Deconstructor Fleet: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"The most original authors are not so because they advance what is new, but because they put what they have to say as if it had never been said before."''|'''[[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'''}}
 
Some stories and series seem to go out of their way to [[Subverted Trope|Subvert]] as many tropes and [[Deconstruction|Deconstruct]] as many genres as possible, or at the very least [[Affectionate Parody|take them home and cuddle them and call them 'George']]. A '''Deconstructor Fleet''' doesn't just use ''one'' topic for parody or [[Deconstruction]]. It sinks its meathooks into any trope it can find and folds and spindles it to shreds. When done well, the overall effect is to create something visibly original. Done badly, it may be seen as a generic [[Hate Fic]], resulting in a small but loyal fanbase loving it and everyone else hating it. Even people not familiar with [[All The Tropes|trope wikis]] will notice how this show is different from others. Many such shows become [[Trope MakersMaker]] in their own right. Do not confuse this with [[Deconstruction]], which doesn't invent something new, but criticizes the old. In both cases, however, the ultimate goal of the writers should be to examine a genre or a set of tropes from a new perspective without losing their value as entertainment - not to make the viewer/reader/player feel bad for enjoying straightforward genre fiction. Please remember it's not enough to say that something is an example, it is important to say ''why'' it's an example.
 
The name is a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pun]] on the Vogon Constructor Fleet from ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''. [[Don't Explain the Joke|Especially appropriate because]] the Vogon Constructor Fleet doesn't construct ''anything'' - its job is to facilitate hyperspace express routes by [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blowing up planets]] that happen to be in the way.
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[[Deconstruction Fic]] is a specific sub-trope for examples of [[Fanfic]] with a [[Deconstruction]] theme or plot. [[Fanfic]] examples go there.
 
 
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{{examples|Some of the [[Just for Pun|dramatic vehicles]] that make up the Deconstructor Fleet}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[AbenobashiMagical MahouShopping ShoutengaiArcade Abenobashi]]'' - The whole frickin' point is basically to deconstruct a genre per episode. And then, halfway through, it shift gears and begins to deconstruct ''itself''.
* ''[[Bokurano]]'' - Just because a cosmic entity [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|grants children gigantic mecha to pilot]] doesn't mean they'll necessarily use those mechs for the sake of good.
* ''[[Darker than Black]]'' - Does its best to play with as many [[Stock Super Powers|superpower tropes]] as it can, and often deconstructs them.
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* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'', similar to the above (thanks to being penned by the [[Chiaki Konaka|same guy]]) is another [[Mons]] deconstruction. Remember the first [[Digimon Adventure|two]] [[Digimon Adventure 02|seasons]]? They're all fake, nothing more than a kids TV show and merchandise franchise. [[This Is Reality]]. The show explores how much damage real [[Mons]] could potentially cause to a cityscape, the consequences of endlessly trying to make your mon stronger (both for the mon and the Tamer), and the psychological problems that could result from being too attached to your mon.
* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' - Joyfully mocks the reverse-harem shoujo genre it often falls straight into.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' - While being selfish in most [[Magical Girl]] shows makes you the villain or the [[Alpha Bitch]], using your [[Deal with the Devil|wish]] to help others might lead to them to [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|question everything]], unknowingly take your help and [[Exact Words|forget you]], or {{spoiler|[[Groundhog Day Loop|cause their suffering to build over multiple timelines.]]}} [[My God, What Have I Done?|And you get to have all the fun of watching it happen and knowing you caused it.]]
** Might not count due to it being more of a [[Cosmic Horror Story]] and {{spoiler|[[Faustian Rebellion]]}} after it gets into [[Wham! Episode|full swing]].
* ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' - "Love is a battlefield" as a literal concept is common in [[Magical Girl]], but most tend to forget that love, and especially young love, is inextricably linked with sexuality (and explorations thereof) and uncertain and non-absolute infatuations, often unrequited or with those with whom such a pairing would be socially unacceptable. And that's not even getting into RGU's regular savaging of traditional gender roles.
