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One of the central tenets of Fanfic is Fix Fic. A desire to change or explore the original content in a way that makes more sense to the writer, or that the writer felt was wrong or simply because their favourite Shipping pairing didn't get together.

This trope is when, instead of using the hammer of fanfiction to repair, a fic writer deliberately and often lovingly smashes it to bits with a Deconstruction. They take aspects of the work to extremes or down a logical path that shows the faults therein, either deliberately or simply by pulling the loose threads until something breaks.

A Fan Fic writer may take the setting, characters, tropes, plots, or the genre as their target. In addition, the fic may directly deconstruct the original work or any number of Fanfic Tropes, cliches, or elements of Fanon common to Fan Works based on that canon.

Note that while a Deconstruction Fic may well take a dark path with revealing the canon's actual Fridge Horror within, it doesn't have to be a literal deconstruction of the setting and characters like a Dark Fic. A story can still be a Deconstruction even if it's a W.A.F.F. or Hate Fic.

An example of a typical deconstruction in fanfic:

  • The Alice and Bob fandom of a certain Teen Drama or Kid Com has a Fandom-Specific Plot involving a one-night stand which causes a pregnancy. Played straight the pregnancy brings them together, their families both accept and help the pair through the pregnancy, and they eventually fall in love and have a beautiful child and live happily ever after.
  • A deconstruction for that plot can take several forms: Drawing notice to the fact that Alice and Bob are only 15 years old, aren't in love, have school to deal with, and their family situations aren't conducive to taking care of a child. A discussion about what to do takes place and causes a rift between them, or the family kicks Alice out, or they force Alice into a choice against her will or they have existing relationships that are impacted on by the pregnancy. The stress, guilt and angst continue to the point Alice and Bob end up hating each other with the one-night stand and its aftermath a regret, and never to be repeated again.

A Deconstruction can still have a perfectly happy ending. In the deconstruction above Alice and Bob could work through their angst and stress and come to terms with what happened, and eventually they do come to love each other for each other, and not because they happened to have a baby together.

Deconstruction Crossover is a common form of this and examples of that should go there. Take care to remember the differences between this and Fix Fic, especially if the work the fic springs from is a member of the Deconstructor Fleet. For non-fan works, there is Deconstructed Trope.


Works with their own pages:


Categories with their own pages:


Examples:

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    Comic Books 
  • The DCU:
    • The Metropolitan Man: A deconstruction of the Superman franchise set in the 1930s. The story paints a picture of what the author thinks would realistically happen if a super-strong, super-quick, flying and unkillable man in possession of X-Ray Vision and super senses comes out and starts saving people. Told mostly from the perspective of a rational (but still paranoid and sociopathic) Lex Luthor, who, among other things, posits the scientific improbability of a Human Alien and the inevitability of the devastation Superman could enact on humanity even if he were to somehow stick to his morals.
    • Inviolate uses Lex Luthor to explore a number of things taken for granted, including but not limited to: why mad scientists are mad, why evil geniuses are evil, why so many of the last of their kind keep ending up on Earth, why villains stay villains and why despite all the extremely high levels of technology available in the DCU their level of tech seems to be at the same level as the real world.
    • Retrograde Motion: Of Fountain of Youth. There's a lot of debate over whether or not the younger Jason is real, and whether or not it's morally correct to turn him back. The fact that the younger Jason wants to stay a child muddles the issue even further, especially after he reveals to Dick that the older Jason was depressed and in pain. Technically, it's all rendered moot after it's revealed Jason can't be turned back, though everyone mourns the loss of the older Jason all the same, and Bruce lets the younger Jason know that if he ever does want to turn back into the older Jason, he'll find a way.
    • A (NSFW, naturally) fic called Superman Fucks Gotham has the titular hero explore the reasons for Joker Immunity, Superman Stays Out of Gotham, Power Creep, Power Seep, Redemption Demotion... all while doing Exactly What It Says on the Tin, of course.
    • The Redemption of Harley Quinn: The story dismantles the Designated Hero status frequently given to Harley and Ivy. Both are forced to confront records of their violent crimes of mass death and destruction; Ivy is an Ax-Crazy lunatic who doesn't care about hurting people as long as her actions help plants, and Harley is just as much a chaotic sadist as her ex-boyfriend. Their relationship is also taken apart: Ivy wasn't as bad as the Joker but she was still abusive and controlling, and Harley is such an Extreme Doormat that she put up with it just to feel loved. It isn't until they address these issues and fundamentally change their personas that they begin to become genuinely good people (and even then, Ivy's love for Harley is still on the psychotic side).
  • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
    • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Tempest Rewrite deconstructs several highlights of the comic's final volume:
      • Emma's revenge against "Jimmy" is shown to be selfish and petty, especially in light of how it did nothing to stop MI-5's actions. Furthermore, "Jimmy" is shown to have been in the right for attacking the magical dimensions, as they were planning to invade Earth.
      • The comic's criticisms of modern superhero popularity is taken to task by explaining that, yes, they do make corporations lots of money, but they also serve as inspirational role models. And while they may subliminally teach that ordinary people should be dependent on extraordinary beings, you need extraordinary beings to solve extraordinary problems.
      • In a universe where the creations of H. P. Lovecraft exist, they're going to eventually be front-and-center instead of just mere footnotes. In fact, all the more fantastical works that were just alluded to throughout the comic are now expanded on to create a coherent mythology.
      • The fic also responds to Alan Moore's claim that modern day storytelling is a cultural wasteland by feauturing numerous characters from modern entertainment who, regardless of how long their appearances, are still shown to be on equal terms as the public domain works from the comic's first two volumes.
  • Tintin:
    • Dahlia Nilsson wrote An Evening at the Airport as a response to the way women are portrayed. Herge has been criticized for the lack of female characters in the albums. On top of that, many people have pointed out that when the women do appear they are clichés and are portrayed as castrating and unwelcome presences. She mainly focuses on the few women that there are. Jolyon Wagg’s wife and teenage daughter are given lines even though they don’t speak in the series. Bianca Castafiore and Martine Vaderzande are rendered intelligent and occasionally profound and Peggy portrayed as a bitter jaded woman who has to put up with her philandering and generally irresponsible husband who acts more henpecked than he actually is to get sympathy.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes:
    • Trouble Island pulls a Decon-Recon Switch with Mr. Imagination.
    • Calvin & Hobbes: The Series deconstructs itself in the second TV movie "Have You Seen This Tiger?", where Socrates' pranks land himself and Calvin in hot water. Likewise, "RIP Calvin" deconstructs The Hedonist. The future selves are revealed to use Calvin's Time Pluckernote  for great pleasure... even if it comes from some unscrupulous sources. Moreover, when the present-day cast attempts to stop them, their future counterparts attempt to kill them!
  • For Better or for Worse:
    • The New Retcons starts as a Deconstructive Parody running alongside the final strip. But after the strip ended, it soon deconstructed everything about the cast and setting: Elly’s Neat Freak tendencies? stems from unresolved trauma from a Teen Pregnancy. Robin’s inconsistent behavior? He’s autistic. The various Gonks that were shown in the background? They’re victims of radioactive damage from Milborough’s past as a test site. And that’s only scratching the surface.

