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Deconstructed Character Archetype / Fan Works

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Deconstructed Character Archetype in Fan Works.

The following have their own pages:

Crossovers
  • From Code Prime:
    • Dreadwing deconstructs the Noble Demon and Token Good Teammate. He may have a code of honor and is the most moral of the Decepticons, but he's still a Decepticon and is still complacent in the many atrocities his faction commits. He ends up unwittingly pushing Suzaku down a darker path because he's incapable of seeing his side for what it truly is. Furthermore, his status as this is deliberately exploited by Megatron as a means to further manipulate Suzaku by having him set an example for the human to follow.
    • Suzaku's entire character as the Honor Before Reason idealist gets heavily ripped apart throughout the story, especially by Megatron in Chapter 29, where he's forced to face the fact that his entire image as this is a façade hiding a Death Seeker hoping to be punished for his wrongdoings. Even his status as a Death Seeker gets ripped apart by Lelouch in Chapter 32 following the SAZ Massacre, where he calls him out on how he continuously blames others and actively tries to die so he can avoid responsibility, making even his desires to die and atone come across as selfish because he would rather get himself killed than ever admit he did something wrong.
  • The Dragon and the Butterfly: Arnapkapfaaluk is a deconstruction of the Proud Warrior Race Guy and the Determinator. Arny dedicates her entire life to be the best fighter, taking a Vow of Silence that she will only break after being defeated. Since she had built her whole identity around being the best warrior she knows, she goes into denial when she finally meets her match (Isabela) and becomes obsessed with "finishing their fight" and proving herself superior, forgoing any form of recreation, levity or camaraderie in the process. While Arny has nothing but beating Isabela as a priority, Isabela has not thought of her once since their first encounter, something Arny takes personally. It gets to the point where she tries to kill Isabela during a mutually assured disaster (Dragon Island erupting), is willing to kill her dishonorably (when her back is turned) and even breaks her vow just to gloat about being better than her. Isabela manages to get through to Arny when pointing out that while she has a life outside of being a fighter, Arny does not.
  • In Ducktales: Twenty Years Later, a Darker and Edgier Mega Crossover Continuation Fic for The Disney Afternoon, this is used to explain why the Frame-Up of Huey, Dewey and Louie works so well; despite what Dewey initially believes, their ties to Scrooge McDuck actually give them the opposite of a good name. Whilst Scrooge was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, he only ever shared the nicer side of his personality with his grand-nephews and a small cast of intimates; to the rest of the world he was a shamelessly miserly, avaricious, abrasive, domineering, arrogant Jerkass whose one virtue was that, as bad as he was, he was at least scrupulously honest in his ruthless business pursuits, as opposed to his rivals Glomgold and Rockerduck, who would break the law without a second thought in pursuit of money. Dewey also subtly points out that Scrooge's stinginess meant he was a hard man to like even for his family.
  • From Empathy and its sequel, Unity (Finmonster):
    • Callaghan/Yokai deconstructs the Papa Wolf. He's fiercely protective and devoted to his daughter, but the sheer lengths he'll go to in order to save her leads to him serving a Galactic Conqueror and committing a lot of horrible actions that result in many people's deaths. By the time he actually gets her back, his actions horrify her to the point where she cuts ties with him in the next story.
    • Megamind deconstructs the Punch-Clock Villain and Harmless Villain. He was ultimately the villain only because of the thrill and due to societal obligation, and because he never won, people never took him seriously. However, this made him an outcast amongst the villain community with his only true friend being Gru, who had very similar ideals to him and was likewise also an outcast for similar reasons. In addition, because of the fact that he wasn't much of a threat, it caused Metro Man to forget that not all villains are like Megamind, and led to him having no qualms about leaving Metro City at Megamind's mercy when he decided to retire.
  • Fairy May Cry:
    • Devil's Retribution has Byro take apart Principles Zealot and Undying Loyalty. He is absolutely devoted to the church of Zentopia and it's cause, having great faith in their leaders judgement, and is willing to give up his life if that ensures their missions success. The problem is that he expects this same level of devotion from his allies as well, being surprised when they object to being put in the cross-fire from one of his attacks and is willing to treat them as enemies for merely attempting to negotiate with their adversaries and question their given orders. The members of Fairy Tail also point out his willingness to make hard decisions just means he is unwilling to consider alternatives that don't involve bloodshed (with Dante in particular pointing out that sacrificing others without their consent is functionally murder) and that his dismissal of emotions is really just a way to avoid feeling guilt. What's more is that his absolute belief in his leaders judgement means that he ignores blatant evidence that they may not be as benevolent as they appear, and only escalates the confrontation when Fairy Tail offer to talk things out. Overall his dedication to such principles make him a self-righteous, inflexible, Hypocrite unable (or just unwilling) to acknowledge the flaws in his attitude and cause.
    • Sabertooth have their Social Darwinist mindset examined and criticised more thoroughly than canon. Like most examples, they value strength above all else, disparaging any form of weakness they see in others, and maintain that anyone 'weak' deserves whatever fate befalls them. As the Grand Magic Games continue, the flaws in this mindset (even apart from the moral ones) come to the forefront, the most obvious being that since they despise any display of weakness, they're willing to harshly punish (and outright expel) even promising members like Yukino after a single failure without giving them a chance to improve. Their fixation on strength also proves to be a detriment in battle, with Natsu noting that Sting and Rogue have impressive power, but their "strategy" doesn't extend beyond overwhelming their opponents with offense, and resort to their Super Mode's whenever they start to struggle. As a result their actual skills have atrophied, and they flounder when they face an opponent they can't just steamroll, a flaw that several of their guildmates share. The guilds zero tolerance for any sign of 'weakness' logically includes acknowledging and addressing whatever weaknesses the members already have, leaving them all to plateau and refuse to accept that their power isn't enough, even as their opponents exploit the weaknesses they left unaddressed. In short, such a mindset overall proves to be a detriment to their capabilities as fighters, in contrast to Vergil, who has this mindset balanced by his more nuanced view of 'strength' and nobler qualities.
  • Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship:
    • Starfleet deconstructs the Designated Hero. For supposed "heroes", they commit plenty of villainous acts and that's exactly how they're seen with numerous characters calling them out that they do little if anything to prove that they're actually heroic. Dark Conquest even states that unlike Starfleet, he's not trying to act like the hero despite his actions proving otherwise. In short, they're as much Designated Heroes In-Universe as they are out universe.
    • They also deconstruct Superior Species as despite their claims of being better than other races, there is little evidence that supports this. Additionally, it is revealed by Dr. Emil Kudos that Space Ponies have genes that can give them temporary boosts in power, but only in one certain category (strength, speed or durability) at a time. Due to Dark Conquest's army having such diverse creatures, the Space Ponies' power boosts are largely ineffective.
    • Rhymey Ward deconstructs The Lancer. He resents being second to Lightning Dawn due to his belief that Lightning did not do anything to earn his position. He came from a long line of loyal soldiers to Starfleet and expected to be Grand Ruler's right-hand man until Lightning came along and "stole" his position.
    • He's also a deconstruction of Mykan's "guy who gets rejected by a girl and falls to darkness because of it" archetype. Instead of being portrayed sympathetically by the narrative, Rhymey's character demonstrates just how selfish, petty, and inconsiderate of others' feelings one would have to be in order to act the way he does. Ultimately, NOBODY in the fic blames Fluttershy for what happens, and rightfully blame Rhymey instead.
  • Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: Has two.
    • Jade is one for Kid Hero and Reincarnation. She spends much of the story becoming a changeling, having an Overnight Age-Up, learns she's a reincarnation of history's heroes and deadliest warriors, and gets kidnapped and torture, with a lot more in between. Because of this, she's dealing with a lot of issues no kid should.
    • Elyon is one for Really Royalty Reveal among others. The second she learns the truth, she abandons Earth, her friends, and family, to go off with a brother she only has Rose-Tinted Narrative to rely on, and goes off to live her wildest fantasies. When her best friend finds her, she gives her the mother of all "Reason You Suck" Speech fueled by Disappointed by the Motive. Unlike Jade, she has an Ignored Epiphany.
  • The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Interactions with Danny's dates deconstruct Dash Baxter's role of The Bully, Jerk Jock, and a Future Loser from the series. Dash has no aspiration for a life after high school, not even considering to use his skills in football to make something of himself. He's openly rude and disrespectful to people he considers beneath him, while expecting others to line up for him. Finally, he thinks himself important because of his self-designated role of "king of Casper High". As a result, Danny's dates, including people connected to them who meet Dash, just see him as a pathetic jerk. Eventually, he becomes treated the same way people like these in real life are treated, with little to no respect. Clover rejects him for not even considering a life after he graduates, Kara threatens to expose his bullying to the public if Casper High continues to turn a blind eye, and he ends up getting into trouble that ends up undermining attempts to make something of himself.
  • NiGHTS: Quatro Facets of Dreams: The six younger protagonists deconstruct to varying degrees the different types of Kid Hero they embody in their original works.
    • Coraline, Dipper, and Mabel, being witty and brave children that fought against supernatural threats and their manipulative charms, and grew thanks to living in a different place than their birth one (the difference mainly that the Pink Palace is Coraline's definitive new home while Dipper and Mabel just stayed in Gravity Falls' Mystery Shack for the summer), might've learned positive things and became heroes, but also got traumatized by what they faced and learned (demonstrated better by Coraline's prejudice against magic beings and Mabel's guilt-driven self-hatred). It's their Character Development to try and overcome these traumas.
    • Skid and Pump, the Halloween-loving boys that pass life with a cheerful smile, and never take anything seriously (as in, analyze the dangerous situations with brainpower), either have to be warned multiple times about the scariness and seriousness of the situation by NiGHTS and Owl or have their lack of maliciousness and wit exploited (or attempted to) by Jackle. Even more concerningly, it's hinted that part of it is a mask to keep themselves from going mad over how broken their families are. After they first meet Wizeman (by voice) and they get their Ideyas of Intelligence back, they start to take things more seriously, even if remaining their cheery selves.
    • A lighter case compared to the rest, but Frisk, being an All-Loving Hero who tries their best to help as many people and monsters as possible, suffers from Samaritan Syndrome due to being unable to find a way to revive Chara and Asriel so the Dreemurr family can be fully happy. Her pacifist ways work on the Nightmarens she faces because they are miserable and in need of compassion; otherwise, she knows she'll have to fight Wizeman and not hold back. Reala even says that Frisk being a people-loving pacifist is "foolish".
  • A Phantom's Love and Courage: Danny encounters a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl akin to Sadako or Kayako. In a proper Japanese horror movie, she would be the Invincible Big Bad. However, beings like the two aforementioned examples were entities that never encountered equally powerful beings who could give them physical harm. Thus, instead of a threat to Danny, she's depicted as a pathetic loser unused to being pushed around.
  • Phantom vs Aliens: Hot Ectoplasma!: Mandie does this for the Proud Warrior Race Girl: her species-wide drive for conflict and subjugation has left her with little conception of things like romance and joy.
  • Rick and The Loud House:
    • Lincoln is a deconstruction of Extreme Doormat; the reason he's constantly helping other people and letting them walk all over him is because he suffers from cripplingly low self-esteem.
    • Lynn deconstructs both Big Sister Bully and Jerk Jock; her arrogance and highly competitive nature drives away her friends and family. It also eventually becomes clear that, in reality, Lynn is very scared and insecure because years of bullying drove her to thinking that being anything other than the best would stop the bullying.
  • Ruby deconstructs Seers in Strength of an Honest Soul. She gains the power to see prophetic visions of the future and the secrets of creation at an early age, but at that point, she's too young to understand anything she's seeing. The visions she sees are often so intense and powerful that she ended up suffering from headaches and nightmares for years, with her also needing medication to stave off the effects. Not to mention that, because no one on Remnant has any idea about Angels, Demons, or anything beyond their own world, it caused her to be written off as mentally ill and led to her being mocked and belittled as a child.

