Deconstruction Fic in Western Animation.
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A-G
Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
- Pairbond
deconstructs the Mindlink Mates trope. Goose and Niko resort to it as a survival tactic as they're outmanned and outgunned by renegade Supertroopers, it skirts the finer edge of breaking Xanadau's highest law ("One's Mind Belongs To One's Self"), and Goose's background as an Artificial Human trained from decant Super-Soldier makes his thought process very alien and disturbing.
- Everything she deserved: Realistically, three Child Soldiers that experience things that would leave grown adults quaking in their boots would not go away from the experience unscathed. Marcy is stuck in a wheelchair after being stabbed by Andrias, Anne lost an arm, and Sasha both lost an eye and has chronic pain from having her back split open; making it hard for her to walk without a cane or crutches. Anne and Sasha are also noted to have PTSD, and Sasha's remains untreated.
- Sasha and the Frogs deconstructs the entire series in general with Sasha taking Anne's place. The fanfic serves as a deconstruction of the series proper, where most of the situations that Anne has been through with Sasha taking her place has a more realistic tone to it. The citizens are more serious with their jobs and duties as farmers and sellers, the Plantars are braver and more understanding towards Fish out of Water Sasha, and Anne openly isn't coping well with the realization that Sasha was being a False Friend to her. In addition, the fanfic gives Sasha some well-deserved karma for her more questionable acts.
- Trade Us for the World picks apart the concept of the One-Man Army through General Yunan. While largely capable of handling most situations on her own, she also has a full platoon of soldiers assigned to her, whom she neglects... implicitly because she doesn't want them in harm's way. So she orders them to guard the perimeter of areas while she charges in and cleans up. This has left many of them frustrated by how little action they've seen, making them vulnerable to Sasha's charms. In addition, when Yunan actually needs backup, her soldiers aren't as prepared to deal with the situation as they would've been if they were more used to dealing with combat themselves.
- One Punch deconstructs the unpopular episode Arthur's Big Hit. In this story, Arthur being villainized by everybody around him because he hit D.W. caused him to grow some inner darkness and increased his already-large resentment for D.W. So when Binky punched him to "teach him a lesson," Arthur fought back HARD. When he befriends Sharkbite, he slowly becomes loyal to him because even though he heard about what he did to D.W., he doesn't hate his guts for it. Sharkbite also starts telling Arthur that the whole world is against him and that the only person that the boy can rely on is Sharkbite, which further alienates Arthur from his family and friends. As Arthur becomes consumed by wrath, his friends and family, starting with Buster and Francine, realize that they have nobody to blame but themselves for what's happening to Arthur.
- Proper Discipline: The fic deconstructs D.W.'s behavior and personality. Instead of mellowing with age, she just gets even more spoiled and bratty. It soon turns into a serious problem, culminating in her family self-destructing because of her (and inadvertently outing many people who are portrayed as nice people in canon as cold-blooded criminals).
- Abuse Cycle: The fic explores a lot of things left only partially finished or half-finished and expands on them, particularly the bender/non-bender conflict which draws from real situations.
- Fragmented: Of Bolin's past behavior and membership in Kuvira's army, his reputation as, at worst, a member of a warmongering extremist and, at best, a weak-willed Manchild who constantly joins the wrong crowd means he is barred from being a member of a serious military force. Bolin himself feels guilty about being fooled by Kuvira and all the times he let down his friends and family because of his idealism, which natively led him to trust the wrong people because he believes he was making a difference let him be depressed and feeling unworthy of being forgiven because he fears that he will make the same mistakes again in the future. Even when his girlfriend Opal assures him that she already forgives him and knows that he will make up for what he's done, he continues to be depressed because he believes that she has too much faith in him. After talking with Prince Wu, who gave him a pep talk stating that he was not the only one Kuvira fooled, that many people were feeling stupid and hurt for supporting her, and that he could be better by improving himself, does Bolin forgive himself. After talking with his brother Mako and friend Korra, Bolin decides not to take the job as Prince Wu's new bodyguard, part with Prince Wu on good terms to be a Earthbending teacher, having moved on from his mistakes and learned from them to be a better person.
- Legend of Katara: The life of an Avatar is inherently full of conflict, and so despite the show only showing adult Avatars among the past lives, in this story Aang actually isn't the first Avatar to die young - though his premature death does seem to be one of the most consequencial. The prologue in which Aang interacts with all of the past Avatars indicates that living to old age is rare for them and the majority never made it past fourty. Two even died as children, like him.
- Mai's Ramblings deconstructs the cartoon, fanfic in general and Mai herself as a character.
- The Stalking Zuko Series pulls apart the relationships the characters have with each other. In Kataang's case, not only do the two have incompatible desires, but Aang is shown to be too immature for a real relationship with Katara, to the point at which when Katara kisses him at the end of the series, he realizes that it's not what he wanted and breaks up with her. Maiko is deconstructed, since Zuko only gets back with Mai for the sake of honor, and after several chapters showing them unhappy together, they break up. It also pulls apart the politics, gender dynamics, and consequences of the Gaang's actions. It deconstructs Real Women Don't Wear Dresses, as Katara only rejected healing because it was enforced that it was all a woman should learn; she instead decides to train to become a doctor during peacetime. And when Aang had his spiritual journey with the lion turtle, his friends berate him after his return for abandoning them in their Darkest Hour, as well as for sparing Ozai, whose followers conspire to return him to power.
- Towards the Sun
- The series' end is deconstructed. Zuko isn't just going to surrender the Fire Nation colonies just because Aang asked. Zuko has to carefully tread the politics of demilitarization and reparations while at the same time trying to protect his country from being torn apart from a world justifiably angry with them.
