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Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic is a Manic Pixie Dream Boy

So basically it’s not wrong that they’re unique it’s wrong that their entire sense of uniqueness and self is defined by a mans story

My ex thought I was a manic pixie dream girl just because I have coloured hair and act a bit out of the box. He was disappointed when he found out that I'm just depressed and anxious. Edit: I have been diagnosed with ADHD (at the age of 20)

Sometimes the manic pixie dream girl doesn't rescue the boy, he just drowns her.

If you're hot, your quirkiness is perceived as endearing and interesting. If you're not, you're labeled as just weird and off-putting. Even more so if you refuse to act cute all the time. Women / girls who have their own baggage / problems, especially when they're artists themselves, are, despite or because of their quirks, portrayed / perceived as difficult, hard to bear, bitchy, narcissistic, etc. (Especially in biopics.)

Summer isn’t a mpdg but Tom interprets her as being such, he doesn’t realize she has her own agenda. That’s the whole point of the movie; mpdg don’t exist they’re a male fantasy, and since this movie was seen through Tom’s eyes we see Summer as a mpdg, even though she is far from such.

i love how 500 days of summer criticizes something that a lot of people (including myself) fall into, idealizing people. if you put a person in a pedestal one day they're gonna fall down and you're gonna realize that they are nothing more than human

"they are in a great mood even if they are dying" LMAOOO

I think what bugs me about these movies is that the girl is so interested in these boring and lame dudes. A real life girl like the manic pixie dream girl would be having so much fun with her own life and looking for interesting people and things, she would never be interested in a man like that

Sounds like a twist of the "cool girl". The love child of the "cool girl" and the "weird girl"

Luna Lovegood is a fantastic example of how the trope can be used in non-romantic settings. I find her very curious, creative and interesting, not merely in service of a male fantasy, and I suspect a lot of that is down to the fact that she was authored by a woman.

"These men are typically lonely, depressed, tortured [...] "... and white

The problem with the MPDG trope isn’t the trope itself, it’s the male leads. The men in these stories just soak up what the girl has to offer like a sponge. They don’t bring anything to the table. I have no problem with romantic fantasy tropes, but if you want me to get emotionally invested in the relationship then it can’t just be one-way. If the female lead is the male lead’s fantasy, then give me a reason to believe that he’s also her fantasy.

As a girl, I find this nonverbal claim of "I'm not like other girl" extremely annoying.

"Too many guys think I'm a concept, or I complete them, or I'm gonna make them alive. But I'm just a fucked-up girl who's lookin' for my own peace of mind; don't assign me yours." - Clementine from eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Hot take: the problem with MPDG is the men.

There has to be an indie rock band out there called Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I just know it.

Hot take: Augustus waters is a manic pixie dream girl

In real life the man puts the woman on a pedestal, calls her a muse and as soon as he sees her for a real person, sees that she has flaws and is human, he disappears from her life. It is really the man forcing an impossible reality on a real life girl. And the girl is usually the one standing there wondering what happened.

I have this weird feeling of dissonance where I'm frustrated with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope but also mad that women of color don't get to be Manic Pixie Dream Girls.

I think Maria from the Sound of Music is a good example of the quirky, free-spirited, and endearing female character without falling into the MPDG trope. Even though she brings light back into the gloomy male lead's life, she still has her own flaws, interests, and goals independent of him.

So, the MPDG is the female version of Jack from Titanic. A free spirited sexy life coach.

You know you've grown up when you watch 500 days of summer and understand how selfish Tom was. Love a movie that you can see from a different perspective once you aren't a literal child

And the new version is the “psycho” girl. Everyone thinks they want a Harley Quinn now

I want a movie about a manic pixie "saving" a sad woman.

