History Main / DeconstructioN

* UnbuiltTrope: For when the trope (or genre, or character) was deconstructed [[TropeMakers at the time it was made]].

* While much of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is indeed based around CoolVsAwesome armies fighting in fantastically improbable situations, there's more than a few sources that depict the 40k universe in a deconstructed manner. For example, the short-story "What It's Like." deconstructs the ChaoticEvil AxCrazy Chaos Space Marines, generally seen as [[HarmlessVillain trigger-happy, moustache-twirling villains]] OOT, by explaining just how relentless and brutal each Marine has to be to not be stabbed in the back and left to be [[NightmareFuel chewed on by Daemons for eternity]], showing just how tragic these villains really are. Other works like "The Last Church" deconstruct the ideals and motives behind [[DarkMessiah The Emperor of Mankind]]'s actions, who is generally thought to be the best, last hope for humanity, and shows just how [[EvilIsPetty petty]], [[FlatEarthAtheist ignorant]], and ultimately [[ItsAllAboutMe egocentric]] he was.

!!Examples:
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* The HardWorkFallacy deconstructs EquivalentExchange: No matter how hard you work for something, there's no guarantee you'll get it.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: A character will use a personal tragedy to justify his or her immoral behavior, only to have their argument torn apart.

* ''Machinima/SmashKing'' has this as a heavy Overarching Theme of the series, such as the main protagonist who is widely renowned as a villain (Bowser) as despite his reputation, he desires something other than a life of villainy. One even more notable example that this trope especially works well on is [[spoiler: Link, on how the pressure of being a designated hero can really turn for the worse.]] With Link it also works as a subtle Take That! to the other Machinima cliches, particularly how Link's ALWAYS the hero, ALWAYS saves Zelda, and ALWAYS beats Ganondorf.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' is a deconstruction of fantasy elements applied in a positive way. Characters go through trouble, the world is in danger every day, and very few people have good values.
* The ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Pulling Double Booty" has a rather humorous exaggeration of TeensAreMonsters trope by having Hayley go on a destructive UnstoppableRage. However, people react to it by fleeing the mall as if there was a crazed gunman on the loose, there is a considerable amount of property damage and several people end up getting killed. It's gotten to the point where the police gave Stan an ultimatum: one more rampage and she goes to jail forever.
* The series finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' "Bye Bye Beavers" was never filmed because it broke two of Nickelodeon's rules. One being that a show doesn't acknowledge an episode is the last episode, so kids keep watching and hoping for new episodes, and the other rule being a show doesn't break the fourth wall. "Bye Bye Beavers" did both. However, a recording of the actors reading the script exists online. This episode, even only as an audio, is one of the most unique deconstructions ever made. It starts off somewhat normal, with Norbert explaining to Daggett that they're fictional characters in a cartoon, that has just been cancelled. The insanity begins when you hear the voice actors laughing as they're reading their lines, and then having a conversation. Norbert and Daggett are talking to each other about how their lives are just a show, joking about common tropes in cartoons, while each character's voice actors are talking to each other about other shows and their future plans. This doesn't just break the fourth wall, it completely deconstructs the show in a bizarre meta way.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': You would think that a series that is founded on the ReadingIsCoolAesop would support programs on the vein of [[http://www.bookadventure.com/Home.aspx Book Adventure]]. However, S16's "Buster's Book Battle" points out serious flaws: [[spoiler:the program is not guaranteed to have listings on "the classics" or books children actually ''want'' to read; the prizes might be lackluster; the participants would try to "game" the system: most importantly, [[BrokenAesop the program would not teach people to read for the fun/utility of reading itself, instead reading just to earn prizes.]]]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': The show illustrates the toll being Batman has taken on Bruce's personal life. Because Bruce's dedication to fighting crime meant virtually forsaking his personal life, by the time he reaches old age he has become a bitter and lonely old man. All of his friends and allies are either dead or resent him so much that they want nothing to do with him, and none of his romantic prospects resulted in anything lasting. Before Terry came along, his only source of companionship was a dog. Bruce's actions may have served a greater good, but this shows that being Batman does come at a price.
** The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Heroes" presented the [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Terrific Trio]], three scientists empowered by a FreakLabAccident. Their transformations made it impossible for any of them to live normal lives -- worse, it turned out that their conditions were slowly killing them. One or both of these factors drove them insane to the point where Batman had to stop them from destroying the city.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode, "The Frond Files", a deconstruction of DesignatedVillain appears when in each of [[AnimatedAnthology the Belcher kid's written essays,]] [[AffectionateParody (a]] ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' parody, [[TheEighties a parody of 80's High School movies]] [[AffectionateParody and a parody of]] ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' [[note]]although in the last story he's just a HateSink, which Bob lampshades[[/note]]), Mr. Frond is the villain [[JerkassWoobie and he then breaks into tears over how much he thinks the kids hate him.]]
* To an extent, Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' can be considered as a deconstruction of the show's concept of WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld by showing us the long term consequences of a bunch of kids trying to prevent a highly intelligent AI from taking over the world while keeping a normal life. The result? Their grades start dropping due to the time taken from them by XANA's attack, XANA actually outsmarts them and ends the season with TeamRocketWins, gradually destroying their virtual world in the process, and their attempt to get a new recruit ends up creating a SixthRangerTraitor. Even the relationships get deconstructed, as, after two seasons of UnresolvedSexualTension, Yumi gets sick of it and decides that Ulrich and she are JustFriends.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': Later seasons make attempts at deconstructing Daria herself, and her attitude towards the world and others, mostly in order to show that, despite her aloof attitude, smarts and conscience, she isn't as above others as she'd like to think, or at least how the viewers were led to think. She is still a teenager who doesn't always know better, is prone to being selfish and undecided, and can be just as bad as her classmates. The SeriesFinale, "Boxing Daria", shows that her antisocial attitude was a challenge for her parents too in her youth. This is reconstructed in several episodes, with the last example in particular re-iterating that though challenging, her parents are still very proud of her intelligence and conscious attitude, and never considered her a burden.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
** Mark Beaks and Waddle are this for BenevolentBoss and laid back culture associated with tech companies. The episode shows that underneath the surface of the cool tech, free swag, and "zany" office features, Beaks and the company are just as cutthroat and unethical as the more old fashioned big corporations that they reject and make fun of and only care about the bottom line.
** Louie Duck has been known throughout Season 1 as a [[TheSlacker lazy]], [[{{Greed}} greedy]], [[LovableCoward cowardly]] liar who sometimes puts his own lazy and greedy tendencies ahead of others in spite of the serious implications. The premiere of Season 2 shows him struggling to keep up with the others who have special applicable skills while his special talent is "talking his way out of it" and becomes afraid that will soon not be enough.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'':
** The episode "1 + 1 = Ed" is a deconstruction of how cartoons work, similar to ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck''.
** TheMovie shows some of the characters in a more complex light. For example, [[spoiler:Eddy is probably the most flawed character in the series, having an inferiority complex caused by his brother]]. Overall the movie plays things a bit more realistically than the rest of the series, though the film also puts a lot of emphasis on comedy and the relations between the characters.
** The climax of TheMovie gives us a pretty disturbing deconstruction of AmusingInjuries. First it's deconstructed with the injuries all the kids had, which were horrifying, and rightly so. Second, with [[spoiler:Eddy's brother's beatings on]] Eddy having resulted in his inferiority complex and jerkassery. It wasn't rare for the cul-de-sac kids to pick on the Eds, but they were the same age and had more or less comparable chances. [[spoiler:Eddy's brother is definitely older and physically stronger than Eddy. The cruel way he beats him up just because he asked for protection from the enraged neighborhood kids revolts even [[EvenEvilHasStandards Sarah and the Kankers]]. Now we know why Eddy can [[FridgeHorror take so much punishment]]...]]
** The movie in general deconstructs many parts of the series. For example, Eddy's {{Flanderization}} into a {{Jerkass}} is deconstructed in that both his friends and neighbors are actually ''reacting'' to it, while most of time the Eds do something to deserve whatever they got, and even then the kids left them off the hook. Not this time, the kids now actually want to ''kill'' them (perhaps literally because of how hellbent they were to find them).
** It deconstructs the nature of Eddy's scams as well. There was only so much the cul-de-sac kids could take, and only so much the Eds could do before, in Edd's words, they "went too far."
** It also deconstructs, and reconstructs the WithFriendsLikeThese trope. Because of the poor decisions that Eddy makes in this movie, it makes Edd question his friendship with Eddy. Eddy (and Ed) finally cross the line when [[spoiler:they play a DudeNotFunny joke by pretending to drown. Edd and Eddy get into a fight and after Edd throws Eddy off of him, he snaps and says that he would rather face the consequences of his actions, than to hang around with a "so-called friend," thus ending his friendship with Eddy. Eddy ends up feeling remorse for his actions and cries. Edd ends up forgiving Eddy and they both reconcile.]]
** Eddy's reason for [[TookALevelInJerkass becoming such a jerk]] is deconstructed as well. [[spoiler:At a young age, he was abused severely by his brother, giving him a cynical view in life and believed that being an asshole is the best way to be cool (considering that even ''Rolf'' was utterly scared of the guy, that might be understandable).]]
* ''Toys/EverAfterHigh'' lovingly pokes fun at the horrible implications of the fairy tale universe while being [[AffectionateParody very upbeat and cheery about it]].
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''
** One episode does a [[CrossesTheLineTwice particularly nasty]] deconstruction of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and its AmusingInjuries, wherein Elmer Fudd is out "hunting wabbits", shoots Bugs Bunny four times in the stomach, snaps his neck amidst cries of pain, and then drags him off leaving behind a trail of blood.
** In another episode where Peter and friends became Series/TheATeam, the show's "amusing injuries" are discussed as actually life-threatening.
** The second ChristmasEpisode deconstructs SantaClaus in a similarly horrific fashion.
** Meg could be considered a deconstruction of ButtMonkey-type characters, as she shows how much of a psychological wreck one would probably be in real life.
*** The episode "Seahorse Seashell Party" was a complete deconstruction in Meg's abuse.
** In "I Take Thee Quagmire" Peter tries to get Quagmire out of a wedding by reminding him of his lustful nature, so Peter brings him the Statue of Liberty's foot. When Quagmire politely refuses, Peter rants about how difficult this stunt really was:
--->'''Peter:''' Hey, hey. Do you have any idea what I went through to get this? (Angry tone) A lot. A real lot. You think this is just, "oh here comes Peter with the Statue of Liberty’s foot. Oh isn't that just a gas." No. No. The reality, the real reality, of getting this together was staggering. You know, this cost me $437,000. Don't ask me how I got it. I had to call in a whole bunch of favors from people I've never even met. So the very least you can do is just rub up against... (putting his hands up in defeat) I don’t know.
** Some episodes will deconstruct the cast's CharacterDerailment with somebody calling them out for it or react negatively.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' TV special ''Flintstones on the Rocks'' deconstructed Fred and Wilma's relationship with each other from the original series. While Fred and Wilma would normally be seen bickering with each other from time to time in the original series, this special showed how their bickering led to them having problems with their marriage, with it going as far as to show Fred and Wilma attending couples therapy at the beginning of the special.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Arguably for shows like ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''. For in those shows, there is a memorable/colorful cast of characters, all with their own personality quirks. While that is present here in Hey Arnold, the quirks and traits that make the characters more or less memorable, are usually the result of some hidden neurosis, or psychosis. Some characters have even received therapy for said problems; only to regress to their former problematic ways at the story's end.
** Ironically, this receives the same treatment in "Deconstructing Arnold". Helga starts the episode by calling out on Arnold that he is too much of a NiceGuy that ruins fun for everyone but the problem is that Helga's only good at this because she is a JerkAss and merely uses this method to bully him. What results is a short life without Arnold who '''IS''' the only one who kept everything in order and that includes the school. Once he stops helping his friends, they began to suffer from their foolishness. The kids then turn to Helga for help but she lacked the wisdom and any sort of social skills(minus Phoebe) Arnold has causing the problems to grew even worse such as Curly humiliating Rhonda, Sid losing his friendship with Lorenzo and Harold and Stinky injuring Eugene. She even lampshades how much of a terrible person she is. Who are the kids going to hate more? Arnold or the UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom.
** "Helga On The Couch" wound up being one for Helga's HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood. Before, scenes of Helga's home life were used as gags to counterbalance her {{Jerkass}} behavior. However, the episode re-contextualized how a life of living with ParentalNeglect and being the {{Unfavorite}} directly contributed to how she interacts with her peers, especially [[CannotSpitItOut Arnold]].
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyGoodLookin'' by Creator/RalphBakshi (who else) is one big Deconstruction and TakeThat against anyone who believes that the [=1950s=] were really just like ''Film/{{Grease}}'' or ''Series/HappyDays''. The main character is ostensibly as cool as The Fonz but actually a DirtyCoward who can't back up his bragging, the PluckyComicRelief is actually a racist sociopath, their gang aren't really TrueCompanions despite looking like one, the supposed BigBad never [[MindScrew explictly]] does anything really bad and the ending's BrokenAesop is intentional about the [[SatelliteLoveInterest "romance"]] between the main character and Rozzie.
* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'' offers an interesting take on the teenage superhero genre in the fact the hero really couldn't care any less about school or fitting in, claiming it's a waste of time and instead stating that his work as a hero is more important. He then proceeds to cheat on his tests and homework in order to pass, since him being a hero gives him the latitude to do so, and high school is meaningless and doesn't matter once you graduate.
* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' deconstructs the [[ThereAreNoAdults "no parents would be great"]] trope by having difficulties pop up the very next day. A girl gets injured, everyone gets chronically lonely, and people get sick from eating nothing but bad food.
* One element of the episode "Epilogue" from ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' can be taken as a DoNotDoThisCoolThing look at the life of Bruce Wayne, who was so dedicated to being Batman that he ultimately ended up alone and bitter, having alienated all his friends and loved ones.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' Repeatedly deconstructs the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender The original series]], especially with its morally ambiguous villains and scenarios versus the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, bringing balance to the world is not as simple this time around as defeating the EvilOverlord who wants to TakeOverTheWorld (not that ''that'' was ever easy either). Basically, it's a deconstruction of any action show in general.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' director Creator/ChuckJones often used deconstruction on his cartoons. The best known example is ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'': First the scenery changes, forcing Daffy to adapt. Then Daffy himself is erased and redrawn. Then the soundtrack fails, then the film frame, and so on until Daffy is psychologically picked clean. Another example is ''WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc'', which takes the base elements of a typical Bugs Bunny cartoon and reassembles them as a Wagnerian opera. (Conversely, you could also say that it takes the base elements of Wagnerian opera and reassembles them as a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)
* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'': It's not clear if it was intentional, since the toys they were based on were unafraid of being scary and graphic as well, but this cartoon viciously deconstructs nearly every aspect of Saturday morning cartoons:
** The KidHero is not even remotely prepared for being a hero and the only reason he is one is because Skull Master arose sooner than he was supposed to, which meant that Norman couldn't wait for Max to grow up. He also expresses a strong desire to not be the hero, completely averting JumpedAtTheCall.
** The ''He-Man''-esque Norman is a SociopathicHero who has zero problems with killing villains.
** The DumbBlonde is so incompetent that she's TheLoad and nearly [[LethallyStupid gets herself killed]].
** NeverSayDie, ImprobableInfantSurvival, and NoEndorHolocaust are ''completely'' averted, with numerous characters being killed off. The heroes themselves kill off a good number of villains and mooks.
** The BigBad is a borderline EldritchAbomination who is most definitely ''not'' a HarmlessVillain. [[spoiler: In the end, Max isn't even able to defeat him; he has to hit a ResetButton to prevent Skull Master from winning.]]
** The InvincibleHero gets this treatment. Max discovers that the villains in the series gradually become more and more dangerous so he had to rely on quick thinking to achieve victory and most of the time he barely survives the adventures he is in. There is also him gradually losing allies during his quest to defeat Skullmaster and he had to resort in pulling an enemy mine scenario just to stand even the slightest chance against him. Even with that he'd never get a true victory against Skullmaster.
** The series tears apart all aspects of the heroic adventures the KidHero usually go on in Saturday Morning Cartoon Shows. For starters the villains are far from incompetent and have no qualms in killing Max. There have been several episodes where Max's only option would be to run for his life than to fight off a MonsterOfTheWeek. Then you have Max seeing all kinds of horrors that no normal kid should see.
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' deconstructs TheMoralSubstitute but presenting a culture where ''all media'' is Christian fundamentalist propaganda, and showing just how messed up and disturbing it would be.
** By the third and final season the show starts deconstructing ''itself'', as the show (for the most part) stops all pretense of being a comedy and starts examining all of its {{Straw Character}}s and what made them such deeply dysfunctional people, with some characters either bettering themselves by the end of the series or (in the case of Orel's parents - ''especially'' Clay) simply continuing to wallow in their misery and become irredeemable.
* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'''s second season, "Lesson Zero", deconstructs the OnceAnEpisode [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle lesson-learning]] nature of [[EdutainmentShow the show]]. Twilight Sparkle realizes that she hasn't learned a lesson this week, and she only has a day left to write her weekly "friendship report" to Princess Celestia. After futile attempts to find some problem to solve, she ends up [[SanitySlippage cracking under the pressure]] and creating a ConflictBall for her to resolve, which quickly escalates beyond her control.
* "It's Oppo", a student film made by Cal Arts student Tyler Chen, deconstructs Creator/NickJr, as well as preschool television programs and morally unscrupulous media companies in general. Watch the (NSFW) video [[http://vimeo.com/11573607 here.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': ''The Owl House'' takes a sledgehammer to tropes associated with portal fantasies.
** Usually, the narrator steps through a portal, gets trapped and is deemed TheChosenOne to stop the BigBad. That doesn't happen here: Luz thinks she came to the Boiling Isles for a reason and is told she's a chosen one to wield a special staff. Eda tells her that as the notorious thief of the Boiling Isles, she would have found such a staff ages ago, and probably a scammer is messing with Luz. [[spoiler:The Owl Lady is proven right: Adeghast is a scammer who preyed on Luz's desire to be special to lure Eda into a trap]]. In addition, said BigBad is a VillainWithGoodPublicity that [[spoiler:pragmatically doesn't want to kill Luz and he's not someone who would be overthrown easily. At best, you can raise a public outcry against his actions.]]
** It turns out no one on the Boiling Isles knows a lot about humans and the ones that do have no interest in spreading the information, unlike when most characters step into a fantasy world and are treated as special like in ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. Gus runs a pro-human club but mislabels items from Earth easily, as he finds out with mortification. Indeed, Luz's TokenHuman status attracts the interest of the antagonists more than the heroes in terms of her potential: [[spoiler:Emperor Belos corners her to get the Portal Key to Earth, and is impressed when Luz fights back. It's implied he lets her go because she may be useful in the future.]]
* The episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E2TownAndOutChildFearing Town and Out]] about them moving to "Citysville" deals with what would happen if their brand of heroics was applied to a real life city. For example, they stop some bank robbers, but in the process, they cause so much property damage that it outweighs the amount of stolen money they recover.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' deconstructs every trope from [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Age]] cartoons, especially those having to do with morality and chaos, either by exaggerating them to the point they become disgusting, or by showing just how unpleasant it would be to live through such events. The character of Ren could easily be a deconstruction of ButtMonkey villain characters like Daffy Duck for example. While many of his schemes and plans seem to be immoral and self centered, they're usually motivated by survival, like in the short "A Yard Too Far", he tries to steal food, only because he's starving. On numerous occasions, Ren either breaks down into tears, or explodes into homicidal anger over the intense suffering he has to endure. Whereas Ren could be seen as a deconstruction of a cartoon bad guy, Stimpy on the other hand could be seen as a deconstruction of good guy characters in general. He often suffers through the same misfortune as Ren, and is unusually upbeat about it, but only because he's not smart enough to understand the trouble he's in, and despite the fact that he seems to have more of a sense of right and wrong than his counterpart, he is still easily manipulated by Ren into immoral activities, because, [[GoodIsDumb again he's not smart enough to understand.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E10TheRickchurianMortydate The Rickchurian Mortydate]]" deconstructed the show. The episode is more or less a systematic attack on Rick and Morty's usual formula of adventures, deliberately making the usual gimmicks anti-climactic by exposing what happens when Rick doesn't have an obvious EvilerThanThou enemy to offend, and when his own attitude and gimmicks get turned against him:
** At the start of the episode, Rick irritates the US Government for really no reason, acting like a smartass when he really should keep his mouth shut. This leads to SerialEscalation because the POTUS is not an ArchEnemy, but a HeroAntagonist who is closer to SitcomArchnemesis, and Rick's behaviour comes across as DisproportionateRetribution precisely because as Dr. Wong notes, he can't handle mundane everyday life, and pretends he's in an adventure when he ''isn't''.
*** Throughout the series, Rick has killed plenty of people with his inventions with casual indifference. When he has a secret service agent killed by his TouchOfDeath during the standoff, it sours the situation immediately, a cabinet member chides him for not just knocking him out, and the POTUS angrily calls him out for committing murder in the Oval Office.
** His constant nihilism and ContemplateOurNavels attitude to the multiverse and expecting his family to share his attitude and get with his program and crazy schemes get turned back, when they decide to restore the status-quo, and when Rick insists about how meaningless and disposable the multiverse is, Beth simply asks [[ArmorPiercingQuestion why Rick doesn't go find an alternate version of them that shares his attitude]], while Summer in response to his usual StrawNihilist spiel reacts by farting, similar to how Rick usually reacts to other people's serious concerns by snide toilet humor. Rick's crazy adventures could only break apart the family, while at the same time, Rick does depend on the same family for some kind of connection since he can't do without them. This leads to the status-quo coming back.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Of the original 1980s ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower''. [[spoiler: The show gives characters much more moral ambiguity and overturns tropes from the original series. Adora learns that Etheria was weaponized by her ancestors for evil ends, and that being the "chosen one" isn't necessarily a good thing. Hordak and Catra are three-dimensional villains with complex motivations. Glimmer's efforts at protecting her people have dangerous ramifications for the universe. Several of the characters have moral shades of gray. Stories do ''not'' always have happy endings, and friendship does not always fix everything.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** The famous episode "Homer's Enemy" is a deconstruction of the general weirdness and insanity of its setting, based around the premise of ''What if a real-life, normal person had to enter Homer's universe and deal with him?'' Frank Grimes, a relatively humorless but hard-working man who is still forced to live cheaply despite working almost his entire life, encounters Homer on the job at the nuclear power plant. You can imagine what happens next—the result is funny, but also disturbing and very dark upon further reflection (one of the darkest ''Simpsons'' episodes ever made).
*** At one point, Homer is about to drink a beaker of sulfuric acid when Grimes stops him. Grimes reacts ''exactly'' as we would expect a normal person to react—he's visibly freaked out, and when Homer blows off the danger with laughter, he shouts "''Stop laughing,'' you imbecile! Do you realize how close you just came to killing yourself?!" while Homer just smiles at him blankly and dumbly, completely unable to understand not only the danger he just put himself in or why Frank is so upset with him. A series of such incidents, and everyone else's indifference to Homer's stupidity ultimately drives Frank Grimes into insanity (and death).
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' deconstructs Homer's {{Flanderization}} into a {{Jerkass}} by having his friends and family actually ''react'' to it, up to and including Marge and the kids leaving him.
* ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'' First episode [[Recap/SolarOppositesS1E1TheMatterTransferArray The Matter Transfer Array]] ends up being a deconstruction of a typical ''Rick and Morty'' episode, specifically the love that people have for amoral characters.
