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Series: Scott Pilgrim
Series' Medium: Comic Book
Character: Ramona V. Flowers
Age: 24
Sex/Gender: Female
Canon Role: Ramona is not the hero of Scott Pilgrim, but she obviously has a very large role in it. She fits in Scott’s life as his love interest, and the reason why he needs to fight seven separate evil people in order to win her heart. Thus, she’s definitely one of the protagonists, if not officially defined by the creator as a “hero.” It’s important to add that the final battle involved her helping to defeat the big bad, which indicates that she’s just as important to the story and that such a moment was necessary for her. If anything, I would officially define her as the “catalyst.” Without Ramona, there would be no plot for the series, and it would be about Toronto hipsters bumming around. Which, well, it is for the most part, but that’s not all.
"Real" Name: Sandra Doe
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Of course. I’ve read all of Scott Pilgrim multiple times, with special focus on Ramona’s part. I recently reread it in its entirety to prepare for this application. I also saw the movie, but I only did that once. I intend to rewatch it again, but I don’t want to blur comic canon and movie canon, as Ramona is completely different in the movie (more passive, less outspoken, and so forth—it seems minor but when compared to her comic self, it’s obvious).
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Facts known about Ramona Victoria Flowers’ childhood: she grew up in the mountains, she dated a handful of guys, including one who punched a hole inthe moon to prove his love to her in high school, she went to college at the University of Carolina in the Sky (which is a school that’s literally chained to the earth while floating in the sky) but didn’t finish, and eventually she ended up in New York. Aside from that, her parents separated and she was born on January first, making her a New Year’s baby. Aside from all this, there is very little information about her upbringing, except that she always wanted to be a “cool” kid and always found herself on the outside of things in some way. In a lot of ways, it can be concluded that it’s not Ramona’s past that defines her but her relationships, and even then, she seems fairly flippant about them on a whole, and it’s her own lack of information that really defines her. After all, how does someone define someone who barely knows herself?
That said, a history can be developed of the past ten or so years of her life by who she’s dated and how that led to them becoming evil. These seven individuals never seem to know when to finally give up on Ramona, and most pointedly, every relationship ended because she wanted it to end, with the exception of Todd Ingram, which brought about rather negative feelings in all of them. There was, of course, Doug, who’s unrelated to this great mass, but he was just kind of a dick. Though, in comparison, he wasn’t as evil. Some of them just joined the League because they wanted to, though, while others, like Roxie, for example, were still in love with her and couldn’t get over her. Either way, it is a part of her past that she can’t get away from, and as Gideon points out in the last volume, even if they may not have been evil until after she broke up with them, she is the common denominator. While the relationships she had up to Todd were pretty pointless—things that anyone experiences in their youth—it was definitely after him that Ramona’s behavior started to shine. She treated Roxie poorly, as if she was something in the past, and she two-timed the Katayanagi twins. This definitely isn’t the behavior of someone who is just innocent; Ramona’s flippancy in regards to all of this is a show of her own selfishness.
Since it’s important to parse that out and get a timeline, here’s the seven main exes in order:
1. Matthew Patel: She dated Matthew in seventh grade for a week and a half. She dated him because he wasn’t like anyone else in the school, and she was essentially using him to ward other people off from wanting her.
2. Lucas Lee: She dated him in her freshman year of high school. He was a whiny, greasy haired skateboarder who begged her to date him and she finally gave in. She dumped him for the third evil ex.
3. Todd Ingram: They dated at the end of high school and were troubled kids together. Todd ended up punching through a moon for her with his Vegan powers (in Scott Pilgrim, that is a Thing). They broke up when they went their separate ways for school.
4. Roxie Richter: Ramona dated her during college and they were roommates. Roxie taught her all the fighting she really knows and how to use subspace. They broke up after college and Ramona refers to it as a phase.
5. Kyle and Ken Katayanagi: They both dated Ramona, and she was essentially two-timing them.
6. Gideon Graves: He’s her final evil ex-boyfriend and the one who eventually compiles a group to make her life difficult: The League of Evil Exes. He treated her poorly and has the most impact on Ramona. (Or any impact, really.) His influence on her is shown in various ways: later, she names at cat after him, and more recently, he’s the reason why she ends up going to Toronto. He said it was a place that needed to be visited, and even though they broke up—or rather, she quite literally fades away and escapes—it was part of why she went there. But in general, Gideon is a jerk, and he manipulates Ramona’s subspace and the Glow so he can mess with her emotions and perception of the world around her.
So this brings Ramona up to date with arriving in Toronto as the Mysterious American Ninja Delivery Girl. Due to subspace training (thanks to Roxie—the girl really helped Ramona out, even if she was “just a phase”), she manages to become Amazon.ca’s sole delivery girl for the city. This is how she ends up meeting Scott Pilgrim. Since subspace’s best shortcut works in his head, he keeps dreaming about her. This is awkward for her, but all the same,Ramona makes an acquaintance in Julie Powers—who is someone who knows everyone—and goes to a party she throws. Prior to this party, Scott sees her at a library, and then at the party, an awkward conversation ensues about her shoes. She’s unimpressed with him, and it’s obvious that he doesn’t make any kind of impression. For Scott, this is a good thing.
After all, it leads to him eventually getting a date with her after he orders some CDs off Amazon.ca. This brings her to his door, and Ramona finds herself rather charmed by him. They go on a date later that evening, and it’s obviously an awkward circumstance for both of them. But being Ramona, she doesn’t treat it that way and handles it casually. After they get caught in the snow, she brings him home. They share a bed, but they don’t have sex (though sex certainly enters the relationship later on, as it’s just a fact of life).
The important thing to point out here is that Ramona does appear to know about the League of Evil Exes, but she makes no effort to tell Scott. It could be for a number of reasons: avoidance, a lack of concern for him, or generally just not knowing how to deal with it. In fact, it’s probably a mixture of all these things, as Ramona isn’t heartless—but it would be incorrect to say that she’s considerate. At least it does come up a little later, even if “a little later” is probably too late.
Scott asks Ramona to a performance that his bad band is playing at—it’s important to note that Ramona never likes his band, so “bad band” is accurate in this context, though it’s just actually a terrible band—and at that performance, her first evil ex-boyfriend shows up. This is Matthew Patel, who does magic, and is someone who uses “demon hipster chicks.” Scott beats him, and he and Ramona go home together, deciding to be in a relationship with the clause that he’s able to handle the burden of her evil exes. At this time, Scott is still dating a seventeen-year-old high schooler by the name of Knives. As it’s not relevant to Ramona yet, all of this isn’t pertinent so far.