- This fic heavily deconstructs Iroh. Once Zuko finds out that Iroh was in the White Lotus the entire time, he feels betrayed and horrified. Had Iroh been caught during the hunt for the Avatar, Zuko and the crew of the Wani would have all been executed along with Iroh as accomplices. When Zuko reflects on the lotus tile incident, he feels like he was being mocked. Furthermore, he was deeply hurt that Iroh never trusted him and let him continue on a Snipe Hunt when Iroh knew there was a different way.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
- Heroes for Earth: Just how difficult would it be for five teenagers to fight a global problem, and how would the world really react to five teenagers with god-like powers?
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
- When the War Is Over gives the series a terminal deconstruction.
- Crossing Lines, Small Crimes: Of the Fake Defector trope used in "Chalk Queen". While pretending to be against Rudy did enable the trio to ultimately win against Skrawl and it is argued by Snap that there may have been no other alternative, it still doesn't change the fact that Penny not only put Rudy through emotional hell by making him believe she really joined Skrawl just for the sake of making it realistic, but she also very easily could have killed Snap. Penny's entire plan hinged on whether or not Rudy knew what to do and if he could even react in time. If Rudy hadn't drawn the milk when he did, Snap would have died. Regardless of her heroic intentions, Penny was still gambling with one of her friends' lives.
- Chess Piece deconstructs a number of tropes, including Bury Your Gays.
- Real Life deconstructs various tropes with each chapter themed after a realistic take on a specific premise.
- Harmless deconstructs the Box Ghost's status as a Butt-Monkey, showing that he's developed an Inferiority Complex.
- Dear Journal: I'm Crazy: This fanfic explains that the eccentricies present in Bluffington, including the Amazing Technicolor Population, are the result of Doug's fractured mind. As the fic is from his own point of view, he did not realize until he started being on the medication that the people around him were completely normal.
- Forfeit shows what would happen if the titular characters still maintained their childhood problems well into the midst of their teenage years. The Kids' hatred towards The Eds grows more and more, to the point where they're vicious and sociopathic. The Eds are more distrustful of everyone around them, even themselves. The Kids' problems are growing worse, Jonny really is disturbed; Sarah nurses a genuine ire toward her brother and anger issues grow worse, finally The Kankers fall into genuine Ax-Crazy territory at times.
- Peach Creek: Of the original series, a lot of the traditional comedic elements are largely deconstructed and show real-life consequences.
- One of the consistencies with the 3 protagonists is that each of their parents is neglectful. Although this is largely to keep the cast small and easy to follow, this has left mental scars on each of the Eds. Ed is bitter that his parents always put him last and favored his sister, Double D is left with depression and OCD because his parents were that absent during his life, and Eddy has realized that his parents turned a blind eye to his brother's bullying.
- Many fanfic writers like to apply Deconstruction to certain aspects of the show, such as exploring Cosmo and Wanda's failing relationship, showing Norm the Genie in a sympathetic light or just analysing the Morality of the show.
- A Lonely Girl is based on Trixie's season 1 and 2 characterizations. It depicts her as a Lonely Rich Kid who feels her "friends" just hang around her for looks. She feels stuck in her role as a rich, popular girl, unable to befriend who she wants or act the way she wants for fear of ridicule and ostracism.
- Never Had a Friend Like Me touches upon certain aspects of Da Rules, namely the whole 'godkids forget their fairies' part, with Jorgen himself admitting it's a Dirty Business.
- True Heroes Year One can be read as this. The Nega-Chin is said to have killed a lot of people, a character's Fantastic Racism is not treated sympathetically by either the story nor the characters, Timmy gains powers but is later tricked into giving them away by the Big Bad so he wouldn't be prepared for what's up ahead, and while there's humor here and there, the story isn't afraid to get serious when the villains show up.
- Alive is a deconstruction of the character of Meg. The story follows her as she kills almost her entire family and shoots up her high school, all while thinking about what she goes through everyday of her life. While her misery might be funny to us because she's a cartoon character, this story proves that there is nothing funny about such behavior in real life, and tormenting someone like that can have fatal consequences.
- Family Guy Fanon deconstructs Francis' Jerkass nature and his mistreatment of his adoptive son Peter. In canon, Francis was downright cruel to Peter at times, and despite Francis' abuse, Peter was surprisingly tolerant of Francis' cantankerous behavior. Here, Peter doesn't take it lying down. Peter reacts (sometimes physically) to Francis' abusive treatment in multiple ways. From calling him out, slapping him, to even trying to shoot him. Francis, in turn, gets in trouble for his temper, whether being fired from his job as the Pope’s special assistant and basically being treated worse as a result. Though compared to other examples, it leads to Francis realizing his awful attitude and tries to be a better himself. He still does have his shades of Jerkass, but a lot more downplayed.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
- One Step Ahead: This story deconstructs Bloo's jerk behavior and mistreatment of his human partner Mac and his friends. In the show, Bloo would often be a selfish jerk or not care how his actions would hurt his friends. While Mac and his friends would be annoyed with Bloo and call him out on his actions, his behavior was never a serious problem, and he would be forgiven by the end of the episode. Bloo, at times, can be downright cruel to Mac; like in the episode, "I Only Have Surprise for You", it was revealed that on Mac's birthday, Bloo would prank him, and in that episode, he got the whole house to join in tricking Mac into humiliating himself in front of everyone. In this story, Mac is devastated and feels betrayed that everyone he thought was his friend humiliated him like that. The next day, everyone but Bloo realizes how horrible the prank was and feels guilty for what they did. When Mac does not show up to visit Bloo, and Bloo calls Mac a baby and says he'll get over it, Wilt angrily slaps Bloo in the face. Wilt tells Bloo that he went too far with his prank, that he has been nothing but a jerk mistreating Mac and everyone. Now Bloo is getting what is coming to him because of his behavior, and Mac is not coming back. Bloo, of course, denies he did anything wrong and says that Mac will come back. Three years pass, and it's implied that all of Bloo's friends abandoned him, and he became an outcast in the house. Bloo decides to force Mac to come back but is shocked to see that Mac's life had improved without him, with Mac getting a new girlfriend named Sam, and he now has a better relationship with his brother Terrence. Bloo is then forced to accept the fact that his cruel and selfish behavior cost him everything.
