Jess VS Logan: Who Is the Better Boyfriend?

Jess vs Logan: Gilmore Girls

When it comes to the lovelife of Stars Hollow’s favorite daughter, everyone has an opinion. Welcome to MsMojo, and today it’s a battle of the boyfriends between bad boy Jess Mariano and prepster Logan Huntzberger.
While first loves are great and all, in the grand scheme of things, Dean simply can’t hold a candle to Rory’s two other flames, and so this battle is a one on one competition across a variety of categories. Please note that this video will contain spoilers for “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.”

Round 1: Development

When we first meet Jess, he’s difficult, he’s rude and he definitely doesn’t seem like the best match for Rory. Every girl seemingly wants to date a bad boy at some point in her life, but in season two when Jess arrives Rory is happily with Dean, meaning that he started off as a bit of an unwelcome presence. As the series progressed however, Jess did a lot of growing up. In fact by season six, he had gotten his life together - working at a small publishing house and even writing his own book. In the revival, Jess was revealed to come even further from the sullen teen he once was - adult Jess Mariano is respectful, helpful and delightfully muscular.
Logan’s first impression isn’t exactly a great one either. When she first meets him, Rory sees him as an entitled rich kid who gets his kicks from making fun of those who he deems to be beneath him. And she’s not entirely wrong. Logan is a player who’s reluctant to settle down or put a stop to his collegiate antics and partyboy lifestyle. During his time with Rory he does mature somewhat, but by the time we catch up with him in the revival, he’s cheating on his fiancée with Rory and has unfortunately gone back to following his father’s every whim.

While both of these love interests did in fact make some serious changes while they were with Rory and afterwards, there is a clear winner here. Of these two guys, Jess has definitely had the most impressive character development, going from the type of guy you’d want to avoid to a total catch.

WINNER: Jess 1 / Logan 0

Round 2: Romantic Gestures

Since they dated when both were in high school, Jess wasn’t exactly on his A-game when it came to romantic gestures. In fact, he seemed somewhat unwilling to share his emotions, and on the rare occasions when he did, it would be at the absolute worst timing. He comes back to Stars Hollow and declares his love for Rory after abandoning her without a word in the previous season. Later on, he visits Rory at her Yale dorm and asks her to run away with him. While a romantic notion, it’s ultimately it’s too little too late.
With Logan, over the top romantic gestures are practically an everyday occurrence. When Rory’s upset with him, he hires a coffee cart to follow her around campus all day. He gives Rory a crazy expensive handbag for no reason. When he makes the surprising decision to ask Rory to marry him, he does so in front of a room full of observers. And that’s arguably the problem... these big public displays of affection aren’t exactly Rory’s style. But when he gets one right, he really hits the mark, like when he flew into town with his “Life and Death Brigade” buddies and took her out for a night on the town to cheer her up.
Though neither of these guys seem capable of consistently give Rory the type of romantic gestures she’d most appreciate, we have to give credit where credit is due - Logan is always willing to go out of his way to make Ace smile. So we’re declaring Logan the winner of this round.

WINNER: Jess 1 / Logan 1

Round 3: Attractiveness

Jess is the definition of the bad boy, and has the dark and brooding good looks to go along with it. What makes Jess even more appealing though is the unexpected traits he has. Is there anything more attractive than a guy who loves to read? Also, his willingness to believe in Rory and support her through all her endeavors gives him extra points in our books. In the revival, Jess is all grown up, and adulthood definitely suits him. It also looks like he’s been spending a lot of time at the gym. Those arms!
If clean-cut preppy guys are your type, then there’s no one hotter than Logan. He’s got classic good looks and sharp wit to match. While being absurdly wealthy doesn't automatically make one attractive, it certainly facilitates attractive gestures. He’s always showing up to surprise Rory when they’re trying out a long distance relationship, and there’s nothing cuter than a guy willing to go the distance for you. Like Jess, Logan had done some serious bulking up by the time he appeared in the revival, and we admittedly had to pick our jaws up off the floor after we got a glimpse of him shirtless.

It’s a tight race between these two cuties, but in the end, we’ve got to give the point to Jess because dangerous is always in style. A guy with a leather jacket and a book in his pocket is guaranteed to make us swoon any time.

WINNER: Jess 2 / Logan 1

Round 4: Relationship with Lorelai

We know how important Lorelai’s opinion is when it comes to Rory’s life decisions, and her romantic choices are no exception. Lorelai was wary of every guy Rory dated throughout the series, but no one was more deserving of this scrutiny than Jess. From the very beginning, Jess is pretty horrible to Lorelai, seemingly going out of his way to be rude to her. There’s no two ways around it, the way Jess acts with Lorelai is childish, disrespectful and sometimes verging on cruel. In summary, he has a terrible relationship with Lorelai, and has no one to blame but himself. He more than earned all the shade he gets from her.

Logan, on the other hand, goes out of his way to try to impress Lorelai, albeit to mixed results. In all fairness though, he faces an uphill battle. Lorelai distrusts Logan by default because of his wealthy background - she doesn’t want Rory becoming too enmeshed in Emily and Richard’s high society world. She’s given even more pause when Mitchum Huntzberger treats Rory disrespectfully at a family dinner. However, the real nail in the coffin of Logan and Lorelai’s relationship comes when Rory and Logan steal a boat together, forcing the mother to pick her daughter up from the police station.

In this round, we’re forced to judge not who had the best relationship with Lorelai, but rather who had the least conflict with her. We’re giving the point to Logan because in the end, he convinced Lorelai that he was more than just a spoiled rich kid, earning her respect by seeking her permission to ask for Rory’s hand in marriage.

WINNER: Jess 2 / Logan 2

Round 5: Compatibility with Rory

The biggest and most obvious thing that Rory and Jess have in common is reading. This is something she was lacking with Dean because, while he would take her book recommendations, they simply couldn’t discuss literature on the same level. Unfortunately, beyond the books, Rory and Jess’s compatibility as a couple has some serious hurdles. Rory loves participating in town activities and that’s pretty much Jess’s worst nightmare. She cares deeply about academic success whereas school is basically at the bottom of Jess’ list of priorities. It also doesn’t help that pretty much no one in Rory’s life thinks Jess is good enough for her.

In terms of interests, Rory and Logan don’t have a whole lot in common, but Logan is charmed by Stars Hollow’s quirkiness, and does shares Rory’s love for themed parties. They also have the shared experience of having very wealthy families who expect a lot from them. Unfortunately Logan comes attached with some friends who can be pretty irksome. And while he has treated Rory incredibly lovingly, with the sort of affection and attention she deserves, he has also totally missed the mark on a few occasions, like when he thought he and Rory were broken up and he slept with several other girls.

This category is a tough one to judge as both boyfriends can relate to Rory, albeit in very different ways. In the end though, we’re giving the point to Jess because in the revival, it seems like he has grown into an ideal, supportive potential partner for Rory - proving himself to be the great guy we always knew he could be.

WINNER: Jess 3 / Logan 2

It looks like Jess takes this one with a narrow victory of 3 to 2.

Are you on team Jess or Team Logan? Be sure to debate it in the comments and of course, don’t forget to subscribe to MsMojo for more entertaining versus battles.