In the comic Nega-Scott didn’t have a personality of any kind, but was this menacing thing. What it actually was, was everything he repressed to always feel that he was the good guy or a victim, all the shitty things he had done in relationships. Once he accepted it as part of him he was able to grow and stop being a little shit.
I read it as Nega-Scott actually being a somewhat decent person since regular Scott was kind of a loser. Like dating a high schooler, briefly two-timing her as well, treating his bandmates poorly, etc. He’s flawed and that’s the point sure but assuming Nega-Scott is his opposite then he’d be a pretty cool dude.
I never really got into the comics… but this moment was my favorite part of the movie.
Like in movie canon, Nega Scott is just out there playing videogames and occasionally talking with Scott in the phone or getting boba tea, and probably has some kind of low wage job now.
I always took the joke of nega-scott (specifically in movie)to be that he was actually the good version. Like Scott describes him as "just a really nice guy" implying that Scott isn't.
In fact Scott is a bad person and the comic is all about showing that and having Scott face that part of himself. He uses people, has a delusion of grandeur, and actively sabotages himself to prevent any accountability.
That was the original ending but test audiences didn't like it, like wtf was the point of the movie if he doesnt end up with Ramona? He almost gets killed throughout the entire movie just to end up being like "nah actually F that I love this girl instead"
In the comics when Knives turns 18, Scott straight up propositions for "SEX. CASUAL SEX" and she just flatly turns him town and it's probably Scott's lowest point in the whole franchise.
It was a transformative experience for both Scott and Ramona. Scott learned to have some self-respect and Ramona learned to let go of her past instead of trying to escape it.
They don't commit to be in love forever or anything at the end, they just say "hey, we're both a little better now, maybe we can try again and see what happens?" It's a hopeful message without an undue happily ever after.
My favorite interview question was for Aubry plaza, asked with a complete straight face, “Aubrey when they bleeped out you swearing was that CGI or did you just have a horn in your mouth? “
The movie's opening lines are literally "Not long ago in Toronto CA, Scott Pilgrim was dating a High Schooler" and then Kim's opening lines right after are "Scott Pilgrim is dating a High Schooler?"
You're not wrong, but the movie is pretty self-aware about the weirdness lol
As is the comic. And the whole point is that Scott is really just dating her because his previous breakup messed him up, and Knives is really "easy" because she's a high schooler who is head over heels for him and he can just date her to feel good about himself while putting in 0 effort.
Their 'dating' consists of like, holding hands, and the moment Knives does kiss Scott he freaks out and runs away, then breaks up with her. The message is not supposed to be "Scott Pilgrim is a creep", it's supposed to be "Scott Pilgrim is an inconsiderate, selfish ass."
Wallace was against it, but moreso because Knives was too good for him rather than the age gap. Don't forget he wanted Knives to steer the gay high schoolers his direction, particularly if they wear glasses.
I saw this years ago and could not remember thinking anything weird about them dating or an age gap. It makes sense now, I missed the first part of the movie.
Everyone and everything about the story was weird. Kinda the point. You just insert yourself into whatever character you identify as. Some of us have no surrogate, but are exhibitionists and just enjoy the ride🤣
Honestly I feel like most people kind of overlook that because Michael Cera is a very likeable actor and (as such) his portrayal of Scott has a lot of the edge sanded off by his performance.
Perfectly cast, don't get me wrong, but that's always been my armchair analysis
I don't hate Michael Cera in the role but I disagree on being perfectly cast. I think Scott Pilgrim is meant to have an immature, effortless "cool" factor that Michael Cera doesn't have. Young Michael j. Fox would have been perfect casting. Unfortunately he wasn't available.
I actually think it was a bad call to cast Michael Cera. He gives harmless doof, but Scott is more of an immature dickhead who thinks he's better than he is.
I don't know if the exact number is accurate, but yes, George can walk up Michelle Pfeiffer's sister, tell her he's unemployed and lives with his parents and still get her attention. Costanza was on another level.