- Unfair Rule: This story deconstructs Mac's home life, the fact that Mac matures for his age, and why Bloo is such a jerk. In the show plot episode, Mac lives with his older abusive brother Terrence with his imaginary friend Bloo. Mac's brother Terrence bullies him for no reason, with Bloo often deafening him; the two team up and fight with Terrence constantly. When Mac's mother comes home, and Terrence tries to make it that, Mac and Bloo start a fight; Mac's mother tells him that when she is gone, Terrence is the oldest and in charge of this house, so he needs to set a good example by telling the truth showing that his act did not fool her. Later Mac's mother talks with Mac about the fights he and Bloo have been having with Terrence; while she acknowledges that he a jerk, she believes that they are fighting because of Bloo, and since Mac was eight years old and she got rid of her imaginary friend at his age, its time for Mac to get rid of Bloo because he does not need an imaginary friend anymore. This starts the series plot where Mac brings Bloo to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, where Mac secretly visits Bloo. Also, throughout the series, Mac was shown to be a nice mature kid, while Bloo was a trouble-making jerk (he still cares for Mac and their friends). This story brings the plot's events to a darker light and explains why Mac is mature for his age and why Bloo is such a jerk.
- This story revealed that Mac greatly resents his mother for both not doing more to stop his brother Terrence from bullying him and for making him get rid of his imaginary friend Bloo. As Mac points out, it is unfair that his mother leaves his older brother Terrence in charge, despite his brother hurting and bullying him because he is too young and his brother older, so according to his mother's rule, he is in charge. Mac resents having to be expected to obey the rule that his brother is in charge when her mother is out, even though his brother only abuses and fights with him when he is left in charge. Mac is especially outraged when his mother, who knows the abuse he is going through, decides that he needs to get rid of his imaginary friend Bloo to stop the fights with Terrence. Instead of doing something like punishing Terrence, stop leaving him in charge or send him to military school. Mac points out how ridiculous it is for Mac's mother to think that getting rid of Bloo would stop Terrence from fighting him when Mac had Bloo in the first place to protect him and have someone on his side. Mac resents that his mother uses the excuse that Mac needs to mature and grow up, and she gives up her imaginary friend. Mac points out that he is already mature for his age; he is not enjoying his childhood without Bloo, and just because Mac's mom gave up her imaginary friend at his age does not give her the right to force him to give up his imaginary friend. This show the abuse Mac suffers from his brother, and his mother not taking action to stop it has damaged Mac.
- Why is Mac such a nice mature guy for any his age, and his imaginary friend Blue trouble making jerk? Mac was forced to mature, dealing with his older bullying brother and a mother who cared and knew about the abuse he was dealing with but did not solve the problem. Mac is equally resentful of the fact that despite being mature for his age, his bullying older brother is left in charge, and because of that rule of him being the oldest, he has to obey that and deal with his brother's abuse while his mother is out in work. The reason Bloo is a trouble-making jerk is that Bloo is supposed to help Mac have the strength to stand up to an unfair rule that only hurts him.
- The A Different Form, A Different Time series deconstructs the popular "Bill Cipher gets reincarnated as a human and goes on a quest of redemption" fic concept that became popular after the release of the series finale and supplementary material in a number of ways.
- For starters, Bill hates being a human; spending a trillion years as an omnipotent Eldritch Abomination of pure energy with no weaknesses makes it kind of hard to adjust when you become a powerless, mortal human. The limitations and feelings of helplessness that his new found humanity brings him cause Bill a lot of stress and anger, his mental state starts to deteriorate worse than it already did and in one story, he tries to gouge his own eye out in a desperate attempt to feel more like his old self—when Stanley Pines stops him, Bill breaks down into a hysterical rant about how much he hates his new form and how he can never seem to get used to it. It takes Stanley getting him drunk to calm him down.
- Stanley himself gets a deconstruction in that Bill's resurrection completely negates Stanley's attempted Heroic Sacrifice, leading him to go into Heroic Self-Deprecation mode once again after having regained a fair amount of self-confidence in the original show from said sacrifice.
- Finally, with the exception of Mabel, no one actually trusts Bill when he returns and most of them are either afraid of him, don't recognize him or hate him on sight. Stan only lets him stay/work at the Shack because he doesn't know what else to do with him.
- Three Can Keep a Secret broadly deconstructs the source show's ending and character dynamic as well as the usual fan depictions of Dipper remaining Ford's apprentice:
- The show treats Gravity Falls as an experience separate from the twins' "reality" that simply can't be a permanent way of life and insists that returning to Piedmont is what's best. In fact, its finale repeatedly conflates the town of Gravity Falls with summer vacation in general, and even narratively equates the offer Dipper gets to stay in Gravity Falls as Ford's apprentice with Mabel's desire to stop time and live in her bubble. In this fic, permanently moving to Gravity Falls and being surrounded by people who went through similar and shared experiences gave Dipper an environment in which he could work through the reality of what happened by talking freely about his thoughts, feelings, and problems with others when he felt ready. By contrast, going back to Piedmont, a community that knows nothing about what happened to them, is extremely isolating, even for the extroverted Mabel. Having to go home and act like the things that happened to her in Gravity Falls weren't also "reality" ends up seriously damaging her mental health and makes her more unstable and dependent on Dipper than ever.
- Given how especially unhappy his life in Piedmont was implied to be and how much more accepted he is in Gravity Falls, Dipper actually finds studying with the great uncle he loves in a town that adores and validates him to be an enriching dream come true. In contrast to the show's portrayal of the apprenticeship as a ridiculous fantasy that would turn Dipper into a shut-in in the basement, Dipper is more confident, social, and involved in the community than ever.
