Why does Scott Pilgrim have beef with the whole world?
There must be some reason that the world hates him. But what type of person do you have to be to have the whole world gunning for you? In the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Scott Pilgrim is a clueless 22-year-old fighting for the girl of his dreams, dealing with her and his difficult pasts. Quite literally fighting for her, having to battle each of her seven evil exes in epic fight scenes with special effects reminiscent of video games. Beyond mortal combat with her exes, Scott clashes with nearly every other character in the film as well, resulting in tense friendships and his own problematic exes. So, I wonder about the quality of Scott Pilgrim’s character and whether or not he deserves to have the whole world fighting against him.
The movie begins with Scott dating a high school student. He is off to a terrible start. I could stop right here and declare him as an awful person who deserves the hate of the world. But somehow, this is revealed in just the first fifteen seconds of the movie. From here, you get more context on his character: he doesn’t have a job–that’s not great either; he is in a band–can't get much worse than that. Right off the bat, we do not get a positive image of Scott’s character, but at least he now has a lot of room to move up. Michael Cera’s acting adds his awkward charm to the character, but it is still difficult to root for Scott at this point in the movie. Even one of Scott’s friends, Kim, asks him, “Are you really happy or are you truly evil?”
As the movie progresses, it becomes apparent that Scott is problematic when it comes to dating. On top of dating a high schooler, Knives, he is late to meet up with her several times. After meeting Ramons, the “girl of his dreams,” Scott begins to forget about her completely–while they are still dating. Scott’s roommate, when meeting Knives for the first time, grabs her by the hands and tells her, “You’re too good for him. Run.” Another friend, Jules, approaches Scott, trying to make him see the pattern of his behavior, bringing up past relationships that ended poorly with him, and Scott minimizes the possible hurt he might have caused. His friends seem to see him as problematic and his main defender is himself, the only one ignorant to his pattern.
Then, Scott meets Ramona and he is instantly in love with her. Scott falls for her so heavily, he forgets to break up with Knives. Not only does he date a high schooler, he cheats on her. Scott goes on to fight all seven of Ramona’s evil exes and, while I get that it is self-defense, he kills them. When he defeats an ex, they burst into coins like a video game and it is all a bit cartoonish, but they are dead. Sure he has had relationships that ended on bad terms, but by the end of the movie, he has killed seven people. The worst part about it is that Scott and Ramona don’t seem like a good couple. Scott is insecure about himself and Ramona’s past. Ramona has dated a lot of unsavory people, the type that would attempt murder to get back with her. So, Ramona’s interest in Scott says something about him given her history.
In the end, Scott begins to respect himself and the people around him much more, but only after getting a second chance at life–literally coming back from the dead, which most people can’t do. He gets his chance at redemption but only after messing up again and again. Even though most of his mistakes are made out of ignorance rather than malice, I would say that Scott Pilgrim deserves to have the whole world against him.