I always wonder how far the show would've gone with the Tristan/Rory relationship if CMM would've stayed

^^ Yeah. I think they would have eventually gotten them together. I wish he would have stuck around so we could have seen that.

I'm a little torn in that department on the one hand it would have been better than the whole R/D/J love triangle if he stayed. On the other hand I wouldn't have Rory/Logan which I'm a fan of because ASP would feel Rory already dated the priveleged blonde. Any way I don't want to get into my shipping its just I'm in the middle as to if Tristan should have stayed or not.

And see Rory go from criticizing him to complimenting him

I don't understand the all love to Tristan- he was a total ass, I'm glad Rory rejected him.

Tristan was an ass to Rory in this episode. I should have wished for him to go away and never come back. But I didn't. I was fascinated. I wanted to see more. Learn more. See what was behind the mask.

And it is interesting how much Tristan's character has in common with Logan. As if the writers too would have liked to have seen Rory and Tristan get a fresh start.

I think the fans wanted Rory and Tristan together, so the writers sort of tried to give the fans as much of Tristan as they could without totally recreating the character with a different actor

I don't think Logan was a total recreation of Tristan he was deeper but I'm a Logan fan. I do think ASP wanted Rory with a priveleged guy at one point though Tristan was the rough draft of that. Originally they were going to hire the guy who plays Duncan who she went out in S4 on that bad date to play the bad day but Rob Thomas snagged him for VM and Matt came yay.

I agree that while they had a lot in common (wealth and privilege, player images, difficult family relationships etc. etc.) they had some differences as well. I think Tristan was maybe more defensive and guarded than Logan was. Whether that's because when we 'met' Tristan he was only 16, while Logan was older, or because the character was written out before we really got to see all the layers in him, or because they were simply two different people, I don't know. But I suppose that is what I was talking about. What I wonder about. How Tristan's character or his relationship with Rory would have developed had they met again at University. Would his character have grown to be someone like Logan, or someone completely different. In any case, I would have liked them to have gotten a second chance.

I don't get all the Tristan love either. Sure he's a "poor" kid and you take pity on him because of his family/father, but as for Rory's first friend? I think Dean was way better. Before they committed adultery that is. S1 Dean was great. S5 I wanted him to go away ASAP.

S1 Rory needed a nice friend. S5 Rory was great with Logan. If anyone gets what I mean.

Yeah I think the main thing with Tristan was intrigue and there was alot we didn't know about him.