Deconstruction Fic in Films and Animated Films.
Films — Animation
Big Hero 6- There is at least one deconstruction of the Dating Catwoman shipping of Callaghan and Tadashi in This Is How We Burn
. To start; the story takes place after the film's ending, combining two Fandom-Specific Plot elements of Tadashi being alive and being in a relationship with Callaghan. Not only are Hiro and the team disturbed by after almost getting killed by Callaghan, it also shows that the relationship wouldn't survive not because both sides don't care enough (because they actually do). It is because of Callaghan's canonical actions and crimes, as he is sentenced for life in prison. - Shock also applies the typical Fandom-Specific Plot of Tadashi being alive all along in a more concerning light. In the first chapter, the reunion occurs, the narrative makes it clear that Hiro is baffled and had been dreaming of this to happen and... Hiro has a panic attack and is brought to the hospital for overnight treatment. Then, when the gang finds out, they are not happy with the news because they had been trying to heal from the tragedy and finding out that it was all for nothing and had the side effect of putting Hiro in the hospital agitates and distresses them. Go Go even slaps Tadashi and gives a What the Hell, Hero? for risking his own life and not taking into consideration what his death would have done to his family and loved ones. Hiro's condition is also treated realistically, with details on what type of treatment he would need during and after his stay and has him panicking over the mere mention of Tadashi's name. The fic also reconstructs the plot by having the typical tender reunion happen after both sides have some space to heal and begin to discuss what happened in therapy, although Hiro admits to Tadashi that he hasn't completely gotten over it while making it clear that he still wants his brother in his life. The same is also applied to the rest of the gang, while making it clear that their initial reaction, while understandable, still came off as rather harsh to Tadashi as, instead of making sure he was really okay, they kept shunning him and resenting him for supposedly dying, making Tadashi feel like he was being hated by everyone he loved.
- Surprisingly, the fic Hebephile can be seen as one regarding pairing an adult character with an underage character, or to be more precise, what kind of adult would want to be in a relationship with a minor. Fred would have to be a hebephile. Instead of making him out to be a monster bent on destruction and pain or even acting on those urges, the story delves into how painful it is for Fred to be aware of it, to the point where he is afraid of telling his friends about his condition and is uncomfortable being around Hiro by himself. And when Hiro finds out about Fred's condition, he is utterly terrified of how close to danger he was being around Fred. The narrative also makes it painfully clear how much self-loathing a Nice Guy like Fred would have to the point where he contemplates killing himself before backing out at the last moment.
- Secret Passages is a deconstruction of how Anna and Elsa's childhoods between Anna's accident and Elsa's coronation went. Anna is shown constantly reaching out towards Elsa, and becoming increasingly frustrated by Elsa's isolation because she doesn't know about Elsa's powers. Elsa is also established as having anxiety issues.
- Darkness Burning deconstructs the idea that Elsa's life would have been better if her parents hadn't died. It's more grey than that. Elsa not prematurely being crowned queen means that she just stays secluded for a longer period of time. This makes her even more depressed.
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
- Aftermath of the Games: Princess Twilight's storyline deconstructs the Fix Fic, acknowledging the changes risked causing worse harm, would at least erase any good that came from the original events, and they'd have no way of knowing for sure the extent of the change. Filly Starlight's ongoing issues show the fix isn't guaranteed to be sufficient or successful. While it's shown things ultimately will work out well, the characters have no way of knowing that the "fix" made things better.
- Bitter Tears: An Anon-A-Miss Fic: This fic does away with the ending of the canon comic and explores the realistic and long-lasting consequences of the CMC's and the Humane Five's questionable actions during the 2014 Equestria Girls Holiday Special.
- Long Road to Friendship: The story doesn't shy away from the consequences of Sunset's transition from the pony world to the human world.
- Sunset has no family in the human world, no public records, no official identification, and few practical skills. The result is she had to survive by stealing food and mooching off boyfriends, lives in an abandoned factory with nothing to do in her spare time, and has very few material possessions. The Humane Five are surprised when they find out about her living situation and see it for themselves. This is later exploited by Trixie in Chapter 29. Trixie threatens to tell the police that Sunset is technically homeless and squatting in an abandoned factory, which would get Sunset arrested and/or sent off to a shelter, the nearest one of which is two towns away.
- When Shining Armor, who is a police officer, sees that Sunset is homeless and squatting in an abandoned factory, the law dictates that Shining needs to take Sunset to a homeless shelter or even arrest her after she confesses to falsifying school records. She's only saved from such a fate because Artemis Lulamoon agrees to take her in that same night.