Arrowverse

  • Blackbird deconstructs Mama Bear, and overprotective parents in general. Dinah has an almost obsessive desire to protect Sara from everything that might negatively affect her life, including any potential consequences her daughter might face for her actions. However, this desire doesn't spring from any genuine love for Sara but rather because she sees herself in her younger daughter. That leads her to make poor parenting choices such as letting Sara run off to sleep with her sister Laurel's boyfriend just because she's convinced she's in love (rather than telling her the truth, namely that Oliver was just using her), to taking drastic measures to protect her daughter that Sara wouldn't agree with or would cause her emotional distress, such as trading Laurel to the League in exchange for her sister's freedom. The end result sees Sara so damaged by her mother's actions that she's unable to make any step toward a recovery from her trauma for several years. In the end, it's clear she would've been much better off had Dinah been less protective and hadn't tried to shield her from everything.
  • moral of the story (Nyame) deconstructs the idea of The Atoner. The story displays that while there is nothing wrong with wanting to redeem and feel better about yourself, it shouldn't be your primary motivation for atonement, otherwise, it could quite easily morph into selfishness instead. Your primary motivation should always be the sake of someone else, usually the person/people you wronged. This is perfectly displayed with Oliver and Sara, who are attempting to redeem themselves by being "heroes"/vigilantes for the city while studiously ignoring their poor treatment of Laurel, the person they wronged most, under the mistaken belief that what they're doing in the shadows to help others who are not Laurel but they perceive to be suffering far worse than her and how they themselves suffered during their time away gives them a pass. This eventually causes Laurel to commit suicide after Oliver's abusive outburst in the hallway convinces her that they don't care about her, completely destroying any sense of atonement and redemption they once felt and instead reinforcing the idea that they are still the horrible, selfish people they were before the Gambit. If they had just owned up to how they wronged her and apologized for it, the entire situation could've been avoided.

