SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD: A RETROSPECTIVE

 

Ah, Scott Pilgrim. It’s a pretty popular graphic novel, having both a game and a beloved movie behind it. It’s kind of easy to understand, it has charming humor, a cute but delivering artstyle, and a good sense of pacing. Scott Pilgrim came out on August 18th of 2004, but finished on July 20th, 2010. It was entirely written and drawn by Brian Lee O’Malley. It stars our protagonist, SCOTT PILGRIM, a 24 year old deadbeat with no job, no house of his own, but a shitty band, and a 17 year old girlfriend in Highschool. Not questioning the ethics of a 24 year old dating a 17 year old, Scott eventually falls in love with RAMONA FLOWERS, a mysterious ninja America that changes her hair every book. Turns out, to date Ramona, Scott has to defeat RAMONA’S LEAGUE OF EVIL EXES. It’s a simple concept, but one that works. What makes this graphic novel so compelling, is how Brian Lee O’Malley manages to bring life to each individual character, giving them all flaws, strengths, and traits that interact with each other realistically.

I think a perfect example of Brian Lee O’Malley bringing his characters to life with both strengths and flaws is Ramona Flowers and Scott Pilgrim themselves. Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers are less than stellar people, Scott having cheated on Knives with Ramona in the first book, consistently ignores his friends very sound advice, and is kind of a mooch and deadbeat. Ramona is a bit worse, having cheated on Lucas Lee, Both of the Katanyangi Twins, Roxie Ritcher, and SCOTT HIMSELF. She also straight up abandons Scott in the fifth book without telling him anything.             

Despite all these glaringly obvious flaws, you still have to root for Scott and Ramona at the end of the day, because they are written realistically. Scott and Ramona don’t just get away with the awful things they do, and eventually have to face them. Despite the things they do, they aren’t bad people. Just young and stupid people.     Another Example would probably be that all of the other characters in Scott Pilgrim have their own lives, making them seem much more… lifelike. An Example would be that Stephen Stills comes out as Gay in book 5, but we never hear about it until book 6 because we only see from Scott’s perspective. Another good example would be that Kim Pine went off to go live with her parents for a book just to resolve some of her own personal issues. Each of Scott’s friends also has their own friend group outside of Scott, with Kim being friends (also dating briefly) with Jason, Stephen being friends and then dating Joseph.

All in all, Scott Pilgrim is an amazing graphic novel that manages to bring life to characters in a zany world. It shows a spectacular understanding of what exactly makes a character human and realistic, whilst keeping the fun and goofy exterior. I honestly recommend it not just for graphic novel fans, or the movie’s fans, but for anyone that enjoys goofy cartoonish fights and great character development.