#i honestly would like to ship a more healthy version of literati but these fucking fandom antics have made that impossible lately

[frazzledsoul]

A short list of the fanon interpretations I have seen on here over the past year that have attempted to portray adult Jess Mariano as a shitty person in order to make Rory seem perpetually morally superior to him

Jess has a nice body and appears to work out, so he must therefore be mentally ill.

Milo's body is disgusting and unattractive, and the producers in AYITL must be delusional to think that anyone would be attracted to him or would ever want to see him with his biceps uncovered

Jess hates kids and is too toxic to be allowed around Rory's child

Jess is a weakling and a pushover because he wants to maintain a relationship with Luke and Liz.

Jess hates Luke, has never forgiven him for throwing him out, and it is impossible for them to have a close relationship (despite the fact that they do). Rory is allowed to forgive the people who have hurt her, but Jess is not.

Jess consoled Luke when his relationship was in trouble and therefore he is incapable of forming romantic attachments, has never had a successful romantic relationship, and is irredeemably fucked up and mentally ill. However, Rory is not to be judged for her inability to form a successful romantic relationship by the AYITL era or her constant cheating or multiple affairs with other people's partners. She is deemed capable of attachments despite the rampant infidelity, but he is permanently broken for attempting to comfort his uncle.

Jess hates sex, refuses to have sex with anyone other than Rory, and will be considered irredeemably messed up if he ever has a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone else. Rory is allowed to have attachments outside of him, but he is forbidden to look at anyone else. The only reason he had a physical relationship with another girl in season 3 is because of "peer pressure", even though he had no friends and did not care what anyone else thought of him.

Rory was too responsible, moral, and unselfish to even consider hanging out with Jess for a few months in NYC because he was financially unstable, but her affair with Dean is completely sane, logical, and justified because she was lonely and wanted attention. She is allowed to wreak whatever destruction she wants because it makes her feel good, but Jess is to be found perpetually morally inferior to her no matter what she does because she can do no wrong. If you state that you found her actions appalling, you're a bad person who hates women.

It's unfortunate if people don't like it, but none of the aforementioned theories are really anything close to being true. They are not in canon, and I'm a bit sick of people coming up with new theories to pretend that Jess is perpetually inferior to Rory, who will always be held as better than him because she doesn't have to take responsibility for any of her actions. If Rory were really that great of a person, people wouldn't need to keep making stuff up, but they keep trying anyway.

Jess is a mature, responsible, accomplished man who has worked hard to become a better person, support his family, and build a life that he enjoys. Rory has spent the majority of her adult life avoiding adult responsibility, prodigiously cheating on or with anyone who has the misfortune to be involved with her, and making one terrible decision after another. I'm sorry if it upsets people that Jess grew up and she didn't, but that happens to be the truth. At the end of AYITL she is homeless, rootless, jobless, living at home with her parents, and pregnant with the baby of a man who is engaged to someone else. The only lifeline she has out of all of that is the one that Jess gave her. Jess is a financially stable business owner with a settled life away from Stars Hollow who is able to act as a support system to his family when they need him. It is not hard to figure out who is in better shape here.

So given all of this, it is highly probable that Jess does hypothetically have a better relationship with his half-sister than Rory has with hers, especially given that Rory has denied the child's relationship with her twice and has been cold to her in the few times they have interacted. Jess is a well-adjusted and generous person who supports the rest of his family, and Rory is not.

More to the point, I do not need anyone's fucking permission to make these comparisons, and I don't appreciate being lectured about what and what isn't canon given the degree to which the aforementioned lies fanon has been spread around over the past year. Far more destructive and unfair theories have been floated around about Jess (not to mention the body shaming of a real person) than the implication that he is a good sibling. Let's just say I'm not surprised that people are upset about plausible speculation about Jess that is positive, but they were more than happy enough to come up with creative theories on why he'll never be good enough for Star Hollow's golden girl.

Honestly? It doesn't matter. The fanon that tried to twist Jess into a bad person or a person who wasn't allowed an identity outside of Rory isn't real, and I know that because I've been watching the show since 2000. I'm not sorry for believing that Jess is a good sibling and cousin based on what I know about his character as an adult, and I'm not sorry for preferring him over Rory or for believing that he deserves much better than the person in AYITL has to offer him. The version of him that is perpetually inferior and submissive to her doesn't exist, and I'm glad that it doesn't.