"Though it portrays Jesus in a favorable light, Monty Python's Life of Brian is a pretty harsh deconstruction of society's romanticized view of life in the time of Christ, and of biblical stories in general. As it points out, the Romans weren't just cruel oppressors with 0% Approval Rating — they did more to improve the Judean people's lives than anyone before them. Conversely, "God's chosen people" had criminal justice that could be just as brutal and unfair as the Romans', and they were never a noble La Résistance — they spent more time getting involved in petty squabbling amongst themselves than they did resisting the Romans. And in any case, having a cult of devoted followers who expect you to solve all of their problems isn't nearly as cool as you would think. And getting betrayed by your friends and "sacrificing" yourself on the cross? It's only inspiring when it's not happening to you!"
Sounds like a decent Deconstruction of how classic Hollywood epics tend to depict the NT era. But people who actually believe the Bible and take it seriously no better. The NT does not simplistically depict Rome has The Empire and Judea as La Résistance, in fact in many places the NT is seemingly portraying Rome better then the Jews.
I frankly do get annoyed at how Rome tended to always be an allegory for Nazi Germany in those films. To me Ancient Rome had far more in common contemporary America, both the good and the bad, and that would be the Politically Subtext of any Early Christian history film made by me.
Argh. Continuous attempts to add Puella Magi Madoka Magica to this page basically embody everything wrong about the way Deconstruction is commonly used nowadays.
Namely, being a bit more grimdark than the most kid-friendly incarnations of the genre does not make a Deconstruction. Particularly when the said grimdark is inserted by an elaborate and distinct setup, rather that really dissecting the key standard tropes. Particularly when the genre already has a tradition of quite dark world setups and plot twists, that started with its goddamn codifier work. See: Sailor Moon manga (and the TV version, which was truer to its author's ideas), Magic Knight Rayearth, Princess Tutu and so on.
Yeah, in these works The Messiah can push the darkness back by her virtue and self-sacrifice. And in that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is not the slightest bit different. Did you miss how in the ending most characters were resurrected and one who didn't both accepted what happened and was used to show us that death is not the end? Yeah. Anyone who thinks that PMMM believes in human goodness and strength of spirit less than it is typical for Magical Girl Warrior genre did not watch very carefully.
So, while it does deconstruct a couple of stock Magical Girl Warrior tropes, it actually celebrates its core ideas.
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Yeah, I deleted it and added a note there. Still...
If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day.
For the record, most entries on Madoka pothole to Genre Deconstruction. Something should be done to change those to, say, Deconstructed Trope.
Actually, it's entirely possible that the show is a Reconstruction of itself. The first ten episodes deconstruct most common Magical Girl tropes and could be considered a Deconstruction, and then the finale reconstructs the genre by having Madoka save the world through the strength of her compassion. Does Madoka have an entry on the Reconstruction page?
Madoka can be considered a Decon-Recon Switch.
All tropes ultimately come from Real Life. So Real Life should be troped as well.
The show's entry on the page now has:
- Despite celebrating the genre, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is, at least for the majority of the series, a pretty thorough deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre. The premise starts simple. Young Naïve Everygirl Madoka and her Wide-Eyed Idealist friend Sayaka, are approached by Mentor Mascot Kyubey, and the relative Cool Big Sis Mami, where they are given the opportunity to become Magical Girls. In exchange, they are granted one wish, that can be anything they want, but they will have to fight evil demonic entities forever. In addition, a Dark Magical Girl, Homura, is opposed to this, and is constantly trying to prevent the two from making a contract. Sounds reasonable enough. And then the show demonstrates exactly what happens to those young girls who are forced into fighting Eldritch Abominations with no chance at a normal life. Mami is ultimately an extremely lonely Stepford Smiler who is broken on the inside due to losing her parents, and being forced to fight with no real friends. When Madoka does become her friend, her subsequent joy leads to her death, and also reminds us that these encounters are far more dangerous when removed from the sweet and innocent flavor that permeates most Magical Girl shows. In addition, Sayaka decides to use a Selfless Wish to heal her crush, Kyousuke, much like any typical superhero. But as the other characters demonstrate, their is no such thing as a Selfless Wish, as they all have a selfish intention. In Sayaka's case, it was so that she could get together with Kyousuke, and when he doesn't return her affections, she breaks down. Finally, Kyubey shows exactly what kind of "mentor" would knowingly send girls off to their death, without giving the full details. It is only at the end that Madoka becomes a Magical Girl, and uses a Reset Button Ending in an attempt to make things a bit more sweet. And even this is deconstructed, as despite there being hope, things are no better off than before, with the girls no being forced to fight demons rather than witches. In short, Madoka is called the Evangelion of the Magical Girl genre for a reason.
I feel that that last point undermines the spirit of episode 12. Yes, Magical Girls are still liches and fight demons now, but the fact remains that a series of actions based on friendship, determination, and luck have led to one of the most horrifying aspects of the system being completely changed. This same aspect is also the driving force of tragedies that fuel the series' plot. I honestly don't think that this qualifies as "no better off than before".