Ruby Sparks is such a great and an underrated movie. It really shows how the trope reveals a kind of male vulnerability and a lack of genuine interest in women. The lonely, immature main character dreams up the ideal girlfriend, but he isn't really interested in who she is as a person. He treats her like a toy he can play with when he wants to, while also expecting her to stay still and not have any career pursuits, interests, or friends of her own while he's off doing something else. That's pretty much the deal with MPDG trope: she doesn't seem like the type of character who would continue to exist on her own if the male lead wasn't looking.

I think Phoebe (from Friends) is the developed Manic Pixie the world needed, and the writers married her with a loose happy musician like her, instead of the lonely sad scientist 🙌🏼

The girlfriend in second series of "You". Even more so because her manic pixie dream girlness is really what the serial killer is projecting onto her rather than seeing her as her own person equally as messed up as him.

"Even if theyre dyyying" I laughed out loud

Someone once told me "Be your own manic pixie dream girl, make your own life magical" and I never forgot it

I like how Ruby Sparks and 500 Days of Summer treated this trope. In the end, they showed that you can't use a woman to fix your problems and that she has dreams of her own and interests of her own. If you aren't one of her dreams, let her go.

The "you like the Smiths?" bit in 500 days of summer was really cringy to watch. It's not some obscure band or anything.. its th fkn Smiths Lol

Stargirl, the book, was also supposed to be a deconstruction of the trope. Stargirl is a MPDG who is bullied and shunned by the whole school and neighborhood she moves into. Even the boring guy love interest ends up distancing himself for fear of being shunned too. It was about how a REAL super quirky and weird girl wouldn’t actually be accepted by her high school peers. It was about how high school is a time where ppl tend to shun and bully those who don’t conform.

Do the sassy black friend trope!

Every guy I’ve gone out with has told me that I’m “not like most girls” and perceived me as the manic pixie dream girl, then wound up being disappointed 3months later to realize I didn’t live up to their stupid fantasy lol It’s so dumb! Every woman is unique and different in her own way!

Honest Observation: I am a Black woman and I happily identify with the MPDG however I noticed not many Black women do. My observation is that not enough Black women are encouraged to embrace their quirky/feminine side in order to properly explore this trope in life. I myself had to fight hard to not let anyone dampen my MPDG spirit. Thaaaat said, It would have been nice to have had some in depth examples of Black female roles who fall into the MPDG category in this video. You guys generally do a great job and I am a fan, however I have noticed that some tropes just don’t seem to apply to the collective of Black women and as a result they are all but absent from a few of the vids. Not race baiting just pointing out the need for a larger range in the emotions Black women are allowed to FEEL and portray on screen.

Could Marriage Story be seen as what happens years after the brooding man marries his Manic Pixie Dream Girl and the girl gets tired if living to be a prop in someone else's life.

Unfortunately I don't recall the name of the artist, but there was once this four-panel comic about "mythical creatures of modern times"; three of them were cryptids and such, and the fourth one was "The Beautiful, Strong-Willed Young Woman Who Instantly Falls In Love With The Miserable Nerd Yeah That's Right It's Never Gonna Happen You Loser".

imagine being perceiced as the manic pixie dream girl, its all good until he/she ghosts you when you show any signs of being an actual person and not a movie character..... and on this episode of why the manic pixie dream girl is a terrible trope-

I kinda wanna see a story of a manic pixie dream girl where we she’s the protagonists and she’s dying, and she seems really joyous on the outside but really she’s fucking miserable about dying… like how everyone’s miserable about dying. And the lonely weirdo is a conventionally attractive person who’s just like shy.

The thing for me is thinking: does it feel like the girl is only in the male protagonist’s head? Could it be that at the end of the movie it was all his fantasy? If the answer is “yes, she could very well be a figment of his imagination” then she probably is a manic pixie dream girl.

