"I think if there's a truly seductive quality about Clementine, it's that her personality promises to take you out of the mundane. It's like, you secure yourself with this amazing, burning meteorite to carry you to another world, a world where things are exciting. But, what you quickly learn is that it's a really elaborate ruse."
— Joel from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, commenting on the illusory Manic Pixie Dream Girl quality of his ex-girlfriend
Deconstructing a trope involves taking an existing trope, playing it straight, and examining the likely/realistic consequences or implications of that trope that tend to be ignored by straight examples of it. This trope does the same thing, but for fictional character archetypes.
One way to do this is to take a familiar character type and place the character in a realistic setting, and then explore what happens as a result of the character being Wrong Genre Savvy. Another is to explore likely facets of the character's personality or background that straight examples of the trope tend to overlook. This can also be done as part of a Genre Deconstruction if certain character archetypes are closely associated with a particular genre (what would Westerns be without the archetypical Cowboy?). A particularly interesting (and decidedly meta) way to do this is by taking an actor known only for playing certain kinds of roles and casting them in a role which deconstructs that character type. Note, however, that an actor deconstructing their established persona or character type is not automatically an example of this trope unless their persona is a recognizable character archetype in its own right.
As a rule of thumb, examples of this trope should be deconstructions of character archetypes that already have their trope pages (The Hero, The Lancer, Anti-Villain, etc.), unless the character archetype is no longer in current use (Discredited Trope, Forgotten Trope, etc.).
A subtrope of both Deconstruction and Deconstructed Trope (insofar as character archetypes are tropes in their own right). Compare Wrong Genre Savvy and Playing with Character Type.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Animation
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Video Games
- Web Animation
- Western Animation
Other examples:
open/close all folders
Advertising
- Starting in the late 2010s, Flo from Progressive has become a deconstruction of the quirky, lovable salesperson that she popularized. While her complete enthusiasm for her job makes her a great saleswoman, it also means that she's terrible at holding normal conversations that aren't related to insurance, meaning that she doesn't have any friends. This, along with her quirkiness, is repeatedly shown to greatly annoy her family, to the point where they prefer discussing insurance with her colleagues instead of her. The closest things to friends that Flo has are her coworkers, her associate Jamie in particular, and even then they're implied to dislike her (or are at the very least annoyed by her). Overall, she doesn't seem to have that much of a life outside of insurance. All of this would be pretty depressing were she not so cheerful all the time and if the commercials didn't have a comedic tone.
Audio Plays
- Dr. Frankenstein is probably one of the earliest and most famous examples of a Byronic Hero, but this trope is completely deconstructed in the Big Finish audio adaptation of the novel. A typical hero with Byronic qualities is a brooding and withdrawn yet charming figure who hides his fascinating and passionate personality and interests, having strong and often noble beliefs despite many selfish character flaws. While Victor claims to be this when Alphonse calls out his Lack of Empathy over Henry's death, it's very clear that Victor is just an uncaring and selfish man full of arrogance about himself, and whose beliefs are so strong that he refuses to consider that he might be wrong and therefore to blame for all the harm his actions cause.
Music
- Poets of the Fall's video for Obsession Song "Carnival of Rust
" has its singer Zoltar, a fortunetelling automaton with tatty clothes, peeling paint, and tell-tale black-accented white makeup, as a deconstructed Pierrot. While genuinely tragic, pining after the woman in the gas mask who visits the Carnival, he's rendered foreboding and sinister because the lyrics make clear his idea of love is deeply dysfunctional and self-interested since he thinks it will fix his life/free him from the Carnival. Though his desperation is sincere, there's a reason his demanding chorus is signaled by a Scare Chord.
Mythology & Religion
- Believe it or not, Older Than Dirt (Or possibly just Older Than Feudalism, depending on whether you subscribe to the pre- or post-Babylonian exile theories of when certain Old Testament texts were written). According to The Bible, Israel's first king, Saul, was loved by everyone, head and shoulders taller than other men, and famed for his great strength; in other words, he's the archetypal mythic hero from the ancient world, very similar to Gilgamesh or Achilles. He also rapidly devolves into a petty tyrant who abuses his power over the people, disobeys God's commands purely for his own benefit/image, and is generally portrayed as a hypocritcal dictator who only cares about maintaining his power. By contrast, his replacement David is a scrawny nobody from the poorest social class, who even in his own family was considered the least special or noteworthy son. He's portrayed as a far better king (though even he has some serious black marks on his reign).
Stand-Up Comedy
- The stand-up routines of Bo Burnham revolve around deconstructing the "weird kid in high school" type that's shy and a total loner. While it's played for Black Comedy, Bo frequently points out how dark some of his thoughts can get, how utterly bizarre human nature can be, how introversion can mess someone up, and the weird things people do to try and become popular.
- Steve Harvey was an early adopter of the White Dude, Black Dude trope in his comedy routines, though Harvey went to great lengths to show that the Black Dude was just as messed up and irrational as the White Dude; they were just messed up in different ways. In Harvey's routines, there was always a hint of Stop Being Stereotypical to them (since Harvey himself is black) while also being a Deconstructive Parody of a Scary Black Man, rather than just mocking white people or suggesting the black way was superior. For instance, in a routine about the White Dude and the Black Dude getting fired, Harvey mocked the White Dude for underreacting to such a major life event as losing one's job by only getting mildly annoyed. At the same time, Harvey also mocked the Black Dude for overreacting to something he could conceivably bounce back from. The Black Dude in the routine reacts to getting fired by flipping over the office furniture, threatening his ex-boss's kids, and trying to burn down the office, all of which gets him arrested. All of this is despite Harvey being an early progenitor of the "White Dude, Black Dude" routine in stand-up comedy.
Tabletop Games
- Shadowrun: Harlequin is an excellent deconstruction of both the Trickster Mentor and the Omniscient Morality License. Harlequin is one of the greatest forces for good in the setting, and instrumental in keeping the world from being eaten by Eldritch Abominations. However, it turns out that jerking people around seemingly for your own amusement and committing atrocities on the semi-regular in the name of a master plan you refuse to explain doesn't endear you to anyone. At least two of Harlequin's one-time disciples are actively hunting him, and the number of people who want to work with Harlequin a second time can be counted on a retired fan repairman's right hand with fingers to spare.
- Warhammer 40,000
- The Space Marines' Primarchs deconstruct Magnetic Hero. They are the mightiest and most charismatic men in history, natural leaders and born conquerors who come to dominate the worlds they were scattered to before taking their place leading the Emperor's armies. But they also have some serious issues resulting from this unusual upbringing and the Emperor's Parental Abandonment, and the same Undying Loyalty they inspire in their legions means that when half of the Primarchs turn traitor, they can take the majority of their forces with them. It also means they end up being seen as demi-gods or religious figures, despite most of them not wanting such attention.
- The Grey Knights deconstruct The Paladin. Their sole role is fighting daemon corruption so that usually means killing an entire population for being too close to said corruption. It is also said not one Grey Knight had fallen to Chaos. It's because they are brainwashed so they can't make that choice.
- Night Haunter deconstructs Terror Hero. He believes fear is the greatest tool that would bring peace to his world and so carries out killing sprees on a global scale hoping it will Scare 'Em Straight. Years later, he comes back to see his planet has reverted to its evil ways since he and his legion aren't there to terrify anyone, while the things he did to instill that fear slowly twisted him into a worse monster than the ones he fought. Rather than admit his methods were wrong, he blows his planet up. Additionally, his Legion has spent so long relying on the fear that they're subpar in a straight-up fight; anyone who's not terrified, such as their Arch-Enemy faction with a literal rule called And They Shall Know No Fear, is going to have an edge against the Night Lords.