** Normally when Rick engages in science-fiction shenanigans, he talks gleefully about how he can always avoid the consequences. The Schlorpians know that they aren't above Earth consequences for their shenanigans; Korvo bluntly says they need to ditch the destruction that Funbucket caused or they'll get arrested, and the kids are trying not to be expelled. What's more, their wanting Pupa to mature and destroy the planet is PlayedForLaughs but gives enough time for the audience to realize how serious that is.
** Terry and Korvo love how Funbucket is amoral and doesn't care about anything while spouting multiple catchphrases. When they recreate Funbucket down to his DNA, he quickly gets tired of their fanboy nature. What's more, he gives them a WhatTheHellHero for taking him for granted and not considering he has feelings. When he actually does start going on a rampage, the aliens seriously consider giving him a MercyKill.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', as well as deconstructing everything else on the planet, has a fine line in deconstructing itself:
** In "Kenny Dies", the RunningGag character they had [[TheyKilledKennyAgain killed over seventy times already]] gets a terminal disease and slowly expires while Stan and Kyle react with utterly realistic grief and despair. That is further deconstructed in the "Mysterion Trilogy" with NegativeContinuity.
** The episode "You're Getting Old" deals with the consequences of having Randy being over-(re)active combined with the ResetButton. The result is [[spoiler: Stan's parents divorcing and Randy moving away from South Park]]. On a deeper level, Stan starts deconstructing all things around him, finding that everything is ultimately meaningless, or "just crap", as the episode portrays it.
*** Rather notably the episode also deconstructs deconstructions by pointing out how a person completely ignoring the MST3KMantra or BellisariosMaxim would be widely viewed as an obnoxious, cynical {{Jerkass}} who judges everyone for [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike liking things they don't]] and spends all their time complaining about pointless stuff. Indeed most of Stan's problems come from the fact that he refuses to consider that ''other people'' could like the things he constantly bitches about.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'': Deconstruction Kraven the Hunter usual portrayal. While most depictions of Kraven are able o take Spider-Man on in a fight, here Spider-Man effortlessly beats him, and Kraven has to mutate himself just to be able to be an even match with him.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': The series takes a look at how horrifying and traumatizing some of the events that happens in a typical weekly ''Star Trek'' show by presenting them from the perspective of your typical low-level grunt or RedShirt. This includes opening a story with a ZombieApocalypse on the U.S.S. ''Cerritos.'' [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] as the protagonists are, with the exception of Boimler, entirely unfazed by this.
** "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E09CrisisPoint Crisis Point]]"
*** Boimler made his interview prep program by accessing the personal logs of all the ship's personnel to recreate them with the highest degree of accuracy possible. Characters in other Trek shows have also recreated the crew for various reasons, but the other ensigns treat it as a creepy invasion of privacy rather than a mild irritant. It gets worse when Mariner gets way too into blasting up her crewmates (not unlike Barclay's programs when he routinely beat up on his superior officers) and drives Tendi to leave.
*** The FantasticRacism that comes about by treating different species as a PlanetOfHats turns out not to reflect well on Starfleet. And although Mariner does apologize for her behavior at the end, there's also a blink-and-miss it of one of the holo-crew making a disparaging remark about Orions that upsets Tendi. (And if Boimler's simulation is as accurate as it seems in all other areas, that guy really is prejudiced against her.)
** "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]]"
*** The episode deconstructs how many series have the ship waltz in, fix the problem of the episode, then waltz away. The ''Cerritos'' ends up returning to Beta III to find the Betans are back to worshipping Landru ''again'' and later learn that the Pakled, who were only seen as a joke when they first appeared in ''TNG'', had become much more dangerous in the interm, destroying a fellow ''California''-class ship and tearing the ''Cerritos'' apart [[spoiler:before the ''Titan'' arrives to save the day.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** InterspeciesRomance and LoveAtFirstSight are given a pretty realistic take. Steven is the son of Greg Universe, a human man, and Rose Quartz, a [[NoBiologicalSex female-looking]] [[BizarreAlienBiology sentient crystal with a "body" made of hard light]] who had already been alive for [[TimeAbyss several thousand years]] before meeting Greg. Greg met Rose during an unsuccessful rock tour for his one-man band and she was charmed by his earnestness and music, while he was entranced by her beauty. At the start of their relationship, Greg has issues seeing himself as worthy of Rose's attention, while Rose proves him right by caring for him, but less as an equal partner and more in the way a human would show to a trick-performing dog. Pearl confirms she's had several flings with other men, which ended the same way as she refers to Greg as just another of Rose's phases. While Gems can perform a FusionDance that connects them into one being in ways a human can never understand, Greg proves he doesn't need it as having a hard, honest talk about how he feels is enough to get her to understand how she was acting and starts her on the path to understanding humans beyond their novelty. Things got much better down the line, but it took a lot of hard work and education on both their parts.
** It also deconstructs the idea of otherworldly heroes. The Crystal Gems have sacrificed a lot to protect Earth, and they have had humanity's best interests at heart for thousands of years, but they're also borderline [[SmugSuper Smug Supers]] who keep their distance from humans at best, and are GoodIsNotNice types that outright belittle them at worst, while showing very little concern or respect for them or their culture, outside of protecting the planet. In other words, when all is said and done the Crystal Gems are ''still'' aliens that have a hard time understanding their charges, although they've been trying harder since their leader fell in love with a human.
** Love triangles and unrequited love get thoroughly taken apart. Pearl, the smug, jealous lover who blames Greg for Rose's DeathByChildBirth (more or less) in many works would hate him for petty reasons and be a toxic person. Not so, as a former member of a SlaveRace, she looked up to Rose with fanatical devotion as the first Gem who ever showed her any kindness. She developed an unhealthy obsession with keeping her safe, sacrificing herself constantly and feeling useless without her who defined her existence. When she's gone, Pearl is forced to redefine who she is as a person while going through many painfully accurate breakdowns motivated by her genuine feelings of love. Meanwhile Greg feels he can't do anything to help, while knowing how Pearl feels and believing things can't change. While they eventually start to mend fences, it takes a long time of CharacterDevelopment on Pearl's part to find common ground and it's acknowledged several times that her grief will never fully go away. Loved ones cannot be simply forgotten about, and even for the winner of a love triangle, it's still a painful process.
** As the series goes on, Steven's AllLovingHero and ActualPacifist status gets deconstructed. The show never says that it's wrong for Steven to try to resolve things peacefully but [[RealityEnsues his methods don't always succeed because many threats can't simply be talked down]]. They work on certain Gems like [[spoiler: Peridot (who was only on Earth for a mission, didn't know about the history of the Crystal Gems and the rebellion, and was lied to by Homeworld her entire life), Lapis (who only wished to go home and be free from the Mirror), and even the Cluster (a mindless mass of suffering Crystal Gem personalities who don’t want to destroy the Earth)]] because they’re able to see his viewpoints and react well to his kindness. However, against other Gems like [[spoiler: Bismuth (willing to violently assert her own beliefs), Jasper (a {{Child Soldier|s}} who has personal grudges against his mother for her actions during the rebellion), and Eyeball Ruby (who also hates Rose for her actions during the war and is a SociopathicSoldier)]], none of them are willing to agree with Steven and they outright reject and try to kill him when given the chance (even after he tries to save them) so Steven has to fight back in self-defense in order to save himself. Those situations forced him to learn that [[HardTruthAesop pacifism won't always mesh well]] with the [[GreyAndGrayMorality morally-complex world that he lives in]] and sometimes ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption. In “Mindful Education” Steven admits that he blames himself for not being able to do anything to help them and [[HeroicBSOD finally breaks down after weeks of holding his guilt and trauma in]].
** ''[[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture Future]]'', the show's sixth season, basically spends its entire run deconstructing the idea of Steven as a KidHero and as a MessianicArchetype. With no villains left to fight, no worlds to save, and all his friends growing up and leaving Beach City, Steven is left with no obvious purpose in life. [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife Every attempt he makes to find some meaning]] beyond his title as "Savior of the Galaxy" only serves to make things worse, and the sheer trauma of the things he's been through throughout the series kicks in. [[spoiler: As his body, mind, and emotions slowly deteriorate, a dark side of his EmotionalPowers emerges that the main series only ever briefly touched on.]]
* Creator/TexAvery: He enjoyed deconstructing story clichés and tired conventions in every cartoon he made.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is a deconstruction of the whole Autobot-Decepticon War. Things ain't so [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black and white]] as before, in fact the Autobots' leadership is flawed and somewhat corrupt, with one higly racist, incompetent, cowardly jerkass general on it, who only is amongst the High Command because he blames his mistakes on Optimus Prime, whose status as the AllLovingHero makes him somewhat of a push-over, and its leader is ready to commit dirty tricks to defeat the Decepticons. The Decepticons however, are as much the monsters they were in G1, and though this time Megatron's pragmatic enough to blast [[TheStarscream Starscream's]] ass any time he tries to overthrow him. Starscream only survives thanks to the Allspark piece on his head. [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Without it he would have died right from the start]]. Then comes [[DarkerAndEdgier season]] [[AnyoneCanDie three]]...
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Undergrads}}'', college dorm life is deconstructed to counter its inspiration ''Film/AnimalHouse''; Rocko's [[WackyFratboyHijinx fratboy behavior]] is looked down on heavily by his frat brothers, who view him as a source of grief. Nitz' everyman status really puts only a grade above [[ThisLoserIsYou Gimpy]], the resident {{Hikikomori}} of the four of them.
* There can be a very good case made for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' being a deconstruction of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' and ''Franchise/DocSavage''-style [[TwoFistedTales stories]]. Some say spoof, some say deconstruction, some say [[DeconstructiveParody both]].
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' serves as a deconstruction of sidekicks as ChildSoldiers, superheroes in the modern world, and is often very cynical about it. So much so that when it tries to do sincere emotion, it comes off as unintentional {{Narm}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': Season 2's all about this trope. Everything that the crew stands for and does to achieve it is put to the test when they all come across Lord Dominator, a new foe that has taken over most if not all of Hater's territory... as a direct result of his chasing Wander across the galaxy. A good number of Hater's subordinates don't actually respect him, and it looks like Peepers is on his last wits watching his boss hold off conquering the galaxy. Wander's methods of befriending don't actually work on their new foe, and his distracting tendencies [[NoNonsenseNemesis don't actually put Dominator off of their goal, and in the end defeats him easily.]] He also came ''really'' close to actually [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness hating]] someone for the first time in the series. Sylvia just can't blast her way out of the situation like she usually can because Dominator's army is tougher, more powerful, and easily outnumbers them all. In the end, Dominator is revealed to be [[spoiler: an [[PsychopathicWomanchild extremely childish]] [[SamusIsAGirl woman]] who appears to be spreading terror all over the galaxy for ''[[ForTheEvulz fun]]'', combining elements of both [[NotSoDifferent Hater and Wander together]].]]
** [[WordOfGod Craig [=McCracken=]]] himself stated that the Season was trying to examine Wander and Hater's interactions in different ways while still getting their basic plot line (Hater wants to destroy Wander, Wander escapes and lives another day) across.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' deconstructs the modern shooter game and the limited binary "moral choices" of video games in general.
-->"Are we really in ''control'' of Captain Walker? Or do we merely represent the last vestige of self-awareness in his increasingly damaged mind as he [[YouBastard railroads us into committing atrocities]], and our distrust and fear of him grows in parallel to that of the men in his command as he weakly tries to rationalize to both them and us until we feel as disconnected from him as the rest of reality and... ''(sigh)'' Do you remember when shooters were about [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} killing demons from hell]]? Those were good days." -- ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''
* Despite being considered the TropeCodifier although jingoistic military shooters exist before it, ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' deconstructs the cavalier cowboy attitude of jingoistic military shooters and movies by showing the catastrophic destruction and death that result from them, and the nationalist propaganda that fuels it.
* For one of Gamespot's April Fool's Day jokes, they have announced that Capcom has recently announced a new game called ''VideoGame/MegaMan Deconstructed''. See 7:43 of [[http://www.gamespot.com/shows/today-on-the-spot/?event=today_on_the_spot20100401 this video]].
* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' is one of the earliest and most (in)famous examples, killing off the main cast [[BusCrash offscreen]] between games and condemning everything they accomplished or fought for. The reason given is this: by changing the future for the better in the original ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the heroes ([[YouBastard you]]) unwittingly murdered billions of people living in that potential timeline. Then the plot gets loopier, with the revelation that the human race is a giant cosmic mistake, the resultant mutation of an alien entity crashing into the planet. The [[LizardFolk reptites]] of ''Chrono Trigger'', who were defeated by the main characters and their Neanderthal brethren, were meant to evolve into ''the'' superior, enlightened race; unlike the human 'abominations' who are simply incapable of coexisting peacefully with the earth. What did humans do to deserve being saved from annihilation twice over? What right did anyone have to play god like this? However, what makes this example infamous is that many of these questions rely upon {{Retcon}}, CerebusRetcon and HappyEndingOverride. For instance, ''Trigger'' posited the idea that there was an "Entity" working to save humanity from behind the scenes, while ''Cross'' greatly hints that this Entity actually hated humanity and only helped them to stop an even worse EldritchAbomination.
* Most of the villainism of ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'''s VillainProtagonist comes from what would happen if a stereotypical video game/anime geek retained their combat ability in the real world and lived life like they play games.
* A lighter example of Deconstruction would belong to ''VideoGame/SWAT4'', an FPS whose objective is not shooting bad guys. Just plain shooting bad guys like in another FPS, in ''SWAT 4'', does not net you a point. This game expects you to be a police officer, not an FPS character. To earn points (which are needed to advance in harder difficulties), you must deal with the bad guys with non-lethal methods, and arresting them.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' deconstructs not just many of the implications of a CrapsaccharineWorld in the series that are hinted at through the Pokédex entries, but also deconstructs the idea that everyone in the world of Pokémon thinks that it's a good idea to send kids and teenagers out into the wild to capture Pokémon, with Bianca's father feeling immensely concerned for her. Another part of it is the idea that no one bats an eyelash at Pokémon battles or no one thinks it's too violent with Team Plasma and N. It also provides a deconstruction of the concept of MoralGuardians in the form of Team Plasma's claims to be concerned for the welfare of Pokémon.
* Likewise, ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' deconstructs the trainers who do not have what it takes to challenge the regional Pokemon League, even the traditions that were established in Alola before Kukui commits to founding a League of its own. Successful trainers have stronger Pokemon, more items, and more money... but the ones that lack the skill to amount to anything ultimately end up destitute. [[spoiler:Nowhere is this better depicted than in Po Town, which Team Skull uses as its hideout... or, rather, they are functionally confined to due to lacking the ability to strike out on their own, as mentioned earlier. Team Skull is littered with failures who could not take the Island Challenges, and Guzma himself failed to become a Trial Captain and ultimately outgrew the acceptance range of 20 years of age, leaving nothing but bitterness in its wake.]] It also deconstructs what a villain team consists of: [[spoiler:whereas other villain teams are self-sustaining or run legitimate business ventures to cover their shady dealings, Team Skull lacks even that, which again is perfectly depicted in Po Town with its lack of electricity, even in its Pokemon Center. When the opportunity for money came along, they leapt at it like a Carvanha to fresh meat... but while the Aether Foundation is swimming in research grant funds, Lusamine proves to be morally bankrupt.]]
** The BigBad [[spoiler:Lusamine deconstructs trainers themselves. She claims to love all Pokemon and wants to collect them all, just like the PlayerCharacter... while treating them (as well as people) as little more than objects. She ignores that which she does not find appealing and discards what is no longer of use to her. She even keeps cryogenically frozen Pokemon on display, asking how it's any different from the player keeping their unused ones in a box. When a new and unknown Pokemon, the Ultra Beasts, appear, she wants them for herself, just like the player does]].
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'' deconstructs one of the series' usual protagonist backstories: [[spoiler: Jack]] loses his parents at a young age and in his trauma seeks revenge, [[spoiler: becoming an Assassin in the progress]]. However, he becomes a far more realistic example of what happens when you take a extremely traumatized and angry child, tell them that "Nothing is true and everything is permitted", and give them the skills and weapons necessary to kill large amounts of people: [[spoiler:he goes completely insane and starts committing serial murders, and takes over the Rooks, making them more corrupt then the Blighters were, and nearly destroys the Brotherhood]]. Oh, and in case you didn’t get it yet, we’re talking about [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper]].
* ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'' viciously deconstructs AllOfTheOtherReindeer. Marona's Chartreuse is, for all intents and purposes, necromancy, and as such it is widely regarded as a dark, unholy power, and people react accordingly to her. This isn't simply general disdain or mocking of her, this is real, genuine fear and hatred. Listen to that woman who scolds her son for wanting to be friends with Marona in the opening chapter. You can feel the pure, unbridled barely contained ''rage'' she has at the mere ''mention'' of her name.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' deals with a [[CanonSue Canon]] RelationshipSue, while ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]'' deconstructs the CopycatSue. The characters involved are canonically clones of some sort and are considered abominations in-universe. Their Sue-ish traits are actually plot-relevant and tend to be the reason the villains can make use of them.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem''
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' deconstructs a ''lot'' of common character archetypes throughout the series, also deconstructing several interventionist policies and showing just how damaging they can be - all before [[ShockingMoments capping it off]] with [[spoiler: the heroes being incinerated by the BigBad.]]
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' has a few deconstructions to boot, at least one per route:
*** In ''Birthright'', it deconstructs the idea of BlackAndWhiteMorality. Yes, Nohr is the belligerent and Hoshido is on the defense, but it goes to show what that mentality can do when [[HeWhoFightsMonsters taken too far.]] Notably, [[spoiler: your eldest adoptive brother commits SuicideByCop after your adoptive little sister dies, alongside countless of lost lives as a result of abandoning Nohr.]]
*** In ''Conquest,'' it deconstructs the MyCountryRightOrWrong and PacifistRun tropes, showing that the former can lead to some ''very'' mentally straining events and the latter, while possible, ultimately proves to be far more trouble than it's worth.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' series does this to fantasy and magic. While the first game was more of an affectionate parody of medieval fantasy, the sequel takes this to its logical conclusion: with no real threat facing Albion, the Guild of Heroes became egocentric power bullies, and with the advent of the firearm, the Muggle commonfolk struck back and wiped out the Guild. When the Fable 2 hero comes around, it's only natural that the public would view someone as powerful as you to be worthy of becoming king/queen.
** Fable 3 also deconstructs the idea of monarchies/nobility by putting you in the role of the second game's protagonist's youngest child. While it's entirely possible to play as a saintly ruler, your tyrannical older brother Logan is what spun the conflict in the first place, and it's possible to play as way more evil than Logan ever was. The deconstruction is that leadership ability is independent from any noble bloodline [[spoiler: and is the central theme of the Traitor's Keep DLC, as a coup is planned against you led by someone who questions your family's claim to the throne]].
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' [[spoiler:has a bitter deconstruction of BestFriend and TrueCompanions. Instead of showing UndyingLoyalty among ChildhoodFriends, they are traitors and [[BitchInSheepsClothing bastards in sheep's clothing]] (Big Smoke and Ryder) who are more than willing to betray their closest friends (C.J. and Sweet).]]
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is one of its own series. Rather than show a glamorized portrayal of criminal life like the previous games did, it portrays it realistically, with most of the characters being poor, sociopathic, psychotic, greedy, or otherwise unlikable. Even [[PlayerCharacter Niko]] himself is a hypocrite.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' deconstructs the tropes surrounding each of the game's three protagonists in relation to the player.
** Franklin deconstructs the newcomer to a GTA game, someone who is introduced to a world of crime where they can do what they want and get rich while they're at it.
** Michael deconstructs the protagonist of a GTA player who has beaten the game: He's wealthy beyond his wildest dreams thanks to his ill-gotten gains and has gotten away with it, but is now left wondering what to do with his life.
** Trevor deconstructs the stereotypical GTA protagonist and player: Someone who's interested only in causing as much bedlam and chaos as possible, consequences be damned, and for whom pursuing a particular goal in-game is an afterthought.
* [[spoiler:[[NewGamePlus The Demon Path]]]] in ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'' could be seen as a deconstruction of StupidEvil choices in video games (where the game's KarmaMeter consists of "Help this woman find her lost puppy, or kill her and eat her family,") taken to its ultimate conclusion. Once [[spoiler:the protagonist gets the power of an OmnicidalManiac god of death]], they decide to [[spoiler: go on a world-wide killing spree for no reason other than it sounds like fun. What follows is a massacre of the entire cast of the game, anyone who isn't lucky enough to be killed immediately being either horribly broken or driven insane and ''then'' killed. By the end of the game, the protagonist and the god of death are the only living things left on the planet, at which point the protagonist turns on the god of death and ''eats him'', gaining his powers fully, before turning his/her new-found powers on the gods themselves and finally erasing all of existence, along with him/herself. Alternately, you lose the final battle...And get a 'Good Ending', as all the heroes rejoice in your defeat...You're just another BigBad, like all the rest in video games]].
* ''Videogame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is a heavy deconstruction of the StandardFantasySetting - mages are abhorred by members of TheChurch because they had once used their powers to ''try and overtake Heaven itself'', there is a much more focused ([[DarkerAndEdgier and darker]]) look at the bigotry usually glossed over in many stories adhering to the setting, and instead of giving a clear [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Good vs. Evil conflict]], GreyAndGrayMorality is a heavy constant. And when it's not that, it's more of a MoralityKitchenSink.
** ''Videogame/DragonAgeII'' is way worse in this regard because it deconstructs Western [=RPGs=] as a whole. There is no BigBad to speak of, the main character cares more for his loved ones than saving the world, and the major conflict of the story is between two opposing factions that [[BothSidesHaveAPoint both have very good reasons for being the way they are towards each other]].
** ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition'' takes a more traditional stance on the Standard Fantasy Setting, and this has actually led to some [[BrokenBase divisions within the fanbase]]. The game's deconstructions focus more on the background of said setting, as we find out that the supposedly-glorious Alfheim Age was a clusterfuck of massive proportions, where the gods were actually power-hungry backstabbing maniacs whose actions forced the destruction of the old world, whose legacy was a millennia of the same backstabbing oppression in all major governments of the setting, and the traditional forest elf culture is actually ''slave protocol''.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', the "save the world from the world-eating BigBad dragon Alduin" quest is deconstructed in a conversation with Paarthunax, leader of the Greybeards and [[spoiler: a good dragon, possibly the only one in existence.]] He asks if it isn't foolish to stop the apocalypse [[spoiler: if it's being done by someone whose job it is to do exactly that and thereby bring about the next world.]] Arngeir also poses these questions, but less in-depth. The story is, however, reconstructed later.
** ''Skyrim'' also deconstructs the Tolkien-esque elf wonderfully. What happens when a race of beautiful, cultured, superior beings start ''believing in their own hype''? [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Why, they look down on every other race and try to exterminate them, of course!]]
* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3Paradox'' is a GameMod building a world around the scarce information of its source material, ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' and plays out realistically what would happen if three major super powers go to all-out war, a US President is killed or what consequences it has when physics-defying technology is used large-scale and regularly. It's not nearly as idealistic as the original.
* This is the entire point of the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''. The modus operandi for each game is to write up the world's biggest ClicheStorm of an RPG setting, and then rip it to shreds by analysing in brutal detail why every single trope in a fantasy story has the potential to be terrifying. [[CrapsaccharineWorld The cutesy graphics]] [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar mean they get away with a lot of stuff]] that many other, more [[AnimationAgeGhetto "mature"-looking]] [=RPGs=] wouldn't be able to.
