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[skygiants]

It's possible I'm the last person in the world to read Scott Pilgrim. And I only read it after it was cool, with the movie and all, so it earns me precisely zero geek cred anyway. OH WELL.

Anyway, I have been slowly working through the volumes as they trickled in for me at the library since I saw the movie back in August, and I finished them last week, and I have thoughts! I don't think they're very deep or original thoughts. They basically go like this:

1. Scott is likeable only because he's an idiot. If he had any more intelligence - emotional or otherwise - all the self-centered and jerktastic things he does would make it much harder to like him at all. But because he's the kind of guy whose deep thoughts amount to making :D!-faces in an elevator because elevators just make him happy, he manages to sneak into the realm of the likeable anyway.
(1.a. Which is why I find book-Scott much more sympathetic than movie-Scott. Michael Cera totally doesn't have it together, but he doesn't radiate that kind of beaming obliviousness that book!Scott does that occasionally makes him weirdly charming in spite of himself. I just don't believe in Michael Cera's idiocy as much!)

2. Most of the plot is really pretty incidental to the year-in-the-life-of-a-bunch-of-post-college-kids-sort-of-getting-their-lives-together. Which is good, because I don't really care about the plot; the idea of a story centered around "dude wins girlfriend by fighting all her ex-boyfriends" is actually such a conceptual turnoff to me that I couldn't get past it to even read the comics to begin with until I'd seen it repeated over and over by people I trusted that it was a METAPHOR FOR EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE, no seriously Ramona is not a prize, it's cool! And it is, and often plays out hilariously, so I'm okay with it. But I was reading for Kim and Wallace and Ramona and everyone being funny and fumbling their way through growing up and growing out of some of their jerkishness, and it becomes increasingly clear throughout the series that that's what Brian Lee O'Malley is writing for as well, so that's cool.

3. My favorite kind of magical realism is lulzy casually-integrated-into-the-story magical realism. People hilariously getting their ass kicked by robots in the background while people are having casual chats about completely different topics? I am all about this!
(3.a. I have seen Scott Pilgrim described as hipster. This is probably true! But dudes, I live in NYC, and hipsterness is just at a whole different level here, so my meter for this stuff is all off these days.)

4. People who got shafted by this being Scott's story: Roxy. Envy. Julie, possibly. Kim (who is my favorite; everyone is shocked.)

5. Scott and Wallace's apartment makes me feel better about mine. Which I have to clean. TODAY. oh god so many dishes
(4.a. Wow, these thoughts are just getting less and less deep as I go.)

6. Okay, maybe I just missed it because I was too busy LOLing at the way the ending cranked the anime surrealistic craziness up to a whole new level - who's been watching Utena? YOU have, Brian Lee O'Malley! - but did we ever get it explained what really went down between Scott and Envy on The Night He Remembers Tragically In Scott-O-Vision? I mean, there are hints enough to build your own narrative either way, but I'm curious!

Comments

[wakeupnew]

6. I don't think it was ever fully explained. I got the impression that Scott was a tremendous dick about something and they fought, and neither of them was particularly nice about it, and then he somehow worked it so that it was all heartbreaker Envy's fault. But that is just my personal canon!

[skygiants]

That's pretty much my personal canon too - I feel like Scott was probably a dick about Envy's Life Choices ("you used to be so NICE when you were insecure and nerdy!") and things escalated from there. I kind of wish we'd seen more, though. I actually feel really bad for Envy in canon! First Scott headbutts her childhood bff to death - and even if he was a tool, he was still her childhood bff! - and then she's stuck with Gideon.

[aberration]

6. It was never entirely explained, but I thought it was pretty clear at least that Scott's version of Envy just being a Mean Bitch who Dumped Him was not really true. It was my impression that after really being a kind of geeky girl who sort of kept to herself, Envy found something that she was really talented in, so talented that she had a really bright future in it, and Scott's reaction to this was to… bitch and moan about how he only started the band to meet girls and have fun. He was entirely selfish and self-centered and didn't really consider what having this kind of talent meant to her. While she in turn kind of left him and Stephen behind when she went off to become a star, if you look back, it seems that this happened only after Scott pushed her away. But I know that's kind of reading into it.

And oh god yes the shojo references I'm glad to know someone else who gets it!!! >_>

[skygiants]

It may be reading into it, but that's totally how I was reading into it too; his biggest reaction to Envy turning out to be super talented is that she's not nice anymore! Which hits a lot of my buttons, obviously, so that's how it went in my head.