- The Emperor deconstructs the Pro-Human Transhuman and God-Emperor all at once. While he's on humanity's side, his inhuman level of power and ridiculously long lifespan mean that he doesn't have much ability to relate to individual humans (or even human-derived demigods like the Primarchs) or understand what motivates them, while causing his ego to inflate spectacularly. This means that his all-important campaign largely ends up in the hands of people whose goals had little or nothing to do with conquering the galaxy for another's benefit, contending against forces they were generally not permitted to know even existed, with all information that might help fight them suppressed. This, in turn, led to the corruption of half of the Primarchs to Chaos, the largest civil war to ever strike the Imperium, and the end of not only the Emperor's grand dream but also his ability to move on his own and directly run his empire.
- Lorgar Aurelian, Bearer of the Word deconstructs Church Militant and Magnetic Hero. Raised in the extremely religious world of Colchis, young Lorgar is used by his adoptive father Kor Phaeron as a means to gain power. Lorgar's immense charisma means that he can convert entire populations to his cause but being a diplomat and preacher first, he wins the civil war through sheer numbers alone. Likewise, he is averse to war (despite being made to do just that!), constantly talking down to his more hawkish brothers and being obnoxiously preachy overall. Despite it being made clear to him his religious conversions ran against the Emperor's doctrine's and goals, Lorgar continued to worship him as a god until the Emperor, hearing of how slow Lorgar was in the Great Crusade, finally stepped in, burned Colchis' religious sites, and chewed him out for being a failure and that he needed to stop. Wracked with self-doubt but not getting the message he was wrong in any way, Lorgar began looking for new gods to worship, sending him right into Chaos-worshiping hands. With renewed faith, Lorgar became the catalyst of the Horus Heresy and the current state of the Imperium and Emperor. His zeal makes him the most faithful of Chaos Undivided and his charisma allows him to pull entire populations into his fold.
- Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children, deconstructs The Perfectionist. He worked hard to follow in the image of The Emperor, being loyal and working to instill his legion with the same mindset as himself, even naming them The Emperor's Children to honor him. However, his dedication to perfectionism caused him to develop into a narcissist who focused on improving himself to the point of near madness. This made it easy for him to fall into Slaanesh's hands once he found a sword containing a Slaanesh Daemon, which began using his hard work to steer him into following the Chaos God's will. The Daemon then possessed him, which effectively broke him. Once he was free, he had been more or less broken and twisted into a vain and selfish man.
- In several stories, The Orks Laughably Evil tendencies are severely put in a darker light. Generally, The Orks are more often than not simple minded hooligans that indulge in insane antics, as such this causes many people in-universe to severely underestimate them. As a result these same people are often caught off guard when a legitimately competent Ork (usually a Warboss or a Kommando.) pops up. Furthermore, these scenarios also show that the Orks comedic aspects are only really funny from the perspective of the Orks and The audience. When it’s the POV of anyone else, The Orks antics become significantly more horrific as they can prove to legitimately brutal foe to face against.
Theatre
- 35MM: A Musical Exhibition: The titular character in "The Ballad of Sara Berry" is one for the Alpha Bitch. She's rich, pretty, and successful...but all of this is because her abusive dad refuses to deem her of any worth otherwise. This pressure on her ends up leading to her single-minded obsession with becoming prom queen (which drives away her friends and boyfriend in the process), and when it looks like she's going to lose to her rival, she snaps and goes on a killing spree.
- Ani: Jar Jar Binks deconstructs the role of The Scrappy in fandom. He's aware of his low status and hates it, leading him down a road of serious depression and addiction, and even typical Take That, Scrappy! moments like things never going right for him or a more beloved character killing him off don't feel right because of how much he goes through as a result.
- Macbeth: The trope-naming Lady Macbeth deconstructs Behind Every Great Man and, funnily enough, her own archetype. She corrupts her husband and helps make him king — but she's only human, and the guilt of being responsible for the lives lost for the sake of their ambition drives her to madness and death. Without her guidance, her husband soon follows her to the grave.
- The Miracle Worker was one of the earliest examples of Inspirationally Disadvantaged, but it demonstrates a logical consequence of putting a disabled person on a pedestal. The Kellers' refusal to discipline Helen after she lost her sight and hearing to Scarlet Fever resulted in her becoming a violent Spoiled Brat. Annie's therapy towards Helen is not only a way to teach her how to interact with the world with her remaining three senses, but the therapy is also done as a way to teach Helen manners, tone down her behavior, and help her realize that her disabilities don't give her the excuse to treat others poorly. It's an excruciating process for both Helen and Annie, but it's well worth it by the end of the story.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney: The series has a habit of prodigal characters with an Improbable Age, such as Franziska von Karma becoming a prosecutor at the age of thirteen. Eustace Winner in Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit is a 17-year old prosecutor... and exactly as competent as you'd expect from someone that age. In other words, not at all. He only has the job because of his father's influence, and he only thinks he's smart because his father also bribed his school.
- Collar × Malice:
- Otaku is taken apart when Sasazuka confronts Souda, a man obsessed with online gaming. Souda isn't able to do anything well in real life and immerses himself in his gaming where he is a "god". But when he loses his status and his followers abandon him for it, Souda becomes a broken immature man who was willing to murder people, including people uninvolved with him. Sasazuka taunts him that even after doing that, Souda is still a broken, immature man.
- While some of the X-Day victims are Asshole Victims, there are also some of them who did not deserve such horrible deaths, such as a classroom of middle-school children and Enomoto's police colleague, the latter who had genuine regret over their actions but was brutally tortured and killed in the middle of their attempt to make up for their honest mistake.
- Danganronpa:
- In particular, the theme of the games deconstruct Broken Ace, Bunny-Ears Lawyer, and Dysfunction Junction. Every non-protagonist student is the best there is at their specific Ultimate Talent, and all of them are eccentric and colorful... because they all have some personal tragedy or mental health issue, some of which made their talent possible in the first place. Some characters feel restricted by their talent, but at the same time, they're incapable of functioning without it. The reason they find the protagonists so approachable is that they're the closest thing to a therapist in all of Hope's Peak Academy.
- Of the Wholesome Crossdresser with Chihiro Fujisaki. He disguises himself as a girl to avoid being called girly or being a target of bullying due to his pliant, shy, and sweet personality, as well as his lack of physical strength. He does not identify himself as female, but the amount of persecution he suffered for being not a manly guy made him seek to end this by denying his gender, even though this is not something he likes or is comfortable with.
- Mondo Owada is a deconstruction of the Delinquents archetype since despite being the leader of the largest motorcycle gang in all of Japan, he's painfully aware that because of his lifestyle, he doesn't have much of a future once he graduates. He also deconstructs Jerk with a Heart of Gold since, even though he has a good heart, he is still a delinquent with violent tendencies, as seen when his first reaction to being jealous of Chihiro, whom he had bonded with, is to impulsively murder the kid- something which he immediately regrets.
- The second game's Player Character Hajime Hinata deconstructs I Just Want to Be Special and Took a Level in Badass. He was originally an Ordinary High-School Student who admired Hope's Peak Academy more than anyone and was willing to do anything to attend, even if it meant being part of the subpar Reserve Course. Even then, he was so insecure about his lack of talent that he underwent a surgical procedure designed to grant him every talent. However, this required excising all of his senses, thoughts, emotions, hobbies, and memories that interfered with acquiring these talents. This transformed Hajime into the utterly apathetic and sociopathic genius Izuru Kamukura.
- Nagito Komaeda deconstructs Born Lucky and Born Unlucky. He's been plagued by a cycle of good and bad luck ever since he was born, with good events followed by bad events followed by good events. While this allowed him to win several lotteries and earned him a place in the academy, it also came with heavy costs, such as the deaths of his parents and two terminal illnesses. He's become a Death Seeker who's obsessed with hope, going so far as to incite conflict believing that the hope that arises from it will be even stronger.