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* Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear's ''A Companion to Wolves'' does this to the Animal Companion genre with their [[Manly Gay]] wolf bondmates.
* Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]''. It starts out as a fairly straightforward parody of heroic fantasy and evolves into something more complex, subtle, and deconstructive that takes precise aim at nearly everything.
** This is especially true of novels that enthusiastically send up real-world social phenomena, such as ''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', ''[[Discworld/Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'', or ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]''.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', which has an entire cast full of [[Genre Savvy]] people, a [[First-Person Smartass|smartassed narrator]], and [[Troperiffic|a general love of all things tropey]].
* Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]'', which took ''John Carter of Mars'' and ''Lensman'' and imagined what it would be like if the settings of said space operas (a) obeyed real physical laws, (b) were populated by grown-ups, and (c), were based on/influenced by non-western societies.
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** The new series episode "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E10 Midnight|Midnight]]" is especially notable. The entire purpose of the episode, except to scare people half to death, is a deconstruction of how people would ''really'' react to a weirdo genius knows-too-much alien stranger in a crisis. It... doesn't go well, shall we say.
** "The Waters Of Mars" {{spoiler|essentially deconstructs the Doctor himself and the mythology that the series has built around him. It involves the Doctor holding back death, defying the laws of time and space to save innocent lives and rewrite the history books and generally acting up to titles like the 'Lonely God' that the series has often thrown around about him, doing things similar to what he's done before and which would under other circumstances be presented as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]... except here, the people who would normally amazed, dazzled and charmed by him are freaked out by what he's done and who he is, and his very actions are presented as wrong and indicative of his growing arrogance, indifference and alarming tendencies towards [[A God Am I]] Syndrome.}}
* ''[[Farscape]]'' and ''[[Firefly]]'' did pretty well to deconstruct the [[Space Opera]], contributing to the drastic (and fairly sudden) shift in tone of Space Operas that happened around 2002-3. The shift was so sudden that ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Star Trek Enterprise]]'' dramatically shifted ''mid-series'', the third and fourth seasons having a considerably darker, serious, and what would later be recognized as more ''modern'' tone.
* ''[[Myth BustersMythBusters]]'' is dedicated not only to busting myths and urban legends, but [[Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters|deconstructing tropes.]]
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'', with its observational humor, intersecting plot-lines, non sympathetic protagonists, and the famous [[Real Time]] Chinese Restaurant episode kicked off a revolution. Every [[Sitcom]] that came afterwards owes something to it (to the point that the original now sadly seems [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|cliche]]).
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' has occasional bouts of ruthless deconstructionism.
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* ''[[Cannon Fodder (series)|Cannon Fodder]]'', which takes the [[Military and Warfare Tropes]] page and systematically tears it to pieces.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' is a gleeful deconstruction of just about every trope listed on the [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] page.
** Mages frighten the people with their powers, which also makes them more susceptible to demonic possession. As a result, they are kept under close watch in the Circles, where many of them are oppressed by the Templars. Mages living outside the Circle are generally considered a recipe for disaster, and many of them end up turning into Blood Mages, which fosters the common people's fears and forcing the Templars to keep them under closer watch to prevent accidents, perpetuating the cycle. The sequel bases its whole plot around this.
* ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', by contrast, deconstructs many common tropes seen in the [[Western RPG]] genre.
** {{spoiler|When Anders blows up the Chantry and "removes any chance for compromise"}}, the protagonist is forced to choose between one of two different parties. There is no [[Take A Third Option|third option]] that can be taken, nor there is any way to avoid a conflict. In fact, trying to weasel your way out of making a choice will result in Hawke being called out by the heads of both parties.
