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I had the rare pleasure of reading all of the Scott pilgrim books for the first time over the course of a week and enjoyed almost every panel.

Scott is a character that I identify with (probably a lot of people in my generation do). I’m 26, I have a video gaming podcast, I ride a motorcycle and although I meet with wild success in my career I hold myself back (consciously and unconsciously) for fear of growing up.

To further drive the point home, I went through a very abrupt and painful separation with a girl I still hold dear.

There was no actual breakup. The page where Ramona tells Scott she’s a bad person and piffs literally put me to tears because THAT HAPPENED to me (sans glow, but I kept her cat).

We both went on sabbatical and neither of us has returned since. I haven’t maintained interest in anyone past a first date since.

Reading through book 6, I found myself longing for a picture perfect ending. I so closely identified with this character and the story that I felt like if things could be perfect for Scott maybe there’s hope for me too.

In the end, though, we got closure on the past and an uncertain future.

Scott Pilgrim’s story will, in my mind, remain a romantic tragedy.

The ending was perfect for the book but it wasn’t perfect for me and until I can pick things up in my own life I’ll remain a little disappointed with the ending.

On a side note, life going to the crapper is an amazing growth experience btw – I can say for certain that one way to learn who exactly you are at the core is to have your so-called-life go to hell and then see how you deal with picking yourself back up. I don’t recommend it, but it’s been a terrible ride I wouldn’t give up for the world, or the girl for that matter…

I think of the return of Envy Adams as extraneous because I absolutely loved the lack of closure for Scott that she represented; it was one of my favourite things about Infinite Sadness. Wallace expressed the key point beautifully in Volume 3: “Her being back doesn’t make it not over.” That was good. That worked. I didn’t need literal closure as icing on the cake. For me, it just weakened that beautiful ending in retrospect. To tweak my one of my previous comments, for me Envy’s symmetrical return was artful, but not satisfying.

And I’m not sure that Envy Adams is “extraneous.” It’s Envy who started Scott off on his downward spiral before the first volume, and her story occupies the middle volume, so symmetry alone calls for her to appear for closure. And she mirrors the Gideon action: just “beating” the ex isn’t good enough–understanding them is necessary to achieve growth.

I admit, I loved seeing her again just because O’Malley draws her so fabulously. And because Infinite Sadness was probably my favorite of all the individual volumes.

Did you feel Scott arriving at a birthday party without knowing whose party it was felt shoehorned to reintroduce Envy Adams?

O’Malley, in his interview with Laura Hudson at Comics Alliance, stated “I realized I identified with Envy more than anyone else. So I had to bring her back.”

Envy’s coffee scene dialogue sounded like a stand-in for author revelations to the reader.

Paul’s comments touch on some of the issues that were troublesome for me, although we’ve obviously reacted to them quite differently; a number of plot points were handled in what felt to me to be a very dismissive way.

For instance, the resolutions of the Scott/Kim and Scott/Knives subplots felt trivialized, and also like a cheap shot at the shippers. I’m disappointed that everybody else grew up between Volumes 5 and 6 while Scott wasn’t paying attention.

(That’s realistic, but for me, it wasn’t satisfying.)

The big reveal with Stephen Stills was cute, but again, after the big build-up around the hinted-at Stills/Knives relationship, it felt like a red herring gotcha.

The supporting cast was poorly served in general; Wallace had virtually nothing to do (although I have some thoughts about what he DID do; more on that later, perhaps). Stacey had nothing at all to do.

And nobody told Julie off.

Conversely, we got follow-through and a conclusion we didn’t need with Envy Adams, who was entirely extraneous to this volume.

Looking back on the series as a whole, it’s clear that Scott Pilgrim is about the way we romanticize and confabulate in our memories of ourselves, our experiences and past relationships.

That being said, I still don’t understand what was going on with Ramona and Gideon. It felt very much to me like Bryan Lee O’Malley was trying to hand-wave and tap-dance around the differences that had emerged between how he had decided to resolve the story and the plot and character points he had explicitly or implicity established earlier in the series.

But a “Comic Club” would be a great outreach for local shops. It would emphasize the sense of community that a specialist shop can provide. (I know all the Mystery Book Stores I have ever seen have Clubs.)

Rather than opening new possibilities (very few new characters or locations), this volume focused on closing shop. Characters conversed one-on-one, and there were several partings.

The mundane revelations (where Ramona was all this time, how Gideon formed the League) felt dismissive, but made me focus on other parts of the story. Parts that I realized I could relate to more: the difficulties of relationships, values, and living.

This is very different from the direction the movie seems to be going (quirky, action/romance with pop-culture references). This is a series with a beginning, middle, and end that are grounded in normal and I love it.

Stephen, could you elaborate a bit on what disappointed you?

I *think* that Wallace’s point was that he thought that Scott needed to “get laid” without a relationhsip for once. Shallow, not very good advice, but it is a commmon retort to someone in a funk. And it gets to your point. He is, in a way, saying that Scott needs to be alone emotionally, break up his status quo of being obsessed with relationships.

I LOVE your book club idea. Can’t believe I haven’t thought of that. And it’s what Usenet used to be, in it’s own way. I’m going to pitch that to the Erics at Chicago Comics.