    Fan Works 
  • Recursive Fanfiction example: the UFUT-verse (consisting of the "canon" Unwanted Free Ugly Troll and Loop Hole, as well as many recursive-recursive stories like Before I Sleep), deconstructs the Homestuck fandom's popular "petstuck" AU, in several different ways. Aside from addressing the essential horror of a world where sentient creatures are bought and sold like animals (and no-one cares), UFUT and Loop Hole both demonstrate the severe lack of rights the trolls have and the horrifying situations that this creates (such as trolls being used as lab rats, troll fighting rings which can include child participants, and little trolls being beaten and abandoned by their owners). In "Before I Sleep", meanwhile, a woman adopts a troll baby and comes to see it as her own child, but no-one else sees it that way. She's pretty much treated as crazy by everyone, and when her son (the troll) is killed her grief isn't even taken seriously.
  • The Conversion Bureau quickly became a fertile breeding ground for these kinds of fics due to being filled with all kinds of (unintentional) Unfortunate Implications and Fridge Horror. Notable stories include:
    • In The Conversion Bureau: Not Alone, humanity is not flattered by the ponies' misanthropic and Holier Than Thou attitudes, and certain plot elements TCB stories often ignore (such as the ensuing loss of infrastructure and human displacement from the barrier, as well as what the other Equestrian races think of the ponies' Assimilation Plot) are explored. Even more, at the end it's revealed that that the natural-born ponies find the Newfoals (with their lack of assertiveness and inability to get mad) off-putting and unsettling.
    • The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum and its side stories deconstruct everything typical to the TCB genre, like the impracticality of transporting Equestria to Earth, the misanthropy of the ponies, Earth's status as a Dystopia, and the horror that comes with people forcibly being turned into another species. The side stories point out how badly Equestria would do in a war, how they'd manage the massive population growth (the short and simple answer is that they can't), and the disturbing nature of the Newfoals in general.
      • Spectrum, a Continuity Reboot mixed with Fix Fic elements, goes more for a Decon-Recon Switch, presenting a more grounded approach and balanced portrayal of all sides—while Prime Equestria is not entirely experienced with a war of the scale of the Conversion War, their Wide-Eyed Idealist views aren't put down like the original parent story did. The Solar Empire gets a more sympathetic characterization as well, with the story making it clear that they are still Equestrians, albeit an Equestria that has lost its way.
    • In The Negotiations-verse, it's made clear that a nation whose soldiers wield swords, spears and arrows wouldn't do well in warfare against 21st century tactics and weaponry, the Fridge Horror problems that other "straight" TCB stories usually gloss over (such as "what happens to the rest of Equus without Celestia and Luna around to move the sun and moon?") are explored in detail, and it gives a deeper reason for why Equestria would even go to Earth in the first place.
  • Another Recursive Fanfiction example: A Girl Who Brought Down the World is this towards Sonichu, more importantly deconstructing Christian Weston Chandler's idea of being in power. It shows that Chandler's style of leadership in the comic wouldn't lead to peace and prosperity (and finally having a girlfriend), but would lead to the world becoming a Crapsack World. This also seems to be the theme with most Sonichu fanfics in general.
  • More Recursive Fanfiction examples: in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier fandom, it's common to deconstruct the Fandom-Specific Plot of Bucky regaining his memories and resuming his relationship with Steve (platonically or romantically). There are several different ways of going about this, such as merely showing how difficult such a recovery would realistically be (and how having a romantic relationship at such a vulnerable time would affect both participants), as in Lilies with Full Hands, or by playing the usual plotline straight within the world of the story while showing how unhealthy and affected such a quick "recovery" would have to be in real life (as in Out of the Dead Land.)
  • The Fanmake Blooper Series: While most of the time it parodies the tropes of a Film Fic, there are times where they take a serious look at a trope and ask "If fanmakes were made like actual films, how would the cast react to it?". The answer? The authors are more like directors with the ability to act as God and even brainwash the actors into doing a role they either aren't fit to play as or don't wish to play, the characters are unpaid actors who are cast into unfitting roles and are understandably upset by it, and attempts to derail the fanmake, speeding up the fanmake by cutting corners so that they'd be done sooner, or making the most of it are commonplace.
  • Firebird's Son applies the Evangelion and Madoka treatment to the "Harry Potter harem" fic genre. The entire thing is dedicated to showing just what a magical society where polygamy is needed by demographics would be like, and the result is a very unpleasant and unsettling place, among other things.
  • Universe Falls: While in the original Steven Universe canon Steven is cheerfully oblivious to all the secrets the Crystal Gems are keeping from him, here Dipper Pines refuses to take the Gems' question-dodging in stride, frequently calling them out on keeping Steven out of the loop and trying to encourage Steven to be less naive.