- Some Mistakes Are Forever: In canon, Sunset gradually earns the respect and trust of her friends back after Rainbow Rocks, and much of her evil deeds are forgotten. In this story, her actions have horrible consequences that can't be fixed.
- Out Of The Shadows: The last movie's events are deconstructed, with people incredibly dismayed over the horrible behavior of the royals, with the royals forced to make governmental reforms or face the specter of revolution.
- The Necromancers Of China Saga's side plot involving Po and Tigress' growing relationship humorously deconstructs Idealized Sex, as due to having no experience Their First Time is sloppy, quick, and disappointing. It then reconstructs it by them getting just a little better each time, and even a year later, they're still sloppy, but they admit it's much better than when they started. In a more serious case, it deconstructs the idea of being the child of two famous heroes. Po and Tigress' time-travelling daughter, Fenhong Se, always strives to become a hero like her mother and father, but every time she tries to keep up with their skill, they keep getting better. He father always boasts about how awesome being a hero is, causing her to think that being a hero is about glory, rather than justice, and eventually she snaps and turns evil. This is also reconstructed when Fenhong Se finally learns the true meaning of a hero, and instead of being the traditional hero who fights baddies and saves people from harm, she tends to survivors of the Necromancer Incident and spends her entire life helping rebuild the countless villages that were razed in China.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Fairest (Afterandalasia) deconstructs the ending of the original story. In the fairy tale, the prince orders the Evil Queen to dance with heated iron shoes until she died. Fairest changes it so that Snow White is the one who orders it. She saves her stepmother, has her healed, and invites her to her wedding. She then forces red-hot shoes onto her and makes her dance so that Snow White will remove the shoes. Instead of being a just punishment, Snow White's new husband is horrified by her cruelty. The entire thing is depraved and makes the prince rethink his Fourth-Date Marriage.
- Wicked Wiles: Snow White's marriage isn't ideal. They barely knew one another and aren't completely compatible. Alexander treats Snow White like a child and Snow White, being a Friend to All Living Things, hates Alexander's hunting.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- No One Breaks My Heart Like You is a deconstruction of the Love Martyr. Because of Peter's superhero career as Spider-Man, there's a significant strain on his and Mary Jane's marriage. Mary Jane was willing to deal with it because she loves Peter and she's proud of the good he does as Spider-Man. However, Peter feels guilty for all the sacrifices she has made for him; the final straw was Peter learning that Mary Jane was unhappy. Feeling that he cannot put her first, he decides to end their marriage despite the pain it would cause both of them.
- seeing your world from the outside is a deconstruction of the ending to the film. Ariel's life after the film isn't exactly Happily Ever After. She misses her previous life and Eric isn't what she expected when she fell in Love at First Sight with him.
- Mushy, Romance-y Junk is a deconstruction of toy shipping. Basically, Rancis and Vanellope have a crush on each other, and neither one knows what to do about it. Instead of having makeout sessions and spending hours snuggling and swooning over each other, they do what any sugar-high nine-to-eleven-year-old brat would do: panic. Their resulting attempts at sorting this out - combined with some clichéd "romantic" advice - culminates in an absolutely spectacular disaster, where both parties walk away humiliated and depressed. The fic is then reconstructed, and the readers are rewarded with a heartwarmingly adorable ending that pairs the two up anyway.
Films — Live-Action
Alvin and the Chipmunks- Alvan an the Chipmunks 3: The Second Squeakuel (mispelling intended) is a Troll Fic that attempts to be a Deconstruction Fic of the common fandom kink of "Rape is Erotic", using one of the most unexpected fandoms.
Godzilla / King Kong / MonsterVerse
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Both of the Russell parents get hit with deconstruction of their respective jerkasseries:
- After the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Mark is finding that acting for years like he's the only one who's hurting with grief in a world where literally thousands of people (likely millions after Ghidorah's rampage during the Mass Awakening) have suffered exactly like him, and chronically being a Misdirected Outburst-prone obnoxious prick to his former Monarch colleagues, has made him a pariah among members of the organization who weren't friends with him beforehand, and it's made operatives who were upset by Vivienne's seeming death in Antarctica that much more eager to pin the blame for her death on him since it was saving his life that led to Ghidorah catching her in the open.
