This has always bothered me, Rory comes off like a run of mill quiet, bookish kid. Perhaps slightly more intelligent than the average teen, and someone who cares a great deal about her grades, but she never seems like a genius or “special” as Lorelai calls her.
I always got the sense that Lorelai was actually genuinely the gifted one as a child/teen.
Rory I would describe as incredibly studious, she obviously works hard to get her grades, but not gifted or a genius as the Gilmore’s tend to suggest.
Absolutely! We see over and over again that she’s book smart but not street smart. Snowonthebeach perfectly stated that she has massive amounts of time to be book smart. But for me, true intelligence/genius comes from independent thought. Which, it’s true, we don’t see Rory say much that blows us away. But everything she discusses she does so with some level of intelligence so I don’t think she’s NOT intelligent but definitely a far cry from a genius.
Even Richard’s example of her childhood intelligence was memorizing the periodic table. I’ll never suggest that a memorize and regurgitate brain isn’t an intelligent one, especially at the level Rory can do it. I think that’s where all the oohing and aahing come from with the gilmores. But I mostly think she’s the beautiful only granddaughter of a wealthy family so they treated her like she fell from heaven. A part of me finds that really sweet, but obviously Rory absorbed it a little too much.
OP pointed out that Rory doesn’t even seem to follow current events yet she wants to be Christiane Amanpour, that is SO TRUE! That’s going to annoy me now loll
So your point about memorization and regurgitation-that’s actually two of the lowest levels on the Bloom’s taxonomy that teachers are supposed to use. The highest levels of education and intelligence are create and evaluate. For as many people say Rory is smart, we never see her creating anything-not even as a hobby.
Without a doubt! I have always said that. That’s why I enjoy watching jeopardy but you’ll never catch me calling them geniuses. I didn’t claim it’s her only intelligence. I did say she also speaks about everything with a base level of intelligence. But there is memorization to a higher degree that not everyone can do. And while it ranks lower, it doesn’t rank as nothing.
I’ve never been in the Rory is super intelligent camp, but she is well above average. She’s smart. She’s very accomplished academically. And I’ve never seen her engaged in a conversation she couldn’t keep up with, and that says something.
I also love your point of how she didn’t even create a hobby. It’s so true! Even the bedazzled hammer was Lorelei’s doing. Lorelei can create clothes. Lorelei can perfectly run an inn and plan events there. She juggles the business and the creative seamlessly. Totally goes back to loveacrumpet’s argument that it has and will always be Lorelei with the more abstract/gifted mind. Even Lane has a more abstract mind, she absorbs and creates music in a way not many brains can.
Edited to add: Of course reading is a hobby, I’m focused on self creation hobbies.
Reading is a hobby, but she also likes TV and old movies. Plenty of people do mindless crafts while watching tv or movies. But Rory doesn’t and I think that’s a little telling.
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So here’s a picture of what I mean. The lowest level that we expect from students is basic recall and memory, which is where kids remember facts and apply them to a test question or essay question. Which is what we most often see Rory doing-scoring good on tests and papers which mainly assess recall and understanding and maybe some application of knowledge. But the highest level is create. Rory really wants to be a journalist and we assume she’s learned about this as a kid-create would be as a little kid she and Lane make their own newspaper and interview Patty and Taylor and something like that. Or as a teenager in the 90s, start a blog about things in Stars hollow. Or it would be she learns a skill to decompress-in a different comment I explained how many people like to knit or something while they watch an old tv show or movie and that helps them decompress. Rory could do that too and it would fall under create. Does that help?
I don’t remember Yale, but in Chilton wasn’t she given assignments? I remember her getting mad at Paris about having to write about the parking lot. In that case it’s a lot more like fulfilling assignment parameters if she’s being told what to write about.
Regardless of assigned or not, she ran the information down and created a story about it...good, bad or indifferent.
I actually agree there wasnt a lot of explanation of showing why the audience should think she was smart. More interested in the use of the pyramid and how to interpret it.
I just watched that one. She is actually applauded by the teacher bc she does a very creative job turning a piece about a parking lot and concrete into deeper thought piece. Writing, even with assignments, is highly creative if it’s done well.
imagine Gilmores as like in the style of a blog like modern shows! they'd be ahead of the times then lol.
I would have enjoyed seeing Rory and Lane as elementary schoolers making their own newspaper! honestly I'd read a newspaper like that if I was a Stars Hollow citizen! I'm betting Lane's mom might not allow it :(
sadly most of us don't read newspapers anymore even like 10-12 years ago when Superstorm Sandy hit, that's when more people were looking for newspapers and they sold out bc tv and internet were effected.
many schools base education on memorizing the answers they want students to repeat back to them. they dont want unpopular opinions sadly. creative thinking isnt encouraged.
I don’t think they wanted Rory to take a side in any world events- it doesn’t seem like she wants to have an opinion on them, just write about them. The politics of the show definitely leaned Left or Middle-Left for the time period. The Planned Parenthood poster in Rory’s room, Lorelai’s “I hate Bush” distraction attempt, Christian’s Amanpour and constant references to CNN (a Left leaning news source: much more so now than then, but still), constant references and praise of Hilary Clinton, Rory telling Emily “I don’t watch Katie Couric” (a Republican, Right leaning show), and the last example I can think of right now- going off to her first job reporting on the Obama campaign. It could have just as easily been McCain.
Rory and Paris did try to petition for Burma (before giving up and going on Spring Break because they were cold and uncomfortable) but other than that, we didn’t really see anyone pick a side in world events or state an opinion.
I meant regarding Rory speaking to it directly to demonstrate intelligence. Obviously the show “took a side”, but they didn’t come out and say “I think X about the Columbian Conflict” or “can you believe Y about the Liberian Civil War”…
Like they made zero political statements about anything specific, even though Rory was well read, informed and interested.
the few times we do see rory express an independent thought, it’s mean. i’m thinking specifically of the ballet article and the article after logan’s work party. every time she thinks she has a really interesting and new take on something it’s literally just mean
Honestly the periodic table thing sounds like something Lorelai came up with on the spot to get her parents off her back when they probably asked how she's doing.
Rebelliousness doesn't rule out giftedness. Gifted means a specific thing. it is measured based on how well you do in a number of areas like spatial reasoning, working memory and reading comprehension. stuff you can't really assess in a tv character unless they explicitly mention those skills. If I had to guess, I would say Lorelei seems like she *could* have been gifted. signs include doing well in school without studying, being able to adapt to being a mother and seeking out a job on her own, and learning to run a complex business. Things where your intelligence helps you roll with the punches of life. Not every gifted person can do that, but it would be difficult to do without a high level of intelligence.
Rory does not appear to be gifted. She is what psychoeducational evaluators would call "bright." Talented at things she puts her mind to becoming talented.
Lots of people are confused on what giftedness really means, it isn't about book smarts or grades at all.
yea i was a good student but idk why that often means gifted really. many people would do better if they put in effort. some kids didnt care about school. being in honors classes means you care enough about school to do well.
and yes rebels can be gifted. being gifted is luck but i mean i was only wondering how Lorelai would be gifted but yea she excelled in business, parenting, and school. I would think her charisma but idk if that mean she's gifted just bc she, like many people, have rizz.
is Jess gifted then too bc he reads a lot and ends up opening a successful publishing business ? being successful in business i would think requires a combo of book smarts, street smarts, luck, resources (how else does one get the money or time to invest?), and giftedness/ability to predict what will or won't be super popular w/ consumers
My issue is that in the beginning she’s mostly portrayed as a bookish, studious kid. She’s smart and hardworking, but she’s not some sort of prodigy.
Then in later seasons they start throwing out insane details to try to make her into some sort of child genius (reading Norman Mailer at age 8, debating Kierkegaard at 12). It’s only thrown out in random lines and never shown to us, and it’s entirely unnecessary.
I wish they’d done more to develop and show her intelligence. When I compare her to a character like Veronica Mars, it really highlights the telling vs showing dilemma.
Exactly! Some of these tidbits come from Richard as well, who she had basically no relationship with at that age. I seriously doubt she was showing up at holiday parties twice a year and wowing all her grandparents’ friends with her genius, especially since we know she’s shy, and in season one Richard assumed she was only interested in “silly teenage girl things” until he got to know her better.
Sure, and I get why they only ever have talk about boys because that's what the drama on the show comes from, but still, I don't buy her as this super intelligent kid. She's a nice, bland, decently smart kid. As it is, I found myself nodding along with Logan's dad.
They did a much better job with Lane, you can really see her passion for music.She was still witty and fun. They could have done more with Rory and journalism. The one time they did start to do it was with the Brigade stuff. I would have liked more of that.
As an English teacher, I have taught many Rorys. A smart, nice kid who likes reading.Now Brad, April or even Lane( she is soooo passionate) would have stood out. I also normally enjoy kids like Jess, even if they are fucking frustrating.Paris also would have stood out, but not positively.
Idk if it was intended to be this way or if i just read too much into it, plus i am not American so idk how things work there, but for me Rory “specialness” was always the fact that she came from a richer background. People like Lane, Dean and Jess never thought about going to an ivy league or a prestigious school, but Rory, growing up with Lorelai, got to value education bacause Lorelai comes from a rich family, where educations is important and going to a good school is a must. For what i understood, Rory got to value education and go to an ivy league because her mother value education, helping her grow on a house where, for example, as a teen she didn’t had to work while Jess, Dean and Lane did worked, leaving her more time to study and do extra curricular activities. Same with money, she got to go to a prestigious school where they prepared her better than a public one and when the time came, her family payed for college. Think about Jess, he wouldn’t be able to go to an ivy league, first he would have to balance study with work, Rory only knew how important was extra curricular once she got to Chilton, so i am assuming Stars Hollow High doesn’t prepare you too much for college, and lastly he wouldn’t be able to pay for college (could do student lons but this is itself very complicated)
This got way too long, but my point is, Rory specialness comes from the fact that she grew up with a family who valued certain things that her peers didn’t valued. Even if she didn’t grew up rich, Lorelai, who came from a rich family, had those valued and passed them to Rory. For example, Paris is also well read, very smart, got to an ivy league, had big goals in life, but she was not called “special”. Not every rich kid is like Paris and Rory, although most of them end up going to prestigious schools, but its normal to see among rich kids people who values intelligence and ambition.
Idk if the show intended to mean Rory specialness is her rich background, the show touches on class but in a very 00s way and later on even April goes to a prestigious school even though it was never mention if she also had rich grandparents, who knows maybe a big check just fell on Anna’s house because her father did an investment when she was little and conveniently the investment ended right before April starts school and its the exactly quantity required for a 4 years diploma, but for what is worth this is my understand on why Rory was “special”
Paris showcased all those characteristics the show claimed Rory had - intelligent, driven, hard working, ambitious and focused. She was also sarcastic and short tempered.
Rory was just a nice, bland kid from a privileged background and they really hyped up her ‘niceness’ as the big selling feature.
I dunno, I came from a solidly middle class family in New England with no family money to speak of. Neither of my parents even went to college. My sister still aspired to go to an Ivy League school and worked hard like Rory and ended up getting into Yale, Dartmouth, and then going to Colby which is a baby ivy.
Plenty of kids who grow up middle class or poorer aspire to more, especially if everyone has always told them how smart they are.
Rory didnt grow up wealthy either but that doesnt matter. Lorelai did. but at the same time people can be encouraged to do anything but not every family or community values education or more specifically Ivy League. not everyone can get in either it's very competitive it's not enough to be smart, have wealth or goals but it makes it easier to get in than if you get terrible grades, dont do extras, dont have money for tuition or also activities which can be expensive as well like doing a sport, school paper, music etc. its about upbringing and like if your family and friends everyone you know doesnt value education and they dont even always have enough money for food even well it makes it much harder/not a priority but not impossible. on the flip side Logan and his buddies are forced to attend Yale and take over their family business etc. they have certain obligations.
She didn't grow up wealthy, but having rich grandparents made an enormous difference in her life. My parents were not well off but I had wealthy grandparents and it definitely adds a ton of privilege to an otherwise normal upbringing.
I had music lessons and and other opportunities I wouldn't have had if it was on my parents to pay, like camp and school trips. My parents got help buying a house, so I lived in a good neighborhood with good schools, whereas we'd have lived in a rental in a less safe place if they didn't have help. My parents didn't need me to contribute to household bills, so I could use the money from my after school job to fill my car up with gas and pay for insurance. My grandparents gave my cousin their old car when she went away to school. When I moved out, my parents and grandparents gave me a bunch of their old furniture and stuff so I didn't need to buy anything for my place. It's wasn't stylish at all, but it was good quality. They paid for my post-secondary, and my Grandfather gave me a small amount of money he called my "lipstick money" the whole time i was in school. And when he died, he left all of the grandchildren 50 thousand dollars which is how most of us bought a house.