- The source show's tendency to spare Mabel the consequences of her thoughtless actions is also subverted, and her intentionally keeping her handling of the Rift a secret only makes it worse when the truth does come out.
- Mabel's instability and Aesop Amnesia were Played for Laughs and generally unaddressed in the show respectively. Her reliance on Dipper to help her get what she wants or solve her problems when she can't or won't is talked about but still continues through to end of the series. The fic takes all of these aspects of Mabel's character completely seriously, resulting in her being characterized very much like someone with a mental illness and proceeding to show how such behaviors, if left unaddressed, would realistically cause her very serious problems as she ages and require much more guidance and support than her brother could, or should, be expected to healthily provide. The adults' unwillingness to provide structure or impulse control means that when Dipper leaves to focus on building his own future, Mabel's "hilariously" extreme behavior and inability to learn from her mistakes turns her into a juvenile delinquent.
- Many of the monsters and magic items the show mostly used for jokes are showcased for the extreme danger they pose but also the wonderful amounts of good they can do if properly studied and safely applied, in comparison to the source material condemming Ford's research as a selfish waste of his life.
- Your Name also deconstructs this genre. Bill is reincarnated as Dipper and Pacifica's son, Alex (almost certainly named after show creator and voice of Bill Cipher himself Alex Hirsch)...and he's "reborn" in every sense of the word, having almost no memory of his past life and what little memory he does have he dismisses as weird dreams. When he fully regains said memories by touching the Bill Cipher statue's hand in chapter seven, he's confused and terrified and ends up causing fear and panic in his own family members when he accidentally calls his father "Pine Tree".
H-R
Hey Arnold!
- After the Jungle Series: This fanfiction series can be seen as a deconstruction of Helga's older sister, Olga Pataki. In the cartoon, she was a smart, beautiful, and popular young woman who had many viable talents and achievements, and everyone (including Helga) expected Olga to have a bright future ahead of her—but for all her "perfection," Olga was really 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 and couldn't handle stress. It was also shown that Olga could be rather childish (despite being at least a decade older than her "baby sister"), so she did not really become successful as an adult.
- About five years after graduating college (when Helga would've been a freshman or sophomore in high school), 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. And since she had excelled at pretty much anything else she had ever done up to 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—not being used to failure, Olga 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.
- Olga ends up having a bit of a falling out with her parents over her decision to become an actress and other life choices that Olga made. For example, Olga ends up marrying "some hack of a wannabe rockstar" (as Helga describes him) named Patrick Sherman, with whom Olga has two children named Logan and Lisa. While Bob, Miriam, and Helga love Logan and Lisa, they've all made it clear they don't like Patrick. While Patrick really isn't a bad person and honestly loves and cares about his wife and their children and is a comparably better parent to their children, he's kind of a Lazy Bum. He has trouble holding down a job (leaving Olga as the sole breadwinner for their family at times).
- After she and Patrick get married, have their kids, and move back to her old hometown of Hillwood. Olga (just like her husband) is forced to find another job to help support herself and her family—in her case, she went back to working as a schoolteacher (eventually becoming a 5th-grade teacher at P.S. 118).
- Olga, though she loves and cares about Logan and Lisa and honestly just wants what's best for them, basically tries doing them what her own parents (particularly her father) had done to her when she and Helga were growing up, even acting like there's something wrong with them just because they're not little carbon copies of her. This has ultimately led to Olga having a distant relationship with her kids (particularly her daughter Lisa).
- Fortunately, at the end of "A Perfect Disaster," Olga does find peace with herself after talking with Helga, who points out her faults and that she was becoming a bad parent like her father. With Olga resolving to become a better parent, accept her children for who they are, and try and work on her marriage to Patrick. And at the very end of the fanfic, things do seem to be looking up for Olga and her family.
- A Broken Heart: This story deconstruction many tropes and elements from the original cartoon, especially about Arnold:
- Master of the Mixed Message - Oblivious to Love: At the end of the second film, Arnold and Helga admit their feelings to each other and have their Relationship Upgrade. It was also implied that Arnold knew about Helga's feelings for him (due to her confession from the first movie), but both were not ready and just pretended the confession was in the heat of the moment. However, in this story, it appears that either Arnold forgot about the confession or genuinely thought the confession was in the heat of the moment, so instead of getting together with Helga, he tells her that she is a good friend, unwittingly friend-zoning her. Unsurprisingly, Helga was heartbroken over this and the fact that after all she had been through, she was just friend zone by her crush.
- After spending the summer dealing with her heartbreak, she tried to move on and distance herself from Arnold while trying to find an identity outside of him. Helga eventually managed to somewhat succeed in this and even find a new boyfriend named Drake Sanchez. However, not understanding that he hurt Helga and wondering why she became distant from him, Arnold remained in the dark and still acted like their best friends and nothing wrong between them. Eventually, Arnold gets into a conflict with Drake, not trusting him despite him not doing anything to provoke him (partially due to Voz's influence), and remains hostile towards him, but even Arnold admits to Gerald he does not know why he distrusts Drake so much. It becomes apparent to Arnold and Helga's close friends and Arnold's family that Arnold does have feelings for Helga, and he just did not know it at the time. This all but destroys their friendship, especially in chapter 86, where Helga finally tells Arnold her feelings for him and ends their friendship, pointing out that they are not friends and that he broke her heart. Things get worse when later, when arguing with Helga about throwing away her locket, he kisses her, something he realizes was wrong with her having a boyfriend even if he can't stand her boyfriend.
