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Deconstruction Fic: Difference between revisions
Adding from what I wrote here that I saved from Google's caché, with some recovered from memories and edits here and there
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* ''[[Naruto]]'' has notable examples:
** Jeconais' ''[http://jeconais.fanficauthors.net/The_banishment_of_Uzumaki_Naruto/The_banishment_of_Uzumaki_Naruto/ The banishment of Uzumaki Naruto]'' in which the often pulled fan trope of the town council being a powerful force grinding Naruto down is skewered, and Danzo's pet project gets rather nicely sporked as well. Notable in showing even an admitted [[Crack Fic]] can be a Deconstruction Fic.
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5288868/1/Uprooted Uprooted]'' takes the idea of Danzo getting his hands on our favourite [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]... and instead of going the [[Break the Cutie]] route, has Naruto's [[The Messiah|own nature]] start a tumbling row of dominos that [[Break the Haughty]] Danzo and destroy ROOT.
** ''[[Yet Again]] ... with a little extra help uses'' its cracky, silly premise to mock too many aspects of fandom in general and of Naruto in particular to list here. The central [[Original Characters]], for example, are essentially god-like beings playing [[Self-Insert Fic]] in the Narutoverse. This gets lampshaded, mocked, and diced so many ways... and then writer Third Fang remembers to execute it well on top of that.
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4881840/16/We_Are We Are]'' deconstructs the [[Fanon]] idea of a "clan reconstruction" law allowing the last member of a clan to have multiple wives (generally used to invoke the [[Tenchi Solution]]) by carrying out the idea of a "clan reconstruction" plan to its logical conclusion. The person invoking it is placed under house arrest until they produce at least two grandchildren (to ensure that the clan doesn't end with them), and are forbidden to get in fights to avoid risking death. Spouses are chosen for them based not on their own romantic or sexual desires, but on genetic compatibility to ensure maximization of offspring production.
** Fanfiction author [https://www.fanfiction.net/u/579283/ Lucilia] is quite good at writing these, mostly poking out [[Plot Hole]]s and the [[Continuity Drift]] who plagues the series. Some examples:
*** Her ''First Try'' Series deconstructs how the younger generation of characters could be particularly ignorant of stuff like the former prominence of certain clans {{spoiler|and why they all are comparatively ''way less'' talented than their immediate ancestors}}.
*** ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8231841/1/Playing-Games Playing Games]'' deconstruct the [[Fandom Specific Plot]] of Naruto being raised as an ANBU. They had to do it by basically disguising the training as kid games and hiding their actions in the dark of the night, in a (eventually futile) attempt to preserve the kid's innocence.
*** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7291294/1/Uzumaki-and-Uchiha Uzumaki and Uchiha]'' deconstruct the adoring nature of Konoha's citizens towards Sasuke despite the revelation than the Uchiha weren't particularly liked when they were alive. This is an AU where turns out that Sasuke and Naruto are related, and they discover it when Naruto unexpectedly awakens the Sharingan. When news of this arrive back to Konoha, the citizens come to the conclusion that Naruto was specifically bred so the Uchiha could control the jinchuuriki, and their adoration of Sasuke ends then and there, quickly substituted by the same distrust they had towards his relatives in live.
***''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5496758/1/Time-MixUp Time Mix Up]'', along with its [[Deconstructive Parody]] of [[Peggy Sue]] fics, deconstructs the common treatment most fanfics take on Naruto's [[Highly-Visible Ninja]] status. Instead of denouncing it or making him dressing in more subdued colors, as many other fics do, its pointed out that Naruto is a master of stealth due to the many years of practice on escaping more experienced ninjas while in a cone road orange getup. In fact, when two other characters follow his example and begin to train in similarly attention grabbing colors, their stealth abilities increases quickly.
** ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10843264/1/The-Gentry The Gentry]'' is a deconstruction of the typical "evil, badass, harem amassing master hero" fic prominent in Naruto and many other [[Shonen]] fandoms, via a crossover with [[DC Comics]]. The Gentry here acts as an stand up of the kind of author of such type of stories, and gleefully admit that they have manipulating and corrupting Naruto and his surroundings so he loses his "innocence" and his friends, and that way he can become an pliable peon for their multiverse domination plans.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is itself a deconstruction, so Fics that directly fix it are, well, [[Fix Fic]]. But the fandom has many a trope and cliche to poke at and smash:
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4109686/1/Taking_Sights Taking Sights]'' by Lavanya Six deconstructs many of the [[Peggy Sue]] standbys of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' [[Fix Fic]]; it's ''[[Manipulative Bastard|Gendo]]'' ''[[Complete Monster|Ikari]]'' who goes back to fix ''his'' mistakes. In the process he manages to make things worse for himself, both through not understanding ''why'' things originally broke down, resulting in his fixes just blowing everything to hell, and through [[For Want of a Nail|the butterfly effect pissing on his plans]]. Going crazy probably doesn't help much, either.
