Scott Pilgrim/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• Scott is terrible at comebacks; the only time we ever see him make a snappy comeback is when saving Kim from Simon Lee. You might think this is because Kim is supposed to be Scott's true love, but it's actually because Gideon "spiced up" Scott's memories.
• Along the same lines, Simon Lee's resemblance to Gideon can probably be explained by the same reasoning. The Animated Adaptation takes the similarity to the next level by having Gideon's film actor, Jason Schwartzmann, voice Lee.
• This troper thought that, in Book 3, when Wallace mentions Scott wearing his shirt, the shirt in question looked a lot like the shirts that Stephen Stills usually wears. Meaning, Wallace would have exercised his amazing powers on Stephen and Stephen left his shirt behind, which would definitely cause Stephen to question his sexuality even before meeting Joseph. Though there's nothing between them to suggest that this actually happened, it would mean we get to see the aftermath of one of Wallace's legendary straight guy seductions.
• After reading Book 6, re-read the series and and pay close attention to Stephen Stills and Joseph from the moment Stephen discovers Joseph's recording studio in Volume 4, to the end of Volume 6 when he comes out to Scott. They start growing closer together and Joseph even becomes a de facto member of the core group and, by the middle of Volume 5, they're always either sitting or standing right next to one another. Young Neil even backhandedly outs Stephen by calling him "Captain Homo" at Julie's Halloween Party at the beginning of Volume 5.
  • Knives' hysterical laughter when Scott accuses her of being in love with Stephen Stills in early Volume 6 gains additional context, as she would obviously have known that he was dating Joseph, since she had spent a lot of time hanging out with Stephen Stills in Volume 5.
  • There's also Stephen Stills uneasy reaction to Julie remarking that she shouldn't be worried about Stephen falling for Knives towards the end of Volume 4 and Stephen Stills's uneasiness in the aforementioned "She's obsessed with Captain Homo now" panel - upon first seeing them, it looks as if Stephen Stills actually is interested in Knives & is later worried about being at Julie's party with his new underage girlfriend, but it all takes on another meaning when rereading the books after the release of Volume 6.
  • There's also the scene in Volume 4 where Scott and Ramona stop by to find Kim that only has extra meaning if you've read Book 6; Stephen and Joseph are "working on the album" in Joseph's room, and we only see Stephen from the waist up as he leans out the door. Joseph, unseen, expresses annoyance that the door wasn't locked, and instructs Stephen to tell their visitors that they're "busy making magic."
    • Bonus points for noticing they spend a good few months creating a 20 minute album, and they're spending hours every day over said time period in a recording studio that just so happens to contain a bed. Do the math.
  • However, someone with a hard case of Shipping Goggles could have caught all of these without having read Vol. 6.
• The recurring Triforce in Volume 6 isn't just for show; Scott, Ramona, and Gideon each have an aspect of it. Gideon is 'Power' because he wants to control Ramona's life to the point of having her cyrogenically frozen along with his other 6 exes. Ramona is 'Courage' because she finally stopped running away and is now standing up to Gideon. Scott of all people becomes 'Wisdom' when he realized all the mistakes that he's made over the years, and that he and Gideon are Not So Different.
  • And much as Link often ends up representing all three aspects of the Triforce, Scott does as well by the end of the series. Wisdom has already been mentioned, though his discussion with Ramona in the elevator about "getting unstuck together" also qualifies. Power is shown in his obtaining the Power of Understanding, which gives him the strength needed to defeat Gideon. Finally, he exemplifies Courage in absorbing the Nega-Scott and owning up to his mistakes, admitting that he's not that different from Gideon, and just going back to fight at all.
  • The cyrogenically frozen exes are like the Seven Maidens from A Link to the Past (Ramona would have been the 7th - Princess Zelda)
• Ramona tells Scott he has a subspace highway through his head that is three miles in fifteen seconds, followed by a guess that they don't teach that, (subspace,) in Canadian schools. But the schools don't teach imperial measurements either.
• I've wondered for a bit why the other exes besides Gideon would even bother going through with the League anyway. For a lot of them, it's been years since they last saw Ramona, and even though old wounds are hard to overcome, they all seemed to have their own lives to live. Some are even successful, such as the Twins being award-winning roboticists. However, in Volume 6, we discover that Gideon's secret weapon, the Glow, causes people to become trapped in their own minds and their negative emotions, unable to move on. It is unclear how he uses it, but he seems to generate it from himself. It is then revealed that Gideon's been using Subspace to travel through Scott's head to witness the events of all the volumes. This could explain why Scott's head was glowing right before his final battle with Negascott, despite never having met Gideon in the real world: because by traveling through his head, Gideon infected him, making his already troublesome personality even worse. This changes the meaning of Todd's Superpower Meltdown in Season 3. That image of Gideon isn't a flashback. He is there inside Todd's head, commanding him to do his bidding. And that is how he got all the exes to form the League. By meeting with them and infecting them so that they couldn't move on past Ramona.
• Why did they replace The Power of Understanding for the Power of Self Respect in the movie? Read...
• Scott has to fight seven evil ex boyfriends. What is his favorite comic book? X-Men.
• In the Scott Pilgrim game, one of Todd Ingram's attacks is to stand at one side of the screen, use his vegan powers (Don't ask) to turn his arm into a mass of vegetation, and slam you with it as giant vegetables rain down upon the battle field. If you examine his arm during this attack, you can see some weird animal-like bits between all the flora. This isn't just some strange little detail. "You are what you eat", they say. The attack reveals his betrayal to veganism and why the vegan police come for him right after the attack.
• In the video game, Scott fights and successfully defeats Nega-Scott, contrary to the outcomes in both the comic and movie. His ending in the game is also the only continuity in which he doesn't end up with Ramona ( not counting the movie's cut ending). Coincidence? Nope; Nega-Scott represents Scott's mistake, so making peace with Nega-Scott represents Scott's reconciliation with the part of him that made those mistakes (an act that allows him to win back Ramona). By beating the crap out of Nega-Scott, though, Scott never learns his lesson, and therefore is never able to get back with Ramona. All those coins he beat out of people means he can harem it up with Kim, Knives, and Envy, though.
• When fighting Gigadeon Graves in his subspace, his One-Winged Angel form has the bodies of the 6 other evil-exes merged into one giant pile underneath his torso. All of them have angry faces, except for Roxanne, who looks as if she's in a state of pleasure, which is strange considering she's a lesbian. Things make sense though when you remember that Gideon has an extremely large ego, and that these aren't really the other evil-exes. His ego is so huge that he believes that in his presence even those who would have no reason to be attracted to him would fall all over themselves just to be with him, (but not the guys because he doesn't swing that way.)
  • It could also be a reference to how they were when defeated.. Lucas looks scared, like he was before he eventually died skateboarding. Patel looks shocked, as well, when he died he was shocked that Scott could defeat him. The twins and Todd just look angry, and Roxy looks, well... yes.

