#between himbo king and skater d-bag

[purplerakath]

Ramona's Guilt

So I wanna talk about a bunch of the stuff in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and how it looks at, answers, and smooths over some generalities in the other two Scott Pilgrim narratives (mostly the comics as the movie didn't do much with Ramona). More of what I'm writing under the cut. Spoilers for all three but most pressingly for Takes Off.

So overall the frame here is going to be on how much guilt Ramona carries over her actions, and how much amends she goes for in the new narrative of Takes Off. And how much that matteers.

See, in the other two versions Ramona 'dumps them and leaves' is painted as a singular through line, a universally identical action across all her relationships. That isn't the case here. Each relationship is painted as 'Ramona leaves' but how much that matters varies.

Going to go through each Ex in order:

Matthew Patel

So it is painted as both 'a relationship that could go somewhere' but also 'dude you knew her in middle school.' Ramona doesn't apologize to him, doesn't accuse him of kidnapping Scott, or really interact with him because 'middle school.'

To Matthew's credit as a character, he gets a massive growth arc through finding a passion he loves rather than obsessing over a girl he knew when he was twelve. His 'take over Gideon's empire and follow his off Broadway dreams is a good avenue for his character to grow.

Lucas Lee

Ramona makes it clear she still cares about him, and has always been rooting for him she just- ran off. And that her doing that did significantly change him. And that part she apologizes for. It's also clear she mostly questions his guilt because of the league, and not because she thinks he's evil (referencing back to his 'evil for being a sell-out, I guess' from the books).

He's not the nicest person, but she sees though his facade. And barring his tossing a child onto the roof of a car to steal his skateboard, he's pretty much harmless. Lucas Lee is a lot of attitude but nothing really behind it.

But he did need to hear that Ramona cared about him, and was sorry.

Todd Ingram

Todd is in a weird place, one is he's not in the montage of Ramona running away from what she loves. So he's more of a rebound when she got scared with Lucas. Two he's always been in love with Envy Ramona was just 'there' not 'there for him.'

Third he's Gay. The story kind of makes it pretty clear he just didn't know that about himself. (Which is fine, Todd doesn't have two brain cells to rub together.)

So she doesn't apologize and Ramona didn't really do anything for him.

Todd is also in a weird place where he's less 'Ramona's evil ex' as he is 'Punchable Avatar of Envy Adams.' His major element in the books is as Envy's current boyfriend to deal with Scott's 'the big ex' problems.

Roxie Richter

The most deserved and needed apology of any in the series. While Ramona didn't mean to hurt her, because she wasn't aware of how much their thing mattered to Roxie. It. hurt. her.

So Ramona needed to apologize, more than any other ex.

This also changes Roxie from the 'safe ex to run back to' (because Ramona doesn't count her as a real relationship, in the comics) to 'terrifying relationship Ramona wasn't sure how to deal with' (because they got so close and Ramona runs when she feels scared). It's overall a very positive change to how this relationship worked.

And like with Lucas, post-apology this Ex is no longer evil.

The Katayanagi Twins

So Ramona doesn't really... interact with them at all. The ending montage shows she did love both of them, but she also dated them at the same time because they were, well, fuckboys. So it's less a 'she hurt them' as it was a 'she is the karma they deserved.'

The twins, overall, are painted by their nature in the future of being overall good guys who don't care about all this. I would like to see more of them but they aren't very useful narratively to Ramona's plot. Because they're useful to the whole 'how do we make this new Scott Pilgrim story go Brrrrrr.'

Gideon Graves / Gordon Goose

His inclusion in the final montage of 'running from love' is weird, because I do think a major element of a potential Season 2 is Gideon's kidnapping of ex girlfriends for a complete set. This is what I assume was in that vault from Ep 2, the one Matthew couldn't blast into.

Still, Ramona didn't apologize to Gordon, she chastised him and threatened him should he treat Julie the way he treated her. Which is deserved, Gideon is the worst. He doesn't get an apology because this time Ramona was right to run.

So what does this all Do!?

What it does is keep Ramona's character flaw (she runs when things get complicated) without making it seem like running is always the same, with the same weight, and the same responsibility on her. Of the evil exes, while six out of seven are no longer evil. Ramona was only needed to fix two of them.

It means she's a flawed person, as is the theme of this show. But not some secret heartbreaker. Just another scared little girl with intimacy issues.

And it means when a relationship was going to end on someone else's terms, having her chase down that relationship like a dogged detective makes her less a prize at the end of a story, and more her own person.

And that's a pretty great change.

#Scott Pilgrim Takes Off #Scott Pilgrim Spoilers #Ramona Flowers #Character Study #Glad Roxie got her Due #The movie kind of shafted her #which is not very cash money of it #Lucas Lee also got a good middle ground #between himbo king and skater d-bag #and I'm into that #I do think they aren't erasing Gideon's seven girlfriends in freezers thing #that feels like his endgame still #that or Scott still facing his ex girlfriends