For seven seasons, and a Netflix produced revival mini series, the world of Gilmore Girls has enthralled viewers all over the world. With characters who talk too fast and drink way too much coffee, the series is unlike many other shows on television, and driven by an amazing lead cast of female characters to boot.
The series' fan base remains endlessly devoted even almost two decades after it first premiered on The WB in 2000, and debates about characters and relationships rage hotter and hotter thanks to the advent of social media. Here, we're offering our definitive ranking of the series' five best and worst main characters.
Best: Richard Gilmore
The show may have been called Gilmore Girls, but arguably one of the best characters in the entire series is the lone Gilmore man. Played with masterful levels of intellect, charm, and wit by the legendary Edward Hermann, Richard Gilmore is the always reliable patriarch of the Gilmore family, no matter what is going on within it.
Whether working or retired, on good terms with wife Emily or bad terms, or strengthening his relationship with granddaughter Rory or repairing his fractured relationship with daughter Lorelai, Richard is the one that keeps the Gilmore family afloat, which makes Hermann's tragic passing and Richard's absence from the revival series all the more difficult.
Worst: Christopher Hayden
Not every man is meant to be a father. Not every man is meant to be a boyfriend. Not every man is meant to be a husband. But time and again over the course of Gilmore Girls' seven season run, and even in its brief mini series revival, we're force fed unnatural plots in which the forever man child Christopher Hayden is portrayed as the ultimate man.
And each and every time, these plots fall flat on their face, most glaringly of all in the universally derided seventh season. Christopher is a shallow character, selfish and immature and mean without even trying to be, and definitely not someone who should have been in the series as long as he was.
Best: Luke Danes
As hard as it may be to imagine, there was once a time when the character of Luke Danes never existed. Originally, the diner owner character in the series was a bit part, and played by a woman. But all of that changed when Scott Patterson entered the casting process, and the gruff hippie known as Luke Danes we all know and love was born.
Rough around the edges but with the softest and gooiest of middles on the inside, Luke is the person you want to have by your side through thick and thin. Unflinchingly loyal to those he loves most, including Lorelai and Rory, Luke is one of the best characters in the entire series, and one of the best male leads in the history of teen dramas at that.
Worst: Paris Geller
One of the more polarizing presences in the series is Liza Weil's smarmy, self-righteous Paris Geller. From the moment Rory meets the snotty, privileged teen at Chilton, it's clear that these two are meant to butt heads - and they do so, dramatically, for years on end.
Even by the time the series tries to convince us that these two are actually friends, Paris is almost unflinchingly rude and mean to Rory through all their interactions. Add to that her absolute cruelty in her roles at both Chilton and Yale, and her beyond acerbic "humor," and it's clear that Paris is one of the nastiest and worst characters in the series.
Best: Lorelai Gilmore
Few characters accomplish as much as Lorelai Gilmore does across Gilmore's seven season run. When the series begins, she's working at the inn she's been working at for the last 16 years, ever since she gave birth to Rory at 16 years old and began working as a maid. Over the course of the series, she earns her business degree, opens her own inn with her best friends, and falls in love with the man of her dreams.
She also proves that she's one of the best mothers in the history of television time and again, always tough but fair and loving at the same time. With pitch perfect wit, a true grasp of impressive amounts of popular culture, and beautifully acted by underrated gem Lauren Graham, Lorelai is a character for the ages - and the only Gilmore girl worth loving, to boot.
Worst: Dean Forester
Your first love doesn't always wind up being your forever love, and that's thankfully the case for Jared Padalecki's equal parts forgettable and loathsome Dean Forester. When Dean is first introduced, he's moderately sketchy, a brooding boy who tries too hard to insert himself in mousy Rory's life. Soon enough, his brooding ways give way to possessiveness and jealousy unbecoming of anyone.
Even after Rory and Dean break up, he continues to hang around well past his welcome, leading to a totally tasteless storyline in which the former couple engage in an affair and prove time and again just how bad Dean was for the series.
Best: Jess Mariano
Think of Jess Mariano when we first meet him as a petulant brat, shipped off from life in New York City to the small town fishbowl of Stars Hollow. Then think of Jess Mariano when we last see him, both as a published author and press company owner in season six, and as a successful businessman and kind-hearted adult in the revival.
It's safe to say that no character in the series underwent so impressive a character development arc as Milo Ventimiglia's Jess did. Through the loving relationship with his uncle Luke, as well as his ill-fated romance with Rory, Jess proved time and again that there was a good guy behind all the snark and pain. It just took a little tough love to get there.
Worst: Logan Huntzberger
It's hard to write characters who are introduced in a series for the express purpose of being a love interest, and even harder when that love interest will cause plenty of conflict and tension between already established, beloved characters. But even knowing that doesn't make the smarmy, insufferable Logan Huntzberger any easier to stomach.
From the moment the spoiled brat enters Rory's world at Yale, it's clear that no good can come from his character. Whether it's his cliche daddy issues storyline, his blatant need to cheat whenever he can, or his total lack of consideration for anything that won't give him what he wants in the end, there's absolutely nothing redeemable about this character. It makes it all the more puzzling, then, as to why the series stubbornly clung to his character for so many years.
Best: Lane Kim
The show may have been all about the Gilmore girls, but the real star of the series is none other than the honorary Gilmore girl herself, Rory's onetime best friend Lane Kim. Though she's sadly sidelined with inferior storylines in later years, Rory's childhood best friend Lane is an aspiring rocker with a heart of gold.
Brilliant and bold and brave, Lane is a character who's destined for greatness and one of the most loyal best friends in all of teen drama history. Whether rocking out with her band Hep Alien, or nervously attempting this whole marriage and parenting thing, Lane Kim is and always will be an inspiration.
Worst: Rory Gilmore
Few main characters in television have had as sudden, as frustrating, and as totally backwards development over the course of a series as Alexis Bledel's Rory Gilmore did. When Gilmore Girls began, Rory was a bright girl, an excellent student, and a caring and compassionate friend.
By the time the series ended, whether the original seven seasons or the revival mini series, Rory was wholly self-absorbed, careless, and downright loathsome. As the years went by, Rory continued to buy into her own hype, showing time and again that she never cared about anyone's feelings or gains other than her own.