Text version for people wanting to look less suspicious at work or considering my shitty style choices shitty:
It works better with graphics, though.
Deconstruction is a method used in storywriting that questions popular tropes and even entire genres by exposing their inner flaws. A story that deconstructs a trope or a genre will most often run the usual cliches through the prism of realism, resulting in a failure to recreate the typical outcome or exposing of the shocking truth hiding behind a functioning cliche.
After getting through this text you might now learn the word to describe some things you couldn't wrap your head around earlier.
In case you haven't heard of The Witcher, do yourself a favour and get the books, then build yourself a cheap gaming PC (i5, RX 470 or higher) and catch up with the games. This might be your best expenditure on culture in years.
Overall the books and the games deconstruct many fantasy tropes by uncovering the mechanics behind the standard heroic story:
| Fantasy tropes | The Witcher |
|---|---|
| The Hero is practically a knight in shining armor, thrown in the middle of the epic conflict. He helps the poor people and saves them from the monsters | Geralt is just a mercenary, engineered to fullfill his role as a monster hunter. He once wanted to be a hero, but now he's just in for the money |
| The Hero discovers he's the Chosen One, a being that's destined to save the world. This surprises everybody, but the Chosen One steps up to fullfill his duty | It's not Geralt who's the chosen one, Ciri is. Her role in the grand scheme of things is being manipulated by people who anticipated her awakening earlier |
| Ever since Gandalf, wizards have been sages, mentors and advisors to the hero, supporting them on their quests. Magic has mystery and beauty to it | Mages are scientists and politicians. Sorceresses are girls who were too ugly to marry and achieved their great beauty with magic (but remained insecure) |
| In fantasy worlds, humans coexist with beings such as dragons, elves and dwarves. In dire times, they can ally against a common enemy such as orcs or the undead. | Nonhumans cannot exist in the same world as humans with such differences in population growth. Racist clashes only quicken their inevitable extinction |
The short story collections The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny deconstruct all the classical fairy tales as well, and you should start with them.
A Song of Ice and Fire (also known from its TV adaptation Game of Thrones) deconstructs most tropes from fantasy epics by throwing a formulaic story into a ruthless, cliche-proof, internally consistent setting. Every time a trope plays out, we can study the reasons behind it. And many tropes do NOT work as expected.
The Cabin in the Woods deconstructs American horror movies. Or even the horror movie industry as a whole. We eventually get to see behind the scenes in the very literal meaning, and the "Ancient Ones" that the show is trying to appease is nobody else but the audience itself, hungry to see their cliches played out as they should.
Watchmen deconstructs the Golden Age superheroes. Bound by their flaws, desires and moral shortcomings, "superheroes" are just ordinary people who landed in a role nobody can ever play perfectly. Everything gets questioned, from the place of superheroes in the society, to the very identity of the hero and the villain.
Other examples: Hot Fuzz deconstructs the buddy cop action movie genre, Frozen deconstructs the "Love At First Sight" cliche often found in Disney movies, explaining how it would take a sheltered naive girl to fall for that, and Undertale deconstructs the core concepts of video games such as save/load.
The term became fairly overused lately and is sometimes thrown around without thinking. Not everything that doesn't play tropes straight is a deconstruction. Simply averting, inverting or subverting them is just trying to be original - it requires a conscious analysis and criticism of the trope to call it a deconstruction. And it most cases deconstruction works not by avoiding to play the trope straight, but by playing it so meticulously straight that it hurts.
Parody isn't deconstruction. Parody merely mocks the trope, while deconstruction brings up an argument why the trope should never work. It's possible, however, to do both, as seen in the comedies mentioned earlier.
Also, darker spin on a genre isn't deconstruction. Dark fantasy is still fantasy, just with blood and gore amped up, and some extra heavy themes thrown in. It takes a conscious reflection on how do the tropes work to call it so.
Evangelion is the reason why we're even using the word "deconstruction" in this context. This show was such a shock that it changed anime forever, basically bringing it back from the brink of extinction back in the '90s.
It's mostly a complete deconstruction of the Super Robot genre, but it evolves into something more than that, as the entire cast of characters goes through a mental breakdown. The director was going through a severe depression and his disdain for the otaku audience is especially evident in the movie End of Evangelion, which serves as the proper end to the TV series.
| Super Robot tropes | NGE |
|---|---|
| Main character of a Super Robot anime is usually a hot-blooded teenager who gets in a robot and saves the world with it | The idea of putting kids into giant robots is downright insane. A normal teenager can't be expected to mentally endure it |
| The robot was built by the (grand)father of the hero and left or given as heritage, and is managed by a team of scientists | Soulless scientists are a given for the "put teenagers in robots" plan, but it takes a special case to put one's own son into it |
| The power of love and friendship, or willpower, can amp up the robot and help the hero overcome the odds | The hero's mental state being linked to the robot has horrific consequences that turn the show into a psychological thriller |
NGE even flips the genders in typical Super Robot cast - Asuka is the hot-blooded boy hero, Shinji is the shy and insecure girl, and Rei is the calm, reserved dude. All these extreme personalities are exposed to be caused by trauma, with both girls ironically becoming the archetypes for many anime series in the future.
All the Christian symbolism and jaw-dropping cinematography are just there to look impressive. The message behind the show boils down to Hedgehog's Dilemma - people can hurt each other when they get close, but sometimes they choose not to, and that makes human interactions worthwhile.
But anime was never the same again.
Madoka has proven that NGE's success can be at least partially recreated. What has been done to the popular shounen Super Robot genre has now been attempted with the classical shoujo genre Magical Girl (mahou shoujo).
The show was advertised as a typical moe anime and it took people a few episodes to realize that things were not going to turn out as usual. The cutesy world of Madoka's daily life clearly contrasted the dark, creepy witch labyrinths, and the show only turned more dramatic as it progressed. It was obvious we're dealing with another genre deconstruction, even if not as complex as NGE.
| Magical Girl tropes | Madoka |
|---|---|
| Main character of a Magical Girl anime is a young naive girl who gets magical powers and saves the world with them | The idea of having young teenage girls fight to death to protect the world is just as crazy as it was with boys in robots |
| The powers are given or introduced by a cute animal companion who mentors the heroine through her story | If the idea of putting teenage girls into fights is exposed to be wrong, it means the companion is an idiot or outright evil |
| The power of love and friendship trumps all evil magic and it's the heroine's pure heart that makes her special | Even if you want to be a hero, there are selfish desires behind some feelings and your emotions make you vulnerable |
All character archetypes are deconstructed as well. We get a closer look into the motivations of "big sister", "wannabe superhero", "naive protagonist", "naughty girl", and, especially, "the dark one". Just like in NGE, the show proves that such characters either cannot function or have trauma behind them.
Continued in next comment. Man this thing is LONG.