The next volume—and handling this volume by volume is wise, as Scott Pilgrim is a fairly conscious of its form meta-series—is where Scott fights her evil ex, Lucas Lee, who is a famous actor and skateboarder. The way Ramona refers to him is flippant: he was just some geeky kid and he definitely didn’t make an impression on her. It’s implied that they probably dated in ninth grade, but even that’s not clear. This is a good indication of how Ramona handles a lot of things. The end result was the same: she dumped him for some douchebag, and doesn’t really care when Scott defeats him.
Not long after that defeat, Ramona is out hanging out with Scott’s sister, Stacey. They are at the Toronto Reference Library when Knives shows up and fights Ramona. She calls Ramona fat, and tells her that she’s a Scott-a-holic. This entire scene is incredibly surreal, and it ends up drawing a crowd that remains captivated by the fight—except for Stacey, who is currently distracted. Ramona can’t stand Knives during and after this fight, and doesn’t do a good job of hiding it at the time. But overall, it’s something she brushes off as just being weird and a little crazy.
That douchebag is the Vegan bassist of Scott’s ex-girlfriend’s band, and he definitely is a douchebag. Todd shows up, along with one of Scott's ex-girlfriends, Envy, at the end of the volume.
Scott and Ramona go to a special show by Envy’s band, and though Scott tries to flee, he and his friends, including Ramona, end up in the most awkward back room situation ever. Envy is rude, Ramona is rude back, and Knives, the girl who Scott was dating but now isn’t, is knocked aside like she’s nothing. Ramona comes to strongly dislike Envy at the end of this, which makes her and Wallace good friends when they show up at Honest Ed’s—a giant, superstore of epic proportions that isn’t organized in the least—for another fight between Todd and Scott. This essentially leads to nothing, with Honest Ed’s sadly blown up. But no one cares. Ramona doesn’t want to deal with things anymore, so she and Scott go back to her place and try to fool around. Neither of them are able to do it, so Ramona explains her past with Todd, and Scott tells her some of his past with Envy—and some of it with Kim, which is actually seemingly inaccurate.
The next day in the evening, they go to another show that Scott’s band was essentially forced to play at, opening for Envy. At the show, Ramona and Envy have a confrontation that is about to lead to the two of them fighting. Though Scott comes and helps out, it’s Ramona who reveals that Todd is cheating on her with the girl drummer of the band … and it’s also revealed that Todd isn’t actually a Vegan, though this was clear to the audience by his gelato ordering. Envy leaves at the end of this volume, much to Ramona’s relief. She really didn’t like her.
In the time following this (and the lead up to volume four!), Ramona and Scott’s relationship stabilizes. There are no evil exes and the two of them seemingly become disgustingly cute in the presence of other people. Ramona even comes to remark that Scott is one of the nicest guys she’s ever dated—which doesn’t mean much, considering who she’s dated. They have a vaguely uncomfortable conversation surrounding this, but in the big picture, it’s not that big of a deal.
Unfortunately, stable only lasts so long in these two’s life. Ramona’s ex, Roxie, visits, and the two of them are chummy while Scott is off trying to find a job. They show up at Scott’s work, which leads to an awkward fight. After all, Roxie and Scott had already met. Knowing that it’s a bad idea for them to fight, since Scott won’t fight a girl, Scott ends up being put into Ramona’s purse, and she runs into subspace. There, she and Roxie fight, and it’s obvious that Roxie is severely hung up on her. The subplot to all of this is that Lisa, Scott’s old friend, shows up, and her existence and Roxie’s meddling plant some seeds of doubt in Ramona’s mind over whether Scott is actually a decent guy.
Not trusting their relationship, Ramona basically points out that she and Scott need some space. Scott goes to Lisa during this time, while Ramona goes it alone. “Alone” really means “she’s clearly with Roxie,” as Scott finds out when some Asian guy (Knives’s father, as is later revealed) is making an attempt on his life. Scott is unable to process the fact that Ramona cheats on him (even if she later tells him that they just kissed a little). From Ramona’s end, it is obviously one of the many mistakes she makes, and a sure sign of her lack of comfort in the relationship—or continuing lack of comfort.
This only continues later on, when Scott fights Roxie at Ramona’s house—Knives’s father is involved in this, too, but that’s convoluted and not as connected—and he wins. The most significant moment here is that Scott finds it in him to tell Ramona that he loves her, and it gives him the power to defeat Roxie. She “dies” warning Scott about the next evil exes he’ll have to fight. Despite the defeat, this is a big moment of in Ramona and Scott’s relationship as they start to grow closer and he shows her that he really cares about her.
These evil exes show up a little later, after Scott’s twenty-fourth birthday, at a party of Julie Powers’. It’s obvious at this point that Scott and Ramona’s relationship has stabilized, but maybe not for the best. Her hair is longer, too, a sign of the fact that maybe she isn’t changing as much about herself. At the party, Ramona lets Scott take care of the twins’ robot, while she goes outside and talks to Kim. As has been prevalent throughout the comic, she shows a certain fondness toward Kim and a bond with Wallace, which is shown by him sending her a text meant for Scott. At this point, Scott and Ramona are living together, a result of circumstances in volume four, because Scott’s best friend Wallace wanted to get a place of his own. Living together doesn’t help them much as a couple as Scott is … rather lazy and irresponsible.
Another bad show with Scott’s band takes place, and in the bathroom, Ramona finds out that Scott was cheating on Knives with her for the first time. This obviously upsets her—which is rather hypocritical, given that she and Scott didn’t break up when she cheated on him with Roxie. She comes out to find Scott fighting the twins, and he wins. Ramona doesn’t let him in the house afterward because he forgot his key, and he’s left to go find somewhere else to stay.
After that, he and Kim try to plan something so he can run into Ramona, and when he does, her head is glowing—this is a sign that shows up multiple times because of her extreme discomfort with a situation. This happens again at another one of Julie’s parties, where another robot shows up. Scott ends up fighting the robot while Kim and Ramona become very drunk and very friendly. The three of them get comfy together, and then Scott and Ramona go home. Still hypocritical, after they almost have sex, Ramona confronts Scott on the fact that he cheated on her, and he weakly justifies himself by saying that Ramona wasn't the wronged one. She says he’s just another evil ex waiting to happen—a sharp contrast to what she had said at the beginning of the prior volume about him being the nicest guy she ever dated. In the morning, Scott is called off to go save Kim, as she’s been kidnapped by the twins.
When he comes back, sure he’s going to fix everything with Ramona, she is there, fading, with shorter hair, and she thanks him for everything.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Ramona will be coming into Landel’s following her disappearance at the end of volume five. She ends up in the wilderness to figure out some things for herself, but instead, she’ll end up inside of the institute. This disappearance is caused by her going inside of her head, and then she goes to live with her father to try and deal with things, but instead, she lounges around and does a lot of nothing. The institute will essentially be the exact opposite of the vacation that she sought out by escaping from her life in Toronto and everything that was happening with Scott.
