When watching a movie, there is often the expectation that the person whose life you are following is the hero of the story. While they are few and far between, not many stories follow the lives of someone the reader may not relate to or even like. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is the story of one Scott Pilgrim, following him through his trials for love. On paper, this is the quintessential tale of a hero. However many fans of the comics are noticing that not everyone understands Scott Pilgrim isn’t actually a hero.
Based on the comic book series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim vs the World was released in 2010. It was well received, and because of an unexpected email interaction between cast members, the animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was released in 2023 to much popularity and even a shoutout from Brie Larson.
Due to the release of the show, and its equally unexpected twists that diverge from the original comic book, many have taken to social media to talk about the series and, by extension, its characters. One such character, of course, being the main protagonist Scott Pilgrim himself.
Long-standing fans were almost shocked to see the public perception of Scott was positive, and a thread on Threads has gone viral because, as the viral first comment points out, "Friendly reminder that enough 'nice guys' saw Scott Pilgrim and assumed that Scott was the hero." Other users made additional comments like the following:
- The point of Takes Off felt like it was dealing with Ramona’s Growth regarding her shittiness in past relationships. But yeah, the correct interpretation of both works is “everyone is someone’s evil ex, and growth is realizing what you did and understanding how to be better going forward”.
- Not to mention our first introduction to Scott involves the words "Scott Pilgrim is dating a high-schooler" and then we see everyone in his life calling him out on it.
- Sometimes you are the hero, sometimes you are the villain , it depends on who tells the story.
While the idea of a main character who is the worst isn’t new, it’s always met with mixed reviews. Some people don’t like the idea that they're following the story of someone whose values and ideals don’t line up with their own, or that they find themselves empathizing with a bad person (by their own standards).
However, Scott Pilgrim as a whole is a story about a lot of people who make decisions that are arguably questionable. As some users pointed out, the story itself begins with various people in Scott's life commenting and criticizing his decision to date a high schooler when he himself is twenty-two. This is the very first thing all three pieces of media show us, which sets viewers up to know this isn’t acceptable. It’s a way to immediately show us what kind of person Scott is.
This isn’t helped by the fact that he does some morally questionable things, such as cheat on said high schooler with the main female love interest, Ramona. It's an action that Scott himself doesn’t deem as bad, because he is in love with Ramona.
It's worth noting that the original ending for the movie was to have Scott end up with Knives, the high schooler he starts seeing at the onset of the story. However, after test screenings, that was later reshot, because the ending wasn't well-received.
The director of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, Edgar Wright, describes the original ending as follows:
The thing is the ending that we’d originally done where [Scott] ended up with Knives, we had originally written that to be a little like the endings of The Graduate or The Heartbreak Kid, which have these slightly kind of bittersweet, enigmatic endings. In both films, the hero gets what he wants, but is it what he really needs? And so you’re left with a question mark that’s like, ‘Huh. Maybe I did the wrong thing?’
The idea of Scott Pilgrim is to show that everyone has the capacity to be a bad relationship for one person, and a nice guy to another. Scott himself is not someone you should maybe strive to be like. He’s not necessarily a hero in that he’s a good person but in the sense that he’s the protagonist of the story.
Regardless of where you stand on this debate, you can check out Scott Pilgrim vs. the World for yourself by streaming it with a Max subscription.