- Mikan Tsumiki is both a parody and deconstruction of the Reluctant Fanservice Girl, as well as Hates Being Alone. Many of the compromising positions she ends up in are comically exaggerated, with many characters pointing out how odd it is. With a long history of bullying and abuse, Mikan has come to believe that publicly degrading and humiliating herself, as uncomfortable and damaging to her already low self-esteem it is, and murdering people and committing atrocities at the behest of a charismatic yet crazed Straw Nihilist dictator whom she “loves”, is the only way she can get attention. The one thing she fears more than being abused is being ignored.
- The third game has Maki Harukawa, who deconstructs both the Violently Protective Girlfriend and Defrosting Ice Queen trope, as all, her attempts to protect Kaito make the situation worse, are futile because Kaito has been Secretly Dying the entire time and then in the Wham Episode final trial, it's revealed that Maki was brainwashed into falling in love with Kaito to boost the show's ratings, and that the Kaito she "fell" for didn't exist, as his audition tapes show he wanted to be in the Killing Game to be rich and famous and couldn't wait to kill someone. Not to mention, Maki is given a Dark and Troubled Past where she was trained to be an assassin from a young age, forced to look after other children in the orphanage, and was separated from her best friend, all as part of her "character arc" where she loosens up after befriending Kaito and Shuichi. She does not take this revelation well.
- Doki Doki Literature Club!:
- Natsuki acts like your average Tsundere - abrasive, sarcastic, and arrogant at times. However, this is a facade as she is so quick to go on the defensive because she is constantly being judged by her other classmates and by her (possibly) neglectful father and her brash personality is a coping mechanism for her low self-esteem since others look down on her because of her small stature, her manga preference or cutesy writing style. This worsens her friendship with Yuri, whom Natsuki genuinely does want to befriend, but her Hair-Trigger Temper only alienates Yuri further.
- Sayori is revealed to be an Insecure Love Interest. It isn't that she feels that she isn't good enough for the player character. It's that she thinks she's not good enough for anyone to care about. Even when people express concern for her or try to be her friend, she feels that they are "wasting" their time and energy on her. She also deconstructs the Cute Clumsy Girl archetype, as the protagonist character notes that Sayori is always forgetting to bring lunch money, constantly runs late, and criticizes her for her spaciness... all of which are classic symptoms of Depression. The protagonist immersion drops the snark after finding out.
- The game's antagonist, Monika, is a Deconstruction of the common wish-fulfillment trope of a Dating Sim character who is Yandere for the player. What do you get when a character with Medium Awareness is in love with not the in-universe protagonist, but the player? The answer: a Cosmic Horror Story.
- Fate/stay night:
- Saber is this for Tough Leader Façade and Failure Knight. She is a gender-bent King Arthur, having been born female and taking the mantle of the king when she pulled Caliburn from the sword in the stone. As a king, she felt it was better to become emotionless and focus on putting the people first while ignoring her feelings or wants. Eventually, many of her knights lost faith in her, and her people felt she was a poor ruler because she seemed inhuman and no longer able to connect to her, resulting in it fracturing the kingdom and leading to the fall of Camelot once Lancelot's affair with the queen was revealed and Mordred (herself spurned by her father's seemingly indifference to wanting to be accepted as her child) took advantage of it to lead a rebellion. This resulted in her feeling she was a failure, and so she becomes a Heroic Spirit to obtain the Holy Grail to undo her rule by wishing someone else would take her spot. When Shirou learns this in the Fate route, he points out how her wish to use the Grail to undo her rule is ultimately selfish, because she's essentially thrusting the responsibility to someone else, and that she has no way of knowing if someone better than her exists to handle her role. Saber is very upset when she learns this, but eventually comes to realize Shirou is right, and that she let her guilt and failure blind her to the fact she is being selfish with her wish.
- Kirei Kotomine is this for the Card-Carrying Villain. In two of the three routes he is revealed to be the game's villain and more or less just does evil things because he wants to. Heavens Feel though reveals that in reality, Kotomine was someone suffering from two conflicting parts of his being: the fact he only feels joy when causing pain and misery, but also the fact he was raised with morals and a sense of humanity. This made him cross the Despair Event Horizon years ago when his wife killed herself in the hopes of proving he could feel love; instead, it made him despair at the realization he didn't get to kill her. As a result, he desires to bring the corrupted holy grail to fruition just so he can ask Angra Mainyu a simple question: why was a man like himself born this way? All his actions are simply to find meaning and answers for his paradoxical nature, and to do so, he presents himself as this trope because nobody understands him, except on Heavens Feel where Shirou finds out how similar they are. He looks and acts the part of an evil villain because it's the only thing that can bring him joy.
- In Hakuouki, second-in-command Hijikata is a Hyper-Competent Sidekick to Kondou, doing most of the work of discipline, leading and strategizing for the Shinsengumi, all to elevate Kondou's warm and friendly nature with the troops. But this backfired as Hijikata's efforts to protect Kondou leave Kondou completely unprepared to deal with the harsh realities of leadership, where Kondou is unable to cope with the Boshin War and is unable to retain the respect of his men when things go wrong.
- Katawa Shoujo: Basically every heroine is a deconstruction of a typical dating sim archetype.
- Emi Ibarazaki deconstructs the Plucky Girl. Even after losing both her legs, she remains a perpetually cheerful, energetic girl. However, the one thing she hasn't managed to recover from was the loss of her father. She knows it's normal to lose relationships with people, and it's best to be strong and move on. However, the same stubbornness that enables her to deal with her issues prevents Emi from growing close to anyone because she is afraid that the pain of loss will prevent her from moving onto the future, and this prevents anyone from helping her when she needs it, which is the main source of conflict between her and Hisao in their relationship.
- Hanako Ikezawa deconstructs the Shrinking Violet. The reason she's so anxious around people is because of the scars she received from a house fire that also killed her parents when she was only eight. The bullying and isolation she endured at her old school only made things worse. She's painfully aware of how she is and hates when other people coddle her and treat her like a child, thinking they only do it to make themselves feel better. Hisao doing this too much in a misguided attempt to "protect" her leads to her Downer Ending, where she completely explodes and tells Hisao she hates him.
- Lilly Satou deconstructs Yamato Nadeshiko. Because she appears to be so perfect, Hisao is perfectly content to just lie back and let her handle everything. So when she’s eventually pressured into doing something she really doesn’t want to do (emigrate to Scotland to live with her estranged parents) no one, Hisao included, is willing to question her on it; if Hisao chooses not to share his troubles with her throughout her route because he doesn't want to burden her, the story ends with her departure and an end to their relationship.
- Rin Tezuka deconstructs the Cloudcuckoolander. Her eccentric behavior and thought process is initially portrayed as funny and cute, but in her route, Hisao's inability to understand her leads to him feeling like he can't get close to her, causing friction between them when something is clearly paining Rin in her pursuit of an artistic career, but he can't get a straight answer out of her. It turns out that even she can't fully comprehend her own emotions, which makes it difficult for anyone to communicate with her, much less relate with her; she just wants to be understood like any other person but can't express herself properly, and paints in the hope that someone will understand her through her art. If Hisao gives up on understanding her or prioritizes her career over her well-being, the route ends with one of them dumping the other.
- Shizune Hakamachi deconstructs the Spirited Competitor. She's stern, assertive, takes her position as Student Council President very seriously, and likes to turn everything into a competition...but it's that very mentality that drove the other members of the council away (including her cousin Lilly), leaving Misha as her Only Friend. It's also implied she gets this mentality from her emotionally abusive father and simply doesn't know any other way of interacting with others, in part due to her deafness.
- In Nightshade (2016), Enju is the treasured princess of Koga as she is seen as a symbol of peace between the Koga and Iga clans, and is often protected and sheltered by the village. On certain routes such as on Hanzo's, she comes to realize that she is completely unprepared for real life-and-death situations since she has spent all her life being protected by others. She resolves to become strong enough to keep herself alive.