- Emma Russell may have sacrificed her life to save both her daughter and the world from the monster she awakened and she may have been right about the Earth Titans' awakening making the world a better place for humanity. But that doesn't change the fact that she was wholly and voluntarily onboard with a plan to engineer the global mass murder of millions by proxy (for which she's reviled around the world as a quote-unquote "genocidal madwoman" after the Mass Awakening, and Madison can't attend a public school for fear for her life if anyone finds out that she's Emma Russell's daughter), nor does it change the fact that Emma was willing to let anyone who wasn't Madison, up to and including all her friend colleagues and the father of her daughter die in the crossfire without trying to save them (for which Vivienne outright hates her former-friend after finding out what happened with Emma's betrayal in Antarctica); nor does it excuse the sympathy-neutralizing blatant hypocrisy in how Emma was using her own son's death as justification for projecting literally millions of repeats of what she went through upon the entire world (for which her own daughter now hates her even when she's reeling from the woman's death).
- There are fanfics where after the characters have graduated at the end of the third movie, they go off to their respective colleges with no preparation for the real world. Scenarios like Sharpay getting knocked back from a theatre career for her attitude and something horrible happening to Troy are fairly common.
- Total Stranger in the Dark deconstructs Bruce's sudden appearance in Barry Allen's home. Unlike the Justice League (2017) trailer, where Barry is simply suspicious but still gives Bruce a chance to explain himself, Barry automatically calls the police to report an intruder.
In General
- To Trope or Not to Trope tackles the general plots and arguments brought in Prop-Tony and anti-Steve stories since the release of Captain America: Civil War. Showing the flaws of the Sokovia Accords, defences of Steve’s actions, more in character behaviour for those who have been portrayed as Tony supporters in the stories and the general flaws of Tony in the movies from his behaviour around people to recruiting Peter as a Child Soldier during the movie.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Out of the Dead Land was originally written for a Kink Meme prompt that asked for a deconstruction of the extremely common "Bucky begins regaining his memories and comes to Steve of his own volition when he remembers enough about him" plot by having it be revealed that he doesn't truly remember being Bucky and is only using information gleaned from books and Steve's stories to fulfill the 'mission' of being the person he believes Steve wants him to be. Not only that, but it turns out that merely acting as the old Bucky or listening to Steve talk about their past isn't enough to restore his memories or sense of identity on their own. After he stops pretending, though, the fic becomes more of a reconstruction.
- The Dark Fic The Waves Above Us takes a non-American and highly cynical viewpoint of the pro-military and hypercapitalist nature of the world portrayed in the MCU, with special emphasis on how America's government and society has utterly failed Steve, Bucky, and the downtrodden of society on every possible level. Steve and Bucky are depicted as a staunch socialist and communist, respectively, due to their impoverished upbringings in immigrant communities, and Steve comes out of the ice in 2011 irreparably suicidal, never finding any semblance of peace or comfort until Bucky's emergence. SHIELD and Stark Industries are given deeply unflattering portrayals as they try and force Steve to start peddling Captain America for them, and violate Steve and Bucky's autonomy again and again. It's no wonder many in the comments were rooting for Steve and Bucky to succeed in committing suicide.
Avengers: Endgame
- The Captain America-centered post-Endgame fic Full Circle deconstructs the writers' belief that Cap created a Stable Time Loop when he went back in time to be with Peggy by showing how Cap could possibly sit around while letting historical tragedies play out, having to hide his identity over the course of seventy plus years, and especially his relationship with Sharon.
Spider-Man: Homecoming Trilogy
- Where the Sunlight Ends: This fic serves as a mild one, diving into both the multiversal and personal consequences after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- Peter Two, upon returning to his own universe, immediately feels like an impostor because of how differently the other Peter's life has gone. Thankfully, both Harry and Mary Jane disabuse him of that notion.
- Peter Three resolves himself to reuniting with Peters One and Two, but inter-dimensional travel is out of his area of expertise. He does make breakthroughs, but they're far-between because he's "running numbers that just don't exist" entirely by himself.
- Likewise, while Peter Two is working on a similar project with Octavius' help, but they lack the energy necessary to make the thing work. It’s implied that the arc reactor will solve the energy crisis the two are currently facing.
- Catching Michelle at the Statue of Liberty serves as a Superficial Solution for all of Peter Three's issues — he is still hesitant to trust people upon returning home and refuses to make long-term friends for fear of hurting them. Bobby manages to break through this wall through sheer persistence.
- Even though Norman Osborn has been redeemed, the PTSD of facing the Green Goblin during the events of both the first Spider-Man and No Way Home still lingers in Peter Two and occasionally manifests in near-uncontrollable flashes of panic and rage. One chapter opens with Peter Two attempting to remind (and convince) himself that Norman Osborn isn't the Green Goblin anymore, and later has him attempting exposure therapy. While this ends up going well, Mary Jane and Peter still have contingencies for if it doesn't.
