List of Scott Pilgrim characters
This article is a list of fictional characters in the comic book series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley, its film adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, its video game adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, and its animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Overview
For the film versions of the characters, O'Malley sent crib sheets that explained the backstory, character motivations, and events in the book to Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright. Bacall then created a list of "ten secret things" for each character, according to O'Malley, for fun, and many of the entries were jokes: O'Malley said that the "ten secret things" documents were not intended to be taken seriously as character background.O'Malley created a height chart for the characters, printed in volume 1, but said "it's not really canon, and I never did one again, and the heights were always very inconsistent." With the exception of five of the characters, O'Malley said that the heights were "always kinda vague. I didn't pay enough attention to it." O'Malley said that during the development of the book, "the hair colours in the book barely crossed my mind. There were no 'canon' hair colours in my mind."
Main characters
Scott Pilgrim
Scott William Pilgrim is the 23-year-old titular protagonist. He is the bass player for the band Sex Bob-Omb with his friends Stephen Stills and Kim Pine; he plays a Rickenbacker 4001C64. Though initially unemployed, he later gets a job as a dish washer and food prep trainee at The Happy Avocado vegetarian restaurant. The character's name was inspired by the song "Scott Pilgrim" from Plumtree's 1998 album Predicts the Future. He believes that smoking is evil, drinks "only on occasions", and doesn't hit girls. Scott seems to suffer from memory problems, which his friends assume that he has because of his stupidity. However, the real reason is that Gideon Gordon Graves, the leader of the league of evil exes, has manipulated his memories to the extent that he forgets important events in his life. Less important events, such as one of his jobs at a Mexican food restaurant, stay the same. He is consistently portrayed as being stupid- to the extent that his mind is quite literally a barren desert- but sometimes has brief moments of clarity, such as distracting Matthew Patel by not rhyming properly, causing Lucas Lee to combust by making him skateboard down the Casa Loma stairs at extremely fast speeds, and tricking Todd Ingram into consuming half-and-half. He often wears a Smashing Pumpkins shirt with the letters “SP” on it, his initials, and has a parka which features the X-men logo on a patch, which Scott presumably sewed in himself.Scott Pilgrim was ranked as the 85th-greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine. Empire magazine ranked Scott Pilgrim as the 40th-greatest comic book character stating that Scott "is one of the most authentic twenty-somethings ever committed to comic book paper." IGN ranked Scott Pilgrim the 69th-greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that they love Scott not just because he is a tried-and-true nerd who battles villains in epic fashion, but because he went through a dramatic character arc over the course of his series.
O'Malley said that Scott was not based on any one person, though referring to a friend he said " is the only guy who has any claim to inspiration for Scott, and it's purely visual—the personality is all fiction." Gabrielle Drolet of the UWO Gazette stated that Scott "started off as an embellished version of Bryan" before being fleshed out.
O'Malley said that Scott is "a little taller than Ramona".
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Scott is played by Michael Cera in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Shortly before filming began, Cera received a list of secrets about the character. Cera said: "The one that really stays in my head is that Scott, in his mind, is the star of his own movie. This movie is, in a way, existing in his own mind. This is his weird perception of the world around him."
Cera also voices Scott for the animated short Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation, and reprises his role in the 2023 anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Takes Off also features Finn Wolfhard voicing a teenage Scott, and Will Forte voicing an older Scott in his mid-30s. It is revealed that in the future, Scott and Ramona eventually separate, and the 37-year-old Scott takes it poorly and kidnaps his 23-year-old self from the past to convince him not to date Ramona. When his plan fails, Scott loses more of his sanity and spends 10 years training before going back in time once more to try and destroy Ramona, the Evil Exes, and his past self.
Ramona Flowers
Ramona Victoria "Rammy" Flowers is an American expatriate from New York, a "ninja delivery girl" for Amazon and Scott's main love interest. Her age is unknown until the end of the 4th volume, where she reveals that she is 24 years old. She reveals very little and is very guarded about her past in New York City before she moved to Toronto. She is capable of traveling through subspace and has seven evil exes who challenge Scott for her affection. She changes her hairstyle every three weeks and becomes anxious when Gideon is mentioned or brought up. Her head glows periodically, usually when she is upset, jealous, or heartbroken, though she herself is unaware of this until Kim Pine brings attention to it in volume 5.When asked if Ramona is supposed to be fat or plump, O'Malley responded by stating that "since it is a comic book and I draw everyone kinda cartoony and rounded, I figure it's up to the reader to decide. However, I must inform you that Knives was mainly being mean when she said Ramona was fat." Her natural hair colour is not stated. O'Malley said "Nobody knows her natural hair color. Ramona may not even remember. She changes it a lot because she's trying to figure out who she is / who she wants to be." On another occasion, when asked, O'Malley said "I don't know... brown? How many natural hair colors are there really? She isn't blonde. Honestly, I never thought about it... her hair color didn't matter to me. Because I was drawing a black and white comic. Her hair color is whatever u desire~." For the new colour editions of volume 2 he kept Ramona's hair as purple, reserving the blue colour spectrum for Ramona's hair for volume 4 and onwards. O'Malley said that if Ramona hypothetically broke up with Scott after volume 6, she would change her hair to a chin-length, "messy" bob with bangs that is dyed black and chopped: O'Malley explained that he never used this hairstyle for Ramona because it is too similar to the shape of Kim Pine's hairstyle. In terms of Ramona's height, O'Malley said that it was "supposed to be tallish" meaning around or. Ramona's subspace bag, like her hair, changes colour periodically. Throughout her dating history, Ramona had one "non-evil" ex, Doug, who O'Malley named after one of his real life friends.
