History DeconstructedTrope / WesternAnimation

* A whole episode of the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' series is dedicated to deconstruct SuperStrength. The puny guy who steals Juggernaut's powers... [[TheChewToy promptly ruins his own life]] by [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor becoming an unintentionally-destructive human demolition crew]]. He doesn't get better until losing said powers and having them restored to their owner... who, by the way, needs these powers to actually ''survive''.

** Deconstructs AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther. Throughout the first two seasons, Beth and Jerry show moments where they care for each other despite their toxic, dysfunction marriage. But those moments, unfortunately, are just moments that don't last, and their toxic dysfunction remains an ongoing problem that they don't work to resolve. In Season 3, when Jerry put his foot down and made Beth choose between him and Rick, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she chose Rick]].
** Deconstructs ComedicSociopathy. Rick certainly comes across as one, but it's implied to be a defense mechanism fostered over decades -- if he ever stopped to empathize with those he's wronged over the years or consider the full consequences of his actions, he just might go completely insane.
** Deconstructs DumbassNoMore. Morty constant adventures and near-death situations turned him from naive, slow in the mind kid to one of the more competent and self-aware characters of the show, they also took a serious toll on him, resulting in his constant sense of disillusionment and insecurity.
** "Rick Potion #9" deconstructs LovePotion. Morty requests one from Rick to give to Jessica so she will go to a school dance with him. Unfortunately Jessica has the flu so the effect piggybacks on the virus and soon all of humanity barring Morty's immediate family is infected. [[spoiler:Rick's incompetent attempts to cure the effect result in the entire human race being turned into [[BodyHorror "Cronenbergs"]] and Rick and Morty end up abandoning it to live in another universe where they died]]. Naturally when things go wrong, they start arguing and Rick [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tears into Morty]] and points out how the potion is little different from a ''date rape drug, [[JerkassHasAPoint and he's right]]''.

** deconstructs CarnivoreConfusion. In one episode, Dog tries to answer the question of where meat comes from. He explains how there's a guy who plants ''meat plants'' -- meanwhile, Cat just explains slaughter. Dog goes crazy at the idea of eating sapient beings, who he thinks are friends, and turns vegan. Then, Dog starts to become delusional as he imagines that vegetables ''are'' his friends. After all that, Dog then tries to eat Cat, [[InsaneTrollLogic because he's not his ''friend'' but his ''brother'']]. Fortunately, [[TheCuckooLanderWasRight the guy who plants meat plants]] appears and solves the problem. To make things more horrifying, Cat and Dog share bodies. So if Dog eats Cat, he eats his own body. Although they only feel pain in their half, so they have their own bodies, but they meet in the middle. So Dog would have only eaten Cat, which just leaves Dog and his half of the body.
** deconstructs NostalgiaFilter. In the episode "Back to School", Cat is looking forward to attending his high school reunion and dancing with his old crush Sally. He describes himself as popular and having a great time in high school. Even in the beginning of the episode something is fishy, with all of the memorabilia and rewards he claimed were his really belonging to Dog, and their diploma having Dog's name but not Cat's. He tells Dog that they need to correct it by visiting their old high school. The brothers visit Rancid the school principal about the diploma, and it is revealed Cat never attended the last day of school so for him to have the diploma and be able to attend the reunion dance, he must go back to school for one day. Cat is happy to relive his glory days, but wonders why he can't remember his last day at school. But throughout the day things just keep going wrong with him while Dog is popular - three of Cat's new classmates are the relatives of the Greasers who make him miserable, his crush Sally is indifferent to him, and after class when he asks her to dance with him at the reunion, she coldly tells him that she has a boyfriend and makes it clear that she does not like him. At lunch both the cool kids and nerds refuse to let Cat sit with them, and then a food fight break out and Cat gets blamed for it. Finally at gym he is humiliated by Cliff, who is the teacher and Sally's boyfriend, who brings Sally there to watch his humiliation. As the kids laugh at Cat and call him a loser, his repressed memories come back and he realize the truth - Cat was an outcast and all of his positive memories of school were Dog's, and at the last day of school he was humiliated at gym by Cliff's father Coach Feltbottom, the gym teacher at the time, where he and all the other kids call him a loser, which made Cat run away and block out his memory of the day. And because Cat blocked out his memory of that day and chose to remember things differently, he set himself up for more humiliation in this episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Invincible}}'': Red Rush explains that as a SuperSpeedster he has RequiredSecondaryPowers of superhumanly fast perception and enahanced durability, which enable him to run at relativistic speeds without killing himself or causing an immense amount of collateral damage. During his brutal fight with Omni-Man, they make his death a great deal more painful than it could have been without them.

