A trope primarily associated with indie movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and (500) Days of Summer, the manic pixie dream girl has nevertheless appeared in the world of gaming, especially in the Final Fantasy series. I'm drawing my attention to one character in particular, and that's Rikku from Final Fantasy X (and the girl-centric X-2 spin-off). She ticks all the boxes for a manic pixie dream girl: she's got a weird dress sense, is extremely quirky, defies social conventions, and yet is also supposed to be extremely appealing to players. I suppose to that end Rikku is also nerd bait, though to her credit, at least she's not sporting ridiculous double-Ds, as would have probably pushed her character over the edge. Physically, she seems a little more down to Earth, though that's promptly forgotten by the self-conscious quirkiness of her character, because apparently she'd just be too boring otherwise. I can't hear the word "monkey" without thinking of her anymore.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
