Manic Pixie Dream Girl

[templar1138a]

I looked up MPDG on tvtropes. I saw that Haruhi Suzumiya was the example picture. I squeed.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Sorry Erin, but I'm going to have to back the new girl. I just adore girls with glasses. ...that hopefully won't stab me.

 

[Brainst0rm]

I love that the tweed-jacket guy just nonchalantly pulled out a flask and dumped in into his coffee.

 

[Ashcrexl]

<youtube=pLMF7p8hO7A>

I hope she stays. Rivalry is always entertaining.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

If Erin is an MPDG then my wife is Zoe Dechannel...and if she reads this then I may be the next one at knifepoint.

 

[Robot Number V]

I think everyone's taking this strip a bit too seriously. I don't think it's supposed to be part of any story arc. It's not supposed to be one of the "gritty realistic" strips like before.


ALSO: Seriously, fuck "Manic Pixie Dream Girls". Damn dirty hipsters.

 

[Somethingfake]

Well you've certainly got the Manic part down cold. And you wonder why people push you out of windows.

*Technically*, she pushed herself out. But I get your point.

 

[tmande2nd]

This reminds me of all the terrible Dalish Warden fanfics that were going around.
"I AM AN ANGRY KNIFE HAPPY KILLING NUT JOB! LOVE ME!"
For a lol look up "Of Elves and Men" by Merilsel.

Try not to laugh at it.

 

[Entitled]

I looked up MPDG on tvtropes. I saw that Haruhi Suzumiya was the example picture. I squeed.

That is a terrible example.

A much better example is Aerith or Tifa.

One of the basic requirerements is that there is practically no character arc for the MPDG and that her only purpose in the story is to help the male lead get over himself.

If anything, Kyon is the MPDG.

Actually, no, that's not part of the definition, that would only be a badly written MPDG, so that's what haters emphasize about the trope.

It's like saying that an FPS has to be brown and grey and featuring a space marine by definition, or that MMOs have to be addictive by definition.

People generally hate tropes, so they always add to their definition in their mind that "...and it's written predictably and blandly", because they are used interchargibly with clichés.

 

[Clankenbeard]

That's actually one sweet-ass hat. I want one.

And the internet provides...
$25 at http://www.winkingneedle.com/descriptions.html

 

[Fappy]

She brings a switchblade to work? God damn.

That Erin is a spy!

.. Seriously her blade looks all to similar to the Spy's so I can imagine her as such. Maybe all switchblades look that way but the Spy has the copyright to it (lol). With that said, the girl in the octopus hat was actually really cute. I know she's fictional but I love it when people can craft and create characters that are appealing without having to make them sexy to catch attention.

She may not be so cute once Erin's done carving her up D:

Let's hope she doesn't go and commit any felonies now!

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

That's actually one sweet-ass hat. I want one.

And the internet provides...
$25 at http://www.winkingneedle.com/descriptions.html

FUCK TO THE YES!

 

[Imp_Emissary]

She brings a switchblade to work? God damn.

Now I'm sad that Name Game is gone from Escapist.

Is Grey trying to confess to why LeeLee really left? Like when OJ wrote that book? I hope not.

Seriously though, I have never seen Erin as a pixie.

Now, if you called her a Manic Imp Dream Girl....

That could work.

 

[Malignanttoe]

Meh

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Okay. Erin Stout.

Manic? Check.

Pixie? Uuuuuh... No.

Dream Girl? I... don't think so. Not too interested in meeting or interacting with someone who's still on the mend from an extended time spent (or still being spent) seeing fictitious characters, interacting with them and generally proving how tenuous her grip on reality and expected social mores is.

I mean, I kinda preferred Erin before this whole mess. She was quirky, but not aggressively so. Sorry, Mr. Carter, but I have to admit I've been getting Tim Buckley-isms, lately. Not sure if want.

A character who's unhinged for the sake of being unhinged is not fun. RIDICULOUS QUIRKS, ROFFLECOPTER does not make for fun character development.

But that's just me, of course. Keep at it, I can only hope the character's eventually going to reach some sort of happy medium.

 

[Entitled]

I think you'll find before it was a trope, it was coined by a film scholar who wrote a small essay on why Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown was kind of a sexist portrayal of women that is actually really pervasive in our media. It was always meant to be a pejorative term. Of course, MPDG have superficial traits like eccentric fashion sensibilities and unpredictable behaviour, but the original MPDG is this chick:

Of course the meaning is warped and obscured over time because people make presumptions and don't understand the original definition, and I understand if you decide to side with those people, but I think it's important to adhere to the preestablished semantics of the terms used in a discussion, especially when the discussion pertains to something as polemic and delicate as sexism.

We were specifically talking about the TVTropes page, with the MPDG trope description on it, and whether or not Haruhi fits it. That before it was a trope it was also an insult, has nothing to do with it.

A few decades ago, "Space Opera" meant trashy, shallow sci-fi, and it was used in pair with "horse opera", meaning trashy, shallow western. But as it turns out, if you use the term objectiely, and not as an insult at sci-fi shows that you don't like, it turns out that it's stereotypes (unscientific, fantasy-like setting) still describe something, a genre, that can be done well.

It's the same case with most tropes, genres, and similar categories. They can all be used as insults with the implication that it was done badly, but they eventually either lose all meaning, like Mary Sue, that is nowadays applied to every competent or likeable character, as fans try to insult each other's favorite characters, or end up dropping the insult part and become tropes that can be at least semi-objectively categorized, like Space Opera.

 

[Farther than stars]

Am I the only one wondering why Erin has a butterfly knife on hand?

 

[Skeleon]

Eh, the recent story arcs (and this comic itself) kind of undermine the whole cute, quirky thing Erin had going in the past. While, yes, I suppose that is the joke, I find it mostly just sad.
Speaking of TVTropes, isn't there also a trope for comedic, light-hearted webcomics going a "dark and depressing"-route? It would seem that Critical Miss is no exception there, at least for a while.

 

[BX3]

Hope this is just a one off, and not the start of another huge tangent involving a personal journey of self-discovery, only vaguely reminiscent of the videogame related humour that the comic is typically associated with and read for, by a base of loyal and easy-to-displease fans who talk in run on sentences.

So like the Sonic fanbase? Great... another community I have to hang my head in shame at being associated with. I've already got, like, 5.

Am I the only one wondering why Erin has a butterfly knife on hand?

You know what makes it worse? Whether she brings one to work every day or she brought it because of the new girl, neither implication is less terrifying!

I think everyone's taking this strip a bit too seriously. I don't think it's supposed to be part of any story arc. It's not supposed to be one of the "gritty realistic" strips like before.

Obviously, but hey, Escapist gonna Escape.

... that sounded better in my head....

 

[disgruntledgamer]

And this is different from every other girl how.... Oh never mind I get it.