Scott Pilgrim VS PULSE: The Need to Knows Before the Awkward Heroes Return on Netflix Nov. 17

Pulse Perspective by Lizeth Valdes

Our heroes story begins nearly 20 years ago on August 18, 2004, with Bryan Lee O’Malley releasing the first volume of his new series, “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life”. Whether this is the first or millionth time you’re hearing this title, one can’t deny that if you were an edgy kid or young adult growing up in the early 2000’s this was the story for you. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, today I will be discussing the popular comic series, infamous movie adaptation, and now upcoming animated series (as of writing this) ‘Scott Pilgrim’ and to convince you to read the comic for yourself if you haven’t already.

As for what the comic is about to those who don’t know, I feel no one describes the type of story this is better than the author Lee O’Malley himself did on the back cover of his first volume release,

“Scott Pilgrim's life is so awesome. He's 23 years old, in a rock band, "between jobs," and dating a cute high school girl. Everything's fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms Flowers isn't covered in rose petals. Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?”

Right off the bat, you can get a sense for the type of main character we will be following throughout this story. We follow Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old down and out bassist from Toronto Canada who finds himself falling in love with a mysterious girl who happens to also have a league of seven evil exes that he must fight and defeat if he ever wants to live happily ever after with her. As the story progresses, you are introduced to a plethora of different characters all with their own backgrounds and stories to tell. You have Scott’s two other bandmates, one being an ex of his; his gay roommate who he freeloads off of, another ex of his and her band, and finally one of the first characters we are introduced to and arguably the most alarming of all being his 17-year-old Highschool girlfriend that he is dating at the start of the series.

As a bit of a content warning as this story was written and takes place in the early 2000s, there is some problematic relationship dynamics being discussed and brought to light. However, the way in which the series handles these types of relationships and character interactions is ultimately what makes this series still beloved by many to this day especially given the time in which it was written. Lee O’Malley writes his characters as flawed young adults still learning how to accept changes in their lives for them to be able to properly grow and make changes for the better. He doesn’t encourage the behaviors of his characters or the dynamics they engage in, instead he actively seeks out the faults in them and the emphasis for a need to change for the better. While Scott Pilgrim dating a highschooler is a large part of the beginning of the story, Lee O’Malley makes it abundantly clear that Scott is a complete creep for doing so and deserves to be shamed for it, as his friends around him actively do so as well. Building up how these characters are not without fault and deserve to be criticized helps to humanize them that much more in the process. This is the type of subject matter that while some may say has aged like milk at first glance, is a topic that was handled and written incredibly well especially for the time when it was written. This has served as a point of intrigue for many to the creative writing talents of Lee O’Malley as a whole, especially if the readers themselves were in their teens or were young adults at the time in which the series was being written.

In the end, I think we all know a Scott in our lives or maybe we are the Scott in other peoples’ lives, just not knowing how to fully come to terms with change just yet. However, it’s important to know that this doesn’t make us any less of a person because of that. That is the essence of what Lee O’Malley writes about throughout the series; however, this is done with just a bit of crude humor and jokes along the way because at the end of the day we are still dealing with a group of childish early-20-somethings and hijinks are bound to ensue.

At the end of the day, is Scott childish and a bit of an idiot sometimes? Yes. Is his character completely irredeemable? I suppose you will have to read the comic to find out truly for yourselves. (Also, the movie adaptation is a story for another day)