- A Gilded Hook deconstructs the fandom, Mind Meld Gave Me Feelings, and the Mindlink Mates aspect of Kirk and Spock Prime. The emotions Kirk feels are not his own, it drives him away from his relationships and away from the Enterprise to be with Spock Prime, ignoring the calls of his friends and Starfleet. Spock Prime turns out to be Mirror Spock Prime, who purposely poisoned Kirk's mind because he loved and killed his universe's Jim Kirk and regretted it. Kirk ends up having to kill Spock Prime to be free of his control. And Word of God says Kirk doesn't end up in a good place after all of this.
- I Left the Ninety Nine is a deconstruction of the typical Kirk/Spock pon farr story, in which Spock, out of his mind to the pon farr, forces himself on Kirk but Kirk ends up liking it because he's secretly in love with Spock. In this fic, Kirk is still secretly in love with Spock and might have jumped at the chance to have a consensual relationship, but what Spock does is still rape and Kirk experiences it as a traumatic violation; if anything, Kirk's feelings only make the situation that much more traumatic, because it's someone he cares about doing this to him and because it's such a horrific perversion of his fantasies. Though he forgives Spock almost immediately because he knows Spock was Not Himself, it takes him much longer to work through the trauma he's endured. Hands Tied is another example of the same concept — the author of that fic explicitly mentions this in the summary.
- "I really wanted to read a fic where Kirk didn't suddenly start enjoying his surprise!ponfarr!rape in the middle of it because he secretly loved Spock, but I couldn't find one."
- Elements of it are present in Alter of Waru, where Luke from 44 ABY wakes up 30 years in the past. While the others around him listen to his tales, believing it could have been a Force vision, they have trouble accepting such idiotic decisions could have been for real.
- Star Wars Paranormalities Trilogy
- Zolph Vaelor has a grudge against Maesterus for the deaths of his parents, but it's also shown that Zolph doesn't initially have the full context of what happened (specifically that a Puppeteer Parasite forced Maesterus to kill Zolph's father, he didn't really want to kill anyone in the pirate attack, and Maesterus was tricked by Emperor Valkor into killing his own descendants), and it's later revealed that his anger towards Maesterus and the Valkoran Empire as a whole is misplaced.
- The Forceless Collective are a group that frequently makes use of Puppeteer Parasites to possess sentient beings, which sometimes leads to the heroes being forced to Mercy Kill innocent people not only in defense of themselves and others, but because they initially don't have any other way of saving the hosts (and even Zolph discovers a way to potentially save people from possession, he's unable to save everyone because of some limitations to the ability). At the same time, the Jedi principle of not taking life is deconstructed with Forceless hosts, as while the heroes might be killing those innocent hosts through no fault of their own, the hosts are consciously aware of their possession and Jedi can sense that they are in pain (and not to mention the host can be subject to Body Horror that makes them dependent on the symbiote to live), which could make leaving them alive a much crueler fate. As such, dealing with unwilling Forceless possession victims (especially hosts that characters are familiar with) is never a comfortable dilemma, and the heroes make a point not to get too desensitized to it to avoid compromising their values.
- Ouroboros deconstructs not only Jedi morality- but also the tendency of Fix Fics in the fandom to make everything perfect if Anakin doesn't go to the dark side.
- A very early example is Karen Osman's "Knight of Shadows" from 1982, discussed in Henry Jenkins Textual Poachers Televison Fans And Particapatory Culture. It traces the power struggle between Darth Vader and his bride Jessha's brother Koric for the Sith throne. Osman initially portrays Koric as a young idealist and suggests the compromises and betrayals he must make to gain power; he soon becomes a leader as ruthless as the one he seeks to displace. Similarly, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Jedi initially represent a morally superior force in their struggles with the Emperor, but Osman questions the psychomanipulation tactics Kenobi employs to ensure Darth's compliance to his demands, describing Obi-Wan as "an alien presence, controlling, manipulating". Her Kenobi is motivated less by a sense of justice and democracy than a desire to preserve the Jedi's autonomy and privilege. By the conclusion, the reader is uncertain how to feel about Darth's decision to align himself with the Emperor rather than the Jedi, even though that ambivalence stands in stark contrast to the moral certainty of the original films.
- The Desert Storm: The series deconstructs many aspects of the Clone Wars by expanding upon the Fridge Horror moments and depicts it as if it actually happened in Real Life, rather than in a cartoon for kids.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi's Action Hero status during the Clone Wars gets deconstructed when Healer Hiella's examination shows the extent of the damage that Ben's past adventures have left on his body. Aside from being Covered in Scars from the countless scrapes he's been in, Ben's entire skeletal system is riddled with fracture lines due to breaking his bones so often. It turns out that being regularly involved in life-or-death situations isn't good for one's physical health.
