Was That A Lord Of The Rings Reference In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Episode 4?
The following article contains mild spoilers for "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off."
In the new animated Netflix series "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," Scott (Michael Cera) is kidnapped early on, and things shift quite a bit from the film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World." I won't spoil the major plot point that explains it all, but things are ... different. That said, the major cast members are back to voice the roles they had in the live-action film. That includes Chris Evans, who played movie star skateboarder/Ramona's Evil Ex number two, Lucas Lee. If you recall, in the film, Lee is on a movie set and skateboards to his doom in a battle with Scott. In the anime, written by Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, Lee is still a successful movie star. This time around, however, we see his mansion in Glendale, California, and in one room, he has a shrine to all his skateboards.
That room has what appears to be a reference to "The Lord of the Rings" in episode 4. Let's take a dive into what the reference appears to be, and see if it works. Grabinski also spoke to /Film and gave us a bit of a hint about what we might be looking at.
Broken boards
Right before the "United States of Whatever" skating sequence, Lucas Lee walks into his skateboard shrine room. Prominently displayed is a board, broken in half and laid out much like the broken sword Narsil in Rivendell during the events of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings." It's similar down to the way the shards are placed. So why is it enshrined? Well, for Narsil, it was the sword that Isildur took up after his father's fall to slice the One Ring off of Sauron, along with his finger. The sword broke and it was displayed in its pieces because of its significance. It was the moment history shifted.
/Film reached out to BenDavid Grabinski and asked him about this similarity. He didn't tell us directly, but he did say this:
"I will say there are almost a thousand dumb weird references in the show and it's really nice people are picking up on any of them or engaging with it in that way. The shot of his broken board is referencing three things at once — one of the references might be the deepest and dumbest cut of the entire season."
So what are those three references?
One board to rule them all
The first of the references is clearly to Narsil, and that's a deep one. Grabinski mentions that one is the "dumbest," and this probably isn't that. There are a lot of deep cuts in this show, though, and that's pretty great. What's even greater is the other thing Grabinski told us. He said, "You don't need to know anything Bryan and I are ever referencing in the show for it to work as a narrative. That stuff is just extra." That is the very best attitude towards Easter eggs and fan service. I love that you don't need to know it, but that it's there to enjoy if you do.
As for the other two meanings, I think the first is the fact that this board was the one he was riding the day he met Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who bandaged him up after a fall, and became his girlfriend. When she started dating someone else, he broke the board over his knee, so it's a symbol of his heartbreak. The final meaning is likely that this board-breaking moment (and he does say as much) is the moment he chose to become "the best skater, the highest paid actor, the biggest star," which he has.
"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" is currently streaming on Netflix.