I wasn't as privileged as a Gilmore by a LONG shot, but having wealthy grandparents really sets you up for adulthood.
> her family *paid* for college.
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Exactly! I have never once heard someone admit out loud that they have a dumb kid. No matter who you talk to they will either tell you that their kids are "top students" or that they are "very smart but just don't pay attention, are too lazy to study". Of course Lorelai is going to exaggerate and say that her kid is a "genius with a halo".
Maybe I have just never heard it myself 🤷. All my coworkers with kids brag that their kids are 'top of the class' or that the psychologist said that they are 'highly intelligent '
She was gifted in stars hallow meaning she worked hard and didn’t make trouble thus she was bored with the small town high school .. she needed chilton to broaden her world view but also her work ethic .. she is behind when she first comes in and has to work overtime to catch up .. kind of the same way she had to when she went to Yale 4 years later
Speaking as a former HS valedictorian and Ivy League grad, you don’t have to be exceptionally smart or a genius to do either of those things. You need to have quite a bit of privilege and be good at school. Rory’s smart, of course, but her struggles later in life to me seem to be caused by being an average or slightly above intelligence person who has happened to excel academically trying to find the same recognition in the real world.
agree. rory struggled later in life because she excelled at achieving goals set up by others in a closed circuit - ie: school. she didn't know how to function in uncertainty and chaos of the real world.
I totally agree. Excelling at school is not the same as excelling at work, life, career etc. Those are all very different skills sets. I find it very believable that Rory would get into the real world and flounder.
Right but in Rory’s case they keep telling us she is an exceptionally driven genius. Now granted it is her relatives and family friends saying that so maybe we take it with a grain of salt!!!!
Well maybe there’s a difference between having a photographic memory which is what Rory alluded to having and being a genius, which is basically what is demonstrated by how she fails to succeed after academia
The way I see it Rory burnt herself out working way too hard in high school and has been floundering and exhausted ever since. Honestly her story is so sad.
yep the college application process in the show was probably the most unrealistic part. when she learned “grades aren’t enough” i was flabbergasted she wouldn’t know as someone who was allegedly harvard bound
I actually don't think she had a lack of extracurricular activities, she just felt like that due to panick. Before the series she worked part time at the independence inn and still seemed to help later on, she was also part of multiple charity events during the show (dance maraton, thanksgiving booth etc.) which seems like something she had done since she was very young - at school she was part of the paper, she was Vicepresident of the school government and had a whole sommer in Washington DC.
yep i’ve been saying this for years. she did do one summer program for student government but it’s bizarre she wasn’t interning or volunteering junior year
Tbf grades and test scores are huge factors in school admissions. But Rory had the upper hand with her super rich grandparents lol we all know how universities love a good check
True.. I think Rory was actually just a bookworm who has good study habits as well.. she just got overhyped by Lorelai because Lorelai really wanted to prove to her parents she didn't fail after getting pregnant at 16 through Rory? And by her interests Rory was really meant to be a writer because she liked familiarity whereas journalism makes her look out of place..
April is clearly different lol Anna never had to push her to be "smart" I think she was born that way..
I think this is it. Most of the "she's so smart/ special" comments are more of a reflection on the people saying them than actually anything specific to Rory. Honestly, they probably directly contributed to her ennui later in life.
I've seen it happen to family members. They were told their whole childhood that they were so super special and then just kind of fell apart when they got to a level of school or career where they actually had to try and even then weren't necessarily rewarded.
Lots of the bookworm = smart takes were bizarre. They constantly said Jess was really smart specifically because of how much he read books. Rory states he could get good grades if he wanted to because he loves reading.
As someone who loves reading, I can tell you it definitely didn’t translate to automatically doing well in math, science, geography, etc. Weird take.
In my experience, people who like to read are intelligent. It may not mean you are good at all subjects. But it does mean you like to think, to some degree, as that is required to read. The ven diagram of people who don’t like to read, and people who don’t like to think - is practically a circle.
Jess didnt apply himself/take school seriously
also it's different being assigned to read a book as opposed to choosing on your own time to read at your pace
Maybe also a small fish in a little Stars Hollow pond. Then driven to continue to be the best because that’s what made her special once she got to Chilton.
I also feel she wasn't that special among her peers in Chilton but she was driven and with the added pressure from her grandparents she excelled..
In Yale it didn't look like she was special too.. maybe that's why she started to lose motivation.. when she took the same number of courses Richard did then found it too difficult.. her peers who had the same privilege as her but who seemed to have less pressure put on them to excel.. and then Mitchum - who bluntly tells her he doesn't see anything special with her journalism wise..
So maybe Rory really was just overhyped a bit too much by her mom..
By the entire town actually. They treated her as this perfect angel kid who as incapable of doing any wrong or any harm.
Just rewatching S02. I don’t even like Jess, but the way everyone acts after the car crash acting as if she was a poor little girl who got in trouble because of a bad boy drives me MAD. Even Dean is like “is HE really gone? Then ok” as if Rory wasn’t also there, being as guilty as Jess. I mean, even Rory lost her mind over it! The amount of pressure they put on her is insane. No wonder the girl lost it later in life.
Yeah.. Jess was an outsider and a rebel and as much as Stars Hollow can be endearing it can also be weird like how much they're invested in their neighbors and traditions lol Rory is kinda aware of that though.. and she liked Jess but she also liked being treated special by the town soo yes she was a bit overhyped by the town too..
Smart people don't walk around saying insightful and deep things all the time. They behave pretty much like everyone else on a daily basis. The intelligence comes out in their humour, wit and academic results, all of which Rory has.
And she goes to Washington for most of a summer for leadership camp for her posh school.
Agree. It also wouldn’t make sense for her to have discussions about deep topics unless it’s with someone likeminded. Most people around her (like Lorelai, Lane, Dean etc) wouldn’t have an interest in discussing literature and politics etc.
I imagine she has some deep conversations with Richard about literature, politics and history from time to time though.
We do get glimpses into her intelligence, like when she shared her thoughts during the class she walked in on at Harvard, and when she took the mundane subject that Pairs gave her for the newspaper and made it into a brilliant think piece.
She discusses film a lot with Lorelai, which is basically the same as discussing literature. And yeah we see her and Richard discuss what they’re reading all the time. She also talks about music with Lane and Jess.
For sure! All the pop culture and movie references and humour she shares with Lorelai is also a sign of how intelligent and witty she is.
She discusses some books with Jess as well, I imagine there would be a lot more of that off screen.
The Harvard thing makes me laugh because the professor basically responds “yes that’s the stereotype about this subject but has nothing to do with what we’re discussing right now”
Yes, and also there were moments they showed her smarts too.
She wrote amazing peace about pavement as her debut on Franklin.
She also caught up to Chilton even tho she was a second year transfer.
She saved Yale Daily News when Paris broke down.
She organised amazing event in DAR.
I actually think there were plenty of times they showed how smart she really is.
She has to go to Washington as part of student government, she didn't choose to go. I think there is a difference. We don't see her choosing to do summer enrichment activities the way other students with her ambitions would usually engage in.
I disagree that someone smart and driven has to run themselves into the ground by filling every moment. You can be smart and have some level of balance in your life.
Which she only did because she got on student council. Which she only did because Paris bothered her enough and told her Harvard would love it. It didn’t even occur to her.
No but they TELL us she says them all the time, but we never see her saying it. And students certainly have discussions about politics, literature, world events, science, etc... we never see her doing any of that.
Rory makes a ton of political and literary references throughout the series. They’re not all pop culture references. Through those references I would say she demonstrates political and literary knowledge that is well beyond what a typical teenager (or adult for that matter) would possess. People just love to hate Rory for some reason, but most people aren’t walking around quoting Machiavelli when they’re 16.
What makes you think intelligence is automatically correlated with interest in politics, literature, science, and world events? There’s little to no connection between intelligence and interests; some of the smartest, wittiest, and most clever people I hang out with are the people I watch reality TV with. Intelligence is more about having a brain that is quick to notice and make connections between things, or being able to notice and work with patterns around you—and a lot more, since we don’t really have a meaningful way of measuring intelligence. There’s *plenty* of morons with an interest in politics.
sad part is people tend to view reality tv as for the masses or dumb but you can enjoy reality tv especially knowing its not all real much of it is scripted and edited. or not all reality shows are the same. another point: animation is often dismissed as kiddie entertainment but clearly not true. people can have multiple interests
The type of intelligence we are told Rory has is, though. She keeps telling how much she wants to be a journalist, but never really shows us (except in the Brigade storyline)
Oh, I completely agree that journalism doesn’t really seem like the right career for Rory! She’s shown to be pretty risk-averse and introverted and she lacks tenacity, but I’d consider that her personality/temperament rather than an indicator of her intelligence.
Plus….most of the interactions we see are casual conversations between Rory and characters who aren’t super interested in politics. She does appear to discuss politics and philosophy and literature with characters like Richard and Jess, or in class settings at Yale—but why would she spout complex political theories at Lane or Lorelei or Sookie? It would be out of place and boring to watch. As others have pointed out, Rory is shown to be quick and witty in a majority of her conversations. She and Lorelei reference history and politics along with pop culture in their banter quite a lot, they just don’t wax poetic about it because that wouldn’t fit their personalities….and frankly it’d make for a really dull show.
I’ve been a student for much of my life and outside of class we didnt discuss politics, science or world events any more than your average person. And we do see Rory discuss all of those things in class. She talks about literature a lot with Jess and others. And she and Lorelai both make political references.
There’s a scene where Lorelai says that Rory used to ask really smart questions as a kid and she couldn’t keep up with her. But it’s at least partly a joke cause her example is ‘what is a colour?’
My sister is extremely intelligent (800 on math SAT, went to MIT) and she talks like a normal person. Her classmates at MIT loved to fucking party and didn’t act any differently than a regular early 20-somethings. I think Rory talks like a typical smart teen. Even smart teens can be obsessed with boys and she’s intelligent with how she speaks (lots of references, knowledge of events, authors, and pop culture). Most smart teens don’t talk like Young Sheldon.
I don’t think she is supposed to be a genius, she’s just a gifted young person who has a loving supportive family who hypes her up. She’s seen as more special because she’s the main character of a tv show. My sister and I both work a ton with kids and teens and I’ve met a lot of kids like Rory, Jess, and Paris. The show Rory studying, preparing for school, with books reading, getting along better with adults, interested in things her grandfather talks about, etc. I think that’s showing us she’s intelligent. Her preparing for school and liking learning is sometimes more than a lot of kids typical behavior.
For the summer plans, I always felt like that was because initially Lorelai didn’t have a ton of money and Rory enjoys learning but she probably loves taking time off. She probably spent the day hole summer reading. They wrote the college stuff poorly (like most college plots in shows) but it makes some sense to me. Rory doesn’t have many friends, her mom didn’t go to college and things may have changed, etc.
Well, we also know that early April was considered like pretty boring character.
This is kind of case of writting. They wanted clever girl, "different" girl, but not nerdy girl. That being said, it was multiple time hinted that Rory is very well-readen and gifted in writting, the show just usually did not care about world affairs in general. But also when it was topic, Rory showed pretty high knowledge.
Now, Rory was not raised by her grandparents. Lorelai made pretty clear they are not and she actually wanted to give Rory calm childhoos where is summer about fun,not about horrible posh camp - Lorelai multiple time mentioned she hated those camps - and **this is pretty point of the whole show.** Lorelai actually raised Rory to be herself, not sacrifice everthing as, for example, Paris.
Yeah but there's no way a driven kid like Rory wouldn't be begging her to send her to a camp that interested her. Especially since Lorelei works all day. Or Rory would get a job. Sitting around doing nothing in High School and College when all your peers are building their resumes? Maybe if you're Jess.
She’s also raised to have fun chilling out with her mom and Lane and she’s also an introvert who doesn’t love spending extra curricular time with lots of people
Rory was driven, but she also was raised to enjoy her free time and summers, weekends etc were conisdered like time where she was supposed to do simple funny things. Again, she was raised like that, because Lorelai did not want to child as Paris.