- Pizza Game: Mr. Arimnaes, protagonist Kiane’s boss and initial crush, is a deconstruction of evil Jerkass love interests in otome games. Usually, this type of character starts out hating the player and treating as them terribly as they treat everyone else, but eventually falls in love with them if the player tries hard enough to win them over. Mr. Arimnaes, however, hates Kiane through and through, and never falls in love with her, even at the end of his route. Kiane’s persistent efforts to woo him come off as both idiotic and obsessive, and the closest she gets to genuine romance with him is a single kiss, which he only agrees to because Kiane bested him in Go.
- Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair has Momoko Mori, a deconstruction of the Clingy Jealous Girl. Not only does her clinginess cause friction between her and her boyfriend Hiro, as well as her and others (for example, she gets angry with Runa for trying to talk to Hiro), but it's also the product of deep-seated trust issues. Because Momoko was often taken advantage of in the past, she gradually stopped trusting people until she befriended Kamen. Unfortunately, her friendship with Kamen and her relationship with Hiro doesn't help her issues- it's thought that if either one of them betrays her, she will likely be broken. When Kamen reveals that Hiro asked her out and planned on dumping her, Momoko refuses to believe it and even threatens to end her friendship with Kamen if she continues trying to convince her of that. Momoko soon discovers messages from Hiro on Kamen's cell phone, then plots to murder him and kill herself, to frame Kamen for their deaths.
- YOU and ME and HER: All three of the main characters do this for a common Romance Game archetype:
- Shinichi Sasaki is one of generic, uninteresting romance game protagonists who exist purely as an Audience Surrogate. Shinichi's lack of anything leaves him deeply insecure and aimless in life and ultimately becomes little more than a vessel for the player themselves as they try to pursue an ending that he never would. His refusal to confess his love to the School Idol because he feels that she wouldn't want a boring guy like him leads to the in-universe canon bad end where he Did Not Get the Girl, and Aoi's rewriting of the game's code to avoid this accidentally gives Miyuki Medium Awareness in the process, setting off a series of events that turns into a horror show for all the characters.
- Miyuki Sone is one of the traditional romance game heroine. She's Childhood Friends with the protagonist, a Tsundere, and far more talented and interesting than he'll ever be. She's also so mentally fragile on her feelings that she will abandon Shinichi if he reveals his insecurities towards her, and goes completely insane in her desperation to achieve a happy ending for herself when the player begins denying her just that. She also plays into a commonly noted Fridge Horror of visual novel heroines, namely just what happens to the other characters whose lives weren't fulfilled, and takes this to a logical conclusion.
- Aoi Mukou is one of nukige heroines who exist purely for the purpose of enabling the player to get lurid sex scenes without any need for emotional attachment. Aoi is literally an emotionless puppet designed by God for the purpose of acquiring H-CG's, and whose existence is quite literally erased the moment her purpose in life in achieved or fails. As she begins developing emotions, she rapidly begins to develop a considerable self-loathing complex spurred on by thinking herself as a slut unworthy of any genuine love, and even rattles off to the player a long series of depraved sex acts in her previous existences just so they'd be disgusted with her.
- Your Turn to Die:
- Sara Chidouin deconstructs the "average joe" heroes of life-and-death games ala Makoto Naegi and Junpei. Like them, she's an Ordinary High-School Student who takes on the role of a leader... but what she doesn't have is the emotional fortitude required to move on from every death. By Chapter 2, she's The Mentally Disturbed, and can potentially get even WORSE.
- Sou Hiyori deconstructs the "antagonistic Wild Card rival" akin to Byakuya Togami and Dio: he's unwilling to trust others and gleefully mocks those about to die, but this results in everyone hating his guts except for Kanna. To twist the knife, AI simulations reveal that the Deadly Game's organisers have written him off with a survival chance of 0.0%, and that his adoption of these personality traits is basically a defense mechanism to help him cope.
- Kai Satou's a blatant deconstruction of the Aloof Ally trope in a death game. While it's true Kai helps the group while attempting to solve puzzles and whatnot, but in a setting where cooperation is key, it becomes quickly apparent that his lack of communication and preference to keep his distance from his allies not only causes massive unease in the likes of Sara who suspects him to be her stalker, but leaves the rest of the group completely unable to trust him when he needs it most. This is the reason he ultimately dies, as while Sou is proven to be a liar, no one knows what Kai's true goals are, and it causes him to be viewed as the bigger threat despite his claims otherwise.
Webcomics
- Bastard: Jin is an unsettling deconstruction of the Chaste Hero. Episode 15 reveals that he doesn't know what sex is, how it's done, or what its purpose is, despite being in high school. When he innocently asks Kyun to explain porn to him, she asks him why he didn't learn about it in sex ed (he missed a class), on the Internet (he didn't know it could be viewed online), from his friends (he doesn't have any), and finally, from his parents, which triggers in him a panic attack when he recalls an instance in which he listened in on his father murdering a woman. Despite knowing all about a woman's "inner workings," Jin is completely naive in regard to sexuality, emphasizing how exposed he is to the evils of the world and how sheltered he is from the pleasures.
- Bittersweet Candy Bowl deconstructs the violent "Wolf-Girl" type of Tsundere, and rather viciously at that. Mike eventually gets sick of Lucy's volatile behavior of alternating between affection and abuse, and delivers a devastating "The Reason You Suck" Speech to her (wherein he tells her that he hates her, that she's a parasite, and that nobody loves her), which destroys their friendship. This in turn leads Lucy to attempt suicide and move away. When she returns to Roseville High, she coldly rejects his attempts to reconcile and distances herself from the rest of their friendship group. Turns out that directing verbal and physical abuse towards your hapless Love Interest, no matter how insecure you might be, is not a great approach to romance.
- Cucumber Quest: Of the prototypical video game villain archetype: a scary monster that desires world conquest and constantly comes back no worse for wear no matter how many defeats or setbacks they suffer, such as Bowser and Ganon. Cucumber Quest takes that concept and applies realistic consequences to it: the Nightmare Knight and his crew have been defeated almost a hundred times by this point, and one of the main goals of the comic is examining the physical and psychological effects so much defeat can have on somebody. The Nightmare Knight simply doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore, and is stuck trying to make sure Dreamside fears him while secretly preventing his Disaster Masters from causing any real damage. The Disaster Masters, meanwhile, showcase varying reactions to their predicament (Rosemaster hates hurting innocents, Quakemaster worries about his physical health, Noisemaster has grown to resent the Knight for his failure to lead them, etc.), but there is one constant: they are sick and tired of losing, and are willing to do absolutely anything to finally score the sweet taste of victory.
- Damaged Goods:
- Keddie is one of the Drill Sergeant Nasty, showing that her abrasive, bossy tendencies are more likely to leave her soldiers poorly prepared and lacking in self esteem, and sending them off to come of age in this state gets more of them killed.
- Anthea is one of jadeblood fantrolls, often portrayed as the Token Good Teammate and Only Sane Man. Anthea is shown using her caste's stereotypes to lower people's guard, resenting the pseudo-safety her caste provides, expressing irritation in false-honor of her duty, and betraying people's trust in her. She also Averts being the Team Mom, intentionally keeping her distance.
- Go Get a Roomie!: As the comic goes on, Roomie deconstructs the Hard-Drinking Party Girl. It's presented for fun at first, but later comics show off the downsides to such a lifestyle, the most obvious being Roomie's status as a full-blown alcoholic. She's forced to couch surf and mooch because she has such a drinking problem that she blew all her money on it, meaning she's effectively homeless. And then there's the disturbing fact that it led her to being sexually assaulted numerous times.
- Homestuck: Vriska Serket is the only non-Parody Sue troll and is an unflinching examination of the psyche of such characters and her impact on other characters. What kind of person would intentionally monopolize the spotlight while antagonizing her friends and gloating about her grandiose importance? Not a very happy or healthy person. And how would people around her react? They would consider her a dangerous, abusive manipulator.
