History Main / DeconstructedCharacterArchetype

* ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Charlie is a deconstruction of the PrincessClassic. She fits almost every trope of the average Franchise/DisneyPrincess, being an AllLovingHero who's a FriendToAllLivingThings that often breaks into saccharine music numbers. In your standard Disney setting, this attitude would make her a well-respected, UniversallyBelovedLeader. However, her domain is Hell, which is a hedonistic, ultra-violent CrapsackWorld. As a result, her royal status doesn't mean much when none of the citizens are willing to so much as give her the time of day, and the sheer horribleness of the environment means that most of the denizens see her determined altruism as [[WideEyedIdealist hopelessly naive]] at best and [[StupidGood dangerous]] at worst.

** Belkar Bitterleaf deconstructs TokenEvilTeammate. The rest of the team explicitly does not like him (minus Elan, though he likes everyone in general) and only keeps 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 over viability. His antics often bite them in the asses due to his main skill being AttackAttackAttack and his short temper and lack of problem with killing get him saddled with a curse. He's finally ''forced'' to change or die, at which point 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 [[spoiler:the vampirized Durkon not being the same as their friend]] and people assume [[spoiler:his trying to kill the vampire]] is just him being an asshole as always, instead of trying to stop a bad guy.

** Sou Hiyori deconstructs the "antagonistic WildCard rival" akin to [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Byakuya Togami]] and [[VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward Dio]]: he's unwilling to trust others and gleefully mocks those about to die, but this results in [[TheFriendNobodyLikes everyone hating his guts]] except for [[OnlyFriend Kanna]]. To twist the knife, [[spoiler:AI simulations reveal that this sort of behavior has (and if the player lets it, will) resulted in his own death, to the point that the DeadlyGame's organisers have written him off with [[DeadManWalking a survival chance of 0.0%]].]]

** Kirei Kotomine is this for the CardCarryingVillain. 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. [[spoiler: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 DespairEventHorizon 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 its the only thing that can bring him joy.]]

* ''WebAnimation/PokemonRusty'': The eponymous Rusty is a deconstruction of the player character in the video games. Even ignoring his endless stupidity and ego, Rusty is a child with next to no information on Pokémon: this means he doesn't know how types work, what types are real, how HM moves work and what's compatible or not with which Pokémon, or that they're living creatures that can be hurt and don't enjoy being treated as slaves that get killed off by his negligence. In addition, Rusty effectively ran away from home, since his parents forbade him from becoming a Pokémon trainer, meaning he sleeps in the woods and eats out of garbage cans to survive since he makes no money, which is partially due to never winning any matches.

** 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 BloodKnight, 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 InsufferableGenius that everybody hates. 532-D an extremely destructive RealityWarper 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 RealityWarper [=SCPs=] were also killed because they were too dangerous to keep around and not interesting enough to justify keeping them alive ForScience. One of the few RealityWarper [=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 AuthorAvatar responsible for killing these people have also been deconstructed in several tales, partly because they started to [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become too OP like themselves.]] All other characters with such traits that are not deconstructions are either [[ParodySue 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.

* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'' deconstructs the WackyParentSeriousChild dynamic through Martin and Molly, respectively; Martin's childish personality makes him a very irresponsible parent (and is implied to be a result of being in denial over his wife's death) and an even worse businessman. As a result, Molly, who's ''thirteen'', is the only one willing to try and keep the family toy store afloat, which is taking a toll on her grades and sleep schedule.

* The Entity from WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall deconstructs the [[CosmicHorrorStory lovecraftian]] EldritchAbomination. If, as Creator/HPLovecraft posits, the universe is infinite and all beings are insignificant, then the supposedly godlike beings would be the same as the PunyHumans 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 [[DrivenToSuicide die]].
* ''WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged'' uses its take on Alucard to deconstruct the JerkSue. 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 InUniverse. 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

** Saber is this for TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask and FailureKnight. [[spoiler: She is a gender-bent Myth/KingArthur, 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.]]

* Recently, Flo from Advertising/{{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, 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.

** [[TheUnchosenOne Ruby Rose]] deconstructs TheParagon. [[BigGood Ozpin]] warns [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] in Volume 5 that possessing an unquantifiable spark to inspire others even in the darkest times is a terrible burden to carry. In the Atlas Arc, her idealistic resolve increasingly struggles with the reality of their fight: she collapses in tears when Salem uses her MissingMom to counter her belief they can stop her. She's also briefly shattered by the discovery of why Salem wants Silver-Eyed Warriors captured alive. After learning in Volume 9 that her enormous effort to save someone's life has failed, she becomes increasingly withdrawn and despairing. When her past self throws her original determination to be the hero everyone relies on to save the day back in her face, it's clear she's put everyone else first for so long that she has no idea how to help herself; as the burden increasingly destroys her from within, she becomes increasingly unable to help others the way she originally wanted to.

** [[TheUnchosenOne Ruby Rose]] deconstructs TheParagon. [[BigGood Ozpin]] warns [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar]] in Volume 5 that possessing an unquantifiable spark to inspire others even in the darkest times is a terrible burden to carry. In the Atlas Arc, her idealistic resolve increasingly struggles with the reality of their fight: she collapses in tears when Salem counters her belief they can stop her, stating that her MissingMom failed after making the same declaration. She's also briefly shattered by the discovery of why Salem wants Silver-Eyed Warriors captured alive. After learning in Volume 9 that her enormous effort to save someone's life has failed, she becomes increasingly withdrawn and despairing. When her past self throws her original determination to be the hero everyone relies on to save the day back in her face, it's clear she's put everyone else first for so long that she has no idea how to help herself; as the burden increasingly destroys her from within, she becomes increasingly unable to help others the way she originally wanted to.