My personal opinion is, like other female trope characters, the manic pixie girl exists to stroke the male ego. Wow look at this kooky, weird, whimsical, energetic, and over everything HAPPY girl! And wow, look at this undeserving male protagonist who is egocentric, cynical and unable to help himself as if he's an infant on a bad day. And out of all the wonderful people in the world, this one of a kind (I say that because it's always made into a massive point how UNIQUE this woman is) girl has chosen this guy! And she will not stop until he is living a happier better life + points if they end up together to really consolidate his fragile masculinity. She becomes like an object - a one of a kind gemstone - and he's got her all to herself despite not deserving her in the slightest. It's a narrative that casts its ugly shadow over every female trope character: despite how bad, boring, ugly, and rude of a person you are you still deserve to have a girl fall over herself to be with you. When the female character transcends the male and moves on to better things THAT SHE DESERVES is when she transcends this trope.

Im a manic pixie dream girl... but thats just a facade of my depression.

‘Your lie in april’ had a pretty cool twist on the MPDG It starts off as as any generic boy meets girl romcom, but it rapidly changes as you learn the sad secret of why the girl’s putting on the facade of being a manic pixie dream girl And ultimately both the girl and boy help each other in achieving what they wanted (well kind of I guess)

Calling a real person "manic pixie dream girl" sounds so hurtful, you're dismissing that person's personality and their own reality, what the hell

MPDG is a more dangerous myth to young men than young women. Guys: a figure like this isn't going to complete you or broaden you; you've got to do that yourself.

This video really hit home. For years as a child, I dreamed of being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Of being so wonderful and different, I'd be able to help a boring guy see the wonder in life. And do I want to help people in general find beauty in life? Yes, but my entire existence shouldn't be based around getting a romantic partner I've deemed to boring to "live".

I am this “manic pixie dream girl” type, the only difference is - i’m actually having fun by myself and I don’t save boring nerds from their boring nerdy lives. I think this trope is perfectly fine as long as this type of characters don’t exist only to entertain male main hero.

Clementine from Eternal Sunshine is more of a deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. She’s quirky and fun on the surface, but very real and full of her own baggage and issues. Which is part of why their relationship fell apart. She’s not just a plot device to help the male main character. She exists independently of him.

Well, Kirsten Dunst at least got her revenge by playing one of the most disturbing, least "sunny" characters of the 2010s in Melancholia - in one of the best performances of the decade.

I feel like zooey Deschanel is the ultimate MPDG in nearly every role she plays.

Growing up with ADHD and being a woman, my behavior was similar except getting the man. Honestly, being “not like the other girls” was hard. My brain was on autopilot and I wanted it to stop. Everyone thought me to be a pain in the ass without thinking that I was sick of being this way! I’ve been doing better but the stupidity of others never ceases to floor me, smh.

Can you do a video analysing the "womaniser" trope and how they are viewed now?

I was talking about this with my husband and we surmised perhaps the MPDG & Protagonist are a role reversal of the classic damsel in distress! In these stories it's the man who needs saving and the woman comes to his rescue. Instead of combating an external physical threat, it is an internal emotional threat from which he needs saving. Whereas the Hero must put to good use his uniquely masculine characteristics which are well suited in opposition to the physical threat in order to save the Damsel, The MPDG's uniquely feminine characteristics are well suited to combat the emotional threats present in the protagonist.

Manic Pixie dream girls also exist in animes like "Your lie in april"

"Her" also was freakin' brilliant~* Brilliantly written, brilliantly directed, brilliantly acted...

A lot of those sad sack guys looked like Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I wonder how The Take would analyze the Sad Boy trope

One of the quickest ways to tell if a character is a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” is if they use the *god awful* sentence “I’m not like other girls”. 🙄 What a pretentious, self-hating and cheap thing to have a character say.

I feel like the manic pixie dream girl is like the response to the “masculine” perfect guy that set impossible standards for normal guys in Nicholas sparks esque movies, here we have the opposite where the girl is supposed to be this almost impossible “dream” for guys who don’t see themselves as this masculine figure and need someone to make their life better but don’t really provide much for the relationship.

