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This doesn't mean magic and other fantastic or futuristic elements, or any other tropes must be removed or attacked for failing to match up with their own pretensions of self-consistent reality, of course. While sometimes perceived as an aggressive attack on the meaning or enjoyableness of a work or text, deconstruction is not properly about passing judgement (and in fact, the term "deconstruction" was picked over the German term "destruktion" to suggest careful attention to the detail within a text over violently emptying the work of all meaning). It means that all existing elements of a work are played without the [[Rule of Cool]], [[Rule of Drama]], [[Rule of Funny]], and so on, to see what hidden assumptions the work uses to make its point. Sometimes you will hear this referred to as "[[Playing with a Trope|played completely straight]]", and it can be thought of as taking a work more seriously on its own terms than even the work itself does, for the purpose of laying bare hidden meanings in the text.
 
For example, in ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'', when a cleric reaches fifth level, he gains the ability to cast ''create food and water''. Normally, the impact this would have on a society (especially a [[Medieval European Fantasy|medieval or pseudo-medieval]] one) is completely ignored. A '''Deconstruction''' would explore how a society would react to that ability.
 
Note that while deconstructions ''often'' end up [[Darker and Edgier|darker, edgier,]] [[Sadness Tropes|sadder]] [[Cynicism Tropes|and more cynical]] than the normal version, with the deconstructive process often [[Played for Drama|producing catharsis]] or [[Played for Laughs|seeming satirical]] by revealing the [[Fridge Horror]] inside a given instance of Trope, '''there is no reason they have to be.''' Deconstructions can exist anywhere on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]. Expanding on the ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' example above, a cynical deconstruction would involve the food-creating clerics either being enslaved for their powers or becoming the ruling class in a [[Dystopia]], while an idealistic deconstruction would involve the alleviation of scarcities and hardships based on class. Either one is perfectly valid.
 
The reason fictive deconstructions often turn out as they do is that fiction by its definition virtually ignores anything that isn't specifically included, while hiding anything that is included but not spelled out. Thus, for instance, a work in which gender, or sexuality, poverty, race, or politics etc. ''should'' have been important but were never dealt with adequately is ripe for a deconstruction in which the fact that nobody talks about these topics indicates that something is amiss. Contrariwise, a work that attempts to pre-emptively avert being deconstructed in this way by stating, perhaps frequently, that certain topics aren't dealt with because they are ''specifically irrelevant'' to the story/setting (especially if there's no good reason they ''should'' be irrelevant), is ripe for an ironic deconstruction in which the supposed insignificance of these topics doesn't stop characters from regurgitating contemporary [[Real Life]] attitudes about them. The Deconstruction process thus often reveals things we weren't thinking about for a reason, perhaps revealing a trope or a staple of fiction as false/unrealistic/[[Fridge Horror|horrifying]], which is why it ''tends'' to be depressing. (If a Deconstruction reveals a trope as beautiful truth it will probably be uplifting.)
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* ''Mobile Suit Gundam: [[Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket]]'' is a deconstruction of boys growing up playing soldier toys and being obsessed with war.
* The first generation of ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' presents itself as a deconstruction of a warrior [[The Messiah|Messiah]].
* ''[[Now and Then, Here and There]]'' is a deconstruction of the [[Trapped in Another World]] story. The "other world" is a barren wasteland filled with genuinely fucked-up people in power, child soldiering and exploitation, no magic to speak of (except for Lala-Ru's power), and almost devoid of ''water''. Granted, {{spoiler|protagonist Shu ''does'' defeat the [[Big Bad]] against all odds and return home by the end, but the last scene is barely hopeful or uplifting.}}
* ''[[Strange Dawn]]''. The people of the other world are cute [[Super-Deformed]] creatures but they are still as flawed as us humans. One of the girls transported to this world is so bent on going home that she is willing to take questionable actions (like siding with the bad guys). The other girl wants to help the natives but is too weak hearted to be of any use. Things get so messed up that it takes a [[Deus Ex Machina]] to resolve everything.
