much credit for Rory going back to Yale. We all saw it coming & Rory knew it. I don’t think the 5 minute conversion between Jess and Rory about her life resulted in her immediately waking up and making big changes. During that plot line you can see her moving towards going back Yale. Was he right? Absolutely. But should he get the credit for it? Nah. And yall – that mustache… NO. I realize it is for his new show, but no. NO.
I know all you Team Jess fans are stewing at this post. I hate to say that the majority of Team Jess supporters are very irrational. So, let’s keep this light and level-headed, shall we? Alright, order in the court, order in the court!
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In Defense of Logan Huntzberger: Team Logan’s Closing Arguments
Logan is rich, spoiled & gets everything handed to him.
I don’t think being rich is a crime. It isn’t something he had a choice in, but I think he realizes how privileged he is and is smart about it. He takes advantage of his opportunities and financial situation. Why fight it? Prove yourself and your worth to others and yourself. I really feel like sometimes when things get “handed” to you that means you have to work harder to prove that you deserve it. Logan had his job handed to him from his father, but Logan made the decision to turn away from it all and basically be broke so that he could do things his own way. I think he made a respectable decision venturing out on his own – it was rash and daring – but I understood it. Did the fact that he had money allow him to make mistakes (investing in that company against his fathers advice)? Yep. But how else do you learn? And per his heart to heart conversation with Lorelai – he knows he royally screwed up. He was not cowabunga-dude inside. I think this conversation leads Lorelai to understand Logan a little bit more and realize they are more alike than she thought.
This quote cracks me up because I see this attitude on a daily basis:
“JESS WRITES A BOOK.
GILMORE GIRLS FANS:
OMG!! HE GREW UP A LOT! HE’S SO MATURE NOW, RORY SHOULD BE WITH HIM!!! BEST DEVELOPMENT EVER!!!!
LOGAN QUITS WORKING WITH HIS DAD TO BE INDEPENDENT.
GILMORE GIRLS FANS:
OMG HE’S SUCH A PRIVILEGED ASS I HATE HIM!”
Team Jess just loves to hate him and he can never do anything to change their minds.
Logan is immature.
Totally agree. I won’t fight you on this. But really, what guy in college is really that mature? I don’t think they should be. Why can you not have that party stage of your life where you have some crazy friends and do some crazy things that you can look back on and be like, “Woah, those were some memories!” I think Logan had a hard time growing up and being pushed in to the career path that his father wanted for him so he rebelled. The whole going to Vegas thing after the deal went sour. So immature – but it was Logan reverting back to his old way to cope with his bad decision because he knew he messed up and that the wrath was about to come down from his father. Was it the best decision? Nope. But do I see why he derailed? Yes.
Logan cheated.
This, to me, is the most ridiculous thing ever. I firmly do not believe that Logan cheated on Rory. Let’s take a step back and look at this from a real-life perspective. If you have a huge blow up fight in a public place, you don’t talk for months, a family member close to your former beau calls you to send their regrets because you’ve broken up – I’d say it’s pretty clear you aren’t together. If there were months of no communication at all it would be obvious to me that we were not a thing anymore. I hate that Rory acts like she is blindsided. Like, his sister called you and told you that he said yall were broken up. If you were unsure of where you stood and then got that call – how much clearer do you need things to be? Does it completely suck hearing it like that? Is her anger and disappointment justified? Definitely. And I don’t think that was the right way to go about it, but it is what it is. I don’t really believe in the whole “we are on a break” thing. You are together or you aren’t. You can’t make a “kind of” commitment and pick and choose what rules to follow – it just doesn’t make sense.
Logan changed Rory.