The reason for this canon point is because it’s a large defining point for her character. Within the context of the series, it’s the last time she runs away before she realizes that she’s not pulling herself together and decides to come back. It’s the point at which her self-actualization can be achieved, though instead of finding that she can’t achieve it with X-Files reruns, she’s going to end up inside of Landel’s with the very person she most wanted to run away from (Scott Pilgrim). Not because Scott is bad, but their relationship was complicated as it was, and everything about it became too much. One of their last conversations before she faded away was about how he was just as bad as all the other guys she dated. While she may not have believed that, it showed the complicated nature of her mind.
While this might initially seem like it has to do with Scott, it was less that she was getting away from Scott and the fact that she was trying to get away from the mess that was her life—and at that point, one of the most important parts of Ramona’s life was Scott. She doesn’t come back at the end of the story for Scott, but for herself, and she runs away for herself, too. Of course, when she does leave, she doesn’t have this all sorted out yet. As a result, her mindset regarding herself from this point in time will be rather convoluted, and it will complicate things with Scott. She’ll be happy to see him—she does love him, after all—but also distressed because he was a part of that part of her life she was trying to get away from. Ramona at this point hasn’t fully dissected everything with Scott, aside from passing mentions of the fact that he’s the nicest guy she’s dated, partly because she hasn’t fully dissected herself. On a whole, it will be complicated, but Ramona is used to things not going the way she wants at this point.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
If Ramona were asked about her personality, in all likelihood, she would find some way around answering—or she might call herself a bitch, though both answers aren’t exactly giving the truthful explanation of who she is. Underneath all her stoic and avoidant behavior, which is armored with a heavy level of hypocrisy, Ramona doesn’t actually know. She comes across as detached from the events around her in large, but that’s probably just one of her coping mechanisms in dealing with her life. She is loud, boisterous, and more than willing to share her opinion, but none of this really says much about who she is or what it adds up to the bigger picture of her existence. Again, that’s largely in part because she doesn’t know. She’s working on it. Or, rather, she’s running away from it and wallowing in self-pity and trying to pretend that it isn’t happening. That’s the current point of her existence.
What is most notable about her is a massive set of contradictions that give way to a singular, obvious truth: Ramona doesn’t have any level of self-awareness. Though it’s obvious that she’s capable of living inside of her head and berating herself, her greater habit is to just continue forward—act like it didn’t happen, cut ties, and write it off like it was nothing. This shows not only in her vast League of Evil Ex-Boyfriends, but also in how quickly she writes off her own obvious bisexuality and how little she cares about that exceedingly awkward guy at the party. It’s not that Ramona is actually untouchable; in truth, it’s just that she doesn’t want certain things in her life to have meaning, and thus doesn't put a lot of weight on them. If anything, she probably doesn’t want to feel out of control, because then the things taking control away from her do matter.
A lot of this is painting Ramona in a rather unsavory light, which isn’t entirely inaccurate—but she isn’t entirely flawed. It’s just that her demeanor and approach to most things is fairly casual, and she holds her feelings about the bigger things close to her chest. In a lot of ways, Ramona sets up a categorization system in her head: those within an arm’s length … and then everyone else. How people slip into that system isn’t exactly determined, and it truly ties into her lack of self-awareness that she probably wouldn’t be able to tell who fits into what category. For example, her ex-girlfriend Roxie is probably closer to her than she realizes, but she treats her somewhat coldly, like an old fling—and then sleeps with her when she’s going through a rough patch. With Scott’s friend Kim, she asks after her and finds herself curious about her—one might even say she has a crush on the red-headed girl—but it’s only when Ramona is drunk that it comes out that it might be something like that.
For all this talk of categorization and behaviors, it might be simple to conclude that Ramona lives in a very complicated manner. But that wouldn’t be accurate, either. All of this is second-nature; all of this is done in a very impulse-based manner, without her thinking further into what she does. Detaching herself from the complications entirely is what makes her life of complete self-unawareness possible. After all, this is the girl who continually reinvents herself and then doesn’t reflect on it—or doesn’t seem to. And when she’s stable, the reinvention stops, but she seems dissatisfied, as if things aren’t going the way she wants them to.
But maybe that’s it. Ramona isn’t very satisfied with her life. She is seeking a decent boyfriend who isn’t like the others, but she isn’t considerate enough to care about the others and what they went through. She is seeking stability to her life, but she complains about it. In fact, Ramona, like … pretty much everyone in Scott Pilgrim, seems to have a problem with almost every aspect of her life. Then again, that’s probably what happens when someone is living in their mid-twenties and is pretty aimless about the direction they’re headed in.
An important aspect of all this is that Ramona does live her life the way that makes her feel the most comfortable, and it shows. She might not have the puzzle of herself put together, but Ramona definitely knows a number of things. She won’t do something if she doesn’t like to do it entirely, and it would be easy, and in fact, mostly correct, to conclude that Ramona makes things happen because she wants them to happen. It isn’t like her to keep her opinions to herself. If she thinks something sucks, she’ll say it. If she thinks something is weird, she doesn’t hide it. These surface-level things don’t run as deep as they possibly could, but it’s not like she’s coasting through life without any ease or comfort. There is a level of bluntness in how she makes these things happen, which leads to a level of hypocrisy, but that is part of who she is.
That said, this way of making herself comfortable comes out in other ways. She can mock or joke with the best of them, and she has a very dry sense of humor. Sarcasm is a second nature in her speech patterns and it shows. Making fun of someone or something is just another part of her daily existence. Maybe she isn’t as critical as other people, but there are times when Ramona doesn’t hold back on calling someone a bitch or picking them apart (at times for the fun of it). Her life and the behaviors that tie into it are decidedly simple from her point of view. While she plays off her hair changing as being no big deal, she does like simple things: good music, old movies, cats, and of course, everything about Scott Pilgrim’s existence falls under this.
For all this, it might be easy to also assume that Ramona is someone who is so cool, calm, and collected in order to appear together that she doesn’t ever show any external flaws or do anything wrong. This is wrong on a lot of points. She sometimes acts in petty ways without letting other people know, and as is prevalent in her “Glow,” which will be covered below, she can get irritated and overwhelmed even if she’s not outwardly expressing it. It’s not unlike her to act because she doesn’t like the way something has gone or to try to make things go her way. In a lot of ways, she deals through petty little revenges—not letting someone stay home, by cheating, or by just being avoidant, and rarely with dealing with the problem. As these things go on, it’s obvious that she has her own issues (and at times, insecurities) that push her to act.
