Scott is the titular hero from the graphic novel series “Scott Pilgrim”. He must defeat Ramona Flowers’ seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to date her. He plays bass guitar in the band Sex Bob-omb. Scott is recognized as the best fighter in the province of Ontario, Canada. Specifically, he makes his home in Toronto.
Creation
Scott Pilgrim was created by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
Biography
Early Life
Scott Pilgrim (Age: 23) is one of three children (younger sister, Stacey and younger brother, Lawrence, who has only been referenced off-panel and was seen on volume 5). He moved to Northern Ontario in high school, where he met Lisa Miller and Kim Pine, who was assigned as his history project partner. During a conflict in which boys from a rival school came and beat up the entire student body and took Kim hostage, Scott fought through the “bosses,” ultimately defeating their leader, Simon, and rescuing Kim. The two began to date soon after, Scott asking Kim to play drums in his and Lisa’s garage band, “Sonic & Knucles.”Eventually, Scott moved away with his family to Toronto and began college at the University of Toronto. There he met Wallace Wells, Stephen Stills, who was dating Julie Powers, roommate to Natalie V. Adams. Natalie, Stephen, and Scott began a band, “Kid Chameleon.” However, Natalie began to change, exchanging her anime and figurines for “good music” and taking greater charge of the band. The band grew to be considerably large and popular, to Scott’s protest, who wanted to play for playings sake rather than to get a recording contract. Eventually, Natalie, now calling herself “Envy” (N.V.) dumped him and kick him out of the band. The breakup devastated Scott.
Life After College/’Precious Little Life”
Scott, now 23, eventually moves in with Wallace (title: Cool gay roommate) in a one-room basement apartment. Maintaining friendships with Kim Pine, whom he ran into living in downtown Toronto, and Stephen Stills, he plays bass in their new band, “Sex Bob-Omb.”
Still carrying baggage from is breakup with Envy, Scott begins a relationship with Chinese high school student, Knives Chau (Age: 17) because the relationship is simple, but found himself intrigued by a mysterious “ninja delivery girl” who would often appear in his dreams and who was another friend of Julie’s. Scott eventually learned that she was Ramona Flowers, an American from New York who’s working as a delivery girl in Toronto who uses “sub-space highways” that go through the subconscious to travel to her various locations. He and Ramona went on a date, cementing their romantic interest in one another. However, Ramona carries baggage from her previous relationships, in the form of “Seven Evil Exes.” While playing a concert at a local music venue, Scott is confronted by Matthew Patel, Ramona’s first evil ex, who was sent by the mysterious and unrevealed ” Gideon.” He states that in order to date Ramona, Scott must defeat each of her seven evil exes. Matthew summons the power of his demon hipster chicks, but is defeated by Scott, leaving behind some GP.
“Vs. The World”
Ramona and Scott begin dating, but Wallace issues an ultimatum where Scott must break up with Knives (who has remade herself as a hipster girl who listens to “good music”) or else Wallace will tell Ramona about his relationship with Knives. Scott breaks up with Knives, who is devastated. He then introduces Ramona to Kim, Stephen, and Stephen’s roommate, Young Neil Nordegraf. Realizing that Scott is dating someone new and still in love with him, Knives attempts to make herself more “indie” to win Scott back.
Scott begins to train with Wallace, recognizing that he must fight Ramona’s second evil ex, former pro-skater-turned-actor Lucas Lee. Lucas reveals that while they were dating, Ramona cheated on him and broke his heart. But Ramona revealed that he was a greasy hair skater who begged Ramona to date her and basically left him for the next best thing. Scott is no match for the buff Lucas, but manages to defeat him by daring him to skate down the rails of Casa Loma in Toronto. The accumulating speed is too much for Lucas to survive and he is defeated, leaving behind a bunch of change and an unusable Mithril Skateboard as a video game “dropped item”, but Scott couldn’t take it because he doesn’t have “skating skills”.
Meanwhile, Stacey and Ramona are confronted by Knives, who comes to the realization that Scott was cheating on her with Ramona. The two clash, Ramona unaware of who Knives is, and Ramona easily defeats her. Knives flees the scene, stating that she will win Scott back.
Envy Adams has made it big in a Montreal art-school band called “The Clash at Demonhead.” Her band is scheduled to play at Lee’s, a local and popular music venue. Envy calls Scott personally to ask Sex Bob-Omb to open for them which ended with Scott going into a small coma. The band reluctantly agrees, recognizing that they “do kind of suck” and “badly.”