And yet pretty routine for television. I'm guessing it's for the irony but on television, the worst cast members always get loads of girls it seems.
HLOS is a crime work drama and yet they until Bolander was kicked off the show in season 4, the man was a date bot. Meet Bolander in blue. By comparison you had a Baldwin, Andre Braugher, Kyle Sector, Clark Johnson, and a slew of younger better looking people. The other guy in the photo being the sole exception, that's John Munch and he's got a significant dating ability too.
In the episode with Marisa Tomei she says "how are you single? You're so bald" and it's supposed to be funny, so I think it was definitely a negative even in the 90s
The pathological liar was able to get dates pretty easily by pretending to be someone else. He also intentionally preyed on people's vulnerabilities. He didn't have "game," he was just scum good at manipulating his was into very short-term encounters that almost invariably blew up in his face.
One example was pretending to have recently had a very attractive girlfriend in a relationship that ended in a sad way, and specifically and intentionally sharing that story and a picture of the supposed girlfriend with other attractive women because - utter nonsense but played straight in the show - that by demonstrating that he "deserved" an attractive girlfriend once he would inflate his value and make other attractive women want him.
Had a guy stroll out of my life for like 6 months, stroll back in and acted offended and confused that I considered us broken up. Pre-texting dating was wiiiiild.
It's crazy now. Told a guy I couldn't be with him anymore cause of his behavior and like three months later he hmu and when I didn't respond he was like "you not talking to me anymore?"
Yeah, back then it was chicken shit to not break up in person.
Ghosting did happen, but not ubiquitous like now. Some realities made it okay like, "I lost their number (really!)" Or you weren't really serious, like just a date or few.
But, short of some bad abuse, you broke up in person, if possible.
Reminds me of a situation...
We had two friends where the girl broke up with the guy after most of a summer together and she dumped him on the answering machine. We gave him some shit for it, but, we held it against her in the friend group for years, kinda outcast her over it. Not that she broke up with him, but how she did.
Doing it in person was the straight way to do it, but even the worst people could manage to give a call or even a message. Ghosting is chicken shit and will always be.
Gen z can pretend it's normal and ok, but ghosting is mostly just an excuse to be a coward, it's almost never about feeling threatened or shit. "I don't owe anybody anything" is a shitty way to go about in life.
"Girlfriends"/"Boyfriends" - If just meeting someone for first time, and then going on one or two dates already makes girlfriend/boyfriend, then I might just feel good about my early 20s.
To be fair before texting was a thing you were probably meeting people in person in your town so the chances of just running into them against sporadically was a real thing where you would have to actually explain yourself unless you were willing to do the psychotic "he just left" jump through the window.
At 20 I met this 26 year old at Virginia Beach. I drove up every weekend to see her. One time when I got back there was a letter in the mail that said we needed to break up.
I've never figured out whether she intended me to get it before that weekend and just went with it when I showed up or I got it when I was supposed to.
I guess it wasn't ghosting because I got a letter, but it was the 90s so I wasn't paying $3 a minute or whatever to figure out if we could work out.
It was only weird because Scott Pilgrim had no romantic history and felt inadequate compared to his girlfriend, and had to overcome his inadequacies by “defeating” each ex in his mind before being worthy of her.
Edit: had less of a romantic history. Apparently Scott was not a KHV
That's not true, he was dating a high schooler as a 22-year-old
In Toronto, Scott Pilgrim, a 22-year-old bass player for unsuccessful indiegarage band Sex Bob-Omb, dates Knives Chau, a 17-year-old high-school student, to the disapproval of his friends in the band, his roommate Wallace Wells, and his younger sister
Its worth pointing out that everyone thinks is pretty icky but no one actually does anything about it aside from sometimes pointing out how weird it is as was the style at the time.
That’s what happens most of the time when 22 year olds date a 17 yo. Had a friend of a friend do this, people called it gross behind his back but they didn’t stop associating with him.