As it is, Ramona right now doesn’t have Ramona figured out. On the one hand, she isn’t terribly pleasant: she’s inconsiderate, selfish, hypocritical, and apt to make rash judgments of other people. On the other hand, she seems to go through life in a contradictory manner because of how detached she makes herself out to be. She cares about people, but isn’t altogether conscious of it, but just goes with the flow of it. “Going with the flow” is basically the most decisive part of who she is, even if she comes off as somewhat outspoken and cantankerous in the process.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
One of the catches of Scott Pilgrim is that it’s a series that’s entirely in black and white, which makes the running joke of Ramona’s constantly changing hairstyle more difficult to pin down. For the sake of consistency, she’ll have her recently shorter hair style, but as for her hair color, she’ll have a blueish hair color. (At one point, Scott asks whether one of her incarnations of hair color is her natural color. Ramona herself shrugs it off and says maybe, like she doesn’t remember, and it’s a color without screentones at this point. However, that’s hardly an indication of anything, as black-haired people only tend to get that treatment.)
That said: Ramona is a pretty girl beyond that—maybe not super gorgeous, but pretty enough. (This is a fact that’s only relevant because of her mysterious love interest status, really.) Her build is probably more on the average side of things: she’s not super skinny but she’s not identified as being overweight (except by Knives, who hates her anyway). Her eye color is a pretty blue-gray color and you’d think her boyfriend would comment on it, but again, she’s dating Scott Pilgrim.
Height-wise, Ramona is a little shorter than Scott, who’s Mr. Average. He’s listed as five-foot-nine in Damned, so Ramona will be five-foot-six or five-foot-seven.
What kinds of otherwordly abilities does your character have, if any?:
In the world of Scott Pilgrim, everything works accordingly to video game laws. People can jump higher, they can run up walls, and they can go into things like subspace to escape from a fight. And when they die, they turn into a bunch of coins—but there’s always the reset button and starting over from the beginning or having extra lives. As a result, these things all seem to apply to the majority of its characters—some more so than others.
That said, Ramona is one such character. Defined as a “Mysterious American Ninja Delivery Girl,” Ramona is capable of fighting like a ninja, as well as moving through subspace. She was trained by her half-ninja ex-girlfriend in these things, and she’s probably fairly capable. Her fighting skills are unusual on the scale that they are like video games. She has proficiency with some weapons (but especially a hammer), she can run up walls like it’s nothing, and defying physics is no problem to her. While her fighting scenes aren’t as extensive as Scott’s, it’s prevalent that she is a capable fighter.
Her other skill is being able to travel through subspace. This allows her to travel in an alternate reality to get from one place to another. There are various ways to access subspace, such as doors, or a purse that she has. This is something she was trained to do.
This ties in to the Glow: Ramona was manipulated into having it be prevalent whenever she is feeling negative feelings, and it makes her capable of essentially going inside of herself. But this isn’t common. The most important part is that she obviously glows: which is a halo-like glow that doesn’t obscure her face, and usually only her head does this. Through the Glow, she is able to go into subspace, and when that happens, her whole body glows.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
If any of this seems familiar, it’s because Eryn gave me permission to borrow from Scott’s limitations. Plus, it makes sense for there to be consistency between characters in the series.
Like Scott, Ramona’s ability to defy physics and gravity like a video game character will be largely reduced or nixed all together. For jumping and leaping across distances, she’ll be able to go 10% above optimal adult distances, with 25% at extreme emergencies. She will be able to perform a maximum of two of these big jumps a night. Though this is where she and Scott will diverge a little, since I am not giving her access to subspace or any of her original weapons. Ramona will be able to knock people back about six feet with her good hits, but she’ll be able to only do this three or four times a night (as with Scott, if there isn’t available space, the wall will crack). She’ll no longer be able to run up walls or anything like that, but it is important for her to be able to have her strength, as it’s a defined part of her character. Six feet is a good number for how far they’d go, and how hard she hits will be at about 25% above normal human strength. Her ability to lift things that are heavy will be about 30% above, but once she does, she’ll be slowed down. The same number limitations apply here: she’ll only be able to lift heavier objects three times a night. And when she does, it’ll be hard to carry through.
Her ability to travel through subspace will be nixed entirely, but she will still have the Glow. But subspace travel would be inconvenient for the people trying to trap her, so instead, Ramona will just have an annoying glowing thing going on for some reason.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Ramona is a fighter, which means she’s been trained as a ninja, which is both otherworldly and not in Scott Pilgrim. She can use hand to hand as well as fight with various weapons. She’s proficient with many weapons, but prefers larger, bluntly hitting ones, like a giant hammer or a baseball bat.
Along with that, she’s very good at rollerblading.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Ramona is coming from a point in her life where a lot hasn’t been figured out yet: she’s still sorting herself out, and she’s been able to deal with a lot of the chaos of her life by coming up with coping mechanisms and resorting to the things she likes. At her canon point, she is fleeing because she’s unable to cope, and ending up in the institute. Even excepting the issue with Scott, this makes it impossible for her to cope and just shut down. Furthermore, Landel’s on a whole will make it difficult for her to brush off things like they’re nothing. She can’t resort to common things, though I do have every intention of her going to Doyleton at some point to get hairdye as a source of comfort.
Beyond that, there are a lot of ways Ramona will go. The biggest part is having her adjust to an environment that she didn’t choose herself. No matter what, with the exception of being drawn into subspace by the Glow, Ramona has always chosen where she’s going. She chooses who she’s going to talk to, and she decides basically the itinerary of her life. That is obviously what she has done her entire life. That isn’t something she’ll be able to choose to do in Landel’s. Making friends and trying to find people to trust in beyond her normal detached way will be important. It’ll be a way to survive, and a way for her to be able to escape. All this will be key to her.
In a lot of ways, Ramona will have to deviate from life as normal. It will force her to go through a massive, if internalized, adjustment period. Outwardly, she is unlikely to let any of this show, but she won’t be handling it well.
Also, I can conceivably see her being an interesting patient for an MU given her relationship with Gideon, what he’s done to her, and how a doctor at Landel’s could take advantage of the Glow.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Despite the unsettling nature of being put into a situation against her will, Ramona will be able to handle a lot of the horrors of Landel’s better than one might imagine. It helps that Scott Pilgrim takes place in a world that’s conscious of its meta level positioning; furthermore, it helps even more that there is a League of Evil Exes after Ramona. They all are, well, evil, and up for making her life into a miserable mess. Given their willingness to jump out of nowhere and cause havoc or even manipulate her mentally, they do a fair job of preparing her for a situation like Landel’s.
Other than that, Ramona is a capable fighter and is able to jump into a fight without a moment of hesitation. This will give her some further advantage in handling monsters, because this doesn’t seem to bother her in canon. Also, the meta level nature of Scott Pilgrim makes her capable of rationalizing some of the horror. Like Scott, she’ll believe people can just go home if they die or they might have an extra life.
