Scott Pilgrim is about a 23-year-old slacker living in Toronto and one day meeting a girl he sees in his dreams named Ramona Flowers, but before he can date her he has to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. The series of graphic novels were incredibly popular while they were coming out mixing video game culture and relatable young adult angst, the comics were initially seen as comedic exaggerated stories about relationships with a relatable protagonist but in recent years they have been scrutinized for the actions of the protagonist and his misogynistic attitude.

I think people have failed to see that the point of the comics are about Scott Pilgrim being a terrible person, in the very first few scenes of the comic he’s being criticized by one of his friends and roomate for dating a highschool girl while hes a college graduate and Scott clearly doesn’t care about the relationship or take it seriously while its the highschool girl’s first real relationship. He instantly cheats and dumps her when he meets Ramona within the second volume without a single thought and leave the highschool girl, Knives Chau, heartbroken.
By the first volume his actions clearly show that he is immature and not good with relationships but he also has good sides to him, being close and passionate with his friends and their hobbies and respectful to his roommates sexuality. Due to the fact the comic is almost always told through his perspective we see his good points and his bad points are rationalized by himself and therefore by the reader, it's also distracted by the silly premise of the story having Scott fight Ramona’s evil exes like a video game.

The reason why people seem to misinterpret how we are supposed to see Scott is likely due to the movie, as he is portrayed as a wimpy nerdy character while in the comics he is quite a bit more brash and boisterous, though still nerdy. People tend to see wimpy characters as more sympathetic so the readers might think we are supposed to think Scott is misunderstood while the entire story is about Scott releasing and coming to terms that he’s hurt people and been a bad person. The storyline of the graphic novels takes place over about a year and due to that tons of side stories go at the same time, as well as additional arcs to Scott himself.

It's clear in the comic that Scott finds Ramona to be his first serious relationship in years and due to that he tries to improve himself but has trouble confronting his past and Ramona’s past. He does small movements to improve throughout the early and middle of the series, such as getting a job, moving in with Ramona to help his Roommate and helping his friends deal with their own problems. But he never confronts issues that made him act the way he does until the final few volumes, only really confronting them after he sees that Ramona herself is exactly like Scott and that she's treating Scott as the next evil ex boyfriend to be. This is an important aspect that's also not in the movie. Ramona Flowers is also quite an awful person when it comes to past relationships and dealing with her own insecurities. In the movie she's A Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype, meaning she's only really around to guide the main character. Throughout the comic there are constant comparisons being drawn between Scott and Ramona, Scott simplifying his past and acting like one of his ex girlfriends is also an evil ex like Ramona. Ramona simplifies her past to make her seem less bad, normally by telling a story about her Ex’s past and mentioning their flaws.

Despite the flaws of each the duo it's clear in the comics, that they both really do care about each other, Ramona always seemed to be on guard around others being fun but clearly distant while with Scott she opens up first to him and then to his friend group going from a distant mature mystic girl in the early comics to a slightly immature friendly and sarcastic woman. Scott in turn also makes efforts to secure this relationship and be more open to Ramona’s needs which is shown when he goes out of his way to ask his friends for advice and laying clear boundaries for one of his old friends who is infatuated with him since it makes Ramona uncomfortable. I think there is a clear effort in the comics to show that while Scott is an awful person in a lot of ways he's not completely irredeemable but nowadays people tend to ignore that the world isn’t quite as black and white and that bad people can also have good sides.

The comic itself ends with Scott confronting Ramona’s final evil ex who is the biggest parallel to Scott in the story, they both misremember the past believing that the relationships breaking off was the ex’s fault and they both clearly saw their girlfriends as theirs. Scott loses initially when he tries using the power of love to beat the final evil ex, only defeating him when he uses the power of understanding after confronting his past and seeing that he was to blame for his past actions. He also goes out of his way to apologize to everyone he's hurt in the past and improves himself not just because he wants his relationship to work but because he wants to be proud of himself. Ramona though hasn’t come to a full understanding of her past problems has Scott tell her that he will help her confront her own issues with the series ending with the two of them going into the future not sure of what lies ahead.

Scott Pilgrim clearly has a lot of subtext underneath the comedic and wacky premise, its a classic coming of age story but with a lot more uncomfortable and realistic issues that young adults face. Though not flawless with the pacing and unimportant sub-plots that constantly pop up, the comic shouldn’t be labeled as bad or misogynistic due to the fact it is about a young man becoming an adult.