** A RecurringElement throughout the series is TheChosenOne, and deconstructing the idea by showing how much ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne. ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Symphonia]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss Abyss]]'' show the multitude of ways having the fate of the world on someone's shoulders would do all kinds of damage to their psyche. ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfLegendia Legendia]]'' says that "saving" the world often means doing some truly horrible things. ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia Xillia]]'' shows how single-mindedly focusing on your mission at the expense of all else will have lasting consequences that you can't possibly prepare for. And ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfGraces Graces]]'' is all about the things you're going to have to leave behind if you want to do it.
* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' deconstructs DemonSlaying with a butcher's knife; sure, the heroes defeat {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, but [[HeWhoFightsMonsters they end up going insane]] themselves from the trauma and horrors they saw while fighting the things, their action end up [[BatmanGambit going exactly in the direction the Demons wanted]], the cities and kingdom they try to save end up mostly slaughtered (Tristram, that the hero was attempting to save in the first opus, ends up destroyed anyway in ''Diablo II'') and Angels, for most, don't give a crap as long as they are not reached.
** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'': Your character becomes a PhysicalGod, capable of slaying ANYTHING up to and including the combined form of every evil ever. That does NOT mean they can save the world from a planned genocide that has been in the making for millennia by ancient immortals with titanic armies, nor does it stop them from growing bitter and possibly extremist about the ForeverWar that specifically taxes humanity to the brink.
* ''VideoGame/BioShock'':
** ''[[VideoGame/BioShock1 BioShock 1]]'' could be interpreted as a damning rebuttal to ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' and to the philosophies and attitudes behind UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}} - without proper regulation, the Objectivist Gulch would become populated with {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s and quickly turn into a WretchedHive. Although [[WordOfGod creative lead Ken Levine]] has refused to comment. The whole franchise could be seen as a Deconstruction of the concept of [[StrawUtopia utopia]], as from what can be seen through the games, any attempt to create a perfect society is [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption doomed from the start]], as while a theoretical society can be made perfect, [[HumansAreFlawed the people living within the society can't]].
** ''Videogame/BioshockInfinite'' deconstructs SteamPunk by focusing on the dystopian elements of late 19th and early 20th Century society that most SteamPunk settings ignore. The racism, religious fanaticism, eugenics, and abusive work practices of the time period that other SteamPunk works avoid in favor an idealized nostalgia, are instead brought to the shiny, colourful, Disney Theme Park-style surface. It also seems to deconstructs the concept of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism American exceptionalism]], by presenting all the undercurrents of imperialism and nationalism tied in with it.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney Redux'' deconstructs not only the the three endings of the original, but even most Law/Neutral/Chaos endings of the series in general via [[ChildFromTheFuture Alex]] (eventually) explaining the consequences of each.
** Side with Chaos and create a world where everyone is free and the strongest survive? Turns out when the same rules apply to humans and demons, the latter utterly dominate, and Alex is the last [[spoiler: partly-]]human being alive on the planet.
** Side with Law and create a perfect utopia of absolute order where there are no imperfections? "Imperfections" just happen to include those who reject the order and believe in free will, such as Alex.
** Renounce both Chaos and Law and just eliminate the problem? Mankind is pleased with your efforts...so pleased, in fact, that it assumes the problem is gone for good and doesn't see the need to prepare for the same catastrophe, which happens again in a few decades, this time without the people or means to stop it in time.
* Fairies in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' can be seen as a deconstruction of DeathIsCheap. They have extremely short lifespans, but resurrect almost instantly when killed. This leaves them all as literally TooDumbToLive as they often charge headfirst into potentially fatal situations and don't really learn from their mistakes since there's no real consequences. It is implied in [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]] that their view of life and death might [[BlueAndOrangeMorality extend to their perception of other beings lives and deaths]], too. Which in practice would mean that a fairy cannot see any moral difference between pranking someone by "hiding their food" and "setting them on fire and shoving them down a cliff", 'cuz, hey, the people they kill are just going to resurrect again, right?
* ''VideoGame/HeroMustDie'' deconstructs the JRPG genre by working in reverse: instead of playing as a hero who gets stronger over the course of their quest to save the world, this game starts after the BigBad is defeated. TheHeroDies in the first few minutes of the game, but is brought back to life for a week to put their affairs in order, during which time [[DePower they grow progressively weaker, losing their strongest spells and the strength to wield their strongest weapons and armor]]. In addition, NoOntologicalInertia is {{Averted}}: just because the Big Bad is gone doesn't mean the demons he led just give up and go home, and the world faces other problems besides.
* Most of the {{Designated Hero}}es of ''VideoGame/LenEn'' comes from what would happen if a stereotypical human were transported to an AdventureFriendlyWorld and gained NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. While their antics are PlayedForLaughs (such as the greedy Kuroji), later games show that their actions are catching up to them and while they save the day, they unknowingly make things worse.
** Also, the heroes neglecting their duties results in the birth of an EldritchAbomination, an absent-minded SealedEvilInACan destroying the barrier and a hidden revolution, now that the tyrannical former heroine of Mugenri has left in charge a self-centered TeenGenius. Way to go, Tsurubami.
** The whole series deconstructs the HeroicComedicSociopath from ''Touhou'' (which ''Len'en'' is based off). Many of the playable characters are acknowledged not to be the most virtuous people around, and fighting the villain of the day is often done for purely selfish reasons. While some ''Touhou'' games becoming DarkerAndEdgier (such as ''Subterranean Animism'' and ''Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom''), the heroines do not face any consequences for their actions, unlike ''Len'en'''s case.
* One of the core themes of the ''Franchise/{{Drakengard}}'' series is according to series [[WordOfGod creator]] Creator/TaroYoko are the simple words "Why do you kill?". This in turn often lead to deconstructions of the OneManArmy and Heroism tropes as well as the exploration to why a human being would kill hundreds if not thousands of people. This trait has since become a hallmark of Yoko's style.
* The Wrath of the Lich King expansion for ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' can be arguably seen as one for the entire concept of redemption and how it may not work in the real world by showing that often people seek for the evil that wronged them to be brought to justice instead of redeemed. In one of the quest chains the players and Tirion finds a heart that may have belonged to Arthas and kept his humanity. When Arthas taunts them about redeeming him, Tirion rejects redeeming him and destroys the heart, stating that only the Lich King remains--and that is before we learn in patch 3.3 that as it turns out, the good half of Arthas was the only thing holding the Scourge back from destroying Azeroth -- thus to what extent was there really nothing left or to what extent was Tirion enraged by how much Arthas started the chain of events that screwed over his life and decided to kill him instead because of that, is debatable. At the end as we kill the Lich King the good Arthas takes back his body long enough to have his humanity restored before his death, and the subsequent quests on heroic difficulty gives the impression that the people once close to him (Uther, Jaina, Muradin) have forgiven him -- it turns out that doesn't seem to have sent Arthas to a good afterlife due to the Lich King filling the ''normal'' afterlife with Shades that he ordered to torture anyone who entered their territory which of course includes himself....
** The "Mists of Pandaria" expansion can also be seen as this towards the game itself -- throughout the game's eight years of life, players have always been the ones to save the day by defeating monsters and purging demonic corruption from the world. However, Pandaria is about an idealistic continent... where the arrival of the player characters draws lines in the sand that weren't there before and wind up reawakening the threats that had been subdued to allow the utopian civilization to flourish. The first zone involves both factions recruiting the indigenous people to their cause (sometimes unwillingly) and making them fight each other, of course creating a ''huge'' mess when the Sha is unleashed. In other words, Pandaria has become corrupted just like a lot of other zones and people have... and ''you'' are the catalyst if not the whole cause of this. NiceJobBreakingItHero.
* The first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' to a lesser extent, deconstruct the IdiotHero. Go ahead and set your Intelligence stat to 2. You'll have some funny conversations, but you'll also get fewer skill points when levelling up, you're locked out of 90% of quests and most of the [=NPC=]'s [[DudeWheresMyReward don't reward your efforts]] and [[DudeWheresMyRespect treat you as a joke]]. Furthermore, an idiot can't make any lasting effect on the wasteland at all: you may have saved your vault/village, but everyone else is still screwed.
** The whole series deconstructs the idealistic utopian values of TheFifties. Within the game itself, it is implied that behind the thin charm of a 1950's {{Eagleland}}, America was a jingoistic, genocidal supremacist state that tried to stamp out individual thought, subjected "dissidents" to concentration camps and horrific experiments, and honestly deserved to be nuked off the face of the earth. The deconstruction was that in RealLife TheFifties America was not so much a golden age heralded by many conservatives. During that era social and racial values were backwards in comparison to the 21st Century domestically and while the US established itself as the democratic counterweight to the Soviet Union it also was responsible for overthrowing many democratically elected governments in support of its own interests. Likewise it claimed to represent freedom of expression yet simultaneously allowed them to be stifled with the [[RedScare McCarthy witch hunts]].
* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'', Obsidian's newest offering that styles itself as a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Fallout'' above, similarly deconstructs the capitalist utopia of the Gilded Age within a Series/{{Firefly}}-esque space setting. The Halcyon colony is OneNationUnderCopyright, and the locals profess UndyingLoyalty in corporations that reaches almost CargoCult levels; they pepper everyday conversation with company slogans and [[FantasticRacism discriminate against each other based on brand loyalties]]. That's not even getting into some of the truly staggering greed and incompetence at the higher levels.
* The ''VideoGame/RType'' series is this with the ShootEmUp genre as a whole, starting with ''Delta'' and ''Final''. [[spoiler: It turns out that the Bydo, the "aliens" you were fighting against, were mankind's ''own'' creation, and they had banished the Bydo to another world. The Bydo later returned, assimilating humans in retaliation for being played on with humankind being treated as [[AGodAmI Gods]].]]
* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' plays the typical DungeonCrawling {{RPG}} in a more realistic light; Going down into a dark, desolate dungeon filled with horrifying monsters out to kill you shouldn't be a walk in the park. Each trip down to the dungeons tests your heroes' [[SanityMeter mental fortitude]], with combat and traps around every corner being nerve-wracking. Not to mention the people who'd willingly go down there, many of whom are desperate outlaws, or people already not-right in the head.
* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' acts as a deconstruction of AIIsACrapshoot. When an AI gains sentience, this doesn't stop at a homicidal rampage as with Glados or HAL; They get way too god damned smart. Smart, but also weirdly obsessive and paranoid, so that the new-found intelligence and sentience is somewhat wasted on whatever strange conspiracy theory the AI happens to develop at the time. Durandal almost acts AboveGoodAndEvil in a weird way, as he doesn't really believe that killing/conquering humanity is worth the effort. Rather, he'd rather get out of the universe itself so that the Big Crunch doesn't kill him.
** It also mildly deconstructs OneManArmy. Anyone who could end that many lives, [[MookHorrorShow alien]] or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential otherwise,]] without even thinking about it is ...[[AxCrazy Not all]] [[AmbiguouslyHuman the way there]]
** The Security Officer also exists as a deconstruction of ButThouMust. It's heavily implied that he doesn't really have all that much free will, and is almost incapable of making moral choices on his own. [[spoiler: ''Infinity'' is what puts the ''almost'' into that. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone For]] [[RoaringRampageOfRescue very]] [[SanitySlippage good]] [[ShellShockedVeteran reason.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is quite a big example of Deconstruction. In fact, it's an entire DeconstructionGame. The deconstructed element is the save/restart game file element in {{Role Playing Game}}s, and you can see why. Once you complete 1 run, you'll feel the need to complete others. However, [[spoiler:once you play the game again for a different ending, things will be very different. The 2 most mysterious characters, Flowey & Sans, will both react the most different after different runs, as they're the [[FourthWallObserver observers of the 4th wall]]. But of course, many other characters (including you) will react differently. However, this causes great distress for Sans since he knows that constantly starting, saving, and stopping will scatter & end his and others lives, then restarting them all over again, thus deconstructing the trope of saving/restarting your game files]].
** Another type of deconstruction occurs with the trope of HundredPercentCompletion. Normally in a game, you want to complete every ending available. However, in Undertale, [[spoiler:Sans]] gives a whole [[ReasonYouSuckSpeech speech putting you down]] which goes as follows: [[spoiler:You'll never give up, even if there's no benefit to persevering whatsoever. No matter what, you'll just keep on going. Not out of any desire for good or evil… but just because you think you can. And because you can, you have to.]] Wow. [[YouBastard Way to make the player feel like a bastard]], [[spoiler:Sans]].
** The game also deconstructs LevelGrinding, WhatMeasureIsAMook and VideoGameCrueltyPotential. [[spoiler:Every monster you find in the game is a sentient individual with their own lives, friends and family. LV is explained to be your willingness to kill people rather than your combat experience. So if you play the game with the tagline ''"The Friendly RPG Where Nobody Has To Die"'' like a traditional [=RPG=], the game treats [[YouBastard you, the player]], as a sadistic OmnicidalManiac. In the ending, [[GreaterScopeVillain the game's version of Satan]] will appear and [[WhatTheHellPlayer call you out]] and tell you about how they can erase your actions... at the price of your soul. Accepting their offer will ''permanently taint the game files, and attempting to do a PacifistRun will result in your character being possessed at the last minute: this is true even if you uninstall the game and try it on another computer''. Hey, it's what you get, bastard.]]
* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' is a deconstruction of the KidHero. The game does not gloss over the kind of emotional and mental strain that going on a great adventure as well as the general responsibility of saving the world would take on a bunch of small children, [[IMissMom such as getting homesick and missing their parents]]. It could also be a deconstruction of the CosmicHorrorStory: the FinalBoss, the great evil that the kids are trying to save the world from, is revealed to be [[spoiler:an alien child turned into a [[AlmightyIdiot formless blob of hate and insanity]], so winning feels less like a triumph and more like giving a MercyKill]].
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'': Many heroes in Myth/GreekMythology, such as Oedipus, Achilles, and even Hercules at some points, had a MightMakesRight mentality; their worth as heroes wasn't measured by their moral character, but through their strength and power. Kratos is essentially what these kinds of heroes would be in real life; sociopathic, selfish, blood-hungry, and extremely entitled in their sense of revenge.
** Their constant zealotry and BloodKnight tendencies mean heroes typically kill each other in a crisis over minor disputes, as opposed to teaming up, and the survivors are left adventuring solo with next to no companions, driving them further into bitter madness.
* ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'': The fourth boss, [[spoiler:Shadow Rei/Best Friend]], deconstructs the idea of Shadows in general. Shadows are physical manifestations of a person's repressed emotions and desires, and the [[VideoGame/Persona4 Investigation Team]] all gained their Personas by acknowledging and accepting theirs, but [[spoiler:Best Friend isn't just teenage desires and confusion -- it's ''death''. Accepting your flaws is one thing, but accepting that your life has ended (and in Rei's specific case, also amounted to nothing) is quite another. Like Mitsuo in ''Persona 4'', Rei rejects her shadow even after it's defeated and it just fades away, and Rei after getting her memories back is every bit an emotional wreck as when she first met Chronos.]]
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'' deconstructs them harder. While the Shadows of ''VideoGame/Persona4'' are, as mentioned above, teenage desires and confusion, ''Persona 5'' shows that Shadows can also become the dark sides of some truly monstrous individuals.
* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' deconstructs two settings at once: Victorian SteamPunk, and the StandardFantasySetting. Just like the Victorian period in real life, working conditions in most factories are hideously unsafe, and it's not uncommon to see workers being shot in the street for protesting against them. Classism and racism is everywhere, and an awful lot of people agree with eugenics - there's a really uncomfortable book in the game that describes how Orcs can be bred out of existence by removing a "malignant gland", and don't get us started on the horror that is [[spoiler:the Half-Ogre breeding program, where human women are forcibly impregnated by ogres just so it can provide gnomish bankers with a reliable source of stronger, tougher bodyguards.]] Elves are ''not'' always wiser than other races and usually jerks to everyone else to boot. Good men can wreck the world with the best of intentions while someone who is unquestionably evil can still be right once in a while. Glorious heroes who travelled the world righting wrongs [[spoiler:eventually started a war because they disagreed about what was the right and wrong thing to do, and turned on each other]].
* ''VideoGame/StarControl2'' is partially a deconstruction of sci-fi, specifically Star Trek. There are a number of examples, but the Sentient Milieu is the best: it's essentially a mirror image of the Federation, except that things [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]]. [[spoiler:The Ur-Quan play essentially the same role that humans do in the Federation. They evolved much the same way, and were late to become a unified space-faring species due to having spent most of their existence trying to kill one another. Through the kindness of more advanced races, they were permitted to join the Sentient Milieu and over time became its boldest explorers. Then they stumble upon the Dnyarri, and this is where the paths diverge. The entire Milieu is enslaved for millennia, and when an excruciating slave revolt is over the Ur-Quan are split into two camps: those who want to permanently enslave all other sentient life in the universe, and those who want to eradicate it. The question that is asked: would the humans in Star Trek be on the same moral high horse if they had suffered the same existential threat?]]
* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' takes the titular trope apart in the most brutal forms imaginable, not only in how far the "protagonist" Yan-chan can go in pursuit of her Senpai but in how hard it would be for a high school student to get away with murder. The creator Yandere-Dev has also stated that Yan-chan's obsession is not love, but the result of a serious psychological disorder.
* The Komato in ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' are a deconstruction of the ProudWarriorRace, their entire society being predicated on having a mortal enemy to fight. [[spoiler: By the end of the game they're convinced, whether truthfully or not, that they've finally exterminated this enemy, but General Tor is convinced that without an outside force to fight against, the Komato will eventually turn on each other.]]
* ''VideoGame/YouAreNotTheHero'' is a deconstruction of the KleptomaniacHero. [[PlayerCharacter Petula]] doesn't like the heroes, even [=BEFORE=] they break into her home and steal her pendant. And once they do, she follows them wherever they go to get it back.
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' deconstructs the western outlaw life heavily:
** Life as an outlaw is neither fun or romantic. The gang constantly move from place to place and live in perpetual fear and paranoia of the outside world and even each other, [[spoiler:which is what destroys them in the end.]]
** Dutch's IdiotHero plan to pull [[OneLastJob one big score]] and then leave in the chaos is woefully unworkable. There's nothing they can realistically do to secure enough money to provide for twenty-plus people, nevermind get them all out of the country and set up new lives elsewhere. All their attempts do is get them into deeper and deeper shit, and the authorities pull more and more resources and manpower to hunt them down.
** [[HiddenDepths Most of the gang have talents and skills they could easily put to honest lives]] if only they weren't trapped in a futile cycle of crime. Javier is a skilled hunter and fisherman and can also play the guitar very well. Mary-Beth is a talented writer [[spoiler:and true enough becomes a novelist in the epilogue.]] And Swanson the alcoholic clergyman [[spoiler:moves to New York, kicks his habit and becomes a respected priest.]]
* ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' deconstructs HumanityIsInfectious. If robots were to gain emotions, it's not going to be all positive. There's going to be a whole lot of ugliness as well: hate, racism, jealousy, obsession, fear and existential dread and despair. There's also no clear answer as to what "humanity" is, leading to some sides making up reasons as to why ''they're'' clearly the most human.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'' viciously deconstructs the AlienInvasion defense game ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' created. Aside from tropes that XCOM already deconstructed from the high casualty rate to the brutal nature of alien invasions. Xenonauts adds more to it by making it clear humanity is nothing more than another race waiting to be conquered and enslaved by the Praetors with no special traits, technology like psionics is well behond reach with no means of meaningfully countering it and any technology they salvage and reverse engineered will ultimately be countered. Making it worse is the fact the fight is effectively a HopelessWar, no matter how many ships and aliens they kill, the Praetors can leading this can has too many numbers and the only reason humanity "wins" is because of a stolen device they refuse to activate as the Praetors leading the attack will deploy a genocide option to effortlessly wipe humanity out.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'' deconstructs the idea of the Things from the previous [[VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar two]] [[VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash games]] with the Legion of Stationary. Things all are ''massive'' 3D real world objects in a world made of paper and are incredibly powerful, being able to shape the paper world around them, but are only used by Mario for several attacks and are entirely PlayedForLaughs. The members of the Legion of Stationary are basically Things... but these are '''not''' on your side, and their tremendous power is absolutely terrifying to the paper beings that encounter them. The Hole Punch and the Scissors show the level of danger such beings can present best, with the former punching out both the Sun to use it at its disco ball and the faces of forty Toads, and the latter being a ManOfKryptonite that can reduce ''anything'' into confetti if it so desires.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Greenleaf}}'' is a deconstruction of [[CorruptChurch mega-churches with a bit too much power.]] The show essentially demonstrates the hypocrisy of a family of God utilizing their wealth that they gain from their patrons for ultimately self serving purposes. Despite the family’s “holiness”, they seem a bit departed from reality and live in the lap of luxury.
** It could also be a deconstruction of the BigScrewedUpFamily trope, demonstrating just what the end result of generational abuse and manipulation does to a family. Nearly all of the children harmed, as adults, are either just barely functional, cynical and depressed, emotionally immature, or any combination of the three.
* Some [[RealityTV reality shows]], {{game show}}s and [[{{Documentary}} documentaries]] deconstruct fiction genres, or fiction tropes, by playing them out in real life. ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' deconstructs the {{Robinsonade}}. ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' deconstructs several tropes by testing their (mostly) scientific accuracy.
* The final few episodes of the 8th season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' end up being a deconstruction of several of the series' own tropes, turning much of the show's formula on its head.
** Jack's usual employment of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique ends up providing nothing for him, as despite giving the receiving mook one of the most brutal, gruesome torture sequences in the entire series, the man has been conditioned so well that he refuses to talk and tell Jack what he wants to know, forcing him to look for alternate means to gather information.
** Jack's entire shtick of [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight ignoring the law and trying to carry out justice]] deconstructs just how much "good" he truly accomplishes by doing so. Not only does he end up leaving a nasty trail of death and destruction but his endgame involves [[spoiler:assassinating the President of Russia, and regardless of his hand on the conspiracy he's still a the president of a foreign superpower. Successfully carrying it out could end up inciting a third world war - meaning Jack would end up making things '''worse''' than even the terrorists of the season were trying to.]]
** Jack's CowboyCop behavior is deconstructed over the course of his rampage, and as his acts get more ruthless and dangerous the show quits painting it in any sort of glorious light, showing that anyone carrying out some sort of vigilante killing spree would have to be pretty unhinged to do so regardless of whether the victims deserved it or not, ultimately barely being any better than those they're going after. [[spoiler:This gets made most evident during one scene where we see the aftermath of a roomful of henchman that Jack slaughtered offscreen. It's not portrayed as any sort of awesome moment of Jack laying down a CurbstompBattle against a bunch of minions; instead shown being as horrifying as it would be in real life.]]
** Jack killing those behind the death of his friends and loved ones in revenge gets deconstructed involves murdering [[spoiler:the man who ordered the death of Renee Walker,]] and though he succeeds in killing him the man is also a high-ranking member of the Russian government. This ends up ultimately ruining his life for good, as not only does it leave him a fugitive but it ends up having tragic repercussions come Day 9.
** Finally, Jack's ability to withstand untold amounts of punishment is deconstructed in the final episode when he's taken hostage by a squad of hitmen. Despite being caught in a car crash, getting shot multiple times, and receiving a nasty stab wound, Jack still attempts to fight his captors off. [[spoiler:They overpower him with little to no difficulty, as three trained men in peak condition can easily handle a man who's been so battered he can barely stand, leaving him at their mercy, and it's only through the timely arrival of his friends to call off the hit that he narrowly avoids getting executed.]]