Castlevania

  • Forgotten is utterly merciless towards the idea of Living Emotional Crutch, as Dracula's mind is so utterly fragile that he will devolve into an Omnicidal Maniac when his wife dies, even when her death isn't caused by mankind. Mina is horror-struck to learn her lover is genuinely at risk to lose his sanity if she's unable to outlive him, and when Alucard begs her to teach Soma how to cope with the eventuality of losing her to old age or illness or car crash without trying to destroy the world, she's immediately aboard with his suggestion.

Danganronpa

  • The Lion's Den:
    • The Chessmaster and I Work Alone. Kamukura's insistence on working alone and manipulating events from the shadows means that Naegi misinterprets his goal and grows to distrust him, something that help pushes him into despair. It also means he tends to be blindsided when people act on "illogical" hope or despair, as seen in the events leading up to Nanami's death.
    • Hope Bringer and Living MacGuffin: Naegi's status as the Ultimate Hope means that aside from his classmates, his sister and Iwata, no one truly sees him as a person: the Future Foundation and common people see him as symbol of hope, the Remnants see him as Junko's son and heir, Kamukura sees him as the way to cure despair, and Komaeda sees as a metaphorical punching bag. Even Naegi himself falls into this trap, as he slowly loses his individuality to the point where he believe he is Hope itself.
  • Where Talent Goes to Die:
    • Kaori Mirua, the Ultimate Beginner's Luck, deconstructs The Protagonist. As a relatively ordinary person in a cast full of Ultimates, she has many admirable qualities even if she doesn't have a talent, but at the same time, she also has many things that she's not able to do. As a protagonist, she's painfully aware that her attempts to keep people from dying don't work for long, that she's making little progress in finding a way out, and that even if she solves the mysteries, it doesn't do anything to prevent the rest of the class from dwindling one by one.
    • Reiko Mitamura, the Ultimate Proofreader, deconstructs The Perfectionist. Her determination to accept nothing less than the best possible results gives her the drive to succeed, but also results in her being unable to accept her mistakes. She ends up committing murder in an attempt to hide the fact that she once cheated on a test.
    • Momo Iwasawa, the Ultimate Farm Hand, deconstructs the Country Mouse as it's indicated that her lack of knowledge about the outside world makes it difficult to integrate into or function in modern society.
    • Komaki Katsura, the Ultimate Saleswoman, serves as a deconstruction of those who believe in "The Needs of the Many". Her character arc revolves around pointing out the downsides to this ideology, including the fact that she has personal feelings and cannot act rationally all the time.
    • Sora Hoshino, the Ultimate Astronomer, deconstructs The Rival. He is a selfish and standoffish individual, he's not much of a team player, and is more likely to commit murder to graduate than he is to be a strong contributor to the group, which is exactly what ends up happening.

Danny Phantom

  • Danny Phantom: Stranded:
    • Colette Bevier:
      • Of the Alpha Bitch. Her arrogance and conceited nature are the results of a dangerously narcissistic mindset that drives her to endanger and injure others to get what she wants. In a reversal of the usual trope, she hits on the main protagonist, but she treats him less as of a person she ought to care for and more as an object she must possess. Her attitude gets so bad that even her father and stepmother get sick of her vain and wasteful ways.
      • Also of the Spoiled Brat, Proud Beauty, and Serial Homewrecker. She’s used to getting her own way and being adored by boys for her beauty (to the point she can easily steal other girls' boyfriends), but the very concept of a boy who has no interest in her makes her go ballistic as it’s a serious blow to her ego. She becomes obsessed with stealing Danny from Star for being the first guy to reject her, and her growing fixation only deepens his hatred for her and makes everyone realize how deeply disturbed she is.
      • Of the Abhorrent Admirer, Attention Whore, Entitled Bitch, and The Unfettered. Colette's obsessive need for attention, desire to always beat Star, and entitlement issues cause her to fixate on stealing her stepsister's boyfriend Danny because his faithfulness to Star makes him completely immune to Colette's charms while she only views his rejection as a "challenge". Her utter lack of scruples only fuels Danny and Team Phantom's hatred of her since she's fine with hurting them to get what she wants. Everybody else gets so disturbed by her unhealthy obsession with Danny and ruining Star's life that Team Phantom is trying to get a restraining order against her, the A-Listers are seriously considering kicking her out of their clique, and even her overindulging parents contemplate seeking professional help for her like therapy or boarding school.
      • Of the Token Evil Teammate because while the A-Listers aren't nice people they're ultimately just a bunch of spoiled bullies while Colette is a budding sociopath with a creepy obsession with Danny and zero moral restraints. By the time of "Blackmailed", the A-Listers have become so disturbed by her growing fixation with Danny that they don't want to be involved anymore in her schemes to steal him from Star and even consider kicking her out of the group if she keeps this up, especially if they find out that she's resorted to illegal tactics in which case they'll gladly turn her over to the police if they have evidence since they don't want to be associated with a crook.
    • Paulina Sanchez: Of the Fangirl, Loves My Alter Ego, and Clingy Jealous Girl. While Danny was initially attracted to Paulina for her beauty and flattered by her crush on his ghost-self in the beginning, since he appreciated that she was the one first people to realize he’s a hero, the novelty left and he’s noticed that her crush has grown into an unhealthy obsession. This irritates even the people around her since Paulina refuses to leave Danny Phantom alone even when he’s dating Starlight Spirit and her horrible treatment of his human-self makes Danny give up on her for good when he realizes that underneath her good looks, she’s just an unbearably snooty Spoiled Brat who’s too shallow to like him for anything other than his ghost powers. Thus, he refuses to have anything to do with Paulina anymore unless it’s to save her, but he still rushes to get far away from her when he can.
    • Misty Smith-Yang is a deconstruction of the Mage Born of Muggles, being the first member of the Yang clan in ages to develop magic. While under most circumstances she'd be the protagonist of her own story, she's instead unwittingly an antagonist in Danny's. Unlike other characters of this trope, including its Codifier Hermione Granger, Misty keeps her powers a secret from her entire family, has no friends or support group to fall back on, no mentor or instructor to go to for advice and lessons or even friendly fellow magic users to commiserate with, an inability to make proper connections with others, and an extremely impulsive mindset. Misty is essentially would happen if a normal girl with a less than stellar life, limited ability to socialize, and a lack of impulse control developed magic: someone who irresponsibly relies on magical shortcuts to improve her lot, no matter how many times they backslide and lead to disaster, and is consistently manipulated into aiding others' malevolent agendas.
    • Kwan Li:
      • Of the Peer-Pressured Bully. His refusal to leave the popular kids strains his relationship with Star, the girl he loves, since she strives to escape the negative influence of the A-List because they just made her a worse person like they’re doing with Kwan. Colette points out he’s no better than the rest of the A-Listers since he’s basically a glorified attack dog to them. She even uses this against Kwan in “Blackmailed” to force him to keep working for her by pointing out that his tendency to always go along with his friends’ bullying will make it easy for her to convince people he willingly helped her due to being too weak-minded to say no, so they’ll both go down if he decides to expose her.
      • Of the Token Good Teammate and Lovable Coward, as he’s secretly miserable from hanging out with jerks like Dash and Paulina who don’t really care about him and have a shallow friendship with him at best, but he’s too scared of being kicked out of the A-Listers to stand up for himself.
  • Resurrected Memories: Paulina is this of the Alpha Bitch and Spoiled Brat, with the story showing how a domineering and entitled harpy like her would really be. Danny wants nothing to do with Paulina to the point he wants her out of his life just to get some peace from her stalkerish behavior; she made a dangerous enemy of Ember McLain by bullying her; Star turns on her after being pushed too far, she gets into a lot of trouble with her parents who ground her for drinking alcohol while underage, she's suspended for a month for bringing alcohol onto campus and her parents have to bribe the school into not expelling her, and by the end of the story, all of Casper High gets so sick of her callous and self-centered behavior that they pelt her with fruit at prom and partake in Ember's humiliation of Paulina at Nasty Burger by making her do all kinds of degrading punishments.
    • Paulina is also one of the Fangirl because her Celeb Crush on Danny has completely stopped being endearing and grew into an unhealthy obsession, which just makes her come off as creepy and irritating to everyone.