- In Sa Sarad, Ben finally acknowledges the clone troopers for what they truly were: child slave soldiers. The average clone trooper was six years old chronologically and they were forced to fight with little choice in the matter. Why did the Jedi accept command of the clone army? To protect the clones, who had no rights in a government that saw them as subhuman Cannon Fodder.
- Jedi are not meant to be soldiers. At the start of the Clone Wars, most Jedi had never seen sustained combat on a galactic scale before. They were given no time to prepare and knew nothing about running a military. The first few battles went exactly as you'd expect, with the clones getting massacred in droves due to the Jedi's inexperienced leadership. It was actually the clone commanders who were responsible for the Republic's victories, yet they never received any credit due to the Senate's Fantastic Racism. Even when the Jedi eventually did get their act together, all the strategies and tactics they used were taught to them by the clones.
- The Jedi padawans were little more than glorified Child Soldiers who were tossed into the middle of the battlefield and saw the horrors of war firsthand. This was especially horrific considering that the reason many parents give up their children is because of the Jedi's promise to keep them safe.
- The fic really goes out of its way to show the impact the Clone Wars had on Obi-Wan. Ben Naasade's character shows more or less how Obi-Wan would have actually turned out following the events of Episode III. Rather than a Cool Old Master, you end up with someone who appears to be that (albeit in his mid-thirties to begin with), but who also happens to be a Shell-Shocked Veteran with deep-seated psychological scars underneath the thin facade.
Sweet Home Alabama
- Mine, All Mine deconstructs the Romantic False Lead trope by showing the consequences it can have for the false lead. While Melanie and Jake are celebrating their un-divorce, we get to follow Andrew immediately after the events of what was supposed to be his and Melanie's wedding, as he gives up the honeymoon suite at their motel and ends up not having anywhere to go for the night, gets drunk and then goes on their honeymoon to the Caribbean alone since he's already paid for it anyway. Of course he, too, gets his happy ending, but it takes a while.
- The Telephone Game shows what would realistically happen if the Joker met some random woman and decided to rape her. It is a deconstruction of the trope of a victim falling in love with her rapist as well as the cliche of the
Original Character / Joker Rape!Fic. And at least one person complained about it. - Menirva shows in Forfeit and Clipped the consequences of the ending for John Blake. He has no income due to quitting the force, has to perfect being Batman before the criminal underworld catches on without any of Bruce's wealth or training. Blake realizes how unfair it is for Bruce to expect him to become the next Batman without any wealth to keep him afloat or training to avoid getting curbstomped by any real villains.
- And Be One Traveler deconstructs the extremely common Fix Fic set-up of having Thorin, Fili, and Kili survive the Battle of Five Armies by seeming to be one of these typical Fix Fics at first until it's revealed that it's all just a dream of Bilbo's created by the One Ring. The Ring tells Bilbo that it can fix things for him for real in exchange for Bilbo giving it back to its maker when the time comes, which Bilbo agrees to... but any Lord of the Rings reader will know that this actually sets up things to turn out much, much worse later on than in canon.
- The Jay/Silent Bob Slash Fic segment of fandom tends to explore the dark side of what is generally considered a simple comic relief duo. Themes include tragic back-stories to explain Jay's outlandish behavior and Bob's silence, the realities of drug use/abuse, and the angst of being secretly in love with your best friend.
- A favorite trope in the fandom is bringing one of the other, older human characters (usually Alan, but also Lora or Roy) into Cyberspace where they meet the Program that they created, who looks like them and loves them like a deity. Usually there's a side of What the Hell, Hero? in asking why Flynn kept it all secret. "The Contingency" has a really good argument. Flynn did bring Lora over, but when Lora got a look at Yori, she assumed Flynn (her ex) had coded a digital twin of her to fulfill some adolescent fantasy, rejected Yori outright, and apparently deleted her from the system...followed by packing up and leaving for Washington DC so that she would never have to speak to Flynn again.
- That implied Psychic Link from the first movie and the rant that "our spirit remains in every program we design" gets taken to a very nasty, but plausible conclusion in Expositionfairy's Symbiosis series. Tron is transmitting cries for help, memories of being tortured and Reforged into a Minion. Alan (who has no idea about what's going on) almost dies from the strain.
- Endgame Scenario: That Undying Loyalty Alan and Lora had for their friend Kevin is heartwarming. Their dedication to their lives' work with the sciences and Encom is admirable. Their bi-coastal marriage is also pretty remarkable. So is their willingness to take on raising Sam so that he can grow up to take the proverbial throne...too bad their own son got lost in the shuffle, ending up with maybe enough self-esteem to fill a bottle cap.