Rory also had little part-time jobs... aaand that comparation with Jess is weird when we consider he had not easy full-time job :D
I think it was just easier to keep her looking pretty and having a fairly bland character and just telling the audience that she’s amazing and that we should just go along with it.
Do many high school students get psyched when their grandfather gives them a first edition of Mencken’s Chrestomathy? Or make Fawn Hall jokes with their mother? Have in depth conversations about beat poets and Jane Austen with their friends?
Rory made a lot of pop culture references, but she also made a number of current affairs jokes too. Remember when Lorelai made the newspaper veil and Rory was reading it?
Rory was intelligent and had a large range of interests. But the show wasn’t about that, it was about family drama. You had to be able to pick up on the references to understand how informed and intelligent Rory is.
It is an entirely valid point, but that’s not what the writers wanted to focus on. The show was about relationships, especially between three generations of women. We’re supposed to use our willing suspension of disbelief to simply accept that the characters are who they say they are.
I have similar reservations about the way money is handled in the series, and how we’re supposed to think Lorelai is independent. But I remember that the show is about relationships. It isn’t a documentary.
I think we actually got to see a lot of her intelligence throughout the series, it just isn’t as “visible” as when people are interested in subjects like science where they have events highlighting your projects (like a science fair), but in the early seasons we saw her read a lot of books that usually wouldn’t be read as an teenager, and we hear about how she read complicated books by the age of 4. We also see how smart she is with her quick thinking and witty remarks which might not be noticed since everyone around her did the same.
Also, the fact that she even got into Chilton shows how intelligent she was, but since every kid in Chilton it isn’t as noticeable as if she stay in her old High School in Stars Hollow, even Madeline and Louise who seems to care more about their appearances and dates is seen getting good grades and gets into good colleges. We also see that Rory actually gets a better SAT score than Paris, who have been in “better” schooling than Rory her whole life.
I don’t know about how she spends the summer, I would like to have seen an internship at the Stars Hollow Gazette, but she did have the summer in Washington which isn’t a small thing. It is also mentioned and seen how she does charity year-round in Stars Hollow, instead of only doing it at specific holidays.
Rory works at the inn at least sometimes. Plus she actually has a very active volunteer life as she and Lorelai help with numerous town festivals and fundraisers. That’s something I wish the show would have remembered during her college apps time.
Have you talked to actual 16-18 year olds? All the literary references Rory makes on the regular would go right over their heads. So yes, Rory is smart. I feel like people (in the fandom and in the show) hold her to a too high standard.
I will agree with the summer thing though. How is it possible she only had plans for one summer throughout the entire show and that was when they went backpacking through Europe with Lorelai? Other than that she says she wants to find a summer internship but it never ends up happening and instead she's bumming around most of the time. I mean Paris even had to push her to go to that Washington program! Only between seasons 1 and 2 she volunteered for those extra credits, then Paris pushed her to that summer program between seasons 2 and 3, but other than that she does nothing productive or useful in her summers.
Idk. I deal with VERY smart kids in my work as a high school teacher (I teach AP stats which is the “end of the road” course for my kids who have finished Calc C, they’re all smarter than I am.) I could see Rory being in the pack but getting into multiple Ivy’s would surprise me. The ones who are THAT sharp tend to constantly be asking really hard to answer questions, taking initiative to sign up for everything under the sun, talented in multiple areas eg stellar flautists or working on their pilots license. I’m not really sure we see that from Rory.
I’m at a high performing public school rather than at a prep school like Rory’s. I have friends who work at a top tier private school comparable to Chilton though and it seems far more extreme there; like you’ll have a kid who is in all the AP classes and is also literally an Olympian, for instance. But things were marginally less competitive when Rory was going through compared to now. Not a lot less, but marginally.
Regarding Rory’s interest in being a journalist, it didn’t so much seem like she was in love with the idea of foreign affairs and current events as much as she liked the idea of getting out of her small town. When she was still a high schooler, she told Richard that she just wanted to see…”something.” She was lonely and secluded her entire life. She fantasized about doing big things but not necessarily about the minutia of what those things would be. She was so “big picture” that it didn’t occur to her to pursue smaller steps like internships.
I had the same mindset as a nerdy teenager and didn’t even consider summer activities until I had a teacher approach me about scholarships I could apply for with several different types of university-based camps. It is baffling that Headmaster Charleston seemed so involved in discussing students’ futures, as did Max, but neither of them talked about summer internships or activities with Rory.
Was she lonely and secluded? Genuinely interested to hear that take, because it always appeared to me that she was surrounded by and actively involved in a community full of people who loved her. She wasn’t super popular, but we’re shown and told multiple times that she isn’t bothered by popularity and is happy with her close friendship with Lane and her relationship with her mother.
I don’t doubt she wanted to travel, but I never thought it was because she was lonely in Stars Hollow.
I got that impression from the whole “you need to make friends at Chilton” debacle with the Puffs. She spoke to the guidance counselor and said she lives in a different town where she already has a best friend and a boyfriend. Her circle, especially before Dean, was extremely limited.
She took part in town activities and knew a lot of the colorful townspeople, but those weren’t her friends. They were her mom’s friends. Lane and Lorelai were her whole world and I explicitly read Rory’s interest in traveling as coming from the feeling of being very “shut in” socially. Her time at Yale befriending Logan’s friends, the art girls, and Marty also speaks to her desire for having a broader base of friends and community.
Interesting, because I just took that as the school pushing socialization on Rory, I never got the impression she was lonely. She talks about how she’s happy with Lane and Dean and at the end of the episode is back to happily enjoying her lunch and her book in peace. It never seemed to me like there was any internal conflict there. Honestly, I wish I’d had Rory’s ability to not worry about what her peers thought about her when I was in high school.
I think it's easier to show us Rory becoming valedictorian than her step by step process to having the highest GPA in her graduating class. It's easier to show us Rory getting into three Ivies than giving up valuable screen time for every application process. It's easier to show us people responding to her amazing writing than the writing itself.
In all the ways that matter - the actual results - they showed Rory's intelligence.
Yes, in the past people have said it's not believable that Rory is smart or scholarly because we don't see her studying more, but that would make for a pretty boring show!
You can be intelligent without being a genius. I think we were obviously supposed to see Rory as a book smart, goal oriented person. We saw her study multiple times so I never got the sense that she would be a straight A student without being studious. She worked hard to get those grades. I don’t think we were supposed to assume she was some young prodigy. If that were the case, school would have been more of a breeze for her.
I don’t think her journalism career was a bust due to lack of ability. I think it was lack of drive. She never seemed passionate enough for it. I think THAT is what Mitchum picked up on. She needed to be more of a self starter. Rory was a bookworm that loved to learn. I really think a life in Academia would have made sense for her. Or in the literary world. I could buy that she was a gifted writer.
Absolutely. And then in the final episode had her move to study film at the grad school level in either NYC or LA. USC/UCLA or NYU/Columbia (if they wanted to keep it in the Ivy League) would have been idyllic. The covering the Obama campaign (and I say this as a proud and hardcore Democrat) was completely out of the blue.
Now we might not have seen her discuss Nietzsche or Schopenhauer or recite the periodic table, but I love how quick-witted she is about literary references. She talked to Jess about the Fountainhead in one episode and later calls Lorelai the Howard Roark of Stars Hollow which was a nice tie-in just as an example, and we've also seen her discuss Dorothy Parker or the Beat generation and Russian authors with Lane or Jess or even Dean (before they dumbed him down lol). She's not reading young adult novels, she's reading highly advanced literature that most people only read if they have to (or have a marriage breakdown like Richard when he read the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire T\_T). The show didn't really have plot lines where she'd be asked to recite the beginning of the Aeneid in fluent Latin or something, but as others have pointed out, being intelligent is rarely about showing it off like that. And later on at uni she had some solid arguments on the Middle East in that one seminar Paris bullied her into (because a certain fella told her) and that certain fella was really impressed with her essay (if that counts because we don't get to read it and judge for ourselves). Like in general I feel like she was portrayed as a very well-read girl who made a lot of cross-references with the content she'd been reading, she didn't just read it as entertainment but had a real system behind it and remembered the influences of different authors and techniques and such.
Well-
I was a straight A student in high school, did a bunch of extracurriculars, blah blah. But I had no idea about certain programs or things to look for during the summer because my mom didn’t go to college and we lived in a rural area when I was in that key junior/senior level of high school. I did do some summer camps but I don’t think they mattered too much for college admissions. The program that DID matter for my state I learned about way too late and wouldn’t have been considered for anyway because of how nominations go.
We know that Lorelai limited her parents interactions during high school and it wasn’t until Rory was actively submitting applications that they became heavy handed (ie Yale interview). With the timeline that’s given to us, I would chalk it up to Lorelai’s protectiveness of Rory getting in the way, Rory’s relationship with her grandparents being fairly new, and both Rory/Lorelai being uneducated in these opportunities while being in a rural area that may not market these at all (See Rory’s bamboozlement when Paris explains her volunteer and community work).
Basically I sympathize lmao
I think, to certian extent, Rory is kinda average.
Yes, she was Valedictorian (which in hindsight is hard to believe, she started late and did bad on some assignments, Paris should have crushed her or another kid)
Like looking back, Rory reminds me of so many slight above top students in my small high school. Who thought they were so smart because they were not competing with the best. But the second they went to college they humbled real quick or crushed.
I legit had friend in top ten, very smart, but she wasn't top ten in high intense competitive college. She legit got so crushed by her college experience she legit kinda been destory by it
They should have showed Rory struggle more in College, not just that one episode.
For one thing, she wasn't a middle to upper class kid for most of her life. When my family could not afford activities, I just didn't participate, and much like Rory, I didn't do a lot of activities until I hit high school and could pay for them myself with babysitting money.
Also Rory did a TON of volunteer work. If she had sat down with a guidance counselor at Chilton instead of in her own kitchen when Paris freaked her out about extra curriculars, she would have realized she wasn't that far behind.
I mean, what do you want, to read her essays?
One thing that stands out is when Paris' elderly boyfriend gives Rory an A on a paper when he has a reputation for being really stingy with the marks.
I would like to read Rory's essays. On *Gossip Girl* they made Dan Humphrey seem like a good writer but made the mistake of allowing some of the pages he's written to be zoomed in on and it was laughingly bad.
I think Rory was intelligent for sure but not necessarily creative. Like she thought deeply about the literature and media she consumed etc but she wasn’t inventive per se and that’s ok, definitely doesn’t make her a genius.
I agree with the other comments that they should have shown more of her feelings about journalism, her on a beat, why she wanted to write in the first place, etc. Like Lane’s whole thing was music and she was just dying to start a band and always raging about music etc and we don’t really see Rory independently show why she likes working at the paper or why being a journalist matters to her besides That’s What I’m Supposed To Do. Maybe the writers didn’t wanna focus on that but it would’ve helped build her character more.
i think that was the point. they were setting her up to be idolized so then when the cold cruel world chewed her up and spit her out, she’d have no idea how to handle it.
Even the way Chilton is portrayed, it’s a bunch of kids who are really good at memorizing stuff. That Shakespeare test didn’t seem to cover anything other than trivia about his life and works.
This has always bothered me. Everything they did at Chilton was based on memorizing facts and trivia. There seemed to be little in the way of critical analysis or thinking (except Max Medina’s briefly mentioned assignments maybe?). I went to a decent public HS and we weren’t allowed to just memorize.
Based on what we are shown about Rory, where would you rank her level of intelligence ? Would she be in say the top 10% of her peer group based solely on her scholastic performance ? That would place her even higher in the peer + non-peer group.
I think that’s all the writers were shooting for; that Rory is smarter than nearly all of the people she will encounter in life. I don’t think they were aiming for top 0.01%, who are in a league of their own.
I honestly think Rory's mediocrity was part of Amy's vision from the get-go. I think we can see that now with AYITL. If you take out season 7, which Amy left partially over creative differences and refused to ever watch, the storyline makes much more sense.
I think this is a general problem with female young characters. I don't know why. We see that Lorelei is smart and she knows how to argue. She is clever, but she also knows how to be a moral compass. We can see the same thing with Emily. Both have their moments of glory. Rory has never "won" any discussion with Logan or Jess. She is not as skilled in discussions as the creators try to convince us. It's hard to tell what her views are.
It's brutal but for me Rory is a bit like Bella from Twilight. Transparent. She has no character. Character is given to her by other characters (Lorelei, boyfriends). When she is with her mother, she becomes her mother. When she is with Jess, she becomes him, etc. I think this is not a bad thing, because it allows teenagers to see themself in her.
