This beautifully articulated paragraph basically sums up why I love this movie. This is a film that is hyper-aware of its audience. Scott Pilgrim just punched a dude who turned into coins. Sure, okay, why not? The fact that the movie doesn’t bother explaining anything, and that Scott is little more than mildly puzzled by the fact that he has just acquired superpowers, makes the whole thing even better. All of the trappings of this universe, the specific events, the cause of this sudden warp in the fabric of reality, take a backseat to these visceral experiences and impressions. More importantly, those things take a back seat to the character’s development over the course of the film. These battles may be literal in Scott’s universe, but we play out the same battles IRL. We all have to contend with how our past experiences affect our ability to relate to others now. You may not have to throw-down Mortal Kombat-style, but we’ve all got our seven evil exes to battle.
I can see how others wouldn’t like it, but for a certain kind of person, from a certain kind of generation, used to a certain way of experiencing the world… it works.
The age of consent isn’t the only thing that made it creepy. It was that she was a very innocent, underage schoolgirl who had just gotten into music, and Scott took advantage of that.
IIRC, he says something like “yeah she has a uniform and everything”. The movie definitely does not make it clear he isn’t interested in her at all. Even if he says he isn’t, other things he says imply otherwise.
Like I said though, I assumed it came across much better in the comic (where they had more space to make his intentions clear).
So I still loved the movie and thought Michael Cera was great for the part.
But Scott was so immature that he was almost Knives’ peer. It wasn’t like a typical 23 year old dating a 17 year old. It was more like a high school senior dating a junior. If fate hadn’t interrupted, Knives probably would have ended up being the one to break up with Scott when she outgrew him.
He should have come to his senses and ended up with the Asian girl, who genuinely liked him and was trying to be involved in his life. Oh, and they should have eliminated the storyline of her being younger than him, too.
That was the movie’s original ending. You can see it on the DVD. As I posted before, I think it makes the point of the movie clearer - it was about Scott’s personal growth not about him fighting battles.
That would have made it hard to fit her in. It was plausible for her to be as immature as Scott at the start of the movie because she was six years younger than him. But if she had been a normal 23 year old woman, there would have been the issue of why she would have been interested in Scott to start with. Unless she was as atypically immature as Scott was, in which case the movie would have had to split itself between having her grow up at the same time Scott did.
Scott is a sexually active 23 year old with lots of dating experience, living away from home, and playing in a band that could have had a record deal.
Knives is a (most likely) underage virgin high school girl living at home, with no dating experience we know of and just getting into music.
I say Knives is likely a virgin (or at least way less experienced) because otherwise she would have found it more strange that Scott didn’t get physical with her.
The experience difference is even more drastic than a typical high school girl and 23 year old since Knives seems less experienced than average, and Scott has had probably more girlfriends than average.
Then you have Scott waiting outside the high school for her and talking about how she has a school uniform.
I don’t remember exactly how the scene goes in the movie, but in the book, the “school uniform” bit is clearly not intended as a “OMG I AM GOING TO SEX UP A SCHOOLGIRL” sentiment. Scott is on the phone with his extremely disapproving sister, and he admits that she’s a schoolgirl with* embarrassment* - i.e. he’s VERY aware of what it sounds like and wants to make it clear that his relationship with Knives is nothing like that.
Little Nemo has it right. Scott may be 23 in age and sexual experience, but in mind and maturity, he’s every bit the 17 year old Knives is. He’s with Knives because he wants something simple and uncomplicated to fill the void Envy left, not because he’s sexually attracted to underage schoolgirls (or even because he has an Asian fetish). The relationship (such as it is) is an emotional crutch for Scott Pilgrim, nothing more.
Spoilers for Volume 6 of the book below:
Scott’s lack of sexual interest in underage-Knives is made explicit in Volume 6 of the book, when Scott has recently been dumped by Ramona and is wallowing in self-pity. He runs into Knives, who recently turned 18, and only then, for the first time in the entire series, indicates some level of physical attraction to her. They kiss… and it’s horrible for both of them. They immediately break it off and go their separate ways.