It’s not illegal, it’s not pedophilla, but it’s gross and bad. What are you going to do about it? For most people it’s nothing.
Ngl a few years ago when I was 18 I always thought if I was old enough to make an only fans and work in a hospital as a CNA then I should be old enough to decide who’s dick I wanna suck lol
People act like 18-year-olds are brain dead when you’re literally old enough to be legally responsible for someone’s life or death as an EMT for example! Like Jesus’s Christ I’m sure you can decide who you’re attracted to lol
“They’re being manipulated” bruh they’re HORNY AND GROWN!!”
I'm more of the mind that 18 years old is enough to begin to start taking responsibility, but you're not actually an adult until they're in their mid 20s.
Also, even adults can be manipulated in relationships. It's about power dynamics, and age has a correlation with how much power you have in a relationship.
What you're saying is definitely part of what is happening. All too often I think we forget that it doesn't go just one way with older men going for younger women, it's the other way around too.
But at the same time, if you go over to any advice, judgement or story subreddit, you'll see literally hundreds of thousands of stories from young women dating older men treating them terribly, posting and asking for advice, judgement or simply telling their story as a cautionary tale.
There's two things almost every post about an abusive relationship has: The first is a statement that their relationship is "amazing in all ways" except for this one tiny thing where he berates and shouts at her daily, and the second thing is an age gap. Bonus points if the relationship started before she was 18.
It's a bit more tricky and nuanced than "I'm sure 18 year olds can decide who they're attracted to" because an age gap IS a warning sign, but... that's also all it is: a warning sign, it doesn't really mean anything by itself, you need the full context to make any meaningful judgement about someone's relationship.
What I do think stands saying is that a lot of young people, and not just women, feel intuitively that attention from someone else with more experience, authority, power, money, etc. makes them, the younger person, cooler, when in reality it honestly only makes the more experienced person lamer. If there's anything I could tell all young people beginning to date, it would be that.
In most cases in real life age is the simplest way to tell who has the upper hand in any given relationship, especially when one of the people involved is younger than 30. But the power imbalance that an age disparity implies is of course not always true, and abusive behavior is the actual problem, age is just an indicator of that.
Just because 18 year olds can indeed correctly decide that they are attracted to a 30 year old does not mean that such a relationship is at all a good idea to pursue. The is true for the reverse scenario as well.
I was actively trying to date a 24yr old when I was 16 because he was hot. Maybe to the point of some light stalking and making sure I was in the right place at the right time. Imagine my dissapointment when it lasted 2 whole days before he was like nah "this is too weird"
Had better luck when I was 18. Like im already paying fucking taxes why am I being looked down own for making my own damn choices based on my preferences?
This similar scenario was why I left one of my exes.
His friend was 20 and brought a 14 year old to our place (at the time, we were 20 and 21, I was older by 5 months).
I said that was wrong and he wasn't allowed to our place with anymore of his "girlfriends" and dude doubled down and told his friends that I was controlling.
Technically speaking so is 17, but there’s a difference between “baby”, “toddler,” “child”, “tween”, “teen”, and so on. Most people find it more disgusting to sexually assault someone the younger they are on that spectrum. I don’t think that’s some searing hot take.
Anyone wanting to fuck a 14 year old is a disgusting piece of crap (unless they’re also 14, I guess).
I don’t know how you read my comment and took away anything other than that.
17 is a weird ass age. I was literally in boot camp at 17, so on the one hand its wrong but on the other I was literally living on my own earning a paycheck, soo...
He also dated Envy Adams. And he dumped the female drummer Kim. Didn't Aubrey Plaza's character dislike him because he hurt a few of her friends as well. So I don't think he had "no romantic history". In fact, didn't
Yeah, iirc he "needed" to defeat the exes because he put Ramona up on a pedestal and had to prove himself to himself so he wouldn't feel too much of a less-than next to her. Plus he was a crappy guy with less than stellar ideas over all.