- I Don't Want This Kind of Hero: Naga deconstructs Brilliant, but Lazy. Naga has zero ambition and generally does the bare minimum he needs to as a hero—something he occasionally gets called out on, and many people would rather make better use of his incredible powers. However, the question then is if being a Born Winner means that Naga should be denied the right to live his life, and Naga himself is annoyed at the people who claim he's doing nothing, given that being a superhero is already going beyond. He's helping people out regularly—why should that not be enough?
- Ilove Yoo:
- In some ways Shin-Ae is a deconstruction of the stereotypical Korean Drama protagonist. She might not be rich or popular but she's beautiful and smart and quickly catches the attention of the rival sons of a wealthy family, and the family matriarch takes a shine to her and wants her to marry the family heir, Kousuke. Having an attractive older man as your boss who is also interested in you is a common K-Drama trope. However, Shin-Ae wants nothing to do with the family's drama, only wants enough money to ensure she and her dad can live comfortably. Nol, who has many traits of the bad boy Veronica of the love triangle who often loses the leading lady, is the one who respects Shin-Ae and gets along with her, so she naturally gravitates towards him.
- Also of the Not Like Other Girls trope. Shin-Ae is vocally a tomboy and doesn't take much interest in make-up or boys. However, it's later revealed that this was not of her own volition and that her inexperience in girly interests is largely circumstantial: she had no female figures in her life growing up and tight finances meant she had very little money or time to experiment with makeup and the like. She also doesn't look down on others with more girly interests and it is implied that it is her fear of being ridiculed for it, not her dislike of it that stops her from pursuing more feminine interests.
- Like Yoo, Alyssa Cho seems to deconstruct common K-Drama tropes. In many ways she's the fantasy of the up and coming idol: She is beautiful, rich, popular, and due to her unique circumstances she gets to ignore the no dating rule and get into a relationship with one of the sons of a wealthy and powerful family. However, I Love Yoo is not a typical K-Drama. Through her we see the dark side of the entertainment industry. Her drive to obtain fame and success pushes her to do selfish things and blinds her to the harm she's caused. Unlike Yoo, she refuses to see that these things are very bad outside of the realm of fiction and cannot accept that Yui is a bad person.
- In some ways Shin-Ae is a deconstruction of the stereotypical Korean Drama protagonist. She might not be rich or popular but she's beautiful and smart and quickly catches the attention of the rival sons of a wealthy family, and the family matriarch takes a shine to her and wants her to marry the family heir, Kousuke. Having an attractive older man as your boss who is also interested in you is a common K-Drama trope. However, Shin-Ae wants nothing to do with the family's drama, only wants enough money to ensure she and her dad can live comfortably. Nol, who has many traits of the bad boy Veronica of the love triangle who often loses the leading lady, is the one who respects Shin-Ae and gets along with her, so she naturally gravitates towards him.
- Las Lindas deconstructs the Unknown Rival through Alejandra. Alejandra's near-overwhelming desire to crush Mora into dust, when Mora herself doesn't care and is more worried about keeping her farm up and running, mostly just harms her mental state and her company's reputation and finances.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Belkar Bitterleaf deconstructs Token Evil Teammate. The rest of the team explicitly does not like him (minus Elan) and only keep him around for his ranger skills...many of which are not as good as they should be due to his focus on murder and mayhem. His antics often bite them in the ass, and his short temper and lack of impulse control get him saddled with a curse that makes him functionally useless inside city limits. When Belkar's finally forced to change or die, he starts faking character development to remain relevant in the story and not get ditched by his teammates. Later still, his strained relationship with Roy means Roy won't believe him about the vampirized Durkon not being the same as their friend and people assume his trying to kill the vampire is just him being an asshole as always, instead of trying to stop a bad guy.
- General Tarquin is a deconstruction of Genre Savvy. Someone so able to see "the way things go" and understand the narrative nature of a world is likely to get full of themselves for their understanding and get an inflated ego, which leads to the potential for diving into Wrong Genre Savvy if things don't go their way. Tellingly, he's not even the real leader of his team, but they let him think that since feeding his ego keeps him around to be useful for his Genre Savvy moments and his teammates treat him with much less respect than one would expect a Magnificent Bastard to receive. In addition, he is an utter sociopath due to merely seeing other people as characters in a story, and disposable characters at that since he assumes the next person who fills a similar role is pretty much the same thing as their being there. And finally, since his savvy amounts to stories that have already happened (and quite often at that), the moment the story veers into novel territory he gets lost quickly; Elan realizes this and just dumps him behind as the Big Bad Wannabe he is as a form of defeat, which leaves him stranded in a story where he no longer has any idea what's going to happen next, a prospect he finds terrifying.
- Minister Malack deconstructs Friendly Enemy. He does not see why he and Durkon cannot remain friends despite what he views to be perfectly fine compromises, which Durkon (a Lawful Good Cleric) sees as unacceptable terms due to Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. Eventually, he relents that they are at an impasse, and attacks Durkon fully, though with some remorse, and kills and vampirizes him.
- An arc of Haley's is a deconstruction of The Unintelligible. Haley's inability to communicate properly with her team is a genuine hindrance and almost leads to a situation where a bad guy frames her and she can't defend herself since no one understands what she's saying. The disability is easily taken advantage of in general.
- Two of Vaarsuvius' major traits (their prideful personality and their status as an Insufferable Genius) get deconstructed when their pride keeps them from asking for help from the rest of the Order of the Stick, leading to Vaarsuvius making a very bad Deal with the Devil and pursuing certain foes on their own. Vaarsuvius' usually reticent nature means that the rest of the team don't even know something's wrong after V returns until they own up to their actions, despite the readers seeing Vaarsuvius crippled with guilt for most of an arc. In addition, Vaarsuvius' pride gives them a very strained relationship with Blackwing, their familiar. (Though eventually, they do manage to patch their relationship up.) Furthermore, V's action hinders the Order even more when their Familicide on the black dragon that threatened their family led to the deaths of the Draketooth clan as well as the deaths of hundreds of innocents (due to them being related to the Draketooth clan.) It leads to V being out of commission for a while. Lastly, the Deal with the Devil ends up being the last straw for Inkyrius, which leads to them filing for divorce because of V placing their studies and pursuit of arcane power over their family. V lets the divorce happen despite wanting to beg for forgiveness to spare them from further danger. Later on, V is shown longing for their ex-spouse and no doubt is lamenting their actions.
- Tsukiko deconstructs Thinks Like a Romance Novel. While initially her power is enough to get by on Team Evil, her fundamental misunderstanding of what the Undead really are in their universe means she is defeated by a simple clerical spell taking control of her wights from her which she protests to her death as she honestly thinks they have enough free will to resist their new commands thanks to The Power of Love which they do not. She also sees herself as Xykon's Love Interest and thus more important than Redcloak, which also leads to her downfall (though Redcloak does also play up the role of subservient lackey for his purposes).
- Redcloak is a deconstructed Anti-Villain and Determinator. For most of his life, ever since his village was destroyed and family slaughtered by humans, he's been carrying out his Evil god's Plan to give goblinoids an equal standing among sentient races and improve their lives. To that end, he has refused to settle down and live a quiet life in a peaceful goblin village, remains in service to Xykon despite the latter's tendency to kill his own minions for fun because he needs an Arcane spellcaster, and has allowed countless goblins to die or even killed them himself – including his own brother. He's eventually given a chance by Durkon Thundershield to prevent the destruction of the whole world, make peace with the humans of Azure City and ensure the living goblins' safety and prosperity; he rejects the offer, just because it wouldn't be in line with the Plan. Ultimately, his refusal to abandon the Plan stems less from his devotion to the Dark One and more from his unwillingness to admit that all his evil actions and sacrifices so far may have been unnecessary and unjustified.