Dark Moon: The Blood Altar

Darkwing Duck

  • Blue Waltz: Gosalyn’s Plucky Girl attitude is shown to be somewhat in the wrong: Gosalyn’s inability to buckle under authority, whether parental or educational, gets her in a lot of trouble and makes her out to be an arrogant brat.

Five Nights at Freddy's

  • Frayed Edges: Michael Afton deconstructs the brooding loner hero with a Dark and Troubled Past. Because of all the trauma he's endured throughout his life, he's a barely functional wreck suffering from depression and severe PTSD who deliberately isolates himself out of fear of rejection and a belief he doesn't deserve love. And rather than being any sort of a badass, he's understandably terrified of going up against the murderous animatronics that have already caused him a lifetime's worth of trauma again and his encounters with them mostly end in him having a panic attack.

Harry Potter

  • Brutal Harry does this for multiple characters as well.
    • Dumbledore's status as an Eccentric Mentor and Universally Beloved Leader is treated much more critically here. Unlike other stories with similar elements, however, Brutal Harry averts Adaptational Villainy by making it clear that Dumbledore is ultimately a good and heroic man who means well. His main problem is that his tendency to make decisions based solely on the long-term has inadvertently caused him to not take other people's immediate needs or feelings into consideration. Moreover, his age and the stress from the heavy workload from his three different time-consuming jobs (as not only is Dumbledore the Headmaster of Hogwarts, he's also the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot) have rendered him significantly out of touch and inattentive when it comes to several of his judgments, motivations, and actions, especially in regards to the staff and students under his employ and guard respectively, which has caused multiple things to slip through the cracks. This, in turn, has led to said individuals believing they can get away with their actions without facing any real consequences (i.e., Snape's blatant favoritism of the Slytherins, bullies getting away with antagonizing other students, etc). It's also not helped by the fact that some people are a bit blinded by their faith in his judgement due to his well-earned reputation, and thus, rarely question his choices. This last point in particular comes back to bite him especially hard in the ass when Harry refuses to accept Dumbledore's apology for placing him in the Dursleys' care after ignoring McGonagall's warnings about the family being ill-suited to care for him.
    • McGonagall's status as a Stern Teacher gets this as well. She genuinely wants to help her students learn and be safe while doing so. However, her "harsh, but fair" attitude (as well as a somewhat blind faith in Dumbledore's reputation) makes her ignore extenuating circumstances regarding different students as individuals, or come off as obstinate when something falls outside of her perceptions. As a result, her students feel intimidated by her and don't feel that they can turn to her for help. When she realizes this thanks to the troll incident, she's not only horrified, but she genuinely attempts to be more open-minded and approachable. Her Character Development pays off, because between it and McGonagall immediately revealing the truth of the prophecy and its circumstances to Harry once she learns about it during Harry's second year, she becomes one of the few adults that Harry will genuinely trust.
    • Aunt Petunia's been The Resenter due to her jealousy of her sister, who not only had awesome magical powers while Petunia herself did not, but was also considered much more attractive by the other boys. She had let this jealousy consume her to the point of actually feeling a sense of "vengeful satisfaction" at Lily's death and taking all that past bitterness out on Harry by enabling Uncle Vernon's abuse of the boy. When it inevitably escalated with Harry's frequent bouts of accidental magic, Petunia was forced to see what she had become by a soul fragment of Lily that was stored in Harry viciously calling her out on her pettiness. Since then, she's been filled with regret for the way she had behaved and became The Atoner.
    • Draco Malfoy has his Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!, The Bully, and Fantastic Racism taken apart as well. Using his family name and relying on Snape to get him out of trouble has given him a horribly inflated ego and overestimation of his own abilities. Thus, when the more attentive, progressive, take-no-BS McGonagall becomes Headmistress, he finds himself without any true friends to back him up, or connections to avoid the consequences of his actions. Additionally, the ruthless Bully Hunter Harry continually hands him his ass, and muggleborn students (especially Hermione) completely show him up in magical academia, because he's never applied himself. This results in him undergoing some significant Character Development, and by the sequel, he's denounced his biased past and made a full Heel–Face Turn and aids the heroes.

Hey Arnold!