  • Rebuilding Friendships deconstructs how only telling the family about the trip to New Orleans in Finding Dad affected the friendships of Isabella and Phineas with other people.
  • A Life Rescued and sequel Bowing Out Gracefully deconstruct many of the cliches found in Bridge to Terabithia Fanon, particularly the LDD (Leslie Doesn't Die) fics.
    • The Peggy Sue fic, where Jesse goes back in time to save Leslie on that fatal day, as seen in Groundhogs of Terabithia. Here, the author shows that, for Jesse to be able to do this on purpose, he would have to be an adult, and probably a messed-up one. The Unfortunate Implications of an adult in a child's body (Jesse) getting romantic with an actual child (Leslie) cause the author to Retcon Jesse's future self into a delusion he is experiencing.
    • Jesse saving Leslie from the creek, as seen in Groundhogs of Terabithia and fics by Narnian Melody. Unfortunately, in A Life Rescued, this proves to be almost more than Jesse can handle, and he (and Leslie) are hospitalized with serious injuries, requiring physical therapy and treatment that Jesse's impoverished family cannot afford. The Burkes attempt to ease the burden by taking care of Jesse's expenses, but this so offends Jesse's proud father that he initially forbids contact between the two families.
    • Leslie and Jesse realize their love for one another upon Jess' saving her life, as seen in Groundhogs at Terabithia. Here, Jesse and Leslie are in fifth grade. It takes some time before either of them, especially Jesse, are able to openly use the L-word to describe their feelings for each other.
    • After saving Leslie's life, Jesse and Leslie share their first kiss, go skinnydipping, cuddle naked, and sleep together (fully clothed, no sex), as seen in Groundhogs at Terabithia.
      • First, Jesse and Leslie are fifth graders, meaning Leslie's physical desires are more age-appropriate (nothing more than some hugging and chaste kissing). Even then, Jesse, being a boy, younger than Leslie, and therefore more reticent when it comes to physical affection, is uncomfortable with Leslie's age-appropriate desires until both of them are thirteen.
      • Second, both sets of parents set limits on what their kids may do with each other. Jesse saving Leslie's life does NOT constitute a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card for either of them.
    • Leslie's family, being something like hippies, are very casual about nudity, which leads Leslie to be casual about taking her clothes off in front of Jesse and being very affectionate toward him, as seen in Groundhogs at Terabithia. In fact, A Life Rescued depicts a family that functions this way, and the results are not pretty. First, the nudism tempts thirteen-year-old Tom, an OC, who spies on them and photographs them. Second, the girls' nudism and affectionate nature is directed at all boys, which arouses Leslie's jealousy and results in Slut-Shaming from an OC friend. Worst of all, the family's seemingly harmless but quirky habits are a sign that their parents are molesting the girls, and trafficking them for child pornography, with the youngest getting pregnant and being Driven to Suicide.
    • In Royal Court of Terabithia, Jesse and Leslie find that their skinnydipping is not as surreptitious as they had believed. In that fic, fortunately, their activities are observed only by Maybelle and Joyce Anne, Jesse's sisters. A Life Rescued depicts a similar scenario with a much different outcome. As noted above, the nudist family described in that fic is spied on by a thirteen-year-old classmate of the middle daughter, who secretly photographs them. Additionally, pictures of them end up in the hands of bullies who photoshop them with Leslie's head to sexually harrass her.
    • Despite engaging in risky behavior, Jesse and Leslie remain virgins until their wedding night, as seen in Royal Court of Terabithia.
      • In A Life Rescued, Judy and Bill's backstory shows that, whatever high-minded resolutions they might make in advance, two teenagers getting naked and physical together will invariably lead to unplanned sex and unplanned pregnancy.
      • In A Life Rescued, even though they exercise more caution than Leslie's parents, Jesse and Leslie nevertheless find themselves going further than they intended, physically, and need to deal with their intense passions for one another.
      • Not only do Jesse and Leslie not remain virgins until their wedding night, they end up going off with other people before getting back together.
    • Jesse and Leslie have a fairytale romance from the time he saves her, and culminating in their marriage, as seen in Royal Court of Terabithia. In A Life Rescued, they only gradually realize their feelings for each other, and also end up acting their age, for good and for ill. Problems creep up in the relationship that include jealousy, conflicts resulting from differing values systems (particularly regarding physical intimacy during their teen years), and being pulled in different directions by divergent career paths.
    • Jesse rescuing Leslie from bullies, as seen in Stars over Terabithia and Fight or Flight. In A Life Rescued, Jesse has the help of an OC friend, Tom. Even so, Jesse and Tom end up suspended for leaving class without permission (Jesse to get a teacher, Tom to intervene in the fight), and Leslie faces expulsion for fighting off the bullies, until she reluctantly reveals details that indicate the bullies may have intended some kind of sexual assault. Even with the justifications for their behavior, Jesse and Leslie's parents both give out additional punishments.
    • Jesse and Leslie continuing to play at being rulers of Terabithia into their teenage and adult years, as seen in Royal Court of Terabithia and fics by Narnian Melody. In A Life Rescued, as the two grow up and expand their interests and circle of friends, Jesse and Leslie outgrow Terabithia.