- Paranatural: Mr. Spender deconstructs The Mentor. Spender's the adult supervisor for the Activity Club, and a very experienced Spectral, but he's also a man with some severe trauma, and every issue seems to add new layers onto how poor of a job he's doing as a mentor: his habit of withholding information leads to Isaac developing a serious grudge against him and later having Isabel and Ed get upset with him later on, his laser-focus on the future means he struggles to help his students with more mundane problems, the advice he can give when it comes to dealing with spirits is usually when the Club's in the middle of fighting said spirits, and the entire reason he started the Activity Club in the first place was partly to ease his own loneliness, something his spirit Lucifer calls him out on. It says a lot that the best moments of genuine mentorship from Spender come about when Hijack, a spirit who is literally three years old, possesses him.
- Rashta from The Remarried Empress is one for a typical otome-game protagonist, being a beautiful, naive, low-birth woman unaccustomed to noble life who captures the heart of royalty. However, the realistic consequences of having anyone like Rashta as a consort, let alone an empress, show throughout the story. She is illiterate, short-sighted, alienating to the nobility, and open to manipulation by others, and she ends up putting Sovieshu and the Eastern Empire in a bad light when she is unable to properly handle the duties and authority expected of an empress.
- Romantically Apocalyptic:
- Snippy gradually deconstructs for the Only Sane Man. Initially, the comic treats him as a classic case of one; he's far more intelligent and rational than Captain and Pilot and is the only person to object to the insanity around him and make reasonable decisions. However, the comic deconstructs this by examining why he would want to be around them in the first place. The answer is that thanks to the apocalypse, there's no one else to hang out with and that Snippy is a deeply damaged, traumatized, and lonely man who has given Captain his Undying Loyalty because he was the first person to ever offer to be his friend. It's also shown that he's only stable compared to them; the second he runs into other, slightly more stable survivors, he immediately comes off as a gibbering loon in comparison, and some of the later arcs imply he suffers from hallucinations.
- Snippy also deconstructs the Butt-Monkey archetype so many comedies use. He always winds up being the butt of the joke and is constantly subject to misfortune, always receiving No Sympathy even from his friends and being subject to all kinds of ridicule and abuse by literally everyone else. The result is that he's become a grumpy, depressed cynic with low self-esteem, and it's hinted he joined a terrorist group just so he could lash out at the world in the past.
- Pilot deconstructs the lovable Cloudcuckoolander Manchild archetype. Pilot's as goofy, eccentric, childish, and prone to odd beliefs as these characters usually are; however, here it's made clear this all stems from him being legitimately insane, and Pilot's eccentricities are a sign of how utterly delusional and detached from reality he is, and it's later revealed that his quirks are the results of severe brain damage. And there are several points where his delusions and eccentricities stop being funny, and become legitimately terrifying and sad.
THE CITY OF THE DEAD IS MY HOME. THE DEAD LIKE TO PLAY GAMES AND TALK TO ME, BUT THEY AREN'T VERY INTERACTIVE, UNLESS PROVOKED. IF YOU LOOK FROM THE CORNER OF YOUR EYE, YOU CAN SEE THEM MOVE.- Captain deconstructs the Wasteland Elder. Zee is the wise, respected leader of a small group of loyal followers… if you ask Captain. In reality, zee is an egotistical buffoon whose grasp on reality is tenuous on a good day and non-existent on a bad day, and zeer followers only stick around because they're either desperate for companionship, or just as insane. Putting that aside, however, Captain is legitimately skilled at surviving the wasteland, but zee is utterly terrible at communicating the information without coming across as a Jerkass or hopelessly insane.
- Sonic the Comic – Online! deconstructs the Designated Hero and Jerk Sue tropes with Sonic. In the original Sonic the Comic, Sonic was a nasty prankster who frequently put down everyone for his amusement while still being the best hope for Mobius to defeat Dr. Robotnik. From the start of this comic, Sonic's friends have clearly reached their threshold for this behavior, and all it took was Grimer leaking Sonic's more morally ambiguous decisions to get all of Mobius to turn against him.
- Sticky Dilly Buns: When she first appears, Ruby could be classed as The Ingenue; she's younger than most of the rest of the main cast, woefully naive (and at least one older figure has taken advantage of this in the past), virginal, and if not immune to sexual innuendo, certainly very bad at handling it. However, she's also petulant, arrogant, and insecure, and her "purity" is treated as both a symptom and a cause of emotional damage. She's also determined to succeed on her terms, and would probably be angry if anyone tried to play Prince Charming for her. Character Development eventually abrades away most of her naivety and some of her petulance, and she takes charge of disposing of her virginity for herself.
- Total Trauma: Seeing as the original show was an All-Stereotype Cast, this comic takes a more realistic approach to their characters and how those archetypes being played up on TV would affect their personal lives.
- For Lindsay, it's the Dumb Blonde. While the trope was played straight on the show, it's shown to harm her as an adult seeking out employment opportunities, as they fear her past as a promiscuous ditzy teenage girl would look bad for their company. She is only seen as more mature after changing her look and renaming herself to escape her old identity. However, her memory issues and general confusion are recontextualized as dissociative problems, which are exacerbated by her newly fragmented identity. Her reputation as Ms. Fanservice and Chris's suggestive comments towards her on the show when she was sixteen are addressed as pedophilia, with this dissociation being part of why it was easy to take advantage of her.
- Heather's reputation as Alpha Bitch is shown to cause her damage. Rather than being idolized for her rude nature and great looks as a teenager, she got tons of hate from both her audience and her peers, which resulted in her developing some serious self-image issues. She's also grown out of this attitude once she's in her twenties and has a better understanding of psychology.
- Izzy's aggressive Cloud Cuckoolander attitude is because she's a Former Child Star who experienced and witnessed a lot of abuse- including on Total Drama itself, which is why she violently rejected Chef's alliance offer.
- Duncan's arc takes a depressing look at what it's like to be a delinquent and spend most of your teen years in prison. He's unable to get a job because of his prison record, and his family is too ashamed to take him back, but he can't go to the homeless shelter or church because they turn away felons, and he has no money for any rehab programs. He ends up despondent and jumps in front of a truck.
- For Lindsay, it's the Dumb Blonde. While the trope was played straight on the show, it's shown to harm her as an adult seeking out employment opportunities, as they fear her past as a promiscuous ditzy teenage girl would look bad for their company. She is only seen as more mature after changing her look and renaming herself to escape her old identity. However, her memory issues and general confusion are recontextualized as dissociative problems, which are exacerbated
- Twisted Kaiju Theater deconstructs the Arch-Enemy through Tyrant. Tyrant's villainous relationship with Shin-Goji is practically a mental disorder and incredibly one-sided as Shin ignores him most of the time. His repeated battles with the Toxic Pirates result in him losing his job, his mooks abandoning him, and getting the crap kicked out of his time and time again. A part of the "Final Invasion" revolves around explaining why Tyrant keeps up with the self-destructive behavior and why he hates Shin so much.
- Unsounded: Quigley is a brutal deconstruction of the Crusading Widow. While he did murder those responsible for killing his wife and recover her life's work, it was on a suicide mission he didn't plan to survive, and while he spends the rest of his life a miserable Death Seeker whose only purpose is trying to preserve her work and son, it turns out no matter how much he now regrets it he's the one who turned her in to authorities out of fear for his own life and of torture, leading to her being killed.
- xkcd deconstructs the "friend-zoned" Dogged Nice Guy character in the strip "Friends", portraying the "nice guy" in question as an emotionally manipulative creep hoping to ingratiate himself into a relationship with the object of his affection by undermining her self-confidence and exploiting her loneliness. And in the end, the character doesn't get the girl precisely because the woman in question realizes how unpleasant he is.
