Information on communication concepts when applied to the movie Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
Interpersonal Relationships & Applied Concepts
by Cassandra Morin

2. “Not so long ago… in the mysterious land… of
Toronto Canada… Scott Pilgrim was dating a
high schooler.”
Scott Pilgrim is about a 22 year old guy in a band who falls
in love with a girl named Ramona Flowers while he’s dating
a high schooler named Knives Chau. To make things more
complicated, he has to defeat Ramona’s seven evil exes if
he wants to continue his relationship with her.
Knives and Ramona eventually find out that Scott cheated
on both of them, and he gets killed by the final ex (also the
person who assembled Ramona’s exes to attack anyone
she attempts to date). However, he earned an extra life in
the midst of all his happenings and gets a second chance
to explain himself and apologize correctly and defeat the
last evil ex.

3. Why This Movie’s Great
Has a lot of different relationship types.
Unique communication style - more modern, teen-like dialogue.
There are many themes in this movie, and most of them revolve
around how it’s not what you do and say but how you do or say it.

4. Relationships
in Scott Pilgrim

5. Wallace and Scott
Wallace is Scott’s gay room mate who essentially takes care of him and covers him whenever
Scott needs him to. Take the gif above for example. This is when his ex comes over to talk to
him, and Wallace covers him (in probably the funniest way possible.) It’s not a parent-child
dynamic, but more of a brother dynamic. Wallace definitely is the caregiver and the point of
authority though because Scott always turns to him when he needs help and the same isn’t
necessarily true for Wallace.
Wallace shows nurturing in this scene and a few others like it (consoling, giving advice about
exes, etc) but there are also times where Wallace shows authority. For example, when he sets a
rule for the apartment, Scott typically has no say in it. The balance of nurture and control is fairly
equal, and Wallace reinforces a secure attachment style in Scott.

6. Scott and Knives
These two start out in a romantic
relationship, but they end up being
mutually respectful of each other in a
platonic way. Their relationship seems like
it’s always been platonic, considering
neither of them really felt comfortable
doing touchy or romantic things together.
The reason that their relationship didn’t
work on a romantic level is because there
was too much uncertainty about not only
where the relationship was, but where it
was going as well. Neither of them were
really certain about how to be involved
romantically when they got together, so
the nature of the relationship was platonic
from the start. They just tried to force a
square peg into a round hole.

7. Young Neil and Scott
Young Neil seems to mimic the behaviors of Scott in order to be more like him.
It’s a very unique type of relationship; one that’s similar to a Wallace and
Scott’s relationship, except Scott has more impact on how Young Neil thinks
and feels about himself.
This relationship sticks out to me in the movie as something worth noting
because Young Neil seems to base his reactions to situations around how
Scott reacts. It leads me to believe that he wants to be like Scott and is trying
to assimilate Scott’s self-concept with his own. In other words, his self-concept
is interdependent with Scott’s. He looks to him to gain a better idea of how to
feel and react during certain situations.
Scott reciprocates this interdependency in some ways, especially when it
comes to Knives. Young Neil ends up dating Knives after they break up, and
someone ends up punching Knives so hard the highlights come out of her hair.
Young Neil becomes very upset and in turn so does Scott, showing that not
only does Scott care about Knives, but he feels a call to action when Young
Neil is upset about something.

8. Lucas Lee and Scott Pilgrim
Power Dynamic
Lucas Lee, Ramona’s second evil ex, is unique in his perceived power
over Scott because he gets his power from two completely different
sources.
Lucas overpowers him coercively and referently. Basically, Lucas has
power over Scott because he is a well trained fighter and Scott cannot
match him physically. Any attempts at actually beating Lucas in a fight
are futile. Additionally, Lucas is also a famous movie star, so he has
some social control as well. The first thing Scott says after Lucas
punches him for the first time is, “can I have your autograph?”
The only way Scott is able to defeat Lucas Lee is through smarts. He
uses Lucas’ inflated ego against him and challenges him to a dangerous
(and arguably impossible) grind down a long and icy pole, challenging his
ability to skateboard (because that’s what he’s known for—he was a
famous skater before he started doing movies.) Lucas crashes and Scott
is claimed as the victor.

9. Envy and Scott
Power Dynamic
Envy Adams is Scott’s “big ex”. She has a lot of power over Scott and it comes solely from their past
relationship. Her power comes from her past role as a major influence in his life. This source is closest
to psychological coercion, as far as I can discern. It’s very unique though because they both still seem
to respect one another. They have an emotional connection that was partially severed, supplying both
of them with the ability to hurt and wound one another with or without actually meaning to. It’s
interesting because it also closely resembles the reward source of power gone wrong, in an emotional
sense.
(In case the image above is confusing, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is based off of a comic series. This is
still Envy.)

