Scott Pilgrim as The Herculean Hero

Overcoming The Labours of Toxic Masculinity.

Comparing 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World' (2010) to the Myth of Hercules.

(January 2022)

---

Introduction

The fragility of masculinity has existed for as long as the masculine has been narrativized. The male hero in much folktale, especially mythic tales, exists to teach moral lessons, such as religious fables and parables alike do.

Classical Greek mythology explores characteristics of men, and desirable characteristics of the everyman, through its representations of philosophers, warriors, kings, and heroes.

Most tragic heroes go through a narrative ‘heroes’ journey’ to overcome their vices of excess or deficiency, to become virtuous. Examples of vices are hubris (overconfidence), such as Icarus and Achilles, or cowardice, such as Paris in the beginning of the Homer’s Iliad.

No story provides this perspective better than the myth of Heracles, a demi-god zero to hero. He completed 12 impossible labours to develop more than just his brute strength: skill, wit, humility and acceptance of wrongdoings and ignorance.

Scott Pilgrim represents a modern hero, a slacker who unknowingly begins his journey of self-reflection and acceptance. His hero’s journey begins with him as the naïve hero, or fool, and his labours are the ‘League of Evil Exe’s’, his new girlfriends obsessive past partners.

Both Heracles and Pilgrim begin their journey’s mourning a love (Megara, Envy). Heracles faces his Labours as his punishment to help rid/accept his guilt for the murder of his family. Scott accepts the war with the ‘Evil Exes’ to help ‘keep’ his girlfriend and prove that although he has potential to be an Evil Ex, he fights off those toxic urges in order to be ‘good’.

Both face impossible tasks, in the literal sense, however the Labours and Exes are reflections of the Hero’s and reflections of their own personal obstacles.

Heracles

Heracles represents ‘Achillean’ Greek manliness, heroes like alexander the great, warriors like Ajax, and of course, Achilles. Born in Thebes, so not an Athenian, he was admired for his ‘Greek’ qualities, strength, bravery, and physical skill. Later the Athenians, encouraged by the Hero Theseus, took him in after his cursed madness that caused him to involuntarily murder his family. Heracles is known as a tragic hero as he had a lack of self-restraint, he enjoyed vices such as drinking too much and didn’t accept weakness or failure.

After performing the 12 Labours, Hercules had ‘pathos’, an experience enduring a ‘virtuous struggle and suffering’, earning him immortality, as well infamy.

The 12 Labours are later analysed by Heraclitus the Grammarian, in the 1st century, who supposed Heracles gained his ‘power not from his strength… from his intellect’ (Russel, et al., 2005). These labours henceforth are read as cultural symbols of ideas of masculinity, firstly within the Greek age and secondly in the present, as much of masculinity ideology is based on classic ideas of ability, beauty, and power.

The message of the Myth of Heracles’ is to triumph against the odds. The impossibility of his 12 Labours and his constant setbacks due to his adversaries, mainly Hera, should have forced an unhonourable hand upon Heracles, however he persevered and received eternal life on Mount Olympus.

Scott Pilgrim (filmic representation)

Scott Pilgrim is representative of a new age of ‘hero’. A geeky, foolish, unbecoming slacker, with fluctuating self-esteem and an inability to take responsibility or confrontation, he is hardly a romanticised Herculean hero at the beginning of ‘Scott Pilgrim vs The World’.

Pilgrim is an example of the Fool’s hero’s journey, someone naïve who learns from their ignorance and their experience as he continues his quest, in Pilgrims case it is the defeating of the ‘7 Evil Exes’.

Pilgrim represents a softer masculinity, not strong or brutish like Heracles. However, he does have internalised misogyny and his interactions with his friends and (ex) girlfriends suggest a rather toxic and misogynistic attitude that has been prevalent within some ‘geek’ cultures such as gamers, comic book readers and, at extreme lengths, ‘incels’.

How Pilgrim triumphs is overcoming the misogynistic attitudes he shares with the ‘Evil Exes’ within the narrative and using the 7 battles as his own Labours. He sees the battles as necessary, and his humility (and gaming expertise) usually help him win the battle.