Web Original
- Atop the Fourth Wall:
- The Entity deconstructs the lovecraftian Eldritch Abomination. If, as H. P. Lovecraft posits, the universe is infinite and all beings are insignificant, then the supposedly godlike beings would be the same as the Puny Humans in how little they ultimately matter. When the Entity realizes this, it reacts very poorly. If anything, it has it worse than humanity... its alien and all-consuming nature means that it cannot take any comfort in experiencing new things or in belonging to a community. In the end, all it can do to explore a new possibility for itself is die.
- Holokara serves as one for the Caustic Critic Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist. Many of his more extreme actions, like threatening to kill 90s Kid and Harvey and threatening to blow up Marvel if it didn't undo One More Day would often be Played For Black Comedy by others like The Nostalgia Critic. However, the arc is set from the point of view from the people around him, and it shows how horrifying and unhinged someone who did things like that would actually be. Indeed, Linkara calling out Holokara for how despicable those actions are is the moment where Atop The Fourth Wall slowly but surely stops being an angry reviewer show.
- Campfire Stories:
- Zach's stories often deconstruct the Manchild and Psychopathic Manchild. Zach joined the military to work with firearms and live out a childhood dream. However, his colleagues and superiors regularly proved to have the mental capacity and maturity of teenagers. They were operating all sorts of firearms and other deadly equipment and they treated them like Nerf guns. The superiors bullied soldiers and were insanely petty and spiteful. One soldier got in trouble with the FBI because he pointed a laser-guided missile launcher at an airplane as a joke, "Baloney Bob" had absolutely no personal hygiene, Zach was told by his drill sergeant to teach other soldiers how to use a washer and dryer, also once had to spend days searching for a gun that another soldier had petulantly thrown out of a window during a convoy, soldiers driving military vehicles without seatbelts, and the time where Zach was nearly bitten by a cottonmouth snake during a search for a Raven drone that his superior had used carelessly and crashed. Although a manchild might in theory be fun to be around or to hear stories about, the reality is that this would be a terrifying and stress-inducing experience considering these people have access to firearms and lack the discipline and patience to use them responsibly and respect the laws of basic gun safety. The worst part of it all is that people have died from the collective incompetence and idiocy of the military that was supposed to protect them.
Sometimes military incompetence can be funny! Most of the time it's horrifying.
- Zach also deconstructs the Only Sane Man and The Reliable One. As a Small Arms Repairman, Zach was responsible for fixing the firearms at Fort Polk. Still, some of the guns he was in charge of repairing would not be classed as "small arms" as he had to fix a 155mm howitzer and M242 chaingun, making him realize that he was the only one trained to fix any type of gun in the entire fort. Not only that, he had to fight tooth and nail to get a second opinion because the German doctors and medics seriously considered putting him through chemotherapy as the first option and then considered removing his lymph nodes from his leg as a second option to help him with a medical issue that affected every 2-6 months note . As he recollects his more infuriating stories about the petulant and immature soldiers, his tone of voice can only be described as bitter and resentful for working with idiots who should have known better. He once argued with Acting First Sergeant Bob over how a bullet can only be fired in a straight line, rather than curve in the air like Bob believed. Zach's stories ultimately show what it's really like being the only sane person in a world of insanity - it's deeply infuriating and would leave you massively disillusioned and disenfranchised. Especially since the Veterans Affairs office adamantly refuses to compensate him for all the crap the military put him through, claiming some of the injuries he got were received before enlisting.
- Zach's stories often deconstruct the Manchild and Psychopathic Manchild. Zach joined the military to work with firearms and live out a childhood dream. However, his colleagues and superiors regularly proved to have the mental capacity and maturity of teenagers. They were operating all sorts of firearms and other deadly equipment and they treated them like Nerf guns. The superiors bullied soldiers and were insanely petty and spiteful. One soldier got in trouble with the FBI because he pointed a laser-guided missile launcher at an airplane as a joke, "Baloney Bob" had absolutely no personal hygiene, Zach was told by his drill sergeant to teach other soldiers how to use a washer and dryer, also once had to spend days searching for a gun that another soldier had petulantly thrown out of a window during a convoy, soldiers driving military vehicles without seatbelts, and the time where Zach was nearly bitten by a cottonmouth snake during a search for a Raven drone that his superior had used carelessly and crashed. Although a manchild might in theory be fun to be around or to hear stories about, the reality is that this would be a terrifying and stress-inducing experience considering these people have access to firearms and lack the discipline and patience to use them responsibly and respect the laws of basic gun safety. The worst part of it all is that people have died from the collective incompetence and idiocy of the military that was supposed to protect them.
- Cracked deconstructs Manic Pixie Dream Girl. "The Dark Secret Behind Quirky Romantic Comedies" shows the implications of the trope if taken to a logical conclusion.
- Dream SMP:
- Schlatt deconstructs the Evil Overlord. After being elected as President of L'Manburg, Schlatt immediately banishes Wilbur and Tommy and begins a campaign of imperialism, all the while kicking every dog in sight and abusing his underlings much like a typical Evil Overlord. It's made abundantly clear that Schlatt's behavior shoots him in the foot; by indulging in so much pointless cruelty, his allies either turn on him or keep him around because he's seen as a useful tool. Eventually, even Dream, his sole remaining ally, realizes that Schlatt's too much of a short-sighted fool to actually accomplish any of his objectives and cuts ties with him.
- Dream, meanwhile, deconstructs being a Manipulative Bastard and The Chessmaster. His habit of Playing Both Sides and manipulating the people around him frequently nets him what he wants, but it gradually alienates him from his friends as it becomes clear that the reason he's so comfortable with manipulating people is because he is genuinely unable to see the people around him as anything but tools. By the end of Season 2, he's burned so many bridges that pretty much everyone realizes his true nature and he's imprisoned as punishment; the only reason he's not outright killed is because his knowledge of resurrection makes him too valuable to kill.
- Freeman's Mind deconstructs the Almighty Janitor through Gordon himself. Half-Life canon and Gordon's ramblings about managers imply that he's pretty low in the pecking order at Black Mesa, yet when disaster strikes he's the most competent person around and everyone ends up relying on him. But as the series goes on, Gordon grows increasingly frustrated with how the higher-ups and the G-Man throw him into more dangerous situations with no warning or context out of the expectation he'll survive and solve the problem, and lampshades how he doesn't want to be a One-Man Army but his only options in any given situation are "do everything [himself] or die".
- Hellsing Ultimate Abridged uses its take on Alucard to deconstruct the Jerk Sue. This version of Alucard lacks any sense of true loyalty to Integra and, as a result, can quite literally get away with anything he wants In-Universe. While people will complain, they won't do anything to stop him because nobody can. Integra shows just how infuriating and hate-inspiring such a character would be on several occasions. On the plus side, she does find ways to use his power/capriciousness to her advantage.
- Minecraft Civilization Experiments, and Civilization Experiments in general, deconstruct the idea of Player Versus Player focused players and/or player groups by putting them in settings where player cooperation and societal deveopment is supposed to be key, where their Blood Knight qualities often makes them villains due to their habit of tearing down others' work via their attempts to secure dominance through force:
- This began with Spoke's experiments, where the PvP players would often overpower the players who wanted to build cvilizations peacefully, leading to the destruction of many a base and to the server being constantly at war, leading to a distinct lack of societal development in most locations.
- This continued in the preliminary attempts of MagicGum's civilization experiments, where their presence led to very few early civilizations being able to survive for more than a few hours, as these players would constantly raid them to satisfy their desires for PvP. Even adding a reputation system didn't help, as "people would speedrun to the lowest possible reputations as a badge of honor." It took MagicGum transforming the event to a limited playtime window, Hardcore Mode only, experience to prevent the events from just being slaughterfests that resulted in barely anything of note being built, and even this didn't stop the pro players from dishing out Curb Stomp Battles every few experiments, as showcased by Clownpierce on his channel.