I hate labels. All PEOPLE are manic, quiet, colourful, quirky, serious, depressed, anxious, frightended, crazy fucked up dreamers. We are all differerent, and we are all the same. No one is special yet everyone is special. I sound like a MPDG now. I guess there are worse things to be. lol

I’m so glad you guys included that guy who coined it, is annoyed by how much it’s been misused.

I think the keyword to manic pixie dream girls is shallow, yes, they tend to be quirky, dreamlike, cool/weird girl that makes the dude's life better, but they're shallow, their character arc is close to non existing, they're only a step to be stepped on the man's growth path. Bad writing causes that.

This is actually a common pairing of attachment styles in real life: dismissive avoidant male + anxious avoidant/spice of life female.

"I'm not like the other girls" - that's the female equivalent of a male saying "You are not like the other girls"

the thing I hate the most about this trope is how many men have bought into it and expect their flaws to be "fixed" by their partner. work on yourselves y'all.

"somehow they remain in a great mood, even IF THEY'RE DYING" lol I love the aggressiveness

Kaori from Your lie in April perfectly fits this trope. A cheerful and impulsive girl who helps the mopey,depressed main guy regain his love for music and then dies. RIP

Being the child of an alcoholic has me realizing how I've inadvertently adopted the need to fix or help others, making me fit all the more into the MPG trope given my ADHD aka traits of quirkiness, etc. Plus its so romanticized/seen as altruistic to be seen as improving or having a healing effect on your SO. I've had exes and their friends tell me that I've done that as if it were a compliment. In recent years I've come to recognize it as BS but still...sigh...trying to reprogram myself

Can we all just acknowledge that Summer saying “penis” in a park was the most unfunny, cringeworthy thing ever

"Margo was not a miracle, she was not an adventure, she was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl". I love how more writers are deconstructing the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl", namely John Green. Alaska Young and Margo Roth Spiegelman are the most prominent examples of this. Part of the protagonist Q's growth is realising that Margo isn't responsible for him, and has her own demons, and let's her, and his dream of her, go. 💖

I feel like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's was the original manic pixie dream girl.

so I'm realizing that my idea of being "fall-in-loveable" is being a manic pixie girl I'm genuinely trying to be a quirky girl that lives only to teach my boyfriend life is fun trying to be fun and pretty and not like other girls and cute and quirky and useful. that's the word,useful my pain has to be useful it is only talked about when it hurts because I just love him so much I'm here to fill up the void in his life and that's y I dislike relationships I wanna be MY OWN manic pixie dream girl

It’s like have an interesting “quirky” girlfriend makes him interesting by proxy because he views her as a possession.

Jack Dawson in Titanic is the maniac pixie dream boy! Lol

I'm an avid Scott Pilgrim fan and it's always rubbed me the wrong way when people call Ramona a MPDG. At least in the comics. I feel like Ramona is meant to examine the trope. She's not interested in changing Scott's life and part of Scott's character growth is learning to love Ramona as a PERSON and not as an IDEA. But maybe that's just my interpretation.

i will never forget the one time a guy referred to me as “manic pixie dream girl”. i didn’t even realize what it was at the time, and i ended up dating him. not a good time, let me tell u that.

I actually see Penny Lane in Almost Famous as being a direct takedown of the MPDG. When Will (and the audience) meets her, she seems like a textbook example of the trope. But we quickly learn that this is, in large part, an act. Although she insists that Band-Aids are there for the music (which is obviously deeply important to Penny), the idea that they're not also there for the rock stars is proven ridiculous. When she makes Will come to a hotel party with her shortly after they meet, it seems like a spontaneous decision to drag Will out of his comfort zone. But when she goes off with Russell, another groupie confides in Will that she only brought him there to give her an excuse to see Russell without looking desperate. Penny is constantly trying to be Russell's 'Cool Girl', a 70s rocker's dream: free-spirited, not clingy, young and exciting with an encyclopaedic knowledge of indie music. But in the end, the band see her as just another groupie, a fun distraction while their wives wait at home. Cracks in her persona begin to show when she makes the delusional decision to follow Russell and his wife to a restaurant after he has essentially sold her to another band. When it becomes clear that Russell doesn't want her there whilst his wife is around, she realises that even being the 'perfect woman' will never be enough for him. She tries to kill herself, shattering her carefree facade once and for all. Her decision to leave the men in her life behind and go to Morocco is the first thing she does for herself in this movie. Ultimately, her imitation of the MPDG or Cool Girl trope was detrimental to her own happiness; when she decides to stop being a male fantasy and start seeking her own adventure, it's the perfect happy ending for this character.