At the venue, they meet Kim’s friend Holly, and her gay roommate Joseph. They also discover that Knives has now started dating Young Neil. Watching The Clash at Demonhead play, Ramona realizes that the bass player, Todd Ingram, is one of her evil exes.
“The Infinite Sadness”
After the set, Envy invites the group to hang out in the back room. Envy (who is dating Todd) is aware of Scott’s involvement with Ramona and tells Scott that he cannot defeat Todd and that he’ll have to stop dating Ramona. She then humiliates a star-eyed Knives (who idolizes Envy), causing Scott to say that Envy has changed from being a nice person that he once knew. Scott attempts to attack Todd, but is easily defeated by Todd’s vegan-based superpowers. They attempt another challenge, which ends in a tie. Meanwhile, Scott and Ramona talk to Wallace, who met a boy at a club called Mobile, who teaches Wallace a psychic trick using chi.
At the night of the big performance, Scott talks to Envy for a short while but got no where, then she found Knives sitting in a alley feeling sad. Scott apologizes for breaking up with her and told her to give Young Neil a chance which made Knives happy and told him she’ll love him forever. Then group learns that Todd has been cheating on Envy with the band’s drummer, Lynette Guycott, a ninja with a bionic arm. As Sex Bob-Omb goes up to perform, Scott sees that Envy is about to defeat Ramona and Knives, as she has them unawares. Scott manages to deal with his baggage concerning Envy and stops her in the nick of time by touching her weak spot.
Ramona tells Envy that Todd is cheating on her with Lynette and that they deserve each other. However, Envy retorts that she and Todd were made for each other, having made a pact in their childhood to be together forever. Ramona then reveals that Todd was dating her first, and that Envy was actually the “other woman.” Envy confronts Todd and Lynette, but enraged, Todd attacks Envy. This sets Scott off, and he begins his fight with Todd. Todd’s actual talent at guitar and his vegan superpowers makes him too much for Scott even with the help of Crash and the Boys. However, at the last minute, the Vegan Police arrive and cite Todd for various violations of his , such as eating Chicken Parmesan and gelato. They neutralize his vegan powers, reducing him to a normal person. Scott defeats him by head-butting him and gains an “extra life” for winning.
The band performs to mixed reviews. Later, Scott and Envy settle their differences and come to a resolution but also ends without closure. Scott moves on with his life and prepares for his next battles.
“Gets It Together”
Scott and the gang are at Julie’s aunts summer home for Julie’s birthday. Scott and the band performed a song to Julie and Julie doesn’t like it. At night, pretty much everyone is drunk except Scott and goes to look for Kim or Knives and finds them both drunk making out. After that they return to Toronto and Ramona asks Scott why he likes her. Scott can only say because she’s mysterious but Ramona is not happy with that answer and is a little disappointed when Scott doesn’t even know her age. Next day Scott goes out to get away from the heat and hangs out at the mall where he’s reunited with his friend Lisa Miller. They hang out and try meet up with Kim. After going to a bunch of houses they finally meet up. Also Scott and the band help Kim move to Holly’s place when Steven Stills discovered Joseph’s recording studio and started recording an album to become more popular. Later Scott tries to get a job and ends up getting a job as a dishwasher at the Happy Avacodo with Stephen Stills. Then Scott and Kim get attacked by a mysterious asian man with a sword. Scott and Kim escape threw the subspace highway. Scott then was about to get sneak attacked until Scott punched it in the boob. Revealing to be a pudgy female half ninja, she said she will return with revenge and left. Next day while Scott was working he found the ninja and Ramona talking and Scott went to see whats going on. Scott then realized that the ninja is Roxie, Ramonas 4th ex. Ramona then fought Roxie while in the subspace until Roxie beat Ramona and left, also he lost his job. Scott and Wallace meets their landlord and learned they have a month left before they are evicted. Scott moves in with Ramona while Wallace moves in with his boyfriend Mobile. Ramona starts to suspect Scott of having a relationship with Lisa Miller but Scott declines and in the end Ramona kicked him out for the night. Scott went back to his place to find Wallace having sex with a guy so he went to Lisa’s for the night. Lisa wonders why they never were in a relationship and Scott agrees. Lisa