- Helga's family is also shown to be deconstructed in this story. Despite her family being dysfunctional, her parents Big Bob and Miriam being neglectful to her at best and abusive at worst (those never physically). And older sister Olga being favored over her but choosing to be oblivious to their family problems by ignoring them, her family has shown that they care for Helga. Helga does appreciate the moments when they show that they care for her. Unfortunately, in the show, those moments, while genuine, don't last, were few and far between, and the family's dysfunctional continued to be a problem with things never really improving. The jungle movie left Helga's family close to homeless because Bob's beeper business has taken a fatal nosedive due to the rise of cell phones, causing the family to lose their fortune and their home. It reaches the point where they are forced to live in the beeper store, and again, Helga's parents show they care without improving. Their negative traits continue to be a problem in this story, and ultimately, Helga's relationship with her family collapses. Helga is already dealing with her heartbreak with Arnold and her new relationship with Drake; she is sick of her father's obsession with restoring his business when it is clear that he is delusional and needs to switch to a better product as his current business has failed. Her relationship with his mother and sister is not better as Miriam is still an alcoholic, and Olga is still unwilling to accept the reality of her family's financial problems and acts as though everything is perfect.
- The breaking point comes when they learn of Drake's past as a delinquent and forbid Helga from seeing him with Olga supporting their decision. Helge, in outrage, points out that they barely cared enough to remember her name half the time and doesn't hesitate to call them out on their own mistakes. This was also the final straw, and Helga decides to continue the relationship, not caring if she damaged or destroyed her relationship with her family.
- It is especially jarring seeing that Helga's father, Big Bob, was not concerned for her safety. He was more concerned about how his daughter dating a former delinquent would affect his image, while Miriam and Olga were genuinely concerned for her. Still, they do not listen to Helga's side of the story and only insist that she breaks up with Drake.
- Helga, due to all the problems she has dealt with and furious with her family, does not try to get them to understand her view and gives up on having a relationship with her family.
- Master of the Mixed Message - Oblivious to Love: At the end of the second film, Arnold and Helga admit their feelings to each other and have their Relationship Upgrade. It was also implied that Arnold knew about Helga's feelings for him (due to her confession from the first movie), but both were not ready and just pretended the confession was in the heat of the moment. However, in this story, it appears that either Arnold forgot about the confession or genuinely thought the confession was in the heat of the moment, so instead of getting together with Helga, he tells her that she is a good friend, unwittingly friend-zoning her. Unsurprisingly, Helga was heartbroken over this and the fact that after all she had been through, she was just friend zone by her crush.
- Oh Rhonda!: Some characters end facing real legal consequences that they avoided in canon, like Wolfgang, who gets arrested for destroying a mailbox.
- A notable amount of the situations/conflicts are settled (namely by Rhonda and Co.) through more safe, more "mundane" (and perhaps more rooted in common sense) ways than in the "main" universe:
- The fic's version of Arnold Betrays Iggy prevents Arnold just going along with Iggy's demands until he humiliates himself by wearing bunny pajamas since Rhonda and Co. learn soon enough that Sid and Stinky spread word on Iggy's pajamas, leading right into them hunting down the two and dragging them before Arnold and Iggy where they confess that they kept prodding Arnold with questions until they got lucky on Iggy's pajamas.
- Curly doesn't impersonate the Ghost Bride since the kids held a vote over who got to tell the story (with Rhonda knowing about Curly's actions in the other original timeline hence her voting for him) with Thaddeus winning against Gerald.
- Dino Spumoni decides to reveal himself alive after faking his death sooner than in the show proper since he's reminded that with his "passing" others can step-in to steal his life (especially stealing his ex-wife).
- The girls just tell Principal Wartz who mooned him (and Wartz not just looking through the school's cameras to know who did it is addressed by them being damaged by the flood), both preventing Arnold from getting in trouble and ensuring that Harold, Stinky, and Sid don't lose the trust they would've lost if he snitched on them.
- Rhonda took a picture of the old pink-haired peg-legged woman who accidentally took the money bag and quickly enough showed it to Sid and Gerald, saving Arnold from getting accused of just stealing the money.
- Nadine points how dangerous it is for a group of pre-teen girls to just meet with an adult male singer (Ronnie Matthews) who's a total stranger to them, even suggesting that he might be a pedophile.
- A notable amount of the situations/conflicts are settled (namely by Rhonda and Co.) through more safe, more "mundane" (and perhaps more rooted in common sense) ways than in the "main" universe:
- Down And Out deconstructs the Pay Evil unto Evil trope. Grace saves Simon from dying and keeps him as a prisoner, making him suffer for all that he has done over the past few weeks; that being killing Tuba, his mistreatment of Hazel, and trying to murder her twice (the second time being just after she saved his life). However, her having an animated tattoo that judges morality means both she and Simon know denying him food, destroying his belongings, and constantly taunting him isn't exactly a good thing for a hero to do. By Chapter 7, she openly admits that she doesn't even gain any satisfaction from it and is honestly disgusted by her own actions, deciding from that point forward to treat his injuries and work on rehabilitating him instead.
- Some stories have her clear "beat the bad guys, save the world" morality crashing against the intractable realistic problems of the world, leading her to crack up or go rogue. Others have her Evil Counterpart Shego explain moral relativism to her.
- KP Legacy, a deconstruction fic mixed with Continuation Fic, showing how advanced tech and magic would change the world.
- Or Something More? is a chilling deconstruction of the notion that Kim's job has few consequences for her family by having the story center on a particularly nasty villain going after Jim and Tim because Kim busted him for trying to steal the royal jewels... and the story outright stating in the first chapter that the events that follow weren't the first time it's happened and that the Possible parents' jobs have put the twins at risk as well; the show exists in-universe but is stated to have been toned down and only shows the nice stuff. This memorable exchange cements the feel of the story.Jim: It's just... do you think it's b...because of Kim that we're h...here?
[Tim is silent for long enough that his brother worries he's slipped into unconsciousness]
Tim: It's w...what she d...does.
"I [Jim] sensed a 'but'. I waited for him to finish."