Series' Medium: Comic Book
Character: Ramona V. Flowers
Age: 24
Sex/Gender: Female
Canon Role: Ramona is not the hero of Scott Pilgrim, but she obviously has a very large role in it. She fits in Scott’s life as his love interest, and the reason why he needs to fight seven separate evil people in order to win her heart. Thus, she’s definitely one of the protagonists, if not officially defined by the creator as a “hero.” It’s important to add that the final battle involved her helping to defeat the big bad, which indicates that she’s just as important to the story and that such a moment was necessary for her. If anything, I would officially define her as the “catalyst.” Without Ramona, there would be no plot for the series, and it would be about Toronto hipsters bumming around. Which, well, it is for the most part, but that’s not all.
"Real" Name: Sandra Doe
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Of course. I’ve read all of Scott Pilgrim multiple times, with special focus on Ramona’s part. I recently reread it in its entirety to prepare for this application. I also saw the movie, but I only did that once. I intend to rewatch it again, but I don’t want to blur comic canon and movie canon, as Ramona is completely different in the movie (more passive, less outspoken, and so forth—it seems minor but when compared to her comic self, it’s obvious).
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Facts known about Ramona Victoria Flowers’ childhood: she grew up in the mountains, she dated a handful of guys, including one who punched a hole inthe moon to prove his love to her in high school, she went to college at the University of Carolina in the Sky (which is a school that’s literally chained to the earth while floating in the sky) but didn’t finish, and eventually she ended up in New York. Aside from that, her parents separated and she was born on January first, making her a New Year’s baby. Aside from all this, there is very little information about her upbringing, except that she always wanted to be a “cool” kid and always found herself on the outside of things in some way. In a lot of ways, it can be concluded that it’s not Ramona’s past that defines her but her relationships, and even then, she seems fairly flippant about them on a whole, and it’s her own lack of information that really defines her. After all, how does someone define someone who barely knows herself?
That said, a history can be developed of the past ten or so years of her life by who she’s dated and how that led to them becoming evil. These seven individuals never seem to know when to finally give up on Ramona, and most pointedly, every relationship ended because she wanted it to end, with the exception of Todd Ingram, which brought about rather negative feelings in all of them. There was, of course, Doug, who’s unrelated to this great mass, but he was just kind of a dick. Though, in comparison, he wasn’t as evil. Some of them just joined the League because they wanted to, though, while others, like Roxie, for example, were still in love with her and couldn’t get over her. Either way, it is a part of her past that she can’t get away from, and as Gideon points out in the last volume, even if they may not have been evil until after she broke up with them, she is the common denominator. While the relationships she had up to Todd were pretty pointless—things that anyone experiences in their youth—it was definitely after him that Ramona’s behavior started to shine. She treated Roxie poorly, as if she was something in the past, and she two-timed the Katayanagi twins. This definitely isn’t the behavior of someone who is just innocent; Ramona’s flippancy in regards to all of this is a show of her own selfishness.
Since it’s important to parse that out and get a timeline, here’s the seven main exes in order:
1. Matthew Patel: She dated Matthew in seventh grade for a week and a half. She dated him because he wasn’t like anyone else in the school, and she was essentially using him to ward other people off from wanting her.
2. Lucas Lee: She dated him in her freshman year of high school. He was a whiny, greasy haired skateboarder who begged her to date him and she finally gave in. She dumped him for the third evil ex.
3. Todd Ingram: They dated at the end of high school and were troubled kids together. Todd ended up punching through a moon for her with his Vegan powers (in Scott Pilgrim, that is a Thing). They broke up when they went their separate ways for school.
4. Roxie Richter: Ramona dated her during college and they were roommates. Roxie taught her all the fighting she really knows and how to use subspace. They broke up after college and Ramona refers to it as a phase.
5. Kyle and Ken Katayanagi: They both dated Ramona, and she was essentially two-timing them.
6. Gideon Graves: He’s her final evil ex-boyfriend and the one who eventually compiles a group to make her life difficult: The League of Evil Exes. He treated her poorly and has the most impact on Ramona. (Or any impact, really.) His influence on her is shown in various ways: later, she names at cat after him, and more recently, he’s the reason why she ends up going to Toronto. He said it was a place that needed to be visited, and even though they broke up—or rather, she quite literally fades away and escapes—it was part of why she went there. But in general, Gideon is a jerk, and he manipulates Ramona’s subspace and the Glow so he can mess with her emotions and perception of the world around her.
So this brings Ramona up to date with arriving in Toronto as the Mysterious American Ninja Delivery Girl. Due to subspace training (thanks to Roxie—the girl really helped Ramona out, even if she was “just a phase”), she manages to become Amazon.ca’s sole delivery girl for the city. This is how she ends up meeting Scott Pilgrim. Since subspace’s best shortcut works in his head, he keeps dreaming about her. This is awkward for her, but all the same,Ramona makes an acquaintance in Julie Powers—who is someone who knows everyone—and goes to a party she throws. Prior to this party, Scott sees her at a library, and then at the party, an awkward conversation ensues about her shoes. She’s unimpressed with him, and it’s obvious that he doesn’t make any kind of impression. For Scott, this is a good thing.
After all, it leads to him eventually getting a date with her after he orders some CDs off Amazon.ca. This brings her to his door, and Ramona finds herself rather charmed by him. They go on a date later that evening, and it’s obviously an awkward circumstance for both of them. But being Ramona, she doesn’t treat it that way and handles it casually. After they get caught in the snow, she brings him home. They share a bed, but they don’t have sex (though sex certainly enters the relationship later on, as it’s just a fact of life).
The important thing to point out here is that Ramona does appear to know about the League of Evil Exes, but she makes no effort to tell Scott. It could be for a number of reasons: avoidance, a lack of concern for him, or generally just not knowing how to deal with it. In fact, it’s probably a mixture of all these things, as Ramona isn’t heartless—but it would be incorrect to say that she’s considerate. At least it does come up a little later, even if “a little later” is probably too late.
Scott asks Ramona to a performance that his bad band is playing at—it’s important to note that Ramona never likes his band, so “bad band” is accurate in this context, though it’s just actually a terrible band—and at that performance, her first evil ex-boyfriend shows up. This is Matthew Patel, who does magic, and is someone who uses “demon hipster chicks.” Scott beats him, and he and Ramona go home together, deciding to be in a relationship with the clause that he’s able to handle the burden of her evil exes. At this time, Scott is still dating a seventeen-year-old high schooler by the name of Knives. As it’s not relevant to Ramona yet, all of this isn’t pertinent so far.
