Being late to the Gilmore Girls party, as I watched it for the first time when it hit Netflix a while back, and I have to talk about something.  Forget Jess vs. Dean vs. Logan (team Logan all the way), what about Luke vs. Christopher? I’m positive that the Luke vs. Christopher debate is one that has occurred multiple times before.  In fact, I’ll bet if you scoured the depth of the internet you’d find countless debates spread across LiveJournal or MySpace blogs from fans who actually watched the show while it was on air… But, with the recent announcement that Gilmore Girls will be revived by Netflix for four lovely 90-minute episodes to wrap up what was kind of left hanging previously, I’ve had the time to do some thinking.

I’ll also admit going forward that this isn’t the first time a television show has caused me a kind of existential crisis, and it probably wont be the last, but I’m not even ashamed.  Like any other art form, it’s supposed to make you think, isn’t it?

Luke vs. Chrisopher

It only takes a few episodes of Gilmore Girls, long before Luke kisses Lorelei that first night at the Dragonfly, to know that Luke and Lorelei are fated.  Even watching through the years and various other women (Rachel, Nicole, etc.) or the guys that Lorelei finds out are all wrong (Max, Jason, Peyton, etc.); you spend a good amount of time watching the tension between the two and longing for the moment that they finally come together.  Come together they do-in a typical Gilmore Girls style chaotic way that leads to Lorelei being happier than she’s ever been, and subsequently experiencing the biggest heartbreak she’s ever experienced. Twice.

I mean, I was a Luke supporter from day one. Heartbreak or no, I had no doubt that Luke was it-a sentiment that Lorelei seems to share. I mean, he built her an ice-skating rink just to make sure she didn’t stop finding joy in Winter.

But all the while there’s this guy, Christopher, who’s the father of her daughter and who’s been in her life-and even though you love Luke (or at least I did) from the start, you watch how Christopher is with her and you wonder what it would have been like if they ended up together.  Then they do, and it feels all wrong because it’s Luke, it’s supposed to be Luke!  Oh but Christopher loves her… She just doesn’t love him back the same because Luke has her heart.

I hadn’t ever even thought twice about who she was meant to be with, like I said-I was team Luke all the way and had no idea that there was even a debate about it.  Then, I somehow ended up in a conversation with a friend of mine who told me she didn’t like Gilmore Girls at all, and she went off on a rant about how Lorelei should have chosen Christopher and stayed with him, etc.  I looked at her like she was nuts-no, it’s Luke. Lorelei is meant to be with Luke; so I brushed off her ramblings as that of a crazy person and went about my business.

But then I decided to watch Gilmore Girls again to prepare for the new season.  I’ve been putting it on in the evenings when I need to relax or fall asleep to something comforting.  Somehow, my friend’s words have wriggled their way into my brain because I’m watching the whole thing again and thinking-was I wrong?  Was Christopher actually the better choice? Should Lorelai have chosen the man who inevitably became the more stable choice?

I think this realization came to me when I was listening to the show, and Christopher tells Lorelei that his ex wants his daughter to go to Paris, and she’s surprised that he told her because she had just come out of this messy situation with Luke where he hid his newly-found daughter from her for two or more months.  Something that happened in exactly the next episode after he had made Lorelei swear they’d have no secrets between them.  When she states her surprise to Christopher, he says “Isn’t this the way these grown-up relationships are supposed to work?”

Let’s face it, he may have started out as the flaky dad on the motorcycle, but by the time they get together Chris really has his life in order. He has a good job, an apartment, he’s doing the single dad thing and including Lorelai in the decision making, and nearly everything he does with Lorelei is grown up and incredibly mature.  Unfortunately, Luke’s life is a mess, and he keeps mucking it up even worse.

Even after writing what I wrote above and re-reading it, in my heart-it’s still Luke.  Luke is without a doubt the love of Lorelai’s life-and my heart would not have been happy with the show had they ended it with her and Christopher.

But What Does That Say About Me?

All of this overthinking regarding these fictional characters isn’t just because I’m obsessed with the show, but rather I think it comes back to an internal debate I’ve had with myself for years.  Am I incapable of choosing the stable guy? Do I always have to go for the “bad boy with a heart of gold who’s life is a complete and utter mess“?  Do I still have that savior complex I told myself I shucked years ago?

I mean look at my dating history… Even the nice guys I date are often too damaged to be anything real with me.  Look how long I have tried with Yoshi, over and over again-he has such a good heart but he’s just not ready for anything, and wont be for a very long time.  No matter how much you want someone, if they’re too broken or your timing just doesn’t match up no matter what you do, you have to let them go and move on eventually.  There’s only so much you can try for so long, especially if you’re the only one fighting for it.  They have their own demons to battle, and sometimes you just have to let go and let them do it without you, or you’ll be trampled under the weight of it all.

I guess the first step in fixing a problem is recognizing it right? Or maybe I’m just seriously overthinking the love life of fictional characters to distract myself from the fact that mine sucks. Here’s to some healthy relationships in my future.

Anyway, I’m still all for Luke, I can’t help it. I can back it up a little bit with the fact that I just can’t forgive Christopher for not showing up when Lorelai’s father was in the hospital, or the fact that he disappeared instead of facing the problem when they had a fight over him accusing her of wanting to be with Luke instead.  I hope the new series brings some good stability to Luke and Lorelai, and that it bring us viewers some closure. I’m SO excited for it.

What do you think?
Luke or Christopher?

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