    • Leslie, and even her parents, converting to Jesse's faith, as seen in Royal Court of Terabithia. In A Life Rescued, Judy and Bill have been athiests for twenty years, which doesn't change overnight. Although they show some theistic tendencies as the fic progresses, they never convert to Christianity. Leslie considers converting, and ultimately does convert, to Jesse's faith to be closer to him, but his conservative upbringing and her more progressive upbringing lead to conflicts, particularly where physical intimacy is concerned, and Jesse ends up adopting Leslie's more relaxed views regarding sex.
    • Jesse and Leslie growing up to achieve their dream jobs, as seen in Royal Court of Terabithia. Unfortunately, in Bowing Out Gracefully, the respective dream jobs of Jesse and Leslie pull them in different directions, and they each pursue other relationships before getting back together. Leslie, finding out that her dream job as an actress (in this fic) is not all it's cracked up to be, ends up addicted to alcohol and drugs, and goes through rehab before giving up her career, enrolling in a college near Jesse, and reuniting with him.
  • Infinity Train: Boiling Point: Like its inspiration, Boiling Point isn't afraid to take apart certain bits and pieces of the show it's based on.
    • Boscha's ability to get away with anything she does means that, when karma finally gets to her and she's suspended, she has no idea how to process what just happened and she eventually blows up, hurting those around her in the process.
    • Boscha and Skara have a genuine friendship here, but this one comes with its own set of problems: chief among them is the fact that, since Boscha has such an intense personality, she's the main thing that comes to mind when people see Skara, which makes her become loathed as a result of her connection to her.
    • Most of the Passengers who wind up on the Infinity Train are normal people with a couple issues. Boscha, meanwhile, not only comes from a Giant Corpse World, but has enough firepower to melt down a train car: this is such a change from the norm that it catches everybody off-guard.
      • Her number also provides another deconstruction, since being so mentally unstable, her number breaks the scale: it appears as two different numbers before assuming its full length.
    • Furthermore, most people who actually enter the Train simply want to get home, and that's it. While this is true for Boscha too, her desire to be the strongest is so hard wired into her head that it becomes secondary to her goal of becoming the strongest in the Train.
    • Skara is constantly blamed and made to pick up the slack when it comes the things Boscha's done. This has caused her to become the Stepford Smiler, and when Boscha goes missing, she loses one of the few supportive people she has in her life, causing her to break down.
    • Amity, Boscha, and Skara's arranged friendship has more consequences here: not only does each of them have a role in it (Skara being oblivious to everything, Boscha keeping her social darwinist mentality, and Amity just straight up wanting nothing to do with either of them) but things eventually boil over, to the point Amity beats up Boscha in order to have some catharsis and the Urodelas and Blights come to hate each other as a result.
  • With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: Not precisely. This story takes place in a modern California city, making it somewhat removed from the worlds and events of the media it draws from and most of the drama arises from the premise itself. However there are a number of elements taken from the original canons that are played more realistically here, usually to disastrous results.
    • Yue doesn't become the moon spirit here so her marriage to Hahn goes through and her story depicts her life with him. It isn't pretty.
    • The popular Fanon interpretation of Riley being non-binary holds true here and while this itself is adamantly not portrayed as a negative thing, their story touches upon the prejudice they face because of it.
    • Wilbur being the only non-gifted Robinson wasn't really touched upon in the original film. Here, while it's clear that they love him Franny and Cornelius worried over this when he was younger and it left him feeling somewhat insecure.
    • Eska's treatment of Bolin was played comedically in canon. Here she nearly rapes him and leaves him traumatized.
    • Loudcest gets skewered in Lucy's story. When she tells Lincoln that the children in her picture, already labeled as which sister's they are, are all his kids, he's immediately uncomfortable and assumes he misunderstood her because what she's suggesting disturbs him.
    • Certain tropes are also deconstructed, thus.
      • Too Smart for Strangers: a young kid refusing candy from a strange man might be picked up and carried off anyway, with the man telling anyone who objects that he's their father and they're just throwing a tantrum.
      • Clueless Aesop media not explaining why "bad touches" are wrong or how bad they are leads to Lola Loud thinking she can accuse Lori of touching her to get her grounded, leading to a My God, What Have I Done? moment when Lori is arrested and suffers Prison Rape while Lola has to undergo a traumatic medical examination.
      • Morality Pet: everyone who isn't the Morality Pet still suffers from being around the murderous person.