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** ''[[ARSENAL]]'' is at least partly a vicious deconstruction of the [[Peggy Sue]] as well; we find a [[Came Back Wrong|far from saintly Shinji]] who considers himself beyond the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|willing to go even farther that his father would]] for his goals. Interestingly, this is by Sage of Toads under another pseudonym.
** The famous ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K|Shinji and Warhammer 40 K]]'' manages to be a [[Fix Fic]] and a Deconstruction Fic ''simultaneously''. On one hand Shinji fixes a lot of problems, both literal and mental, and has resulted in the heroes escalating themselves to unprecedented levels. On the other hand, it deconstructs the fanon idea that Shinji being badass is going to fix the whole series; ''the enemies'' have also escalated, and while the firepower thrown around in the original series is nothing to scoff at it can't compare to one Angel killing ''tens of millions of people'' by bombing cities across the planet, another Angel used to unleash a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] on steriods, or {{spoiler|rendering most of Europe completely barren within days}}.
** ''[[Nobody Dies]]'' deconstructs wider themes in Anime.
** ''[[The Open Door]]'' deconstructs [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]] and [[God Mode Sue]], as revealed in {{spoiler|the conversation between Ali, Rong-Arya and Toji}}: All of the new!Chaos troops get very good equipment and are all capable to near-[[God Mode Sue]] levels, but this is because ''they have to be''; since Earth is still rebuilding post-Third Impact, the population levels are still low, so every loss will be felt more keenly than in a more populous nation.
** The ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''/''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'' crossover ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]'' deconstructs Misato's [[Lethal Chef]]-ery as being the result of {{spoiler|having lost her senses of smell and taste to injury, forcing her to spice up her food to the levels they are at in order to even taste anything.}} As well as all sorts of other tropes.
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** It arguably swings back and forth between this and [[Fix Fic]].
* ''[[Ranma ½]]'': These tend to deconstruct the whole [[Gender Bender]]/[[Shapeshifting]], by overplaying the mental stress these put on the characters straight, and not for fun. Their over the top flaws from the manga (Ryoga and orientation, Ranma and socializing etc.) are used too. [[Downer Ending|Usually this ends with a massive downer]].
** ''[[The Key to a Successful Interview]]'', another Sage of Toads work, takes the ''[[Beautiful Destroyer Sailor Moon]]'' route, with additional [[Troll Fic]] and [[Revenge Fic]] elements. Notably, it also gives Ranma and Akane a much better first impression.
** ''[http://pixelscapes.com/twoflower/fanfic/TheEnds.txt The Ends]'' by
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5966741/1/Dutiful_Child Dutiful Child]'' by Luan Mao takes the "give the characters exactly what they want, in all its suck" route. There's an element of [[Fix Fic]], but it's also a bitter breakdown of what kind of manliest man would result from Ranma's childhood.
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' has gained a few:
** Crystal Tokyo, the [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] [[utopia]]n [[The Future|Future]] of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', is frequently deconstructed into a [[Knight Templar]] [[Dystopia]]—famously, in ''[[I'm Here to Help]]''. Neo-Queen Serenity, Sailor Moon's future self, is described as "cleansing the Earth's people of evil". That would be enough to plant [[Epileptic Trees]], but then in the second season, the Black Moon Clan showed up, time-travelling antagonists who refused to be "purified" and left Crystal Tokyo forever. That just made removing people's "evil" sound even more like a euphemism for mass [[Brainwashed|brainwashing]].
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* ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]'' has MANY stories that replace Saito for a more competent character as Louise's [[Familiar]], from [[Out of Character|personality changes]] to [[Original Character|original chararacters]] to even [[Crossover|bringing other already established characters from various series']]. The main similarity is that they're usually MUCH more powerful than Saito could ever be and manage to help Louise get a better image across from her [[Butt Monkey|nickname]] [[Meaningful Name|'Zero']]. Of course, this [[Fandom Specific Plot]] has a few deconstructions.