The essence of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl lies in her purpose as a character in the story; if she only exists for the benefit of the male protagonist and doesn't stand alone as her own character.. well that's what makes her a *Dream* girl, as in not realistic. Unfortunately the lowest common denominator of viewers only recognize the aesthetic of the trope rather than the narrative implications

Omg i just realized, nymphadora tonks is literally the mpdg. Remus was depressed, old, and poor. Yet this magnetic funny girl approach him and fall in love hard with him

Jesus that Natalie Portman character is infuriating

Manic Pixie Dream girls never seem to need bras...how whimsical lol🤣

I personally didn't like the Stargirl movie because in my opinion, it changed the character of Stargirl from individuality embodied to a manic pixie dream girl. In the book, she falls in love with Leo, yes, but she exists for herself and for the entire student body (and by extension, the reader). To me, it felt like the movie took a lot of the complexity out of the character, and I didn't like the casting of Grace VanderWaal, who is a great singer, but not really an actress. Stargirl isn't a singer, she's starstuff. I don't even think she's meant to be a real character - that's why she disappears at the end, and no one can seem to understand her. The movie took that and turned it into just another quirky girl. Of course, that's all just my interpretation, and I mean no disrespect to Grace VanderWaal. I just don't think that part was right for her, and I didn't like the movie. Edit: I appreciate those of you who have reminded me of the second book, where Stargirl is definitely a real character. I loved that book, and it only adds to the point of her not being a MPDG - after she leaves the male lead's life for good, she continues to have purpose and depth. When I originally said I didn't think she was meant to be a real character, I more intended that she isn't meant to be comprehendible or ordinary. She is simultaneously inhuman and more human than most people.

This trope is probably my least favorite trope of all time The girl is usually obnoxious, and immature and they exist just to make the man happy. I think a really good example of a quirky girl who isn’t a manic pixie dream girl is Phoebe from Friends. Even though she’s had a shitty life she’s almost always happy. She does abnormal things. She doesn’t care how people perceive her. My cousins made me watch Stargirl the other day and I absolutely hated it.

I tried to be a M.P.D.G and it drained me. I had a guy friend that was the embodiment of the depressed, loner nerd and it genuinely drained me. i just wanted to help and maybe cheer him up but it got toxic way too fast. i had to be happy, quirky and whimsical all the time and our friends would push us together because " I was good for him". so I kinda dated him because peer pressure and I'm was sure I would get my happy ending with this guy because I saw it the movies that they were happy and all that. I was wrong all the pressure to make him happy, to always be there, to inspire him and to always be happy for him made me sad. i couldn't be this perfect happy girl because I struggle with body dysmorphia, an eating disorder and the pressure of becoming the rich successful girl in the family that graduated college. i felt so guilty for not being happy all the time and not thinking about him that it made so so sad. so I broke it off. and he would fucking threaten me with suicide. he said he would kill himself if I left I stopped talking to him. this wasn't the first or last time he did this. i told my parents and friends this time and they told me i was being emotionally blackmailed. i still feel guilty about him. i still feel responsible for his happiness and I'm still friends with him. we don't talk anymore but he was my friend and i love him as my friend. so yeah this trope struck a cord with me.

