Some of y’all are confusing quirky characters as being automatically manic pixie dream girls. The point is that their characters are shallow for the sole purpose of supporting the male protagonist.
yeah,,, the point of the trope is that they don’t really have any deeper meaning or flaws and only serve to make the main guy “better.” Some of these characters, like what’s-her-face from The Sound of Music have their own lives and stories and flaws that are portrayed on screen and the movie is mostly about her anyway. I know you know this lol but I’m explaining it further in case someone still doesn’t agree with you
@Crow Belle doesn't have any character progression because she isn't the one who needs to change. The Beast starts off as being a boy who's selfish, unkind and cruel, preferring to force an old woman into the cold rather than give her shelter from a bitter storm. HE'S the one who needs to learn kindness, decency and love. When you begin a relationship by imprisoning an old man for stealing a rose and then imprisoning his daughter, it's clear you have a long way to go.
Films love bubble baths because it is an easy way of not exposing body parts. Manic Pixie Dream Girls probably take even more bubble baths than usual because it is cute, fun and spontaneous.
I see too many people confuse realistic with unimpressive. Too many think their dream girl is "too good to be true" so they settle for less than they need. Unrealistic is when she's got no flaws and everything in the relationship goes the same way all the time. It's not unrealistic to have someone who is more than anything you could've ever asked for, even if they seem to be suspiciously perfect for you.
I think a lot of people don’t like having their favorite characters described as “randoquirkos” and “wafflespork!s”, but that’s in essence what mpdgs are. They’re the ones that feel an overwhelming need to personify uniqueness, quirkiness, individuality, randomness, spontaneity, frivolity, etc., usually because their writers want to be like that themselves. It’s simply a counterculture, a backlash, to what people usually are: ordinary beings going about doing ordinary things most of the time. People get unnerved when they take notice of the daily grind, the sameness of days following days, and usually want an imaginary escape hatch. mpdgs, no matter how “deep” their characters are written to be, are an answer to the dichotomy of humanity: we strive towards permanence, but feel stifled when we achieve it. mpdgs aren’t meant to be taken seriously, because they themselves run away from seriousness at warp factor strawberries. We aren’t supposed to become attached to them, or find any deep meaning in them; we are supposed to laugh along with them for a little while, pat them on the head, and chuckle when they get the zoomies and go speeding off to make an industrial-themed tropical resort in the arctic. mpdgs serve to highlight how wonderful a faithful, loving family pet is by underscoring how temporary and transient the rest of the world is. You never fall for an mpdg, or invest a great deal of anything into them: you learn a quick lesson from them, then go back home and love your dog a little bit more than before you met the zoomie.
Exactly! You can't put the lead role of a movie in that category because the manic pixie dream girl only serves as a supporting role to a male character. Also, anyone who has seen that movie would know she was not a manic pixie dream girl, there are actual examples. Use them!
We girls are all silly little quirky creatures roaming around inventing cool phrases and providing you guys with self realisation and hope but as our own entity we cease to exist, we don't need hopes and dreams nor do we have fear or hatred inside us, we are just the right amount of sad where we can turn it around in a moment and just the right amount of crazy not to scare men off...you created us in your own image or used us as a coping mechanism.
@Abbie Alvarez Yup. And us men are self assured, broody looking, mysterious strangers who pick out you girls for an exciting forbidden love affair that lifts you (literally) off your feet and out of your boring everyday existence into a life of adventure where you are suddenly SEEN, with envy, by all the other girls, especially the ones you were envious of in the first place. Thats our purpose. To provide YOU with purpose and direction, because that was so deerly lacking in your life. Thats the image you created of us and how you want us to be. Next stage is where you manage to tame us, somewhat, not too much obviously because you wouldnt want us completely emasculated because then we would no longer be your personal trophy, but just enough to provide you with that little bit of self esteem your ego so desperately needs. Or am I generalizing a bit too much here? 😉
I think a lot of people are missing the point of what a manic pixie dream girl is. It doesn’t matter what or who the woman is, is about the effect she has on her male counterpart. These women are all normal people but the way they exist in the world simply does it for the man who observes them. A guy’s manic pixie dream girl can be unnoticed by other men. It’s a personal experience. Please stop acting like a certain character trait stops a woman from being a MPDG... NO!! ANY woman can be a one to the right male.
Manic pixie dream girls don't go through the transformation and have such depth as Holly Golightly did. She is full of flaws and goes through her own personal growth as well.
I like the manic pixie dream girl until its for the purpose to further a man through a romantic plotline that is just shitty writing. Give me lesbian manic pixie dreams girls dating each other and just living life not based on mens romantic and stereotypical interests.
To the point of view of the Beast, yes she is. However, we do see Belle’s inner life before she meets the beast as evidenced by the song “Belle”, hence Belle subverting the manic pixie dream girl.
I had a Marla. Halfway through Fight Club, she asked me "How did they know?" She seriously thought the film was based on our lives even though I didn't know what a duvet was. She was fun in the nastiest sort of way.