** A one-shot story by VulpineSnow in [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7260346/1/The_Beasts_of_Zero The Beasts of Zero] collection finally manages to deconstruct the third common story type; when Louise manages to summon a powerful familiar, she gets the EXTREME misfortune of summoning her when not only when [[Sealed Evil in a Can|she was sealed away]] but also pissed off and [[Heel Face Turn|not reformed yet]]. The familiar slowly but surely creates chaos as she attacks anyone that continuously mocks her and Louise (Kirche, Guiche, ect) that the idea she has such a powerful-looking familiar is a silly joke. No one is laughing when the familiar finally gets fed up playing the game of slave and [[The Night That Never Ends|spreads eternal night over Halkeginia]] and [[Crapsack World|and rules over them]] as an [[Evil Overlord]]. No one can stop her, and Louise is forced to hide in shame [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|for being the one that summoned her in the first place]]. The ironic kicker is that the familiar is {{spoiler|[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon]].}}
** Another [[Zero no Tsukaima]] Deconstruction fic uses a personality change . ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6536396/1/Stupid_Devil_Dog Stupid Devil Dog]'' features Japanese-American [[Military Brat]] Saito getting so fed up with Louise's [[Spoiled Brat|brattiness]], he outright leaves her. The humiliation her makes her a bigger failure in front of her peers. There's also an element of [[Revenge Fic]] there, but the deconstruction's solid.
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** And the [[Reality Subtext|unfortunate truth is that a lot of that stuff]] is ''actually'' true of [[Kevin Smith]] and Jason Mewes in [[Real Life]].
*** In fact, in ''[[Clerks II]]'' the reason Jay gives for the duo having been in prison is the ''actual reason'' that Jason Mewes had been in prison a few months before filming. {{spoiler|He was caught with drugs after being arrested on "suspicion of mischief" which apparently translates into, "Driving around with a deployed airbag." Which, come to think of it, is hilarious rather than angsty}}.
* ''Sweet Home Alabama'': ''[http://archiveofourown.org/works/387737/chapters/635429 Mine, All Mine]'' deconstructs the [[Romantic False Lead]] trope by showing the consequences it can have for the false lead. While Melanie and Jake are celebrating their un-divorce, we get to follow Andrew immediately after the events of what was supposed to be his and Melanie's wedding, as he gives up the honeymoon suite at their motel and ends up not having anywhere to go for the night, gets drunk and then goes on their honeymoon to the Caribbean alone since he's already paid for it anyway. Of course he, too, gets his [[Slash Fic|happy ending]], but it takes a while.
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*** ''[[Oh God, Not Again]]'' is an affectionate, [[Deconstructive Parody]] using the [[Peggy Sue]] framework. Lampshades hung, inconsistencies trounced flat, and characters attacked at angles that reveal new aspects. And it has a ball doing it.
** ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]''. With a Harry hoping to invoke [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]], how can it not be? [[Less Wrong]] ends up deconstructing canon by attending to details Rowling didn't, and then some.
** ''[http://community.livejournal.com/hp_nextgen_fest/34663.html The Incredible and Angsty Journey of Rose Weasley, Girl Slasher!]'' takes most of the tropes associated with [[Slash Fic]] in general, and [[Real Person Fic]] in particular, by showing what havoc -- [[Hilarity Ensues|what hilarious, hilarious havoc]]—would ensue if a character in-universe ran around accusing men of [[Ho Yay|secretly being in love with each other]], occasionally insisting that their marriages are a sham, despite protests from all involved. She even has the [[Het Is Ew|idealized portrayal of gay love]] often seen in the fandom.
** Cody Johnston of ''[[Cracked.com]]'' wrote ''[http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-silliest-harry-potter-fk-fiction-ever-nsfw/ "The Silliest Harry Potter F**k Fiction Ever (NSFW)."]'' It is the funniest criticism of the results of [[Rule 34]] that you'll ever read.
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2784574/1/Engorgement Engorgement]'' shows just how awkward and irritating actual [[M Preg]] would be, by having [[Harry Potter]] get pregnant by accident. Cue media coverage, mood swings, fights, and strange food cravings. This sort of thing also apparently happens often enough for the ''Hogwarts rules'' to have a section on it.
** ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4356667/1/Wish-Carefully Wish Carefully]'' deconstructs the viability of the Death Eater plans, by giving them and Voldemort [[Be Careful What You Wish For|exactly what they wanted]]. Turns out that expelling every muggleborn wizard from England leaves them with no producers, no consumers, no one to rule over, and with a genetic pool so small that squibs begin to born almost immediately and they have to recur to kidnap foreign witches to keep them as breeding stock so the family lines doesn't die then and there. Better yet, the world now knows that they are led by a murder-happy psycho, lessening the numbers of countries willing to make any kind of deal with them, further exacerbating their difficulties.
* ''[[Redwall]]'': Fic commonly attempts to deconstruct the [[Exclusively Evil]] nature of vermin.
** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1965410/1/ Vengeance Quest] is a successful one. The works of [[Ultamite Nineball]] are [[So Bad It's Good|rather less so]], though he's probably a [[Troll]].
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** ''[[The Storm Dragons]]'' is a well-written fanfic series presenting the world from the perspective of a family of Dragons, the eponymous storm dragons, and from Galbatorix. Turns the canon series on it's head, and worth a read at least once. Whether it is Deconstruction Fic or [[Hate Fic]] for [[Canon]] is debatable—it could be argued it does not so much turns canon on its head via deconstruction as simply ignores it to rewrite the series [[Transplanted Character Fic]] style.
** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7045350/1/The_Midnight_Masque The Midnight Masque] is also an example of Inheritace deconstruction, although it focuses more on the characters themselves than the actual plot of the story. Arya and Galbatorix, in particular, get a lot of this(although Roran's [[Day in The Limelight]] chapter really unravels Eragon)
* The [[Hatedom]] of ''[[Twilight]]'' definitively ''loves'' to do this. In the [http://twispitefic.livejournal.com twispitefic comm] on LiveJournal, if a fic is tagged as "Logical Extreme", "How should it have gone" and "[[Reality Ensues|Reality Enema]]", is almost surely one of these. Some of the usual targets are the [[Strangled by the Red String| imprinting deal]] with the werewolves, Bella's [[I Just Want to Be Special|disturbing obsession with becoming perfect]] at the price of her humanity, the situation of [[Old Man Marrying a Child|Renesmee]], everybody being an [[Jerkass|horrible person]] [[Designated Hero|despite the text saying they are all the opposite of mean]], and what would be really the perception of a rich family without a visible way of income (like the Cullens appear to be) if they were in a real life little town.
** ''[href="http://twispitefic.livejournal.com/35504.html For you, I will]'' deconstructs the imprinting concept to the bone. Most fics doing so center themselves on how an werewolf can uses the imprinting to impose and abuse their love interest; ''this'' one instead center on what the ''imprintee'' could do with access to a supernatural creature with tremendous strength that loves you very much and wants to make you happy at any cost. If, as in this fic, the imprintee is a murderous sociopath with no qualms in using her imprinted lover as a serial killer by proxy, the deal becomes horribly scary.
**''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6721038/1/The-Wedding-Crashers The Wedding Crashers]'' deconstruct the whole ''Twilight'' universe and its [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]] via a crossover with [[Supernatural (TV series)">Supernatural]] of all series. Watch the Winchester brothers and their angel pal Castiel, invited to Jacob and Renesmee's wedding by Leah (whom they had befriended), go thorough the tackiest "classy" wedding ever, more [[Conspicuous Consumption]] than in an Saudi Arabian royalty party, the [[Spiled Brat|amazing brattiness]] of Renesmee, sparkling vampires, racism and anti-human sentiment running galore, misinterpreting of literature, and everybody shitting on their friend just for not being sycophantic to the Cullens enough.
** [http://twispitefic.livejournal.com/4560.html Kiri, Kiri]]'' deconstructs the perception of Bella being inoffensive and the victim of the situation just because she is a human girl surrounded by supernatural creatures. Uh, no, just make her a vampire, without changing her visible personality traits, and marvel on Vampire!Bella [[Yandere|channeling]] [[Audition|Asami]] and still being in character.