Fridge Horror

• If Mr. Chau was willing to kill Scott over "Dishonoring" his daughter, Knives, think what may have happened if he got wind that he knew Stephen Stills gave Knives beer and she got so drunk she made out with equally drunken Kim?
  • Well, him being gay might help his case a bit. A bit.
  • A far more literal example: Gideon collects his ex-girlfriends and keeps them locked away in a perpetually brainwashed state. What do you think he does with them? Complete Monster indeed.
  • The series appears to be taking place in a video game world, but Scott Pilgrim is the only character to gain experience, implying that he is a PC and everyone else is an NPC. This could be read as suggesting that he is living in some kind of solipsist universe in which he is the only sentient, and all everyone else is some sort of emotionless AI faking interaction with him.
    • Or it could be Fridge Brilliance, as everyone else already had jobs, compassion, and generally a life, and Scott was the only one who hadn't--thus, he was the only one who still had to level up.
    • Considering that Gideon basically has free access to Scott's mind and personality, we have a rare case of third-person Unreliable Narrator. It's entirely possible Scott lives in a normal world filtered through implanted insanity.
• Film example: When Ramona is about to leave she says that "[she's] tired of people getting hurt because of [her]". Scott remarks that "[he's] pretty sure [he'll] get over it". 7 people, countless mooks, and Crash and The Boys died. Someone is going to have to explain to Trasha's parents why her daughter was killed by an errant fireball.
  • The world of Scott Pilgrim runs on video game logic. With one ups and save points! (save points may not exist in the movie) They could probably have popped back up later. Crash in the Boys played an awesome show after all, they probably earned enough points for an extra life.
    • Word of God suggests that death is just getting defeated and that dead characters - or the Exes at least - just respawn.
• It's implied that there's little to no police officers or law force of any kind in the Scott Pilgrim universe. Does that mean people can go around murdering people by the dozens and and get off scott free?
  • Adding support to that implication, when Scott was murdered, his sister didn't call police or ambulance. She just called their mother to report his demise.
  • Here's some more:
    • Apparently, if you use Subspace in a special way, you can alter someone's memories.
    • Where do people go when they die? And when they materialize into coins, are they aware of this?
    • What happens when people who don't have one-ups or save points die?

Fridge Logic

• Scott has the chance to collect the coins left by the dead exes. While he actually does bother with it at one point, neither Scott nor any of the other characters bother to collect any of the seven-figure digits' worth of cash left by Gideon Graves. Even scooping up a handful of Canadian currency (of which the largest denomination is $2) could be twenty bucks or so by itself. His pockets could probably hold, oh, a hundred bucks each, if not more. And if he had a bag, he could have walked away significantly richer, even if he had to leave most of the coins behind. Of course, trying to find all that money IN COINS on a crowded dance floor and among all of Ramona's stuff, would be too hard for a bunch of very drained characters. Still, talk about a missed Moment of Awesome in the course of a character's life.
  • This was actually fixed in the films alternate ending where Scott ends up with Knives. As they walk Scott asks if Knives wants to go to the arcade. She says that she doesn't have any quarters. Scott having just defeated Gideon points out that he does while rifling though his coat pocket.
  • Maybe his currency inventory was maxxed out, it's just unobtainable, or it's plain old Money for Nothing in play? That or they're hipsters, and Goodwill and Pizza Pizza is cheap enough that it's just not worth the effort.
  • Funnily, the movie averts this when Stephen Stills realizes that the band isn't getting paid after Gideon explodes. They start scooping up as much loose change as possible.
    • You know, I just noticed that last night, and I couldn't work out why. Thank you.
• A bit of Brillance for me, but, look at how Scott appears on the covers of each volume. It may seem to be Art Evolution at first, but, if you look a bit deeper, Scott found himself much more mature than he really was in the beginning. As the story goes on, and the comic looks more cartoony, You start to see him for the shallow man-child he is, and how he tries to change. It's as if he's come, in a way, into terms with his childishness, and now, he finally has a chance to start over and grow up.
• In the video game, why are most of the main females dressed from the waist down in just their panties (or alternatively Japanese style gym shorts)? In the middle of winter. In Canada.
  • Crosses into Fridge Brilliance when you remember that Scott Pilgrim version of Toronto runs on video game logic. Just to pull from a recent example, it's entirely possible to strip down to your birthday suit in Skyrim and jump into arctic waters without suffering in the slightest. Unless it's a specific mechanic of the gameplay, temperature doesn't have any discernible effect on people in video games.