  • At The Food Court was written solely as a Take That! against Cori Falls's infamous fanfiction, particularly The Prodigal Parents, in which Ash becomes a Future Loser with severe delusions and who can no longer live unassisted because he has the mental age of a kindergartener (in case it isn't clear, The Prodigal Parents was a bashfic). At the Food Court reinterprets everything, taking canon and basic human decency into account, showing that Ash was once a normal kid whose life was ruined by criminals who beat him up so severely, he had to be hospitalized, and permanently regressed to the cognitive level of a kindergartener due to massive brain damage. It doesn't shy away from showing how horrible a fate Ash suffers and that no one could possibly inflict that on someone and remain sympathetic. Without the Protagonist-Centered Morality in The Prodigal Parents, Jessie and James are not heroes, but villains.
  • Synépeies - A Collection Of NTR Consequences: To the Netorare genre as a whole, but most directly the various doujins the series adapts. The exact level depends on the chapter, but usually, the fic picks off from where the doujin left off- with the woman “stolen” from the male lead by the antagonist’s bigger and “superior” dick, while the male lead is either unaware or crying his eyes out. Here, it usually turns out that a man who treats you like a sex doll and who’s only good quality is his bigger dick makes for a poor boyfriend, with the antagonists exposed as pathetic losers underneath all their macho bravado. When the affair is exposed, it results in their peers ostracizing them for it. And instead of wallowing in pity for the rest of his life as suggested in the original doujins, the male lead eventually moves on and finds another girlfriend who stays loyal to him. All the woman accomplished by cheating on him was ruining her chance at a happy life for some momentary pleasure.
  • The Karma of Lies ends with Adrien losing everything - his friends, his family, his money, and his public reputation. Karma Overbalance takes this state of affairs to its logical conclusion by having Adrien go flying over the Despair Event Horizon and murder Lila because being jailed for the rest of his life isn't going to make things appreciably worse for him.
  • Karmic Backlash sets out to deconstruct the karma system depicted in The Karma of Lies. Adrien and the rest of Bustier's class ended up taking the brunt of Lila's karma by virtue of wanting to "protect Lila" and not understanding the consequences. Karmic Backlash points out that a cosmic force that's willing to distribute karmic punishment regardless of people's intent is not necessarily going to eliminate Marinette's tormentors and then just stop; it's equally likely to decide that letting Lila escape, allowing Adrien's life to be ruined, or even just being self-satisfied about the rewards she earned qualify as reasons to judge Marinette as equally responsible for the karmic debt and tear her down in response.
  • The Path of Lila's Karma deconstructs the Karma from both The Karma of Lies and Karmic Backlash not as a cosmic system that either over punishes or misaims punishment but instead as a spiteful Kwami-like entity that not only manipulates the flow of punishment but also twists its various targets both emotionally and mentally for its own purpose, whether to make them new agents of "justice" or Asshole Victims, with Lila becoming his Unwitting Pawn after he made her mother suffer the punishment of her co-worker's crime. The fact that it's an individual means that someone like Lila would eventually figure out its true influence, and she makes sure Karma suffers its own Laser-Guided Karma by manipulating the Wish into making herself the most powerful human in the world and Karma her personal servant, all because of his spiteful attitude.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Arrowverse
    • Blackbird (Arrow):
      • The story deconstructs the show's favoritism towards Sara, including the tendency to gloss over her betrayal of Laurel by choosing to go on the Gambit with Oliver, and pin the blame for what happened on Oliver and, to some extent, Laurel. While yes, what happened to Sara was horrible and by no means any way deserved, it doesn't absolve her of the guilt of her choices, and pinning the blame on others is ultimately wrong. In this story, such favoritism leads to Dinah (who was the one who let Sara go in the first place) using Sara's trauma to justify trading Laurel to the League of Assassins in exchange for her younger daughter's freedom and convincing Sara to go along with it. Instead, this act effectively dissolves whatever sympathy anyone outside of Dinah might have for Sara's situation, as Laurel did absolutely nothing to deserve such a cruel fate and had been mourning Sara as much as the rest of her sister's friends and family. Oliver, Tommy, Thea, Moira, and Walter are all appalled with Sara and Dinah when they find out, while Sara herself is now a guilt-ridden wreck with Death Seeker tendencies.
      • It also deconstructs the idea that Oliver "destroyed" the Lance family by "seducing" Sara. In addition to the above point of Sara choosing to go with Oliver on her own, the events of the story show that the Lance family already had several preexisting problems even before the Gambit, and that what happened to Sara just blew it all out in the open and made those problems worse, eventually culminating in Laurel's horrific forced induction into the League. All of this suggests that even without the Gambit, some other tragedy would've eventually caused the Lances to fall apart as a family. Ultimately, Oliver's role in what happened is so minor that both Sara and Laurel herself refuse put any of the blame on him, rightfully blaming either themselves (in the case of the former) or Dinah (in the case of the latter) instead.