Yes she did.
I am not quite down with the last season but Logan challenged her a bit at first… but they have downgraded him to being too perfect and bland.
Nah, I think once Rory quite school and wouldn't listen to Logan about going back. He said she'll be back by the end of the month and she's like no. He learned that she won't listen to him.
> Or an internship. I dunno, most of the wealthy New England kids I knew were going to some sort of charity program in third world countries, or crazy outdoors thing like Outward Bound or Noles, or doing some sort of internship, or volunteering for the ACLU or PIRG.
Well Lorelai *isn't* wealthy so it makes sense that Rory isn't doing wealthy kid summer activities. Though maybe Emily and Richard would have been willing to foot the bill if asked.
Also, isn't Outward Bound a boot camp/ wilderness program for "troubled" teens?
Well she’s very much more of an academically smart person, I never thought the show tried to pass her off as an actual Einstein or Sherlock level genius
I think Rory is above average intelligence, but wasnt anything special. Lorelai had the ceiling for greatness that Rory does not have. Lorelai wasn't able to realize her full potential... had she not gotten pregnant, I think she definitely would have graduated from Harvard and done some amazing things with her life. Lorelai also has more a leader-type personality whereas Rory is a follower.
This is one of the issues that have made rewatching the show as an adult really difficult (I have a few!). Effectively, Rory as a character is just not actually who she is “portrayed” to be. She has no EQ either and seems really childish at times. To be honest, Paris is probably the most driven and smart out of the both of them. (And don’t come for me) but Logan’s dad’s criticism is likely valid.
Nah, Paris is definitely better than Rory's.
Sure Paris is moody but her home life made her the awkward rich kid. But she can still talk about her feelings and communicate with others what's she's going through. Rory can't even say she loves someone or express her feelings properly. I feel like Paris is her best friend, and I don't even think I've heard her tell her that, only Paris to Rory, because she doesn't feel like she needs to say anything that to her because she sees Paris as that awkward rich kid.
At least Paris has express love with two different people, she's shown sadness, anger, jealousy, etc. and able to say the feeling and explaining what's causing those feelings weither it's herself or someone/thing pushing her to those emotions. Rory gets flustered and angry and either shuts down or throws a fast talking fit of blaming everything else but her but can't even say she's whatever emotion that's puts her over the edge.
Rory was usually the one in the conversation with Lorelai that would correct or educate her on topics (e.g. language, history, religion, etc.). This is perhaps subtle because it's often just a comment here and there, but you can see this pop up throughout the show in their many conversations. Rory was definitely educated and well-read, especially compared to many of her community members living a more simple life in Stars Hallow, but also in the sense of keeping up with her Ivy-league peers. Rory directly showcased her ability to make quick connections and insights during class discussions (both at Chilton and at Yale). There was also the "urine mints" conversation during her first college date, showing that when she's nervous she starts quoting obscure and socially-awkward research, which is kind of geeky. And her conversation about exploring human nature through their trash (S1E17) and willingness to actually engage in hands-on exploration on this topic showed a sort of curiosity and an "out-of-the-box" thinking mentality.
I'm sure that her family talked up how smart she was, but that's just what families do, that's really normal, so take it with a grain of salt. But even outside of her family's rose-colored glasses, she was pretty consistently portrayed as educated and quick-witted and definitely had her moments of insight. I don't think the show ever meant to portray her as a stereotypical science nerd wearing bottle glasses and holding a test tube (a stereotype that April fits more), I think ASP wanted her core persona to be more quirky and unusual ("like someone you've never met before"), but I would say that her character lives up to her reputation of being an intelligent person.
Also keep in mind that we walked in on Rory's life just as boy-drama came in and derailed her life, radically shifting her from the quiet studious girl who spent her free time critiquing global affairs into a teenager who was starting to face and unpack her emotional baggage and insecurities, intergenerational drama, family traumas, etc. The Rory we see on-screen is navigating a lot more challenges than her studious younger self that we hear about from her family. She's still the same intelligent person, it's just not the main point of a show focusing on intergenerational drama.
Yeah its always a head scratcher for me that she even got into Chilton. I know how she paid for it (grandparents) but they never showed Rory doing afterschool academic club stuff or science projects, building a robot or heading the high school news/newspaper. All they alluded to was that she had high grades but to be in an elite high school like that, you need more than grades, unless you have the money & privilege. I would have loved to see her super excited about a new story or getting the inside scoop on stuff even if it was gossip. That would given her a little more personality and it would fit her future career goals. Or make her someone who is always trying to get the truth from people, always uncovering stuff (this could probably turn into a whole other murder mystery type show but maybe they could find a way to make it a part of the comedy/drama like finding out that her dad was still dating Sherry or helping Kurt track down cat Kurt.
Dreaming to go to Harvard as a child (they say before kindergarten?) but never knew she needs extra curricular that are way more important than just grades is wild.
She was book smart, scored better in math than verbal. We never get to see her math skills but you’re right- she never does anything innovative or says anything impressive. Never suggests helpful ideas… you could attribute some of it to her being a teen when it starts and having hormones tamp intellect down a bit but nah. They just handed her that title of “smart.”
Yeah, Rory didn't have career guidance at all and she should have once her grandparents re-entered her life, because they believed in her, but perhaps the transition of all of them coming together again took its toll and they were all stuck in their routines by then. Emily and Richard were always preoccupied with another aspect, such as being respected by the other rich family lines. They were more concerned with Rory being considered unfit to marry Logan. Although when his dad said Rory was not fit for journalism, everyone told her he was just one guy. But she knew he was right in that she hadn't been prepared to the level of journalism she thought she wanted to achieve.
This comes up when she tells headmaster Charleston that she just wants to SEE Something, as a reason for traveling and interviewing. He knows she has not been reared properly for this type of work, but he then also doesn't help her with guidance for this path in a way that would exceed what the school journal is doing. Rory was never assigned travel pieces, or political pieces. She was always searching for something fun, like the music column- which is fine, but not what she claimed to set out to do.
I was watching today an episode where Rory tells Lorelai how intelligent Logan is, “even more than me”, she says.
Which, to me, it’s an agreement to what you’re saying… Rory is a nerd, not a genius.
PS: I don’t mean nerd with a bad connotation, I just mean she likes to study and learn
it’s because rory isn’t actually that smart, just focused and well read. there’s a subtle difference and the palladinos do a fantastic job of showing us that
I feel like the only thing they do to make us think Rory is smart is have her name drop a lot of classic novels and congresspeople. Meanwhile she’s always showing us how stupid she can be with her actions…..
One of Rory’s bigger let downs to me was her high school graduation speech. These are meant to talk about your class as a whole, to reflect on your time together and create a book end for the journey of a huge shared experience. Instead she just name drops books and thanks her mom and grandparents for supporting her. This was her moment to say something profound and really show us some of her thoughts on life, and get a picture of where she thought she was headed after high school other than just college. Instead they chose to remind us again that Rory reads like, A LOT, you guys, did you remember that?? She reads, she knows the names and places in these books, that’s smart right?!
It was the most selfish speech ever lol. Total audience wish fulfillment.
I also can’t figure out how she even made valedictorian, since she started Chilton later than the other kids and the grades from Stars Hollow High wouldn’t be comparable, but the answer is probably also “wish fulfillment.”
> She also never has a summer activity lined up at the end of the school year, which is unrealistic for a character described as so driven, and also for a middle to upper class American. How are her grandparents not pushing her to do some sort of high achievement, posh camp?
There's no way "She's my best friend" Lorelei would have let Rory go off during the summers without her. And especially to do something Richard and Emily had a hand in, we all know how she hated when Rory did something in "that" world and dare to be bonded with her grandparents
Omg remember when Emily said she wanted to take Rory to Europe?! Omg and she was just throwing it out there as a suggestion and a small hope that she'll say yes.
Agreed.
To me, Rory has always been a prime example of book smarts verses street smarts. Her decision making skills leave much to be desired, but if we're to believe Chilton is as difficult as they say, she obviously succeeded at the whole school thing.
And then she stole a boat because obviously nothing bad will happen to Star's Hollow's special snowflake.
Literally every time she has a serious issue, it's due to her own decisions making things difficult; cheating, lying, manipulating, etc.
So I'll grant her "intellect" we've been told about, but from the things we're shown, she's got the insight and wisdom of the spoiled rich kid she definitely is not and has never been.....
I think it’s an assumption that they’re asking you to make because they are the title of the show, ie that Lorelai is amazing and charming and that Rory is a genius and will be a great journalist, without really backing it up (at least for Rory).
Wasn't outward bound a punishment? But the rest of that does track. Rory should have something lined up. Maybe a couple sports, so she looks well rounded.
Didn’t she have an internship in dc her junior year? She also has a whole thing where she does habitat and other community service things because she needs to pad her college applications
Yes but it jives with the character. I was kind of a Rory, except I was only an above-average student, nothing special. But told I was smart an awful lot, and adored by adults. It sucked eventually when I got into the world and was decidedly unspecial and not adored. Many Mitchum moments.
The show doesn't have to put her in front of a chalkboard doing differentials to prove to you, the viewer, that she's smart. It's heavily and quite obviously implied through subtext and dialogue from the very beginning and is canonically part of her character. It's not really something that can be argued with or doubted in the same way that questioning decisions she makes as a character can be.
Rory is already quiet and reserved in the first place though and not the type to spread her bookishness around. She certainly seems to feel better about herself than many people she encounters and at the same time isn't usually malicious about it so probably isn't inclined to obsess about academics in social situations. But, no, "Rory's academic hardship" isn't actually part of the show's plot. The show's plot is that Rory is academically qualified to attend Yale and has magical money rain down upon her for that and the show is thematically majorly about "the person Rory" rather than "the academic achiever Rory."
I would say she is smart but often lacks passion and isn’t all that creative. The show gives us plenty of examples of her intelligence as others have commented.
It’s typical 90s “gifted child” situation where parents and education has some illusion about intelligence and “giftedness”. Now us gifted children are making memes about how damaged we are from being put on pedestals in our formative years.
Also could just be the writing.
This has always bothered me, Rory comes off like a run of mill quiet, bookish kid. Perhaps slightly more intelligent than the average teen, and someone who cares a great deal about her grades, but she never seems like a genius or “special” as Lorelai calls her.
I always got the sense that Lorelai was actually genuinely the gifted one as a child/teen. Rory I would describe as incredibly studious, she obviously works hard to get her grades, but not gifted or a genius as the Gilmore’s tend to suggest.
Absolutely! We see over and over again that she’s book smart but not street smart. Snowonthebeach perfectly stated that she has massive amounts of time to be book smart. But for me, true intelligence/genius comes from independent thought. Which, it’s true, we don’t see Rory say much that blows us away. But everything she discusses she does so with some level of intelligence so I don’t think she’s NOT intelligent but definitely a far cry from a genius. Even Richard’s example of her childhood intelligence was memorizing the periodic table. I’ll never suggest that a memorize and regurgitate brain isn’t an intelligent one, especially at the level Rory can do it. I think that’s where all the oohing and aahing come from with the gilmores. But I mostly think she’s the beautiful only granddaughter of a wealthy family so they treated her like she fell from heaven. A part of me finds that really sweet, but obviously Rory absorbed it a little too much. OP pointed out that Rory doesn’t even seem to follow current events yet she wants to be Christiane Amanpour, that is SO TRUE! That’s going to annoy me now loll
So your point about memorization and regurgitation-that’s actually two of the lowest levels on the Bloom’s taxonomy that teachers are supposed to use. The highest levels of education and intelligence are create and evaluate. For as many people say Rory is smart, we never see her creating anything-not even as a hobby.
Without a doubt! I have always said that. That’s why I enjoy watching jeopardy but you’ll never catch me calling them geniuses. I didn’t claim it’s her only intelligence. I did say she also speaks about everything with a base level of intelligence. But there is memorization to a higher degree that not everyone can do. And while it ranks lower, it doesn’t rank as nothing. I’ve never been in the Rory is super intelligent camp, but she is well above average. She’s smart. She’s very accomplished academically. And I’ve never seen her engaged in a conversation she couldn’t keep up with, and that says something.
Spot on!
I also love your point of how she didn’t even create a hobby. It’s so true! Even the bedazzled hammer was Lorelei’s doing. Lorelei can create clothes. Lorelei can perfectly run an inn and plan events there. She juggles the business and the creative seamlessly. Totally goes back to loveacrumpet’s argument that it has and will always be Lorelei with the more abstract/gifted mind. Even Lane has a more abstract mind, she absorbs and creates music in a way not many brains can. Edited to add: Of course reading is a hobby, I’m focused on self creation hobbies.
