Deconstruction: Difference between revisions

Line 51:

'''Please note: This page has been edited for clarity's sake. Please do not add any more examples. Add them to [[Genre Deconstruction]] or [[Deconstructed Trope]] or the appropriate subtrope. Where possible please move examples to these subtrope pages. This page is about [[Deconstruction]] as a ''method'', and thus should be stripped down to meta-examples.'''

Line 88:

* [[Mad Magazine]] often does this, such as contrasting a movie cowboy ([[Awesome McCoolname|Lance Sterling]]) with a real cowboy (John Smurd). Whereas the handsome Lance defeats the villain after a shootout and fist fight, getting a girl and a hero's celebration, the plain-looking John gets knocked out and beaten up, then kills the villain by taking him by surprise, only to be greeted with a fairly homely woman and lynched for murder.

* In [http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MsKyle08/news/?a=47664 this webcomic,] it deconstructs the usage of cleavage revealing costumes of Wonder Woman and Power Girl.

* [[Word of God]] said that the [[Series Finale]] for the [[Tintin]] comics was the album ''Tin Tin at the Tibet''. The next three albums (''The Castafiore Emerald'', ''Flight 714'', and ''Tintin and the Picaros'') are deconstructions of the Tin Tin series in general.

* [[Word of God]] said that the [[Series Finale]] for the [[Tintin (Comic Book)]] comics was the album ''Tin Tin at the Tibet''. The next three albums (''The Castafiore Emerald'', ''Flight 714'', and ''Tintin and the Picaros'') are deconstructions of the Tin Tin series in general.

Line 94:

* ''[[Film/The Asphalt Jungle|The Asphalt Jungle]]'' (1950) deconstructs [[The Caper]]. In a normal heist movie, the thieves combine good luck with great skill, have no difficulty working together, and escape from the police to spend their stolen wealth without too much trouble. In the Asphalt Jungle, on the other hand, the thieves aren't quite skilled enough to avoid alerting the cops during the heist, have a run of bad luck starting even before they're done planning the heist, squeal on each other, and eventually every single participant is either dead or in prison, brought down by a combination of their own flaws and misfortunes. Plus, the [[Da Chief|police chief]] (normally a corrupt or unlikeable person in films where he appears at all) gives a nice speech about the importance of good law enforcement towards the end of the film.

* ''[[Mighty Joe Young]]'' (at least the 1998 version) deconstructs ''[[King Kong]]'', which is rather ironic because it originally inspired King Kong. The ape isn't an island-dwelling monster, but an otherwise normal African gorilla with extreme giantism. The female lead has more in common with Dian Fossey then the screaming damsel in distress of ''Kong''. And when Joe finally does go on his "rampage" it's because he's confronted with the poacher that killed his mother.

* ''[[Scanners]]'' sets up a fairly standard [[The ~~Heros~~ Journey|Hero's Journey]], as [[The Hero|Cameron Vale]], blessed with [[Psychic Powers]], is sent by wise old [[Mentor|Dr. Paul Ruth]] to defeat Ruth's former pupil, [[Big Bad|Darryl Revok]], who also has [[Psychic Powers]]. Vale befriends a [[White Haired Pretty Girl]], Kim Obrist, who can help him infiltrate Revok's organization. Not unsurprisingly, it is revealed that both Cameron and Darryl are the two sons of Paul. With us so far? And then Darryl [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] what kind of father would abandon his sons like that, and weaponize one against the other, and, indeed, [[Guinea Pig Family|would test a potentially dangerous new drug on his pregnant wife]], thus making Cameron and Darryl psychic in the first place. "[[Calling the Old Man Out|That was Daddy.]]" Also, the psychic stuff is [[Blessed With Suck|disgusting and creepy]]: scanning is presented not as a graceful and mystical power, but as a painful and unpleasant "[[Body Horror|merging of two nervous systems]]". The process is as unpleasant for the the person being scanned (who suffer from headaches and nosebleeds at best, and can have their hearts stopped and heads exploded at worst) and the scanners themselves who suffer severe social and psychological side effects from hearing other peoples thoughts (the main character starts the movie homeless, and another scanner murdered his family when he was a child). Ruth's dream of a scanner utopia turn out to be [[Not So Different]] from Revok's scanner-supremacy idea, as observed by Vale. Meanwhile, Cam and Kim never fall in love, as would be expected, because they're too scared for their lives.

