Warning: Contains spoilers for Scott Pilgrim Takes OffScott Pilgrim Takes Off has finally been released, and it turned out to be a very different story from what people were expecting, which includes its ending. Rather than being an animated adaptation of the original comic with more faithfulness than 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the series immediately diverges from the original story with Scott seemingly dying in the fight with Matthew Patel as opposed to defeating him and the rest of the League of Evil Exes.
Following that major first-episode twist, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off tells a story with far more focus on the characters than the movie or even the original comic. Ramona becomes the hero of the anime through an exploration of her relationship issues and her quest to find Scott after discovering that he’s alive.
Characters like Knives, Julie, and the League of Evil Exes are given different roles that add a lot for fans both old and new. It all makes for a unique story, even without the context of the original, and it leads to an ending that both fully recontextualizes Scott Pilgrim and excellently sets up more to come in the franchise.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’s True Villain Is Scott Pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim Literally Became His Worst Enemy
In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off episode #6, “WHODIDIT”, as Ramona and Sex Bob-omb prepared to confront the alleged culprits, the Katayanagi twins, Scott Pilgrim returned and revealed the identity of the true mastermind: future Scott Pilgrim. Episode #7, “2 Scott 2 Pilgrim” revealed that with help from the Katayanagi twins, future Scott pulled young Scott 14 years into the future where he’s regressed to being even more selfish and petty than his younger self was. Future Scott blamed it all on Ramona divorcing him, and the truth came out that future Scott Pilgrim kidnapped young Scott to get him to never go out with Ramona so he wouldn’t get his heart broken.
As Scott brewed over his future self’s motives, he met future Ramona, who revealed that she wrote Young Neil’s screenplay about Scott’s life in an attempt to save their relationship. While future Ramona felt that her efforts were pointless, Scott, who had watched Ramona’s efforts to find him through the Katayanagi twins’ robot, reassured her of her actions and their love, and on that note, future Ramona sent Scott back to the present to be with her young self. Scott, after explaining everything, apologized to Knives for cheating on her and leading her on, and with everything good between them, he and Ramona could finally begin their relationship in earnest.
Scott & Ramona Have One Final Fight Before They Can Be Together
The World Vs. Scott Pilgrim
Unfortunately, things weren’t anywhere near that simple, as every time Scott and Ramona tried to kiss, a force field would appear that would prevent their lips from touching. They immediately suspect the League of Evil Exes, so in the series finale, “The World Vs Scott Pilgrim”, they go to confront them at the premiere of Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, but it turns out none of them are responsible as they’ve all moved on from Ramona. The only remaining threat was Gideon and Julie trying to kill Matthew, but before that could happen, everyone was pulled into the subspace highway by none other than an even older future version of Scott Pilgrim.
It’s soon revealed that the even older future Scott Pilgrim was responsible for the force field and has now resolved to kill Scott to finally keep Ramona out of his life. Everyone joined together to fight the even older future Scott, but he was too powerful for them to deal with and kicked everyone except Scott and Ramona out of the subspace highway. Ramona starts to question if they really should be together, even as Scott resolves to not become his future self, and before they can get back to fighting, an even older future Ramona appears and berates the even older future Scott for letting their relationship fall apart.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Has Ramona Learn To Love Herself
Ramona Is Done Running From Love
As Ramona felt disappointed that her even older future self had given up on Scott, she finally realized how much of a problem her fear of commitment had been and resolved to love herself, which was signified by her fusing with her even older future self to become Super Ramona. Super Ramona sent the even older future Scott back home so he could try and fix his life, and immediately after, Super Ramona broke through the force field to kiss Scott. Super Ramona sent Scott and herself back to Matthew’s play, but not before telling Scott that she loves him and will try to stop running from love.
Where Everyone Is In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’s Ending & How It Sets Up A Sequel
An Ending And A Possible New Beginning
The epilogue to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off presents a montage of how everyone’s lives have progressed following the events of the story. Ramona has become a stunt double, Knives and Stephen are producing music with Envy Adams, Young Neil is still writing movies, Matthew is a famous actor, Lucas is working at Stacy’s coffee shop, Roxie is helping Todd get back into veganism, the Katayanagi twins are learning to be better, and Wallace falls in love in Paris. Scott is largely in the same place, but he has learned to be a better person, and he and Ramona will take their lessons to improve both their relationship and themselves.
While the anime ends on a largely conclusive note, it still sets up a possible continuation. After Gideon failed to kill Matthew as revenge for stealing his company, Matthew decided to just give it back to Gideon as he found being a CEO too stressful and wanted to focus on acting. That specific scene made it clear that Matthew, Gideon, and Julie all had evil intentions in mind, and while it’s unknown what Matthew is plotting, the final scene of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off showed Gideon and Julie using Gideon’s company to set up another evil plot, although the show ends without explaining anything.
Gideon’s mysterious new plot likely isn’t a revival of the League of Evil Exes since the League has moved on from Ramona, and with how much the anime has diverged from Scott Pilgrim’s original story, it’s hard to say what direction it might go in. Even so, any sort of continuation would be more than welcome, as the ending perfectly encapsulated the story’s themes of self-improvement in a more modern form, and seeing what else could be done with that would be great to see. There’s no way of knowing where Scott Pilgrim Takes Off goes from here, but its ending still leaves things on a high note, either way.
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