** Season 5 also decimated Season 3's "[[Recap/SamuraiJackS3E6JackAndTheTravelingCreatures Jack and the Traveling Creatures]]". By not returning Jack then and there to the past BecauseDestinySaysSo, the Guardian doomed Jack, the future, and himself. The Guardian is killed by Aku and the portal destroyed, Jack finds the last portal only to also be destroyed by Aku, which led to a HeroicRROD from Jack which led to Jack losing his sword after killing three innocent sheep in his blind rage and without armed with the one thing that can kill Aku once for all, the future became more bleak and hellish with evil forces increasing with more power in the following half-century and leaving Jack with HeroicBSOD.

** Courtney and Duncan's relationship deconstructs everything about OppositesAttract. Courtney is a high-strung AcademicAlphaBitch and Duncan is a roguish {{Delinquents}} with a HiddenHeartOfGold. The BelligerentSexualTension between them only comes to fruition when Courtney sees the "heart of gold" part of Duncan, but after ''Island'', cracks in the relationship start to show. Courtney has not loosened up by dating Duncan and has entered a pushy state of ICanChangeMyBeloved, both from her high standards for boyfriends and fear that Duncan is destined for jail sooner or later. Meanwhile, Duncan does not dial down his delinquent habits by dating Courtney, and insists on pushing her buttons for laughs, which sparks frequent arguments between them. By ''World Tour'', BelligerentSexualTension is the only thing holding them together, and that fails when Duncan decides to cheat on Courtney with Gwen. When ''All Stars'' rolls around, Duncan tries to rekindle their old relationship (killing his current one with Gwen in the process) but Courtney wants nothing to do with him anymore. Duncan assumes AllGirlsWantBadBoys is in play, and thinks Courtney and Gwen are no longer interested in him because he's no longer bad enough, when in reality, both largely preferred his nice side.