* ''[[Scanners]]'' sets up a fairly standard [[The Hero's Journey|Hero's Journey]], as [[The Hero|Cameron Vale]], blessed with [[Psychic Powers]], is sent by wise old [[Mentor|Dr. Paul Ruth]] to defeat Ruth's former pupil, [[Big Bad|Darryl Revok]], who also has [[Psychic Powers]]. Vale befriends a [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]], Kim Obrist, who can help him infiltrate Revok's organization. Not unsurprisingly, it is revealed that both Cameron and Darryl are the two sons of Paul. With us so far? And then Darryl [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] what kind of father would abandon his sons like that, and weaponize one against the other, and, indeed, [[Guinea Pig Family|would test a potentially dangerous new drug on his pregnant wife]], thus making Cameron and Darryl psychic in the first place. "[[Calling the Old Man Out|That was Daddy.]]" Also, the psychic stuff is [[Blessed With Suck|disgusting and creepy]]: scanning is presented not as a graceful and mystical power, but as a painful and unpleasant "[[Body Horror|merging of two nervous systems]]". The process is as unpleasant for the the person being scanned (who suffer from headaches and nosebleeds at best, and can have their hearts stopped and heads exploded at worst) and the scanners themselves who suffer severe social and psychological side effects from hearing other peoples thoughts (the main character starts the movie homeless, and another scanner murdered his family when he was a child). Ruth's dream of a scanner utopia turn out to be [[Not So Different]] from Revok's scanner-supremacy idea, as observed by Vale. Meanwhile, Cam and Kim never fall in love, as would be expected, because they're too scared for their lives.

* The 1991 film ''[[The Dark Backward]]'' contains an animated sequence that deconstructs the ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' cartoons: Tom's [[Captain Ersatz]] gleefully pursues Jerry's, hatchet in hand, and then cuts him in half with it (guts spill); then Spike's [[Captain Ersatz]] appears and blows the cat's brains out (literally) with a shotgun. The main character's mother laughs out loudly at this scene.

* A scene from ''[[The Mirror Has Two Faces]]'' shows Streisand's character deconstructing "[[Cinderella (Literature)|Cinderella]]", saying that she drove the prince nuts with her obsessive cleaning.

* The 2008 movie ''[[JCVD]]'' is a deconstruction of Jean-Claude Van Damme himself, as an out-of-luck delusional actor as opposed to the real-life moderately successful actor. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JCVD Read the synopsis here.]

* The Milla Jovovich version of ''[[Joan of Arc]]'' plays out the way the true story went until she is captured by the English, at which point it deconstructs the entire mythology surrounding Joan of Arc. In prison, she meets {{spoiler|(or better said, ''hallucinates'')}} a character (played by Dustin Hoffman) whose only function seems to be to question her calling from God.

* ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'' harshly deconstructs America's hedonistic take on life in [[The Seventies]]. Sure, there were beautiful clothes, music, and lots of dancing, but there was a dark side to the life led by people like Tony and his friends. For example, Tony, who turns to hedonism as a way to cope with his own life as a low-class Brooklyn guy with a ''really'' [[Dysfunctional Family]], has no thought for the future (and the culture as a whole didn't either), and his friends are involved with [[Sex Drugs and Rock And Roll|drugs, drinking, and casual sex]] which does cause them huge problems.

* ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'' harshly deconstructs America's hedonistic take on life in [[The Seventies]]. Sure, there were beautiful clothes, music, and lots of dancing, but there was a dark side to the life led by people like Tony and his friends. For example, Tony, who turns to hedonism as a way to cope with his own life as a low-class Brooklyn guy with a ''really'' [[Dysfunctional Family]], has no thought for the future (and the culture as a whole didn't either), and his friends are involved with [[Sex, Drugs and Rock And Roll|drugs, drinking, and casual sex]] which does cause them huge problems.

== Literature ==

* ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'' by Bernard Cornwell does a combination of this and [[Demythtification]] in regards to the [[King Arthur]] legends.

