Ramona Flowers is so much more than just the girl from Scott Pilgrim’s dreams in the new Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. The anime, executive produced and written by BenDavid Grabinski and Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, follows Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) on a whole new adventure — one that broadens her storyline and gives her much more to do in the fight against the League of Evil Exes.
“The idea of Ramona having to interact with the past that she’s run away from, and figuring out more about herself and the decisions she’s made through that process, was something that felt dramatically interesting,” Grabinski says of expanding Ramona’s narrative. “Because when she’s on the sideline and Scott’s fighting her ex, and then the ex is defeated, how much can she grow from that? Centering Ramona in those conflicts felt like a great device to use a mystery structure, and to ultimately have her learn more about herself.”
O’Malley couldn’t have agreed more: “Ramona has always been pretty much my favorite character,” he says. “It’s just been awesome to see a new side of her and to be able to evolve that.”
Indeed, there are many sides to Ramona Flowers — even if she’s loath to share them. So who exactly is she? Here’s everything you need to know about the 24-year-old before you queue up Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Ramona isn’t one to divulge her deepest, darkest secrets — and she doesn’t like to dive too deeply into her past either (at least on first dates with unemployed bassists). But here’s what’s public knowledge: A recent Toronto transplant (she left New York to get a fresh start — more on that in a minute), Ramona is an enigmatic badass on two blades (Rollerblades, that is) with an emo fashion sense and a penchant for dyeing her hair any and all colors to suit her mood.
She has powers that allow her to zig-zag the subspace highway to quickly deliver DVDs for her job at Netflix, and in the evening, she likes to unwind by brewing up a mug of tea and snuggling with her cat, Gideon.
It’s during a fateful subspace outing that Ramona wheels through Scott’s “dream desert” and becomes the object of his infatuation. Initially, Scott (Michael Cera) doesn’t know whether Ramona is actually real or not — she’s simply the girl from his dreams. But then one evening, he tags along to a party at Julie Powers’ (Aubrey Plaza) place and spots the girl with the colorful hair. Ever the charmer, he sidles up to her and asks if she’s “real” (duh) and starts dropping random video game trivia on her.
Although his initial seduction attempts go nowhere, Scott persists and places an order with Ramona’s employer, so she’s forced to turn up at his place with a package. That’s when he asks her out. Their date ends up being a bit of a disaster — they get caught in one of Toronto’s April snowstorms — but the night ends back at Ramona’s apartment with some smooching and chaste bedtime snuggles.
Scott’s eager for another hang, but what he doesn’t know is that Ramona brought baggage with her to Toronto — and we’re not talking about her epic tea collection. Ramona’s real reason for moving from New York was to kiss her ex-boyfriend Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman) goodbye, and in turn, the maniacal music mogul established the League of Evil Exes to get his revenge.
Each one dated Ramona… although not for long:
Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha): A boy Ramona dated for a week and a half in junior high. During their short courtship, they banded together to take down the jocks, but ultimately lost at the game of love. Matthew has powers too — most notably his ability to conjure a group of Demon Hipster Chicks to do his bidding.
Lucas Lee (Chris Evans): One of Ramona’s high school beaux, Lucas went from shredding on his skateboard to climbing the box-office charts as a bona fide action movie star.
Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh): Ramona’s other high school hookup is the drummer of the band The Clash at Demonhead and is dating the band’s lead singer, Envy Adams (Brie Larson), who just so happens to be Scott Pilgrim’s ex. Oh — and how could we forget?! — he’s a vegan, which gives him special vegan powers of telepathy.
Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman): The only girl in the League, the “half-ninja” was Ramona’s college roommate during her bi-curious period.
Ken and Kyle Katayanagi (Julian Cihi): Ramona dated the Japanese twins/robotics geniuses at the same time in college. Whoops!
Gideon Graves (Schwartzman): And, of course, there’s the leader of the League. In addition to scouting bands, he’s the owner of the Chaos Club in New York City. Basically, he’s loaded.
It’s these evil exes that Scott must defeat if he wants to date Ramona. But she’s hardly a helpless victim…
In the original Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series by O’Malley, Gideon bestows what’s called “the Glow” on Ramona. It’s this Glow that gives her powers over the subspace. In addition to skating through Scott’s dream desert (i.e., the three-mile-long shortcut that runs through his mind and takes about 15 seconds to cross), Ramona’s powers extend to her omnipresent handbag (aka subspace suitcase), from which she can readily retrieve an oversized hammer as her battle weapon of choice. She wields it well (girl is hella strong — another one of her powers!), but it’s her wits that prove most valuable in this series, as she contends with the League of Evil Exes.