    • moral of the story (Nyame): The story is a massive deconstruction of Oliver's abysmal treatment of Laurel Season Two and beyond, including his tendency to completely dismiss her problems as insignificant since her trauma over the past several years doesn't compare to what he went through and subordinate her feelings below his own. It shows that this is not Oliver standing up for himself, as canon tried to portray it as, but rather another example of him being a self-centered jerk who is actively using his trauma and status as a vigilante/"hero" to excuse abusing and neglecting his loved ones. Once Laurel and everyone else realizes this, they begin distancing themselves from him, with Laurel herself noting that the island hasn't really changed Oliver as much as he likes to think it has, stating that he is "as selfish as [he's] ever been". This is only reinforced with his treatment of Thea after Laurel leaves Starling, as he does everything he can to hide his vigilante secret from his sister even in the face of Slade's threat to her life, up to and including trying to force Roy into breaking up with her, just so she won't shun him for it or for his time on Lian Yu. By the time Thea finds out about his secret, she no longer cares about it, as everything he's done to hide it has given her enough reason to hate him on its own.
    • Never Be Silent:
      • The story deconstructs the ways metahumans were treated in Season One and Season Two of The Flash (2014). While it acknowledges that circumstances Barry and co. were under forced them to make hard choices, in addition to being unknowingly manipulated by Eobard Thawne/"Harrison Wells" and later Hunter Zolomon/"Jay Garrick", that doesn't change the fact that Team Flash illegally held multiple metahumans in subpar conditions for several months and outright killed those they couldn't contain. Those conditions did severe psychological damage to the prisoners (some of whom, such as Peekaboo/Shawna Baez, weren't hardened criminals before their imprisonment but certainly were after), in addition to leaving their various families, friends, and acquaintances in the dark over their fates. That in turn led to several metahumans coming to fear the Flash, since they associate him with all these mysterious disappearances.
      • It also deconstructs The Masquerade. Team Flash's desire to uphold the secrecy about metahumans is what caused them to make the decision to use the Pipeline as a secret prison in the first place, along with withholding information about those metahumans who ended up dying from the public. Even with metahumans now out in the open, they find themselves upholding a new masquerade of keeping the multiverse a secret — which is why they haven't sent Harry to jail yet, even though he outright murdered someone (admittedly for sympathetic reasons). This leaves them with the dilemma of wondering whether or not upholding the masquerade is worth compromising their morals for, the answer of which is beginning to lean towards "no".
      • The treatment of metahumans on Earth-2 is also deconstructed. Laurel points out that the metahuman detection watch that Harry created is basically Profiling, which is suspected by Team Arrow to have increased the Fantastic Racism metahumans face. It's also suspected to be how Zoom was able to find so many metahumans for his forces, with those he couldn't convince to join him willingly because of the persecution they were faced with being threatened into doing so anyway. A later chapter confirms this to be correct, after the Metapocalypse is foiled and several metahumans immediately show themselves willing to turn on Zoom now that he's no longer a threat to them.
    • These Foolish Things deconstructs the Oliver/Felicity relationship, where it's shown that Oliver's constant need to appease Felicity and make her happy isn't because of any fault on his end but rather a massive red flag about their relationship, as he's completely unable to stand up for himself and subsequently miserable as a result. In addition, his overly-permissive attitude towards her has enabled her to basically take control of every aspect of his life with him unable to recognize it until it's pointed out to him. This eventually reaches its logical conclusion, where Felicity convinces herself she can decide who can be in his life as well, first by hacking his private bank account so she can determine what possible gifts he gave his ex-girlfriend Laurel so she can demand them back in his place, and then trying to force him to cut ties with Laurel entirely, and Thea as well when she finds out about what she did and calls her out for her actions. Issuing that ultimatum proves to be the last straw for Oliver, and he breaks up with her instead.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • iCarly
  • Downton Abbey:
  • Glee
  • LazyTown:
    • There'll Be Another Time, set ~6 years after the main series, contains the following:
      • Due to the kids growing up and no longer needing him to save them, Sportacus mostly spends all day exercising by himself and answering fan mail, and is very closed-off about his emotions.
      • Pixel is in an advanced computer science class with an immense workload, and so he never has time to hang out with the other kids. He also has a practically non-existent sleep schedule.
      • Due to being the youngest of the group, Ziggy is still in middle school while everyone else is in high school, and has been unable to make any new friends, so he is very lonely.
      • Stingy's dad works as an accountant in Dublin (a well-known tax haven), and so is absent from the family.
      • Trixie's tomboyish nature means that she is rejected by both the boys and girls at school, meaning that Stephanie is her only real friend.
      • Robbie has stopped trying to rid the town of Sportacus, and so now spends all day in his lair by himself, and is therefore very lonely.
  • Lost Girl:
    • Where The Eyes Of The Old Gods Can't Hope To Find Us deconstructs the Shipper on Deck mentality. Lauren gives Kenzi a sharp dressing down on this, pointing out how everyone wishes Bo was dating someone other than Lauren (Kenzi and Dyson want her with Dyson, Trick and the Ash want her with Fae, not a human) and none of them have stopped to think about what that feels like for her.
      "Think about what it's like having all your lover's friends constantly undermining you. Think about how it makes you doubt yourself, question whether or not you're good for the person you care for so much. Think about it eats away at you, making you doubt that you deserve this person's love."
  • Mork & Mindy:
  • Power Rangers
    • Portraying the characters as if the constant power losses, mind hijackings, and secrecy actually had the profound psychological effects one would expect these sort of things to have on a teenager. One of the more well known Mighty Morphin era fics, Personality Conflicts, starts with Tommy entering psychotherapy.
    • Mia's Cooking, a Power Rangers Samurai fic, deconstructs Mia's Lethal Chef Played for Laughs schtick by showing the Rangers suffering ill effects from her bad cooking, prompting them to tell her the truth about her culinary skills. It does, however, reconstruct it in the end by having Kevin promise to teach Mia to cook a little better.
    • Joseph Kahn's short film Power/Rangers features a notable deconstructive portrayal of the Machine Empire, taking a very Cyberpunk-influenced approach in showing how an aggressively imperialistic race of Mechanical Lifeforms might operate in real life. Instead of a royal court of petulant robots with an army of mechanical Mooks, they're a hyper-advanced Hive Mind that manages to take over Earth by integrating themselves into its technology and advancing human society by several centuries, while quietly doing away with pesky things like individuality and free will. Most disturbingly, their takeover ends up causing a rift in the Rangers themselves, as many of them honestly find it easier to join the Machine Empire than to fight them.
      • The short also deconstructs the fan logic that making a fanwork Darker and Edgier/Bloodier and Gorier than the original makes the new interpretation inherently more mature and realistic. Power/Rangers is, indeed, darker and edgier and gorier than Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers... but it still works under the logic of its inspiration, and in doing so the result is still very silly. If something, it may be even more silly and immature than the original series, due to the juxtaposition between the forced dark aesthetics and the Sentai logic and characterization.
  • Pretty Little Liars
    • all things truly wicked deconstructs Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz's relationship by pointing out how amoral Ezra would have to be in order actively pursue sexual relationships with underage girls (Alison and Aria, and even lying to the latter about not knowing her when they first met) as well as the fact that he had been stalking the Liars for years. And while in this story Ezra is A, the story makes a point that even if he wasn't, he is still a sexual predator, and Emily and especially Aria mentally kick themselves for overlooking the fact that a grown man was dating a teenage girl.
  • Star Trek
    • Beside the Wells by UKJess is a classic Star Trek fanfic which deconstructs the Kirk/Spock Slave AUs that were being published in the 80s and 90s in slash zines. In the author's word: "Kirk, of all people, ended up as Spock’s slave and, after a little perfunctory resistance, ended up liking it. I loathed the premise".
  • Supernatural:
    • A Glimpse Beyond deconstructs the show's final two episodes by pointing out how many things in it don't make sense with established canon or characterization — Jack easily defeating Chuck with a basic powerup, Dean not even trying to save Castiel from the Empty, Sam's future wife not getting a clear face or name, and their Heaven having none of the other people they'd grown close to over the years — and depicting all of them as signs that they didn't actually defeat Chuck and he and Amara tricked them into believing that they did, wiped their memories of everyone else important to them, and trapped them in a false Heaven to railroad them into the "perfect brother ending" they wanted for them.
  • Teen Wolf:
    • Not Your Disney Romance deconstructs the Token Human trope in regards to Stiles. Since Stiles constantly deals with supernatural things but doesn't heal like his supernatural friends do even though he can otherwise keep up with them, he eventually ends up with some pretty nasty permanent injuries. This includes permanent brain damage brought on by Stiles taking too frequent hits over the head, which causes him to sometimes get confused and forget things. This is especially tragic because some of the violence that caused the brain damage was done to Stiles by his own pack (Derek pushing Stiles' head against the steering wheel of his car in canon, for example), and they're all remorseful that they didn't think about the permanent damage it would cause until it was too late.
  • Victorious
    • Birthday Blues deconstructs Jade's Alpha Bitch personality and how she'd fare in the real world. After High School she gets a sales job. There she learns she can't just intimidate people to get what she wants. Instead, she has to rely on her interpersonal skills, which she's lacking.
  • The Young Ones:
    • In the third episode, Boring, a throwaway joke reveals that Vyvyan (a first or second year University student who is presumably 18-ish) hasn't seen his mother in 10 years. It elicits a big audience laugh and is never mentioned again. Guess what the fandom is obsessed with?