* Arguably, Boris Strugatsky's ''[[The Powerless of This World (Literature)|The Powerless of This World]]'' is a deconstruction of much of his own and his late brother's earlier works. Perhaps most prominently, "the Sensei", who is a [[The Obi Wan|wise old mentor]] (a fairly typical character for many Strugatsky novels), turns out to have been not only a [[Trickster Mentor]], but also {{spoiler|the initiator of the [[Xanatos Gambit]] that dictated much of the plot and was aimed at [[Die or Fly|forcing the main character to unlock his full abilities]]}}. It succeeded, but not before making said main character a nervous wreck, inducing quite a [[Bittersweet Ending]] and causing much remorse to the mentor himself. Additionally, the topic of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressor the Progressors] is briefly brought up; one of the characters muses that the Sensei might be acting as one on Earth, and that he had, despite some occasional successes, failed miserably.

* Arguably, Boris Strugatsky's ''[[The Powerless of This World (Literature)|The Powerless of This World]]'' is a deconstruction of much of his own and his late brother's earlier works. Perhaps most prominently, "the Sensei", who is a [[The Obi-Wan|wise old mentor]] (a fairly typical character for many Strugatsky novels), turns out to have been not only a [[Trickster Mentor]], but also {{spoiler|the initiator of the [[Xanatos Gambit]] that dictated much of the plot and was aimed at [[Die or Fly|forcing the main character to unlock his full abilities]]}}. It succeeded, but not before making said main character a nervous wreck, inducing quite a [[Bittersweet Ending]] and causing much remorse to the mentor himself. Additionally, the topic of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressor the Progressors] is briefly brought up; one of the characters muses that the Sensei might be acting as one on Earth, and that he had, despite some occasional successes, failed miserably.

** ''[[Hard to Be A God (Literature)|Hard to Be A God]]'' deconstructs medieval chivalry, fantasy settings, the supposed glamour of royalty and nobility, and well-intentioned meddling by developed countries (in this case, civilizations: an idealist Commies [[In Space]] benevolent space-faring nation ideologically similar to ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'''s Federation). The European 'Middle Ages' overlapped with the last century/centuries of the 'Dark Ages' for a reason: a [[Crapsack World]] is a given there.

* With ''A Companion to Wolves'', [[Elizabeth Bear]] and [[Sarah Monette]] do this to all [[Bond Creatures|bonded companion animal]] stories, especially [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]''.

* A lot of John Tynes and/or Greg Stolze works features this. ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop Game)|Unknown Armies]]'', for instance, deconstructs the [[Urban Fantasy]] setting, the novel ''[[A Hunger Like Fire]]'' deconstructs the trope of the sensual vampire temptress and the RPGs ''[[Godlike]]'' and ''[[Wild Talents]]'' deconstructs superheroes stories set during World War 2 and the Cold War respectively.

* 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]].

** 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 From 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 [[PG Wodehouse (Creator)|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.''

Line 123:

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' ended up deconstructing [[Sailor Moon|its own source material]] in increasingly surprising ways as it diverged from the original story, until, by the end, {{spoiler|Sailor Moon herself has become the [[Omnicidal Maniac]] villain; the senshi's power source, the Silver Crystal, turns out to have really been an [[Artifact of Doom]]; and erstwhile villain Queen Beryl is revealed to have actually been trying to save the world (albeit only so she could rule it).}} The deconstruction arises here as a result of the audience's own [[Magical Girl|genre expectations]] about the senshi's [[Power of Friendship]] and the motivation of the [[Card Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villains]], and how naive and dangerous it'd actually be for the heroines to make such assumptions.

* ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' ended up deconstructing [[Sailor Moon|its own source material]] in increasingly surprising ways as it diverged from the original story, until, by the end, {{spoiler|Sailor Moon herself has become the [[Omnicidal Maniac]] villain; the senshi's power source, the Silver Crystal, turns out to have really been an [[Artifact of Doom]]; and erstwhile villain Queen Beryl is revealed to have actually been trying to save the world (albeit only so she could rule it).}} The deconstruction arises here as a result of the audience's own [[Magical Girl|genre expectations]] about the senshi's [[Power of Friendship]] and the motivation of the [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villains]], and how naive and dangerous it'd actually be for the heroines to make such assumptions.

* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' experienced a successful [[Deconstruction]] with ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Deep Space Nine]]'', a mildly successful [[Reconstruction]] with ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Voyager]]'', a failed Deconstruction with ''[[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Enterprise]]'', and a very successful [[Reconstruction]] with the 2009 film.