* The B plot of ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E24EnglishAsASecondLanguage "English as a Second Language"]] is a deconstruction of ''Film/GoodWillHunting''. Abed pulls a paraphrasing of Ben Affleck's "the best part of my day" speech from ''Good Will Hunting'' on Troy, to try to get him to 'use his gift' and become a plumber. The next day, Abed turns to find that Troy is no longer sitting next to him in class... but not because he's inspired and has dropped out, but because Troy has switched seats because he's offended that his best friend would actually think the prospect of him just leaving without a word would be the best part of his day. Turns out, that would actually be a really horrible and offensive thing to say to a friend, no matter how gifted.
** Abed's main problem is that he doesn't explain WHY he thinks this would be good for Troy, unlike Affleck's character.
* ''Series/{{Continuum}}'' deconstructs everything about time travel in season three. In one episode, Liber8 learned that in their attempts to prevent their future from happening, they ended up helping to create an even worse one! Not only that, the fact that multiple people kept time-travelling to prevent multiple futures from happening left them wondering if anything they did in the present really mattered.
* ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'' is a deconstruction of the PsychoExGirlfriend and StalkerWithACrush tropes: Rebecca Bunch is a highly successful lawyer in New York, but she is also completely miserable, suffering from anxiety, insomnia, and depression. After accidentally running into her old ex-boyfriend Josh Chan, she remembers a time when she was truly happy...and so she decides to quit her job and move out to West Covina, California, where Josh lives. Rebecca has legitimate mental problems, however, and that isn't helped with her throwing away her medication, as well as lying to herself about why she moved to West Covina.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon "Aliens of London"]] deconstructs the Doctor's usual MO, in the classic series, of recruiting a young woman as a companion and taking her on adventures. Rose leaves her loved ones without saying goodbye, as usual. The TARDIS lands in the wrong time, as usual. Only this time, it means that Rose has been missing for a year, her ex-boyfriend (the only person who knew she'd left with the Doctor) suspected of murdering her, and her mother left distraught. The Doctor also has to explain to a police officer that his relationship with Rose isn't sexual.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]] deconstructs nearly everything we've come to know about the Tenth Doctor. No one believes him when he says his name is "John Smith". The passengers treat Ten's "normal" eccentricities and mannerisms with scorn and suspicion, so once it becomes clear that the MonsterOfTheWeek has possessed one of the passengers, he's immediately suspected as the host. The Doctor is completely unable to identify the monster. It turns literally ''all'' of his usual tactics against him, and literally the only reason the monster is foiled is by a last second DeusExMachina. [[spoiler:And we don't even know if the monster is actually ''dead''.]]
* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' was once "Deconstruction: The Show". For example, musicals were deconstructed with most of the musical numbers in the show taking place either as a stage performance or in somebody's imagination, and random "bursting into song" rarely turned out well. However, as the show has gone on, the creators have largely abandoned these rules, and on the contrary, "solve it through singing about it!" has become the show's go-to method for solving problems, no matter how serious. In addition, the show used to pride itself on its mockery of the VerySpecialEpisode and various high school stereotypes; now, the acclaim its received for its pro-LGBT storylines has led it to take being a "message" show more seriously (with varying levels of success).
* The finale of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' can easily be viewed as a deconstruction of a HUGE number of tropes, from TV shows to character tropes to audience reactions. It is so biting with how RealityEnsues that it is a main reason why the GrandFinale was so controversial, all along the irony of the episode name "Last Forever." A brief rundown goes as follows:
** [[spoiler: After so much time and effort with building Robin and Barney together and spending a season on a "legendary" wedding, their marriage lasted only three years because of fundamental differences they ignored, Robin's MarriedToTheJob and Barney had abandoned so many of his own interests to be with her that he had nothing to do. There is also significant {{foreshadow}}ing in retrospect that their relationship will not end well, with them riding off the belief that just because they love each other it will work out. Most weddings tend to be amazing but the success rate remains the same]].
** [[spoiler: After they divorce, Barney goes back to his womanizing ways and it is fully depicted as pathetic. His excuse for reverting after so much CharacterDevelopment is THE SAME excuse after his first relationship with Robin, that if he couldn't make it work with her there was no one else who could make it work. It also runs on the precept that characters can grow but they are still fundamentally the same person, changing that makes them someone else entirely. Him eventually fathering a child is the most logical end point for a man who has had as many sexual partners as he has]].
** [[spoiler: After they divorce, Robin's job takes her away from the city for long periods of time and whenever she visits the old gang, all she sees is her ex-husband picking up random skanks and two sets of friends being HappilyMarried with their own families. Seeing Ted with Tracy, Robin feels that choosing Barney over him was a mistake and missed out on real happiness by rejecting Ted. She spent several years estranged from the group before reconciling during Ted and Tracy's marriage]].
** [[spoiler: Marshall passes on a prestigious judgeship offer to give Lily a chance to fulfill her dream of working in the artistic field. He justifies it saying things will work out eventually. They do, but it takes several years and he had to suffer as a corporate lawyer once more before things start going their way. Lily appreciates the sacrifice but regrets being a part of why he is miserable now. Plus she takes Robin leaving the group the hardest, being one of her closest female friends]].
** [[spoiler: Ted meets Tracy, the love of his life and the mother of his children. They were absolutely perfect for each other, but their history isn't exactly a fairy tale as their engagement lasted years because of Ted being a stickler for the perfect wedding and Tracy getting pregnant with their daughter Penny around the same time of their first wedding date, with Luke following soon after. Tracy ended up dying from an unspecified illness, leaving this perfect couple only able to be together for 11 years. True love and a happy relationship don't always last forever. The final shot of the series is Ted reconsidering his love for Robin, as despite everything he went through to be happy with Tracy that doesn't mean he doesn't still love Robin in some way]].
** [[spoiler: At the end the group just drifts apart. It's a sad reality that many people have encountered in real life and is a harsh truth nobody wants to face, that life is unpredictable, everyone has a different path, and people do grow up and change. Nothing will ever be the same again.]]
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' adds some aspect of {{Mon}}s to ''Kamen Rider''. Except the monsters have no loyalty to their masters and will eat them, should the contract card be destroyed. The same thing would occur if the monsters aren't well-fed, meaning you must continue fighting to feed your mons, even if you want to quit -- and the more mons you have, the harder it is to feed them. Oh, there's another way to get around this; the mons also [[ImAHumanitarian eat humans]]. At least one Rider is more than happy to lets his mon eat random people. It also deconstructs the idea of Kamen Riders being {{phlebotinum rebel}}s, since the BigBad arranging the Riders to fight always has the upper hand, either by sending his overtly powered Kamen Rider to hunt down the rebels, or in a special movie, rally all the Riders who want to fight to kill the Riders who want to end the war. [[ThereCanOnlyBeOne Given the concept of the show]], the former greatly outweigh the latter.
** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' also deconstructs the {{Mons}} genre with its Invess, as it is made clear that the Invess are dangerous monsters and it's very easy to lose control of them. RealityEnsues when it turns out that creatures from another world carry diseases totally unknown to the human immune system, which in turn leads to the protagonists being alienated by the public for their participation in the Invess Game. And this in turn leads to another deconstruction of just what happens when you give teenagers superpowers, as one Rider actually sets Invess on the public after they call him out and a group of teens use them to rob banks [[ThenLetMeBeEvil because they might as well with all the bad rap going on]]. A villainous Rider deconstructs the entire premise of Kamen Rider by delivering the following line after [[spoiler: killing a monster who was actually a human transformed by the fruit of Helheim.]]
---> I destroyed a monster that was attacking our civilians. [..] I'd say that's pretty heroic.
** In ''Recap/ShurikenSentaiNinningerVsKamenRiderDrive Spring Vacation Combination Special'', The Ninningers defeat giant Roidmudes by using the [[HumongousMecha Otomo-nin]]. They are promptly arrested and labeled public enemies because of all of the collateral damage done, something that isn't discussed in a Super Sentai series but would be quite a real thing in a Kamen Rider series where the main characters are ''cops''.
* ''Series/MrRobot'' is a deconstruction of anti-capitalist anarchist beliefs, the use of terrorist actions to act on those beliefs, and the mindset of anyone who believed [[Literature/FightClub Project Mayhem]] was a good idea. While the first season is about a bunch of plucky weirdo hackers sticking it to TheMan by destroying the infrastructure of a major corporation, as the series goes on it shows that the people at the very top did not get to the top by how many fancy buildings they have or how many computers they own, but through the good old-fashioned way of stepping on people until they get what they want, and if the rules of society and the companies they own are taken away, they'll still be on top because they'll be smart enough to back up their power, and will just step on people more directly. Meanwhile everyone under them, their employees, anyone who associates with their employees, random families, the friends and loved ones of the plucky weirdo hackers, they will be the ones who suffer under societal collapse.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' serves largely as a deconstruction of the fairy-tale concept of receiving magical assistance from beings like a Fairy Godmother or a Genie. They can give you a shortcut that saves you from poverty, or give you the power to protect the people you love, but in the end, it always comes with a price.
* ''Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'' ended up deconstructing [[Manga/SailorMoon its own source material]] in increasingly surprising ways as it diverged from the original story, until, by the end, [[spoiler:Sailor Moon herself has become the OmnicidalManiac villain; the senshi's power source, the Silver Crystal, turns out to have really been an ArtifactOfDoom; and erstwhile villain Queen Beryl is revealed to have actually been trying to save the world (albeit only so she could rule it).]] The deconstruction arises here as a result of the audience's own [[MagicalGirl genre expectations]] about the senshi's PowerOfFriendship and the motivation of the {{Card Carrying Villain}}s, and how naïve and dangerous it'd actually be for the heroines to make such assumptions.
* ''Series/TheSopranos'' serves largely as a deconstruction of UndyingLoyalty in TheMafia. Easily one of the biggest deconstructions. Instead of portraying TheMafia as a synonym of loyalty (like ''Film/TheGodfather''), here is the opposite. [[spoiler:Very few members are really loyal (it's telling something that Silvio was the single most loyal member of the mob) and most of them are more than willing to betray their partners for vengeance, resentment or {{greed}}]].
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' experienced a successful Deconstruction with ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', and a mildly successful {{Reconstruction}} with ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]''.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''
** The show spent several seasons deconstructing the relationship between Sam and Dean, to the point where it is depicted as unhealthy and destructive. [[spoiler: In season nine, Dean made a deal with a rogue angel to save Sam, only to learn that he had been tricked and got Kevin killed in the process. Sam stayed angry with Dean for most of the season. And as a direct consequence of Sam going to extraordinary lengths to save Dean from the Mark of Cain and being a demon in season 10, they unleash The Darkness]]
** [[Recap/SupernaturalS15E10TheHeroesJourney ''The Heroes' Journey'']] deconstructs their fighting prowess, lucky moments, and other things they take for granted (not having regular colds or cavities, no serious money problems even though they don't work regular jobs) as PlotArmor, and shows us what happens when it gets taken away.
-->'''Sam:''' So could we ever actually pick locks, or was it [[spoiler: Chuck]] this whole time?
* ''The Ten Commandments'' miniseries shows the many hard choices that Moses had to make in following God: abandoning his family, alienating his adoptive mother, causing his blood brother to do a FaceHeelTurn, killing his most loyal comrade to enforce God's authority.
* ''Franchise/UltraSeries'':
** ''Series/UltramanNexus'' (and prequel movie ''Film/UltramanTheNext'') is a deconstruction of the usual {{Kaiju}} and ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' shows. It shows what will happen if giant aliens and monsters actually appeared in real life and [[ToServeMan no, it isn't pleasant]]. It also explores [[RealityEnsues the realities]] behind a human suddenly merging with an alien being to become a superhero and not every host takes it well, along with how people would react if they saw a giant humanoid being suddenly appear to battle the monsters. This is why Nexus is considered DarkerAndEdgier than most Tokusatsu as well as one of the darkest entries in the ''Ultra Series''.
*** The series' themes [[{{Homage}} were re-explored]] in the ''Series/UltramanX'' episode "Bond -Unite-", which had Xio's Lieutenant Sayuri Tachibana gain the power to become Ultraman Nexus [[spoiler:until the end of the episode, anyways]]. It features her children almost getting killed by the monster Bemular in Canada as well as having Tachibana try to cope with the fact that she suddenly could now transform into a giant superhero at will. The episode's MonsterOfTheWeek was even the Nexus monster Bugbuzun.
** Before it, ''Series/UltraQDarkFantasy'' deconstructs [[Series/UltraQ its 1966 original]] (which although a SciFiHorror series, sought to maintain a family-friendly tone the best it could), having many of its elements later used in ''Ultraman Nexus''. Both series were actually part of a project to reboot the franchise for an older audience [[WhatCouldHaveBeen that went nowhere]].
** ''Series/UltramanLeo'' did it before it was cool, with lots of death and violence. It deconstructed almost every happy trope the Ultra Series had, despite coming right of the back of ''Series/UltramanTaro'', a DenserAndWackier kids' comedy! Not suprisingly, ''Ultraman Leo'' is thought of as the darkest of the Showa era entries in the franchise.
** ''Series/UltrasevenX'' took what Nexus did UpToEleven and combined it with ''Series/UltraSeven'', a more sci-fi series [[DarkerAndEdgier far more serious and thought-provoking]] than any Showa ''Ultra Series''. It also deconstructs SpyFiction genre since the defense team in the series turns out to be EvilAllAlong, [[CrapsaccharineWorld the city population being bizzare]], and the Seven X's design is a [[{{Heel}} darker take]] on both the Ultramen and [[ProfessionalWrestling the professional wrestlers]].
* In a very unusual example, as the vast majority of deconstructions are very cynical in nature, ''Series/TheWestWing'' (a highly idealistic show) could be seen as a deconstruction of the popular conventions of what constitutes political immorality: the Press Secretary spins information not to cover up the government's guilt, but to protect the jobs of heads of state and militaries from the influence of political whims; politicians make unsavory deals with amoral lobbyists and scheming congressmen not for personal gain, but to rescue legislation that would help out thousands of people; the President's speeches and public appearances are carefully scripted not to make him look good, but to prevent confusion and possible panic from people who don't have Masters' in public policy; etc, etc.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' deconstructed the whole [[WomanScorned woman scorned]] trope in season 5. [[spoiler: a witch was cheated on, so she used her powers to a) trap the mistress in stone and use her for b) an anchor to an terrible afterlife that she created for supernatural beings while c) trapping her ex in a tomb for over two thousand years, in the hopes that he will take an immortality cure that will ensure his death and send him to the Other Side. Considering the lengths that she took to get her revenge, and the attacks that she launched on the main characters, it is clear that getting payback on a man can turn someone into a bigger bad guy than he was.]]
* ''Series/StrangerThings'' deconstructs the EldritchAbomination with its BigBad, the Mind Flayer. Yes, the Mind Flayer is an immensely powerful, wholly unique being, but because it's so powerful and thus so used to getting what it wants, it [[ManChild essentially has the mindset of a toddler]]. It doesn't know how to deal with resistance or setbacks to its plans, only being able to throw a temper tantrum in response. And since it's so unique and self-reliant, it has [[NoSocialSkills no idea how to interact with and blend into a social species like humans]], to the point where it has to effectively leave its hosts on autopilot most of the time, because when it takes them over directly, it [[PaperThinDisguise can't act in a way that doesn't immediately clue every human in to what it actually is]]. Furthermore, since its sheer power makes it used to easy victory, whenever it is significantly harmed, or ''especially'' defeated in one of its plans, it will launch into a full blown [[EvilIsPetty petty revenge]] mode from which it will never leave, [[StupidEvil even when the petty revenge is severely detrimental to its long-term goals]]. In short, while it is powerful and dangerous, it also showcases all the ways that existing as an EldritchAbomination would [[RealityEnsues limit a person psychologically]].
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2019'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone2019S2E9TryTry Try Try]]" the plot can be seen as for ''Film/GroundhogDay'' and loops like it depicts in general. Mark has concluded no one else matters or is even truly real, since after each day that version of them simply vanishes when it's reset. Thus he's grown to feel no compunction about murder or rape. Unlike Phil in the film, he's too self-centered to change and thus it's implied will be stuck in the loop forever.
* ''Series/TheWire''
** Mainly deconstructs the PoliceProcedural, as the showrunners sought to create the most realistic, intelligent, and well-researched version they could. They also had a brutally honest message about the failure of the War On Drugs (instead of praising it like every other CopShow).
** It also deconstructs the CriminalProcedural, showing with equal intensity the lives of characters on both sides of the law.
** Finally, the show deconstructs UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream by showing how corrupt our institutions are, and any attempt to reform them is crushed by the system. The most positive embodiment of the dream is the character of Omar Little, who values self-sufficiency and individualism, all while being an inveterate criminal who has helped his community far more than the capitalist system has.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' takes a harsh look at the KidHero. Every Half-blood is cursed to live a miserable life. They're all seen as problem kids and troublemakers due to the dyslexia and ADHD caused by their divine blood, so they never fit in among mortals, and at the same time they live in constant fear of monsters attacking them any time they're not at camp or another guarded place. They're lucky to reach maturity and it's almost unheard of for any of them to settle down and live a happy life outside of camp.
** ParentalAbandonment is brutally taken apart, as the struggle of the hero's mortal parent to raise a child alone is made very clear. Even after reaching Camp Half-blood, it can take weeks, months, and sometimes, ''years'' before a demi-god's divine parent will take notice and claim them. The driving force behind Luke and his follower's rebellion against the gods is the neglect and seeming abandonment they've suffered, and even though Percy hates Luke the most out of the good guys, [[JerkassHasAPoint he acknowledges that Luke has every right to be angry with the gods]].
* ''{{Literature/Tadgifauna}}'' is a deconstruction of both MonsSeries and the teenage hero. Having a CoolPet monster fight other monsters is a lot less fun when NonLethalKO isn't in play. Haru's relatively young age and emotional immaturity leaves him ill-prepared to deal with the stress, violence and death he is forced to experience. Haru has more in common with Shinji Ikari than Ash Ketchum.
* Much of Creator/KurtVonnegut's work qualifies as this, in particular ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' and ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions''. The former is a deconstruction of the war novel and specifically the dozens of WWII novels and movies produced by his generation. In the opening chapter (which functions more as an introduction of sorts) Vonnegut relates the story of how he struggled with the book for years before the wife of a close friend gave him the idea of how to go about doing it. ''Breakfast of Champions'', meanwhile, is a deconstruction of both the micro-world (20th century novels focusing on promoting the eccentricities of small towns and cities in the vein of Sinclair Lewis) and also the oddball science fiction morality play Vonnegut himself seemingly created.
* ''Literature/MadameBovary'' is a fierce deconstruction of romance novels. Madame Bovary reads romance novels all the time, and [[ThinksLikeARomanceNovel comes to expect to live her own life that way]], except her attitudes and behaviors destroy her life. She's a StepfordSmiler who constantly buys things to try and alleviate her own loneliness (it doesn't work), leaves her husband for another man who she expects will sweep her off her feet (he doesn't), and when she finally commits suicide, she expects arsenic to be a PerfectPoison that lets her die romantically (she spends several days in agonizing pain before she croaks).
* ''Literature/TheWarlordChronicles'' by Bernard Cornwell does a combination of this and {{Demythification}} in regards to the KingArthur legends.
* Boris Strugatsky's ''Literature/ThePowerlessOfThisWorld'' is a deconstruction of much of his own and his late brother's earlier works. Perhaps most prominently, "the Sensei", who is a [[TheMentor wise old mentor]] (a fairly typical character for many Strugatsky novels), turns out to have been not only a TricksterMentor, but also [[spoiler:the initiator of ThePlan that dictated much of the plot and was aimed at [[DieOrFly forcing the main character to unlock his full abilities]]]]. It succeeded, but not before making the main character a nervous wreck, inducing quite a BitterSweetEnding and causing much remorse to the mentor himself. Additionally, the topic of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressor the Progressors]] is briefly brought up; one of the characters muses that the Sensei might be acting as one on Earth, and that he had, despite some occasional successes, failed miserably.
* ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' was the first major work to continue the story of ''Franchise/StarWars'' after the events of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. It begins by immediately overthrowing all the implied gains from the end of the movie and establishing that this has only been the first big step in a war that will still go on for a long time and demand a lot of further personal sacrifices from the heroes. Luke starting a new Jedi Order and Han and Leia retiring from the Rebellion to be happily married with kids? Not very likely to happen.
* ''Literature/HardToBeAGod'' deconstructs medieval chivalry, fantasy settings, the supposed glamour of royalty and nobility, and well-intentioned meddling by developed countries (in this case, civilizations: an idealist Commies InSpace benevolent space-faring nation ideologically similar to ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s Federation). The European 'Middle Ages' overlapped with the last century/centuries of the 'Dark Ages' for a reason: a CrapsackWorld is a given there.
* The ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''The Crooked World'' by Steve Lyons is a deconstruction of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-esque cartoons, as the Doctor lands in a cartoon world and begins to influence its inhabitants' behaviors towards naturalism.
* The Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel ''The Indestructible Man'' by Simon Messingham is a deconstruction of all Gerry Anderson's work, asking ''why'' Jeff Tracy founded the Series/{{Thunderbirds}}, what SHADO personnel would ''really'' be like (yes ''Series/{{UFO}}'' was DarkerAndEdgier to begin with, but Messingham takes it further), and how the ordinary people of the Supermarionation world might feel about so much money being channeled into AwesomeButImpractical vehicles. Most notably, the Indestructible Man is a CaptainErsatz Series/{{Captain Scarlet|AndTheMysterons}} who feels [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul detached from humanity]] and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever wishes he was able to die]].
* [[http://www.nicolagriffith.com/troll.html "A Troll Story"]] by Nicola Griffith, in which a Viking warrior faces off against a troll. He wins, all right, but the story abruptly takes a deconstructionist turn: he [[spoiler:[[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes insane]] from the troll's final curse, which renders him able to understand that [[NotSoDifferent there's no essential moral difference]] between the troll's slaughter of Vikings and his own slaughter of innocents in the towns he's raided.]]
* ''Ring For Jeeves'' could be considered Creator/PGWodehouse's deconstruction of his own stories. The usual romantic comedy character-relation tropes are there, but the world they live in is remarkably different. All of Wodehouse's stories take place in a GenteelInterbellumSetting, but ''Ring For Jeeves'' explores what would happen if time actually ''progressed''. World War II has happened, Britain is in the throes of social upheaval which separates Jeeves and Bertie (Bertie is sent to a school that teaches the aristocracy how to fend for themselves), poverty and suicide and graphic death are acknowledged, and Jeeves even admits to having "dabbled in" World War I. The book's setting, Rowchester Abbey, is falling apart at the seams and the characters who inhabit it start to feel like a pocket of old-fashioned happiness in a darkening world. In case any doubters still exist about 3/4 through the book, there's Constable Wyvyrn's musings ''about just how much the world has changed.''
* ''Greaves, This is Serious'', by William Mingin, is another PG Wodehouse deconstruction. UpperClassTwit Ferdinand Brewster begins to grow dissatisfied with his carefree life of idle frivolities, and begins questioning his valet Greaves to see if they ever do anything... productive. The answer is quite [[IronicHell chilling]].
* ''Goshawk Squadron'' by Creator/DerekRobinson attacks the popular view of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI air combat which, rather than dueling "Knights of the Air", actually involved under-trained pilots diving out of the sun and machine-gunning their opponent in the back before he had a chance to defend himself.
* ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' was a deconstruction of the KingArthur mythos, which a lot of Brits took offense to. (It was compared, at one point, to defecating on a national treasure.)
* ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald could be the earliest deconstruction of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. It shows the rich and happy as people who are [[StepfordSmiler empty on the inside]] and the fight between new rich and old rich lifestyles, particularly with Jay Gatsby.
* The ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'' series by R. Scott Bakker was an attempted deconstruction of what Bakker considers the crux of fantasy -- a ''meaningful'' universe with metaphysical purpose. One of the premises of the series is "What if you had a fantasy world where Old Testament-style morality, with all of its arbitrary taboos and cruelties (like damnation), was as true in the same way that gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared?". Whether he successfully accomplishes this is heavily debated.
* ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities''. To many, the famous opening line ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...") seems [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny cliché]], but one needs to look at it in the context of UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. In the years following it, revisionists on both sides relied heavily on propaganda, romanticizing their own side as undeniably good, and demonizing the other side as undeniably bad. ''A Tale of Two Cities'' makes the assumption that each side was absolutely right and runs with it, and so both the aristocrats and the revolutionaries have, among their ranks, noble, honorable people fighting for what they believe is right, and sadists who just want some bloodshed.
* Agnes Nutter from ''Literature/GoodOmens'' is a deconstruction of the Seer. On the one hand, we see that she is always right, but sometimes her predictions are oddly specific ([[YeOldeButcheredEnglish don't buye Betamacks]]), too ahead of their time (jogging helps people to live longer), centered on her relatives in the future (she predicted for 11/22/1963 that a house in a small English city would break down, but doesn't mention the assassination of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy on the same day - one of her relatives might be in this city at that day, but apparently, none of them wanted to go to Dallas), and she didn't bother to order her predictions or explain them in detail. On the other hand, she uses her power to successfully WriteBackToTheFuture (and also to avoid people responsible for delivering her message to snoop), and since she can predict ''everything'', this includes knowing when Anathema will read a specific prophecy - so it always fits.
* ''Literature/CountAndCountess'' is perhaps a deconstruction of the vampire romance genre--specifically, why it would [[{{Pun}} just plain suck]] to fall in love with someone predisposed to bloodlust.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' is one huge deconstruction of WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld, as the five (later six) heroes discover that WarIsHell and how badly it's messed them up. The series focuses on deconstructing tropes about heroes and morality, as the characters begin to do whatever they have to do to win, becoming more and more morally ambiguous and less and less heroic.
** KidHero: It's obvious from the get-go that the kids, having no sort of military knowledge or practical connections whatsoever, are pretty much just making it up as they go and doing the best they can with what they have, and they're closer to ChildSoldiers than anything else.
** TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin: Not a full deconstruction, as the kids actually do manage to save their home planet, but the fact that they're massively outgunned is a major element in the story, and the kids comment from time to time that only rarely are their missions actually successful. One of the major messages of the series is that, despite idealistic platitudes, victory ultimately goes to those who are ruthless and desperate enough to take the most extreme measures, not to the morally superior.
** ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: Initially, what with this being an invasion and occupation, the kids consider armed resistance to be their only option. But it quickly becomes apparent that Yeerks are NotSoDifferent from the Animorphs themselves, capable of being reasoned and negotiated with, and at times a pacifistic and diplomatic solutions work out.
** WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Hork-Bajir, Taxxons and Yeerks are pretty fucking scary aliens to look at, and the kids initially assume them all to be evil monsters. However, by the end of the series, it's obvious that despite outward differences, the three species actually have much more in common with humankind than is apparent at first glance.
*** PuppeteerParasite gets it twice over: starting in the early books, the Yeerks are presented as unambiguously evil, and the series plays up [[AndIMustScream how horrifying]] it would be for a host to be fully-conscious but unable to control themselves, forced to do horrible things to help the invasion. However, around book 18 the author starts to question if any species can be AlwaysChaoticEvil, and incidentally, what is it like to be a blind, slug-like creature who can never really interact with the world, ''except'' by making other beings its slave?
** BigGood / ProudWarriorRace: While the premise of the series is that the kids are holding out until the [[SpaceElves Andalites]] come to Earth to fight off the Yeerk invasion, by halfway through the series it's become clear that the Andalites don't care about Earth or particularly any of the species they are "saving", but instead just want to exterminate the Yeerks, no matter the cost. A major part of the conflict in the last few books is not just fighting the Yeerks' [[spoiler: open invasion]], but making sure that the Andalites don't decide to [[KillEmAll quarantine Earth]] and [[WouldBeRudetosayGenocide "cleanse" it of the Yeerk plague]].
* ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'' can easily be read as a Deconstruction of the then-popular "Moonlight and Magnolias" novel of the Old South and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar; in a real "Moonlight and Magnolias" book, the focus would be on Melanie and Ashley, with Scarlett and Rhett being their EvilCounterpart couple.
* Daniel Abraham's ''Long Price Quartet'' books are deconstructive in showing the implications of incredibly powerful magic in a society, versus those who don't have it. The "Andat" as created by the Khaiem cities are literally the embodiment of ideas into humanoid form, such as "Removing-the-part-that-continues" (nicknamed "Seedless"). Seedless, for example, can cause the seeds in cotton blooms to all spontaneously fall out of them or cause all the seeds in an enemy nation's crops to fall out before the appropriate time, or even cause all of their pregnant women to miscarry. This plays out as you would realistically expected, with technological advancement in the Khaiem cities curbed because they have the Andat as a source of wealth and power, and all the Khaiem cities being monarchies because the most important criteria for rule is whether you control the "poet" who controls the Andat. It's contrasted throughout the series with the Galt, a nation without Andat that instead had to rely on technology for power and prosperity, and is more advanced in many ways than the Khaiem - they have steam engines, for example.
* In J R R Tolkien's own introduction to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', he states that if the novel were a real life one, the Free People would have tried to create their own version of Sauron's ring, and that both sides would have held hobbits in contempt!
** Rather, that's Professor Tolkien's response to the idea that his story is allegorical. He despised allegory as a rule, and did not take kindly to people trying to equate the War of the Ring with World War II. Thus this statement is actually a TakeThat at such readers for thinking so highly of themselves as to read themselves into the Fellowship role, whereas Tolkien thought of the Allies in more the Saruman role, particularly after the atomic bombings of Japan.
* Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/RevoltingRhymes'' is a morbid deconstruction of famous fairy tales. Goldilocks is eaten by the bears (as they would do in real life), the wolf decides to blow up the third pig's brick house with dynamite, the seven dwarfs steal the magic mirror from the Queen to predict the outcome of horse races,...
* "My Stepmother, Myself", written by Garrison Keillor for his book of essays "Happy to Be Here", deconstructed the fairy tales ''Literature/SnowWhite'', ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'' and ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}''. Among other things, Snow White's husband turned out to be a necrophiliac, Hansel was TheLoad, and after living in a castle where servants did everything for her, Cinderella came to regard her stepmother as her new best friend.
* ''Literature/TheGiver'' is a deconstruction of utopias and their necessary maintenance. In the slow revelation of the underlying rules The Community is built upon, it becomes apparent that played realistically utopias may become dystopias of their own.
* George R. R. Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' series heavily deconstructs a ton of tropes: AChildShallLeadThem is a trope that results in inexperienced teenagers leading nations to war, or having other, more ambitious underlings undermine them at every turn. The KnightInShiningArmor is just a rich man that can afford armor and weapons and more often than not act like thugs. Nobility abuses the law and their power to avoid the consequences of their actions. There are loyal men, honest and brave, but these are far outnumbered by a massive number of scumbags that are simply there for power. And the knightly order that protects the rest of the world from a horrific threat? Millennia after the first appearance of that threat no one believes that they're real anymore, and instead there are only a tenth as many as there should be, and many of them are criminals or men that are there because they have no other choice.
* ''Literature/SnowCrash'' is quite a humorous deconstruction of the CyberPunk genre, and also a TakeThat to anarcho-capitalism and American libertarianism. There's no such thing as the USA anymore and the government is basically just the post office and the FBI (everything else has been privatised, including ''the military''); all that's left is just a collection of motley city-states run by various corporations. Pizza delivery is very dangerous work, and not just because [[TheMafia your boss]] will put a bullet in the back of your skull if the pizza arrives cold.
* ''Literature/TheOnionField'' by Joseph Wambaugh deconstructs many tropes inherent to the PoliceProcedural: The crime itself takes up very little of the book, with the rest devoted to buildup and the ensuing trial. There is no mystery as to what happened or who committed the crime, but the case is dragged out over months anyway. One of the defendants is innocent, save as an unwilling accomplice (who made multiple escape attempts from his partner) but he is never portrayed as a good person (and he is actually guilty of many more crimes, though nothing approaching murder). Rather than try to land the fairest sentence for each defendant, the prosecution wants--and gets--the death penalty for both, though both are overturned when California abolishes the death penalty several years later. Instead of eloquent, soulful arguments about why their clients deserve to live, the defense attorneys use underhanded methods that border on badgering both judge and witness. Prosecuting attorneys are driven from their profession in disgust. The star witness, a police officer, is very nearly DrivenToSuicide by both PTSD and some fellow officers who blame either him or his deceased partner for not doing enough to prevent their own kidnapping. Closure comes not when the defendants are sent to prison, but when the trial is finally over and everyone involved is able to move on with their lives. Understandable, as the crime in question took place in RealLife.
* ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' deconstructs several Christmas tropes, and in particular heavily critiques both ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' and the story of Wenceslas. In the former, Albert explains that the match girl's death serves to make others grateful for what little they have because at least they're not freezing to death in the snow. Death is having none of it and uses LoopholeAbuse to bring her back to life before leaving her in the safe hands of the Watch. In the latter, the king is trying to give food to a man who ''already has a meal'' and would just have to throw the king's gift away. It's pointed out that the king is only being charitable to make himself feel better and that one night of charity doesn't make up for being a neglectful ruler the rest of the year.
* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/TheStarsAreColdToys'' deconstructs the idealistic utopia of Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' Literature/NoonUniverse with the [[HumanAlien Geometer]] society. On the surface, the world of the Geometers is a perfect utopia of what humanity might one day achieve: CrystalSpiresAndTogas, advanced technology, post-scarcity (to the point where they can waste resources on making their continents look like geometric shapes, hence the name for their race), everyone happily working towards the common good and enjoying life, the goal towards universal Friendship with other races. Then you dig deeper and find out that kids are taken from their parents at a young age and raised in boarding schools, anyone who starts doubting the wisdom of the Mentors or the philosophy of Friendship is deemed sick and placed in "sanatoriums" (basically, forced labor camps, who maintain those geometrically shaped coastlines), most of the food and drink on the planet is laced with tranquilizers to keep violence and base emotions down. Oh, and their current state of society was achieved after they have wiped out another sentient species on their planet (but they feel really bad about it, honest). And how do they turn ''non-friends'' (they don't have a word for "enemy") into friends? They send in agents to regress an alien culture to a more primitive state, then appear as emissaries from the heavens and offer their help to the primitives. As always, they believe that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans.
* ''Literature/TheGunsOfTheSouth'' deconstructs a few tropes.
** DeliberateValuesDissonance: The racism presented by the Confederates is [[FairForItsDay a product of its time]], where they believe that slavery is the only way that whites and blacks can peacefully co-exist. The members of the [[AmoralAfrikaner AWB]], meanwhile, are fanatical, reactionary, and virulently racist. Once the Confederate leaders see books from the 21st century, they're absolutely horrified that the AWB lied to them, seeing that they won't be VindicatedByHistory, and Robert E. Lee pushes even harder for abolition. This, of course, causes the AWB to turn on them and the two sides go to war.
** ThisIsMyBoomstick: The AWB present many future devices to the Confederates, but until explanations start coming out much of it is accepted as simply an advanced part of their own world; this produces a funny moment early on, for example, when Rhoodie is somewhat disconcerted at Lee's matter-of-fact reaction to seeing an MRE (Lee notes that he's familiar with the Union practice of desiccating vegetables for army use but hadn't been aware that the Federals had extended it to entire meals). It is not until Rhoodie explicitly states that he is from the future that Lee even begins to suspect such an event. Something the time travelers don't anticipate though is the Army's interest in field rations and instant coffee.
** GivingRadioToTheRomans: The AWB come to 1865 equipped with modern guns, mortars, barbed wire, and landmines, as well as modern medical tools such as nitroglycerin pills. During their stay in the past, they also transform the small town of Rivington, North Carolina, into a veritable fortress. Once the AWB and Confederates go to war, their modern technology doesn't stand up to Confederates' superior tactics. After their time machine is destroyed, a few stranded Afrikaners promise to help rebuild 21st century technology for the Confederates, ensuring they will remain the most advanced nation in the world. The plan also has the unintended consequence of the Union and presumably other nations acquiring and replicating the same weapons.
* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': This the book's goal in regards to fantasy fiction, turning the most basic idea — good versus evil — on its head. Some readers feel it fails though, since the "villains" are not so bad, with the "heroes" having very nasty sides in some cases.
* ''[[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas Njal's Saga]]'' deconstructs the RatedMForManly Scandinavian male ideal. The men in the story are quick to resort to DisproportionateRetribution over perceived affronts to each others' manhoods and their feuding leads to a ViciousCycle of offence, destruction and prolonged bloodshed. For example, at one point a hard-won legal settlement breaks down because a beardless man is offended by a silk garment sent as a gift; it's not even clear if the sender actually intended to slight him. It is made clear throughout that much of the death and destruction in the story could have been avoided if these viking men weren't so pathetically thin-skinned and lacking in self-control. This example is OlderThanPrint.
* ''Literature/TheRiseOfKyoshi''
** F.C. Yee purposefully set out to deconstruct the process of finding the next Avatar, and explores what happens when things go awry:
*** Whenever a figure of authority dies unexpectedly, without a contingency plan in case of any delay in finding their replacement (Jianzhu at one point muses that it's the first time ''in the history of the Avatar Cycle'' that the new Avatar has gone undiscovered for so long), chaos will inevitably ensue. This is what happens after Kuruk's death, especially since he died unexpectedly at the age of ''thirty-three'' and obviously the reincarnation of him is going to take a while to find, raise to adulthood, and train. There's just no one to fill the hole he leaves in his wake, so the Fifth Nation pirates grow bolder and Jianzhu takes it upon himself to fix the power vacuum. The power consequently goes to Jianzhu's head and he starts going off the deep end.
*** Finding the Avatar as a child should be fairly simple with the Air Nomad method, right? You're just trying to find a kid who's drawn to all four of the toys picked out by the Avatar's past lives. Jianzhu and Kelsang find out that this isn't the case when looking for the Earth Kingdom kid; the Earth Kingdom is the largest and most populous of the Four Nations, so having ''every'' seven year old in ''every'' village play with the toys takes a lot of time. Also, in the world outside the humble and theocratic Air Nomad culture, young children like toys and don't like for them to be taken away when they get to play with them, and parents don't take too kindly to being told their kids aren't the savior of the world.
*** In addition, the reason they're using the Air Nomad method is because the Earth Kingdom one failed. Due to how large and populated it is, the Earth Kingdom uses geomantic rituals to pinpoint the location of the new Avatar right down to their doorstep. But these rituals prove useless if the new Avatar has a lifestyle that prevents them from staying in one place for too long, as Kyoshi and her ''daofei'' parents did.
** We also get a sobering deconstruction of GiveHimANormalLife. Kyoshi's parents left her in the care of a villager in Yokoya Port, with an OrphansPlotTrinket of resources that she could use when she grew older, or simply keep to remember them by. As Lek suggests later on, they might have thought their daughter would have a better (and longer) life amongst law-abiding folk...except that the villager immediately reneged on the deal once they left, and threw Kyoshi out into the streets. She was forced to live off garbage scraps to survive as no one wanted an extra mouth to feed, or to take responsibility for the daughter of criminals. Understandably Kyoshi ''loathes'' her parents for (as she sees it) abandoning her; far from wanting to find them again, her first reaction when she hears they're dead is relief and satisfaction.
** The BloodierAndGorier aspect of getting hit by bending attacks is essentially what would realistically happen when you get hit by them. People getting hit by pillars of stone as big as them at high speeds warrants shattered bones, not AmusingInjuries[=/=]BloodlessCarnage unlike the animated shows. This would be carried over to the sequel.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* Near the start of the 2004 film ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', many superheroes get into legal trouble because of the [[HeroInsurance collateral damage]] they cause. A deleted scene shows how difficult it would be to hide super powers (specifically, invulnerability). At a barbecue, Mr. Incredible accidentally hits his fingers with a large knife, ruining the knife and leaving him unharmed. To cover up what happened, he begins screaming, douses his hand in ketchup, wraps an apron around his hand, and he and his wife quickly leave the party. Bob then complains in the car about the necessity of wearing bandages on his hand for months, wearing scar makeup, and coming up with a surgery story to explain his still-intact fingers.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' gives the Joker an opportunity to deconstruct Batman in a flashback where he [[spoiler: tortures Robin until he learns all of Batman's secrets]]:
-->"I must admit, it's sadly anti-climatic. Behind all the sturm and Batarangs, you're just a little boy in a playsuit, crying for Mommy and Daddy! It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. [[{{Beat}} ...]] [[KickTheDog Oh what the heck, I'll laugh anyway!]]"
** Joker himself then gets deconstructed to devastating effect by Terry [=McGinnis=], the second Batman, who calls the Joker out for being nothing more than a pathetic idiot who could never overcome his childish fixation with the original Batman and for not even being that funny. Joker does not take this well at all.
** It also deconstructs the consequences of being a child sidekick; as [[spoiler: the torture scene]] depicts what happens when they are caught as well, the consequences of which are extremely painful.
* The 2012 straight to DVD animated feature ''WesternAnimation/SupermanVsTheElite'', based on the story ''What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, And The American Way?'' deconstructs both sides of the no killing vs. pro-killing ideologies that bedevil the more mainstream superheroes as well as their anti-hero counterparts. In the first half we see a deconstruction of Superman's no killing rule by seeing what happens when you aren't willing to get your hands dirty protecting the innocent. In the second half we see a deconstruction of "shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out" ideology of the Elite (themselves a deconstruction and mock up of NinetiesAntiHero[=es=]) by showing what happens when people become too kill-crazy and can no longer differentiate when to kill and when not to.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', AlmightyMom is deconstructed through Imelda. All the Riveras defer to her but the stubbornness, pride and inability to let go of grudges that comes with this trope ends up being Imelda's FatalFlaw and causes problems for her family and herself. Like unintentionally nearly causing [[spoiler: Héctor]] to undergo [[DeaderThanDead the final death]] or giving her blessing to Miguel under the condition that he never plays music again, leading him to run away.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/CitizenKane'' was in many ways an attack on the narrative style of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood as well as several American types like the SelfMadeMan and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. Namely that the idea of defining life in terms of social success and wealth ultimately makes you value people less and makes you desire to control and buy people around you. Likewise the characters are not entirely one type and single dimension, with the main character being an unpleasant, manipulative JerkAss who never learns his lesson even in his old age and who leaves behind several disappointed friends and broken loved ones and who eventually dies alone. The harshness of the story, the lack of easy conflict resolution and the ultimate sense of the futility of life in the wake of the passage of time was quite a contrast to the sentimental and life-affirming stories in films at the time, good films included.
* ''Film/Joker2019'' deconstructs ComicBook/TheJoker himself. Not only does the film '''totally de-glamorize''' the entire idea behind ComicBook/TheJoker, [[PracticallyJoker the case of many expies of the character]], and all the [[invoked]] [[EvilIsCool coolness]], toughness, badassery, lethality and [[EvilGenius smartness]] that [[Film/TheDarkKnight his previous counterpart]] was best known for, it make him look vulnerable, mentally ill, awkward, pitable, and absolutely pathetic. Arthur is not an ultra-intelligent criminal mastermind who regularly terrorizes Gotham with outlandishly destructive schemes (at least, [[AmbiguousEnding not yet]]). He becomes a serial killer over the course of the story, but he's nowhere near the super-terrorist the comics make him out to be. This makes sense as Arthur lives in PerpetualPoverty, and has NoSocialSkills; he could never gather the resources nor the manpower to deliberately corral people over to his side and enact violence upon the populace. The only reason he's as much of a "threat" as he is is because people impose and project their own fears and/or needs upon him--everyone assumes that the three Wayne employees were murdered to make a political statement, and are quite surprised when Arthur explains he killed them "[[AssholeVictim because they were awful]]" - and though he ''did'', the in-universe populace thinks he's just doing it for shits and giggles when he had very good reason to do so. His seemingly random murders of people close to him are the result of slights (perceived or otherwise), not because he [[ForTheEvulz feels like it]]. All these attributes make him the most realistic version of the character ''ever filmed'', eventually showing that, by the end of the day, someone would have to go through ''hell'' to become as twisted as The Joker. It's to the point where neurocriminologist Adrian Raine, who studied the psychology of violent criminals for over 40 years, was floored by [[https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/10/joker-joaquin-phoenix-psychology how realistic Arthur's transformation into a violent sociopath is depicted]].
* Creator/ChristopherNolan[='s=] ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' plays out very much like a deconstruction of [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Batman/Bruce Wayne]]: the tragedy that started his journey, learning the ropes, confronting evil beyond his understanding, losing the woman he loved who ironically didn't love him back and then spending 8 years morbidly mourning her due to not knowing the truth of her feelings, the physical damage done to his body and the consequences of not taking care of himself during 8 years of exiled depression, etc. Basically: taking apart the romanticism of Batman by showing just how screwed up (though well meaning) a person Bruce Wayne would actually be. [[spoiler:Fortunately Nolan's Bruce eventually lets go of his pain and moves on with his life, unlike his comic book and DCAU counterparts - see below in Western Animation]].
* Creator/MartinScorsese[='s=] ''Film/TheIrishman'' deconstructs Scorsese Mafia movies, and the ''entire'' Mafioso mythos, quite possibly one of the bitterest, most depressing deconstructions ever filmed of the genre:
** If associating with hostile criminals, making tough decisions, ruining your life, and killing a great friend is not enough, in the end, all you get in the modern day is to create resentment among your loved ones and live a lonely life.
** [[https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191107-is-the-irishman-the-end-of-the-gangster-movie-as-we-know-it This article]] emphasizes how the movie does a very good job of deconstructing the aftermath of the classic American Mafia during the last half-hour of the film, particularly from Mafia movies like ''Film/GoodFellas'' where the aftermath of said lifestyle in modern times is never shown. The result of such deconstruction is an incredibly depressing epilogue to the genre. In many ways, the film undermines what came before, and the central characters don't come out in a blaze of glory. Instead, [[AlasPoorVillain they march towards a lonely and desiccated retirement where everything they have worked for means nothing for modern times]]. The movie [[invoked]][[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped drives home relentlessly]] how men like Frank, Russell, Jimmy and other wiseguys are nothing but a pitiful shadow of what they once were. In other words, they are just people who belong to the past. All these attributes make this film one of the ''biggest'' deconstructions ever made of the Mafia genre, which is especially remarkable considering that Scorsese's own ''Film/GoodFellas'' was already a deconstruction of its own film genre, yet this film takes things [[UpToEleven to a new level]] of deconstruction, especially in the downfall of the classic American Mafia.
** Frank Sheeran himself is a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype of characters such as [[Film/GoodFellas Henry Hill and Jimmy "The Gent" Conway]], showing just how miserable and pitiful a man like them could become if they reached old age and lived in modern times.
* ''Film/AlmostFamous'' is a deconstruction on the illusion of rock-star life. It seems glamorous at first, but then the fame starts getting to your head and you start doing stupid things that you would never do while in your right mind. Fame leads to an idea of invulnerability and often creates tension between band members (often brought on by record execs to force them to create a big radio hit against the will of the band member's better judgment or creative being all for the sake of profit). It just goes to show that the rock-star life is nothing more than a gilded cage.