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' starts out as a light-hearted [[True Companions]] / [[Gotta Catch Em All]] adventure story with some darkness around the edges and interesting sexual subtext. One-third of the way through, everything you thought you knew turns inside out and the most light-hearted elements become harbingers of the ugliest secrets. From there on out, the series proceeds to do everything it can to make your mind boggle, including introducing major unexpected [[Squick]] into what had once been [[CLAMP]]'s most popular and innocent pairing.
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* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Boy howdy.
* [[Digimon Tamers]] and [[Narutaru]] are deconstructions of the [[Mons]] genre.
* [[MaiMy-HiME]] appeared as a deconstruction of magical girls before Madoka did it, however... {{spoiler|[[Battle Royale With Cheese|that ending...]]}}
* ''Secret Plot'' and [[Meaningful Name|"Secret Plot Deep"]] initially/ostensibly comes off as another [[Hot for Teacher]] / [[Hot for Student]] H-manga series about [[Hot Teacher|hot teachers]] and the various boys they seduce, specifically [[Biggus Dickus|Masaki]] ''then'' it sets in how much of a [[Crapsack World]] they live in:
* ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' is widely regarded as the first deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre, at the same time it deconstructs various fairy tale archetypes including the prince, the princess, and the witch.
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* The ''[[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''The Crooked World'' by [[Steve Lyons]] is a deconstruction of ''[[Looney Tunes]]''-esque cartoons as the Doctor lands in a cartoon world and begins to influence its inhabitants' behaviors towards naturalism.
** And the [[Past Doctor Adventures]] novel ''The Indestructible Man'' by Simon Messingham is a deconstruction of all Gerry Anderson's work, asking ''why'' Jeff Tracy founded the [[Thunderbirds]], what [[UFO|SHADO]] personnel would ''really'' be like (yes ''[[UFO]]'' was [[Darker and Edgier]] to begin with, but Messingham takes it further), and how the ordinary people of the Supermarionation world might feel about so much money being channeled into [[Awesome but Impractical]] vehicles. Most notably, the titular Indestructible Man is a [[Captain Ersatz]] [[Captain Scarlet]] who feels [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|detached from humanity]] and [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|wishes he was able to die]].
* [http://www.nicolagriffith.com/troll.html "A Troll Story"] by Nicola Griffith, in which a Viking warrior faces off against a troll. He wins, all right, but the story abruptly takes a deconstructionist turn: he {{spoiler|[[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|goes insane]] from the troll's final curse, which renders him able to understand that [[Not So Different|there's no essential moral difference]] between the troll's slaughter of Vikings and his own slaughter of innocents in the towns he's raided.}}
* ''Ring For Jeeves'' could be considered [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]]'s deconstruction of his own stories. The usual romantic comedy character-relation tropes are there, but the world they live in is remarkably different. All of Wodehouse's stories take place in a [[Genteel Interbellum Setting]], but ''Ring For Jeeves'' explores what would happen if time actually ''progressed''. World War II has happened, Britain is in the throes of social upheaval which separates Jeeves and Bertie (Bertie is sent to a school that teaches the aristocracy how to fend for themselves), poverty and suicide and graphic death are acknowledged, and Jeeves even admits to having "dabbled in" World War I. The book's setting, Rowchester Abbey, is falling apart at the seams and the characters who inhabit it start to feel like a pocket of old-fashioned happiness in a darkening world. In case any doubters still exist about 3/4 through the book, there's Constable Wyvyrn's musings ''about just how much the world has changed.''
** And then there's ''Greaves, This is Serious'', by William Mingin, another Wodehouse deconstruction. Bertie begins to grow dissatisfied with his carefree life of idle frivolities, and begins questioning his butler Greaves to see if they ever do anything... productive. The answer is quite [[Ironic Hell|chilling]].
* ''Goshawk Squadron'' by Derek Robinson attacks the popular view of [[World War OneI]] air combat which, rather than dueling "Knights of the Air", actually involved undertrained pilots diving out of the sun and machine-gunning their opponent in the back before he had a chance to defend himself.
* ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' was a particularly brutal deconstruction of the [[King Arthur]] mythos, which a lot of Brits took offense to. (It was compared, at one point, to defecating on a national treasure.)
* ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald could be the earliest deconstruction of the American dream lifestyle. It shows the rich and happy as people who are [[Stepford Smiler|empty on the inside]] and the fight between new rich and old rich lifestyles, particularly with the titular character Jay Gatsby.