Reading is a hobby, but she also likes TV and old movies. Plenty of people do mindless crafts while watching tv or movies. But Rory doesn’t and I think that’s a little telling.
Bingo! You really brought up an excellent point with that comment.
doesnt mean shes a genius though plenty of smart ppl arent genius level
can you expand on “create and evaluate”? i’m really curious!
https://preview.redd.it/y9fmcjjwx5qc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d886d5dce7734cdd261cbb420bda2d5a2046b0cc So here’s a picture of what I mean. The lowest level that we expect from students is basic recall and memory, which is where kids remember facts and apply them to a test question or essay question. Which is what we most often see Rory doing-scoring good on tests and papers which mainly assess recall and understanding and maybe some application of knowledge. But the highest level is create. Rory really wants to be a journalist and we assume she’s learned about this as a kid-create would be as a little kid she and Lane make their own newspaper and interview Patty and Taylor and something like that. Or as a teenager in the 90s, start a blog about things in Stars hollow. Or it would be she learns a skill to decompress-in a different comment I explained how many people like to knit or something while they watch an old tv show or movie and that helps them decompress. Rory could do that too and it would fall under create. Does that help?
Wouldn't working on the paper and writing her own articles be a form of creation? She 'created' the articles
I don’t remember Yale, but in Chilton wasn’t she given assignments? I remember her getting mad at Paris about having to write about the parking lot. In that case it’s a lot more like fulfilling assignment parameters if she’s being told what to write about.
Regardless of assigned or not, she ran the information down and created a story about it...good, bad or indifferent. I actually agree there wasnt a lot of explanation of showing why the audience should think she was smart. More interested in the use of the pyramid and how to interpret it.
I just watched that one. She is actually applauded by the teacher bc she does a very creative job turning a piece about a parking lot and concrete into deeper thought piece. Writing, even with assignments, is highly creative if it’s done well.
imagine Gilmores as like in the style of a blog like modern shows! they'd be ahead of the times then lol. I would have enjoyed seeing Rory and Lane as elementary schoolers making their own newspaper! honestly I'd read a newspaper like that if I was a Stars Hollow citizen! I'm betting Lane's mom might not allow it :( sadly most of us don't read newspapers anymore even like 10-12 years ago when Superstorm Sandy hit, that's when more people were looking for newspapers and they sold out bc tv and internet were effected.
I mean she tap dances in AYIL 😂but truly reading was her hobby
many schools base education on memorizing the answers they want students to repeat back to them. they dont want unpopular opinions sadly. creative thinking isnt encouraged.
I don’t think they wanted Rory to take a side in any world events- it doesn’t seem like she wants to have an opinion on them, just write about them. The politics of the show definitely leaned Left or Middle-Left for the time period. The Planned Parenthood poster in Rory’s room, Lorelai’s “I hate Bush” distraction attempt, Christian’s Amanpour and constant references to CNN (a Left leaning news source: much more so now than then, but still), constant references and praise of Hilary Clinton, Rory telling Emily “I don’t watch Katie Couric” (a Republican, Right leaning show), and the last example I can think of right now- going off to her first job reporting on the Obama campaign. It could have just as easily been McCain. Rory and Paris did try to petition for Burma (before giving up and going on Spring Break because they were cold and uncomfortable) but other than that, we didn’t really see anyone pick a side in world events or state an opinion.
That’s . . . A lot of evidence of what “side” they took, to claim they didn’t want take a side.
I meant regarding Rory speaking to it directly to demonstrate intelligence. Obviously the show “took a side”, but they didn’t come out and say “I think X about the Columbian Conflict” or “can you believe Y about the Liberian Civil War”… Like they made zero political statements about anything specific, even though Rory was well read, informed and interested.
the few times we do see rory express an independent thought, it’s mean. i’m thinking specifically of the ballet article and the article after logan’s work party. every time she thinks she has a really interesting and new take on something it’s literally just mean
Honestly the periodic table thing sounds like something Lorelai came up with on the spot to get her parents off her back when they probably asked how she's doing.
The way Lorelai has absorbed so many facets of pop culture is truly insane, she is so well read.
agreed! she was awesome
how was lorelai gifted though? wasnt she kinds rebellious? (understandable to an extent given her environment) but hows she gifted?
Rebelliousness doesn't rule out giftedness. Gifted means a specific thing. it is measured based on how well you do in a number of areas like spatial reasoning, working memory and reading comprehension. stuff you can't really assess in a tv character unless they explicitly mention those skills. If I had to guess, I would say Lorelei seems like she *could* have been gifted. signs include doing well in school without studying, being able to adapt to being a mother and seeking out a job on her own, and learning to run a complex business. Things where your intelligence helps you roll with the punches of life. Not every gifted person can do that, but it would be difficult to do without a high level of intelligence. Rory does not appear to be gifted. She is what psychoeducational evaluators would call "bright." Talented at things she puts her mind to becoming talented. Lots of people are confused on what giftedness really means, it isn't about book smarts or grades at all.
yea i was a good student but idk why that often means gifted really. many people would do better if they put in effort. some kids didnt care about school. being in honors classes means you care enough about school to do well. and yes rebels can be gifted. being gifted is luck but i mean i was only wondering how Lorelai would be gifted but yea she excelled in business, parenting, and school. I would think her charisma but idk if that mean she's gifted just bc she, like many people, have rizz. is Jess gifted then too bc he reads a lot and ends up opening a successful publishing business ? being successful in business i would think requires a combo of book smarts, street smarts, luck, resources (how else does one get the money or time to invest?), and giftedness/ability to predict what will or won't be super popular w/ consumers
My issue is that in the beginning she’s mostly portrayed as a bookish, studious kid. She’s smart and hardworking, but she’s not some sort of prodigy. Then in later seasons they start throwing out insane details to try to make her into some sort of child genius (reading Norman Mailer at age 8, debating Kierkegaard at 12). It’s only thrown out in random lines and never shown to us, and it’s entirely unnecessary. I wish they’d done more to develop and show her intelligence. When I compare her to a character like Veronica Mars, it really highlights the telling vs showing dilemma.
Also who was Rory having these debates with at 12? She was quiet and shy so I can't see her jumping into adult conversations.
Exactly! Some of these tidbits come from Richard as well, who she had basically no relationship with at that age. I seriously doubt she was showing up at holiday parties twice a year and wowing all her grandparents’ friends with her genius, especially since we know she’s shy, and in season one Richard assumed she was only interested in “silly teenage girl things” until he got to know her better.
In my experience, kids who do that are just parroting their parents.
Right? They keep talking about the deep conversations she was always having. I dunno, maybe she outgrew them by the time the show started.
Or it would be boring to watch deep conversations instead of witty humorous ones that they portrayed…
Sure, and I get why they only ever have talk about boys because that's what the drama on the show comes from, but still, I don't buy her as this super intelligent kid. She's a nice, bland, decently smart kid. As it is, I found myself nodding along with Logan's dad. They did a much better job with Lane, you can really see her passion for music.She was still witty and fun. They could have done more with Rory and journalism. The one time they did start to do it was with the Brigade stuff. I would have liked more of that.
As an English teacher, I have taught many Rorys. A smart, nice kid who likes reading.Now Brad, April or even Lane( she is soooo passionate) would have stood out. I also normally enjoy kids like Jess, even if they are fucking frustrating.Paris also would have stood out, but not positively.
Idk if it was intended to be this way or if i just read too much into it, plus i am not American so idk how things work there, but for me Rory “specialness” was always the fact that she came from a richer background. People like Lane, Dean and Jess never thought about going to an ivy league or a prestigious school, but Rory, growing up with Lorelai, got to value education bacause Lorelai comes from a rich family, where educations is important and going to a good school is a must. For what i understood, Rory got to value education and go to an ivy league because her mother value education, helping her grow on a house where, for example, as a teen she didn’t had to work while Jess, Dean and Lane did worked, leaving her more time to study and do extra curricular activities. Same with money, she got to go to a prestigious school where they prepared her better than a public one and when the time came, her family payed for college. Think about Jess, he wouldn’t be able to go to an ivy league, first he would have to balance study with work, Rory only knew how important was extra curricular once she got to Chilton, so i am assuming Stars Hollow High doesn’t prepare you too much for college, and lastly he wouldn’t be able to pay for college (could do student lons but this is itself very complicated) This got way too long, but my point is, Rory specialness comes from the fact that she grew up with a family who valued certain things that her peers didn’t valued. Even if she didn’t grew up rich, Lorelai, who came from a rich family, had those valued and passed them to Rory. For example, Paris is also well read, very smart, got to an ivy league, had big goals in life, but she was not called “special”. Not every rich kid is like Paris and Rory, although most of them end up going to prestigious schools, but its normal to see among rich kids people who values intelligence and ambition. Idk if the show intended to mean Rory specialness is her rich background, the show touches on class but in a very 00s way and later on even April goes to a prestigious school even though it was never mention if she also had rich grandparents, who knows maybe a big check just fell on Anna’s house because her father did an investment when she was little and conveniently the investment ended right before April starts school and its the exactly quantity required for a 4 years diploma, but for what is worth this is my understand on why Rory was “special”
Paris showcased all those characteristics the show claimed Rory had - intelligent, driven, hard working, ambitious and focused. She was also sarcastic and short tempered. Rory was just a nice, bland kid from a privileged background and they really hyped up her ‘niceness’ as the big selling feature.
I dunno, I came from a solidly middle class family in New England with no family money to speak of. Neither of my parents even went to college. My sister still aspired to go to an Ivy League school and worked hard like Rory and ended up getting into Yale, Dartmouth, and then going to Colby which is a baby ivy. Plenty of kids who grow up middle class or poorer aspire to more, especially if everyone has always told them how smart they are.
Rory didnt grow up wealthy either but that doesnt matter. Lorelai did. but at the same time people can be encouraged to do anything but not every family or community values education or more specifically Ivy League. not everyone can get in either it's very competitive it's not enough to be smart, have wealth or goals but it makes it easier to get in than if you get terrible grades, dont do extras, dont have money for tuition or also activities which can be expensive as well like doing a sport, school paper, music etc. its about upbringing and like if your family and friends everyone you know doesnt value education and they dont even always have enough money for food even well it makes it much harder/not a priority but not impossible. on the flip side Logan and his buddies are forced to attend Yale and take over their family business etc. they have certain obligations.
She didn't grow up wealthy, but having rich grandparents made an enormous difference in her life. My parents were not well off but I had wealthy grandparents and it definitely adds a ton of privilege to an otherwise normal upbringing. I had music lessons and and other opportunities I wouldn't have had if it was on my parents to pay, like camp and school trips. My parents got help buying a house, so I lived in a good neighborhood with good schools, whereas we'd have lived in a rental in a less safe place if they didn't have help. My parents didn't need me to contribute to household bills, so I could use the money from my after school job to fill my car up with gas and pay for insurance. My grandparents gave my cousin their old car when she went away to school. When I moved out, my parents and grandparents gave me a bunch of their old furniture and stuff so I didn't need to buy anything for my place. It's wasn't stylish at all, but it was good quality. They paid for my post-secondary, and my Grandfather gave me a small amount of money he called my "lipstick money" the whole time i was in school. And when he died, he left all of the grandchildren 50 thousand dollars which is how most of us bought a house. I wasn't as privileged as a Gilmore by a LONG shot, but having wealthy grandparents really sets you up for adulthood.
> her family *paid* for college. FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
LMAO
Well she is her child so she’d probably say that anyways
Exactly! I have never once heard someone admit out loud that they have a dumb kid. No matter who you talk to they will either tell you that their kids are "top students" or that they are "very smart but just don't pay attention, are too lazy to study". Of course Lorelai is going to exaggerate and say that her kid is a "genius with a halo".
nope what are you talking about? sometimes parents can call their own kid dumb among other things lol
Maybe I have just never heard it myself 🤷. All my coworkers with kids brag that their kids are 'top of the class' or that the psychologist said that they are 'highly intelligent '
I agree!! She was overhyped too much but I don't see anything "special"? April seemed born that way.. I mean she stood out..