tries to make out with Scott but Scott declines which makes Lisa cry. They then talk and had Pizza and went to bed. Scott was then attacked by Roxie in his dream which Scott then woke up forgetting what happened last night. Scott then goes out and gets his job back and went to Ramona’s only to be attacked by the mysterious man who turns out is Knives’s father. Scott went into subspace to be in Ramona’s subconscious and was kicked out of her head. Scott then found out Roxie spent the night at Ramona’s house which Scott then left. Then Nega Scott came but Scott said he didn’t need him. Scott returned to find Ramona being attacked by Knives’s father and Scott came and tricked Knives’s father into fighting Roxie. Scott tells Ramona he loves her making Scott level up and earning the power of love sword. Scott then defeated Roxie who turned into small animals (sonic reference). Scott and the group have a going away party for Lisa and Scott and Ramona exchange birthday dates
Vs the universe
Scott (now 24) and Ramona are at Julie’s halloween party and aren’t enjoying it. Then Scott meets Ramona’s 5th and 6th evil ex Kyle and Ken Katayanagi who are Japanese twins. Scott was going to fight them until the twins sent in a robot to take out Scott. Scott fought and eventually destroyed the robot but was disappointed to find there was no prize for beating it. As time goes on Scott starts to think Ramona is starting to get bored with Scott and wonders if she still likes Gideon. Later Scott and the gang get a gig at Sneaky Dees and they haven’t practiced at all. They still go and perform but realized it was a trap for Scott and the twins sends a even stronger robot. Scott defeated the robot but broke his base in the process. After the fight Scott and Ramona return home but Ramona didn’t let Scott in because he forgot his keys so he stayed the night with Wallace who now is living with Mobile. Wallace showed Scott pictures of Gideon but the pictures are blurry. After spending the next night at Kim’s, he arranges a setup so that he can casually bump into Kim and Ramona while they get coffee. During the conversation, Kim brings attention to Ramona’s head glowing, of which she herself was unaware, although it disappears before she can see for herself. They later all attend another of Julie’s parties that night where Scott is forced to fight yet another robot. Kim and Ramona proceed to get drunk, and after defeating the robot, Scott joins them. After some initial intimacy, Ramona confronts Scott about cheating on Knives with her and tells him he is just another evil ex-boyfriend waiting to happen, which worries Scott into thinking they might break up. The next day Scott received a text from Kim saying she has been kidnapped by the twins, so Scott left without Ramona knowing. During the fight, the twins explain that Ramona cheated on both of them at the same time, and imply Scott is fighting for the wrong girl. As he begins to lose the fight, Kim lies and says that Ramona sent her a text message to give Scott the encouragement to defeat the twins simultaneously. When Scott returns he finds Ramona with her hair cut and dyed. She tells that she is a bad person and that she “had a good time.” Her head begins to glow brighter and brighter until she disappears. Scott tries to look for her, but instead lets her cat out and locks himself out of her apartment. Over the next few days, Scott bed-hops while trying to get Ramona’s cat to come back and constantly mistaking people for Gideon. Kim moves back home to the north, accepting Scott’s apology for his behavior. After moving into a new apartment, Scott reads a note Ramona left behind addressed to Gideon, telling him she would not come back to him. While Scott wonders what this means, he receives a call from Gideon, asking when it would be convenient to die.
Finest hour
4 months after Ramona’s disappearance, Scott is home playing video games while Wallace talks about Gideon but Scott wants out of it. Wallace then told Scott “you need to get laid” as a word of advice. Scott finally left his home and went to a party which turned out wasn’t hosted by Julie because she moved. Scott then reunites with Knives who is now 18, done with obsessing him, and is going to college. Scott asks Knives if she wanted casual sex but Knives turned him down but they made out which disturbed both of them. Later Scott runs into Envy Adams and they go for coffee. Scott asks for casual sex again but Envy turned him down. Envy also told Scott that she is currently dating Gideon and that the reason they broke up was because of a fight Scott started which Scott never remembered. Scott then sees Gideon in person but runs away.
