Honestly, this was a fairly random gift. Although I wanted to see the Scott Pilgrim movie, I had never watched it and never given much thought to reading the graphic novels, nor had I ever mentioned any desire to own either the DVD or the books, much less both. I guess my sister and her husband know me well, however, because I love the story in both forms of media.
It's hard to pick whether I like the books or the movie better, because they're pretty different. The movie takes a strange trajectory in reference to the comics - Volume 1 is followed almost frame for frame, then Volumes 2 and 3 are followed in their key moments with significant changes, then the movie takes a total deviation for Volumes 4 through 6. Listening to the commentaries I learned that one reason behind this is that O'Malley was finishing the final volume of the series as the movie was being written - it's hard to coordinate your movie ending with the books when the books haven't ended yet.
Anyway, Edgar Wright (the director of the film) is probably my favorite director and Bryan Lee O'Malley writes a great story, and the two prove to be wizards at capturing the truth of life in your early-to-mid-twenties in the most insane, over-the-top fashion imaginable. I was shocked that a story where bad guys turn into coins when they die and 1-Ups occur in real life could at points cut through to the bone of figuring out your life as a young adult.
Which brings me to the subject of today's post, Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together.
But first, some background for those who haven't seen the film and/or read the comics: Scott Pilgrim isn't a very good person. In fact, he spends most of the first parts of the series as a selfish, two-timing jerk. He's a twenty-three year old slacker in Toronto who's dating a seventeen year old high schooler named Knives Chau, mostly as a rebound after breaking up with a girl he loved. He then meets Ramona Flowers, a mysterious American girl new to the area, and begins relentlessly pursuing her, without breaking up with his high school girlfriend, and then begins dating Ramona, without breaking up with his high school girlfriend. This is your protagonist, ladies and gentlemen.
(Relevant point that was made in some movie commentary: Michael Cera was cast as Scott Pilgrim in large part because audiences view him as a likable person. The makers of the movie figured they needed a likable lead because the character Scott is an idiot and they'd lose their audience if they weren't careful.)
By the time Volume 4 roles around, Scott has defeated three of Ramona's evil exes and- oh wait, that's important, too. So once Scott and Ramona start dating, Scott learns that he must defeat her seven evil exes in order to keep dating her. Each volume of the comic revolves around him fighting one of her exes (with the exception of Volume 5, in which he fights twin brothers who both dated her). OK, that makes sense, right? Good.
ANYWAY... so Scott has defeated Exes #1-3, he's finally gotten around to breaking up with Knives, leaving her heartbroken, and he's still basically a slacker with no job and no great aspirations in life other than dating Ramona. He's been mooching off his roommate Wallace for the whole series but now they're in trouble with their landlord, he's been sleeping in until noon most days but his friends hassle him about getting a job, he's still dating Ramona but she's pushing him about why he likes her and he can't come up with a terribly great reason. In other words, Scott's basically treading water in terms of living situation, career, relationships, et cetera.
Scott begins to feel the heat from his jobless existence, so he starts asking around. The only problem is, he's burned basically every bridge he has with his friends and the places where they work. Finally he gets a job working minimum wage as a cook at a vegan restaurant, earning 500 experience points in the process. (It makes sense in the book, I promise.) He and his roommate also learn that their lease is up, and Wallace encourages Scott to move in with Ramona, something that terrifies Scott.
In the process of trying to balance relationships, the new job, the apartment situation, and battling Ramona's female evil exe and Knives' ninja father (again, I promise it makes sense in the book), it all unravels. Ramona stops speaking to Scott, he gets fired from his job, and he can't defeat the villains coming after him.
All that changes when Scott almost has a tryst with an old friend of his. Crashing at her place one night, he realizes how much he loves Ramona and wants to make it work. He spends the rest of the book getting his job back, professing his love to Ramona, and finally defeating the fourth evil exe.
The book is called Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, but he doesn't really completely get it together by the end of the book. There's two more volumes to go, and Volume 5 in particular deals with the consequences Scott faces when Ramona and Knives both realize he was dating them at the same time. But Scott takes a big step forward, and by the end of the series Scott is still pretty immature, but he's grown a lot and taken great strides toward a real career, a stable relationship and accomplishing some actual goals.
I've been thinking some lately about the Scott Pilgrim-ish parts of my own life. No, unfortunately I don't have video game superpowers and I can't travel on a secret subspace highway, but I'm still in some ways fighting the same immaturity as Scott. Do I listen to my wife when she talks to me, and do I actually back up my words of love with action? Do I do the best I can for my career, putting forth my best effort? Do I have a real plan for my future and goals for my family? If I'm honest, I'm sometimes more like Scott early in the series, content to tread water in my laziness and selfishness.
I think life in your twenties is in many ways about getting it together. Suddenly you're in charge of decisions about how to spend your money, where you want to work, where you want to live, who you want to date and marry, what you're willing to wait for and what you're willing to compromise. I remember very well a side comment a professor of mine made in college: "You need to decide what you're willing to sell your soul for." Everybody ends up making compromises and giving up dreams for something else - we need to make sure that the thing we're compromising for is something important and valuable.
I fear I may be like Scott Pilgrim in Volume 4, starting to get it together but still pretty immature. I'd rather be further down the road to maturity. But I guess I'm on a journey, and above all I need to commit to walking in right direction.
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