Did Netflix Fix Ramona Flowers?

okoki manic pixie dream girl is an archetype you might have seen getting thrown around the entry quirky heroin that doesn't follow the rules who swoops in to teach protagonist how to live life to the fullest you know she's not like other girls she's got all her together no personal flaws at all it's been criticized quite a bit for resulting in characters that are pretty shallow no pths no problems no purpose an empty character only there to support the hero of the story that is not Ramona Flowers when I was first introduced to this term the girl that was always front and center was Ramona you take one look at the dyed hair and you're like oh yeah of course 100% mpdg I had never seen Scott Pilgrim so all I could do was trust what everyone else was telling me nobody on the internet would lie to me would they that is until Scott pilgram takes off got announced which led me to finally picking up both the movie and the anime and wow Ramona Flowers is not who I thought she was Scott Pilgrim versus the world is a story about Scott Pilgrim he's an unemployed bum sponging off his cool gay roommate his only ambition being the band he plays for called bomb while also making time to babysit his girlfriend knives life is pretty normal in Toronto Canada as he spends another night drinking at a party that is until he catches sight of some pink hair mixed within the crowd standing against a wall all by herself you can kind of see why the label of manic pixie dream girl initially got slapped on before this our first introduction of Ramona literally has her appearing to Scott in a vision we've already crossed off one half the archetype the dream and the girl she dyes her hair a different color every week and a half and she's definitely no stickler for the rules you kind of expect her to tick off every other trait the girl that will solve all of Scott's problems but that quickly Fades away upon the introduction C of the league of evil X's surprise Ramona Flowers came to Toronto to get away from a past seven evil xes that you'll have to fight for if you wish to go out with her wow she's definitely an mpdg she literally has a bunch of guys and girl chasing after her wishing to rekindle that magical fantasy romance but Malik pixie Dream Girls are supposed to be Flawless right they're constantly bubbly full of energy Great Taste and music she's the perfect perfect girl Ramona Flowers is dead pen and almost guarded skating away from a past of stringing along X after X with no regard to their feelings the X's that Scott now has to fight to only right to become Ramona's boyfriend instead of Ramona sweeping to solve all of Scott's problems it's more like Scott himself is solving Ramon's problems punching them away until they're nothing but coins in fact I would argue Scott has more tra in line of being a manic pixie dream boy he's kind of bubbly at the beginning he's in a band so obviously great music taste has all these fun quirks like knowing obscure nerd trivia and being great with children and he's not like the other ex's he's different Ramona is the gend protagonist and Scott came to show her a whole new world they flipped the genders deconstructed the archetype oh my God so subversive which isn't quite correct either because as I said before Scott has numerous personal problems like how he's still hung up on his celebrity X Envy or that he's dating a high school at 23 who he hasn't broken up with before getting with Ramona we can even see his bubbliness fade away as he lashes out after one too many fights to death there isn't any manic pixie dreaming anywhere just two pretty horrible people that have no regard for the pain they cause Ramona abandoning her exes and Scott cheating on knives there's like zero chemistry between these two besides the both of them wanting something new and different which is why Scott doesn't defeat Gideon with a power of love he defeats him with the power of self-respect he finally owns up to how much of a scumbag he is completing his character growth and I guess also getting the girl so where is Ramona's character growth mic pixie Dream Girls have no agency the role they serve in the story is to turn these sad life upside down make him realize the true meaning of being alive and whatever when you look at just the movie Ramona doesn't really change all that much she doesn't have a real goal besides running away from her problems which she never really confronts at all like why does Scott have to be the one that deals with Ramona's exes when you enter into a new relationship you can't be expecting your partner to be the one that fixes all your emotional baggage sure I can help you out but the movie has Scott Pilgrim be the one that does most of the fighting the only time Ramona comes in is when they're against Roxy and Gideon and that's very minimal to say the least it leaves her feeling a bit one notes like she's just a prize be one after defeating the final boss the princess Who's In Another Castle the common problem you see with many other manic pixie Dream Girls In comes Scott Pilgrim takes off the anime lives up to its title by having Scott literally take off and fake dying for most of the series the important word being fake because Ramona discovers that he's actually still alive and missing turning into an adventure where she has to find Scott where she finally becomes the one to confront each of her seven ex's and the difference it makes to a character is amazing Ramona is no longer purely dead pan she smiles makes silly faces blushes when thinking about Scott the first day feels completely different they have more chemistry in episode one than they ever did in the entire movie it actually makes sense why Ramona ful adorable Scott and why Scott ful mysterious Ramona she feels less like a caricature and more like a real person she actually gets fleshed out in fact everyone gets fleshed out from the league of evil X's to super bomb Julie knives Wallace that one HW herw that appears for 5 minutes maybe not that last one I just wanted to bring her up because her cat design is to die for I think my favorite scene is still that first confrontation where Roxy attacks ramoner and they start traveling from movie to movie as they battle it out while this is an absolutely spectacular setpiece to watch I'm still thinking about that one conversation in the airplane how Roxy reveals how she felt when Ramona left without a word how Ramona actually apologizes for running away how we come to see that that she was just afraid maybe because of her fear of commitment maybe because she was unsure about her sexuality either way she finally decides to take off the skates to stand in front of her past to confront her ex just like Scott did all those years ago Ramona's personal journey in anime shows us what she's like outside of her relationship with the main character she bonds with everyone she comes across she provides closure to all the people she heard the past she even finds a new passion randomly becoming Envy stun double during the filming of a young Neil script based on the original movie where she ends up falling in love with being a stunt performer that's such a cool detail she's no longer running away from her past but running towards what she wants whether it be finding Scott Pilgrim or another goal that she stubbles upon along the way I know people got angry when they realized the anime wasn't going to be a faithful adaptation I haven't read it myself so for all I know Le mango is indeed better the only thing I do know is that the movie doesn't give REM of the character grow she desperately needed which is probably why the writer of the comics Brian Leo decided to use this show to revisit our character both Brian and ramono getting a second chance to fix the mistakes of the past to put the final puzzle piece that separates Ramona Flowers from all the other manic pixie dream girl and thanks for watching again I have not read the comics so if I'm wrong about anything in that last section feel free to skew me live in the comments actually there's a chance I'll ignore you down there so you should join my Discord in the description so you can directly tell me how stupid I am and then join my patreon so I can get brain surgery to fix my dumb dumb dooo head I definitely have Scott Pilgrim in my plan to read so I will get to it eventually either way I'm just happy that the movie and Anime do exist or else I may not have been introduced to such a fun and heartfelt world if you're still here I hope you enjoyed like And subscribe for more videos check out my Discord and patreon in the description below please join my Discord I am so lonely thanks again for watching and I hope you all have a goodal day

Channel: almostcheesecake

Views: 318,632

Keywords: review, analysis, manga, tv, show, anime, movie, animation, cartoon, netflix, crunchyroll, comic, content, creator, consumer, amazon, prime, video essay

Id: TJwKJZ2tDYw

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2023