Are you saying that you're a loser who couldn't cope with life and had a fully psychotic breakdown, diverging off into an alternate personality that had you start up an underground army to cause chaos in the world and ultimately you succeeded in causing mass destruction on your city? Or do you just mean that your girlfriend was a bit of a weirdo, full of self-importance, like Marla Singer?
"It's not like the movies. They fed us all little white lies. I think you're crazy. Maybe, I think you're crazy. I will see you in the next life." - Thom Yorke (2000)
Summer was not a manic pixie dream girl. Tom spent the whole movie projecting his ideal onto her despite repeated warnings that she was not interested. She was a multidimensional character that Tom refused to see in any way but as a one dimensional dream girl which is why he got his heart broken.
People, spoiler alert: MPDG = girls with borderline personality disorder. You can find this in real life! Just find a woman who was abused or abandoned by (or tragically lost) a critical caregiver between the ages of 9-14. It's funny to say outright, but I'm serious. While I certainly wouldn't wish it on anyone, sometimes sad life events produce both positive and negative personality traits. The negative ones of BPD are better-known but MPDG (the expanded, real version, ie being very loving, devoted, honest, childlike, full of wonder, etc) is the other side of it. However, on the flip side, I find most borderline-chasers to have severe personality problems (codependency and/or pathological narcissism), so women with BPD might best avoid people with a long history of dating only them. (On the other hand, apparently one can't trust most NT guys not to freak out and become abusers and then blame it on you, so, take your pick.)
ethereal intoxicated canary nah theres no shame in being quirky. The reason I (and so many others) hate this trope is because the womans purpose in the plot revolves around improving her male love interest, without having any character of her own. Keep on being yourself!
Don't feel bad. Express yourself how you wan't to. You're not a manic pixie dream girl, you're a real person. A manic pixie dream girl is a one-dimentional fictional character created to make the sad misunderstood straight dude character appreciate life and grow as a person.
There is a RU-vid series called “Manic Pixie Dream Wife” which shows how exhausting and nightmarish it would be: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fxTuHd_VNFQ.html
The ones I recognized: Sweet November, Garden State, The Sound of Music, 1,2,3 Splash, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Beauty and the Beast, Vanilla Sky, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Almost Famous, Some Like It Hot.
Rob Vel LOL yeah feminists see these women as regressive. Every women is supposed to embody the train-wreck, love me at my worst, depraved, and cynical profile and men just need to love them.
Quirky girls certainly do, but they exist beyond being an eternally happy aid for the Male in the story to develope a sense of value towards his life. That's what's being criticized , not their quirks.
@@Wingedmagician *Sorry for the longest answer ever... I like how you pointed out "fantasy"; it is to you and to me, but the truth is most of the tropes represented in media are not taken as such by real people. Girls who work in animation, for example, tend to have this "quirky" vibe. More often than not they get molested and I'd dare to say it has something to do with this poorly portrayed image of them. After all, they are created by "loner misfits", so that makes sense. All us viewers are entitled to receive is a more complete and developed character, even if it fits a trope. I really like that about Holly Golightly, or Summer Finn; non of both were actual "depraved trainwrecks".
Clementine is a deconstruction of the trope since she admits to being messed up and that she doesn’t want guys to use her as a way to fix their personal problems. She may look like manic pixie dream girl with the dyed hair, but she doesn’t want to be treated as one.
Sophia I how does she qualify? She was already married to Marcellus and Vincent had no intention of doing anything with her other than as a friend. Besides, he's not the typical dude that pursues the manic pixie dream girl.
Clearly you haven't watched Bringing Up Baby. Ms. Hepburn's character is the original MPDG, and is hilarious. Worth a watch-- it's my favorite movie of all time!
@@kaylacophone Holly has the personality of one, but she’s very much of the protagonist of her own story, and it’s clear that her eccentric behavior is the result of childhood trauma.
WTF. So, you're telling me there are guys that actually like these types of women? What happened to the days we called a RomCom a RomCom? I always thought it was women, not men, that liked these types of women. Us men hardly ever watch these movies, if given the choice!
It really depends on the man; it's usually introverted "misunderstood loners" who fall for this trope. There's a great example called "manic pixie dream wife" series here in RU-vid. It illustrates my point quite better than I do.
@@idontgetlaidbut What is wrong with you? Why do you have to insult him like this??? It's so rude and childlike to write such comments on RU-vid, so I think the one who's not a man is you...
Joe Gray its a term coined by Nathan Rabin as "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.". it basically describes a female character who's soul purpose in a work of fiction is to sorta make the sorta brooding gloomy male protagonist see the beauty in life again or whatever. there's a male equivalent but I don't know if it has a term, but it exists for sure. ^-^
@@jonaseggen2230 I don't know if he'd qualify either because 1: he is a child thus having child-like qualities isn't out of the ordinary like it would be with a manic pixie dream girl. And 2: because Wendy actually helps him grow and realize that children in most cases need parents.
