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Deconstructor Fleet: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.DeconstructorFleet 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.DeconstructorFleet, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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*** 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.)
** [[Five
*** They are: The Overpowered [[Idiot Hero]], the Small Scary Killer, the [[Beware the Nice Ones|Smart Pretty Boy]], and the Big Idiot With A Heart Of Gold.
** 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.
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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 From 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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* ''[[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 5 Ds]]'' is starting to follow in ''GX's'' footsteps; the third season's antagonist's plot against Synchros, and the counter provided to our heroes in the form of the [[More Than Infinite|Accel Synchro]], seems deliberately crafted to deconstruct the debate over whether or not the monsters are [[Game Breaker|Game Breakers]], and and the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie]]'' movie delves into how much the [[Plot Tumor]] of the game had grown in the anime and manga, by having the villain try to ''[[Grandfather Paradox|travel back in time and use the game to murder its creator, Pegasus J. Crawford, thus preventing the game from being created and, supposedly, prevent]] [[The End of the World As We Know It]] [[Grandfather Paradox|that would've come, if the game stayed in existence]].
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* ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]'' is a [[Black Comedy]] which averts, subverts, inverts, defies, parodies, and eventually deconstructs more tropes than it plays straight-- and it does it marvelously.
* ''[[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 Aint Like It Used to Be|idealism]] and [[Popular History|portrayal]] [[The Theme Park Version|in media]].
* [[Woody Allen]]'s ''The Purple Rose Of Cairo'', ''Deconstructing Harry'', ''Mighty Aphrodite'' (complete with Greek chorus.)
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* 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 (Literature)/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Soul Music|Soul Music]]'', or ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Truth|The Truth]]''.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', which has an entire cast full of [[Genre Savvy]] people, a [[
* 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.
* ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh (Literature)|The Epic of Gilgamesh]]''. Gilgamesh had been [[The Hero]] in stories for ''at least one thousand years'' before the Epic. The Epic [[Badass Decay|revises those stories]] and [[Adaptation Expansion|adds new material]] to make him into [[The Caligula]] – and then for good measure it makes the gods (especially [[Love Goddess|Ishtar/Inanna]]) into [[Jerkass Gods]]. The ancient Babylonians were [[Older Than They Think|masters of postmodernism]]. Postmodernism and [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|flaying]].
* Anything by [[Thomas Pynchon]], with ''[[Gravitys Rainbow|Gravity's Rainbow]]'' being probably the most famous example.
* ''[[Great Expectations]]'', deconstructing all [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|its author]]'s work up to that point
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* ''[[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 Bards Tale]]''
* ''[[Bio Shock]]'' Using [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[Atlas Shrugged]] as a jumping off point, explores philosophy while deconstructing [[First
** 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
** 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
* ''[[Cannon Fodder (Video Game)|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.
* ''[[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.
** 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 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)/
** 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.
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** ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' grew famous for being a [[Deconstructor Fleet]]; it savagely tears into the concept of [[The Chosen One]] as well as the [[Idiot Hero]]; [[Fantastic Racism]], while not necessarily "deconstructed", receives a ''lot'' of examination. The concept of a [[Determinator]] also gets deconstructed, as it's ''the [[Big Bad]]'s primary flaw.'' A lot of effort is put into examining [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifices]] and what it means for a person to be a sacrifice.
** ''[[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.
** ''[[Tales of Vesperia (Video Game)|Tales of Vesperia]]'' takes aim at [[Protagonist
* 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 (Video Game)|Penumbra]]'' and ''[[Amnesia the Dark Descent (Video Game)|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]'' sound like complete [[
* ''[[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...
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** By applying some [[Fridge Horror]] to ''Mystic Square'', one way to interpret the plot is to think of it as; "[[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|What if Alice actually went to hell]]?".
* ''[[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]]--along with the tried-and-true methods of the [[Turn Based Strategy]] genre--into tiny little bits as it goes. It's been four years since the franchise was launched, and we're ''still'' not a hundred percent sure about [[Decoy Protagonist|who the main character is supposed to be]].
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'' does this to Fire Emblem. Setting and Backstory aside, the 9th game (Path of Radiance) pretty much starts off as a [[
** ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'' was preceded by ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral]]'', which went along to deconstruct common character tropes of the series.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Doctor Horribles 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 [[
* ''[[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 "[[Rah Xephon]] with the [[Deus Sex Machina|power of fuck]]"
* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' is like [[Sailor Moon]], but a [[Darker and Edgier]] deconstruction.
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* [[Metafictionized Phlebotinum Poisoning]]
* ''[[There Will Be Brawl]]'' Deconstructs Nintendo characters, [[Pastiche|Pastiches]] 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).
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