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* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]: [[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Chain of Memories]]'' deals with a [[Canon Sue|Canon]] [[Relationship Sue]], while ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|358/2 Days]]'' deconstructs the [[Copy Cat Sue]]. The characters involved are canonically clones of some sort and are considered abominations in-universe. Their Sueish traits are actually plot-relevant and tend to be the reason the villains can make use of them, with the latter even dying as a result of it.
* The Fable series does this to fantasy and magic. While the first game was more of an affectionate parody of medieval fantasy, the sequel takes this to its logical conclusion: with no real threat facing Albion, the Guild of Heroes became egocentric power bullies, and with the advent of the firearm, the Muggle commonfolk struck back and wiped out the Guild. When the Fable 2 hero comes around, it's only natural that the public would view someone as powerful as you to be worthy of becoming king/queen.
* [[EarthboundEarthBound|The]] ''[[MOTHER]]'' [[Mother 3|trilogy]] is a relatively early deconstruction of the conventions of the [[Eastern RPG]] genre, from the outside perspective of [[Shigesato Itoi|one]] who's a professional writer as opposed to a game designer.
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' is one of its own series. Rather than show a glamorized portrayal of criminal life like the previous games did, it portrays it realistically, with most of the characters being poor, sociopathic, psychotic, greedy, or otherwise unlikable. Even [[Player Character|Niko]] himself is a hypocrite.
* [[New Game+|The Demon Path]] in [[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]] could be seen as a deconstruction of [[Stupid Evil]] choices in video games (where the game's [[Karma Meter]] consists of "Help this woman find her lost puppy, or kill her and eat her family,") taken to its ultimate conclusion. Once the protagonist gets the power of an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] god of death, he/she decides to {{spoiler|go on a world-wide killing spree for no reason other than it sounds like fun. What follows is a massacre of the entire cast of the game, anyone who isn't lucky enough to be killed immediately being either horribly broken or driven insane and ''then'' killed. By the end of the game, the protagonist and the god of death are the only living things left on the planet, at which point the protagonist turns on the god of death and ''eats him'', gaining his powers fully, before turning his/her newfound powers on the gods themselves and finally erasing all of existence, along with him/herself.}}
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* ''[[Goblins]]: Life Through Their Eyes'' takes a good hard look at the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of labeling whole races [[Exclusively Evil]]. It portrays the titular goblins not as ''monsters'' but as ''people'' who live and love. It shows us that what [[Player Character]]s see as just an XP haul isn't so fun when ''you're'' the one they're killing to level up.
* ''[[Tales of the Questor|Quentin Quinn Space Ranger]]'', an offshoot of ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', is Deconstructing ''[[Star Trek]]'' right now. So far the design of the starship Enterprise, the habit of using force field airlocks without wearing space suits and the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] have already been hit. Hard. Up next is engineering.
* The entire premise behind ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' is that the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe is the result of a group of [[Tabletop Games|Tabletop Gamers]] (including a 7 year old girl) making it up as they go along. It lends a whole new perspective to the storyline of the prequel trilogy. The entire mess on Naboo was the result of the Player Characters epically ruining a delicate, carefully constructed plan by going [[Off the Rails]], and engaging in all the sins of [[The Real Man]], [[The Munchkin]], and [[The Loonie]]. Palpatine is actually a good guy overthrowing a corrupt regime, and trying to bring a semblance of stability to the republic. Darth Maul was just a [[Chaotic Neutral]] [[Hired Guns|Hired Gun]] who was only trying to work ''with'' the player characters, before they attacked him. To top it all off, some of the most bizarre and unrealistic plot points, such as Naboo being governed by a ''14 year old Queen'', exist because [[Rescued Fromfrom the Scrappy Heap|Jar Jar Binks]] is being played by a little girl.
* In the Chapter 26 of the Spanish webcomic ''[http://jesulink.com/ 5 Elementos]'', the author show the effects of a civil war in a world habited by lots and lots of people with superpowers.
* ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' is [[Andrew Hussie]]'s deconstructive love letter to a [[Trope Overdosed|multitude of series, genres, concepts and tropes]], including ''deconstruction itself''.
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