The next volume—and handling this volume by volume is wise, as Scott Pilgrim is a fairly conscious of its form meta-series—is where Scott fights her evil ex, Lucas Lee, who is a famous actor and skateboarder. The way Ramona refers to him is flippant: he was just some geeky kid and he definitely didn’t make an impression on her. It’s implied that they probably dated in ninth grade, but even that’s not clear. This is a good indication of how Ramona handles a lot of things. The end result was the same: she dumped him for some douchebag, and doesn’t really care when Scott defeats him.
Not long after that defeat, Ramona is out hanging out with Scott’s sister, Stacey. They are at the Toronto Reference Library when Knives shows up and fights Ramona. She calls Ramona fat, and tells her that she’s a Scott-a-holic. This entire scene is incredibly surreal, and it ends up drawing a crowd that remains captivated by the fight—except for Stacey, who is currently distracted. Ramona can’t stand Knives during and after this fight, and doesn’t do a good job of hiding it at the time. But overall, it’s something she brushes off as just being weird and a little crazy.
That douchebag is the Vegan bassist of Scott’s ex-girlfriend’s band, and he definitely is a douchebag. Todd shows up, along with one of Scott's ex-girlfriends, Envy, at the end of the volume.
Scott and Ramona go to a special show by Envy’s band, and though Scott tries to flee, he and his friends, including Ramona, end up in the most awkward back room situation ever. Envy is rude, Ramona is rude back, and Knives, the girl who Scott was dating but now isn’t, is knocked aside like she’s nothing. Ramona comes to strongly dislike Envy at the end of this, which makes her and Wallace good friends when they show up at Honest Ed’s—a giant, superstore of epic proportions that isn’t organized in the least—for another fight between Todd and Scott. This essentially leads to nothing, with Honest Ed’s sadly blown up. But no one cares. Ramona doesn’t want to deal with things anymore, so she and Scott go back to her place and try to fool around. Neither of them are able to do it, so Ramona explains her past with Todd, and Scott tells her some of his past with Envy—and some of it with Kim, which is actually seemingly inaccurate.
The next day in the evening, they go to another show that Scott’s band was essentially forced to play at, opening for Envy. At the show, Ramona and Envy have a confrontation that is about to lead to the two of them fighting. Though Scott comes and helps out, it’s Ramona who reveals that Todd is cheating on her with the girl drummer of the band … and it’s also revealed that Todd isn’t actually a Vegan, though this was clear to the audience by his gelato ordering. Envy leaves at the end of this volume, much to Ramona’s relief. She really didn’t like her.
In the time following this (and the lead up to volume four!), Ramona and Scott’s relationship stabilizes. There are no evil exes and the two of them seemingly become disgustingly cute in the presence of other people. Ramona even comes to remark that Scott is one of the nicest guys she’s ever dated—which doesn’t mean much, considering who she’s dated. They have a vaguely uncomfortable conversation surrounding this, but in the big picture, it’s not that big of a deal.
Unfortunately, stable only lasts so long in these two’s life. Ramona’s ex, Roxie, visits, and the two of them are chummy while Scott is off trying to find a job. They show up at Scott’s work, which leads to an awkward fight. After all, Roxie and Scott had already met. Knowing that it’s a bad idea for them to fight, since Scott won’t fight a girl, Scott ends up being put into Ramona’s purse, and she runs into subspace. There, she and Roxie fight, and it’s obvious that Roxie is severely hung up on her. The subplot to all of this is that Lisa, Scott’s old friend, shows up, and her existence and Roxie’s meddling plant some seeds of doubt in Ramona’s mind over whether Scott is actually a decent guy.
Not trusting their relationship, Ramona basically points out that she and Scott need some space. Scott goes to Lisa during this time, while Ramona goes it alone. “Alone” really means “she’s clearly with Roxie,” as Scott finds out when some Asian guy (Knives’s father, as is later revealed) is making an attempt on his life. Scott is unable to process the fact that Ramona cheats on him (even if she later tells him that they just kissed a little). From Ramona’s end, it is obviously one of the many mistakes she makes, and a sure sign of her lack of comfort in the relationship—or continuing lack of comfort.
This only continues later on, when Scott fights Roxie at Ramona’s house—Knives’s father is involved in this, too, but that’s convoluted and not as connected—and he wins. The most significant moment here is that Scott finds it in him to tell Ramona that he loves her, and it gives him the power to defeat Roxie. She “dies” warning Scott about the next evil exes he’ll have to fight. Despite the defeat, this is a big moment of in Ramona and Scott’s relationship as they start to grow closer and he shows her that he really cares about her.
These evil exes show up a little later, after Scott’s twenty-fourth birthday, at a party of Julie Powers’. It’s obvious at this point that Scott and Ramona’s relationship has stabilized, but maybe not for the best. Her hair is longer, too, a sign of the fact that maybe she isn’t changing as much about herself. At the party, Ramona lets Scott take care of the twins’ robot, while she goes outside and talks to Kim. As has been prevalent throughout the comic, she shows a certain fondness toward Kim and a bond with Wallace, which is shown by him sending her a text meant for Scott. At this point, Scott and Ramona are living together, a result of circumstances in volume four, because Scott’s best friend Wallace wanted to get a place of his own. Living together doesn’t help them much as a couple as Scott is … rather lazy and irresponsible.
Another bad show with Scott’s band takes place, and in the bathroom, Ramona finds out that Scott was cheating on Knives with her for the first time. This obviously upsets her—which is rather hypocritical, given that she and Scott didn’t break up when she cheated on him with Roxie. She comes out to find Scott fighting the twins, and he wins. Ramona doesn’t let him in the house afterward because he forgot his key, and he’s left to go find somewhere else to stay.
After that, he and Kim try to plan something so he can run into Ramona, and when he does, her head is glowing—this is a sign that shows up multiple times because of her extreme discomfort with a situation. This happens again at another one of Julie’s parties, where another robot shows up. Scott ends up fighting the robot while Kim and Ramona become very drunk and very friendly. The three of them get comfy together, and then Scott and Ramona go home. Still hypocritical, after they almost have sex, Ramona confronts Scott on the fact that he cheated on her, and he weakly justifies himself by saying that Ramona wasn't the wronged one. She says he’s just another evil ex waiting to happen—a sharp contrast to what she had said at the beginning of the prior volume about him being the nicest guy she ever dated. In the morning, Scott is called off to go save Kim, as she’s been kidnapped by the twins.
When he comes back, sure he’s going to fix everything with Ramona, she is there, fading, with shorter hair, and she thanks him for everything.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Ramona will be coming into Landel’s following her disappearance at the end of volume five. She ends up in the wilderness to figure out some things for herself, but instead, she’ll end up inside of the institute. This disappearance is caused by her going inside of her head, and then she goes to live with her father to try and deal with things, but instead, she lounges around and does a lot of nothing. The institute will essentially be the exact opposite of the vacation that she sought out by escaping from her life in Toronto and everything that was happening with Scott.