If you remove the purpose of this type of character, I believe that all of us should be manic pixie dream girls. Bold, authentically themselves, living life to the fullest.... However, I really hate this character trope. It's literally the reason that the unrelenting "I'M NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS, I'M SOOOOOO QUIRKY" exists. We are ALL like other girls. Now lets all get over it and live our best lives.

"Usually somehow in a great mood... EVEN IF THEY'RE DYING" Damn that's actually funny!

I disagree; the reason a lot of people sided with Tom and thought Summer was a bitch was because Hollywood has pitched too many movies about a male protagonist where, no matter how terrible he is or how not suited for each other they are, by the end of the movie we are convinced that he should end up with the girl he loves regardless of whether she loves him back, because we've been fed the narrative that if the guy makes a big enough romantic gesture, he can sway her. It wasn't that the narrative of 500 Days of Summer was too myopic, it's the audience.

The fact that Dianne Keaton hasn't gotten a lifetime achievement award such as the Cecil B. Demille award but George Cloony has is a despicable nod to misogyny in Hollywood.

Can y’all unpack Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s??? She is so fascinating beyond what's presented on surface level!

I can’t be your manic pixie dream girl. I can’t be the girl who teaches you how to open your heart and embrace life and all that bullshit, because I’m trying to figure out how to do that myself. I need a manic pixie dream boy of my own. Leah Raeder, Unteachable

this is an excellent analysis of the manic pixie dream girl trope. i will also say, while watching this it slowly dawned on me the ableist subtext in criticism / misogyny towards this character personality. many people with neurodivergence, especially women, are inherently forced to challenge conventional ideas of womanhood and proper behavior and to be able to adjust to a world that at best disregards them and at worst outright forces them to endure hardships. while saying 'i'm not like other girls' can be a very narcissistic and eye rolling phrase, if said with sincerity and in context with this in mind it should be able to enrich the lives of the viewers, both men AND women, and teach us to appreciate and understand why a woman having any sort of quirk is inherently negative. i think a good way to balance out this trope as well is to have the mpdg in question be able to interact with more people, and women, outside of the dejected introverted male protagonist.

I think the TRUE trait of the MPDG isn't all the quirks, it's the fact she's not an actual character. She's a plot device who only exists to inspire the man to embrace life to its fullest. They don't have their own thoughts, feelings or wants. If a character has her own dreams and desires, she's not a MPDG.

The girl from Bridge to Terabithia is a preteen middle school version of the MPDG

Kirsten’s first many roles were complete manic pixie girls !! Haha. ESPECIALLY Elizabethtown. OH BOY that character were completely created as a door for Orlando’s own awakening. Lol I used to love these characters when I was young. And they are so dangerous I think. Because they influence your young mind in such a subtle way. Because you didn’t know there was such a trope. That it was even a thing. And so you start to believe that you need to be this type of girl who’s larger than life and special and quirky and just EVERYTHING all at once for the mans pleasure and set yourself aside. I small ways this is how you’re Influenced as a women through these movies. I still watch them now and I don’t mind. But I am aware now what is going on. So it doesn’t bother me.

“So you’re allergic to boredom” sir that sounds like adhd-

i think it'd be really interesting to see a movie from a "manic pixie dream girl's" point of view, where you kinda get to see that she is a real complex person, it's just the man thats projecting his fantasies on to her

i think in 500 days of summer they both are kinda at fault. he ignores what she says, she stays so close to someone she doesnt really like that much. if you dont want a relationship, don't act like you're in one. and if you want one, like tom does, find someone who does, too and don't try to convince someone. i guess it's a story about two people learning the lesson they needed.

I always thought that the only important feature of a mpdg was that they didn't have their own motivations and existed solely to improve a male character's life. Then people started calling every girl who liked cupcakes a mpdg and labelling real people as mpdg and I was like FUCK OFF!!!!

The Take! We need movie lists with these categories! I love all the videos. So beautifully produced and executed!