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{{trope}}
{{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
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
The name is a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pun]] on the Vogon Constructor Fleet from ''[[The
See also [[Genre Busting]] and [[Post Modernism]]. Compare [[Better Than a Bare Bulb]].
[[Deconstruction Fic]] is a specific sub-trope for examples of [[Fanfic]] with a [[Deconstruction]] theme or plot. [[Fanfic]] examples go there.
=== Some of the [[Just for Pun|dramatic vehicles]] that make up the Deconstructor Fleet: ===▼
▲
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Darker
* ''[[
* ''[[Excel Saga (
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* It's not that ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' doesn't stand on its own as a shonen fighting manga, but especially once you get into the [[Cerebus Syndrome|ant arc]] it becomes hard to ignore that Togashi wants to deconstruct shonen manga, its villains, and the [[Idiot Hero]].
** Specifically, the [[Idiot Hero]] and his frequent form of [[Cloudcuckoolander]] instinctive ethics. Gon verges on [[Blue and Orange Morality]] sometimes, but it's just the kind of thing [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] frequently invokes, carried just far enough to be slightly creepy.
** Gon Freaks (said hero) is designed in tribute to Son Goku in several ways; there is a ''reason'' Gon [[Shout
*** And then of course he recently sacrificed his life to turn into a huge muscle-guy with endless hair in order to destroy Nefelpitou for destroying the mentor Gon wasn't strong enough or old enough to save...it was [[Tear Jerker|horrifying as hell]], but a little bit funny, too. Because look, it's grown-up Goku [[Up to Eleven]].
*** The situation with Pitou that he's avenging is also a deconstruction of the way a villain's threat level and a hero's growth are often shown by giving them a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] the hero barely walks away from, and then turning the tables the next time. Because just surviving doesn't mean there aren't consequences for weakness. (Not that Togashi hasn't used the trope. Although at least once with Sensui it was slightly subverted by the death thing.)
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** Kuroro Lucifer is weird. [[Monster Clown|Hisoka]] does ''not'' belong in children's comics. And Meruem is an attempt to be psychologically ''realistic'' about a cosmic-level entity born full-grown to devour humans and conquer the world.
* ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'' - [[Space Opera]], completely [[Played for Laughs]].
* ''[[Key the Metal Idol]]'' - One of the first truly brilliant Anime [[Mind Screw
* ''[[Kore wa Zombie Desu
* ''[[Medaka Box]]'' has pretty much become this. Taking shonen tropes (especially those found in [[Shonen Jump]]) to [[Up to Eleven]] while also showing [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|issues]] that come with the characters having such off the wall powers, and even deconstructs the concepts of the [[God Mode Sue]] and [[Invincible Hero]]
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Naruto]]'' - Decontructs [[Idiot Hero]] (Naruto isn't an idiot, he just act like one because thats the only way he can get a brief moment of attention, and it's a defence mechanism against his depression), [[The Messiah]] (Nagato via what happens when the universe goes out of its way to treat said archtype like crap), [[Cosmic Plaything]] (out of four examples, all but Naruto have snapped somehow as a result and even then Naruto barely avoided snapping), [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]] (Sasuke), [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]] (Kakashi suffered some major trauma as a result of what happened to his father), and revenge tropes in general (especially Sasuke).
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' - Originally conceived as a deconstruction of the robot side of the [[Super Robot]] genre, the second half of the series (and the movies) become a psychological evaluation of the so-called "Hotshot Pilot", showing how fucked up they can be as far as wallowing in angst (a side effect of the show's creator going into therapy around the time the show began production). The show's original finale itself takes several swipes at the show's fanbase, in particular targeting those who only cared about which girl Shinji would end up with.
* ''[[
* ''[[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
** 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.
* ''[[Rosario
* ''[[
* ''[[Saikano]]'': [[Magical Girlfriend|So your shy, timid girlfriend turned out to have actually been a secret government human superweapon all along?]] Expect suffering, my friend. Lots [[Tear Jerker|and lots]] [[Serial Escalation|and lots]] of it.
* ''[[Shiki]]'' to vampire fiction. Starts out as a regular undead invade village, heroic vampire hunter fights them off. By the end, we're all left wondering who the real monsters are.
* ''[[Star Driver]]'' thrives on this. A great deal of the generic anime tropes used throughout the anime are [[Turned Up to Eleven
* ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' - See its entry under [[Deconstruction]] for details.
* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' - What do you mean "[[Genre Busting|we should stay in one genre?]]" If we did that, Kyon wouldn't get to [[Deadpan Snarker|snark at them]]!
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' eats tropes for breakfast. At the very least, it deconstructs the Giant Robot genre. Some theories suggest that the first arc is based on 70s giant robot anime (roaming around having episodic [[Monster of the Week]] adventures), the second is the 80s (moving toward a [[Big Bad]] and beating his subordinates along the way), the third arc transitions into the 90s (a much more cynical setting that looks very similar to [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|something else by the same studio]]), and the final arc is intended to reconstruct everything into something new. Along the way, it examines how the [[Hot
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' - Deconstructs ITSELF, its [[Cerebus Syndrome|second half]] deconstructing its first half.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' - Especially the original series' heroes' use of [[Defeat Means Friendship]] (which the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Cult]] uses in Season 2). And just look at [[Despair Event Horizon|what happens]] to its typical [[Idiot Hero]]-[[Invincible Hero]] protagonist in season 3.
** It doesn't just deconstruct tropes, it also deconstructs aspects of the game itself; Judai's duel with Kagurazuka takes a stab at showing the flaws in the [[Possession Equals Mastery]] theory of netdecking, and a central theme in the anime is over which side of the [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]] debate is right.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
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* [[Planetary]] (also of the Wildstorm universe) went even further with the "Ironic Darkly Humorous Tongue-In-Cheek [[Deconstructive Parody]] of Superheroes" tone of [[The Authority]] by taking the same approach with other genres, including Hong-Kong action films, Japanese Giant Monster films, and 1930s pulp adventure.
* ''[[The Boys]]'' is a deconstruction of the "Bullpen" mythos that surrounds the superhero comic book industry.
* ''[[Captain Atom]]'' is a deconstruction of [[Secret Identity|secret identities]], [[Super
* ''[[Cerebus]]'' gave us [[Cerebus Syndrome|the trope name]] for a ''reason''.
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' deconstructs the entirety of fiction and its relation to reality.
* ''[[
* ''[[Powers]]'' is a major one for at least half the superhero tropes. Taking place through the eyes of two non-powered cops, everything from investigating superhero crimes to tabloid obsession with superheroes to [[Beware the Superman]] to what a relationship between a super powered gangster and a mob boss would really be like to how fickle the public can be on things like the [[Super Registration Act]] to the stress of keeping a secret identity to immortality are put down on the page without any glamor or glorification.
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', at least in the original Eastman and Laird run
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** ''[[Kingdom Come]]'' was a deconstruction that helped end the [[Dark Age|era that followed]].
* ''[[Star Wars Legacy]]'' takes the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], [[Deconstruction|cuts it up into little tiny pieces]], shuffles them, and [[Reconstruction|glues it back together]] into a [[Darker and Edgier|dark twisted reflection]] of it's former self that's hardly recognisable, and yet somehow still manages to [[Adaptation Distillation|capture everything that made the original movies great]].
* See: [[
** ''[[
** Having thoroughly deconstructed superheroes (though he certainly wasn't done; see basically everything he's done for DC Comics in the last decade or so), Morrison wrote ''Seroes[[The Invisibles]]'' to deconstruct, well, everything else.
*** Also superheroes again. The titular heroes are set up more like a terrorist cell than a superhero team, but they're also, well, a team made up of a bunch of weirdos and superpowered people.
** Literally, everything. There's probably more deconstruction happening in a couple given pages of ''The Invisibles'' than in most entire comic book series. It touches on action movie tropes, science fiction tropes, it blends together references to a plethora of literature and film, and a single trade volume alone features stories about voodoo, Aztec mythology, and {{spoiler|an entire issue about the life of a throwaway henchman who gets shot in the first trade}}. By the end of the series it even gets around to deconstructing itself (at least, [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|that's probably what it gets around to]]).
* ''[[Tron]]: Ghost in the Machine'' (follow up to [[Alternate Continuity]] ''[[
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' is not only a parody of the Western movie, but a satire on racism and whitewashing.