The League of Evil Exes

The first Evil Ex is Matthew Patel, Ramona Flowers’ middle school boyfriend. His impish behaviour is reflection of the age in which he romanced Flowers; he is a foil to Pilgrim’s (emotional) immaturity. The immaturity of the Hero and Helper (Wallace) is supported by Wallace’s ‘What’s up with his outfit?’ comment, mocking Patel’s appearance mid-fight. this knocks Patel’s confidence slightly, showing his insecurities that probably haven’t lessened since puberty. It shows Pilgrim, or his friend group, revert to childish mockery once faced with confrontation, providing us with an insight to his foolish psyche.

This foolish or immature behaviour suggests the young men are still behaving as though their frontal lobes aren’t fully developed. Children act without self-restraint, so the fighting displayed by Patel and Pilgrim (and the concept of the Evil Exes overall) represents the characters incontinence.

Heracles’ fourth labour, the Erymanthian Boar represents man’s ‘incontinence’, urges that man recklessly acts upon, without restraint or regard to consequences.

He captured the animal by use of cunning (hiding and striking) and endurance (chasing it around the mountain till exhaustion), both of which are examples of his development from just strong to skilled. Upon completing this task, Heracles fought the ‘emotional incontinence of modern society’.

Exes Lucas Lee (2), Todd Ingram (3) and Gideon Gordon Graves (7) are all examples of arrogance, sleaziness, and internalised/externalised misogyny. Pilgrim exerts all these characteristics at some point during the narrative, his treatment of Knives provides a representation of all three. His discarding of his younger girlfriend for Flower’s, the beautiful and unattainable geek fantasy, shows the lack of respect and regard for female characters he does not wish to romance. Similarly, he can be short and insensitive to Kim, who is hinted at having romantic feelings for Scott.

Pilgrim’s arrogance is represented by Lucas Lee, who’s downfall in their fight is his hubris. Known for doing his own stunts, Lee and Pilgrim have a skate off, unfortunately Lee’s inability to back down (as Pilgrim does) leads him to crashing and exploding in his final move. Pilgrim wins on a fluke; yes, however his owning of his limits suggests he isn’t acting rashly to win the fight.

This is like the Herculean first and seventh Labours. Heracles’ first Labour, killing the Namean lion, he completed by in some versions strangling the beast with his bare hands and others stabbing the lion with its own paw, as aided by Athena. Similarly, to stun and capture the Cretan Bull, he puts the beast to sleep by strangulation, stopping just before it died.

These creatures represent ‘indiscriminate rushes’ (Russel, et al., 2005)and ‘irrational passions’ (Russel, et al., 2005), for Heracles this is representative of his vices of excess rage and improper judgment/rashness. He overcomes them by pausing, not killing completely, and allowing himself to use the animal’s weaknesses to his strengths (stabbing Lion with his own claw, sneaking up on the Bull), just as Pilgrim uses Lee’s inability to concede against him.

Todd Ingram (3) has psychic powers due to his ‘veganism’. He presents a sleazy form of masculinity. He regularly cheats on Envy and isn’t a vegan at all, his weakness is that he secretly eats non-vegan foods. He represents the darker and more dangerous sides to toxic masculinity, the traits that harm others through discomfort, lies and, cockiness. Scott has been sleazy throughout the narrative, not officially ending things with Knives before courting Ramona, acting spiteful to Envy due to their breakup and these things are foul traits for a person to have.

Pilgrim defeats Ingram by his own game: deception. Heracles’ often used deception to beat his adversaries, the King Eurystheus is played during the third Labour- the Ceryneian Hind. Both Pilgrim and Heracles trick their opponent into ‘losing’, Pilgrim switches the milk in the cups and Heracles releases the Hind on the condition that the King retrieve it, knowing the Hind is too fast to be captured. Heraclitus saw the Hind as ‘banishing cowardice from the world’.

Toxic forms of masculinity are not strong or good forms, they are forms of excess and deficiency (vices). To deceive knowingly to look ‘strong’ is a cowardly act. Ingram therefore is no man compared to Pilgrim, who is learning to confront and be truthful, without being rash (bravery).

Upon completing the final battle against Gideon (7), Pilgrim defeats the ‘final boss’ and ends the League of Evil Exes. Once defeated, the Evil Exe’s ‘learn their lesson’.

He does so in the film by gaining the power of ‘self-respect’, however this concept can be disputed as Pilgrim often conveys very self-centred/absorbed qualities, throughout the film he teeters on hubris and cowardice simultaneously. Nevertheless, he can defeat Gideon for himself, not Ramona, conceptually removing his worth out of the relationships he is in and rather for himself. Pilgrim overcomes his pathetic and adolescent mindset of basing self-esteem on those around him and owns his foolishness, accepts his weaknesses, and flaws the possibility that he might not win. This represents Scott’s pathos; this is where he is transformed from zero to hero.