** Courtney and Duncan's relationship deconstructs everything about OppositesAttract. Courtney is a high-strung AcademicAlphaBitch and Duncan is a roguish delinquent with a HiddenHeartOfGold. The BelligerentSexualTension between them only comes to fruition when Courtney sees the "heart of gold" part of Duncan, but after ''Island'', cracks in the relationship start to show. Courtney has not loosened up by dating Duncan and has entered a pushy state of ICanChangeMyBeloved, both from her high standards for boyfriends and fear that Duncan is destined for jail sooner or later. Meanwhile, Duncan does not dial down his delinquent habits by dating Courtney, and insists on pushing her buttons for laughs, which sparks frequent arguments between them. By ''World Tour'', BelligerentSexualTension is the only thing holding them together, and that fails when Duncan decides to cheat on Courtney with Gwen. When ''All Stars'' rolls around, Duncan tries to rekindle their old relationship (killing his current one with Gwen in the process) but Courtney wants nothing to do with him anymore. Duncan assumes AllGirlsWantBadBoys is in play, and thinks Courtney and Gwen are no longer interested in him because he's no longer bad enough, when in reality, both largely preferred his nice side.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': deconstructs PoorCommunicationKills. Part of the reason things between Sky and Dave get so bad is the fact that Dave won't listen to what Sky is trying to tell him, and Sky does not directly tell him the reasons she does not want to date him. Sky and Dave both genuinely like each other, the problem is that Dave is coming on to her a little strong; while Sky does like Dave, she has a boyfriend at home she plans to break up with, and she wants to focus on the game and feels dating Dave would distract her. Their lack of communication therefore causes their relationship to deteriorate. To Sky's credit, when she and Dave were talking, she tried to explain that she does like him, but Dave interrupts her, saying they should just see where things go, and before Sky can tell Dave she has a boyfriend, Chris announce the challenge. The next few episodes, Sky foolishly thinks that Dave knows that she does not want to date someone while they're in the game, while Dave tries to do different things to get closer to her and impress her. Another problem is that Sky is receptive to Dave's advances, but still tries to turn him down, unintentionally sending Dave mixed messages. In episode "Hurl And Go Seek", angry that she lost the challenge and Dave is trying to impress her by beating her in the game and bragging to her, Sky tells Dave he has no chance of beating her or dating her, breaking Dave's heart. Later in the challenge, Sky calls him out on not listening to her, but without explaining that she has a boyfriend or that she wants to focus on the game. Both glare at each other, but calm down, and then Dave asks to be her boyfriend, and Sky angrily tells him no, leading to Dave voting himself off. This comes to a head in the final episode, where Dave is brought back in the final challenge as a helper for Sky. Sky kisses Dave to motivate him, telling him that she does really like him, and she just wants to focus on the challenges, because it's hard to team up with someone she wants to date. At first that works, and Dave is determined to win the challenge for her, but then Chris shows a clip from home that reveals Sky has a boyfriend named Keith. Sky, heartbroken, reveals in the confessional she plans to break up with Keith and she really likes Dave, admitting she messed up. But before she can tell him this, Dave refuse to listen to her, their relationship destroyed and Dave becoming bitter to her and determined to do anything to make Sky lose.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Invincible}}'':
** Red Rush explains that as a SuperSpeedster he has RequiredSecondaryPowers of superhumanly fast perception and enahanced durability, which enable him to run at relativistic speeds without killing himself or causing an immense amount of collateral damage. During his brutal fight with Omni-Man, they make his death a great deal more painful than it could have been without them.
** Episode 8 deconstructs YouWillBeSpared. Art and Debbie were the only ones who Omni-Man didn't kill, silence, or beat up in an attempt to cover up his murder of the Guardians. Art is not happy about this, and Debbie was not thrilled to hear that Nolan called her a "pet" for his amusement while she watched him kill thousands on live-television and nearly murder their own son. Art and Debbie end the season DrowningMySorrows together, not knowing if they really understood the person Nolan was and questioning why he spared them.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' deconstructs the KidHero into ChildSoldiers by showing just how brutal trying to fight the same battles that the big league heroes could be. In one episode the team was left so traumatized that they had to get counseling just to deal with the ordeal they have went through during a botched training simulation. Then come the timeskip we see the majority of the group being reduced to nothing more than shell shocked veterans and unlike the comics death is played very straight as several members of the team actually die in field missions. Greg sends the message loud and clear that saving the world and fighting bad guys isn't all fun and games.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' has an episode of a new boy in their school who turns out to be a MarySue. He's a nice kid but the others want to challenge him so he ends up doing his best but that leads to the others seeing how he's better at everything they can do. They end up hating him for it and he's sad to have to deal with the fact that to be himself he can't have friends. He tells them this, which makes them more understanding, and leaves the school.

** Then there's "At Long Last Leave" which shows that everyone in Springfield has had enough of the Simpsons. The town is bankrupt by Homer and Bart's destructive antics, and are annoyed with Lisa shoving her ideas into everyone's faces, not even Marge or Ned's preaching could change their minds and they boot them out of town; Mayor Quimby even goes so far as to point out her enabling of her family's destructive actions [[UnwittingInstigatorofDoom would technically make her the worse of them all]].

** Then there's "At Long Last Leave" which shows that everyone in Springfield has had enough of the Simpsons. The town is bankrupt by Homer and Bart's destructive antics, and are annoyed with Lisa shoving her ideas into everyone's faces, not even Marge or Ned's preaching could change their minds and they boot them out of town; Mayor Quimby even goes so far as to point out her enabling of her family's destructive actions [[UnwittingInstigatorofDoom would technically make her ''the worse of them all'']], and also specifically plans a trap for Ned knowing he'd also defend his neighbor.