Ramona Flowers was ranked 70th in Comics Buyer's Guides "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.
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Ramona is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and reprises her role in the 2023 anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
O'Malley stated that some audience members perceived film Ramona as being "a colder character in the movie", and that a possible contributing factor was that the film was originally written and filmed with an ending involving Scott returning to Knives instead of moving on with Ramona. Shortly before filming began, Winstead received the list of facts about Ramona's past. When asked what those facts are, she responded, "I honestly don't know if they are things that Bryan would want out there, so I'll keep them quiet. But things about her family-she's kind of a tragic figure in a way. She's been through a lot, and that's why she's so guarded and mysterious." Winstead has since revealed at least one of the secrets, one that she considered very insightful for her character: Ramona's younger brother died when she was younger and she wears one of his shoelaces around her neck in memory of him. According to O'Malley, the particular detail about the brother is not applicable in the book version of Ramona. After Winstead learned she had the part, she began training to be the character in Los Angeles. The training included stunt training, pushups and fight training. Winstead said that the training was "pretty cool" and "like being in some sort of kung fu camp."
Wallace Wells
Wallace Wells is Scott's "cool gay roommate". He is 25 years old and first met Scott in college; he consistently attempted to talk to Scott, with Scott eventually relenting and becoming friends with him. At some point, they were both drunk and headed to Scott's place. Wallace has more intellectual properties, and is more responsible and mature than Scott: he holds down a job and pays for most of their expenses during their time together as roommates. Most of their apartment's furniture and possessions belong to Wallace and he buys the majority of their groceries. Wallace serves as Scott's mentor during his trials, assisting Scott with training for his fights against Ramona's exes and gathering intel on them. It is implied that he trained Scott in his fighting style, as Scott calls him a terrible master. He dates and later moves in with his "psychic" boyfriend, Mobile. The character was inspired by O'Malley's former roommate Christopher Butcher.;Other media
Wallace is played by Kieran Culkin in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and reprises his role in the 2023 anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Knives Chau
Knives Chau is a 17-year-old Chinese-Canadian high-school girl and self-described "Scott-aholic". Scott dates her for a short while, but breaks up with her after he meets Ramona. Initially a quiet, typical schoolgirl, after their break-up, she cuts and dyes her hair and changes her clothing style, hoping to win Scott back by becoming more of a hipster. Her discovery that Scott was cheating on her with Ramona causes tension between the two girls, sometimes culminating in actual fights, though later the two reach a level of mutual acceptance. She starts dating Sex Bob-Omb's groupie Young Neil, although she is still in love with Scott. She and Neil later break up, but Knives still hangs out with the group. She initially idolizes Envy Adams, based on her success as a musician and her former relationship with Scott, but is soon disenchanted when Envy has her drummer Lynette Guycott punch Knives hard enough to knock the highlights out of her hair. Knives' father becomes aware of Scott's past relationship with his daughter, causing him to hunt Scott down and try to kill him, though Scott later earns his acceptance. Knives becomes aware of her father's plot when Scott tries to hide in the Second Cup, where Knives is newly employed. In Vol. 6, Knives turns 18 and goes off to university. Scott and Knives reconcile and remain friends.O'Malley used St. Michael's College School as the school Knives attends: in real life it is an all-boys school. O'Malley described her height as "short."
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Knives is played by Ellen Wong in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. When an interviewer from GQ said "As a character, Knives can be a little bit...annoying," Wong responded, "Put yourself in her shoes! She's a capricious young girl. At that age, you don't know what you want or where you fit in in life." When the interviewer responded with "But she's obsessed with Scott Pilgrim. She's pathological," Wong responded with "I wouldn't say she's obsessed. This is her first time being in love with somebody. She's feeling new emotions." Wong added that Knives begins as an "unblemished teenager" who was sheltered and discovers new aspects of life with Scott, and she adds that "nd then Scott breaks up with her and she's forced to go back to her old life? No, she can't go back now! No, not after she's seen what exists out there, so she kind of fights for that and she wants to keep going, she's just passionate, she's determined, not annoying!"
Wong said that when she first auditioned for the role, she did not know who Knives was. She liked playing as Knives in that audition, so she bought the books and read them. Wong said that she "loved how free-spirited she was in the beginning phases—she genuinely wants to have a good time. Then I got the books and found out she's this bad-ass ninja too it just kept getting better."
An interviewer told Wong that "More than anyone else in the film, Knives really goes on the most complex journey emotionally." Responding to that, Wong said that she enjoyed "figuring out her arc—showing her growth is definitely key to her story. It really is the story of a young girl figuring out where she fits in the world. A lot of the things she encounters in this movie have to do with it being 'the first time' she's dealt with it. I feel like the other characters have all gone through their Knives phase already—it's kind of refreshing to see somebody young and untainted. She brings a fresh perspective to the movie." She added that she preferred the final cut ending versus the alternate ending where Knives and Scott become a couple, saying that it "adds to her character." Wong further explained, "But what's great about both endings is that it remains unclear if Scott is in a dating relationship with Knives or Ramona. It's nice to leave that open because it's like life. You don't always get closure with concrete answers—anything can happen and you just have to move on."
As part of the film, Wong said that the "wire work" was "fun. It's like flying!" When the interviewer mentioned that he heard many complaints about the wires causing pain, Wong stated "It hurts more for the guys..."
Wong reprises her role in the 2023 anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, becoming a member of Sex Bob-Omb in Scott's absence and writing a musical with Stephen based on Young Neil's screenplay.