How Much Are Lorelai & Emily Alike, Really?

There's no question that Emily Gilmore is the original Gilmore girl — the OGG, if you will. Spunky, witty, and stubborn, Emily knows what she wants and she never fails to get it. Though she passed on many of these key traits to her daughter Lorelai Gilmore — and even more to her granddaughter Rory Gilmore — for some reason Emily Gilmore is often seen as Gilmore Girls ' antagonist, especially to Lorelai. The mother/daughter duo are usually disagreeing over one thing or another, whether it be where Rory should go to school, or whether or not Christopher should stay in the picture — but they're actually much more alike then they'd ever admit. Truth be told, the more Lorelai actually listened to her mother's strict guidelines, the better decisions she made — and when Emily opened herself up to Lorelai's life, she was much warmer and funnier.

They're good for each other and after seven seasons, Emily and Lorelai's resolution of their relationship was much more satisfying than that of Luke and Lorelai, or Rory and Logan. The whole Lorelai/Emily story is one of the reasons why Gilmore Girls was so important as a series — it wasn't the romantic relationships that defined the Gilmore women, it was those that they had with each other. Lorelai would never be happy in love until she accepted the love of her mother, and Emily would never be truly happy until she and her daughter could forgive and understand one another. And Rory... well she is the result of both of these women, with a little help from her dear grandpa.

Emily and Lorelai might seem like total opposites, but they have more in common than their namesake. Here's a visual of the Emily and Lorelai dynamic:

Image: The WB; Dawn Foster/Bustle