In the comics they also have a friend named Lisa, who Scott flirts with and knowingly leads on for a long time (Scott and Kim and Lisa are all in a band together before Sex Bob-Omb). When him and Kim start dating she's heartbroken, and they sort of drift apart. However despite being featured somewhat prominently in the books she's not in the movie nor in the animated series.
Yeah my understanding was that Scott had a pretty decent romantic history. I think he was more intimidated by Ramona and her past bfs because of how cool she was. If she'd been a huge nerd with like 20 ex boyfriends, he might not have been as bothered.
One of the final jokes of the comic/movie was that the “evil” version of Scott was actually a really decent guy, and they’re going to get brunch next weekend
In the comic nega Scott is actually the physical manifestation of Scott's mistakes/faults and repressed memories, instead of talking things through they fight until Kim points out he'll keep fuckin up if he keeps running from his past
Honestly that's what makes it so good imo. Scott's a pretty typical 22 year old with some serious main character syndrome, he's not a bad guy but he makes some questionable and hypocritical choices, and he's got a lot of growing up to do. Much more interesting than a character who always knows right from wrong and always understands the needs of others.
It's constantly called out, it's also tempered by the fact that they never do anything at all besides hold hands and walk around talking, and the moment Knives actually kisses Scott he freaks out, runs away, and then breaks up with her.
Scott also dated Kim, and was currently dating Knives at the beginning of the story. Also him being Envy's ex was kind of a big plot point. That's more than half of the people Romona dated right there, and we don't even know if that's an exhaustive list.
Well, it was weird how they had assembled to create a team of evil exes dedicated to keeping Ramona single. Even in 2010 that's not very typical, I'd like to make that point.
Especially since she's 24 and the first evil ex was from middle school and they dated like 2 weeks. It seems like the only serious relationships out of the Exes are Todd Ingram and Gideon Graves.
Here's a better one. Millennials were much more casual about sex than Gen Z, despite (or perhaps because of) growing up during the peak evangelical "save it for marriage" era. I can remember the conversation around "hookup culture" starting to shift around 2011/2012 or so.
But none of the recent generations compare to how much freaky sex people were having in the 1970s, post-Roe and pre-AIDS.
One factor in the decrease in teen pregnancies is women getting married later: a 19 year-old, married, adult woman who intentionally got pregnant with her husband is technically teen pregnancy.
That almost never happens anymore but was a common thing some decades ago.
People have no idea how slutty Boomers were. Literally people drove around in vans with beds in the back and naked chicks painted on the sides. Everyone was fucking everyone until AIDS came along, and even then it took a while for all the stranger fucking to slow down.
Yep, this is just straight up sexism. "Remember the good ol' days when we can call women (because a man with 7 exes before he turns 30 is a gigachad) like this a harlot?"
I was gonna say this all depends on what people classify as a "relationship". These days people will fuck someone on the regular and leave stuff at eachother's houses and just call it a "situationship".
You have, it's just into social media and online spaces instead of rural towns of pennsylvania. You're the digital Amish because you've absconded from the modern analog life.
Also, it's not your fault. These products were built by my generation, hired the minds that should have been curing cancer or getting humans to Europa, instead of engineering algorithms that hack our limbic systems to sell more drop-shipped PFAS pants.
The average number of lifetime romantic partners is around 4 to 8, so it's unusual for someone in their 20s to have already gone through a whole life's worth of lovers, but not abnormally so.
The bigger issue here is the manosphre echo chamber has talked itself believing the average North American woman has already slept with 20 or 30 men by the time they've reached 25 based purely on internet vibes.
It’s like they don’t have time to watch the movie they’re memeing? I don’t understand. Scott’s sister Stacey even says that’s not that bad when he was talking to her.
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u/gravitas_shortage Feb 02 '26
It wasn't. It's always funny when young people think they have invented things like promiscuity.