  • After the Jungle Series: Olga Pataki is a destruction of The Ace, Determinator, and Ignored Expert. In the original series, she was a smart, beautiful, and popular young woman with many viable talents and achievements. Everyone (including Helga) expected Olga to have a bright future ahead of her. However, she was also shown to be an extraordinarily insecure and neurotic person whose happiness was a mask she put on to deal with the pressure her parents (particularly her dad) put on her. She is also shown that she really could be rather childish and couldn't handle stress when faced with real problems. Her personality flaws and her immaturity prevented Olga from becoming successful as an adult, as everyone expected, as shown in the following example:
    • A few years after graduating college, Olga quits her job as a teacher to pursue a career as an actress (specifically for theater), even moving to New York City at one point to audition for Broadway. Due to excelling at pretty much everything else she had ever done at that point, Olga presumably figured that she'd just as easily succeed at becoming an actress. Unfortunately for Olga, it soon becomes apparent that she just doesn't have what it takes to make it as an actress—and not being used to failure, she spent years trying to achieve her acting dreams, even though it's obvious to pretty much everyone around her that (even without taking age into consideration) Olga just doesn't have the talent to become an actress.
    • After marrying Patrick Sherman, a failed rockstar who has trouble holding down a job and having two children named Logan and Lisa, Olga eventually had to move back to her old hometown of Hillwood; she went back to working as a schoolteacher and eventually becoming a 5th-grade teacher at P.S. 118. And unfortunately, while Olga genuinely loves her children, she is making the same mistake her parents made in trying to make them perfect. This has ultimately led to Olga having a distant relationship with her kids (particularly her daughter Lisa).
    • Things do get better for Olga in the last chapter of "A Perfect Disaster" after talking with Helga, who points out Olga's faults and that she was becoming a bad parent like her father. Olga resolves to become a better parent to the twins, accepting them for who they are while working on her marriage to Patrick.

Kill la Kill

  • Natural Selection plays with some of the strongest traits of the cast.
    • Satsuki deconstructs the Smug Super. She's one of the strongest and most intelligent people in the world and her interactions with Nudist Beach show just how confident she is in her abilities. This causes her a lot of problems, as her smug and arrogant attitude towards them just left her wanting for a powerful ally and the resources they have at their disposal because she felt they couldn't compete with her at her level. To top it off, all her assuredness in her abilities is more of a façade, as she's spent her whole life forcing the burden of stopping REVOCS on her shoulders alone and it's left her with many deep rooted issues of self-loathing since all her efforts to stop her family have accomplished nothing.
    • In addition there's Mako, who ends up being one of the All-Loving Heroine, Token Good Teammate, and Positive Friend Influence. She's an absolute sweetheart who's the only morally decent person on Ryuko's council and is actively trying to be a good friend to Ryuko to hold off her bloodlust. However, being all this and serving The Caligula at the same time doesn't really work. While she does a better job than the rest at managing Ryuko's lack of sanity and normal morals, it's not very significant and there's still a lot of bloodshed and killing. To top it off, her status as the all-loving heroine while simultaneously serving the villain is inherently contradictory, as it requires that she be complacent in Ryuko's atrocities for her attempts to change her ways to even remotely work. In their battle, Satsuki even calls her out on this and that for all her kindness, she comes across as having a very twisted moral compass since rather than stop all the violence and death, she instead ignores it and builds a safe haven within it.
      Satsuki: I am curious, Mako Mankanshoku. How skewed must your moral compass be to stand in the wake of mass murder, and spend your time not fighting it but instead building a model garden of society while the world burns around you?

Kingdom Hearts

  • Saga of Light deconstructs Kairi's status as a Damsel in Distress within the games. When Kairi has to take up Sora's mantle as a Keyblade Wielder, she is shown to have serious self-esteem issues as a result of constantly getting kidnapped. This naturally leads her to see herself as The Load to her friends and she constantly doubts her capabilities as a hero.

The Loud House

  • Reacting to The Loud House:
    • Lincoln Loud:
      • Is a deconstruction of The Pollyanna. After witnessing the episodes that chronicled his life that always ends him being in pain, Lincoln breaks his usual happy behavior and shows genuine anger and bitterness regarding his life. In addition, he makes it clear that he still resents his family for their treatment to him that he refused to forgive them despite it all happening in the past.
      • Is a deconstruction of the Butt-Monkey, as watching episodes that involve him suffering misfortune causes him to grow more cynical.
    • Lynn Loud Jr deconstructs the Big Sister Bully. It's noticed several times than despite her claims about loving Lincoln, her actions towards him are nothing short of bullying and her actions in "No Such Luck" causes her brother, friends and love interest to lose nearly all respect for her.
    • Lynn Loud Sr. is a deconstruction of the Bumbling Dad. It's addressed that such a trait hinders his capabilities as a responsible parent, "Study Muffin" being a key example; he himself acknowledges this.

Love Hina

  • For His Own Sake:
    • Naru's arc picks apart the concept of a Tsundere — more specifically, the violent variant thereof, alongside Unprovoked Pervert Payback. Unlike canon, her frequent assaults on Keitaro are not Played for Laughs, and when he breaks up with her to kick off the story, it rapidly becomes clear that she never actually loved or cared for him at all. She has no interest in getting him back beyond, well, "getting him back", as she blames him for the consequences of her own actions catching up with her. Her Hair-Trigger Temper and tendency to assume the worst of others due to her belief that All Men Are Perverts spurs her to assault a man for lightly teasing his wife, landing herself in serious trouble that's only worsened by her stubborn insistence that he DESERVED it.
    • Mutsumi deconstructs the Shipper on Deck, alongside aiding in the Tsundere deconstruction despite not being one herself. Specifically, her support of Naru and Keitaro getting together stems from her being a Horrible Judge of Character, blinding herself to just how one-sided and abusive their relationship is. When they break up, her inability to face the notion that she'd misjudged and made a mistake spurs her to double down and try to "help" them get back together, ignoring how neither of her shipping targets actually wants that. This ultimately ruins most of her relationships as others get sick of her obsessing over "helping" them hook up.
    • Bratty Half-Pint Sarah's status as a Satellite Character is highlighted by showing what happens when they're removed from the main cast and left with the person they revolve around. When Seta realizes how much Naru and Motoko have negatively influenced his daughter, he takes her away from the inn, only to find that it's too late: she's still a Spoiled Brat who believes that she'll eventually get her way if she's just loud, demanding and violent enough. When he sends her to a strict boarding school, Sarah promptly disowns him as her father, insisting that Naru and the others will eventually rescue her. However, none of the Hinata Inn girls spare Sarah a single thought after her depature, until the very end where Haruka is contacted by the school and personally explains to her that no, none of the girls or Granny Hina are coming to save her. Sarah's haughty attitude shatters as she realizes she was never that important to the other residents and drove away the only person who actually cared about her wellbeing.
    • Granny Hina's status as a Cool Old Lady is gradually broken down when the full scope of her actions gets revealed. While in canon she's treated as a Parental Substitute who opened the Hinata Inn to troubled girls who needed a place to be unburdened by their problems, it's shown that by allowing them to do as they please she exacerbated their negative traits since they were never taught any consequences for their actions. Furthermore, she abdicated her role as manager of the inn to selfishly go on a world tour in order to set Keitaro up to fall in love with Naru, his "promise girl," without telling him she converted the inn into an all-girls dormitory or the real reason for her actions. As a result, she ends up looking like a Manipulative Bitch willing to prioritize the happiness of a abusive brat over the health and safety of her own grandchild. She only makes things worse for herself by her ongoing refusal to admit she's done more harm than good for the Hinata Inn girls, even as most of them leave because they realize how toxic the environment is or are taken away when their actions bite them in the ass. Ultimately, Granny Hina realized her actions were harmful and for nothing, and the promised girl Naru, whom she loved and supported so much, is a selfish, toxic, ungrateful girl who destroys everything she touches. By the time Hina realized it, it was too late, and she had burned bridges with her family and the girls she wanted to look after. Hina helps Naru one last time and leaves Japan forever regretful over the fact that she destroyed her relationship with her friends and family over a failed attempt at being a guardian, and she can see how harmful her actions were because of her stubbornness and selfishness.
    • Shinobu's role as the Token Good Teammate is scathingly torn apart by Keitaro, Nanami, and Kanako. Even if she was the only one who never abused or attacked Keitaro, Shinobu still did little to actually speak up in his defense whenever Naru and Motoko attacked him for being "perverted," which was just as bad as the outright physical abuse and manipulation he suffered from the aforementioned two as well as Su, Kitsune, and Sarah. Keitaro tells Shinobu he can't be around her anymore because of the frequent accusations, while Nanami and Kanako both believe Shinobu's a curse on him. Her role later gets reconstructed when Shinobu's the first to fully accept her role as an Accomplice by Inaction, owning up to her guilt and then making an earnest attempt to help Keitaro as he wants to be helped. Because of this, Shinobu earns Keitaro's forgiveness; she gains the respect and friendship of Keitaro, Nanami, and Kanako when they see how truly sorry she is when she didn't defend him and grows as a person by standing up to the girls and breaking up her friendship with them seeing them as selfish and toxic. Because Shinobu took responsibility for her actions and was the best of the girls, she grew as a person and saved her friendship with Keitaro.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