In order to reinvigorate Scott to confront Gideon, Wallace sends him on a “wilderness sabbatical” to Kim’s home up north. During this time, Scott tries to rekindle his relationship with Kim, but is rejected when Kim points out errors in his memory surrounding their breakup. Scott began dating Kim after beating up Simon Lee, a wimpy kid who was dating her at the time, not a suave villain as Scott remembered. Likewise, Kim only learned that Scott would be leaving for Toronto from LisaâScott never told her in person that they would have to break up. Upon this revelation, Scott’s head starts to glow and the Nega Scott emerges. Scott becomes determined to defeat him so he can forget his relationship with Ramona and move on, but Kim reminds him he cannot keep running away from his mistakes. During the fight, Scott remembers Ramona and merges with Nega Scott, fully remembering and accepting responsibility for his poor actions in his previous relationships. After receiving one last good luck kiss from Kim, Scott heads back to Toronto to earn Ramona back.
Scott then heads to a new club called The Chaos Theater which was owned by Gideon and Envy Adams was performing for the release of her solo album. When Scott enters he searches Ramona and meets all his friends but can’t find Ramona. Then Scottt meets Gideon and prepares to fight him. Scott said he doesn’t know where Ramona is and they’re not dating at the moment. Gideon shocked thinking she was still dating Scott then asks Scott to join the league but Scott refused. Gideon then steals Scott’s sword of love and kills him with it. Scott appears in the dream desert where he first met Ramona. Then he encounters Ramona who apologizes and attempts to explain why she left. They reconcile, but Ramona reminds Scott that he is dead. However, he returns to life thanks to the extra life he obtained from Todd Ingram, and Ramona bursts out of his chest to confront Gideon. Gideon reveals several cryogenic capsules inside the club filled with former girlfriends, wanting Ramona to join them. He fights them and explains that he formed the league following a drunken post on craigslist after his breakup with Ramona. Ramona tries to use the glow to escape into subspace, but Gideon stabs her. He explains that glow is an emotional weapon which seals people inside their own heads, consumed by self-loathing. After learning from Ramona that Gideon literally has a way of getting inside her head, Scott jumps into Ramona’s subspace bag and arrives in her head, where he finds and confronts Gideon. Scott’s actions encourage Ramona to fully overcome his influence and oust him from her head. Ramona retrieves the Power of Love sword, healing her wounds, but breaks her bag. When Scott sees Gideon snap at Envy, he comes to understand him and earns the Power of Understanding sword. As they fight him, Gideon reveals he had been watching the two via the subspace highway in Scott’s head, altering some of his memories in the process. Whilst Gideon tries to turn Scott and Ramona against one another, they defeat him, causing him to explode into $7,777,777 in coins.
Scott and Envy reach closure and Gideon’s former girlfriends are unfrozen (and they have no idea of what just happened). Ramona reveals that her disappearance was merely an unsuccessful wilderness sabbatical to find herself while at her dad’s cabin. She decides to give her relationship with Scott another shot. In the closing pages, Scott is working with Stephen as co-chef, Stephen reveals that he is gay and in a relationship with Joseph, Scott and Kim start an awful new band called Shatterband, and Knives heads off to college. The last pages show Scott meeting up with Ramona as they affirm their desire to face the challenges of a relationship and walk hand in hand into a subspace door together.
Powers and Abilities
The setting of Scott Pilgrim is semi-fictitious in that common themes from video games, RPGs, and anime are semi-common place or unexceptional. As such, Scott (and other characters) has no actual superpowers, but exhibits different “video game” or “anime” abilities and martial arts for humorous effect. Some of these include creating an energy shield, wielding a sword he gained when he “leveled up,” and getting stat bonuses when he levels up. He is ‘the best fighter” from the Ontario province. He is also known as the best fighter in the province
Scott is able to play bass guitar, although he “sucks at it.”
Inner Conflicts
Several issues are hinted at about Scott’s inner conflicts. After his breakup with Envy, Scott became incredibly drunk and made a fool of himself in flashbacks, though Scott claims in the present that he “doesn’t/didn’t drink.”
Likewise, his relationship with Wallace is ambiguous, as whenever anyone asks how he and Wallace became friends or how they ended up living together, Scott says that he doesn’t want to talk about it. One flashback panels shows Scott and Wallace drunkenly walking and hanging on to one another and Wallace asking if he can crash at his place.
During Scott’s grappling with Ramona possibly cheating on him with Roxie, Scott comes face to face with a “nega Scott,” who he appears to know and despise. Scott states that he doesn’t “need him” and disperses him. Later Scott faced Nega Scott who represents Scott’s repressed memories of his previous mistakes. When he merged with him he remembered everything.
