Scott Pilgrim the Psyop: A Tale of Two Narcissists
Lacanian observations on the modern condition of men and women
“…A thousand yard stare from all those guys she sucked and fucked before you came along”
- Negative XP Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Ruined a Whole Generation of Women
Relax everyone, what NegativeXP fails to mention is that it ruined a generation of men too. It’s a real psyop of a movie.
There exists on the web, all manner of demonic entities. In many ways the web can offer metaphysical expressions of how reality makes people feel. It’s part of why the capital-I, Internet is capable of expressing content in such an efficient and relatable manner. In many ways it’s among the last places one can express honesty and authenticity away from the social graces that those assholes called “normies” find offensive. How dare the ugly people intrude on their fantasy.
One recent expression has been the rise of incels and thus incel subculture as a reaction to increasing feminist influence. There’s an entire wiki dedicated to this.
Scott Pilgrim the Incel
For the purposes of this piece we will be analyzing the movie, not the graphic novel. It’s 2021, nobody above the age of 15 has got the kind of time to decrypt comic books. That’s why we made Marvel movies.
In the film, Scott is pretty much a dead end loser. He has no prospects, no ambitions really, no money and he lives with a homosexual roommate in a bachelor basement apartment directly across the street from his parent’s house. He plays in an indie band which is pretty much his only job and all he knows how to be is the most important thing in Torontonian society which is “cool”.
He’s so cool in fact, he’s dating a high school girl which many incels would probably disqualify him for, and he’s also dated two women in the past. So how can he be an incel? Scott’s an incel for the same reason men have been labelled as everything women don’t want in the past.
Scott’s ex-girlfriends include the drummer in his current band and also another, Envy Addams, who usurped his previous band The Clash at Demonhead out from under him. As a result, Scott is forced into a back seat for his anxious but talented frontman, Stills. This new band Sex Bob-Omb is much lower status than Demonhead is and Scott is coping with the fact that he’s “above” playing in this band under leadership so anxious that Stills is paralyzed before he can get on stage at their first gig at the battle of the bands. Scott has to assume the role of leadership which he only works up the courage for when he gets a whiff of mentally ill pussy in the form of Ramona Flowers. We’ll get to her later.
Scott dates Knives (the high schooler) because he’s been symbolically castrated by his ex-girlfriend Envy. Knives is attracted to Scott because he’s cheating of course. High school boys aren’t allowed to have a symbolic phallus yet so of course he knocks them all out of the water, he’s legally allowed to experience life and has been doing so for the past 4 years (He’s 22 in the movie. 23 in the comic).
Envy usurped his identity as the leader of Demonhead. Her new boyfriend is a a vegan “Chad” by every standard. He’s the picture of the power of the Lacanian “phallus” to such a degree that he has literal superpowers that Envy herself can never hope to have. Of course she likes this man, like many women Envy Addams is a spiritual size queen. Always on the lookout for the next biggest symbolic “phallus” she can get her hands on.
Meanwhile Scott has become Wojak, a product of symbolic castration. Scott has such an ego though that he refuses to see this and in the movie his narcissism is on full display throughout most of the movie. Scott’s castration is visible whenever he uses the very feminine excuse of “I have to pee”. No man uses that as an excuse to leave a situation. I bet he sits down to pee too. Scott finally abandons this excuse when he defeats the Katanayagi twins at the next battle of the bands event.
While talking to Knives in the music store when Aubrey Plaza roasts him, he quickly defends himself. He’s also quick to turn any mention of his old band and girlfriend into a conversation about himself. He selected his mate to be so intentionally weak that she couldn’t possibly challenge what little remains of his symbolic “phallus”.
Aubrey Plaza’s character lays it on thick at the party he attends to meet Ramona when she says “dating a high schooler is the mourning period” and she’s exactly right. He’s mourning the loss of his phallus though, not his girlfriend. On some level, he’s anxious about this, which is why he’s so spectacularly quick to jump onto Ramona. It’s not about her, it never was. It’s about Scott proving to himself that he isn’t castrated and the ultimate symbol of that is being with a bitchy challenge of a woman. The plot of the movie is entirely about him building his phallus back. The struggle of fighting the men from Ramona’s past, symbolizing his growth to surpass the former lovers Ramona compares her future suitors to. Which he tolerates for some reason.
“She’s a Little Hardcore”
Now that we’ve ripped Scott a new asshole, it’s time to tear into Ramona. Ramona Flowers’ body is a vampire castle full of the ghosts of her ex-boyfriends that she keeps holding suitors against, but most specifically she holds her future prospects (in this case, Scott) in comparison to her most “phallic” ex-boyfriend, Gideon Graves. On top of this, to turn her narcissism up further, she’s American.
The plot of the movie scarcely holds Ramona to the same standard to which Scott is held. Ramona doesn’t have to change a bit, in spite of her past actions. She’s perfect the way she is, which is an object Scott can stare at himself in and as an emotional approval crutch Scott can hang his fragile ego on.
Ramona’s promiscious past is painted as something to be glorified. This woman that’s been passed around between six men and one woman is depicted as a mountain to climb, a challenge to be conquered for… what reward exactly? It’s never depicted at the end if Scott has a family with her, so reproduction obviously isn’t the answer, Ramona seems like the kind of woman that doesn’t want kids. NegativeXP really hit the nail on the head with his song.
After Scott defeats her third, female, ex-partner, Scott asks Ramona in anger, “Is there anyone here you haven’t slept with?” at another party. Holding Ramona accountable for any of her actions for the first time in the movie. At the first sign of criticism Ramona then insists they should split and goes running back to her old, currently still favorite symbolic “phallus”, Gideon Graves at the next battle of the bands event. However, she was willing to hold Scott accountable for all of his past actions and Scott had no problem with this, as he was being held accountable by his entire friend group as well. This is about what you expect from your average narcissistic American woman.
Is Ramona particularly valuable as a woman? What does she offer Scott? Her body? It’s hard to tell really why Scott likes her apart from seeing his own reflection in the mirror of her empty personality. She’s nothing but a representation of Scott’s desire to un-castrate himself. Ramona is a bad female representation because she represents Scott’s lost “phallus”, his yard stick for recovery. Not anything a real relationship is or should be made out of.
You know how the movie should have ended? It should go the exact same way, except at the end, Scott should defeat Gideon, leave Ramona and then walk away to get a woman who actually appreciates him instead of choosing between a questionably legal teenager and an entitled American.
Peace out