  • Rain Code: New Game Plus: Desuhiko Thunderbolt deconstructs the Casanova Wannabe by showing just how much he makes girls and women uncomfortable with his advances. He even goes out of his way to sneak into Aetheria Academy after the murder case of Chapter 2 has been solved just to get close to girls, which gets him in trouble more than once due to security being upgraded as well as Waruna and Yoshiko being on lookout duty. Melami and Kurumi gently criticize his behavior by telling him how he tries too hard to get girls to like him and his attempts to flirt with multiple women would potentially shoot down any chance of getting a genuinely romantic relationship.

Mega Man

  • Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race has Dick Ferguson, who is basically a deconstruction of J. Jonah Jameson. Like Jameson, Dick works to undermine the hero and "expose" him and others like him as a menace to society. However, while Spider-Man suffers from a dodgy rep and bad luck, Mega Man is renowned as a hero from day one, so Dick's attempts fall flat. Also, while Jameson is the head of his news company and has the clout to keep pushing his angle, Ferguson is a cog in the machine and his boss has no qualms about dumping him the second his ratings are too low to be worth saving.

Miraculous Ladybug

Monsters vs. Aliens

  • God Help the Outcasts: For Giant Woman. The implications of becoming a fifty-foot-tall giantess are explored, such as how things like basic hygiene, entertainment, and human contact would be much harder (namely the latter, as she could easily kill someone if she didn't watch her step).

My Hero Academia

  • Cain: Just like canon, Katsuki was already one for the Stock Shōnen Hero archetype, especially the Japanese Delinquents variety, but the fic delves even further into the Protagonist-Centered Morality aspect of The Hero, especially the 90s variety. In any run-of-the-mill story, Katsuki would be absolutely justified in anything he says and does regardless of how malicious and sinister his actions are and Midoriya, the Hero Antagonist, would be in the wrong no matter what by going against him regardless of how nice or sympathetic he is. However, as the Deconstruction Fic shows, Katsuki is incredibly delusional and selective in what he perceives the world to be and all the bad things he accuses Izuku of throughout the fic are nothing more than a combination of envy, selfishness, self-projection, and plain bigotry, and the only reason he lasted for so long before the consequences would catch up to him is because of the systematic ableism against the Quirkless and the self-serving/corrupt faculty members of Aldera Middle School.
  • Conversations with a Cryptid deconstructs Unequal Pairing with Inko and her husband Hisashi. She was a secretary for a HR department and he was the CEO of said company, is the one to hire Inko. A few years into their marriage, Hisashi abruptly disappeared without warning or any explanation, leaving Inko to raise Izuku alone with no means to protect herself or her son since she quit her job to raise their son. Inko basically became trapped in a marriage with an absent husband who still pays for her living expenses and she can't divorce him because she cannot financially support herself or Izuku due to being out of the workforce for so long.
  • Heroics and Other Things That Don't Require Superpowers deconstructs the Fanon arc of Bakugou Katsuki becoming a villain when his violent obnoxiousness becomes too much for the Heroes to stand (ex. Cain) by showing that he was also too violently obnoxious for the League of Villains to stand, with All For One eventually deciding to steal Bakugou's Quirk and leave him for dead. To make thing even more humiliating, he becomes such a small fry on either side of the law because of said attitude that the karmic backlash is mentioned in passing near the end of the story, long after he stopped appearing.
  • My Hero Academia: Entropy: Izuku Midoriya/Seraph and Momo Yaoyorozu/Pandora deconstruct The Chessmaster. While both villains are legitmate geniuses, they are not omniscient, and as such, while several of their plans succeed, they don't always go according to the original plan. Example: Midoriya didn't expected Kendo to reach U.A. just as he finished killing All Might, even less for the hero student to manifest Blackwhip and nearly capture him, resulting in Seraph cutting off his arm to escape. As for Pandora, She didn't predict that Curious would check out the prisioners during the Syndicate's infiltration on Deika City to rescue Gentle and Spinner. As such, her team barely escaped alive after being outnumbered by Liberation Army soldiers and returned home empty-handed.
  • Reality Check (MHA) deconstructs the archetype of the underdog protagonist. Having been labeled a "villain" for most of his life due to his brainwashing quirk, Shinsou has decided he wants to be a hero to prove everyone wrong. To do this, he had to prove himself against other hero candidates to make it into the Hero Course, and he succeeded by doing things his own way—training under the mentor who believed in him and using the very trait that got him labeled a villain. All of this is standard underdog fair. However, even though Shinsou overcame his disadvantages and achieved his goal in his own way, he's left with the emotional baggage of a life that constantly reinforced in his mind that the world is against him, his peers are his antagonists and his rivals, his only ally is his mentor, and getting into the Hero Course is proof he's hero material, while his rivals succeeded with, he assumes, far less disadvantages, and thus didn't prove themselves like he did. As such, he interprets the curriculum to be for further proving that he is already good enough to be a hero, rather than for self-improvement, so he insists that the coursework he isn't good at is simply skewed to favor his unfairly privileged rivals. This eventually leads to Shinsou failing out of the Hero Course, as he neither cooperates in group projects nor puts enough effort into doing the work demanded. In the end it's made clear Shinsou made his hero academia entirely about self-validation; upon self-reflection, he doesn't even know if he actually wants the job.
  • The Sleeper Hit AU deconstructs Stealth Mentor and What You Are in the Dark through Aizawa's treatment of Midoriya. In this series, Izuku remains Quirkless, but manages to make it into U.A. anyway through extensive training... only for Aizawa to immediately expel him, having decided that somebody without a Quirk simply can't make it at the top Hero School. He then secretly helps him out by anonymously endorsing his bid to enter another school. When the truth comes out, nobody sees his secretive support of Midoriya as all that helpful; it just underscores the hypocrisy and cruelty of his actions. It doesn't matter if he honestly believed in Izuku's abilities — all everyone saw was the way he publicly humiliated him in front of the whole class.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • The Negotiations-verse: Celestia's depiction is one for the Ron the Death Eater portrayals of her that are the norm for Anti-TCB fics. Truth goes out of its way to explore what could cause one as benevolent as canon Celestia to commit such actions. A combination of desperation to save Equestria, a tragedy causing her to assume the worst of humanity, and her own belief in her absolute moral righteousness prevented her from questioning her actions until too late.