Tim: B...but I wish s...she didn't h...have to d...do it. - Similar to the above, At the Centerfold of the Storm deconstruct Harmless Villain by explaining that most villains have a strict Wouldn't Hurt a Child rule among themselves. Once it becomes clear that Kim's become an adult, all bets are off.
- Buried Trilogy also takes a look at the Harmless Villain. The fic starts out with an up and coming supervillain trapping Kim in a coffin and burying her, cutting a deal with Drakken over it. Drakken and Shego are both shown as appalled at this and save Kim before she dies, considering how for how much they try to take over the world the two have never been shown as willing to subject their archenemies to such a horrible way to die.
- The Lotus Bloom: Works as one, as it averts Amusing Injuries & Angst? What Angst?, and shows the consequences Kim & Ron's crimefighting lifestyle would have on them & their families, something the show usually glossed over.
- The Touch of Green Fire deconstructs the power imbalance in Kigo. Kim may be mature but she is only just a high schooler, while Shego is old enough to have finished college years ago. There's a large difference in maturity between the two. Shego is also uncertain about whether she's fine with a supervillain dating a hero, which results in her breaking Kim's heart so that she doesn't corrupt her.
- Starlight Series: Of the episode "Spats". Because of Penny's article in the Gazette, both Merwin and Dean and the Boss of Eve Hill are alerted to Lilo and her custodianship over the alien experiments.
- Her Max deconstructs the cartoon and the sibling's personalities. Ruby is precocious and bossy because she has to raise Max alone, while Max is near nonverbal due to trauma.
- A Mighty Demon Slayer Grooms Some Ponies does this to G1 by showing how Megan, a teenaged Kid Hero, would be affected by being abruptly taken into a whole new universe, being forced to defend an entire sapient species by regularly killing terrifying enemies, and then having to act as a leader and mother figure for the ponies.
- Bring Your Hero Son To Work Day is a divergence point fic that takes place in the middle of The Big Reveal where K.O. learns that Professor Venomous is his biological father. While KO still agrees to spend more time with Professor Venomous, it's quickly made clear that he has doubts that they can get along, considering how Professor Venomous had gone out of his way to torment KO and his friends despite knowing that that was his son he was hurting. K.O. contemplates plenty of times if Professor Venomous is even sorry for what he did in the past.
- A later subplot deconstructs the revelation that Chip Damage was a robot that POINT created and the end of Season Two when POINT took over the Plaza with massive public backlash against the hero organization. When some of the staff arrive at the Plaza, they are surrounded by an angry mob and pelted with projectiles until Carol steps in and furiously calls them out on it.
- A more lighthearted example comes when K.O. and Dendy report Miss Quantum's behavior to Principal Claus. Now that he is aware of what Miss Quantum has been doing to her students, she finally facing punishment for her actions in the show...in the form of being suspended in front of the school and treated like a pinata by the students.
- Sick Streak has Phineas (who is in high school at this point) nearly die of a Ruptured Appendix because he wanted to keep up his inventing streak instead of seek medical help.
- The Most Unfair Accusation In The World has The Gangreen Gang being accused and arrested for a murder they didn't commit. And unlike in the show where the villains go to a Card Board Prison at the end of the episode and are out the next, they are actually looking at doing real time behind bars. The story also cast a more realistic light on a few elements. Namely The Gangreen Gang being a violent gang of uneducated teenagers. Here they're shown to have been outcast of society, that it turned a blind eye on four out of five them for circumstances outside of their control, with little opportunity to provide for themselves legitimately and no one to turn to but each other. It also pokes at some potential flaws with The Powerpuff Girls being so involved with the law and legal system in Townsville despite being young children; they're clearly not emotionally ready to be shown a murder scene up close and while Blossom and Buttercup manage to keep their cool well enough, Bubbles is barely keeping it together afterwards. And during the court scenes, it's shown that while Blossom is well read enough to know the law, she has a naively black and white view on morality.
- The Utonium Trials: The Utonium Trials deconstructs the setting of the show, how the girls are treated, and the characters themselves.
- Villain
- Villain takes some small hints of how Buttercup has often been treated unfair in the original cartoon and takes them to their logical extremes.
- Villain Redux: Of several PPG elements, with situations that would have otherwise been cartoony or Played for Laughs in the normal show turning out to have or lead to sadly realistic conclusions in this fic.
- Rest In Piss: This story is a deconstructed of the episode "Analyze Piss". Piss Master Daughter knows the man who answered her father's home door was not her father because the man who answered the door, who was in her father's costume, had the wrong voice, the wrong face, and hair where it shouldn't be. The helmet was on the man when her father would never wear his helmet around her. Not to mention the way he spoke. Piss Master Daughter puts two and two together and realizes from her father's previous behavior and that another man answers the door that her father killed himself, and that man was spearing her feeling. Piss Master's Daughter is heartbroken at her father's death and the fact that she does not have any closure, and is even more heartbroken that the man pretended to be her father doing hero work to repair his reputation, feeling the people love a fake version of her father. This story shows that while Rick had good intentions, his taking Piss Master's identity so his daughter would not know of his suicide and doing hero work to repair Piss Master's reputation did more harm than good to Piss Master's Daughter.
S-Z
Scooby-Doo
- Shaggy the Handler deconstructs Shaggy's character and the 1960s/1970s setting of the original cartoon. Shaggy is a Vietnam veteran who won't reveal his past to even his best friends. His cowardice is due to him being a Shell-Shocked Veteran, his baggy clothes hide numerous scars, and his notorious appetite has roots in a time where he almost starved to death.
- The Smurfs That Canon Forgot highlights how the smurfs' dependence upon Papa Smurf doesn't mesh well with his being lost in time with a handful of other smurfs throughout Season 9. Many of their enemies see this as a prime opportunity to pick them off, and without his magic and wisdom for guidance, they're left scrambling to set up defenses. This also creates a ideological rift that endures even after Papa and the others return, as a growing faction was willing to follow increasingly desperate measures to protect themselves, with the violence methods seeing mixed results.
