The 17 Most Culpable Manic Pixie Dream Girls (And Boys)

Manic Pixie Dream Girls, and some boys, were created as an easy way out— they're narrow archetypes designed to add the dash of quirky and unconditional love needed to elevate a moody protagonist. So really, we have their writers to blame. In a recent essay for Salon.com, Nathan Rabin pleaded to put these pre-molded, characters to bed once and for all. So here's a list to commemorate the best of 'em.

1. Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst) in Elizabethtown

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The "original" MPDG! Her impossibly bubbly character inspired Rabin to create the term. She cavorted around that movie drawing cartoon maps, literally taking mental pictures, and being cartoon-ishly glued to Orlando Bloom's character.

2. Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) in Juno

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Bleeker was sugary sweet. His lovable, pathetic nature hit me right in the warm gooey center.

3. Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) in Annie Hall

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Even though she was the titular character, her movie was really just about an insecure, depressed man. Plus her catch phrase was "La-di-da," so she really didn't have much to go on.

4. Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Titanic

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He showed Rose a world that she never would've known if it hadn't been for his eccentric, tenacious take on livin'.

5. Sam (Natalie Portman) in Garden State

TY for telling us all about the Shins in middle school. Hats off.

6. Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) in The Fault in Our Stars

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It's a metaphor [you potato with eyes].

7. Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

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Maybe Clem brought a little self-awareness to the MPDG, but that doesn't mean that she still didn't serve as the solution to all of Joel's problems. All with a side order of candy colored hair; the MPDG's MO.

8. Cameron (Johnny Simmons) in The To Do List

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Another chronic nice boy. Get some self-respect, Cam!

9. Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) in Breakfast at Tiffany's

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No one looks like that. No one talks like that. Read the book. It provides a lot more insight. Trust.

10. This Entire Group (One Direction from One Direction).

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If you know anything about anything you knoooooow they're nothing but the stuff of wet nightmares. But they coo at you, telling us we're beautiful 'cause we don't know it, and that they're just the underdogs who got the girls. NO.

11. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) from (500) Days of Summer

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Everyone likes The Smiths. EVERYONE.

And if your favorite Beatle is Ringo, you probably don't exist.

12. Chris Cross (James Mardsen) in 30 Rock

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I mean what was he? He was like a happy human-dog.

13. Nancy (Leigh Taylor Young) in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!

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Thank god the free-spirited Alice had nothing going on her own life so she could shake Harold (Peter Sellars) out of his complacent existence.

14. Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) in 10 Things I Hate About You

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Patrick was the dream boy for everyone. His dimples inspired everyone to release their inhibitions.

15. Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) in Almost Famous

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Jury's still out on if she was even real.

16. Finn (Nico Mirallegro) in My Mad Fat Diary

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So sweet. So devoted. So Always There. So Non-Existent.

17. Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

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Ramona had total disdain for the label.

That's the thing about MPDG's, even they don't want to be one.