Naruto

  • Compass of Thy Soul deconstructs Stock Shōnen Hero with Senju Hashirama. Yes, he's ginormously powerful, but his Idiot Hero tendencies mean he has no ability whatsoever for strategy, politics or management, and he would have been disinherited as future Clan leader outright if not for his power. Yes, he dreams of peace, but his squeamishness on the battlefield led to horribly maimed warriors who had to be mercy-killed and his insisting to forgive assassins would only encourage other nations to send more of them. Yes, he's very candid and stubborn, but he's living in a pseudo-Japanese setting in which these qualities are considered a proof of immaturity and not particularly attractive. To sum up, Hashirama is extremely unpopular because he showed how much unreliable and childish he was time and again, and his allies and family have to work around him for establishing a lasting peace.
  • In the sequel to Yet again, with a little extra help, Take Two, Round Two, Naruto deconstructs Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond and Always Someone Better. As a result of spending the Time Skip travelling the multiverse with Ghost, he has experienced a vast array of worlds and abilities, forcing him to develop an equally massive and powerful collection of skills and powers in an attempt to keep up. When he finally returns to his home dimension he is heads and shoulders above all but the strongest ninjas (even with access to Sage Mode and the Nine-Tails chakra sealed off) in terms of power, skill and tactical ability. This is actually a bad thing since he knows exactly how outclassed he is in the grand scheme of things, and because he's so much stronger than all his allies, he can't even find comfort in the idea of them backing him up, since they'll be a liability against such foes, which wears on his mental health. Furthermore, when most of the world sees the full scope of his skills in the battle against Akatsuki in Iwagakure, even Konoha's allies are unnerved by what he considers 'standard' preparations, with several suggesting killing him in the aftermath out of fear of the havoc he could wreak on a whim.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • Kyrie Eleison deconstructs the "New Eva Pilot" archetype (specifically as provided by Neon Exodus Evangelion) by having Star Aran (the fic's stand-in for D.J. Croft) being a hyper-competent badass that can do things with his Eva nobody else does... but he's such a horrible capital-J Jerkass that he makes almost the entire cast uncomfortable (except for Toji and Kensuke, who are as much head-over-heels for him as every other student in their class... and then again, this is because he shares their hate for Asuka and led the entire class minus a disturbed Shinji into calling her a Nazi and making her run away in tears, so...), while another pilot takes the "so-much-of-a-Blood Knight-she-looks-like-she-gets-turned-on" pilot stereotype (that, ironically, would be showcased by Mari Makinami on the Rebuild films eventually) and goes all the way with it and makes Misato and Ritsuko unnerved when they figure out that she gets literal sexual release from killing Angels (even comparing her to a Serial Killer). And their handler? A Sinister Minister that is so damn creepy even Gendo wants him out, but can't because he's got strong connections to SEELE.

The Owl House

  • In What Big Claws (To Protect You With, My Dear), Luz is one of the Child Prodigy. From a young age, Luz was shown to have excellent academic prowess and was held in high regard by her teachers, who only wanted to see her succeed in life. The problem was that all this attention coupled with being forced to go to high school at the ten years old put a lot of pressure on Luz, which eventually led to her grades slipping. When people like Eda and Principal Bump learn about the circumstances of Luz's upbringing, they're understandably upset about it. This is one of the reasons why Luz enjoys the Boiling Isles so much: The different environment actually allows her to make friends, play games, express her creativity, and to just be a kid.

Pokémon

  • Poké Wars:
    • Uxie is a deconstruction of The Spock. Being the personification of logic, he shows that acting on solely logic without emotion can lead to utterly sociopathic acts.
    • Ho-Oh deconstructs the Well-Intentioned Extremist and to an extent, Wide-Eyed Idealist. He's aware that he's doing evil things to try and bring about his paradise for his fellow Pokémon where they will live in harmony among themselves and free from human interference. But he also shows what happens when zealotry and passion aren't tempered with proper planning. While he gains some ground early on, his lack of planning leads to massive environmental destruction, factional violence between Pokémon and it eventually leads to him getting overthrown in a coup by his ally Uxie.
  • Ash's father in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines is per the author's admission this for a typical harem protagonist. Ash's father slept with a truly staggering amount of women across the world (to the point the author came out and clarified the two groups he definitely did not sleep with), being attractive and having immense sexual prowess. However the end result of this had many of the women he slept with despise him for it and many commenting that, for all his physical pleasure he can provide, he failed at giving emotional pleasure. Also while harem protagonists are often written for a out of universe power fantasy, his actions in-universe were a power fantasy with the end goal of having a lot of children to fulfill what he believes to be an ancient prophecy to change the world, with his sexual prowess being part of the way he ensured he had kids with all of them. His motivations for changing the world are not presented as him being a visionary, but that of a self-aggrandizing sociopath.
  • Jessie, James and Meowth in Symbiosis deconstruct Token Good Teammates. The reason Jessie and James can get away with their behavior is because they are too dangerous for the organization to control. They are extremely deluded because they were brainwashed into insanity to believe that Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad and unwittingly assist in several tragedies and atrocities. Meowth turns out to not support Team Rocket at all and goes along with it because he doesn't know how to get them out.