HEARTSWORDS. I LAUGHED FOREVER. And . . . sort of want a crossover now??? Can you imagine Knives as a transfer to Ohtori? IT WOULD BE EPIC.

[aberration]

Yeah. I felt that by the end O'Malley made it clear that this was on of the many Not Okay things Scott did in his previous relationships. (Though in some cases I felt like people sort of made allowances for Scott when it came to his behavior because, um, he's an idiot who makes :D-faces in elevators.)

UPSIDE-DOWN FLOATING CASTLE. I think Knives and Nanami could easily be the most tragic BFFs of all time.

[skygiants]

(I'm not actually clear on whether Scott is supposed to be less of an idiot now that Gideon's not messing with his brain anymore! On the one hand, maybe (he doesn't recognize HIS OWN BROTHER, seriously that is a problem!) On the other hand, if he's not an idiot, he wouldn't be Scott . . .?)

Oh man, they SO WOULD. Knives and Nanami and Kozue could form a CLUB. (But they'd still all be a little weirded out by Shiori.)

[aberration]

I kind of read the brother thing as O'Malley also making fun of himself, like "oh right lolz Scott has a brother who I've only mentioned like once ever and may have kind of forgotten about so Scott won't recognize him and it'll be hilarious!" I don't know, it just seems like something he would do. But I generally read Gideon's influence in his head as only part of Scott's idiocy, while otherwise most of it related to a) Scott being super oblivious to everything just as a person, and b) his inability to actually deal with his issues, which is sort of solved when he fights the NegaScott thingy. So. Yeah.

They could definitely form their own Dangerous Ladies club! (Yes this conversation needed one more geeky reference.)

[skygiants]

Oh, it totally was hilarious. I also just have a thing about fictional sibling relationships so I was like ". . . SCOTT'S POOR BROTHER." *laughing* But yeah, everything you said! I'm curious for the inevitable spate of postcanon fic in this year's Yuletide, now that it's a much bigger fandom, to see how they handle it.

And while we're on that topic, Knives and Mai would ALSO have a reasonable amount to say to each other. (Always more geeky references!)

[fulselden.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, Scott Pilgrim! I avoided it for yeeears for precisely your reasons and also because I thought the cover art was tooth-achingly cutesy. Which I actually still think, even though I actually love a lot of things about the interior art. All those backgrounds of Canadian cityscapes (as opposed to Canadian cities standing in for New York, as seen in just about every gritty-but-cheap film ever), and the brushwork, so fun!

I agree with you entirely about why Scott is actually surprisingly un-annoying. Also, Kim is THE BEST, of course.

Also, I still haven't read the final volume (or seen the film), so I am pleased to discover that it will presumably mean more to me when I have finally finished Utena! I did enjoy the Akira moon-sploding in Envy's volume.

[skygiants]

I was and am okay with the art - I find dorky :D!-grins weirdly appealing - I just could not get past the summary! "He's dating high schooler Knives, but now he's in love with Ramona, but he has to defeat her evil exes to win her" just seemed like everything I DO NOT WANT.

I am with Ramona; I would so marry Kim.

For the record, the film does not have all the wacky Utena-esque stuff that the last volume of the book does! The end is probably where the two are most divergent, really. (HAHAHAHA is that what it was? I've actually only ever seen the very end of Akira, so my impression is basically "giant psychic monster!" "TETSUOOOOOO!" "I have no idea what's going on!")

[fulselden.livejournal.com]

Heh, I have read the whole Akira manga, so I can tell you with perfect confidence that the moon does indeed get hella 'sploded and usher in about thirty pages of exquisitely detailed tidal waves and general destruction!

[skygiants]

That'll be awesome when it's a a family-friendly live-action film starring Zac Efron.

[fulselden.livejournal.com]

... WHAT.

NO, REALLY, WHAT?

Um, lol? I should be furious about the racebending, but ... really? What? This is a thing Hollywood is doing? How ... how are they going to begin to do that? With the giant psychic monster and the post-apocalyptic gang warfare and the high-octane allegorising of ... stuff? Oh, yes, and the destruction of Tokyo. Twice.

Obviously a highly appropriate vehicle for Zac Efron!

I THINK THE ONLY APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO THIS IS ...

... TETSUOOOOOOO.

