purknotperc's Book Journey

Annual nostalgia read complete, and this series still holds up after 15-20 years. Yes, it's kind of dated (r slurs specifically), but the story holds up well.

Scott Pilgrim's saga is about being a shitty person and learning how not to be one. It's about acknowledging your mistakes, apologizing (and then actually doing something about it), and also fighting the evil ex boyfriends of your hot new girlfriend who remains mysterious to you somehow despite you living with her for multiple months.

Most of the time, Scott chooses to suffer or to leech off others. For example, he never had to mooch off Wallace and live in his apartment; his parents got him one as soon as he was kicked out of Ramona's place. He ignores the fact he cheated on Knives with Ramona, until Stephen Stills brings it up to Knives six months later and Scott's relationship with Ramona blows up as a result.

Scott ignores his friends' bad news (like Kim dating a guy who cheats on her with her new roommate). He's lucky he knows so many people with a high tolerance for bullshit cause I would not have done half the nice things Wallace did while Scott was unemployed for three volumes straight.

Side note - I'm kind of jealous of the characters in this Torontonian world of 2005. Everyone lives close enough to walk to each other's places of work, friend groups are tight-knit, and beers are cheap enough at bars to actually get sloshed. The city feels somehow cozy! It's got good public transit systems, because being a guy who owns a car/truck is out of the ordinary, as pointed out in volume 4.

Scott's friend group falls apart partially because Scott chooses to abandon them and stick his head up his ass (play video games) for multiple months and wallow instead of checking in on anyone. Instead, people check in on HIM! Wallace and Kim specifically. He's a shitty person, have I mentioned? The big superhero fights are not the memorable part of this series, the little character moments are.

I love Bryan Lee O'Malley's world of video game stats and battles of the bands and mysterious magic girlfriends who end up just having a record of avoidance and serial cheating, and use the magic part to cut and run when things get hard.