* ''Film/FourLions'' is a deconstruction of the LaResistance genre films. The protagonists, four jihadists, are hopelessly incompetent and amateurish, and their ally Barry is but an AxCrazy thug, while the British police and army show ruthless efficiency in eliminating the protagonists. It also deconstructs the tropes that UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror has created relating to the counter-terrorists. The police and army make multiple mix-ups that only cause more death and suffering ([[spoiler: such as capturing and torturing one of the terrorist's pacifist brother, shooting an innocent funrunner, and utterly failing to stop two terrorists from doing their suicide bombing when they were in fact willing to stop]]), and the terrorists actually manage to do their job better [[spoiler:when they accidentally kill Osama Bin Laden.]] So really, both sides are deconstructed.
* ''Film/JamesBond'':
** The Creator/PierceBrosnan films featured quite a few reality checks on the series formula, namely the fact that he's openly described as "a relic of the Cold War" by the new M in ''Film/GoldenEye'', and that rather than villains who were fairly conventional and stereotypical in motivations, it instead featured villains like Alec Trevelyan, Elektra King and Renard who were more psychologically motivated and even tragic in their own right. Even the disliked ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' showed what would happen if James Bond actually got captured in enemy territory; like with most spies, he's disavowed by his government, subject to torture and brutal conditions for a year and later released in a PrisonerExchange for the same bad guy he was pursuing in the first place.
** The Creator/DanielCraig set of films play out like deconstructions and reconstructions of the Bond character and universe by showing what a lonely, damaged outsider Bond is and has to be in order to do his job. Though in many ways this was already tackled in earlier films like ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' and ''Film/LicenceToKill''.
* The 1954 Creator/NicholasRay western ''Film/JohnnyGuitar'' was one of the first to definitively upturn many of its genre conventions.
** The classic ([[DeadUnicornTrope but apocryphal]]) White Hat = Good and Black Hat = Evil division in Westerns is turned, since the film's villains are the "townsfolk" whipped into a frenzy by Emma Small and they are all dressed in black, while the protagonists and the outlaws are dressed in colorful clothes of different shades. Indeed, it's Small's insistence on seeing her enemies as entirely evil and in cahoots with each other, ignoring the divisions between them, that leads to violence.
** It also examines the attraction and danger of gun violence. Turkey, the young outlaw of the Dancin' Kid's gang, associates masculinity with being a a fast shooter, whereas Johnny Logan is a RetiredOutlaw who is fleeing his outlaw past by trading a weapon for a pistol.
** Frontier justice is nothing more than brutal KangarooCourt that leads to the townsfolk and authorities acting like another gang, and in many ways being far worse than the outlaws. Emma Small, the "leader" of the posse, uses the Dancin' Kid and other crimes as an excuse for her personal rivalry with Vienna.
* ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' sets up a fairly standard [[TheHerosJourney Hero's Journey]], as [[TheHero Cameron Vale]], blessed with PsychicPowers, is sent by wise old [[{{Mentor}} Dr. Paul Ruth]] to defeat Ruth's former pupil, [[BigBad Darryl Revok]], who also has PsychicPowers. Vale befriends a white-haired girl, Kim Obrist, who can help him infiltrate Revok's organization. Not unsurprisingly, it is revealed that both Cameron and Darryl are the two sons of Paul. With us so far? And then Darryl [[LampshadeHanging points out]] what kind of father would abandon his sons like that, and weaponize one against the other, and, indeed, [[GuineaPigFamily would test a potentially dangerous new drug on his pregnant wife]], thus making Cameron and Darryl psychic in the first place. "[[CallingTheOldManOut That was Daddy.]]" Also, the psychic stuff is [[BlessedWithSuck quite eerie]]: the scanners suffer severe social and psychological side effects from hearing other people's thoughts (the main character starts the movie homeless, and another scanner murdered his family when he was a child).
* The 1991 film ''Film/TheDarkBackward'' contains an animated sequence that deconstructs the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoons: Tom's CaptainErsatz gleefully pursues Jerry's, hatchet in hand, and then cuts him in half with it (guts spill); then Spike's CaptainErsatz appears and blows the cat's brains out with a shotgun. The main character's mother laughs out loudly at this scene.
* A scene from ''Film/TheMirrorHasTwoFaces'' shows Streisand's character deconstructing "Literature/{{Cinderella}}", saying that she drove the prince nuts with her obsessive cleaning.
* Arnie fare ''Film/LastActionHero'' was satirical but not well received by critics or at the box office. However, it deconstructs the action hero genre and then puts it back together while emphasising the distinction between real-life and fantasy and how they inform each other.
* The 2008 movie ''Film/{{JCVD}}'' is a deconstruction of ActionGenreHeroGuy. What made it special is that the actor, Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme, often plays that character archetype. But not in ''JCVD''.
* Creator/MillaJovovich in ''Film/TheMessengerTheStoryOfJoanOfArc'' plays out the way the true story went until she is captured by the English, at which point it deconstructs the entire mythology surrounding Joan of Arc. In prison, she hallucinates a character (played by Dustin Hoffman) whose only function seems to be to question her calling from God.
* ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' harshly deconstructs America's hedonistic take on life in TheSeventies. Sure, there were beautiful clothes, music, and lots of dancing, but there was a dark side to the life led by people like Tony and his friends. For example, Tony, who turns to hedonism as a way to cope with his own life as a low-class Brooklyn guy with a ''really'' DysfunctionalFamily, has no thought for the future (and the culture as a whole didn't either), and his friends are involved with [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll drugs, drinking, and casual sex]] which does cause them huge problems.
* ''Film/{{Hanna}}'' is a deconstruction of both the KidHero trope and the idea of giving a child superhuman abilities. The main character gets hunted down constantly, every person she comes in contact with is threatened with death, and the antagonists are all willing to kill test subjects of a ''child'' SuperSoldier project.
* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. The subtitle of this movie could just have easily been ''The Deconstruction of [[TheKirk Kirk]]''. Most of the core traits associated with Kirk and what their consequences in RealLife would probably be are examined and pulled apart. The adventurer who faces a problem on a weekly basis, solves it and promptly [[ResetButton forgets it ever happened]] is suddenly brought face to face with one of those problems from a decade and a half before, and discovers the consequences of his thoughtlessness can be [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge measured by the body count]]. The suave lady-killer with a girl in every port discovers that one of his conquests (and it's implied that it's the only one he ever truly loved) has resulted in [[LukeYouAreMyFather a son he either never knew he had, or knew but never spent any real time with]], and who hates him. His tendency to play fast and loose with the rules leads to his ship being crippled and a score of dead cadets, all of which could and should have been avoided by simply raising the shields, and his trait of [[TakeAThirdOption finding novel solutions to intractable problems]] ends the life of [[spoiler:his best friend and trusted right hand]]. It also shows what happens when you take the dashing, devil-may-care heroic adventurer, let him get old and put him in a desk job: a full-blown mid-life crisis.
* ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' takes a bit of time to deconstruct the ManicPixieDreamGirl. Crazy, fun-loving Clementine and shy Joel really hit it off... at first. But as time goes on, Clementine proves to be too wild and overwhelming to Joel, causing problems in the relationship. And when their memories are erased, they hit it off ''again''. In a broader sense, this can be considered a deconstruction of the whole romance genre. They're great at the MeetCute and the FallingInLoveMontage, but things fall apart when they actually try to live with each other.
* Creator/AdamSandler, famous for his comedic portrayal of characters with anger problems, shows just how unfunny and scary a person with anger problems can be in the movie ''Film/PunchDrunkLove''.
* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' is a deconstruction of the myth of the self-made man by showing how many people Mark Zuckerberg screwed over as he became a billionaire.
* In ''Film/TheCableGuy'', Creator/JimCarrey deconstructs the kind of character he usually plays. In the beginning we're introduced to what at first seems to be the same kind of quirky, eccentric, wacky, CatchPhrase spewing character seen in other Jim Carrey films. However, as the plot unfolds, Carrey's character becomes a deranged stalker, and goes from being a funny character to a deeply disturbing one. We learn that this character is a severely mentally unbalanced social outcast, that his "wacky" antics are in fact reckless and dangerous and actually ruin the life of the one person he considers to be his friend, and that his obsession with spewing famous {{Catch Phrase}}s comes from his unhealthy obsession with TV, to the point that he has a hard time [[CannotTellFictionFromReality telling the difference between it and reality]].
* Creator/WoodyAllen's aptly-titled film ''Film/DeconstructingHarry'' is both a deconstruction of Allen's own work and the concept of AuthorAvatar characters and autobiographical fiction in general. It could also be considered a deconstruction of authors literally writing themselves into their own work, both played straight (Harry Block is a pretty obvious autobiographical character) and inverted (in-universe, Harry's characters come to life to interact with and deconstruct ''him''. How's that for a mind-screw?
* Gary from ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' can be read as a deconstruction of the typical 'ManChild' characters who populated the other works that Creator/SimonPegg, Creator/EdgarWright and Creator/NickFrost were involved in. His hedonistic embracing of alcohol and drugs and his refusal to move on from his teenage pursuits and obsessions is seen as more pathetic than charming. He's also significantly older than most of them were, being an example of what happens to that type of character if he maintains his refusal to grow up when he's almost in his forties. {{Reconstruction}} happens at the end, as his childish view on life [[spoiler:lets him adapt quite well to a new life as a world-wandering, sword-wielding post-apocalyptic hero.]]
* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' provided deconstructions of both the KidHero and the MamaBear as well as militant feminism in the forms of John Connor and his mother, Sarah, from the previous film. John is an alienated, anti-social outsider who doesn't fit in, doesn't get along with his foster parents and has only one friend due to his mother's odd ball way of raising him because she had to prepare him for the end of the world. Sarah, meanwhile, has become violent and emotionally unstable over the years since the end of the [[Film/TheTerminator first film]] as she had to step up to the plate, training not just herself but her son, and suffering the heart ache of losing Kyle Reese, the soldier sent back to protect her, whom she fell in love with and who was in fact John's father all along, without either of them knowing it. John is far from a likable protagonist when we first meet him, and Sarah is not exactly pleasant, but this is what happens to a Chosen One and the mother mentor burdened with terrible knowledge. Eventually reconstructed when [[spoiler: their preparations allow them to stop Judgement Day.]]
* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': Of a large number of tropes, maybe even storytelling itself, using [[CrossThrough Cross Throughs]] and ActingForTwo to demonstrate the presence of the same tropes in six rather different stories.
[[/folder]]

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/{{Literature}}

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ComicBook/AfterlifeWithArchie
** So, you've got YourCheatingHeart played for laughs in the Archieverse? Here Betty and Veronica hate each other because of it.
** Everyone (except for Reggie) easily accepting Kevin's sexuality. [[spoiler:Nancy]] is convinced she and [[spoiler:Ginger]] wouldn't be as accepted as a well-off white boy.
** Sabrina ignoring her aunts' warnings and using her magic however she pleases. Normally there's no lasting consequences and she simply gets a minor punishment if any at all. Here it causes a ZombieApocalypse and her Aunts respond by [[spoiler:turning into horrific monsters and banish her to purgatory while taking her mouth away so she couldn't plead with them. Moreover, it's revealed that her reckless use of magic summons Cthulhu.]]
** Jughead's hatred of Veronica is normally a simple case of SnarkToSnarkCombat between the two. Here, Zombie!Jughead nearly murders her due to his lingering feelings of hatred towards her.
* A story from the comics series ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' (noted for its PostModernism) deconstructs ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and similar cartoons: in "The Coyote Gospel," a grotesquely anthropomorphic coyote is repeatedly and brutally killed by an Elmer Fudd-style hunter obsessed with his destruction, and continuously reforms/regenerates in a most disturbing manner. Finally, in a scene reminiscent of the classic "Duck Amuck" short, the malevolent animator paints his blood in as he dies for the last time.
* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': Busiek denies the assertion that the comic is "realistic" since superheroes are inherently fantastical and he believes that {{reconstruction}} should always follow deconstruction. While the comic generally doesn't veer into the DarkerAndEdgier territory associated with deconstructions, the superheroes and villains are given convincing, human characterization and deal with the sorts of day-to-day problems and personal demons that would logically be experienced by people in their place. Meanwhile, Astro Citizens react to happenings around them as one would expect considering that heroes have been around for over seventy years.
* ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise'': The series ended on a note of hope for the future, with the new Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko as the vanguard of peace among the four nations. However, the idea of leaving a group of [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic teenagers]] in charge of a world that's been festering in complicated political problems for more than a hundred years is quickly shown to be an unrealistic solution. Their initial solution--simply deport all Fire Nationals in the colonies back to the Fire Nation--is quickly shown to be extremely naive and causes problems due to people having already-established lives in the colonies and interracial marriages.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''
** ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'': The comic dives into the psychological issues surrounding the mentalities of the Caped Crusader and his rogues' gallery. Batman's rigid and stoic demeanor is just his way of covering his severe emotional issues and sexual repression, Mad Hatter's love of blond little girls is taken to [[PaedoHunt outright pedophilia]], and Maxie Zeus is a weak skeletal man with [[AGodAmI a huge messiah complex]] and who has developed an addiction to electroshock therapy.
** ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' actually took Batman out of the permanent bubble of ComicBookTime and pushed him in a future Gotham that is very much the contemporary 80s America of Ronald Reagan and Bernie Goetz. Batman's vigilante actions become a topic of political and social commentary, his actions an affront to the police and (later) the US Government, and he inevitably operates as an outlaw that brings him in conflict with ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''.
*** Batman's tactics spur debates on toughness on crime. The story also deconstructs many elements of Batman's mythos, particularly his potential insanity, as well as showing what kind of [[CrapsackWorld world]] would make Batman not only possible, but necessary.
*** Superman is heavily deconstructed as well, especially the characterizations from the 1950s onward where he was written as a model citizen and patriot. The character's morals are portrayed as being too rigid and simple to stand up to the messy complications of reality, such as what a law-abiding patriot is supposed to do when given orders from a senile and self-centered president. The numerous covers depicting Superman fighting in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII are also reexamined by showing the consequences of Superman going to war and just how ugly that would be.
*** The Joker’s conflict with Batman reveals just how much death and destruction is left in their wake because Batman lets the Joker live. Much of Batman’s internal monologue in the third issue is devoted to him seriously examining whether upholding his no-kill rule is really worth it in regards to the Joker. Also, the operatic nature of their conflict is taken UpToEleven with the Joker all but confirming he treats their “relationship” as a twisted kind of romance.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanWhiteKnight''
*** During their climactic fight, the Joker claims that Batman's vigilantism is less about justice and more about control, and adds that it's the Dark Knight's way of salvaging what's left of his soul. Another point brought up is the DisproportionateRetribution scenario of the event that cures the Joker. Joker was briefly returning to his days as an annoying prankster, merely skating around Gotham on a hoverboard and goading Batman into chasing him. Batman, with his military-grade vehicles and determination to capture Joker before he does any harm, causes more damage than the Joker is. And once Batman gets his hands on him, the beatdown is as violent as ever, if not more. Again, all the Joker did in the story thus far was screw around being a nuisance. Batman's response to this gives Gotham a wake-up call and everyone begins questioning the Dark Knight's behavior and the GCPD's aloofness towards it.
*** The series as a whole eschews the franchise's typical conceit that mental illness is in some cases untreatable and makes you a criminal mastermind, impossible to predict, or "super-sane"; instead, Joker's worsening state is shown as a slow downward spiral culminating in a desperate cry for help, and Jack publicly alleges that Arkham Asylum was a derelict piece of property renovated by the rich "gatekeepers" as a place to treat the mentally ill as prisoners rather than patients.
*** The massive amount of wealthy families still living in Gotham despite the city being overrun with crime and poverty is shown to be a real-estate scam; rich developers like Pierce Chapman buy up marked-down properties from the city in areas where Batman fights crime, then quickly flip them for profit rather than demolish them and construct something new. Pierce also mentions being an investor in Arkham Asylum, bringing the problem full-circle.
*** [[invoked]] The DracoInLeatherPants view on Harley Quinn is given one by splitting her into two different women, one seemingly based on the controversial New 52 Harley and the other the original ''Batman TAS'' Harley. Due to her abusive relationship with the Joker, it's oft forgotten that Harley was capable of some ''very'' despicable things such as [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker being complicit in torturing a child and driving him insane]]. Murphy distills all of Harley's negative traits, most of which were present in the original animated series where she debuted, into the New 52 Harley, which seems to leave the person labelled as the "original Harley Quinn" with the positive traits of Harley's occasional longing for a normal domestic life and the repressed psychiatrist personality that she abandoned to get Joker's attention--but flashbacks suggest she had more of her classic traits prior to her reforming pre-story. Ultimately, in the final confrontation between the two, New 52 Harley accuses Harleen of hating her because she's ashamed of what she used to be, a villain in love with a serial killer.
* ''ComicBook/{{Birthright}}''
** For the TrappedInAnotherWorld kind of story where a young kid gets taken from Earth to a fantasy realm where he is TheChosenOne destined to take down the BigBad. In this kind of story, the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]] turn the KidHero into a ShellShockedVeteran and his resentment over being separated from his family and forced to fight in a war he never asked for ended up driving him to side with the BigBad.
** Its also one for InvincibleVillain. When confronted with an big bad dark lord who has seemingly endless armies at his disposal and black magic, the natural reaction of most people would be to give up fighting against him altogether, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters or give up on conventional means and turn to questionable tactics]].
* ''ComicBook/BlackGas'': In most zombie stories, at least one of the main characters usually has some degree of combat training for one reason or another. One of Ellis's stated plot points in Black Gas is that neither Tyler nor Soo have any idea how to handle themselves in a fight, and it shows.
* ''ComicBook/BlackHammer'': Of superheroes in general. Each issue of the opening arc tackles the psychological and emotional effects of being a superhero.
* ''ComicBook/Blackbird2018'': Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of ''Blackbird'' is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. As a consequence, most paragons are contemptuous of "civilians" or "normies", and are habitually cold and distant at best, ruthless or even psychopathic at worst. On the other hand, If you are, say,[[spoiler: a genuinely warm and caring paragon mother and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little non-paragon daughters... ''you will be forced to fake your own death and never be allowed to see them again''.]]
* ''Comicbook/TheBoys''
** Of the underlying corporate nature of superheroes and the comic book industry. The superheroes in the world of ''The Boys'' were raised from birth with everything handed to them on a silver platter from Vought-American. Because of how MerchandiseDriven superheroes ''by nature'' are, spoiling them with [[Fiction500 all the wealth in the world]] is pretty much all Vought can do to make sure they [[BewareTheSuperman don't one day go off the deep end]]. That being said, the superheroes, as a result of all the power they've been given right from the moment they were born, end up sociopathic, immature, spoiled, and utterly hedonistic--fixated only on their own individual satisfactions without much regard for the innocents whose lives are in their hands. What's even worse is that since superheroes are such a massive investment and turn in extremely huge profits, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Vought's management]] is very much willing to do ''whatever they deem necessary'' to ensure their business remains afloat.
** [[spoiler:Surprisingly, Butcher is this to the protagonists Ennis usually wrote. Turns out, an ImplacableMan who is driven solely by one goal is absolutely not right in the head. In fact, he's a total psychopath. And as soon as that goal is achieved, that man's next goal is more monstrous than the last to the point that he can't be considered anything remotely close to a hero anymore]].
* ''ComicBook/BratPack'' is a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to the very concept of the KidSidekick.
-->"Buying into the idea of a superhero is one thing, but the idea of a teenager operating in that world becomes especially absurd if you apply some logic to the situation. [[RealityEnsues They would have to grow up and lose their innocence if they had to fight crime everyday. Their minds would be shattered]]." -- ''WebVideo/ComicTropes''
* ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'': The later books do this to the earlier books. In the earlier books, any violent or morally questionable action Cerebus takes is treated as being all in good fun. Once CerebusSyndrome set in, the consequences of Cerebus' actions are thoroughly explored and often very unpleasant.
* ''ComicBook/CourtneyCrumrinAndTheNightThings'': At first, the PowerOfLove is pretty strongly deconstructed, showing idealism alone accomplishes nothing, and even fighting for what you love may often fail. Then the color series happened and ''every single decision Courtney and Aloysius made in the entire series, and magic culture in general'' is deconstructed to devastating effect.
** {{Reconstruction}} again when Courtney connects with the few friends she's made to help her through the climax, relying on Calpurnia's insistence that friends are important -- and when ThePowerOfFriendship [[spoiler: unlocks her SecretArt, and makes her more powerful than ever.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'': The series re-thinks the ZombieApocalypse story right back to square one: as culture has grown numb to the idea of "unstoppable plague of mindless cannibals," Ennis ups the ante to "unstoppable plague of grinning sadists" to rub in how awful surviving this sort of apocalypse would really be.
** In the final arc of Badlands, Cody makes a major point regarding armchair survivalists' bugout plans: having an apocalypse survival bunker is only going to do you any good if you have the chance to get to it when the apocalypse hits. He notes the vast majority of his wealthy clients who paid for the luxury bunkers he sold pre-outbreak were in Austin or Houston doing the things that earned them the money they spent on their bunkers when the Crossed outbreak began and thus had little chance of actually getting to safety.
* ''ComicBook/DamageControl'': The central conceit of the series is that somebody has to clean up all those messes.
* ''ComicBook/DialHForHero'': ''Dial H'' #6 features Nelson and Roxie discussing CaptainEthnic, {{Stripperiffic}}, and other superhero costume/concept tropes that would, realistically, cause more bad press than good.
* ''ComicBook/{{Domestico}}'': Of the SuperHero genre. While it has everything that a super hero needs to be called one, the whole thing is extremely realistic.
** ArchNemesis: [[spoiler: Is the guy who is with the only girl he loves.]]
** [[StockSuperpowers Super Powers]]: has none, [[{{Determinator}} besides being incredibly stubborn]].
** {{SideKick}}s: For different reasons, two or three guys help him during his quest. Most of them are only former friends, and hate helping him in this.
** DistressedDamsel: [[spoiler: The woman he loves. She is not in danger, and she doesn't want to see him.]]
** [[UtilityBelt Extravagant Tools]]: [[spoiler: he only has an scooter he buys from a eBay-like webpage.]]
* ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'': Despite the word being beloved of comics critics at the time, Creator/GrantMorrison (in ''Supergods'') maintains his run was ''not'' a deconstruction of superhero comics. Rather, it was the most traditional superhero comic he'd done at the time, it simply proceeded from a different cultural background than most comics. Instead of coming from a background of Creator/JackKirby, ''Franchise/FlashGordon'', ''Literature/TheShadow'' and Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, he started from Creator/JorgeLuisBorges, PostPunk, Abbie Hoffman and Creator/WilliamSBurroughs, and wrote what he thought a superhero comic inspired by them would look like.
* ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock''
** Sure, {{Legacy Character}}s are a thing and more often than not, especially if they stick around longer than them, they can turn out to be far [[SuperiorSuccessor superior]] to their predecessor for a variety of reasons. But what if the original hero was a psychopath bordering on SerialKiller and the successor was equally unhinged and refusing to acknowledge the dark flaws of the predecessor in a twisted form of HeroicSelfDeprecation?
** Even though this is a world of the fantastical filled to the brim with superpowered individuals, it's highly suspicious that the majority of them happen to be American citizens.
** [[spoiler: Issue #4 takes the myth of TheMentor teaching the hero after they have been hit with tragedy, only frames it darkly through the story of Reggie and Bryon, a traumatised young man and a senile mental patient.]]