The ending of the League mirrors Heraclitus’ interpretation of Heracles Fifth Labour, the cleaning of the Augean stables. Heraclitus compares the clearing of dung to the cleaning of ‘foulness that disfigures humanity’. As Hero and demi-god Heracles existed to protect humanity, so it acts as a Labour of validity for his god status. However, it also seems metaphorical as Heracles cleansing himself of his foulness, his madness that caused him to murder, reminding the Hero to let go and learn from his impurities and to regain moral balance (virtues). Pilgrim, as metaphorically ‘cleaning’ the League, wipes out the present toxicity that the Evil Exes perpetuate unto Ramona, Pilgrim, and themselves. The ending of the League represents closure for the Exes, removing the foulness within the scorned lovers and dispelling the toxicity of future breakups for Ramona (and Pilgrim by proxy). The cleansing of the Evil Exes allows them to be balanced individuals again, not fuelled by spite for Ramona Flowers, giving them reason to exist without being antagonists to both Flowers and Pilgrim henceforth.

Scott also learns his own lesson. In the third act, by making peace with Knives (his ex) and creating an allyship with her, they can defeat Gideon together. Knives is originally an adversary of Ramona’s, however most ‘exes’ within the narrative get their own arc, suggesting it is not only the Evil Exes who need to move on from their heartbreak.

Scott’s reconciliations, or at least coming to terms, with Knives and Envy and his amendments with his friends/bandmates Kim and Wallace mirror Heracles reconciliation with the goddess Hera upon his mortal death and arrival in Olympia. Hera had been Heracles biggest foe since before he was born but they are able to make peace upon his triumphs as a hero, suggesting his hero’s’ journey is over once he is accepted by the Goddess.

Conclusion

Scott Pilgrim as a Herculean Hero sounds like an odd phrase. Pilgrim is not a reflection of hegemonic standards of masculinity or beauty. He accepts his weaknesses, both excess and deficiencies, and can become a modern representative of virtuousness, against the mainstream ideals of what it is to ‘be a man’.

He battles the temptations of toxic masculinity and misogyny and ends the film a decent person, for lack of better term. He represents the heroic fool, an authentic everyman who is heroic, thus an example to audiences and plot characters alike.

The Herculean myth is compelling due to the significance of the idea of the Labours unto cultures. Heracles, even whilst a renowned Hero, continued to prove himself and have downfalls and roaring highs. Heracles and Pilgrim represent the ever-evolving ideas of masculinity and offer encouragement and comfort that the lowliest man may bounce back into a virtuous one. (Hamilton, 2017)

It is the perseverance of Heracles and Scott Pilgrim to triumph against the odds makes them ever-compelling protagonists.

Bibliography

o David Chen, 2013. YouTube. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6FE8TH4xxM [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o Fandom, O., 2022. Fandom. [Online] Available at: https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/League_of_Evil_Exes [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o Fandom, O., 2022. Fandom. [Online] Available at: https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Twelve_Labors_of_Heracles#Aftermath [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o Hamilton, E., 2017. Hercules. In: Mythology- Timeless Tales of Gods and Goddesses. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, pp. 173-186.

o Hercules Greeces Greatest Hero, O., 2008. Hercules Greeces Greatest Hero. [Online] Available at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/labors.html [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o Interesting Literature, O., 2022. Interesting Literature. [Online] Available at: https://interestingliterature.com/2021/12/12-labours-of-hercules-myth-summary-analysis/ [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o Lamar, C., 2010. Gizmodo. [Online] Available at: https://gizmodo.com/whys-a-slacker-like-scott-pilgrim-such-a-great-hero-5602866 [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o London, R., 2022. The Courtaldian. [Online] Available at: https://www.courtauldian.com/single-post/2019/02/28/masculinity-in-ancient-greece [Accessed 10 January 2022].

o Russel, D., Konstan, D. & Heraclitus, 1., 2005. Heraclitus: Homeric Problems. Society of Biblical Literature, Volume 14, pp. 59-61.

o The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, O., 2022. Brittanica. [Online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heracles [Accessed 10 January 2022].