10. Notable Conversations

11. Scott: Hey what’s up?
Ramona: Nothing.
Scott: Hey you know Pac-Man?
Ramona: I know of him.
Scott: Well he was originally supposed to be called Puck-Man, uh… Not
because he looks like a hockey puck, but because pacu-pacu means to
flap one’s mouth, but they changed it because they thought they would
scratch out the p and turn it into an f…
Ramona: Yeah, that’s amazing.
Scott: Um… Am I dreaming?
Scott: I’ll leave you alone forever now.
Ramona: Thanks.

12. Analysis
This is Scott and Ramona’s first conversation in the movie besides Scott seeing
her in a dream beforehand. Not exactly the smoothest conversation. It’s worth
looking at where it falls through.
The downfall of the conversation is basically centered around it’s lack of
coherence. Scott picked a very random topic to bring up to Ramona without taking
the time to figure out what she’s interested in, making the conversation one-sided
and uneven. He was so focused on simply the act of talking to her that he wasn’t
focused really on what they were talking about. Ramona picked up on his lack of
interest in what he was talking about and reacted to it, which caused Scott to focus
on what he was really thinking: “Am I dreaming?” This is obviously a really strange
thing to say during your first encounter with someone, so the conversation crashes
there.
Scott was too nervous to focus on something other than her to talk about. Though
it’s in the guidelines to be focused on the other person, it seems like he did it to a
flaw; he should have calmed himself down before approaching her and maybe
started out with more conventional small talk.

13. Ramona: *delivering a package* Scott Pilgrim?
Scott: Hi, I was going to ask you out but then I realized how stupid that would be… So do you want to go out
sometime?
Ramona: Um, no… That’s okay. If you could just sign for this, alright?
Scott: You don’t remember me, do you? I was at the party the other day…
Ramona: Are you the Pac-Man guy?
Scott: No not even, that was some total ass, I was the other guy…?
Ramona: You know you need to sign for this, whatever this is?
Scott: But if I sign for it, you’ll leave.
Ramona: Yeah, that’s how it works.
Scott: Kay well… Do you want to hang out sometime? You’re the new kid on the block… I’ve lived here
forever… There are reasons… For you to hang out with me…
Ramona: You want me to hang out with you?
Scott: Um, yeah… If that’s cool.
Ramona: …if I say yes, will you sign for your damn package?
Scott: *Signs, takes package and throws it away* so yeah, 8:00?

14. Analysis
This is the second interaction between these two in the movie. Ramona works at
Amazon so she delivers packages, and Scott orders a package so she will come
to his house so he can try to talk to her again.
This conversation accomplished it’s task. It was still awkward, but it accomplished
some sort of relationship and promised for further interactions, making it effective
by definition. Even though Scott got turned down the first time he asked Ramona
out, he started the conversation with what he was really thinking about, making
the conversation a lot more coherent. The tone of the conversation was pretty
much the same (as noted by its awkwardness) but Ramona engaged in the
conversation because Scott was being honest, making it much easier for them to
communicate and begin to start their relationship.
There was also much more even talk time and a more substantial conversation.
Even though Scott was still trying much harder to keep the conversation afloat,
his authenticity and presentation differed dramatically from their first conversation
together.

15. Scott: So how’d you end up in Toronto?
Ramona: Needed a change of scenery. I got this job
here and Gideon always said Toronto was one of the
great cities, so…
Scott: Is Gideon your boyfriend?
Ramona: He’s… A friend.
Scott: Was he your boyfriend?
Ramona: Do you mind if we don’t get into it right now?
Scott: Oh, okay, that’s so not interesting to me…

16. Analysis
This conversation is a prime example of Ramona
sharing her disclosure limit. She’s willing to tell Scott
subtly that they have a past together, but when Scott
asks explicitly if they had previously dated, she draws
her line and shuts him out. They end up changing the
topic after this.
Ramona does choose to share some information with
Scott, signaling that she does want to form some
intimacy with him. But it’s noted that intimacy
strengthens the dialectic and creates a more solid sense
of a need for privacy. Ramona does end up opening up
more about Gideon and her past over time, but she does
not feel comfortable doing so on their first date.

17. Final Thoughts

18. Conflict
The conflict occurs because Scott is under pressure to defeat all
of Ramona’s evil exes and Ramona doesn’t have to do the
same. It’s more of a situational conflict more than any of the
examples given from the book, but neither really know the best
course of action, so it fits most closely with the policy conflict.
The conflict is resolved when Scott realizes he is powerful
enough to undertake the challenge, and tells Ramona he’s in
“lesbians” with her (in love with her).
This is essentially Scott accommodating to the situation. He
decides that Ramona is worth all of the trouble and makes the
problem smaller than he previously took it to be.

19. Canned Plan in Scott Pilgrim
This is a visual representation
of Scott’s “canned plans” to
avoiding or getting out of
Ramona asking about Knives.
He ends up mixing two of his
different plans and making a
really weird statement.
This seemed like a pretty direct
connection to make between
what we’ve learned and the
movie.

20. The End