- Some Things Never Change: Both stories deconstruct the SpongeBob SquarePants canon in a meta sense, highlighting just what would really happen if the perpetual yet bizarrely inconsistent nature of the series were applied to the characters for real, and how it would affect them.
- The town of Bikini Bottom never undergoing any significant changes or growth has resulted in the world seeming even more bleak for many of its citizens. The children of the citizens from early episodes are noted as being crueler, meaner, and more stupid than their predecessors, contributing to the feeling of decay and stagnation in the once lively town.
- Squidward is still stuck in his dead end job as a cashier, all of his hopes and dreams long since shattered and crushed, while his rival Squilliam Fancyson has attained all of the glory and achievements that he was never able to accomplish. To make things worse for him, he's long since come to the realization that much of his misery was his own fault for constantly trying to fight against Squilliam, instead of calling it quits while he still had a full life ahead of him. It's again downplayed, as his realization has caused him to reevaluate his life, and he has considerably mellowed out and gained wisdom compared to his younger years.
- Spongebob's happy go lucky behavior is noted as being less than endearing at 40+ years old compared to being at his 20s. Instead of being seen as a cool eccentric, he's now seen as a complete Manchild in denial of the darker aspects of his reality, still stuck in a dead end job and being mistaken for something worse than he actually is. To make matters worse, his friends have been keeping him blissfully unaware of the passage of time and the hard reality of death by replacing his snail Gary with numerous successors after the original died, something that Squidward notes can't last forever. It's downplayed somewhat, in that Spongebob himself is still a genuinely happy person, and it's plainly clear that he loves his job, so in a sense according to Squidward, he is still a "winner".
- Plankton is still doggedly trying to get the Krabby Patty Formula, but it's noted that it stems less from any true satisfaction at doing so, and more due to Plankton having no idea or willingness to do anything different. His marriage is also in shambles and his life is basically defined by his sole fixation. At least until his synthetic body finally gives out and he dies in front of Squidward, Sandy, and Spongebob.
- On a smaller level, despite being a highly successful career woman and scientist who has also achieved her dreams, Sandy admits that her daredevil tendencies have completely burned out her body, making her unable to enjoy her old hobbies as much as she used to anymore.
- In Living Without, the Fandom-Specific Plot of Hera and Kanan facing an unplanned pregnancy is given a rather sad deconstruction. Despite them both wanting have a child together, Kanan and Hera realize that they cannot keep it as their responsibilities to the rebellion would make it difficult to raise a baby. Hera decides to abort the pregnancy with Kanan's support, subverting the Good Girls Avoid Abortion trope.
- The Darkness Between Stars is a Hate Fic by two fans who loved the show up until the final arc revealed that the revolutionary Rose Quartz was actually the princess Pink Diamond in disguise and proceeded to forgive the villains instead of condemning them. This Alternate Universe fic is very openly a criticism of the canon ending, deconstructing the horrifying implications of Homeworld society and the consequences of Steven's absolute pacifism.
- Flawed Crystals, by the same authors as the above, goes even further: In this Alternate Universe, the canon ending is All Just a Dream, arguing that it only makes sense as a sick wish-fulfillment fantasy for Steven that shaves the gems' personalities down into the traits he likes most. Several scenes from the canon ending are directly commented on, pointing out how horrifying they are when subjected to Fridge Logic and why peaceful reconcilation with the diamonds would never have been truly possible. Steven's character is also deconstructed, portraying him as less of an All-Loving Hero and more of a self-centered narcissist who believes he always knows best for everyone, no matter the evidence to the contrary.
- Educating the Victim does a number on the Humanized Alternate Universe Fic:
- At first, Lapis' and Jasper's relationship seems normal. Then it shows off just how screwed up it really is.
- This fic shows that in real life, having a teacher devote a large part of their life to helping a single student is neither healthy nor professional.
- How I Wonder What You Are: Given its premise, the series delves and explores how Blue Diamond being Steven's mother instead of Rose affects the rest of the cast. Some rippling effects include, but are not limited to:
- Rose Quartz is still alive.
- Pearl and Garnet retain their somewhat condescending attitude towards humans.
- Amethyst acts childish as per her behaviour in the flashback episodes.
- Steven is a bit of a Spoiled Brat because Blue Pearl can't say no to him, somewhat still treating him as her Diamond.
- Greg's interactions with the Crystal Gems is mainly to spy on them, for the safety of his son.
- Just a Normal Coffee Shop deconstructs some of the Fridge Horror of Rose's Room (both the episode and the room itself).
- This fake Review Blog seems to put a hammer to the flipped morality of the Momswap AU, if only by changing the premise from "What If? the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems swapped lives" to "What if Rose's rebellion was successful?" The answer? A very disturbing implication that Steven and the Crystal Gems are the bad guys.
- Selaginella Lepidophylla looks into the "Rose Quartz comes back to life" trope but with all the emotional weight Rose's return entails, especially with the fourteen years' worth of Character Development the other Crystal Gems have had.
- Steven Universe: Alternate Future: Black Rutile calls out Steven for his pacifism proving more harm than good, as it allows enemies to either be Easily Forgiven or forgotten about so they can plot revenge on him.
- When Jasper is first seen in "Enemy of my Enemy", she comments on how Steven could've just stopped at ending colonization instead of making Gems into a pacifist race.
- Street Sharks Redux: A lot of elements that are glossed over in the cartoon are made more prominent or examined more. For example, Slammu being kidnapped and brainwashed by Paradigm leaves him a withdrawn mess after he's rescued.