** Firestorm is increasingly seen as a lunatic because nobody can hear his other personalities; to everyone else, he looks like a crazy guy talking to thin air whenever he responds to them.
** Issue #9 offers a terrifying Deconstruction of superhero/supervillain origin stories; [[spoiler:at least some of them weren’t accidents, but unethical experiments arranged by the government in order to better understand the nature of metahumans. And yes, this means the Superman Theory is at least partially true.]]
* Before there was deconstruction, there was Creator/ECComics and especially Harvey Kurtzman's Magazine/{{MAD}} whose famous parodies of movies often made fun of the obvious conventions and cliched stories. Specific examples include:
** A movie cowboy ([[AwesomeMcCoolname Lance Sterling]]) and his adventures with a real cowboy (John Smurd). Whereas the handsome Lance defeats the villain after a shootout and fist fight, getting a girl and a hero's celebration, the plain-looking John gets knocked out and beaten up, then kills the villain by taking him by surprise, only to be greeted with a fairly homely woman and lynched for murder.
** ''Superduperman'', a classic story and influence on ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' and ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'', is a brutal send-up of several classic Superman tropes - the TwoPersonLoveTriangle, LovesMyAlterEgo and the LetsYouAndHimFight of Superduperman and Captain Marbles which causes considerable property damage and ends only because the hero [[CombatPragmatist fights dirty]].
** Their parodies of ''Popeye, Archie'' and ''Mickey Mouse'' were similarly brutal and funny, exposing the nasty subject of BettyAndVeronica as a classic adolescent male fantasy.
* ''ComicBook/{{Finder}}'': Jaeger is one of the LoveableRogue and WalkingTheEarth tropes. On the surface he may seem like a traditional action-adventure hero, except that his medical conditions force him to live that lifestyle. The only therapy for his unknown disease is for his body to endure a physical shock, meaning that he has to keep moving and getting hurt just to stay healthy.
* ''ComicBook/FromHell'': From Hell deconstructs perceptions of the Victorian era, especially the late Victorian period, showing where many of our 20th Century obsessions (detective fiction, sensationalist tabloid journalism, serial killers) originated.
* Creator/GrantMorrison apparently tried to deconstruct Cyclops/Scott Summers, the X-Men's fearless leader, following his being possessed by Apocalypse, with his ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' run, by trying to show the insecurities and emotional vulnerability behind his stoicism.
* ''ComicBook/TheGreatPowerOfChninkel'' deconstructs the hero myth, in particular the MessianicArchetype, and the UnlikelyHero tropes.
* ''ComicBook/HackSlash'': Arguably one of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Both start with the premise "Final Girl of a horror film goes hunting the villains from other horror films," but unlike Buffy, who balances this with a normal life, Cassie is shown to be a deeply scarred person.
* ''ComicBook/HeroSquared'': Of Valor's BlackAndWhiteMorality and the concept of TheCape; Valor means well, but his actions outside of a comic book are in many ways just as destructive and irresponsible as the super-villains he battles. [[spoiler: Furthermore, for all his fine talk and self-righteousness, he proves to have feet of clay and similar issues to Milo -- which is not entirely unexpected, seeing as they are essentially the same man.]]
* ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'': Of [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age]] [[ComicBook/JusticeLeague JLA]]. It fills in the blanks between adventures to explain the measures necessary to clean up after defeating supervillain schemes and [[StatusQuoIsGod restoring the status quo]]. They specifically reference an occasion when the [[LegionOfDoom Secret Society of Supervillains]] took control of the JLA's bodies and (likely) learned their secret identities. How do you think the heroes averted DeathBySecretIdentity for the villains? Green Arrow further suggests that Superman and Batman knowingly look the other way and don't ask questions about how the League's B-Squad does its clean-up.
** More broadly, this deconstructs the hierarchy within the JLA, the role played by the "lower-ranked" heroes, and their feelings about that. It also discusses Elongated Man's feelings about [[StuckInTheirShadow being in the Flash's shadow]], and how his love for Sue is in great part due to the fact that she looked past Barry and preferred him instead.
** It also deconstructs the idea of the supposedly super-prepared Batman "vs. The Justice League." The fight is [[CurbStompBattle no fight at all]] with Batman quickly dogpiled and overpowered, even by heroes who ''don't have superpowers.''
* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'': Your standard deconstruction of Superman through an {{Expy}}, challenging the idea that someone given superpowers would automatically [[ComesGreatResponsibility do the right thing]] without being emotionally prepared to handle the job and the concept of happily being a SlaveToPR without actual regard for what people think. The finale puts a meta twist on this: [[spoiler:when Qubit scatters Tony's essence throughout the multiverse in an attempt to give him his second chance, part of it helps inspire a pair of artists to create the first Superman comics. Thus, Superman is the reconstruction of the Plutonian.]]
** Irredeemable #25 also deconstructs the idea that [[spoiler:powers like Superman's or Plutonian's could ever be physically possible without absolutely shattering the laws of physics, much less accomplished by a being with the mass of an ordinary human]]. [[DeconReconSwitch Reconstructed]] -- albeit horrifyingly, given the implications for what this means [[spoiler:Tony could do if he realized it -- by the revelation that he's actually altering ''reality itself'', allowing him to sidestep physics altogether and do whatever he thinks he can.]]
** Issue #18 also serves as a deconstruction of the BadassNormal through the [[DeadManWriting Hornet's flashbacks]]. He really did consider the Plutonian to be his best friend on the team, but he was all too aware of his lack of powers compared to his other superpowered teammates, giving him more reason to be on guard at times. It just took one simple question to make him realize Tony would snap eventually, and he [[spoiler:makes a deal with the Vespa alien empire as a contingency plan in case his worst fears did indeed come true. The Hornet ''hated'' that he had to make such a deal, but he was ultimately proven right, plus it did save humanity from being exterminated/enslaved by the Vespa aliens]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Kaijumax}}'': As a child, Nobuko Matsumoto and her friends stood up for the turtle kaiju Zugaigo and defended him as the Protector of All Asia... only to have Zugaigo blaze a path of destruction through un-evacuated buildings and eat hundreds of innocent people. As a result, she killed him, and grew up into a hardass who believed that the only good monster is a dead one.
* ''Comicbook/KickAss'' shows us what it would be like if a teenager without super powers ever became a superhero (like Spider-Man). The main character gets beaten within an inch of his life in every encounter, and things get even ''worse'' after he dons the mask; his only super power is that he has a metal plate in his head.
* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': Initially it began as a straightforward Victorian Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}}, extracting the literary precursors of popular superhero characters, but Moore gradually realized he had created something ambitious, a history of the world as reflected in the literature. As such the books deconstruct the relationship of literature, storytelling and culture to the given society it portrays, where several characters of fiction tend to be {{Expy}} and CaptainErsatz of real historical figures.
** Moore typically foregrounds the subtext of a given story, emphasizing aspects that have been forgotten or often adapted out, which is why the characters that he [[InsistentTerminology steals]] from famous works of literature are not consistent from how they are popularly known. In a lot of cases this takes the form of the character in the comic being more engulfed by their own worst habits. Most of which are taken up to high levels for the sake of deconstruction. This is particularly emphasized in the Victorian League:
*** Mina Harker is the heroine of {{Dracula}}, a work where she is the DamselInDistress, here she is a divorced ex-Music Teacher, a depiction in contrast to the loving marriage we see in the narrative of the book but follows on the more feminist interpretations of the book, as seen in Creator/FrancisFordCoppola's adaptation. It also heavily subverts AngstWhatAngst with her, while she acts cool and collected, she is secretly scarred (mentally as well as physically) and traumatized by what happened to her.
*** Likewise, Allan Quatermain, rather than the stereotypical GreatWhiteHunter, is initially TheLoad of the League because of his crippling opium addiction, rather than the sure hero of popular imagination and he constantly relapses into his old behavior.
*** Perhaps the biggest stretch is Captain Nemo or Prince Dakkar of Bundelkhand working with UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire, when in Creator/JulesVerne's stories he is a NGOSuperpower anti-colonialist rebel. Though the idea of an old imperialist and a colonialist rebel on the same team is a nice touch.
*** Mr. Hyde is essentially The Hulk, which Moore notes is the literary origin of the Marvel character. This is partially justified since it is noted that Hyde did grow through Stevenson's original story and he could conceivably have achieved Hulk proportions if he and Dr Jekyll lived long enough. Even Hyde being able to see and smell Griffin could be justified, because Dr Jekyll's account in Stevenson's book speaks of new sensations and how the world seemed different when he changed into Hyde. That Mina finds Mr Hyde terrifying but far from the worst she has seen is also justified. Stevenson points out that Hyde is natural, though representing the very worst in nature. Bram Stoker points out that his Dracula is utterly unnatural. There is, though, no hint in the Stevenson's book that Hyde was particularly xenophobic, like Moore's version. Also, while Dr Jekyll says the the sins which embarrassed him terribly were no worse than what some men might have boasted about, it was probably a little bit more than not returning a borrowed book and occasionally masturbating over homosexual fantasies, as Moore's Hyde claims.
*** Griffin has gotten so used to the freedom {{Invisibility}} allows that he now considers himself completely immune to consequences. He kills a constable to wear his coat, not caring that it makes him very noticeable, and when Hyde reveals that [[spoiler:he's always been able to see Griffin]], Griffin can only stand there in shock and protest that it "isn't fair".
** In Volume II, InternalDeconstruction sets in. The various members' vices, flaws, and prejudices lead to the team falling apart, with [[spoiler:Griffin's]] treachery, [[spoiler:Hyde]] getting himself killed attacking the Martians, and [[spoiler:Nemo]] abandoning the remaining members when England's actions once again prove to be too much for him to tolerate.
** The hybrids created by [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Doctor Moreau]] seen in Volume II deconstruct {{Half Human Hybrid}}s by showing what they would really be like: BodyHorror, UncannyValley, BestialityIsDepraved, CarnivoreConfusion, and NightmareFuel all ensue.
** A running theme in the first two books is that "The British Empire has always had difficulty separating its monsters from its heroes." Blurring the lines between hero and villain, with M revealed to be James Moriarty, and his, and SherlockHolmes' death, used to extend his cover. Later Ms include morally ambiguous characters like Mycroft Holmes and subsequently, Harry Lime of Film/TheThirdMan.
** The concepts of {{Expy}} and SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute are deconstructed with the Warralson League, a group of individuals similar to the members of the Murray League brought together by [=MI6=] to replicate them. Being different people, they fail to relate and work together in the same way that the Victorian League did, which ends up causing them to horribly botch their first and only mission before disbanding.
** As told in ''The Black Dossier'', totalitarian governments such as the one in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' are deconstructed. Ingsoc's methods of brutality and limited freedoms turn out to be self-destructive, and it ends up falling to pieces after only about a couple decades.
** Galley-wag was originally the Golliwog, an arguably racist caricature, so grotesque and stylized that it really only barely resembled an actual human at all. Moore ran with this and put the character in a realistic context, making him a completely inhuman alien being made out of dark matter.
** Orlando eventually deconstructs LivingForeverIsAwesome. He/she embraces {{Immortality}} and accepts everything about it... including the occasional bouts of AxCrazy bloodlust that result from the apathy living forever brings. To enjoy immortality, Orlando has to overlook all the violence he/she causes because of it.
** The idea of [[LongRunner long running stories]] [[SequelHook with open endings for sequels]] to make a franchise get [[http://comicsalliance.com/four-micro-essays-on-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-2009-re/ torn a new one in ''2009''. The heroes realise how awful fighting forever can be and are physically and mentally exhausted of fighting and just want their stories to end.]]
--> Allan Quatermain: "I could have just been a traveller. You could have taught music. But no. We always have to be the heroes, don’t we?"
** "The Tempest #2" returns to the typical theme of blurring the lines between heroes and monsters. [[spoiler:Jack Nemo on meeting the surviving League {{Lampshades}} his kitsch supervillain trappings which he uses as propaganda to scare the world from his more noble plans, while the true villain is "Jimmy" the revived James Bond. Jack Nemo outwardly resembles the typical Bond villain, i.e. ethnic cultured mad scientist with his own island base, but it's James Bond who is the man who commands and uses nuclear bombs to drop around the world on his enemies, complete with his own crew of henchmen who torture and murder people to cover their tracks, as well as achieving immortality and wanting to TakeOverTheWorld. James Bond has in effect become the rare case of a Bond Villain who actually wins]].
* ''ComicBook/MarshalLaw'': More like outright demolition.
** Golden/Silver Age heroes: Homophobic, sexist, glory-seeking assholes, who don't deserve any of the fame they get, and their example only leads those who look up to them to ruin their lives. However, they're also tortured over the fact that they must always be perfect, an image which is impossible to keep up for any human.
** One entire issue, set in a museum celebrating the "deeds" of the superheroes of the Golden Age, note that they almost always attacked safe targets, were killed off rather easily when attempting to actually fight in the war (causing the war to run longer by an estimated six months), and aren't a tenth as heroic as cops or soldiers who risked their far more vulnerable bodies to serve something bigger than themselves.
** ''The Kingdom of the Blind'' likewise attacks the Batman mythos, mocking the billionaire's angst when DeceasedParentsAreTheBest, exposing his questionable sexual identity and tendency to violence, and stressing the class-war elements of a multi-millionaire going out at night to beat up poor people.
** Dark age heroes: Violent, brutal, and psychotic murderers who aren't that different from the villains they fight. Also, their violent ways even serve to inspire more villains. However, they're acknowledged as psychologically scarred humans who can even portray themselves, and their victims, as sympathetic. It's even pointed out that Marhsal Law's barbed wire can be seen as a symbol of penance for his actions.
** Teenage groups like Legion of Superheroes and X-Men are basically an elite club of cool kids who lord over and shame insecure kids into becoming sidekicks and lackeys who fall into peer pressure over body image and looks. These kids in turn spend all their time thinking about acceptance and expect the hot girl leader's attentions as a reward. Marshall Law's friendship and kindess with Growing Boy ends when the latter finally "gets accepted" from the group, and refuses to see it for the sham it is.
*** On another level, ''Secret Tribunal'' (the comic with the aforementioned expies) mocks the {{Fantastic Racism}} seen in X-Men in two ways. First, by calling out the absurdity of using what's more or less a power-fantasy to tell a story of being "outcasts feared by the world" (perhaps best shown when the Jean Grey analogue talks about how no man would choose a mutant like her for a partner despite being an obviously attractive girl with no visible deformities wearing an outfit showing her goods off, which comes off as a jab at {{Stripperific}}/{{MsFanservice}} lady X-Men characters like ComicBook/{{Storm}} or ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} or ComicBook/{{Emma Frost}}). Secondly, by taking a hacksaw to the notion that mutants are "the next stage of evolution" or Homo Superior by Marshal pointing out that the mutants, from all their talk on how they are destined to replace humanity and are their betters are nothing more than glorified Nazis (backed by one mutant speaking of purging the "inferior").
* Many of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse superheroes of the early 1960s could be seen as early deconstructions of the superhero genre [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny before their styles and formulas became standard issue genre tropes]], long before Alan Moore's ''Watchmen'' (see below), by showing that while gaining super powers may have allowed ordinary people to do good, even save the world, it didn't necessarily make their lives better. Though this is more true of the early Marvel stories than later on:
** ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' in the ''ComicBook/LeeDitkoSpiderMan'' was seen as a very interesting and original take on the superhero stories in that it featured a working class teenager as a superhero whose powers he initially tried to exploit for monetary gain [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism by using his new found power to get rich, albeit on a small scale and use his power to strike back at his tormentors.]] The result? His empowerment fantasy goes to his head and he learns a famous lesson in responsibility. He struggles to pay rent and pay his way to college, take care of his ailing Aunt May and, in the Steve Ditko stories, the tensions between his personal life and superhero-work meant that people saw him as cold, aloof and snobbish which also upsets his early dates with his crushes. In his opening caption introducing ''Amazing Fantasy #15'', Lee admits that his new hero is someone a little different from the usual run of superhero comics, or as he and his friends call them at work, "long-underwear stories" (with little doubt as to which [[Franchise/{{Superman}} other]] [[Franchise/{{Batman}} characters]] he was talking about). This aspect was toned down greatly when Steve Ditko left and Peter Parker attracted a circle of friends and incredibly attractive girlfriends.
*** The original run of Spider-Man more or less deconstructs the common tropes in Superman and Batman stories. Spider-Man's relationship with the press is entirely the opposite of Superman's. Instead of being adulated by the public for everything he does, he is distrusted by them. Wearing a costume with a somewhat creepy mask and having an animal theme of a creepy creature provokes the exact sense of fear and mistrust as you would expect unlike Batman who is trusted and regarded as an authority figure (in the Golden and Silver Age) despite his nocturnal get-up.
*** Superman working as Clark Kent more or less wrote his own PR. Batman has Commissioner Gordon and his wealth to protect him from the fallout of his vigilante actions, but Spider-Man has nothing of that. Superman and Batman have sidekicks, confidants, top-of-the-line fancy headquarters (Batcave, Fortress of Solitude), Peter has none of that. His costume, when it gets weathered he buys a replacement from a novelty store. When his Aunt is sick and he needs a cure, he has to call in favors from people he knows and nearly get killed fighting Octopus to fix it. Bailing on a supervillain battle to go save his Aunt, people call him a coward. Unlike Batman and Superman who are both hyper-competent overly advantaged types fighting a bunch of VillainousUnderdog, Peter is ''the'' underdog hero who punches up and fights characters stronger, more powerful, wealthier, and more resourceful than he is, and faces all the consequences, difficulties and setbacks doing so.
*** A proto-Watchmen example where Spider-Man and Human Torch team up and chase the Sandman but their mutual bickering, TestosteronePoisoning, competitiveness prevents them from doing much while Sandman gets distracted enough that regular cops with discipline take him down. Ditko later admitted that he did this to correct and sabotage Lee's constant attempts at getting Spider-Man to team up feeling it would undermine Peter's own capabilities and also to show that just because two heroes are cool and popular doesn't mean their team up would be effective.
** Elsewhere, the ''ComicBook/XMen'' were mutants born with great powers that enabled them to do good when harnessed properly, but they were feared and hated and are generally victims of horrible double standards compared to other superheroes.
*** ComicBook/{{Legion|Marvel Comics}}: His solo in ''X-Men: Legacy'' has a number of jabs at usual X-Men conventions. The fact that they only find mutants with "flashy" powers, filling their ranks with combat capable mutations, the fact that they're so ineffective the X-Men still need to be soldiers, and that none of them seem to work on human-mutant relationships anymore like how mutants can not only coexist but also aid society.
*** ''ComicBook/NewXMen'': The series explores many of the harsher aspects of how a subculture of superhumans might function in the real world, with abuse of power-enhancing drugs, campus insurrection at the Xavier Institute, the homegrown culture of the "mutant ghetto", and even UsefulNotes/CheGuevara-esque idolization of Magneto figuring into the plot.
** ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'': Bruce Banner turned into the super strong Incredible Hulk thanks to a gamma bomb explosion, endowing him with the strength and stamina to battle threats that even some other super strong heroes may struggle with, but Bruce has little to no control over the Hulk, which often results in a lot of property damage and turning Bruce into a fugitive hunted all over the world by the army.
** ''{{ComicBook/Daredevil}}'': Matt Murdock got enhanced senses after being blinded by radioactive waste, but his whole life has been an uphill battle from his humble beginnings to being a respected lawyer by day to having his personal and professional lives torn apart time and again, and losing some of the women he loved along the way.
** The ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'', the first big Marvel hit, was seen and welcomed as a reaction to other superhero stories. Namely the fact that the team dispensed with the secret identity along with masks. They also in the early stories featured highly dysfunctional figures, with Johnny Storm being a real hothead and ArrogantKungFuGuy about his powers and Ben Grimm/The Thing being the first example of a Monster-As-Superhero who was prone to temper tantrums, frustration over his feelings for Sue and his anger at Reed, with their adventures being the only thing keep them together at least in the Jack Kirby era.
*** Mark Waid's run also throws a dark mirror on the Reed-Doom relationship. Both have always been shown with varying levels of NotSoDifferent but Waid accentuates it. Reed takes over Latveria and gets as obsessed with the then-dead Victor as Victor gets with him. Overall it's a fairly chilling look at how isolated and driven two intelligent men are, and how defined by each other they have become.
** The Marvel hero Freedom Ring was meant to be a deconstruction of the way most teen superheroes were handled. His creator, Robert Kirkman, wanted to have a young hero who would struggle to use his abilities and ultimately die early on in his career in order to contrast the ease with which most teenage characters adjust to their powers. Since Freedom Ring was also one of the few gay superheroes Marvel published, this lead to some UnfortunateImplications and an apology from Kirkman.
** ''ComicBook/MarvelKnights20th'': The story as a whole deconstructs the original idea of Marvel Knights, which told standalone stories in the Marvel Universe. This concept drives the plot of Marvel Knights 20th, as the Marvel Universe has been literally forgotten by its inhabitants.
** ''ComicBook/MarvelUniverseVsThePunisher'': This could be read as a deconstruction on ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies''. In the MZ titles, the titular zombies don’t actually [[OurZombiesAreDifferent act like zombies]], but rather intelligent cannibals that happen to be undead (who end up conquering their world). This story kinda runs with that idea, showing a mutating HatePlague that simply makes the infected savage maniacs that are easily dealt with. It also demonstrates a better understanding of the heroes; MZ!Mr. Fantastic loses his mind after the death of his children, whereas the Reed of ''this'' world keeps his sanity and helps establish a safe-zone with the surviving heroes.
* ''ComicBook/TheMaxx'': The comics and the animated series often deconstruct many superhero related tropes, such as TheCowl and WorkingClassHero (The Maxx is even referred as such by one kid in the sixth episode of the series): Not only does The Maxx constantly fails to save people from Mr. Gone, his vigilante actions only cause him to end in jail, forcing Julie to bail him out. Ultimately, most of the actions done by the main character as a superhero fail to have the same effect they would have in a more conventional comic book.
* ComicBook/MegaMan: This adaptation takes a more realistic approach to the Classic series' events and shows its consequences.
** In the first game adaptation and his first combat situation, Mega Man grows proud, power-hungry, and insists that ThatManIsDead when asked to show leniency.
** Dr. Lalinde removing Tempo's emotions after feeling empathy for her shows how someone might think seeing robots as children is terrifying.
** The second arc follows up what would happen in the aftermath of a robot rampage, with a Federal agency investigating Dr. Light.
** In the arc covering the events of ''Mega Man 3'', the point-of-view of the Robot Masters is covered in a more cynical light by Needle Man, who laments that they are nothing more than soldiers being marched to their deaths by a BadBoss, and can do nothing about it.
* ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}''
** Moore developed a lot of the themes of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' first in his run of ''Miracleman'' and indeed the former was described by him as the last word in his interest in superhero deconstructions, which properly began with this series. In ''Miracleman'' he tackles the conflict between boring civilian identity and the superhero identity, the wider social effect superheroes can have on the world and the AscendedFridgeHorror of a superhero-supervillain dust-up, likewise the BlueAndOrangeMorality that develops from the mere fact of having superpowers.
** The final issue of course is a parody of CrystalSpiresAndTogas utopia [[spoiler:portraying that such a world can amount to mere EthicalHedonism and a false paradise without any real authenticity and feeling. It's also much harder to resist than any dystopian reality since opponents would come across as either Luddites or regressive and reactionary people]].
** Young Miracleman[=/=]Dicky Dauntless also explores the Captain America [[spoiler:caught in time warp arc. He's still mentally a teenager of the Fifties and the newly changed world of the Miracles is deeply strange and upsetting, and he's not able to adjust the shock, and Miracleman and Miraclewoman are not willing to help him adjust]].