- Ish's State Experiments tend to further deconstuct this by showing the consequences of their actions on the world around them, leaving their victims mourning the loss in the wake of their attacks:
- "200 Players Build MASSIVE Civilizations in Minecraft'' specifically deconstructs them by showcasing how short-sighted a person only out for blood can be, in an event where they can and often will be outnumbered. MagicMikey the only player to attempt to PvP his way to the top of the Jungle civilization, proved to know almost nothing about how to fight a massive horde of people, such that, when he went to attack the main jungle civilization, he retreated instantly down the mountain once he realized how many people were after him, and, when he did single out a target, he proceeded to overestimate how aggressive he should be and rocketed himself down the cliffside to his doom, failing a water clutch along the way. GuardianNova, the other major PvPer in the early parts, only really succeded in angering the desert factions to the point they joined forces to find and kill him, with his only major victory being killing the sultan ST0RMINGHELL during one of his raids.
- Side videos to "200 Players Build MASSIVE Civilizations in Minecraft'' also deconstruct the idea that being a PvPer for a good cause — like the Amazon, one of the desert factions, were — is necessarily a good thing, as they all showcase their sheer brutality, ruthlessness, and tendency to fight for no reason in full force, ruthlessly finishing off the jungle for simply being their enemies and not allowing them to escape, as well as turning on their allies in the Plains Militia for no reason other than to just keep fighting.
- "1000 Players Simulate Civilization, Rich and Poor" especially deconstructs this, as their presence as the Covenant's main military force not only makes them one of the most feared civilizations on the planet, but also makes their civilization a Wild Card whose actions are as destructive as they are protective. They initially join up with the Island One coalition, but the coalition was hesitant to approach them in the first place due to their ruthless reputation, while their strong-arming of Queen cynnika of Infernus into giving mining rights to the volcano not only makes people more terrified of them, but helps ratchet up the tensions of Island One. When these tensions lead to the Lingulini Mafia fleeing Island One to avoid having cynnika get rid of them for disclosing the netherite in the volcano without their permission, cynnika sends in the Covenant to anihilate them, causing so much brutality that many people on both islands condemn them and attempt to bring them to trial. When the trial fails and they all retreat to the Infernus castle, virtually the entire world is at their throats, forcing cynnika to bring on Fluixon, the main antagonist to Island Two and former Island One fearmongerer, and the Commonwealth, an Island Two nation on the decline, to their side in order to stand a chance, and even then, this only suceeds in making the world even angrier at them. While the Covenant is strong and coordinated enough to kill half the attackers by themselves, the attackers were still too numerous and they were forced to flee for their lives for the rest of the experiment, with several dying along the way, firmly breaking their influence in the world. In addition, the massive amount of casulties only serves to make the world emptier and sadder in the wake of the Final Battle, firmly cementing them as villanous in the eyes of the world.
- Supplemental videos to "1000 Players Simulate Civilization, Rich and Poor" further deconstruct this, showcasing that the Covenant's eagerness to fight leads to them commiting atrocities in the name of their cause, like attacking and destroying the peace zone set up by the various peacekeeping factions in the event simply because they don't care who they are supposed to be fighting, which negatively impacts virtually every single perspective that was based there, especially the Canadian Cartel. The Canadian Cartel's perspective further deconstructs this, as the only one of their members obsessed with PvP, SadNeptune0, only got this way because he was Driven to Madness by being aggravated by many slights dealt to the Cartel over the course of the event, leading to him suicidally charging in at the front of the coalition army against Infernus, being swiftly cut down by the defending forces.
- These videos also continue to deconstruct the idea of using PvP skills to good ends, as the main faction that does this, the Southern Alliance, that was left out of the main video, also partook in the massacre of the peace zone, mostly because their attempts to persecute their goal of ensuring the independence of the southernmost island in the Island Two archipelago led to them not caring about who to kill, so long as they weren't their allies. This led to them causing large amounts of friendly fire both throughout their team and their enemies, as well as making sure that the majority of the server hated their guts afterwards, forcing them to go into relative exile, winning their independence at the cost of diplomatic isolation.
- The Nostalgia Critic deconstructs the Hate Sink through D-Bag. He's so easy to hate, and actually begs people to hate him, but Critic finds it so pointless to hate him because it takes more effort to be kind and find ways to relate to someone else.
- The SCP Foundation is full of examples of this. The particular character type that seems to get deconstructed the most is the Reality Warper and other closely related tropes.
- SCP-239 had to be put permanently into a coma because of problems her unconscious alteration of reality caused (though she can't fully be blamed since she's a child and Dr. Clef's suspicion of her ended up sparking the trouble in the first place.) SCP-76-2, an overpowered Blood Knight, got sealed away because the Foundation could not provide him with enough enemies to kill to keep him satisfied. SCP-056, a shapeshifter who turns into a better version of anything that looks at him is an Insufferable Genius that everybody hates. 531-D an extremely destructive Reality Warper who could only keep his powers under control while happy ended up abusing this fact to force women to have sex with him and was killed by Dr. Clef. Several other Reality Warper SCPs were also killed because they were too dangerous to keep around and not interesting enough to justify keeping them alive For Science!. One of the few Reality Warper SCPs who didn't get officially deconstructed is SCP-343, who refuses to do anything helpful but is otherwise cooperative enough to be classified as Safe. The Author Avatar responsible for killing these people have also been deconstructed in several tales, partly because they started to become too OP like themselves. All other characters with such traits that are not deconstructions are either Parody Sues, or have some other trait that cancels out their broken Traits, or otherwise are well written well enough to not be accused of being one.
- There is also a collection of tales called the lolFoundation canon. It is an alternate reality where several workers of the Foundation gained reality warping powers but now see the world Through the Eyes of Madness. From their perspective, they are all too OP and everything is awesome and funny and nothing really bad ever happens, but in reality, they are unable to perceive any consequences of their actions, and those people who can properly perceive reality see them as a Mad God squad. When Dr. Clef realized what was going on, but was unable to do anything about it, being a poorly written character became And I Must Scream for him.
- SCP-6747, which is set in a different universe from lolFoundation, later implies that the entire lolFoundation universe itself is the Ironic Hell of an alternate Dr. King, who himself is a deconstruction of the Butt-Monkey. Having been subject to a Running Gag involving apple seeds for decades, he snaps the instant he is given a chance at greater power and importance out of repressed anger over his situation. (Or in literary terms, he gained Character Development despite being framed as a Flat Character, and his ascent finally gives him an opportunity to take it out on someone. Viewing it this way is vital to the plot of the SCP revealing the above.)
- Super Mario 64: CLASSIFIED deconstructs the Digital Abomination villain archetype from gaming Creepypastas. Stanley, the personalization AI (or "automatic enhancer") has the human intelligence, powers, and disturbing appearance of a typical villain, and was seemingly created for evil. However, the series shows that his malicious programming does not immediately translate to a malicious being, as a lot of his harmful actions are due to manipulations by an unknown Greater-Scope Villain and Power Incontinence, and underneath that shell is a burning hatred... directed at his creators who are delusional at best and misanthropic at worst. It's implied the self-conflict, guilt, and pain has turned him suicidal, and rather than being a generic Obviously Evil AI, he's a well-meaning person that wants to save everyone but will end up having to hurt innocents no matter what he does. Though the series ending reveals that at no point was Stanley in danger of being released to the world, thus subverting the alleged existence of the previously-mentioned conflict, it drops another separate deconstruction: self-aware AI represents a massive headache of ethical quandaries, and while gaming Creepypastas tend to have them be created willy-nilly in retro games without much consideration for this, CLASSIFIED reveals Jim (the alleged villain mentioned above) did acknowledge and object to this. As a result, he actually took as much of Stanley's data as possible and got the hell out of Nintendo, and the series only lasts as long as it does because numerous factors led him to inadvertently prolong Stanley's suffering alone with him; a communication failure and brain damage are involved.