This is literally a quote from a Team Jess member, “He made her be fun and crazy and drink a lot at his secret club events and pulled her over to the party dark side. Plus he made her skip class and travel and stuff”. So you expect a girl in college to not have fun? And you hate someone who was able to give her those experiences? I am a firm believer in you do what you want to do. If you are a shy, introvert and you want to have some crazy college experiences – go for it. I think it is perfectly healthy and normal to put yourself out there to see who you are and what you really want. If Rory didn’t want to go out and have “party fun” then she wouldn’t have been friends with Lucy and Olivia – who were party girls. Hell, even Paris had a “wild” spring break with Rory because that’ what they wanted to try to do. Rory chose to have those experiences and being from a small, sheltered town I don’t think she was wrong for branching out in to a different crowd than she is use to. I don’t think Logan manipulated Rory to change. Also, Rory was excited to travel. Hints her obsessive planning of their overseas trip to Asia. I think Rory chose to “change” and become her own person. This goes back to everyone changes or evolves sometime in their life with experiences and interests. It is not a crime or abomination to go outside your comfort zone people or be around people who encourage you to push yourself.
Jess is more on Rory’s level intellectually.
I never got the impression that Logan was not smart enough for Rory. And I never got the impression that Jess was super smart just because he read books. Just because you have fun doesn’t mean you are not smart. This is a non-factor in the debate to me – I don’t think you can say either way if Jess or Logan was equally as “smart” as Rory and honestly why would it matter? Just because someone has the same IQ as you doesn’t mean you are destined to be together and vice versa. I’ve never looked at a couple and been like, ‘I hope they’re on the same level intellectually because if not, I doubt it will work!’ haha!
Jess and Rory have more in common.
I’m pretty sure that Logan read the newspaper religiously like Rory. They playfully bickered over who reads which part of the newspaper first when they were in Martha’s Vineyard. Journalism is her world and Logan grew up in journalism making it a big part of his life. I’d say that’s a big thing in common. He was also on the newspaper with Rory as a writer and although he joked around with it he still did his pieces (like when Rory was upset with him and wrote his assigned article even though Logan said he worked really hard on it). The only point that Team Jess fans have with this argument is that Jess took Rory to a concert once so it must mean they have every musical taste in common and that makes them soul mates. I have to tell you – my husband and I are on totally different level when it comes to music. Never once did I think it wouldn’t work because he likes to listen to heavy metal while working out. Caleb and I are very different people and probably have more differences than things in common if we put it all on paper, but the things we have in common bring us together and the things that are different allow us to be our own individual person. This is totally healthy and normal.
Overall it is a toss up because it really depends on what Rory wants at that point in her life in revival and who Rory turns out to be. These are two completely different guys and nobody can say for sure that one guy is bad for her or one guy is better for her. Do I like Logan more than I like Jess? Abso-freaking-lutely. He was fun, charming, respectful & spontaneous. Did he make mistakes? Definitely. Did he handle things in the best way possible? No, probably not. But him wanting to be a better person for Rory made me love him. He seemed like he grew so much throughout the series. So much that he wanted to make the ultimate commitment to Rory by proposing to her. I think that he was quite overzealous with this gesture. I agree with Rory in saying no (although it totally broke my heart for him and I was screaming at the TV, “YOU CAN HAVE A LONG ENGAGEMENT!!! YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET MARRIED RIGHT NOW!! JUST SAY YES!!”). She couldn’t make that commitment because she was at a transitioning point in her life. Let’s be real here: if someone refuses your marriage proposal there are slim chances you stay together. It is 1. Probably ridiculously embarrassing 2. Shows they were on two different pages in their relationship 3. Probably really hard to come back from that rejection. I see a BUNCH of people condemning him for giving her an ultimatum and saying, “that’s not true love!”. But, I don’t see any of you cursing Lorelai for giving Luke an ultimatum? What’s the difference? Sometimes, it hurts more to be halfway in and on different pages. I totally agree with both of them for not wanting to prolong a relationship that will probably just hurt them more than just ending it right then. Rip that bandaid.
There have been major speculation as to if Rory ends up with Jess or Logan (let’s be honest here Dean, sorry bro you have no shot.) and I love seeing all the theories. Between the two I will choose Logan every. single. time. But I am not opposed to someone new! I am excited to see the Gilmore Girls revival coming in just a few days. SQUEALLLLLLLLL.
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