That isn’t to say there’s nothing bad about the Scott-Knives relationship. There is. The mere fact that he’s stringing Knives along as an emotional crutch is pretty fucked up. That he immediately ditches her when a girl he’s actually attracted to comes along is even moreso. That he only actually breaks up with Knives well after starting to date Ramona, and even then only after being verbally pummeled by Wallace, may be most fucked up of all. But that’s the setup of the whole story here - Scott Pilgrim is an immature, self-absorbed jerk, and this is the story of how he grows out of that.
Some people never mature. Doesn’t mean 40 year old immature men should be waiting outside high schools to pick up their uniform-clad schoolgirl girlfriends.
I don’t get how not being “mature” makes it better.
I already pointed out how there is a huge gap between them in experience. Sexual experience, life experience, dating experience, music experience, living experience, whatever you want.
It is actually a particularly bad example of a 23 yeard old dating a high schooler. A better example would be a 23 year old guy who was still in school himself, had spent all his time studying, and lacked all the other experiences Scott has.
And I already said, I figured it came off much better in the comic.
I didn’t say it made it better. I said it made it different from the scenario you posed. What exactly is sketchy about a 23 year old dating a 17 year old? It is the fact that, in most such cases, the 23 year old is taking advantage of the 17 year old’s relative lack of life experience/ ability to make informed decisions with regards to physical intimacy. As far as actually being pedophilia, it’s definitively not - as other posters have pointed out, the age of consent in many places (including Canada) is 16. Knives is, for all legal purposes, a very naive adult.
I won’t argue that Scott is innocent of taking advantage of Knives emotionally, or that the relationship is healthy. He is absolutely guilty of that, and the relationship is an unhealthy one - just not for the reasons you’ve given. He’s guilty of stringing her along. He’s guilty of being insensitive and not giving a rat’s ass about her feelings. He’s guilty of getting cold feet the moment she showed genuine affection for him. And he’s guilty of cheating on her and not having the balls to admit it.
But I strongly disagree with the notion that he’s some sort of sexual predator equivalent to, as you described it, “40 year old immature men… waiting outside high schools to pick up their uniform-clad schoolgirl girlfriends.” Again, Scott Pilgrim is not sexually interested in Knives Chau. He thinks she’s cute, sure. He enjoys her company. But he doesn’t want to get her into bed - hell, he doesn’t even want to kiss her. A hug is about as far as he’s willing to go.
The Scott-Knives relationship is only “creepy” if you assume it’s sexual, and as I said, the story is quite emphatic that it is not remotely so, at least from Scott. The only physical attraction in the relationship is from Knives towards Scott. And again, when she acts on that attraction, Scott rebuffs her immediately. He does so in a remarkably assholish way, so it’s not like he’s a saint for doing so. But I think the text supports the idea that he’s not in it for the Asian schoolgirl sexytimes.
Keep in mind, it was clear in the movie that Scott was not a sexual predator - the physical extent of his relationship with Knives was when they held hands. He looked at dating like a twelve year old would - you tell everyone “this is my girlfriend” and then you go hang out at the mall together.
Just saw it last night, and liked it. I’m not a videogamer at all, but I picked up on that vibe immediately, and it didn’t get in the way. I wasn’t creeped out by Scott’s and Knives’s relationship, given their similar level of maturity and how it was portrayed. Liked the Ramona character a lot. Liked the deadpan dialogue (esp. Kieran Culkin’s, the cool gay roommate’s, zingers, i.e.: “Not a race, guys!” “You have to leave now, because I’m going to have sex”) very much. The movie was so ridiculously over-the-top that I just suspended my disbelief as high as I could, and went along for the ride. Glad I did.
You’ll love the comic - it’s everything great about the movie times about a thousand.