- In Challenge of the Super Friends: The End, everything about the cartoon is played straight. When the Legion of Doom enters another universe, things have Gone Horribly Wrong, and they end up like victims in the Event Horizon and Hellraiser films, while the Superfriends become fascistic and attempt to make their world a utopia in the villains' absence. Along the way, every character is deconstructed before being transformed beyond recognition.
- Gorilla City has been experimenting on human children to develop their psychic powers. Something which not even Gorilla Grodd considered doing.
- The Timeline-Altering MacGuffin from the episode "Conquerors of the Future" is described as being a Tome of Eldritch Lore, bound in human skin and foretelling a horrific future set in 1980. This horrifies El Dorado enough that he burns it.
- Sorry No Fix takes the frequently used "girl/Self-Insert is rescued by the Turtles" scenario (likely inspired by April's rescue in canon) and shows exactly how a terrified person would react to coming face-to-face to a inhuman monster with lethal combat skills, no matter how well-intentioned they might be.
- New Tamaran: Despite the show's kid-friendly nature, teenaged superheroes would not be chaste or celibate, dealing with their raging hormones and stresses of hero life by pleasuring themselves, finding sex buddies, or making a Battle Couple. The only exceptions are Raven (who has great control over her emotions), Starfire (same reason, at least prior to becoming a couple with Robin), and Cyborg (who lacks genitals).
- This also applies to the teen villains as well, who don't always care about consent. After all, if they don't care about massive loss of human life, then rape shouldn't be a big deal to them.
- The fic also provides answers to the show's version of the DC Universe, namely "Where is the Justice League?" and "What other characters would have an interest in the main cast?".
- In all technicality, Enterprising Engines is a video series, not a fic. However, it does for drama several mainstay elements of the Thomas And Friends franchise, showcasing how some of these elements might play out if examined another way...
- The constant Aesop Amnesia concerning engines like Bill and Ben is brought up by Diesel, whereupon despite constant reminders, no matter how serious the accident, said engines always seem to fall back in their habits. How it affects other relations of the characters is also examined. Derek, usually The Pollyanna, notably starts becoming more guarded, and while he normally dismisses Diesel's paranoid conspiracy theories, vows to be more observant in future.
- In said episode where this is discussed, Villain Has a Point is also deconstructed. While Diesel's complaint about Bill and Ben is considered legitimate enough by some of the other engines, said complaint is laced with his usual hatred of the steam engines, preventing said point from actually fully going through and costing him supporters.
- Candy for Your Thoughts?. It started as a rant against events like Duncan breaking up with Courtney to get with Gwen but then it evolved to a very intricate (and really funny) working of how the events really messed up Gwen, Duncan and Courtney, instead of the way ended in the actual series. The fic, on the other hand, reconstructs the Replacement Goldfish trope (when applied to couples that just broke up) with Cody and Courtney.
- Monster Chronicles
- The story's plot can be seen as a deconstruction of Total Drama All-Stars. Like All Stars, a Knight of Cerebus possesses one of the contestants, and Duncan is the only one to know what danger they are in. However unlike All Stars, this story shows how horrifying this situation can be, as Cedric is a realistic example of a sociopathic criminal; he has no problem killing or mutilating the contestants or even people unrelated to the game simply for fun. And unlike Mal, Cedric does not care for the contest or its prize, and is only in it for his own amusement.
- Duncan's character is also deconstructed over the course of the story. Like in All-Stars Duncan knew there was someone in the game who was a danger to the other contestants, and although he knew the danger they were all in, Duncan is more concerned with his bad boy rep. However, in this story Duncan's actions are portrayed as dumb and cowardly, and numerous characters call him out on it. Also, Duncan being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold is deconstructed, as in canon he is shown to have a good side and care about his friends, despite being a bully and a thug. Like in All-Stars, he tries rejecting his good side to prove he is still a bad boy. However, he ends up proving himself wrong by showing that despite appearing to be a tough guy, he is really a coward who would rather protect his reputation then do the right thing, and having a good side does't matter since he rejected it by choosing to be a bad person.
- Total Trauma follows the characters as young adults and deconstructs the consequences of being on an Immoral Reality Show as a teenager. Many characters have serious psychological issues and struggle to break free of the stereotypes they were forced into when they were competing on Total Drama.
- Twinning With a Twist: The fanfic is written in a more realistic light. Some parts of it are inconsequential, like everyone beginning to smell on account of being stranded on a deserted island with no bathing supplies, while others are more serious, such as how Sammy's years of abuse by Amy's hands is portrayed as highly damaging to her mind and self-esteem.
- Any fan writing from a perspective of "the Decepticons were right" can swing between this and Draco in Leather Pants for the entire faction.
- Princess Artemis and Wheeljack's mad inventions.
- There's Something Wrong With Us: The fic takes the massive dysfunction of the Velma and plays it for drama, showing the characters as being genuinely messed up; in particular, Fred's father putting high standards on him while his mother endlessly babied him has left him completely unprepared for actual adult life, and he easily crumbles in stressful situations.
- Bad Idea puts cliches that are used frequently in Young Justice (2010) fanfics and applies them in more realistic settings, with realistic consequences. The first chapter, for example, has Dick Grayson fighting against his bullies instead of allowing them to beat him up. It is also revealed that the bullies simply put their parents' business relationships with Wayne Enterprises at risk by doing this, with one father chewing out the ringleader. De-aging plotlines can be resolved in a matter of seconds with Doctor Fate, and the whole Team being adopted by Batman puts their romantic relationships at risk.
- With This Ring uses the Orange Lantern Self-Insert to deconstruct things like why no one is using all the Schizo Tech to improve everyday technology, why no one has tried making magic or alchemy mainstream when they're real and documented things that are renewable resources. Why do heroes let horrible supervillains simply go to jail when they cause so much suffering when they're given the authority to do things that regular governments can't do. It's very telling when Orange Lantern tries to improve things or makes his views known, he is accused of being a Visionary Villain.