    Music 
  • Vocaloid:
    • The Problems AU is normally, well, just a sad fic series, but everything to do with Kaito and Meiko is a deconstruction of some of the problems in how their relationship is portrayed.
    • Synthesis deconstructs one of the popular fanon about Vocaloids being singing androids. Here, the Vocaloids are former humans, most are on the brink of death, who had been converted into androids and forced to fulfil their company's demands. Most of the staff also see the Vocaloids as nothing but machines, which frustrats the main protagonist to no end.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY:
    • Coeur Al'Aran is fond of deconstructing certain parts of RWBY canon in his fics. He calls out whip-based weaponry from the show by portraying it as Cool, but Inefficient.
    • Emergence deconstructs stories like My Little Dashie in which characters from the show come to the real world. The basic gist of it is that introducing four Badass Adorable girls to Real Life will result in, at worst, soldiers being reduced to Ludicrous Gibs. At the same time, it shows just how inexperienced four college students are with going on adventures in both funding and safety (especially the latter when they focus on Yang's arc.)
    • From Beyond (RWBY) deconstructs Jaune's canonical plan by showing how likely it was to go wrong. While Pyrrha did try to save him as in canon, Jaune causes the shot to miss and he dies just like you would expect him to. When his father is introduced later, the reader sees just how terrifying it would be to be the father of someone who tried this. Nicholas Arc's son disappears and takes a family heirloom with him, then weeks later gets contacted by a stranger to meet up for information on Jaune only to learn his only son died trying to follow a path Nicholas never wanted him to. He is so broken he doesn't bother to take Crocea Mors with him.
    • The Games We Play:
      • The fic simultaneously extols and questions Know When to Fold 'Em. Jaune's maternal grandma Jeanne calls him out for not knowing when to fold despite the danger to his life and has herself retreated from many unwinnable battles... but when retreating means throwing defenceless innocents to the wolves, what sort of person are you, to put your own life before others, even if you try to self-justify that you want to avoid a Senseless Sacrifice and fight another day? And indeed there are strong implications she's involved in shady business.
      • It also shows that giving children Training from Hell, even for the best of intentions - like trying to make said children strong enough to survive on a Death World like Remnant - means putting them through situations that would be called abusive by more sheltered sorts. Jaune's sisters are all badly traumatized by the experience, which including breaking their arms, and absolutely hate their mother for it; none of them see her, and when she's put in the hospital, they only see her because of Jaune.
    • Further, while Jaune's mother holds that The Extremist Was Right - all of Jaune's sisters are still alive, after all, something that cannot be said of far too many other Huntsman families — the oldest sister calls that into question, pointing out that the damage done by the training set her back considerably on her own growth, and that they'd have been better off if anything else was done.
    • "Faunus mating cycles" fics are usually just an excuse for shameless smut. A Faunus (usually Blake) goes into heat, she has to grab the nearest character for help, they have sex, the end. Linked in Life and Love takes more time to examine the physical and emotional toll of such things, especially in a world where Fantastic Racism is alive and well. Faunus hide as much of their animal natures from humans as possible, to the point that Blake nearly freezes to death in the shower because she refuses to tell her teammates what's wrong and what she needs.
    • Not this time, Fate makes an effort to deconstruct the Peggy Sue formula. The author goes to great lengths to establish just how hard "fixing" the story would be even with time travel, while also calling into question the morality of playing with timelines for the sake of saving a few specific people.

Alternative Title(s): Wreck Fic

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