** The infamous episode "The Boys of Bummer" is a deconstruction of DisproportionateRetribution. The stock plot is about everyone in Springfield getting angry at Bart over something very minor, which has happened before on "Bart's Girlfriend," "The Telltale Head," and "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" - all of which were played straight and for laughs. This time around, Bart loses a simple softball game and is bullied and harassed for it so much and so badly that he attempts suicide. He lives, but the townspeople ''still'' rag on him for losing until Marge steps in to yell at them. It's about as dark and depressing as you'd imagine and the reason why this episode is disliked among the few people who still watch modern-day ''Simpsons'' episodes or the former fan who foolishly decided to rewatch the show after years of ignoring it.
** Then there's "At Long Last Leave" which shows that everyone in Springfield has had enough of the Simpsons. The town is bankrupt by Homer and Bart's destructive antics, and are annoyed with Lisa shoving her ideas into everyone's faces, not even Marge or Ned's preaching could change their minds and they boot them out of town; Mayor Quimby even goes so far as to point out her enabling of her family's destructive actions {{UnwittingInstigatorofDoom would technically make her ''the worse of them all''}}, and also specifically plans a trap for Ned knowing he'd also defend his neighbor.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' deconstructed ScareEmStraight. Marge was away and Bart & Homer weren't doing their chores, so Lisa made them think they had leprosy to scare them into cleaning up their filth. Instead, Flanders shipped them off to a Hawaiian leper colony.

** Then there's "At Long Last Leave" which shows that everyone in Springfield has had enough of the Simpsons. The town is bankrupt by Homer and Bart's destructive antics, and are annoyed with Lisa shoving her ideas into everyone's faces, not even Marge or Ned's preaching could change their minds and they boot them out of town.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks''
** Beckett Mariner has deconstructed many tropes.
*** deconstructs ActionGirl. Beckett Mariner can throw down the best of'em and has saved her ship time after time, but whenever Mariner meets a problem her reaction- her only reaction- is to do 'actiony space adventurer' stuff to it. But when she runs into a problem that she can't punch away, she has nothing to fall back on.
*** deconstructs AllergicToRoutine. Beckett Mariner hates doing things by the book, only adhering to protocol when its an absolute safety measure. Preferring to do things her own way. As a lower decker, with few eyes on her, this isn't really a problem. But when put into positions of command or even increased attention Beckett seems to be incapable of staying within the lines, even when doing so is in her best interest. Best shown in 'I, Excretus' when Mariner was put in her mother's position as her ship's captain. Beckette' failed each and every simulation because she couldn't stick to the rules or fallow protocol. Even managing to make the worst score on record by getting into a fight with her mother instead of focusing on landing the ship.
*** deconstructs BloodKnight. Beckett Mariner loves action. She loves combat. Having her back to the wall with a bat'leth in one hand and a phaser in the other. But the problem is that she works in an organization who's desire for peace occasionally borders on the suicidal. Showing that this is just another line of isolation for her as whenever someone chooses to spar with Becket in the halodeck Mariner goes from 1 to a 100 on a dime. Its later shown that the only reason Becket is so good at Martial Arts is because she considers it a sport that she can do by herself as she never has any friends who share her interest in action.
*** deconstructs BullyAndWimpPairing. Beckett Mariner's dynamitic with Brad Boimler At the start of the series Beckett treated Brad as little more than her ensign shaped stress ball rather than a friend and Boimler viewed Mariner as someone to escape rather than impress and earn respect from. All the while calling each other their best friend. The deconstruction part comes in where even years into their partnership both still readily believe the worst in the other. Brad easily seeing Mariner as someone who sell's weapons or a murderous black ops agent. Mariner refuses to see Boimler as anything other than a nieve green newbie right up until he phasered her and saved both their lives from starvation.
*** deconstructs CoolBigSis. Beckett Mariner has been in Starfleet a long time and is qualified to be an [=XO=] or even captain of a starship but for her refusal to get promoted. Which means that for the majority of her career most or all of the co-workers on her shift are either green newbies about to leave her behind or demoted screw-ups on their way out. The few people Beckett does see as her peers refuse to see her as such. This causes Mariner to be condescending even on a good day and it takes being phasered to even register that her closest friend has grown to be her equal.
*** deconstructs PercussiveTherapy. Its no secret that Beckett Mariner has, issues. But because of the emotional walls and reputation she's built for herself over the years, not to mention the incompetent therapist assigned to her ship, Beckett has no one to talk to about them right up until the breaking point. The only time Mariner has any kind of breakthrough is when there's some kind of physical catharsis. Either through simulations on the holodeck or field missions that spiraled out of control. Whenever someone stumbles onto or gets dragged into these periods they're either horrified, disgusted, or outright insulted by how over the top violent and twisted the situation is. Yet its through these periods of intense danger and action that Mariner can make any progress on her issues and admit to things she's been hiding from herself.
*** deconstructs ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight. Beckett Mariner character in a nutshell, and at least part of the reason why she has been demoted so many times. By the time of "Crisis Point", this is deconstructed as she's seen as nothing more than a loose cannon by her own mother and is sent to therapy for it.
*** deconstructs SlaveToPR. Deconstruction and something Beckett Mariner inherited from her mother, the captain. Though in the opposite way. Beckett has been in star fleet most of her life and is fully qualified to take command if her mother is incapacitated. Mariner also has a strong desire to stay where she is and refuses promotion. The problem is to do that she must be viewed as a loose cannon to anyone that can promote her. Which means staged accidents, mistakes, embarrasing stories, borderline castastrophies, and of course open insubordination to superiors. All of which reflect bad on freinds and family alike, which pushes them away and isolates Beckett more and more over time.
** deconstructs {{Determinator}}. Much like Boimler, when D'Vana Tendi gets an idea in her head she will not stop until she does it. The problem is when this happens it always results in more danger, bodily harm, and unnecessary complications than are necessary. Ranging from hunting friends down to remove body parts, to visiting violent pirate dens, to even willingly cracking open her own limbs.
** deconstructs SlaveToPR. Deconstruction and something she has passed down to her daughter, though in the more traditional way. Capt. Carol Freeman is fundamentally a good person, but she is ambitious and a glory hound with a strong desire to advance her career. Something very much expected in a quasi-military organization like starfleet. The problem is that Capt Freeman has shown on many occasions to be fully willing to not only endanger her ship, her crew, and even her own life just for the chance of increasing her standing in star fleet, only to be snubbed each and every time.