* ''[[The Cabin in
* ''[[Funny Games]]'': A [[Gorn|Torture Porn]]/[[Slasher Movie]] film with [[No Fourth Wall]], and [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] killers who know they're in a A [[Gorn|Torture Porn]]/[[Slasher Movie]] film and [[No Fourth Wall|break the fourth wall]] to [[Take That|attack]] the fandom of [[Gorn|Torture Porn]]/[[Slasher Movie]] films, showing how the suffering of their victims is [[You Bastard|the audience's fault]], because [[Gorn|Torture Porn]]/[[Slasher Movie]] films are entertainment to them. They also {{spoiler|change the outcome of the plot by using a remote control to rewind to seconds before the victims successfully fight back, and [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade]] on this by saying "you shouldn't have done that, you're not allowed to break the rules" meaning that the victims can never win a horror movie because that's [[The Bad Guy Wins|"the rules"]] of the genre.}}. Long story short, if you enjoyed it, then you didn't understand it.
* ''[[
** [[Older Than They Think]]: Some of its plot can be traced back to "Visit to a Weird World," a [[
* ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' is this for Buddy Cop movies, and shows the mountains of paperwork the characters would have to go through by the end of the film.
* ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]'' is a [[Black Comedy]] which averts, subverts, inverts, defies, parodies, and eventually deconstructs more tropes than it plays
* ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' attempts to deconstruct action movies and the characters found within. It falls short, but the effort is there.
* ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' brutally deconstructs [[If It Bleeds, It Leads|the relationship between violence, the media and sensationalism]], the audience's narrative expectations, and a handful of media formats, such as the wacky sitcom style used for Mallory's background, complete with a [[Laugh Track]] while her father molests her and various people are messily murdered.
* ''[[Pleasantville]]'' deconstructs 50s [[Nostalgia
* [[Woody Allen]]'s ''The Purple Rose Of Cairo'', ''Deconstructing Harry'', ''Mighty Aphrodite'' (complete with Greek chorus.)
* ''[[Scream (
* ''[[Shrek]]'' is about an ogre who becomes a reluctant [[Knight in Shining Armor]]. The structure is that of a typical save-the-princess fairy tale, but with comedy and dramatic reversal added.
* The entire [[Spaghetti Western]] subgenre is one massive
** ''[[The Good, the Bad
* ''[[Unforgiven]]'' is also a massive deconstruction of the Western genre; [[Clint Eastwood]]'s deconstruction of his own work, in fact.
** Eastwood spent most of his career, post-''Rawhide'', deconstructing the Western; and even ''Rawhide'' itself was atypical for the Western genre, with its emphasis on cowboys actually working ''as agricultural labourers'' rather than freelance troubleshooters. His films of the 1960s replaced the good guys of the John Wayne era with stylish killers, motivated by greed, whilst his films of the 1970s and 1980s replaced the stylish killers with reluctant, tired men, sick of death and killing. ''Unforgiven'' took this to its logical conclusion, replacing morality and amorality with ''[[Grey and Gray Morality|people doing things]]''. English Bob, the supposedly ace killer, turns out to be a drunken fraud; Munny, the Eastwood character, has killed everything that walks and crawls, but hates it and eventually finds more success as a retailer of dry goods. "Little" Bill (Gene Hackman) is the town sheriff that preserves order by restricting freedoms (gun control) and basically terrorizing the local populace.
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* ''[[House of Leaves]]'' is a literal Deconstruction of the horror genre, in that it is based on the postmodernist philosophy of Deconstructionism. Arguably, it is a deconstruction of ''literature itself'', and with ''[[Only Revolutions]]'' it's a bit less arguable.
* Voltaire's ''[[Candide]]'', a vicious satire of the [[Tastes Like Diabetes]] optimism that was so popular at the time.
* ''[[
** Especially [[Author Avatar|Chaucer's]] first story, where he can't decide which stereotypical villain to
* 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 ''[[
* ''[[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.
* ''[[
* Anything by [[Thomas Pynchon]], with ''[[
* ''[[Great Expectations]]'', deconstructing all [[Charles Dickens
* ''[[
* Douglas Adams' ''[[The
* Brandon Sanderson wrote the ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy as a deconstruction of a number of prominent high fantasy tropes. [[Word of God]] indicates that Sanderson was aiming at deconstructing the [[Evil Overlord]], [[Chosen One]] prophecies, and [[The Hero]] in particular, but there are countless other examples as well.
* ''[[The Princess Bride (
* George R.R. Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is the ultimate deconstruction of medieval fantasy, and what a world is like when a bunch of heavily armed and ambitious assholes with a lifetime of privilege can go about doing whatever they want. You'll never look at the [[Knight in Shining Armor]] the same way again.