* ''The Ten Commandments'' miniseries shows the many hard choices that Moses had to make in following God: abandoning his family, alienating his adoptive mother, causing his blood brother to do a [[Face Heel Turn]], killing his most loyal comrade to enforce God's authority.

Line 152:

* ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' deconstructs not just many of the implications of a [[Crap Saccharine World]] in the series that are hinted at through the Pokédex entries, but also deconstructs the idea that everyone in the world of Pokémon thinks that it's a good idea to send kids and teenagers out into the wild to capture pokemon, with Bianca's father feeling immensely concerned for her. Another part of it is the idea that no one bats an eyelash at Pokémon battles or no one thinks it's too violent with Team Plasma and N. It also provides a [[Take That|fairly brutal]] deconstruction of the concept of [[Moral Guardians]] in the form of Team Plasma's claims to be concerned for the welfare of Pokémon.

* ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' viciously deconstructs [[All of the Other Reindeer]]. The power of a Chroma (which is what Marona is) is, for all intents and purposes, necromancy, and as such it is widely regarded as a dark, unholy power, and people react accordingly to her. This isn't simply general disdain or mocking of her, this is real, genuine fear and hatred. Listen to that woman who scolds her son for wanting to be friends with Marona in the opening chapter. You can feel the pure, unbridled barely contained ''rage'' she has at the mere ''mention'' of her name.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]: [[Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories|Chain of Memories]]'' deals with a [[Canon Sue|Canon]] [[Relationship Sue]], while ''[[Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|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.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]: [[Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories|Chain of Memories]]'' deals with a [[Canon Sue|Canon]] [[Relationship Sue]], while ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|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.

* [[Earthbound (Video Game)|The]] ''[[MOTHER]]'' [[Mother 3 (Video Game)|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.

Line 163:

== Web Comics ==

* The [[Pixel Art Comic]] ''[[Kid Radd]]'', while largely light in tone, presents a "video game characters living in videoland" scenario where it's a very real problem that many inhabitants are innately armed and know nothing but killing. They know why they were created, and they don't like it. The player character Radd goes from slacker to [[Determinator]] because he always had the latter's mindset, but started his days in a game under the player's control, so he had to learn initiative completely from the ground up. Upon being freed, Radd needed instructions to walk independently.

* ''[[~~Eight~~ Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' is a deconstruction of Japanese RPGs, specifically ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. 8-bit theater portrays a JRPG world if the chosen heroes were actually ''[[Evil Versus Evil|just as evil]]'', ''[[Villain Protagonist|if not worse]]'', than the evil they fight.

* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' is a deconstruction of Japanese RPGs, specifically ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. 8-bit theater portrays a JRPG world if the chosen heroes were actually ''[[Evil Versus Evil|just as evil]]'', ''[[Villain Protagonist|if not worse]]'', than the evil they fight.

* ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky]]'' could arguably be seen as a deconstruction of the goofy 1980s cartoons creator David Willis is a fan of (mostly ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' and ''[[Transformers]]''). Sure it features a unique special forces group, SEMME (who were initially based on GI Joe) with an eccentric line up of operatives, who routinely foil the insane schemes of a [[Harmless Villain]], but the eccentric operatives are soon revealed to be a bunch of dysfunctional screw-ups, and the Villain is in fact a [[Not So Harmless Villain]].

* ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky]]'' could arguably be seen as a deconstruction of the goofy 1980s cartoons creator David Willis is a fan of (mostly ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' and ''[[Transformers]]''). Sure it features a unique special forces group, SEMME (who were initially based on GI Joe) with an eccentric line up of operatives, who routinely foil the insane schemes of a [[Harmless Villain]], but the eccentric operatives are soon revealed to be a bunch of dysfunctional screw-ups, and the Villain is in fact a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]].

* ''[http://www.mighthavebeen.net/ My Name Is Might Have Been]'' deconstructs ''[[Rock Band]]''. Yeah, [[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ Not Awesome|the video game]].

* ''[http://www.mighthavebeen.net/ My Name Is Might Have Been]'' deconstructs ''[[Rock Band]]''. Yeah, [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|the video game]].

* ''[[VG Cats]]'' deconstructs the cartoon violence of ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' in [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=207 this strip].

* ''Misfile'' deconstructs every [[Gender Bender]] trope.

Line 192:

== Western Animation ==

* There can be a very good case made for ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' being a deconstruction of ''[[Jonny Quest]] and ''[[Doc Savage]]''-style [[Two Fisted Tales|stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[Deconstructive Parody|both]].