The reason for this canon point is because it’s a large defining point for her character. Within the context of the series, it’s the last time she runs away before she realizes that she’s not pulling herself together and decides to come back. It’s the point at which her self-actualization can be achieved, though instead of finding that she can’t achieve it with X-Files reruns, she’s going to end up inside of Landel’s with the very person she most wanted to run away from (Scott Pilgrim). Not because Scott is bad, but their relationship was complicated as it was, and everything about it became too much. One of their last conversations before she faded away was about how he was just as bad as all the other guys she dated. While she may not have believed that, it showed the complicated nature of her mind.
While this might initially seem like it has to do with Scott, it was less that she was getting away from Scott and the fact that she was trying to get away from the mess that was her life—and at that point, one of the most important parts of Ramona’s life was Scott. She doesn’t come back at the end of the story for Scott, but for herself, and she runs away for herself, too. Of course, when she does leave, she doesn’t have this all sorted out yet. As a result, her mindset regarding herself from this point in time will be rather convoluted, and it will complicate things with Scott. She’ll be happy to see him—she does love him, after all—but also distressed because he was a part of that part of her life she was trying to get away from. Ramona at this point hasn’t fully dissected everything with Scott, aside from passing mentions of the fact that he’s the nicest guy she’s dated, partly because she hasn’t fully dissected herself. On a whole, it will be complicated, but Ramona is used to things not going the way she wants at this point.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
If Ramona were asked about her personality, in all likelihood, she would find some way around answering—or she might call herself a bitch, though both answers aren’t exactly giving the truthful explanation of who she is. Underneath all her stoic and avoidant behavior, which is armored with a heavy level of hypocrisy, Ramona doesn’t actually know. She comes across as detached from the events around her in large, but that’s probably just one of her coping mechanisms in dealing with her life. She is loud, boisterous, and more than willing to share her opinion, but none of this really says much about who she is or what it adds up to the bigger picture of her existence. Again, that’s largely in part because she doesn’t know. She’s working on it. Or, rather, she’s running away from it and wallowing in self-pity and trying to pretend that it isn’t happening. That’s the current point of her existence.
What is most notable about her is a massive set of contradictions that give way to a singular, obvious truth: Ramona doesn’t have any level of self-awareness. Though it’s obvious that she’s capable of living inside of her head and berating herself, her greater habit is to just continue forward—act like it didn’t happen, cut ties, and write it off like it was nothing. This shows not only in her vast League of Evil Ex-Boyfriends, but also in how quickly she writes off her own obvious bisexuality and how little she cares about that exceedingly awkward guy at the party. It’s not that Ramona is actually untouchable; in truth, it’s just that she doesn’t want certain things in her life to have meaning, and thus doesn't put a lot of weight on them. If anything, she probably doesn’t want to feel out of control, because then the things taking control away from her do matter.
A lot of this is painting Ramona in a rather unsavory light, which isn’t entirely inaccurate—but she isn’t entirely flawed. It’s just that her demeanor and approach to most things is fairly casual, and she holds her feelings about the bigger things close to her chest. In a lot of ways, Ramona sets up a categorization system in her head: those within an arm’s length … and then everyone else. How people slip into that system isn’t exactly determined, and it truly ties into her lack of self-awareness that she probably wouldn’t be able to tell who fits into what category. For example, her ex-girlfriend Roxie is probably closer to her than she realizes, but she treats her somewhat coldly, like an old fling—and then sleeps with her when she’s going through a rough patch. With Scott’s friend Kim, she asks after her and finds herself curious about her—one might even say she has a crush on the red-headed girl—but it’s only when Ramona is drunk that it comes out that it might be something like that.
For all this talk of categorization and behaviors, it might be simple to conclude that Ramona lives in a very complicated manner. But that wouldn’t be accurate, either. All of this is second-nature; all of this is done in a very impulse-based manner, without her thinking further into what she does. Detaching herself from the complications entirely is what makes her life of complete self-unawareness possible. After all, this is the girl who continually reinvents herself and then doesn’t reflect on it—or doesn’t seem to. And when she’s stable, the reinvention stops, but she seems dissatisfied, as if things aren’t going the way she wants them to.
But maybe that’s it. Ramona isn’t very satisfied with her life. She is seeking a decent boyfriend who isn’t like the others, but she isn’t considerate enough to care about the others and what they went through. She is seeking stability to her life, but she complains about it. In fact, Ramona, like … pretty much everyone in Scott Pilgrim, seems to have a problem with almost every aspect of her life. Then again, that’s probably what happens when someone is living in their mid-twenties and is pretty aimless about the direction they’re headed in.
An important aspect of all this is that Ramona does live her life the way that makes her feel the most comfortable, and it shows. She might not have the puzzle of herself put together, but Ramona definitely knows a number of things. She won’t do something if she doesn’t like to do it entirely, and it would be easy, and in fact, mostly correct, to conclude that Ramona makes things happen because she wants them to happen. It isn’t like her to keep her opinions to herself. If she thinks something sucks, she’ll say it. If she thinks something is weird, she doesn’t hide it. These surface-level things don’t run as deep as they possibly could, but it’s not like she’s coasting through life without any ease or comfort. There is a level of bluntness in how she makes these things happen, which leads to a level of hypocrisy, but that is part of who she is.
That said, this way of making herself comfortable comes out in other ways. She can mock or joke with the best of them, and she has a very dry sense of humor. Sarcasm is a second nature in her speech patterns and it shows. Making fun of someone or something is just another part of her daily existence. Maybe she isn’t as critical as other people, but there are times when Ramona doesn’t hold back on calling someone a bitch or picking them apart (at times for the fun of it). Her life and the behaviors that tie into it are decidedly simple from her point of view. While she plays off her hair changing as being no big deal, she does like simple things: good music, old movies, cats, and of course, everything about Scott Pilgrim’s existence falls under this.
For all this, it might be easy to also assume that Ramona is someone who is so cool, calm, and collected in order to appear together that she doesn’t ever show any external flaws or do anything wrong. This is wrong on a lot of points. She sometimes acts in petty ways without letting other people know, and as is prevalent in her “Glow,” which will be covered below, she can get irritated and overwhelmed even if she’s not outwardly expressing it. It’s not unlike her to act because she doesn’t like the way something has gone or to try to make things go her way. In a lot of ways, she deals through petty little revenges—not letting someone stay home, by cheating, or by just being avoidant, and rarely with dealing with the problem. As these things go on, it’s obvious that she has her own issues (and at times, insecurities) that push her to act.