Other Media
Film
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Movie)
In the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World movie, Scott Pilgrim is played by Michael Cera. In the movie Scott is 22, not 23 like he is in the book. Like in the book, the movie starts off roughly a year after Envy broke up with him and Scott begins dating 17 year old Knives Chau. But soon after he starts dating Knives he meets Ramona and starts dating her but he doesn’t brake up with Knives right away. He eventually brakes up with her after Wallace urges him to. However, before he can continue dating Ramona, he must defeat her 7 evil exes. Eventually he fights and defeats all 7. But as he is fighting the fourth, Ramona disappears and Scott doesn’t see her until he and his band fight the twins (aka evil exes 5 and 6), where she is back with Gideon. After he and his band defeat them, Scott goes after Ramona. She breaks up with him because she says she can’t help herself around Gideon, because he has a way of getting into her head. She means that she is being controlled by Gideon via a mind control chip. He leaves Sex-Bob-Omb because Gideon wants to sign a record deal with them and the band wants to do it. Scott goes to fight Gideon at his club and earns the “Power of Love Sword” because he says he is fighting him for Ramona. However, the sword is not powerful enough and eventually Gideon kills Scott, after Scott accidentally tells Ramona and Knives that he cheated on them with each other. After being killed Ramona tells him about the chip and Scott uses a “1-Up” that he got after defeated the third evil ex. This time he earns the “Power of Self-Respect Sword” and eventually defeats Gideon and tells Knives and Ramona how he cheated. After defeating Gideon, Nega Scott shows up and Ramona and Knives are prepared to help Scott fight him, but he tells them it is something he has to do alone. Scott and Nega Scott don’t actually fight, and plan to get brunch later. Ramona is going to leave Toronto and go and start again some where else and she tells Scott to be with Knives. However, Knives tells Scott that she’s alright now and that Scott should date Ramona, who he clearly was always interested in. Scott asks Ramona if it’s all right if he goes with her, which surprises her. She says yes and they go into a subspace door, at which point the movie ends.
Television
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Animation
Scott Pilgrim Vs The Animation was aired as an animated short on Adult Swim on August 12, 2010. The series stars Scott Pilgrim, and it goes over his life in high school. The animation opens up with Scott in the principal’s office, and he appears with a few scratches and a black eye. Scott tells the girl next to him, named Lisa Miller that he got in a fight. She asks how long he’s been in school, and he replies saying it’s only been 15 minutes since he ever came into the school. Lisa is impressed with Scott, and suggests a friendship. The animation that skips ahead into a geography classroom. The teacher of the class says his partner is going to be Kimberly Primes. The introduction is short, and they only get each other’s names. Kimberly also mentions how she’s probably going to be doing all the work in their partnership. Again, the animation skips ahead to Scott and Lisa in his room. They are practicing their instruments, while Lisa suggests they form a band to play. Lisa mentions how if they played at an event called Lunchapalooza and it would boost their class status. Scott then brings up how there’s only two of them, and that they’d need drums. Lisa agrees with Scott, and then the animation skips ahead to a school concert. Kimberly Pines is shown playing the drums, and Scott suggests that she’d be good for the band. Lisa agrees with Scott, and then the animation skips ahead again. The next scene is Scott and Lisa talking under a tree, and Lisa brings up if Scott asked Kim about the band. Scott replies that he’ll ask her on Monday.
The animation moves ahead again, and Scott is shown walking to school. He opens the doors, and there’s kids beat up around the hallway. Lisa and another girl inform Scott that a rival school came in, and beat everyone up, and that they also kidnapped Kim. Scott fights his way to the leader of the gang that invaded named Simon, and confronts him on the school roof. After a one sided fight, he rescues Kim and they end up kissing on the roof. Scott asks Kim if he wants to join the band, and she agrees. The animation ends with Scott moving to Toronto, and Kim seeming to be depressed.
Video Games
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game, is a side scrolling arcade fighter that was released onto the X-Box Live Arcade, and the Playstation Network on August 2010. The game seems influenced by 8-bit and 16-bit games of the past. The games stars Scott Pilgrim as a playable character, along with Ramona Flowers, Kimberly Pines, and Stephen Stills. Knives Chau and Wallace Wells would then be added to the playable character list as DLC. Negascott also appears as a playable character, after you unlock him.