* There can be a very good case made for ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' being a deconstruction of ''[[Jonny Quest]] and ''[[Doc Savage]]''-style [[Two-Fisted Tales|stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[Deconstructive Parody|both]].

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' director Chuck Jones often used deconstruction on his cartoons. The best known example is ''[[Duck Amuck]]'': First the scenery changes, forcing Daffy to adapt. Then Daffy himself is erased and redrawn. Then the soundtrack fails, then the film frame, and so on until Daffy is psychologically picked clean. Another example is ''[[What's Opera Doc (Film)|What's Opera Doc]]'', which takes the base elements of a typical Bugs Bunny cartoon and reassembles them as a Wagnerian opera. (Conversely, you could also say that it takes the base elements of Wagnerian opera and reassembles them as a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' director Chuck Jones often used deconstruction on his cartoons. The best known example is ''[[Duck Amuck]]'': First the scenery changes, forcing Daffy to adapt. Then Daffy himself is erased and redrawn. Then the soundtrack fails, then the film frame, and so on until Daffy is psychologically picked clean. Another example is ''[[What's Opera, Doc? (Film)|What's Opera Doc]]'', which takes the base elements of a typical Bugs Bunny cartoon and reassembles them as a Wagnerian opera. (Conversely, you could also say that it takes the base elements of Wagnerian opera and reassembles them as a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' does a [[Crosses the Line Twice|particularly nasty]] deconstruction of ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and its [[Amusing Injuries]], wherein Elmer Fudd is out "hunting wabbits", shoots Bugs Bunny four times in the stomach, snaps his neck amidst cries of pain, and then drags him off leaving behind a trail of blood. In another episode where Peter and friends became [[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]], the show's "amusing injuries" are discussed as actually life-threatening.

** The second [[Christmas Episode]] deconstructs [[Santa Claus]] in a similarly horrific fashion.

Line 215:

* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' is a deconstruction of the whole Autobot-Decepticon War. Things ain't so [[Black and White Morality|black and white]] as before, in fact the Autobots' leadership is flawed and somewhat corrupt, with one higly racist, incompetent, cowardly jerkass general on it, who only is amongst the High Command because he blames his mistakes on Optimus Prime, whose status as [[The Messiah]] makes him somewhat of a push-over, and its leader is ready to commit dirty tricks to defeat the Decepticons. The Decepticons however, are as much the monsters they were in G1, and though this time Megatron's pragmatic enough to blast [[The Starscream|Starscream]]'s ass any time he tries to overthrow him. Starscream only survives thanks to the Allspark piece on his head. [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|Without it he would have died right from the start]]. Then comes the [[Darker and Edgier|season]] [[Anyone Can Die|three]]...

* ''"[[Hey Good Lookin]]"'' by [[Ralph Bakshi]] (who else) is one big Deconstruction and [[Take That]] against anyone who believes that the 1950s were really just like ''[[Grease]]'' or ''[[Happy Days]]''. The main character is ostensibly as cool as The Fonz but actually a [[Dirty Coward]] who can't back up his bragging, the [[Plucky Comic Relief]] is actually a racist sociopath, their gang aren't really [[True Companions]] despite looking like one, the supposed [[Big Bad]] never [[Mind Screw|explictly]] does anything really bad and the ending's [[Broken Aesop]] is intentional about the [[Shallow Love Interest|"Romance"]] between the main character and Rozzie.

* The ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Lesson Zero" deconstructs the [[Once an Episode]] [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|lesson-learning]] nature of the show. Twilight Sparkle realises that she hasn't learned a lesson this week, and she only has a day left to write her weekly "friendship report" to Princess Celestia. After futile attempts to find some problem to solve, she ends up cracking under pressure and creating a [[Conflict Ball]] she can resolve.

* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Lesson Zero" deconstructs the [[Once an Episode]] [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle|lesson-learning]] nature of the show. Twilight Sparkle realises that she hasn't learned a lesson this week, and she only has a day left to write her weekly "friendship report" to Princess Celestia. After futile attempts to find some problem to solve, she ends up cracking under pressure and creating a [[Conflict Ball]] she can resolve.

Line 227:

[[Category:index]]

[[Category:Deconstruction]]

[[Category:Trope]]

[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]