As it is, Ramona right now doesn’t have Ramona figured out. On the one hand, she isn’t terribly pleasant: she’s inconsiderate, selfish, hypocritical, and apt to make rash judgments of other people. On the other hand, she seems to go through life in a contradictory manner because of how detached she makes herself out to be. She cares about people, but isn’t altogether conscious of it, but just goes with the flow of it. “Going with the flow” is basically the most decisive part of who she is, even if she comes off as somewhat outspoken and cantankerous in the process.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
One of the catches of Scott Pilgrim is that it’s a series that’s entirely in black and white, which makes the running joke of Ramona’s constantly changing hairstyle more difficult to pin down. For the sake of consistency, she’ll have her recently shorter hair style, but as for her hair color, she’ll have a blueish hair color. (At one point, Scott asks whether one of her incarnations of hair color is her natural color. Ramona herself shrugs it off and says maybe, like she doesn’t remember, and it’s a color without screentones at this point. However, that’s hardly an indication of anything, as black-haired people only tend to get that treatment.)
That said: Ramona is a pretty girl beyond that—maybe not super gorgeous, but pretty enough. (This is a fact that’s only relevant because of her mysterious love interest status, really.) Her build is probably more on the average side of things: she’s not super skinny but she’s not identified as being overweight (except by Knives, who hates her anyway). Her eye color is a pretty blue-gray color and you’d think her boyfriend would comment on it, but again, she’s dating Scott Pilgrim.
Height-wise, Ramona is a little shorter than Scott, who’s Mr. Average. He’s listed as five-foot-nine in Damned, so Ramona will be five-foot-six or five-foot-seven.
What kinds of otherwordly abilities does your character have, if any?:
In the world of Scott Pilgrim, everything works accordingly to video game laws. People can jump higher, they can run up walls, and they can go into things like subspace to escape from a fight. And when they die, they turn into a bunch of coins—but there’s always the reset button and starting over from the beginning or having extra lives. As a result, these things all seem to apply to the majority of its characters—some more so than others.
That said, Ramona is one such character. Defined as a “Mysterious American Ninja Delivery Girl,” Ramona is capable of fighting like a ninja, as well as moving through subspace. She was trained by her half-ninja ex-girlfriend in these things, and she’s probably fairly capable. Her fighting skills are unusual on the scale that they are like video games. She has proficiency with some weapons (but especially a hammer), she can run up walls like it’s nothing, and defying physics is no problem to her. While her fighting scenes aren’t as extensive as Scott’s, it’s prevalent that she is a capable fighter.
Her other skill is being able to travel through subspace. This allows her to travel in an alternate reality to get from one place to another. There are various ways to access subspace, such as doors, or a purse that she has. This is something she was trained to do.
This ties in to the Glow: Ramona was manipulated into having it be prevalent whenever she is feeling negative feelings, and it makes her capable of essentially going inside of herself. But this isn’t common. The most important part is that she obviously glows: which is a halo-like glow that doesn’t obscure her face, and usually only her head does this. Through the Glow, she is able to go into subspace, and when that happens, her whole body glows.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
If any of this seems familiar, it’s because Eryn gave me permission to borrow from Scott’s limitations. Plus, it makes sense for there to be consistency between characters in the series.
Like Scott, Ramona’s ability to defy physics and gravity like a video game character will be largely reduced or nixed all together. For jumping and leaping across distances, she’ll be able to go 10% above optimal adult distances, with 25% at extreme emergencies. She will be able to perform a maximum of two of these big jumps a night. Though this is where she and Scott will diverge a little, since I am not giving her access to subspace or any of her original weapons. Ramona will be able to knock people back about six feet with her good hits, but she’ll be able to only do this three or four times a night (as with Scott, if there isn’t available space, the wall will crack). She’ll no longer be able to run up walls or anything like that, but it is important for her to be able to have her strength, as it’s a defined part of her character. Six feet is a good number for how far they’d go, and how hard she hits will be at about 25% above normal human strength. Her ability to lift things that are heavy will be about 30% above, but once she does, she’ll be slowed down. The same number limitations apply here: she’ll only be able to lift heavier objects three times a night. And when she does, it’ll be hard to carry through.
Her ability to travel through subspace will be nixed entirely, but she will still have the Glow. But subspace travel would be inconvenient for the people trying to trap her, so instead, Ramona will just have an annoying glowing thing going on for some reason.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Ramona is a fighter, which means she’s been trained as a ninja, which is both otherworldly and not in Scott Pilgrim. She can use hand to hand as well as fight with various weapons. She’s proficient with many weapons, but prefers larger, bluntly hitting ones, like a giant hammer or a baseball bat.
Along with that, she’s very good at rollerblading.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Ramona is coming from a point in her life where a lot hasn’t been figured out yet: she’s still sorting herself out, and she’s been able to deal with a lot of the chaos of her life by coming up with coping mechanisms and resorting to the things she likes. At her canon point, she is fleeing because she’s unable to cope, and ending up in the institute. Even excepting the issue with Scott, this makes it impossible for her to cope and just shut down. Furthermore, Landel’s on a whole will make it difficult for her to brush off things like they’re nothing. She can’t resort to common things, though I do have every intention of her going to Doyleton at some point to get hairdye as a source of comfort.
Beyond that, there are a lot of ways Ramona will go. The biggest part is having her adjust to an environment that she didn’t choose herself. No matter what, with the exception of being drawn into subspace by the Glow, Ramona has always chosen where she’s going. She chooses who she’s going to talk to, and she decides basically the itinerary of her life. That is obviously what she has done her entire life. That isn’t something she’ll be able to choose to do in Landel’s. Making friends and trying to find people to trust in beyond her normal detached way will be important. It’ll be a way to survive, and a way for her to be able to escape. All this will be key to her.
In a lot of ways, Ramona will have to deviate from life as normal. It will force her to go through a massive, if internalized, adjustment period. Outwardly, she is unlikely to let any of this show, but she won’t be handling it well.
Also, I can conceivably see her being an interesting patient for an MU given her relationship with Gideon, what he’s done to her, and how a doctor at Landel’s could take advantage of the Glow.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Despite the unsettling nature of being put into a situation against her will, Ramona will be able to handle a lot of the horrors of Landel’s better than one might imagine. It helps that Scott Pilgrim takes place in a world that’s conscious of its meta level positioning; furthermore, it helps even more that there is a League of Evil Exes after Ramona. They all are, well, evil, and up for making her life into a miserable mess. Given their willingness to jump out of nowhere and cause havoc or even manipulate her mentally, they do a fair job of preparing her for a situation like Landel’s.
Other than that, Ramona is a capable fighter and is able to jump into a fight without a moment of hesitation. This will give her some further advantage in handling monsters, because this doesn’t seem to bother her in canon. Also, the meta level nature of Scott Pilgrim makes her capable of rationalizing some of the horror. Like Scott, she’ll believe people can just go home if they die or they might have an extra life.