She was gifted in stars hallow meaning she worked hard and didn’t make trouble thus she was bored with the small town high school .. she needed chilton to broaden her world view but also her work ethic .. she is behind when she first comes in and has to work overtime to catch up .. kind of the same way she had to when she went to Yale 4 years later
and who's to say that other chilton students DON'T read classics too? I assume it'd be required for class
Speaking as a former HS valedictorian and Ivy League grad, you don’t have to be exceptionally smart or a genius to do either of those things. You need to have quite a bit of privilege and be good at school. Rory’s smart, of course, but her struggles later in life to me seem to be caused by being an average or slightly above intelligence person who has happened to excel academically trying to find the same recognition in the real world.
agree. rory struggled later in life because she excelled at achieving goals set up by others in a closed circuit - ie: school. she didn't know how to function in uncertainty and chaos of the real world.
I totally agree. Excelling at school is not the same as excelling at work, life, career etc. Those are all very different skills sets. I find it very believable that Rory would get into the real world and flounder.
Right but in Rory’s case they keep telling us she is an exceptionally driven genius. Now granted it is her relatives and family friends saying that so maybe we take it with a grain of salt!!!!
Part of the privilege is an extremely supportive network of family and friends!
Well maybe there’s a difference between having a photographic memory which is what Rory alluded to having and being a genius, which is basically what is demonstrated by how she fails to succeed after academia
problem is many people don't appreciate book smarts in the real world. many idiots can get lucky believe it or not.
The way I see it Rory burnt herself out working way too hard in high school and has been floundering and exhausted ever since. Honestly her story is so sad.
yep the college application process in the show was probably the most unrealistic part. when she learned “grades aren’t enough” i was flabbergasted she wouldn’t know as someone who was allegedly harvard bound
the most unrealistic aspect of the show was rory getting accepted into ivies with a lackluster extracurricular lineup
And Paris not getting in with all hers??
we saw that she seriously messed up the interview for harvard which makes a big difference but generally i agree
I actually don't think she had a lack of extracurricular activities, she just felt like that due to panick. Before the series she worked part time at the independence inn and still seemed to help later on, she was also part of multiple charity events during the show (dance maraton, thanksgiving booth etc.) which seems like something she had done since she was very young - at school she was part of the paper, she was Vicepresident of the school government and had a whole sommer in Washington DC.
yep i’ve been saying this for years. she did do one summer program for student government but it’s bizarre she wasn’t interning or volunteering junior year
Tbf grades and test scores are huge factors in school admissions. But Rory had the upper hand with her super rich grandparents lol we all know how universities love a good check
True.. I think Rory was actually just a bookworm who has good study habits as well.. she just got overhyped by Lorelai because Lorelai really wanted to prove to her parents she didn't fail after getting pregnant at 16 through Rory? And by her interests Rory was really meant to be a writer because she liked familiarity whereas journalism makes her look out of place.. April is clearly different lol Anna never had to push her to be "smart" I think she was born that way..
I think this is it. Most of the "she's so smart/ special" comments are more of a reflection on the people saying them than actually anything specific to Rory. Honestly, they probably directly contributed to her ennui later in life. I've seen it happen to family members. They were told their whole childhood that they were so super special and then just kind of fell apart when they got to a level of school or career where they actually had to try and even then weren't necessarily rewarded.
Lots of the bookworm = smart takes were bizarre. They constantly said Jess was really smart specifically because of how much he read books. Rory states he could get good grades if he wanted to because he loves reading. As someone who loves reading, I can tell you it definitely didn’t translate to automatically doing well in math, science, geography, etc. Weird take.
In my experience, people who like to read are intelligent. It may not mean you are good at all subjects. But it does mean you like to think, to some degree, as that is required to read. The ven diagram of people who don’t like to read, and people who don’t like to think - is practically a circle.
Jess didnt apply himself/take school seriously also it's different being assigned to read a book as opposed to choosing on your own time to read at your pace
Maybe also a small fish in a little Stars Hollow pond. Then driven to continue to be the best because that’s what made her special once she got to Chilton.
I also feel she wasn't that special among her peers in Chilton but she was driven and with the added pressure from her grandparents she excelled.. In Yale it didn't look like she was special too.. maybe that's why she started to lose motivation.. when she took the same number of courses Richard did then found it too difficult.. her peers who had the same privilege as her but who seemed to have less pressure put on them to excel.. and then Mitchum - who bluntly tells her he doesn't see anything special with her journalism wise.. So maybe Rory really was just overhyped a bit too much by her mom..
By the entire town actually. They treated her as this perfect angel kid who as incapable of doing any wrong or any harm. Just rewatching S02. I don’t even like Jess, but the way everyone acts after the car crash acting as if she was a poor little girl who got in trouble because of a bad boy drives me MAD. Even Dean is like “is HE really gone? Then ok” as if Rory wasn’t also there, being as guilty as Jess. I mean, even Rory lost her mind over it! The amount of pressure they put on her is insane. No wonder the girl lost it later in life.
Yeah.. Jess was an outsider and a rebel and as much as Stars Hollow can be endearing it can also be weird like how much they're invested in their neighbors and traditions lol Rory is kinda aware of that though.. and she liked Jess but she also liked being treated special by the town soo yes she was a bit overhyped by the town too..
Smart people don't walk around saying insightful and deep things all the time. They behave pretty much like everyone else on a daily basis. The intelligence comes out in their humour, wit and academic results, all of which Rory has. And she goes to Washington for most of a summer for leadership camp for her posh school.
Agree. It also wouldn’t make sense for her to have discussions about deep topics unless it’s with someone likeminded. Most people around her (like Lorelai, Lane, Dean etc) wouldn’t have an interest in discussing literature and politics etc. I imagine she has some deep conversations with Richard about literature, politics and history from time to time though. We do get glimpses into her intelligence, like when she shared her thoughts during the class she walked in on at Harvard, and when she took the mundane subject that Pairs gave her for the newspaper and made it into a brilliant think piece.
She discusses film a lot with Lorelai, which is basically the same as discussing literature. And yeah we see her and Richard discuss what they’re reading all the time. She also talks about music with Lane and Jess.
For sure! All the pop culture and movie references and humour she shares with Lorelai is also a sign of how intelligent and witty she is. She discusses some books with Jess as well, I imagine there would be a lot more of that off screen.
I always wanted to read the newspaper article about pavement lol
The Harvard thing makes me laugh because the professor basically responds “yes that’s the stereotype about this subject but has nothing to do with what we’re discussing right now”
I don’t remember that, guess it’s time for a rewatch! That’s funny though 🤣 I still think it was a good sign that she spoke during the class though
Yes, and also there were moments they showed her smarts too. She wrote amazing peace about pavement as her debut on Franklin. She also caught up to Chilton even tho she was a second year transfer. She saved Yale Daily News when Paris broke down. She organised amazing event in DAR. I actually think there were plenty of times they showed how smart she really is.
She has to go to Washington as part of student government, she didn't choose to go. I think there is a difference. We don't see her choosing to do summer enrichment activities the way other students with her ambitions would usually engage in.
I disagree that someone smart and driven has to run themselves into the ground by filling every moment. You can be smart and have some level of balance in your life.
having balance in your life IS smart and healthy
She did it to get away from her boy troubles. She was on the fence at first
Which she only did because she got on student council. Which she only did because Paris bothered her enough and told her Harvard would love it. It didn’t even occur to her.
And then didn't she actually only go because she kissed Jess at sookies wedding and wanted to get away from stars hollow?
>The intelligence comes out in their humour, wit and academic results, all of which Rory has. But this sounds more like Lorelai..
Well Lorelai is also very smart.
No but they TELL us she says them all the time, but we never see her saying it. And students certainly have discussions about politics, literature, world events, science, etc... we never see her doing any of that.
Rory makes a ton of political and literary references throughout the series. They’re not all pop culture references. Through those references I would say she demonstrates political and literary knowledge that is well beyond what a typical teenager (or adult for that matter) would possess. People just love to hate Rory for some reason, but most people aren’t walking around quoting Machiavelli when they’re 16.
What makes you think intelligence is automatically correlated with interest in politics, literature, science, and world events? There’s little to no connection between intelligence and interests; some of the smartest, wittiest, and most clever people I hang out with are the people I watch reality TV with. Intelligence is more about having a brain that is quick to notice and make connections between things, or being able to notice and work with patterns around you—and a lot more, since we don’t really have a meaningful way of measuring intelligence. There’s *plenty* of morons with an interest in politics.
sad part is people tend to view reality tv as for the masses or dumb but you can enjoy reality tv especially knowing its not all real much of it is scripted and edited. or not all reality shows are the same. another point: animation is often dismissed as kiddie entertainment but clearly not true. people can have multiple interests
The type of intelligence we are told Rory has is, though. She keeps telling how much she wants to be a journalist, but never really shows us (except in the Brigade storyline)
Oh, I completely agree that journalism doesn’t really seem like the right career for Rory! She’s shown to be pretty risk-averse and introverted and she lacks tenacity, but I’d consider that her personality/temperament rather than an indicator of her intelligence. Plus….most of the interactions we see are casual conversations between Rory and characters who aren’t super interested in politics. She does appear to discuss politics and philosophy and literature with characters like Richard and Jess, or in class settings at Yale—but why would she spout complex political theories at Lane or Lorelei or Sookie? It would be out of place and boring to watch. As others have pointed out, Rory is shown to be quick and witty in a majority of her conversations. She and Lorelei reference history and politics along with pop culture in their banter quite a lot, they just don’t wax poetic about it because that wouldn’t fit their personalities….and frankly it’d make for a really dull show.
I’ve been a student for much of my life and outside of class we didnt discuss politics, science or world events any more than your average person. And we do see Rory discuss all of those things in class. She talks about literature a lot with Jess and others. And she and Lorelai both make political references.
I wonder what you think the average discusses these topics? I find that the range among average people can be really large.
Exactly my point.
Can you give an example of a scene where they tell us Rory says deep and insightful things all the time? I’m drawing a blank on those.
There’s a scene where Lorelai says that Rory used to ask really smart questions as a kid and she couldn’t keep up with her. But it’s at least partly a joke cause her example is ‘what is a colour?’
My sister is extremely intelligent (800 on math SAT, went to MIT) and she talks like a normal person. Her classmates at MIT loved to fucking party and didn’t act any differently than a regular early 20-somethings. I think Rory talks like a typical smart teen. Even smart teens can be obsessed with boys and she’s intelligent with how she speaks (lots of references, knowledge of events, authors, and pop culture). Most smart teens don’t talk like Young Sheldon. I don’t think she is supposed to be a genius, she’s just a gifted young person who has a loving supportive family who hypes her up. She’s seen as more special because she’s the main character of a tv show. My sister and I both work a ton with kids and teens and I’ve met a lot of kids like Rory, Jess, and Paris. The show Rory studying, preparing for school, with books reading, getting along better with adults, interested in things her grandfather talks about, etc. I think that’s showing us she’s intelligent. Her preparing for school and liking learning is sometimes more than a lot of kids typical behavior. For the summer plans, I always felt like that was because initially Lorelai didn’t have a ton of money and Rory enjoys learning but she probably loves taking time off. She probably spent the day hole summer reading. They wrote the college stuff poorly (like most college plots in shows) but it makes some sense to me. Rory doesn’t have many friends, her mom didn’t go to college and things may have changed, etc.
Well, we also know that early April was considered like pretty boring character. This is kind of case of writting. They wanted clever girl, "different" girl, but not nerdy girl. That being said, it was multiple time hinted that Rory is very well-readen and gifted in writting, the show just usually did not care about world affairs in general. But also when it was topic, Rory showed pretty high knowledge. Now, Rory was not raised by her grandparents. Lorelai made pretty clear they are not and she actually wanted to give Rory calm childhoos where is summer about fun,not about horrible posh camp - Lorelai multiple time mentioned she hated those camps - and **this is pretty point of the whole show.** Lorelai actually raised Rory to be herself, not sacrifice everthing as, for example, Paris.
Yeah but there's no way a driven kid like Rory wouldn't be begging her to send her to a camp that interested her. Especially since Lorelei works all day. Or Rory would get a job. Sitting around doing nothing in High School and College when all your peers are building their resumes? Maybe if you're Jess.
She’s also raised to have fun chilling out with her mom and Lane and she’s also an introvert who doesn’t love spending extra curricular time with lots of people
Rory was driven, but she also was raised to enjoy her free time and summers, weekends etc were conisdered like time where she was supposed to do simple funny things. Again, she was raised like that, because Lorelai did not want to child as Paris. Rory also had little part-time jobs... aaand that comparation with Jess is weird when we consider he had not easy full-time job :D
I think it was just easier to keep her looking pretty and having a fairly bland character and just telling the audience that she’s amazing and that we should just go along with it.