** [[CoolUncle Qrow Branwen]] deconstructs the RebelliousSpirit archetype; he puts up a front of being a cool, lone badass, who defies rules and social norms, but [[HatesBeingAlone the truth]] is that he does not actually want to be alone and having it [[TheJinx enforced on him]] has ruined his mental and emotional health. He brags a lot about his skills but in private he's full of self-loathing and struggles to believe that he's worth anything, is very [[UndyingLoyalty dependent on Ozpin]] because Ozpin made him feel wanted, and his drinking becomes less of a [[FunctionalAddict running joke]] and more a sign of [[AddledAddict severe addiction]]. He starts trying to pulling himself back together in Volume 7, after becoming TheLoad in Volume 6.

** [[CoolUncle Qrow Branwen]] deconstructs the RebelliousSpirit archetype; he puts up a front of being a cool, lone badass, who defies rules and social norms, but [[HatesBeingAlone the truth]] is that he does not actually want to be alone and having it [[TheJinx enforced on him]] has ruined his mental and emotional health. He brags a lot about his skills but in private he's full of self-loathing and struggles to believe that he's worth anything, is very [[UndyingLoyalty dependent on Ozpin]] because Ozpin made him feel wanted, and his drinking becomes less of a [[FunctionalAddict running joke]] and more a sign of [[AddledAddict severe addiction]].

** Jaune deconstructs the LoserArchetype: ButtMonkey. Introduced as the travel sick boy who can't remember where his locker is, he embarrasses himself trying to woo Weiss, has to be rescued during Initiation because he doesn't know what he's doing, and it's all played for comedy until Cardin's bullying reveals the AwfulTruth. Jaune loathes the "loveable idiot" label, wants to live up to his famous ancestors as a protector of the people, but even his own parents didn't believe in him. His journey shows how being "comic relief" can shatter confidence, hopes and dreams. Once he starts accepting help from others, he turns his life around because he's determined to better himself no matter what.

** Qrow deconstructs the RebelliousSpirit archetype; he puts up a front of being a cool, lone badass, who defies rules and social norms, but [[HatesBeingAlone the truth]] is that he does not actually want to be alone and having it [[TheJinx enforced on him]] has ruined his mental and emotional health. He brags a lot about his skills but in private he's full of self-loathing and struggles to believe that he's worth anything, is very [[UndyingLoyalty dependent on Ozpin]] because Ozpin made him feel wanted, and his drinking becomes less of a [[FunctionalAddict running joke]] and more a sign of [[AddledAddict severe addiction]].

* ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Charlie is a deconstruction of the PrincessClassic. She fits almost every trope of the average Franchise/DisneyPrincess, being an AllLovingHero who's a FriendToAllLivingThings that often breaks into saccharine music numbers. In your standard Disney setting, this attitude would net her HundredPercentAdorationRating and a lot of respect. However, her domain is Hell, which is a hedonistic, ultra-violent CrapsackWorld. As a result, her royal status doesn't mean much when none of the citizens are willing to so much as give her the time of day, and the sheer horribleness of the environment means that most of the denizens see her determined altruism as [[WideEyedIdealist hopelessly naive]] at best and [[StupidGood dangerous]] at worst.

* {{TabletopGame/Shadowrun}}: Harlequin is an excellent deconstruction of both the TricksterMentor and the OmniscientMoralityLicense. Harlequin is one of the greatest forces for good in the setting, and instrumental in keeping the world from being eaten by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. 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 youn 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 that want to work with Harlequin a second time can be counted on a retired fan repairman's right hand with fingers left over.

* ''WebVideo/SuperMario64CLASSIFIED'' deconstructs the DigitalAbomination villain archetype from gaming {{Creepypasta}}s. Stanley, the personalization AI (or "[[InsistentTerminology 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 GreaterScopeVillain and PowerIncontinence, 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 ObviouslyEvil AI, [[AntiVillain he's a well-meaning person that wants to save everyone but will end up having to hurt innocents no matter what he does]]. [[spoiler: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 {{Creepypasta}}s tend to have them be created willy-nilly in retro games without much consideration for this, ''CLASSIFIED'' reveals Jim ([[GoodAllAlong the alleged villain mentioned above]]) ''did'' [[EveryoneHasStandards 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 [[PoorCommunicationKill communication failure]] and [[SanitySlippage brain damage]] are involved]].

* ''WebVideo/SuperMario64CLASSIFIED'' deconstructs the DigitalAbomination villain archetype from gaming {{Creepypasta}}s. Stanley, the personalization AI (or "[[InsistentTerminology 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 GreaterScopeVillain and PowerIncontinence, 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 ObviouslyEvil AI, [[AntiVillain he's a well-meaning person that wants to save everyone but will end up having to hurt innocents no matter what he does]].

** Ironwood deconstructs the idea of ProtagonistCenteredMorality; Ironwood frequently believes that since he's fighting to defeat the BigBad, every act he does is justified, no matter how immoral it might be. But he also tries to make other people live up to standards he won't follow himself, and his MoralMyopia destroys all of his positive relationships. Soon, his decisions down-spiral from wrong ethically to flat out impractical and self-defeating, but he refuses to recant or take responsibility, because he won't accept he's done anything wrong.

* Ironwood deconstructs the idea of ProtagonistCenteredMorality; Ironwood frequently believes that since he's fighting to defeat the BigBad, every act he does is justified, no matter how immoral it might be. But he also tries to make other people live up to standards he won't follow himself, and his MoralMyopia destroys all of his positive relationships. Soon, his decisions down-spiral from wrong ethically to flat out impractical and self-defeating, but he refuses to recant or take responsibility, because he won't accept he's done anything wrong.

** ''DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/TotalDrama''

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' is full of examples of this. The particular character type that seems to get deconstructed the most is the RealityWarper and other closely related tropes.