** ''[http://twispitefic.livejournal.com/9538.html Better Loving Thorough Suicide]]'' comically deconstructs the heaps of [[Driven to Suicide|suicidal ideation]] Bella and Edward share. They are so convinced that dying for the other is the biggest proof of love possible, they use suicidal attempts as ''anniversary gifts.'' After all, they are immortal now, not is like they are going to actually die... ok, maybe lose an organ or three, and destroy any implement involved and the surrounding area, but what's an arm less and some collateral damage when you love someone so deeply? {{spoiler|Their relatives eventually tire of the idiocy, and use this habit for ridding of them for good}}
*''[http://twispitefic.livejournal.com/18879.html The Elephant]'' deconstructs Bella's canonical motivations for wanting to become an immortal vampire despite everybody warning her on the downsides of the deal. This fic makes Bella suffer a degenerative genetic disease that has a penchant to strike before the patient gets into their forties, a thing she sees happen on all its suck to her grandma and mom. Now ''this'' Bella have a reason to believe 30 is "old age", to wanting to become an vampire who seems pretty and perfect and ''healthy'', and to immediately accept the romantic advances of Edward (which even she classify as creepy and inappropriate) in the hopes that he eventually converts her.
* ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked]]'' is arguably Deconstruction Fic for ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''.
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* ''[[Power Rangers]]'': The portrayed 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.
** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6795599/1/Mias_Cooking ''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, [[Reconstruction|reconstruct]] it in the end by having Kevin promise to teach Mia to cook a little better.
**Joseph Kahn's fan film Power/Rangers does a double deconstruction.
*** On one side deconstructs the Machine Empire whole modus operandi. Think about it: if you were a mechanic evil overlord with power over all things machine, why send a court of ineffectual robots with a mook army to try to conquer a planet, when simply invading the place and integrate your machines into the local technology to uplift it may be more effective? If done well enough, the local heroes may be too emotionally crushed to keep fighting, [[Face Heel Turn|and some of them may even change sides and work for you]].
*** On the other side, this film deconstructs the fan logic that remaking a work as [[Darker and Edgier]]/[[Bloodier and Gorier]] makes it better, or at least more serious and mature. Well, this film ''is'' obviously darker and edgier and gorier than the original series... but because the characters and the setting still work under [[Sentai]] logic, the whole grimdark tone imposed to the work make the situation even ''more'' immature due to the clashing contrast between the dark aesthetics and the silly universe and characterization.
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** The fandom contains plenty of this, the piles of [[Fridge Horror]] regarding the nature of many youkai and their relationship with humans, as well as most characters being selfish, belligerent, and very much insane, providing a lot of material. ''[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Doyora A Bad End]'' is a [[Dead Baby Comedy]] take on this.
** ''[[Touhou Tonari]]'' greatly deconstructs Yuyuko's [[Bad Powers, Good People]] in her backstory and shows just what kind of life she must have had and what lead to her eventuall suicide.
** The Fan-film ''[http://spaztique.deviantart.com/journal/Diamond-In-The-Rough-A-Self-Insert-Deconstruction-467478894 Diamond In The Rough]'' is a deconstruction of both a certain [[Fandom Specific Plot]] for the Touhou fandom in particular (the "Gappy Stu", a kind of self-insert fic where an [[Always Male]] character gets gapped into Gensokyo by Yukari, gets powers, hook-ups withs his favorite female character, and has in general a fun romp), and of the [[Self-Insert]] [[Escapist Character]] [[Mary Sue|Marty Stu]] in general. A brutal, horrifying deconstruction, by means of getting such a character in the canon, [[Crap Saccharine World]] version of Gensokyo, and [[Reality Ensues|letting the reality make its course]], in the way pointing out what kind of person in [[Real Life]] would accept the offer of travel into a "magical realm" by such a suspicious entity, why the canon characters would help or fall in love with such a person, what would be the consequences of a constant stream of Gappies interfering with the local human/youkai ecology, {{spoiler| and specially '''[[I Am An Humanitarian|why]]''' Yukai would want to gap them in the first place}}.
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** Some stories have her [[Black and White Morality|clear "beat the bad guys, save the world" morality]] crashing against the intractable problems of the world, leading her to crack up or go rogue. Others have her [[Evil Counterpart]] Shego explain moral relativism to her.
** Another direction is to seriously address the sort of personality conflicts that would arise between someone as laid-back as Ron and someone as driven as Kim. In some cases the objective isn't so much to deconstruct as to set the stage for replacing the [[Official Couple]] with the author's [[Fan-Preferred Couple]].
** ''[[KP Legacy|Legacy]]'', a deconstruction fic mixed with [[Continuation Fic]], showing how advanced tech and magic would change the world.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' inspires deconstructions at an impressive rate:
** [[Bittersweet (Fanfic)|Bittersweet]], where Pinkie Pie dies of diabetes.
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