** The first book in particular has one actually honorable, law-abiding knight and a saintly princess that just can't wait to be married and begin popping out kids as the [[Naive Newcomer|naïve newcomers]] at the [[Deadly Decadent Court]]. {{spoiler|The first one gets a totally undeserved [[Humiliation Conga]] where he is forced to confess a treason he didn't really commit, then stripped off his lands and titles, ''then'' beheaded ''[[Up to Eleven|with his own sword and his head put on a pike]]''; while the princess basically gets the ultimate [[Break the Cutie]] narrative.}}
* ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'' [[Reality Ensues|realistically]] and painfully deconstructs [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]] and related tropes that feature prominently in works such as ''[[Wuthering Heights (
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' is all about deconstructing and satirizing the [[Strawman Political]] (mostly right-wing, but he's not averse to throwing darts at the Left), and many other [[Politics Tropes]] fall as well.
** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|So he throws both ways?]]
* ''[[
** The new series episode "[[Doctor Who
** "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.}}
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'', with its observational humor, intersecting plot-lines, non sympathetic protagonists, and the famous [[Real Time]] Chinese Restaurant episode kicked off a revolution. Every [[
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' has occasional bouts of ruthless deconstructionism.
* ''[[The Wire]]'' savagely deconstructs [[Police Procedural
** It goes beyond that, after deconstructing police procedurals it goes on to deconstruct your perceptions of most of societies important institutions.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' had frequent moments of brutal trope deconstruction. See fan-favorite "Window of Opportunity" for how it deconstructs and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the [[Groundhog Day Loop]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Married...
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Alan Wake]]'' is arguably the [[House of Leaves]] of video games. It takes as many [[Meta Tropes]] as it can, such as [[Through the Eyes of Madness]], [[All Just a Dream]], [[Dead All Along]], and [[Transfictionality]] and takes them apart with every plot twist, so that the player is left guessing which is true until the very end of the game, and probably beyond.
* ''[[The
* ''[[
** The Antagonists of Andrew Ryan and Sofia Lamb deconstruct the idea of the [[Ubermensch]], showing how such a person would be at best, a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], at worst hypocritical and dogmatic. Ryan is also a composite of John Galt (the Hero of Atlas Shrugged), the Industrial Plutocrats of the time, and Ayn Rand herself. {{spoiler|whereas Frank Fontaine, the real [[Big Bad]] of the first game combines the typical Randian villain, with the embodiment of the criticisms of Objectivism}}
** ADAM is a deconstruction of both superpowers and [[Mundane Utility]]: the frivolous uses of the substance for plastic surgery, sports, and other mundane purposes left people hopelessly addicted, repulsively disfigured by genetic disorders, and irrevocably insane- thus creating the Splicers that function as the main enemies of the game. The only characters in the game who haven't ended up this way are people who [[Straight Edge|didn't splice]] (Ryan, Lamb, and Tenembaum), [[Functional Addict|spliced in moderation]] (Sinclair, Poole, Langford and Fontaine- prior to the final boss battle), or possessed a natural immunity (The Big Sisters, Eleanor, and apparently {{spoiler|the protagonists.}})
*** Or they died.
** The twist of the first game deconstructs [[Mission Control]], showing how [[First-Person Shooter|FPS]] = [[But Thou Must!]] in most cases.
* ''[[Cannon Fodder (
* ''[[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.
* ''[[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|Heroic Sacrifices]], and so on, all while diving deeply into [[Genre Busting]] waters. ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is perhaps the most extreme example.▼
* ''[[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
** ''[[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.
* ''[[
** Actually, the first level of the game is a [[Bond Opening Sequence]] of about 30 to 90 minutes, that introduces the villains and starts the political crisis with a huge bang. Only then [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CbFAZ2ztlE#t=0m5s the actual intro starts that not only has James Bond intro music but also James Bond intro visuals]. The next scene is back in America where Naked Snake receives his briefing for the actual mission that is the game's plot.
* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' rips into [[To Be a Master]] and [[Gotta Kill Em All]] plots, showing just what kind of sick, twisted world an equally sick protagonist would actually ''want'' to participate in.
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' takes aspects of the second edition D&D world and drags them out to their logical extremes. The characters and plot are deliberate aversions of cliches found in most typical fantasy games.
