>>149864892
>Were the early 2000s that much of a different era?
Yes.
People like to pretend otherwise, but the purposes of having Scott and Knives dating wasn't to show that Scott's a creep or a bad person, it was to show that he was kinda pathetic and settling for an easy girl.
It really wasn't until the last two books or so where Bryan really started leaning into the 'Scott is a bad dude' schtick, likely due to the self-reflection afforded from over half a decade of working on the story, while the original plan was probably much closer to the movie version where he's just a loser that needs to get some self-respect.