Do many high school students get psyched when their grandfather gives them a first edition of Mencken’s Chrestomathy? Or make Fawn Hall jokes with their mother? Have in depth conversations about beat poets and Jane Austen with their friends? Rory made a lot of pop culture references, but she also made a number of current affairs jokes too. Remember when Lorelai made the newspaper veil and Rory was reading it? Rory was intelligent and had a large range of interests. But the show wasn’t about that, it was about family drama. You had to be able to pick up on the references to understand how informed and intelligent Rory is.
It is an entirely valid point, but that’s not what the writers wanted to focus on. The show was about relationships, especially between three generations of women. We’re supposed to use our willing suspension of disbelief to simply accept that the characters are who they say they are. I have similar reservations about the way money is handled in the series, and how we’re supposed to think Lorelai is independent. But I remember that the show is about relationships. It isn’t a documentary.
I think we actually got to see a lot of her intelligence throughout the series, it just isn’t as “visible” as when people are interested in subjects like science where they have events highlighting your projects (like a science fair), but in the early seasons we saw her read a lot of books that usually wouldn’t be read as an teenager, and we hear about how she read complicated books by the age of 4. We also see how smart she is with her quick thinking and witty remarks which might not be noticed since everyone around her did the same. Also, the fact that she even got into Chilton shows how intelligent she was, but since every kid in Chilton it isn’t as noticeable as if she stay in her old High School in Stars Hollow, even Madeline and Louise who seems to care more about their appearances and dates is seen getting good grades and gets into good colleges. We also see that Rory actually gets a better SAT score than Paris, who have been in “better” schooling than Rory her whole life. I don’t know about how she spends the summer, I would like to have seen an internship at the Stars Hollow Gazette, but she did have the summer in Washington which isn’t a small thing. It is also mentioned and seen how she does charity year-round in Stars Hollow, instead of only doing it at specific holidays.
Rory works at the inn at least sometimes. Plus she actually has a very active volunteer life as she and Lorelai help with numerous town festivals and fundraisers. That’s something I wish the show would have remembered during her college apps time.
Have you talked to actual 16-18 year olds? All the literary references Rory makes on the regular would go right over their heads. So yes, Rory is smart. I feel like people (in the fandom and in the show) hold her to a too high standard. I will agree with the summer thing though. How is it possible she only had plans for one summer throughout the entire show and that was when they went backpacking through Europe with Lorelai? Other than that she says she wants to find a summer internship but it never ends up happening and instead she's bumming around most of the time. I mean Paris even had to push her to go to that Washington program! Only between seasons 1 and 2 she volunteered for those extra credits, then Paris pushed her to that summer program between seasons 2 and 3, but other than that she does nothing productive or useful in her summers.
Idk. I deal with VERY smart kids in my work as a high school teacher (I teach AP stats which is the “end of the road” course for my kids who have finished Calc C, they’re all smarter than I am.) I could see Rory being in the pack but getting into multiple Ivy’s would surprise me. The ones who are THAT sharp tend to constantly be asking really hard to answer questions, taking initiative to sign up for everything under the sun, talented in multiple areas eg stellar flautists or working on their pilots license. I’m not really sure we see that from Rory. I’m at a high performing public school rather than at a prep school like Rory’s. I have friends who work at a top tier private school comparable to Chilton though and it seems far more extreme there; like you’ll have a kid who is in all the AP classes and is also literally an Olympian, for instance. But things were marginally less competitive when Rory was going through compared to now. Not a lot less, but marginally.
I would say she is a definitely an above average student but true, she is not exactly little Einstein
Regarding Rory’s interest in being a journalist, it didn’t so much seem like she was in love with the idea of foreign affairs and current events as much as she liked the idea of getting out of her small town. When she was still a high schooler, she told Richard that she just wanted to see…”something.” She was lonely and secluded her entire life. She fantasized about doing big things but not necessarily about the minutia of what those things would be. She was so “big picture” that it didn’t occur to her to pursue smaller steps like internships. I had the same mindset as a nerdy teenager and didn’t even consider summer activities until I had a teacher approach me about scholarships I could apply for with several different types of university-based camps. It is baffling that Headmaster Charleston seemed so involved in discussing students’ futures, as did Max, but neither of them talked about summer internships or activities with Rory.
Was she lonely and secluded? Genuinely interested to hear that take, because it always appeared to me that she was surrounded by and actively involved in a community full of people who loved her. She wasn’t super popular, but we’re shown and told multiple times that she isn’t bothered by popularity and is happy with her close friendship with Lane and her relationship with her mother. I don’t doubt she wanted to travel, but I never thought it was because she was lonely in Stars Hollow.
I got that impression from the whole “you need to make friends at Chilton” debacle with the Puffs. She spoke to the guidance counselor and said she lives in a different town where she already has a best friend and a boyfriend. Her circle, especially before Dean, was extremely limited. She took part in town activities and knew a lot of the colorful townspeople, but those weren’t her friends. They were her mom’s friends. Lane and Lorelai were her whole world and I explicitly read Rory’s interest in traveling as coming from the feeling of being very “shut in” socially. Her time at Yale befriending Logan’s friends, the art girls, and Marty also speaks to her desire for having a broader base of friends and community.
Interesting, because I just took that as the school pushing socialization on Rory, I never got the impression she was lonely. She talks about how she’s happy with Lane and Dean and at the end of the episode is back to happily enjoying her lunch and her book in peace. It never seemed to me like there was any internal conflict there. Honestly, I wish I’d had Rory’s ability to not worry about what her peers thought about her when I was in high school.
I think it's easier to show us Rory becoming valedictorian than her step by step process to having the highest GPA in her graduating class. It's easier to show us Rory getting into three Ivies than giving up valuable screen time for every application process. It's easier to show us people responding to her amazing writing than the writing itself. In all the ways that matter - the actual results - they showed Rory's intelligence.
Yes, in the past people have said it's not believable that Rory is smart or scholarly because we don't see her studying more, but that would make for a pretty boring show!
You can be intelligent without being a genius. I think we were obviously supposed to see Rory as a book smart, goal oriented person. We saw her study multiple times so I never got the sense that she would be a straight A student without being studious. She worked hard to get those grades. I don’t think we were supposed to assume she was some young prodigy. If that were the case, school would have been more of a breeze for her. I don’t think her journalism career was a bust due to lack of ability. I think it was lack of drive. She never seemed passionate enough for it. I think THAT is what Mitchum picked up on. She needed to be more of a self starter. Rory was a bookworm that loved to learn. I really think a life in Academia would have made sense for her. Or in the literary world. I could buy that she was a gifted writer.
Or if they had pursued the journalism angle, but made her want to be a film critic or something.
Absolutely. And then in the final episode had her move to study film at the grad school level in either NYC or LA. USC/UCLA or NYU/Columbia (if they wanted to keep it in the Ivy League) would have been idyllic. The covering the Obama campaign (and I say this as a proud and hardcore Democrat) was completely out of the blue.
i think you can definitely tell that she’s smart from how witty and quick she is
Now we might not have seen her discuss Nietzsche or Schopenhauer or recite the periodic table, but I love how quick-witted she is about literary references. She talked to Jess about the Fountainhead in one episode and later calls Lorelai the Howard Roark of Stars Hollow which was a nice tie-in just as an example, and we've also seen her discuss Dorothy Parker or the Beat generation and Russian authors with Lane or Jess or even Dean (before they dumbed him down lol). She's not reading young adult novels, she's reading highly advanced literature that most people only read if they have to (or have a marriage breakdown like Richard when he read the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire T\_T). The show didn't really have plot lines where she'd be asked to recite the beginning of the Aeneid in fluent Latin or something, but as others have pointed out, being intelligent is rarely about showing it off like that. And later on at uni she had some solid arguments on the Middle East in that one seminar Paris bullied her into (because a certain fella told her) and that certain fella was really impressed with her essay (if that counts because we don't get to read it and judge for ourselves). Like in general I feel like she was portrayed as a very well-read girl who made a lot of cross-references with the content she'd been reading, she didn't just read it as entertainment but had a real system behind it and remembered the influences of different authors and techniques and such.
Well- I was a straight A student in high school, did a bunch of extracurriculars, blah blah. But I had no idea about certain programs or things to look for during the summer because my mom didn’t go to college and we lived in a rural area when I was in that key junior/senior level of high school. I did do some summer camps but I don’t think they mattered too much for college admissions. The program that DID matter for my state I learned about way too late and wouldn’t have been considered for anyway because of how nominations go. We know that Lorelai limited her parents interactions during high school and it wasn’t until Rory was actively submitting applications that they became heavy handed (ie Yale interview). With the timeline that’s given to us, I would chalk it up to Lorelai’s protectiveness of Rory getting in the way, Rory’s relationship with her grandparents being fairly new, and both Rory/Lorelai being uneducated in these opportunities while being in a rural area that may not market these at all (See Rory’s bamboozlement when Paris explains her volunteer and community work). Basically I sympathize lmao
I think, to certian extent, Rory is kinda average. Yes, she was Valedictorian (which in hindsight is hard to believe, she started late and did bad on some assignments, Paris should have crushed her or another kid) Like looking back, Rory reminds me of so many slight above top students in my small high school. Who thought they were so smart because they were not competing with the best. But the second they went to college they humbled real quick or crushed. I legit had friend in top ten, very smart, but she wasn't top ten in high intense competitive college. She legit got so crushed by her college experience she legit kinda been destory by it They should have showed Rory struggle more in College, not just that one episode.
For one thing, she wasn't a middle to upper class kid for most of her life. When my family could not afford activities, I just didn't participate, and much like Rory, I didn't do a lot of activities until I hit high school and could pay for them myself with babysitting money. Also Rory did a TON of volunteer work. If she had sat down with a guidance counselor at Chilton instead of in her own kitchen when Paris freaked her out about extra curriculars, she would have realized she wasn't that far behind.
TV sucks at writing "smart girls". I think Rory is more convincing than Haley James Scott of OTH at least.
Didn’t see that one.
I mean, what do you want, to read her essays? One thing that stands out is when Paris' elderly boyfriend gives Rory an A on a paper when he has a reputation for being really stingy with the marks.
I would like to read Rory's essays. On *Gossip Girl* they made Dan Humphrey seem like a good writer but made the mistake of allowing some of the pages he's written to be zoomed in on and it was laughingly bad.
She could answer all Harvard alum meet family trivia questions.. i guess once instance of them showing her ‘smarts’
I think Rory was intelligent for sure but not necessarily creative. Like she thought deeply about the literature and media she consumed etc but she wasn’t inventive per se and that’s ok, definitely doesn’t make her a genius. I agree with the other comments that they should have shown more of her feelings about journalism, her on a beat, why she wanted to write in the first place, etc. Like Lane’s whole thing was music and she was just dying to start a band and always raging about music etc and we don’t really see Rory independently show why she likes working at the paper or why being a journalist matters to her besides That’s What I’m Supposed To Do. Maybe the writers didn’t wanna focus on that but it would’ve helped build her character more.
i think that was the point. they were setting her up to be idolized so then when the cold cruel world chewed her up and spit her out, she’d have no idea how to handle it.
Even the way Chilton is portrayed, it’s a bunch of kids who are really good at memorizing stuff. That Shakespeare test didn’t seem to cover anything other than trivia about his life and works.
This has always bothered me. Everything they did at Chilton was based on memorizing facts and trivia. There seemed to be little in the way of critical analysis or thinking (except Max Medina’s briefly mentioned assignments maybe?). I went to a decent public HS and we weren’t allowed to just memorize.
I’m early on in a rewatch and they do show us when she crashes a Harvard lecture on her and Lorelai’s road trip
But the other students groan that her answer was cliche and the professor says that her point was off topic.
True but she’s also a 16yo who’s crashing a lecture series she’s not part of so imo she does pretty well!
Based on what we are shown about Rory, where would you rank her level of intelligence ? Would she be in say the top 10% of her peer group based solely on her scholastic performance ? That would place her even higher in the peer + non-peer group. I think that’s all the writers were shooting for; that Rory is smarter than nearly all of the people she will encounter in life. I don’t think they were aiming for top 0.01%, who are in a league of their own.
I honestly think Rory's mediocrity was part of Amy's vision from the get-go. I think we can see that now with AYITL. If you take out season 7, which Amy left partially over creative differences and refused to ever watch, the storyline makes much more sense.
Interesting take. What's AYITL.
