Basic Trope: Showing the realistic problems and assumptions of something, or explaining how it could even come to pass.
- Straight: The problems of a Trope are fully acknowledged, like Hot Blade being user-dangerous weapons if you want it to be effective or a Pervert Dad having a fear of powerful women.
- Logical Extreme:
- The problems of Tropes are absolutely recognized, such as Hot Blades being uselessly dangerous due to the heat destroying the blade and harming the wielder, or an Armored Dragon having an impractical time forging & replacing armor let alone move.
- Alternatively, excruciating detail is put into deconstructing said trope so severely that no one shall ever even think about using that trope again.
- Deconstructor Fleet
- Downplayed: The problems of a Trope are somewhat addressed, such as Armored Dragons needing a big area to craft their armor or Human Aliens questioning why they all look alike.
- Justified:
- The story's intent is to explore the inner workings of Tropes.
- The story adds up deconstructing a Trope because of narrative prompting, such as breaking a Cute Monster Girl or a frequent Sex Shifter suffering a identity crisis.
- Inverted:
- Using an unrealistic reason to justify something, like Rule of Sexy for Chainmail Bikini or Rule of Cool for a Black Flaming Wooden Katana.
- Working around the realistic consequences of something to make it work again, such as a weapon running on Cast from Hit Points also being an Immortality Inducer.
- Subverted:
- A trope seems to be deconstructed, but in actuality it's just being played for drama, such as a Hot Blade getting broken and exposing its user to the heating coil directly.
- A trope is deconstructed, but it is then reconstructed.
- Double Subverted:
- ...Yet the dramatic playing eventually does address actual problems in the normal example, such as pointing out the heating coil of a Hot Blade is only so hot because it needs to be that high if you're going to use heat to augment attack power in any serious way.
- The reconstruction is then deconstructed.
- Parodied: The problems of a Trope get pointed out in a ridiculous way, such as Anti-Gravity Clothing staying in place where it activated or an newly made AI being exactly like a baby mentally.
- Zig Zagged:
- A work goes back and forth on playing a Trope straight or deconstructing it.
- The deconstruction of the reconstruction is reconstructed, and then the reconstruction of the deconstruction of the reconstruction is deconstructed. However, the trope itself turns out to be a subversion, but the concept of subverting a derereconstruction is deconstructed. However, the subversion itself is then deconstructed, before being reconstructed. Then, not only is the trope redeconstructed, the original deconstruction and reconstruction of the trope is deconstructed too. The idea of playing with a trope in this manner is lampshaded, then deconstructed. Then the deconstruction is deconstructed, and the lampshading is too. Then...
- Averted: Though Tropes may be played with, it never gets deconstructed either because they don't care or don't want to explore its actual functioning.
- Enforced: "We need to show we're hip and creative, so let's deconstruct the Tropes our show primarily use!"
- Lampshaded: "Pointing out all these flaws and giving a highly detailed explanation, you must totally impress all the people just trying to have fun."
- Invoked: Bob, trying to come up with a new story, decides to closely examine some Tropes and thus work off the realistic consequences & mechanisms of it.
- Exploited: Drake, fed up with how Bob harps on about the Tropes he likes, proceeds to deconstruct them to ruin Bob's fondness of these tropes.
- Defied: "I just want to playfully use these tropes, I do not care about deconstructing them and that's final!"
- Discussed: "Bob is really great at playing with Tropes, but what about playing them completely straight?" "You mean deconstruction? It can be interesting to explore how a trope would realistically work, but after a certain point you'll probably collapse trying to deconstruct everything."
- Conversed: "I don't like deconstructions, they ruin the fun of tropes and make them look bad!" "That's weird, what deconstructions have you been looking at? It is about showing the flaws in a trope, not brutally tearing it down. Besides, once the problems become clear, you're able to then address it in a way that works. Thus, deconstruction can be great for the evolution of genres and concepts." "But for me, fiction is supposed to stretch reality's boundaries, and deconstructions just reinforce those boundaries." "Don't worry, you can also reconstruct a trope that has gotten this treatment."
- Implied: Some Tropes seem off in comparison to other examples, requiring close attention or a genius to notice. Yet whether that be intentional or just an unusual way of playing it goes unknown.
- Deconstructed:
- Some concepts just aren't flawed enough to actually deconstruct, thus attempting to ends up breaking it altogether.
- Bob, who really, really hates a particular genre, attempts to write a deconstruction of it, only for it to wind up being a generic Hate Fic instead because his refusal to read the genre he's trying to deconstruct left him with a rather shallow knowledge of it.
- Alice and Bob live in a world full of crazy and mystical creatures and elements that you cannot see in the real world, but they soon discover that their world gets less fun and magical with each deconstruction, the show eventually goes from fantasy to slice of life before they pull the plug.
- The audience is upset by the deconstruction and see it as an attack on the work they love rather than an attempt to expand its horizons through analysis, so they either ignore it and pretend it didn't happen or continue to engage with the work as they always have but with more vitriol - the exact opposite of the intended outcome. The deconstruction fails outright in that it doesn't make people appreciate what it has to say and ends up reinforcing what it set out to challenge in the worst way possible.
- Reconstructed: Though some concepts don't really have flaws, it can always be done better. Thus, instead of pointing out flaws, one points out what could be better about it.
- Played For Laughs:
- Deconstructive Parody.
- Deconstructing a Trope in a humorous manner, such as Slime Girls being unable to hug their friends without causing Clothing Damage.
- Played For Drama: Deconstructing a Trope in a dramatic way, such as a Baby Factory likely dying from childbirth or how a Beta Test Baddie would not accept being "pitied" by their object of hate.
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