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', starting from roughly ''[[Final Fantasy VI|VI]]'' on, has been subtly doing this, poking holes in the concepts of [[The Chosen One]], the characters' dependency on [[Green Rocks]] or phlebotinum to solve their problems, cheerful heroes, sullen heroes, [[Heroic Sacrifice]]s, and so on, all while diving deeply into [[Genre Busting]] waters. ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is perhaps the most extreme example.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' deconstructs the common JRPG archetype of [[Kid Hero|the world being saved by teenagers]]. Squall acts in the way he does as a reaction to his past and to the hardships of military life.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' does this with various tropes and archetypes. The [[MacGuffin]] that can end the war is compared to a modern-day WMD like a nuclear bomb, and Ashe's single-minded quest for revenge on the Archadian Empire ends up alienating her from the rest of the party on more than one occasion, as her behavior means she's more than willing to commit actions that would screw over her people just for the sake of getting back at Archadia.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' is arguably the biggest example, as it highlights how horrible it would be to live as a Final Fantasy protagonist. The people chosen by the fal'Cie are effectively torn from their families and loved ones to go on a quest with being trapped in a [[Lotus Eater Machine]] until you are needed once again. Because of the powers bestowed onto them, the l'Cie are considered dangerous by the government, which quarantines whole towns on the suspicion that one of them may be present between the inhabitants. The protagonists are all [[The Chosen One|l'Cie]] themselves, running away from place to place while trying to figure out what their purpose is; however, this doesn't mean that they will immediately all agree with each other (all compounded by the fact that they were mostly strangers to each other prior to the events of the game, and those who did know each other already had their own issues), and indeed at the start of the game they are all [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork|at each other's throats]].
*** The game has a linear environment, which is justified by the fact that the heroes are too busy running away from the government to stop in a town and restock on supplies; most people also hate them, meaning that it doesn't make logical sense for the people to spill their problems for them to solve.
** Even before that, a common interpretation of ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' is that it was meant as a long, but loving, series of jabs and comedic deconstructions at common themes, characters, and plot points in the first four games. The GBA port only amplifies this.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' as a whole is known for this. The first one deconstructs the original [[Metal Gear]] games as well as the [[Die Hard on an X]] formula, ''Sons of Liberty'' practically deconstructs the [[No Fourth Wall|entire concept of video gaming itself]] ([[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Recap|See here for more details]]), and ''Snake Eater'' does it for spy thrillers and Bond movies. Hell, the intro music, ''Snake Eater'', sounds like it came straight out of a Bond film.
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** And who could forget ''[[You Have to Burn The Rope]]''?
* The premise and plot of ''[[Penumbra (video game series)|Penumbra]]'' and ''[[Amnesia: The Dark Descent|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]'' sound like complete [[Cliché Storm|Cliche Storms]] of various horror story tropes, but they actually make mincemeat of them by [[Mind Screw|toying with the player on every occasion]] and [[Playing with a Trope|subverting the hell out of every horror trope known to man]].
* ''[[Thief]]'' cheerfully tears apart every stereotypical "thieves' guild"-related trope remembered from ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' and also likes to play around with the various factions and creatures inhabiting its [[Low Fantasy]] setting.
* Would you believe if someone tell you that (some installments of) ''[[Touhou]]'' is a Deconstructor Fleet? Let us observe...
** ''Imperishable Night'': Deconstructs [[Immortality]] and associated tropes. The immortals have (literally) very alien mindset and can only keep their sanity intact by ripping each others to fine shreds every night.
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* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'' does this to Fire Emblem. Setting and Backstory aside, the 9th game (Path of Radiance) pretty much starts off as a [[Cliché Storm]] for ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games. However, it starts to play with the tropes before the game's over. Radiant Dawn starts off as a deconstruction of the events of Path of Radiance, showing that Begnion is [[Not So Different]] in treating their newly acquired country well; and that even Crimea, whose victory in the Mad King War went like a fairy tale for them, was again [[Not So Different]]. The country was united during the Mad King War against a common energy, yet when that was over, things went back to normal with nobles and senators squabbling for power, beginning to doubt whether or not their new queen was truly fit to rule. After all, she ''was'' unknown to the general public until the Mad King's War.
** ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'' was preceded by ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral]]'', which went along to deconstruct common character tropes of the series.
 
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[DoctorDr. HorriblesHorrible's Sing -Along Blog]]'' attacks typical superheroism, plays the [[Mad Scientist]] for sympathy, and, since it's [[Joss Whedon]] writing, bedecks itself with lampshades.
* ''[[Girlchan in Paradise]]'' is a vicious parody of [[Cliché Storm]] Shonen Anime, particularly those with [[Lazy Artist|bad animation]] and corny dubbing. The characters all fit into some sort of archetype, with the titular Girlchan being a [[Shallow Love Interest]] and a [[Ms. Fanservice]] who had absolutely nothing to do with the actual plot ([[Word Salad Title|nor is she actually in Paradise]]).
* ''[[Ilivais X]]'' tears at ''a lot'' of things, but centrally the boundaries between love and lust, the concept of the [[Humongous Mecha]] itself (most namely the 80s [[Super Robot Genre]]), the inherent glorification of [[Yuri Genre|yuri relationships]], and many other common anime tropes. The result can be fundamentally summed up as "[[RahXephon]] with the [[Deus Sex Machina|power of fuck]]"
* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' is like ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', but a [[Darker and Edgier]] deconstruction.
* ''[[Vatsy and Bruno]]''
* ''[[Metafictionized Phlebotinum Poisoning]]''
* ''[[There Will Be Brawl]]'' Deconstructs Nintendo characters, [[Pastiche]]s a number of classic movies, and Parodies the concept of [[Darker and Edgier]].
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition]]'' takes apart the very concept of [[Let's Play]]. It starts by creating a game that [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|gradually gets more insane and bizarre as time goes on]], adds a narrator who spits out random nonsequiturs, all while parodying 90s pop culture. [[Post Modernism|Then it starts playing with the]] [[Fourth Wall]] [[Post Modernism|by having the narrator get in a conversation with an in game character, and making it unclear whether it's the narrator or the player character itself who's talking.]] The final boss fight consists of the player jumping on the word "logic" while the narrator says "Check it out! It's the last piece of logic left! ...Screw that noise."
* The [[Whateley Universe]] starts as a deconstruction of the classic superhero comic books, but delves everywhere else when given a chance.
** Of particular note, the story ''Give 'Em The Ole Razzle Dazzle'' is a deconstruction of various genres stretching from the 1930's pulp heroes to the start of the 1980s (when the narrator 'retired' and moved into Business).
* ''[[Po Gon Yu ToPoGonYuTo]]'' was basically intended to be a deconstruction of nearly all anime[[Anime]] cliches.
* ''[[Space BattlesSpacebattles.com]]'' exists seemingly to promote deconstructions in all [[Fanfic]].
* The [https://warosuarchive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/18458206/#p1846386118463861 self-admitted] SOP of [[Image Boards|/tg/]]:
{{quote|'''Anon1''': Eh, if a setting's [[Darker and EdgierGrimdark|too grim]], we [[In Love with the Mark|let love bloom]] there. If a setting's [[Mary Suetopia|too happy]], we [[Balkanize Me|drop it in the Balkans]].
'''Anon2''': Ah, so equal-opportunity subversion. If there is something we can fuck around with, then we are contractually obliged to fuck around with it. }}
 
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** ''[[Animaniacs]]''
** ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''
** ''[[Freakazoid!]]''
** ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''
* ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'', while going back to [[Toon Disney]]'s roots.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Almost all tropes applied to [[Real Life]] itself are deconstructed [[Justified Trope|by default]].
:** ...and all of the examples from [[Trapped in TV Land]].
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Deconstructor Fleet{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:Deconstruction Tropes]]
[[Category:Deconstructor Fleet]]