[skygiants]

MAN, I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Racebending aside, I am almost rooting for them to go through with it just for the ridiculous factor! If it really happens I want to arrange back-to-back viewings. Possibly with drinking every time someone angstily calls someone else's name. Or Tokyo is destroyed.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading it too! I put it off for the longest time, I remember my high school librarian recommending it to me and me never picking it up. ^^ I think my favourite part was that it was the setting, I could recognize most of the places Scott went to. (I totally laughed at the fight in Honest Ed's because oh my God, it is exactly like that. Once you're in you can never leave! The sheer amount of stuff overwhelms all your higher reasoning capabilities) And hahaha the ending, I'm pretty sure that was totally inspired by shoujo manga. Fight on Scott! Fight with the power of love and self-awareness!

[skygiants]

Hah, yeah - I bet the whole thing is infinitely awesomer to someone who actually knows what they're referring to! (Actually my first thought on seeing your comment was ". . . . Honest Ed's is a REAL PLACE?")

It is the MOST SHOJO ENDING OF AN AMERICAN COMIC EVER. I kind of love it.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Totally real. =D It's one of the most enormous discount department stores ever, you have to head in with backup and as very firm idea of what you want to buy. I used to pass it on my way to work all the time last year. And the Pick Out The Toronto Shout Out Game made alot of extra fun! One of the side characters he put in was a reference to the owners of The Beguiling, this awesome comic book store that's always hosting events for Canadian comic artists (I kind of wish I'd gotten into Scott Pilgrim earlier, I could have gone to the big release day sale and signing they hosted).

[skygiants]

I am terrified at the very notion. @__@ I can't handle ginormous department stores!


As an American from New York, I did kind of lol at all the references to SUPER MYSTERIOUS AND SPECIAL THINGS HAPPENING IN NEW YORK.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

I kind of love it when American or Canadian media makes a big deal about the mysterious country on the border, it always makes me laugh. How I Met Your Mother has a similar running gag with one of the characters (she's from Canada! Strange Canada where the 80s didn't hit until the early 1990s xD).

[skygiants]

Hah, the Robin gags totally crack me up too. (SORRY CANADA. IN MY HEART I DO RESPECT YOU.)

[schellibie.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of your thoughts RE: Scott Pilgrim, especially why he remains a somewhat likable character in the comics even though he's pretty much a total douche. In the movie, it's just like... wow... you're a douche!

I wish there was just a story about THE AWESOME LADIES OF SP BEING AWESOME. I would read that so hard.

[skygiants]

That about sums it up. I mean, part of it I guess is that there's not as much room for characterization in an hour-and-a-half-long movie as there is in six volumes of comics! But the other part is that comic!Scott's face is just way more endearingly doofy.

ME TOO. More Kim-Ramona BFF-fic! This is what I wish for in my heart.

(Sidenote: your icon is the most hilarious thing. T-REX.)

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

I loved this review, particularly your comments on the magical realism and on book-Scott vs. movie-Scott.

who's been watching Utena? YOU have, Brian Lee O'Malley!

I knew you'd pick up on this! I am already having crossover bunnies.

[skygiants]

WRITE IT. There should be so many crossovers! (I totally believe Gideon receives messages form End of the World.)

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

He so does!

I will tackle it at some point after NaNoWriMo (for which I am, er, writing a different Utena crossover. Um, halp?)

[skygiants]

Hahahahahahaha NaNo. GOOD LUCK. (The mere idea terrifies me. 500 words a day is about my speed!)

[jothra]

I knew you'd like it. *clearly, wisest*

[skygiants]

You have an extreme talent for shoving things into my hands! Though I'm not sure you actually recommended me this one . . .

[jothra]

I don't think I was your explicit rec for this one, no. BUT I KNEW ANYWAY.

[skygiants]

Easy for you to say now!

[jothra]

Do I need to pony up with more comic recs, or what? MUST I PROVE MYSELF?

[skygiants]

What, you actually think I'm going to say no to this? YES. ETERNALLY.

[jothra]

I don't remember what else I already threw at you! We can talk if you're on tonight.

[skygiants]

I should be! Possibly sneaky but around nonetheless. :D

[shati.livejournal.com]

Becca, what! My interest in reading this was in negative numbers, why did you have to talk about Utena. >:(

[skygiants]

Specifically to make your life harder! :D!

(It's not just me! It's an acknowledged reference! Fewer lesbians though. :()