** Deconstructs FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling. Stanley and Stanford were this dynamic growing up and it was fine when they were kids, but by the time of the portal incident, it caused self esteem issues for Stan and a desire to be great above all else for Ford. ''Literature/GravityFallsJournal3'' takes it further by showing that while Ford cares about Stan, he can’t see him as anything beyond a dumber and criminal version of him, despite both Stan’s skills at running the Mystery Shack and essentially teaching himself physics to get the Portal running and Ford’s own lack of common sense. It gets better for the brothers once Stan shows that he’s smart in his own way and Ford learns that he his intelligence doesn’t stop him from making mistakes.

** Lapis Lazuli's situation deconstructs SentientPhlebotinum pretty harshly, having spent millenia in an AndIMustScream type fate, only interacting with others when they want something, which has left her a BrokenBird.
* ''WesternAnimation/TalesOfArcadia''
** ''{{WesternAnimation/Trollhunters}}''
*** deconstructs AlwaysChaoticEvil. Changelings were created by the GreaterScopeVillain Morgana to serve the BigBad Gunmar on his genocidal mission to conquer both the troll and human worlds, so trolls aligned against them possess [[FantasticRacism a knee-jerk reaction towards them]], "impure" being a common slur for changelings. Because the closest thing they have to gaining acceptance is from the Gumm-gumms (and even then [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect they don't have much respect for them either]]), they don't really have much choice but to serve them. Their code of ethics promote PragmaticVillainy and various members of the Janus Order seem to possess a certain distaste towards humans, but everything they do is done not out of a drive to do evil or reverence towards the Underlord and their creator, but rather a need to survive. Because of this, various changelings like Strickler, Nomura and [=NotEnrique=] end up switching sides either because develop alternative loyalties through emotional attachment (Strickler to Barbara, [=NotEnrique=] to Claire) or abuse from their masters (Gunmar taking out his rage over Bular's death on Nomura).
*** deconstructs CasanovaWannabe. While trying to get a date to the Spring Fling, Toby Domzalski attempts to be a smooth flirt to any girl he comes across. All of them say "no", including Darci, who ''wanted'' to be asked out by him but was put off when she heard he asked out every girl in their school.
*** deconstructs DotingGrandparent. Nana Domzalski is quite doting towards Toby, but this often embarrasses him.
*** deconstructs LivingADoubleLife. Being the newly chosened Trollhunter (and the first human one at that) has proven to be incredibly stressful for Jim Lake. And because of his new and dangerous responsibilities, his academics are in dire straits and his relationship with his mother is strained at times.