** "Cliches found in most typical fantasy games" are mostly [[Not a Subversion|irrelevant]] in this case, since for ''[[Planescape]]'' this is almost normal. AD&D-2 PS [[
* Kreia is a one-woman deconstructor fleet, mercilessly breaking down each and every one of your preconceptions of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe. Uniquely for a series normally painted in [[Black and White Morality]], Kreia disapproves of your more altruistic actions for reasons other than [[Stupid Evil]]; she will point out that raising others above their station [[Black and Grey Morality|cheapens their successes and causes jealousy in others]].
* ''[[
* Arguably the biggest appeal of games in the ''[[Tales
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' so totally shatters the notion of prophecy, and the implications future-telling could have on people, both on a societal and individual level. It examines a lot of [[Cloning Blues|Cloning]] tropes as well.
** ''[[
* Several Flash games such as [http://armorgames.com/play/2893/achievement-unlocked Achievement Unlocked] and [http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level This Is The Only Level].
** And who could forget ''[[You Have to Burn The Rope]]''?
* The premise and plot of ''[[Penumbra (
* ''[[Thief]]'' cheerfully tears apart every stereotypical "thieves' guild"-related trope remembered from ''[[Dungeons
* Would you believe if someone tell you that (some installments of) ''[[Touhou]]'' is a
** ''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.
*** The fighting game ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' also deconstructs [[Ascend to
** ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' [[Word Salad Title|(sic)]]: Touhou deconstructs ''itself''. Eiki explicitly tell the other characters that they are so going to Hell if they don't change their atrocious behavior. Eiki is a ''Judge of The Dead''.
** ''Unidentified Fantastic Object'' deconstructs itself ''[[Up to Eleven|yet again]]''-- [[Humans Are
** By applying some [[Fridge Horror]] to ''Mystic Square'', one way to interpret the plot is to think of it as; "[[Alice in Wonderland
* ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' pretends to be nice, cutesy, and safely within the range of standard medieval fantasy plots for a little while. Then it rips its mask off and awesomefaces whilst tearing [[La Résistance|many]] [[The Empire|common]] [[Omniscient Morality License|plot]] [[Tsundere|devices]]
* ''[[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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* ''[[Narbonic]]'', which takes [[Mad Science]] and innocence, skewers them both on a meathook, and goes from there; and its sequel:
** ''[[Skin Horse]]'': a deconstruction of everything from mad science to social work and 70's [[Blaxploitation]] movies.
* ''[[The Order of the Stick
** For a few more examples, it has [[Zig
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' - ''[[The Far Side]]'''s evil twin. It has probably destroyed everything you know and love at ''some'' point.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' - deconstructs the backstory of [[Metal Gear Solid]] enemies, revealing first and foremost that it was never about Solid Snake. It was all Liquid.
* [[
* Pretty much anything ever written by [[Andrew Hussie]], but ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' and especially ''[[Homestuck]]'' stand out in particular in this respect.
** It eats tropes and shits memes like a cultural locust swarm.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[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 "[[
* ''[[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
* ''[[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
* 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).
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The [https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/18458206/#18463861 self-admitted] SOP of [[Image Boards|/tg/]]:
{{quote|'''Anon1''': Eh, if a setting's [[Grimdark|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. }}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Most modern American animated sitcoms will tend to ruthlessly deconstruct everything it touches. Examples of these kinds of shows includes:
** ''[[The Simpsons (
** ''[[Family Guy]]''
** ''[[Futurama]]''
** ''[[
** ''[[South Park]]''
** ''[[Drawn Together]]''
* Any cartoon [[Steven Spielberg]] produced:
** ''[[
** ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''
** ''[[Freakazoid!]]''
** ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''
* ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'', while going back to [[Toon Disney]]'s roots.
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* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', perhaps more so than any other example on this page. It has to be - it is a parody of shows with goody-goody adventuring teens and infallible superheroes, but its main theme is failure. It takes down every single convention of the comic book and cartoon world. It attacks the very notion that the premises of more conventional series would realistically allow them to contain genuinely good and mentally stable characters. That is to say, it's telling you that [[Genre Killer|superheroes can't exist.]]
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' combines sitcom trope deconstruction with racial and social trope deconstruction.
* ''[[Scooby
* Along the same lines as the ''Scooby-Doo'' example above is ''[[Transformers Prime]],'' which takes a grittier spin on the ''[[Transformers]]'' series.
* ''[[Archer]]'' goes through cold-war spy tropes like adamantium claws through butter.
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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]].▼
▲...and all of the examples from [[Trapped in TV Land]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:Deconstruction Tropes]]
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