Persona

RWBY

  • Knight of Salem:
    • Salem is this for Orcus on His Throne. She's spent thousands of years being cooped up in a tower, plotting to destroy Ozpin, and giving orders to minions. But once she's been robbed of her control over Grimm, her humanity is restored, and she's forced into the real world, she's functionally a socially inept, spoiled, and naive child unable to cope with a society that has changed beyond her comprehension. One of the reasons she comes around to Jaune is because he's the closest thing to any real human connection she's had in a long time.
    • Lionheart is this for the Regretful Traitor: the story makes no bones about how psychologically brutal it is to fear being exposed as a traitor to one side and being given death threats by another. One of the reasons why Lionheart likes Jaune is because he has someone he can be honest with about his situation.
  • War of Remnant: A RWBY Anthology: Weiss is presented as far more unlikable in the beginning. Tearing apart the haughty, bigoted attitude she had for most of Volume 1 in canon. No one cuts her any slack for the way she acts, she actually has to apologize, and even then she isn’t immediately forgiven.

A Song of Ice and Fire

Star Wars

  • The Desert Storm:
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi's characterization as the Ideal Hero gets deconstructed. In both Canon and Legends, Obi-Wan was constantly held up by the Jedi as an embodiment of everything a Jedi should strive to be. Here, we learn that Obi-Wan's status as "the perfect Jedi" is a facade he constructed because he Desperately Craves Affection. Qui-Gon's initial rejection of Obi-Wan caused the latter to develop deep insecurities that turned him into a "Well Done, Son" Guy towards the Jedi Council. His characterization of an Ideal Hero was just his desire for approval getting cranked up to eleven. This was also the source of Anakin's resentment towards Obi-Wan, as he became envious that Obi-Wan was constantly being heaped praise upon by the Council, while he was being alienated by them.
    • The fanfic also deconstructs Obi-Wan's Fatal Flaw as a Principles Zealot. Similar to the previous example, Obi-Wan's strict adherence toward the Jedi Code came as the result of being a Yes-Man driven by a fear of rejection. He actually can see the bigger picture and is well aware that the Jedi's teachings can sometimes be wrong. However, he still supported all of the Council's decisions, even when he knew they were wrong.
    • The New Mandalorians deconstruct Actual Pacifists. Given that the Mandalorians are by and large a Proud Warrior Race in the middle of a Civil War, the New Mandalorians' refusal to contribute to the war effort makes them The Load for their allies. Also, because they see any act of violence as evil, they oppose their own allies just as much as their enemies, further weakening Mandalore's already unstable government. Finally, it’s pointed out that while pacifism is a noble principle, it only works if the other side is honorable enough to not strike down an unarmed opponent. Seeing as how the "other side" is the Death Watch, the New Mandalorians’ ideals end up coming across as both ignorant and naïve.

Tangled: The Series

Total Drama

  • Total Drama Lakeside: Kelsey is a deconstructed of the Go-Getter Girl and The Ace. While she's extremely motivated and has achieved all sorts of academic and interpersonal success, Kelsey is perpetually high-strung and stressed, has an inferiority complex, and bases all her decisions on if they'll help her succeed or please her mother.
  • Total Trauma: Seeing as the original show was an All-Stereotype Cast, this comic takes a more realistic approach to their characters and how those archetypes being played up on TV would affect their personal lives.
    • For Lindsay, it's the Dumb Blonde. While the trope was played straight on the show, it's shown to harm her as an adult seeking out employment opportunities, as they fear her past as a promiscuous ditzy teenage girl would look bad for their company. She is only seen as more mature after changing her look and renaming herself to escape her old identity. However, her memory issues and general confusion are recontextualized as dissociative problems, which are exacerbated by her newly fragmented identity. Her reputation as Ms. Fanservice and Chris's suggestive comments towards her on the show when she was sixteen are addressed as pedophilia, with this dissociation being part of why it was easy to take advantage of her.
    • Heather's reputation as Alpha Bitch is shown to cause her damage. Rather than being idolized for her rude nature and great looks as a teenager, she got tons of hate from both her audience and her peers, which resulted in her developing some serious self-image issues. She's also grown out of this attitude once she's in her twenties and has a better understanding of psychology.
    • Izzy's aggressive Cloud Cuckoolander attitude is because she's a Former Child Star who experienced and witnessed a lot of abuse- including on Total Drama itself, which is why she violently rejected Chef's alliance offer.
    • Duncan's arc takes a depressing look at what it's like to be a delinquent and spend most of your teen years in prison. He's unable to get a job because of his prison record, and his family is too ashamed to take him back, but he can't go to the homeless shelter or church because they turn away felons, and he has no money for any rehab programs. He ends up despondent and jumps in front of a truck.

Undertale

  • Inverted Fate:
    • Frisk is a deconstruction of the typical Cheerful Child protagonist seen in Pacifist run fanworks. Them being cheerful and kindhearted is just an act they constructed after their disastrous falling out with their childhood friend. Beneath the Mask, they are bitter and loaded with trauma and conflict. Thankfully, with Papyrus sticking by their side and gradually becoming their Living Emotional Crutch, they grew to see this as more than just a mask, and found real joy in connecting with others.
    • Asriel's portrayal in Inverted Fate can be considered one to fan interpretations of Asriel that treat him and Flowey as different characters. Inverted Fate really hammers it in that Flowey and Asriel are one and the same, with Asriel's acts being treated as cruel and heinous by Frisk and Chara, the former of whom absolutely hates them for their betrayal. During Rift 2, Asriel's attempts to paint himself as well intentioned and sympathetic are there to establish that his devotion to Chara is unhealthy and based on an idealized extreme. Rift 3 even has Chara admit that they spent a lot of time dissociating Flowey and Asriel from each other.
      • Rift 6 has Asriel realize that that creating puppets embodying his flaws tends to have limits. The Entity of Emptiness has enough of Flowey's personality to defy Asriel long to spitefully insult him before Asriel kills them. After that, Asriel realizes that he'll need to be more careful with how much of "himself" he puts in each Figment. After this, when he decides to give Lilac her soul back, she manages to predict Asriel's actions, showcasing that while Asriel may claim to know other people and views them as predictable, his own tendency to generalize people based on his own expectations ends up making him predictable enough that Lilac is able to read him like a book.
    • Rift 3 deconstructs Flowey's character by having Frisk point out to Asriel that he could've easily just shattered the barrier in the underground and still keep Chara's (and by extension their) friendship instead of betraying them all. Or during the fight with Possessiveness, Frisk admits that they pity Asriel because he's stuck creating illusions because he backstabbed those who could've loved him and because he didn't know when to quit. Instead of the manipulative sociopath who outsmarts everyone with his cunning and sheer ruthlessness, Flowey is exposed as a pitiful, pathetic coward who only has himself to blame for his own loneliness.

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