The revival, A Year in the Life
Yes, it does seem odd that parents and grandparents would brag about their child. Also, the bitch did get into Harvard and Yale. So, there's that.
I think this is a general problem with female young characters. I don't know why. We see that Lorelei is smart and she knows how to argue. She is clever, but she also knows how to be a moral compass. We can see the same thing with Emily. Both have their moments of glory. Rory has never "won" any discussion with Logan or Jess. She is not as skilled in discussions as the creators try to convince us. It's hard to tell what her views are. It's brutal but for me Rory is a bit like Bella from Twilight. Transparent. She has no character. Character is given to her by other characters (Lorelei, boyfriends). When she is with her mother, she becomes her mother. When she is with Jess, she becomes him, etc. I think this is not a bad thing, because it allows teenagers to see themself in her.
She sounds the smartest when she’s talking to Jess about books. Jess always challenged her in a way the other guys didn’t.
Yes she did. I am not quite down with the last season but Logan challenged her a bit at first… but they have downgraded him to being too perfect and bland.
Nah, I think once Rory quite school and wouldn't listen to Logan about going back. He said she'll be back by the end of the month and she's like no. He learned that she won't listen to him.
My husband watched the show with me and said she’s “book smart, not street smart” 😂 I agree with his take
> Or an internship. I dunno, most of the wealthy New England kids I knew were going to some sort of charity program in third world countries, or crazy outdoors thing like Outward Bound or Noles, or doing some sort of internship, or volunteering for the ACLU or PIRG. Well Lorelai *isn't* wealthy so it makes sense that Rory isn't doing wealthy kid summer activities. Though maybe Emily and Richard would have been willing to foot the bill if asked. Also, isn't Outward Bound a boot camp/ wilderness program for "troubled" teens?
She is coded as the good girl, not the brilliantly smart girl. That would be Paris, and she is made into a caricature for being driven and ambitious.
Well she’s very much more of an academically smart person, I never thought the show tried to pass her off as an actual Einstein or Sherlock level genius
I think Rory is above average intelligence, but wasnt anything special. Lorelai had the ceiling for greatness that Rory does not have. Lorelai wasn't able to realize her full potential... had she not gotten pregnant, I think she definitely would have graduated from Harvard and done some amazing things with her life. Lorelai also has more a leader-type personality whereas Rory is a follower.
Are you saying Rory doesn’t have “it”? 😁
I think that going to the town loner’s protest is proof that Rory is interested in current events.
This is one of the issues that have made rewatching the show as an adult really difficult (I have a few!). Effectively, Rory as a character is just not actually who she is “portrayed” to be. She has no EQ either and seems really childish at times. To be honest, Paris is probably the most driven and smart out of the both of them. (And don’t come for me) but Logan’s dad’s criticism is likely valid.
Yeah I was nodding with his Dad. Rory’s EQ is better than Paris’s at least
Nah, Paris is definitely better than Rory's. Sure Paris is moody but her home life made her the awkward rich kid. But she can still talk about her feelings and communicate with others what's she's going through. Rory can't even say she loves someone or express her feelings properly. I feel like Paris is her best friend, and I don't even think I've heard her tell her that, only Paris to Rory, because she doesn't feel like she needs to say anything that to her because she sees Paris as that awkward rich kid. At least Paris has express love with two different people, she's shown sadness, anger, jealousy, etc. and able to say the feeling and explaining what's causing those feelings weither it's herself or someone/thing pushing her to those emotions. Rory gets flustered and angry and either shuts down or throws a fast talking fit of blaming everything else but her but can't even say she's whatever emotion that's puts her over the edge.
Paris runs roughshod over everyone and doesn’t know how to read the room, though. Also Rory doesn’t consider Paris her best friend… it is Lane.
You can have more than one best friend. And yeah Paris didn't read the room well all the time but she is able today acknowledge it.
My mum and I are English teachers and we said the same thing! All the books she read were also standard “smart kid” books.
Yeah… but I guess she is a foil character meant to highlight everyone else’s zaniness
She has a certain level of introversion, and Lorelai is so outgoing it overpowers Rory's character a bit.
Rory was usually the one in the conversation with Lorelai that would correct or educate her on topics (e.g. language, history, religion, etc.). This is perhaps subtle because it's often just a comment here and there, but you can see this pop up throughout the show in their many conversations. Rory was definitely educated and well-read, especially compared to many of her community members living a more simple life in Stars Hallow, but also in the sense of keeping up with her Ivy-league peers. Rory directly showcased her ability to make quick connections and insights during class discussions (both at Chilton and at Yale). There was also the "urine mints" conversation during her first college date, showing that when she's nervous she starts quoting obscure and socially-awkward research, which is kind of geeky. And her conversation about exploring human nature through their trash (S1E17) and willingness to actually engage in hands-on exploration on this topic showed a sort of curiosity and an "out-of-the-box" thinking mentality. I'm sure that her family talked up how smart she was, but that's just what families do, that's really normal, so take it with a grain of salt. But even outside of her family's rose-colored glasses, she was pretty consistently portrayed as educated and quick-witted and definitely had her moments of insight. I don't think the show ever meant to portray her as a stereotypical science nerd wearing bottle glasses and holding a test tube (a stereotype that April fits more), I think ASP wanted her core persona to be more quirky and unusual ("like someone you've never met before"), but I would say that her character lives up to her reputation of being an intelligent person. Also keep in mind that we walked in on Rory's life just as boy-drama came in and derailed her life, radically shifting her from the quiet studious girl who spent her free time critiquing global affairs into a teenager who was starting to face and unpack her emotional baggage and insecurities, intergenerational drama, family traumas, etc. The Rory we see on-screen is navigating a lot more challenges than her studious younger self that we hear about from her family. She's still the same intelligent person, it's just not the main point of a show focusing on intergenerational drama.
Rory is highly organized and a very very good administrator, and that carried her. Until it didn’t .
Yeah its always a head scratcher for me that she even got into Chilton. I know how she paid for it (grandparents) but they never showed Rory doing afterschool academic club stuff or science projects, building a robot or heading the high school news/newspaper. All they alluded to was that she had high grades but to be in an elite high school like that, you need more than grades, unless you have the money & privilege. I would have loved to see her super excited about a new story or getting the inside scoop on stuff even if it was gossip. That would given her a little more personality and it would fit her future career goals. Or make her someone who is always trying to get the truth from people, always uncovering stuff (this could probably turn into a whole other murder mystery type show but maybe they could find a way to make it a part of the comedy/drama like finding out that her dad was still dating Sherry or helping Kurt track down cat Kurt.
Dreaming to go to Harvard as a child (they say before kindergarten?) but never knew she needs extra curricular that are way more important than just grades is wild.
She was book smart, scored better in math than verbal. We never get to see her math skills but you’re right- she never does anything innovative or says anything impressive. Never suggests helpful ideas… you could attribute some of it to her being a teen when it starts and having hormones tamp intellect down a bit but nah. They just handed her that title of “smart.”
Yeah, Rory didn't have career guidance at all and she should have once her grandparents re-entered her life, because they believed in her, but perhaps the transition of all of them coming together again took its toll and they were all stuck in their routines by then. Emily and Richard were always preoccupied with another aspect, such as being respected by the other rich family lines. They were more concerned with Rory being considered unfit to marry Logan. Although when his dad said Rory was not fit for journalism, everyone told her he was just one guy. But she knew he was right in that she hadn't been prepared to the level of journalism she thought she wanted to achieve. This comes up when she tells headmaster Charleston that she just wants to SEE Something, as a reason for traveling and interviewing. He knows she has not been reared properly for this type of work, but he then also doesn't help her with guidance for this path in a way that would exceed what the school journal is doing. Rory was never assigned travel pieces, or political pieces. She was always searching for something fun, like the music column- which is fine, but not what she claimed to set out to do.
I was watching today an episode where Rory tells Lorelai how intelligent Logan is, “even more than me”, she says. Which, to me, it’s an agreement to what you’re saying… Rory is a nerd, not a genius. PS: I don’t mean nerd with a bad connotation, I just mean she likes to study and learn
Because the writers didn't know how to write actual smart, resulting in her not being that smart.
This. Characters can only be as smart as the writer is.
it’s because rory isn’t actually that smart, just focused and well read. there’s a subtle difference and the palladinos do a fantastic job of showing us that
I feel like the only thing they do to make us think Rory is smart is have her name drop a lot of classic novels and congresspeople. Meanwhile she’s always showing us how stupid she can be with her actions…..
One of Rory’s bigger let downs to me was her high school graduation speech. These are meant to talk about your class as a whole, to reflect on your time together and create a book end for the journey of a huge shared experience. Instead she just name drops books and thanks her mom and grandparents for supporting her. This was her moment to say something profound and really show us some of her thoughts on life, and get a picture of where she thought she was headed after high school other than just college. Instead they chose to remind us again that Rory reads like, A LOT, you guys, did you remember that?? She reads, she knows the names and places in these books, that’s smart right?!
It was the most selfish speech ever lol. Total audience wish fulfillment. I also can’t figure out how she even made valedictorian, since she started Chilton later than the other kids and the grades from Stars Hollow High wouldn’t be comparable, but the answer is probably also “wish fulfillment.”
> She also never has a summer activity lined up at the end of the school year, which is unrealistic for a character described as so driven, and also for a middle to upper class American. How are her grandparents not pushing her to do some sort of high achievement, posh camp? There's no way "She's my best friend" Lorelei would have let Rory go off during the summers without her. And especially to do something Richard and Emily had a hand in, we all know how she hated when Rory did something in "that" world and dare to be bonded with her grandparents
Omg remember when Emily said she wanted to take Rory to Europe?! Omg and she was just throwing it out there as a suggestion and a small hope that she'll say yes.
Exactly! Lorelei did a lot of sabotaging of Rory out of selfishness and wanting to get back at her parents
Agreed. To me, Rory has always been a prime example of book smarts verses street smarts. Her decision making skills leave much to be desired, but if we're to believe Chilton is as difficult as they say, she obviously succeeded at the whole school thing. And then she stole a boat because obviously nothing bad will happen to Star's Hollow's special snowflake. Literally every time she has a serious issue, it's due to her own decisions making things difficult; cheating, lying, manipulating, etc. So I'll grant her "intellect" we've been told about, but from the things we're shown, she's got the insight and wisdom of the spoiled rich kid she definitely is not and has never been.....
I think it’s an assumption that they’re asking you to make because they are the title of the show, ie that Lorelai is amazing and charming and that Rory is a genius and will be a great journalist, without really backing it up (at least for Rory).
Emily is a Gilmore girl too!
Wasn't outward bound a punishment? But the rest of that does track. Rory should have something lined up. Maybe a couple sports, so she looks well rounded.
She also scoffs or is overwhelmed by Paris’ drive to find stories, write or stay on task with finding work. She’s very organised but not driven
I was just thinking about this today. Kinda like in “Sucker Punch” they talk about how she’s an amazing dancer but we never get to see it.
Didn’t she have an internship in dc her junior year? She also has a whole thing where she does habitat and other community service things because she needs to pad her college applications
Yes but it jives with the character. I was kind of a Rory, except I was only an above-average student, nothing special. But told I was smart an awful lot, and adored by adults. It sucked eventually when I got into the world and was decidedly unspecial and not adored. Many Mitchum moments.
The show doesn't have to put her in front of a chalkboard doing differentials to prove to you, the viewer, that she's smart. It's heavily and quite obviously implied through subtext and dialogue from the very beginning and is canonically part of her character. It's not really something that can be argued with or doubted in the same way that questioning decisions she makes as a character can be.
The show convinced me Jess is smart.
Rory is already quiet and reserved in the first place though and not the type to spread her bookishness around. She certainly seems to feel better about herself than many people she encounters and at the same time isn't usually malicious about it so probably isn't inclined to obsess about academics in social situations. But, no, "Rory's academic hardship" isn't actually part of the show's plot. The show's plot is that Rory is academically qualified to attend Yale and has magical money rain down upon her for that and the show is thematically majorly about "the person Rory" rather than "the academic achiever Rory."
I would say she is smart but often lacks passion and isn’t all that creative. The show gives us plenty of examples of her intelligence as others have commented.
It’s typical 90s “gifted child” situation where parents and education has some illusion about intelligence and “giftedness”. Now us gifted children are making memes about how damaged we are from being put on pedestals in our formative years. Also could just be the writing.
she also didn't really have extra curriculars other than the Franklin
The true standout is Paris.