* ''ComicBook/MisterMiracle2017'': Most of which are emphasizing the fact that the heroic Mister Miracle was a child who was raised on Apokolips. Other renditions don't show it much, but Scott has reasonable resentment towards his biological father for giving him to the hellhole Apokolips to be raised by the abusive Granny Goodness. Not only that, but giving him up before Scott can even have a real name, leaving him to go by a cruel nickname Granny gave him and the stage name of someone else whose life he's adopted. And while he tries his best to stay normal, Scott is shown to be fully capable of becoming a psychotic killer thanks to his traumatic childhood in Granny's hands. There's also him retaining some of the ChaoticEvil mindset that Darkseid's minions have in the form of being a NightmareFetishist; he takes some pleasure in listening to people being tortured.
* ''ComicBook/{{Nemesis}}'': The series is this to comic book series focusing on the [[EvilFeelsGood escapist exploits]] of [[VillainProtagonist supervillains]], by stripping out everything that creators typically use to make us root for characters like that. Nemesis isn't fighting people who are [[BlackAndGreyMorality as bad or worse than him]], he has [[FreudianExcuse no tragic]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds backstory]] or [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loved ones]] to make the audience sympathise with him, he's not a NobleDemon like ComicBook/DoctorDoom or ComicBook/BlackAdam; in fact he's {{Jerkass}} with no AffablyEvil or FauxAffablyEvil traits, and his evil isn't cartoonish and over-the-top enough to make him fun like the Joker or ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}.
* ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'':In some cases just outright demolition.
** Even Deconstructions are deconstructed; the widescale DarkerAndEdgier trend in superhero comics in the 1980s and 1990s is deconstructed with the appearance of a former [[TheCape Cape]] who, having apparently suffered one of these during that period and angrily blaming the [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] {{Expy}} for it, angrily rants that he didn't want or need such a deconstruction just for the hell of it and liked his former, more innocent life perfectly fine, thank you very much.[[note]]The John Constantine expy is used as as a stand-in for Constantine's creator Creator/AlanMoore and the other "British invasion" writers, who played a major role in the deconstruction of American supehero comics in the '80s and '90s.[[/note]]
* ComicBook/PowerGirl: After the initial 12 volumes Kara learns the hard way that the life of a superhero and a business tycoon don't exactly mix well together, [[spoiler: leading to her losing her company]]. [[ReconstructedTrope Reconstructed]] later on, as she finally finds a balance in her life.
* ''ComicBook/{{Providence}}'': Part of Alan Moore's intent is to ground Lovecraft's stories in the context of the political and social tensions of the period in which it was written:
** The racist subtext of Lovecraft's original stories is directly brought to the surface and re-examined with a modern lens. The residents of the Innsmouth-expy resent others for racially discriminating against them. The Red Hook is shown as a positive example of New York's melting pot rather than the hysterical racist atmosphere in Lovecraft's story set there.
** Likewise, where Lovecraft described the occult in generally sinister terms, and seemed to feel that cosmic forces can make one GoMadFromTheRevelation, Moore, being an occultist himself, is more neutral towards these aspects. As such many of the evil and creepy wizards and sorcerors from Lovecraft's stories are shown to be AffablyEvil or given PetTheDog moments.
** Occult societies are also shown to contain the same class biases and prejudices then the supposedly conventional society they are criticizing. Garland Wheatley and Tobit Boggs are both disappointed that they are looked down as low-down hicks by the current Order of the Stella Sapiente, which is led by the more urbane and academically minded occult groups:
---> '''Robert Black''': I mean, I don't know much about the occult, but I'd have thought that serious philosophers should be above all that.
---> '''Garland Wheatley''': Course they should! They talk about distant stars an' eternity's depths an' how man ain't nothin', though respectable society is, seems like.
** Henry Anneseley for his part refutes these charges, and states that the Liber Stella Sapiente have modernized and become more accessible, less ritualistic and more scientific in their approach and researches and for them the Redeemer Prophecy is only one of many parts of the Order and not the sole one.
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMax'': The entire series is a deconstruction of the entire Punisher mythos, as well as the "avenging vigilante" archetype as a whole. Frank, while still sympathetic, [[spoiler: is not really out to avenge his family but is instead driven by a combination of bloodlust and guilt]]. The concept of a badass PsychoForHire is thoroughly debunked: the majority of them are just repulsive sadists, and the ones who aren't are ''genuinely insane'' and not the least bit appealing. The majority of the OldSoldier types have been driven psychotic by their experiences, and there most certainly is no such thing as a NobleDemon.
* ''ComicBook/RatQueens'': Of fantasy role-playing and HighFantasy comics. Or at least of worlds in which adventurers are commonplace, as Palisade is getting tired of their brawling and rowdiness spilling over into the streets and causing all sorts of property damage. To the point where [[spoiler:one of the townspeople hires an assassin to kill them all]].
* ComicBook/RedSkull: Of hammy supervillains in general, and fictional Nazis in particular. Even the original [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] origin story gave a surprisingly sympathetic and to some extent [[FairForItsDay "realistic"]] explanation for why a non-psychopath would want to be a Nazi supervillain, and why he would likely be a LargeHam if he became one. Many early stories nevertheless portrayed him as a more or less generic ranting villain, [[CardCarryingVillain who knew he was evil]]. But later writers [[DependingOnTheWriter (or at least some of them)]] realized that such villainy is unrealistic, so instead they tend to give him a coherent Nazi worldview. The result makes him ''more'' terrifying, since the best stories really manage to show how he can be a genocidal Nazi and still be morally upright [[DeliberateValuesDissonance by the standards of his own culture]].
* ''ComicBook/RickAndMortyOni''
** In issue #4 of ''Rick and Morty vs. TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', Jerry, benefiting from his character's heightened Intelligence and Charisma, explains to Morty that Rick [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech isn't actually "cool", but merely acts "cool"]]. That is; whilst Rick normally can exploit his MadScientist skills to achieve ridiculous feats and impress people, that doesn't make him a ''good person''--in fact, he's a downright lousy person who, as Jerry puts it, isn't good about caring for other people.
** "Painscape" can be considered this to Rick’s status as a JerkSue InvincibleHero, as well as a SpiritualAntithesis to the first series:
*** Like in Chapter I, Jerry’s knowledge and skill allows him to rally everyone together and utilize their skills to hold back the invading horde. Unfortunately, this time, this strategy doesn't work; since Rick tends to create overpowered characters, the longer they remain in the Prime Universe, the more the rules of reality change [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem to suit their needs]], until they are eventually able to just NoSell any and every attack from Jerry and the rest of the army, requiring the intervention of an also-overpowered Rick to defeat them.
*** The flashback also shows how Rick, {{Munchkin}} that he is, kept creating D&D characters that he soon discarded for not being strong enough for his standards. Him doing so is what causes the entire conflict "Painscape", which is made worse by the fact that the characters he created are, like him, overpowered by anyone else's standards to the point of eventually becoming invincible.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'': Everything you know about the franchise is turned on its head here. Sonic's flaws are played up a lot more and they end up biting him in the ass as he becomes a social pariah because of them. Robotnik is legitimately insane as his normal quirks are ''not'' played for laughs. Its one of the bleakest settings for the franchise to date.
** Super Sonic is rewritten from a standard SuperMode to a SuperPoweredEvilSide who exists purely for chaos.
* ''ComicBook/StrangeAdventures2020'': Just like Tom King and Mitch Gerads' [[ComicBook/MisterMiracle2017 last DC series]] gave the New Gods a reality check, ''Strange Adventures'' doesn't hesitate to show the dark side of Adam Strange's spacefaring escapades.
* ''ComicBook/TheStrangeTalentOfLutherStrode'': The series primarely picks apart CharlesAtlasSuperpower, FantasticFightingStyle, and the way society tends to glorify or idealize badass heroes that can beat the hell out of anybody. Hell, the basic message at the end of the series is that you should use your gifts to be a better person because anyone can go push people around but that doesn't help anything and your not really making things better.
** FantasticFightingStyle is deconstructed with the effects the Method has on the students. Sure, it can make you a badass capable of killing mooks en mass like you're Franchise/JohnWick but the enhanced awareness granted by the Method that allows you to dodge bullets and predict you opponent's every move also constantly makes you aware of how fragile and easy to break normal people are. The constant input makes you see people as bags of meet and bone that you know how to kill 50 times over. Combine that with the rush of having a superhuman body and being able to do what you want without anyone stopping you make you lose more and more empathy with others until the people around you start to look like nothing more than targets and weaklings to be slaughtered.
* ''ComicBook/Supergirl1996'': The opening arc of this run climaxed with a deconstruction on the type of superheroes who killed, and why making Supergirl into such a character would not work. When Matrix has decided holding onto morality and goodness and trying to do the right thing aren't worth it anymore [[spoiler: after Buzz and Tempus murder Fred and Sylvia Danvers]], she's on the verge of [[spoiler: murdering Tempus when Buzz asks her if she believes this is truly how she wants to live her life, the way Linda did before she died. Matrix relents and realizes justifying murder and evil for the sake of vengeance and justice doesn't make those actions any less evil.]]
* The ComicBook/{{Superman}} arc "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, And The American Way?" is a deconstruction of the "violent superhero", or the idea that superheroes have to be violent and murderous to be realistic, and that they should kill their enemies. It shows that Superman isn't stupid because he follows moral codes. He has ''considered'' breaking them, but he decided that would be wrong. He has all the power in the world, and yet he choses to use them for good, while the Elites, the antagonists of the comic, have all the same powers and chose to use them to act like tyrants and petty murderers instead, all the while claiming moral superiority because they hurt bad guys.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'': The story acts as a rebuttal to the oft repeated criticism that [[ReedRichardsIsUseless Superman doesn't use his powers to fix the world's problems]]; using an alternate reality to explore what would happen if Superman actually did try to do this: At the helm of Soviet Russia, Superman almost completely eradicates crime and poverty, spreading this prosperity to most of the rest of the world. However, in the process he becomes a totalitarian dictator that lobotomizes dissidents and reprograms them into obedient drones. As a result, there is no individual liberty under his rule.
** ''ComicBook/TheBlackRing'' : Of Lex Luthor himself. He claims he wants to save humanity from Superman and other superheroes who are keeping mankind back. Some of the other villains don't seem to buy it. [[spoiler: Through the entire arc it is shown that Luthor does not have humanity's best interests at heart despite his lofty goals; he is only after power and has an intense dislike for authority other than his own but insists, even to himself, that he is the hero of the story. Yet he allows people to get killed as pawns, shoots an employee so that he can't be used against him as a hostage and whenever anyone turns their back on him he [[BerserkButton flips out]]. He does not believe that Superman empathizes with humanity at all and it is possible he's projecting this trait on Superman. Darkseid says he only wants to rule others and be "the biggest fish". Brainiac outright states that he is doing it for power and mocks his lack of introspection. Even Superman is surprised that Luthor's first act as a physical god is to come after him. Only the Joker believed he had any real potential to do good and feared this as he needs to believe that life is pain and has no meaning. Superman and Mr Mind attempt to reason with him by appealing to his desire to do good but his need to destroy Superman destroys his chances to do any real good as he promised himself he would. All this underscores just how much of a [[CutLexLuthorACheck wasted opportunity]] Lex Luthor's life was. Mr Mind's parting words are more than apt: "I'll leave you to your tragedy."]]
** ''ComicBook/LexLuthorManOfSteel'': Throughout the story, in his narration Luthor is deconstructing Superman, exposing him as a potential threat to humanity.
* ''ComicBook/TheTenSeconders'': Of super-heroes, and people's belief in them.
* WordOfGod said that the SeriesFinale for the ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'' comics was the album ''Tintin in Tibet''. The next three albums (''The Castafiore Emerald'', ''Flight 714'', and ''Tintin and the Picaros'') are deconstructions of the ''Tintin'' series in general.
** ''The Castafiore Emerald'' has Hergé trying to keep a plot where not much happens still suspenseful,
** ''Flight 714'' [[VillainDecay ridiculizes]] Tintin's ArchEnemy, Rastapopoulos,
** ''Tintin and the Picaros'' has [[ChronicHeroSyndrome Tintin]] pulling an initial RefusalOfTheCall because he smells something fishy about the whole affair (he's right, but ends up coming along out of loyalty for his friends anyway), [[TheAlcoholic Haddock]] suddenly unable to enjoy alcohol and [[AbsentMindedProfessor Calculus]] showing some hidden MagnificentBastard tendencies. At the end of the story, it is made crystal clear that the heroes only helped San Theodoros experience yet another FullCircleRevolution. Oh, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Tintin wears jeans]], instead of his iconic plus-fours.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'': Of pretty much the entire of ''Transformers'' franchise. In particular the comic completely ''tears apart'' the WarIsGlorious, BlackAndWhiteMorality, AntiHero, NeverSayDie, and AscendedFanboy tropes. The comic also takes special time to display in graphic detail just how utterly ''horrific'' actual warfare between Transformers would be in real life.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMegaseries'': Of CombiningMecha. Putting six minds together in one body is not cool, and drives the resulting creation utterly mad, with the added side effect of creating a gargantuan robot monster lashing out at everything it sees.
* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates2002''
** The values the "ultimate American hero" had back in World War II would not translate well in the progressed world of today. Captain America's DeliberateValuesDissonance turns him into an outright CowboyCop jerk who thinks every solution to his problems is to beat it up. As cathartic and deserving kicking Hank Pym's ass for his abuse of Janet is, it's still apparent that Cap just assaulted and injured someone without even considering what Janet would've wanted in this situation.
** Being a giant-sized superhero would not actually be useful on a mission like detaining the Hulk in the middle of New York City. Hank Pym is very easily thrown off balance and is quickly taken out when Hulk causes him to fall into a building. His fight against Captain America doesn't get much done either, as the environment around him ends up constricting him and gets used against him resulting in a CurbStompBattle.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': Possibly [[UpToEleven even more of a deconstruction]] than its [[ComicBook/SpiderMan mainstream counterpart]]:
** Peter's ended up in the hospital twice as a result of being Spider-Man. Half the time, injuries go untreated since he can't risk medics finding out his identity.
** Some supporting characters and antagonists put two and two together to figure out his secret identity. This includes Kingpin, who effortlessly uses his information network to find out where he goes to school. He even finds out the names and identities of Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Shang Chi. And {{ComicBook/SHIELD}} was already onto him way before then.
** The fact that Spider-Man is a student at Peter's high school eventually brings a small media circus down on it, with newscrews camped outside almost all the time. Several principals even quit because of the stress involved. By the end of the first volume, the school board is seriously considering shutting the school down entirely, as multiple supervillain attacks have led to it being deemed unsafe.
** Mary Jane breaks up with Peter for a while because his dangerous lifestyle as a crime-fighter becomes too overwhelming for her; She's had a firsthand look at some of the injuries he's sustained in battle, and she's constantly worried sick that he'll wind up dead someday because of it. Her first personal encounter with a super-villain leaves her with post-traumatic stress which she's not able to get help owing to Peter's double life and Peter's own superhero career not allowing him time to actually listen and counsel her. Peter and MJ actually spend a ''lot''' of the comic breaking up and getting back together, usually because one is afraid for the safety of the other (Peter's always facing danger head-on, and there are plenty of times when MJ is put in danger by proxy). The overall effect is that Peter's life as Spider-Man puts a ton of stress on their relationship, and as two teenagers who haven't been in a serious relationship before, they don't have any reference for how to deal with it, and Peter's secret identity means they can't even really talk to anyone about it, much less a qualified therapist.
** Kingpin pulls a KarmaHoudini multiple times just by pulling a few strings. As it turns out, bringing down a mob requires a little more than just punching bad guys in the face. And just to top it off, he promptly copyrights Spider-Man's image and makes him into a merchandising tool. After all, [[CutLexLuthorACheck that guy who keeps a secret identity isn't willing or able to expose his identity by laying down a patent on his costume, let alone raising a lawsuit or complaint]].
*** Likewise, a major Hollywood film is made with Spider-Man as the focus, and to Peter's horror the fact that he has to keep his identity secret means he can't sue, complain, offer input, or even get a royalty check.
*** Kingpin also winds up on the receiving end of this trope as well; if there are vigilantes operating outside the law in New York, eventually they'll get sick of a KarmaHoudini always getting off on technicalities. When Daredevil assembles various super-heroes to discuss how to handle the Kingpin, Peter actually has to talk the group out of outright ''murdering'' Fisk. Later in the same book Kingpin blows up Matt Murdock's law office, smug in the knowledge that there's no way to prove he did it... Only for Daredevil to break into his home and threaten to very nearly murder his wife. [[spoiler: Eventually, Fisk winds up casually and unceremoniously killed because he caught the attention of an ACTUAL super-villain who didn't give a toss about his KarmaHoudini status.]]
** Shocker is a deconstruction of the HarmlessVillain trope. [[spoiler: His ButtMonkey abuse ends up causing him to snap and horrifically torture Spider-Man. It's all but explicitly said that Spider-Man's constant fights with him have wrecked his mental state beyond repair.]]
** Punisher isn't portrayed as an AntiHero of any sort, he's shown to be exactly what you would expect a man who dresses in skull attire and shoots up criminals to be; a complete psychopath with little to no self-control who does more harm than good.
** Spider-Man ends up with severe emotional and mental scarring from all the traumatic stuff he experiences. Daredevil notes repeatedly that this '''really''' isn't the kind of job a down on his luck teen from the suburbs should be getting into.
** J Jonah Jameson is also arguably a deconstruction of the complete caricature his 616!counterpart is, and whilst utterly abrasive, has been shown to be an objective newsman with incredibly strong morals.
** Daredevil gets a much darker portrayal than his 616!counterpart, having no qualms about killing his enemies and even (in the case of [[spoiler: Wilson Fisk]]) holding their loved ones hostage to get to them. His relationship with Spider-Man is also drastically different; instead of being a close ally that respects and even relates to him, Daredevil treats him mostly with disdain and often chews him out for being, in his own opinion, a naive, inexperienced kid with no business fighting crime. While this could be explained as Daredevil wanting to keep a teenager from getting involved in a life he may not be ready for, it doesn't change the fact that he's very much a JerkAss to Peter (to the point of physically ''assaulting'' him on at least one occasion) and goes to extremes that 616 Daredevil would never go to. It goes to show that Daredevil's brand of vigilante justice wouldn't exactly make him the nicest, or ''sanest'' person.
* ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}''
** Not just of comic books and super-villains (see below), but to a larger extent, society's glorification of violence. It's a widely established fact that becoming an action hero and "manning up" is a power fantasy frequently entertained by adolescents (mainly males). Here, Millar suggests that such dreams are not only unrealistic, but just downright dysfunctional and reprehensible. For example, Wesley mentions several times about how his transition to cold-blooded killer changed his life for the better, but isn't portrayed sympathetically at all. In fact, at this point readers are most likely disgusted by his actions, with his callous murder of innocents, like the [[spoiler:moment where, on a whim, he decides to walk into a police station and kill every male officer and nearly rape the sole female survivor, all because he was bored]]. In fact, towards the end of the comic, as he [[spoiler:enacts his RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Mr. Rictus]], he confidently states "I am John Wayne, Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood", among other action heroes. At this point, would you really cheer for him, even if he plays on your power fantasies like a video game?
** ''Wanted'' explores the entire HerosJourney archetype of storytelling by stuffing it in a blender with ProtagonistJourneyToVillain and hitting ''[[DarkerAndEdgier frappe]]''. Wesley starts out as an [[TheEveryman average]] [[ThisLoserIsYou loser]] before having the CallToAdventure ''[[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive forced]]'' on him; before the second issue is over, he's a [[{{Jerkass}} horrible, horrible person]], and every person he comes across seems tailor-made to cheer him on in his horribleness and [[EvilMentor mould him into a more competent horrible person]], offering moral support and justifying his actions for him, so that even when [[HeelRealization he has moments of introspection]] the answer is always "you're right, and you deserve all the power". Compare the journey of Wesley Gibson with the journey of a character like Franchise/HarryPotter. Lots of conveniently inherited guardians, assistants, resources, and lucky powers that save the day with bizarre ease. When changed to this context, the insidiousness of the archetype kind of comes to the fore.
* ''ComicBook/WeStandOnGuard'': In the first issue, Booth is given lip about his {{Superman}} tattoo and he defends it by saying that Superman has a message of immigrants that become powerful (especially Canadian ones). In the ''last'' issue, Amber is about to detonate a bomb vest that will kill her, the Administrator and will poison Canada's water (which ''will'' make the Americans leave, but will cause an immense amount of ecological damage). Amber's last words before detonating it?
--->"There's no Superman out there. 'Cause you know what ''really'' happens when you blow up a kid's parents? You don't get some noble defender of justice. [[SociopathicSoldier You get me]]"
* ''ComicBook/WelcomeToTranquility'': Of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks; the people who fought the Nazis are horribly scarred because of what they experienced, supervillains who fought ''with'' the Nazis have been shunned and hassled all their lives since then, and most characters are struggling to deal with growing old in a world where younger heroes have taken their places.
[[/folder]]

* The episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' about them moving to "Citysville" deals with what would happen if their brand of heroics was applied to a real life city. For example, they stop some bank robbers, but in the process, they cause so much property damage that it outweighs the amount of stolen money they recover.

* For the superhero scene, there's ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog''. A detailed description of the webseries can be found in its WMG page.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': The series takes a look at how horrifying and traumatizing some of the events that happens in a typical weekly ''Star Trek'' show by presenting them from the perspective of your typical low-level grunt or RedShirt. This includes opening a story with a ZombieApocalypse on the U.S.S. ''Cerritos.'' [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] as the protagonists are, with the exception of Boimler, entirely unfazed by this.
** Boimler made his interview prep program by accessing the personal logs of all the ship's personnel to recreate them with the highest degree of accuracy possible. Characters in other Trek shows have also recreated the crew for various reasons, but the other ensigns treat it as a creepy invasion of privacy rather than a mild irritant. It gets worse when Mariner gets way too into blasting up her crewmates (not unlike Barclay's programs when he routinely beat up on his superior officers) and drives Tendi to leave.
** The FantasticRacism that comes about by treating different species as a PlanetOfHats turns out not to reflect well on Starfleet. And although Mariner does apologize for her behavior at the end, there's also a blink-and-miss it of one of the holo-crew making a disparaging remark about Orions that upsets Tendi. (And if Boimler's simulation is as accurate as it seems in all other areas, that guy really is prejudiced against her.)

* ''ComicBook/{{Nemesis}}'': The series is this to comic book series focusing on the [[EvilFeelsGood escapist exploits]] of [[VillainProtagonist supervillains]], by stripping out everything that creators typically use to make us root for characters like that. Nemesis isn't fighting people who are [[BlackAndGreyMorality as bad or worse than him]], he has [[FreudianExcuse no tragic]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds backstory]] or [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loved ones]] to make the audience sympathise with him, he's not a NobleDemon like ComicBook/DoctorDoom or ComicBook/BlackAdam; in fact he's {{Jerkass}} with no AffablyEvil or FauxAffablyEvil traits, and his evil isn't cartoonish and over-the-top enough to make him fun like the Joker or SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}.

* What would happen if a human in the world of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' doesn't find CharacterDevelopment or GoalInLife through these creatures? In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', Chloe Cerise gets thrown into the eponymous train itself and decides that she's going to reinvent herself by traveling across the train's multiple cars and discusses how a person can find their own self-worth and growth without having to be a trainer.