This is my take on the entry:
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica is, for the majority of the series, a pretty thorough deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre. The premise starts simple. Young Naïve Everygirl Madoka and her Wide-Eyed Idealist friend Sayaka, are approached by Mentor Mascot Kyubey, and the relative Cool Big Sis Mami, where they are given the opportunity to become Magical Girls. In exchange, they are granted one wish, that can be anything they want, but they will have to fight demonic entities called witches for the rest of their lives. In addition, a Dark Magical Girl, Homura, is opposed to this, and is constantly trying to prevent the two from making a contract. Sounds reasonable enough. And then the show demonstrates exactly what happens to those young girls who are forced into fighting Eldritch Abominations with no chance at a normal life. Mami is ultimately an extremely lonely Stepford Smiler who is broken on the inside due to losing her parents, and being forced to fight with no real friends. When Madoka does become her friend, her subsequent joy leads to her death, and also reminds us that these encounters are far more dangerous when removed from the sweet and innocent flavor that permeates most Magical Girl shows. In addition, Sayaka decides to use a Selfless Wish to heal her crush, Kyousuke, much like any typical superhero. But as the other characters demonstrate, their is no such thing as a Selfless Wish, as they all have a selfish intention. In Sayaka's case, it was so that she could get together with Kyousuke, and when he doesn't return her affections, she breaks down. Finally, Kyubey shows exactly what kind of "mentor" would knowingly send girls off to their death, without giving the full details. Among these details is the fact that Magical girls will someday become the monsters that they fight, and that one reason they even fight them in the first place, is to stave off that end for as long as possible. At the end however, Madoka becomes a Magical Girl, and uses a Cosmic Retcon to make it so that Magical Girls will not become witches. Although Magical Girls will have to fight demons instead of witches, it is at least implied that the situation is better than before.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is arguably the deconstruction of the previous film showing just how dangerous his adventures would be to normal people. It is established at the beginning when one of his allies, posing as a waiter, is killed. If it was played any more straight, willie would have had a breakdown and short round would have died.
And answering to this, related to Puella Magi Madoka Magica and to why I removed the entry to it: "One can still argue it's a deconstruction: the point is, after all, who actually tries to recruit little girls to fight the big evil monsters? The good guys? Yeah, because that's ''such'' a 'good guy' thing to do. No, the point is that anyone looking specifically to place perhaps the most emotionally vulnerable gender/age group of the human race into dangerous, traumatic situations in all likelihood has ulterior motives far more unsavoury than savoury."
No, one cannot argue this. In Magical Girl Warrior there are two standard ways of being recruited into their ranks: 1)The Magical Girl in question is a Chosen One. No one else has power to fight the bad guys to begin with. That the bad guys roll into town when the heroines are still teenagers is basically a coincidence. ''Sailor Moon is the best-known and (in the manga version) the darkest example of this.
2)The Magical Girl gets power by accidentally meeting and helping a Mentor Mascot when the latter is in, more or less, helpless state, and shortly thereafter being put into situation where she must be given power, like, right now, before a superpowered villain or a monster kills her on the spot. Pretty Cure usually follows this scheme.
Never does the entity capable of Super-Empowering actively seek candidates. Yuuno in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is probably the closet thing to it, and even in his case Nanoha was in deadly danger when he offered her to enlist. So, no, this is not Deconscruction, because it does not deconsruct anything, but creates a Darker and Edgier setup unrelated to standard genre conventions except in most superficial ways.
I definitely think we need to go through this and prune out the examples that aren't Deconstructions. Remember, a Deconstruction has to show the effects a trope would have in real life, and a Deconstruction is not necessarily dark.
Diversion
This is the same series where zombies are vulnerable to blunt-force head trauma, but not crush depth. That is inconsistent with it's own rules, unless we accept the "zombies are magic" explanation. The media suppressing the story, while the Internet is entirely ineffectual in letting people know that there are zombies, also not realistic. Yonkers required a military that had already launched covert-ops anti-Z operations to somehow not know that zombies couldn't be shocked or awed, despite the fact that some of the people planning and/or executing said covert ops should've been involved in the Yonkers planning, unless they all somehow got left out of the loop. There are several more on the relevant Wallbanger page. WWZ is a Darkerand Edgier Zombie Apocalypse, but not a deconstruction.
- World War Z could be considered a deconstruction of Zombie Apocalypse fiction by looking at how real-world governments and people would react to a zombie threat: Somewhat predictably, the Chinese attempt to suppress the truth, the Americans rely on first strike special forces but have difficulty achieving a general mobilisation, evacuees are more concerned with temporary entertainment (ref. the disposed discs) than survival and don't really, properly prepare for a long-term stay away from urbania, the moral damage to the soldiers, how ineffective supposed "shock and awe" weapons would be on targets incapable of feeling either shock or awe, and with a greater tollerence toward shrapnel damage and heat...
So would Urinetown be a deconstruction of... revolutions and Broadway musicals? I don't know how exactly to pinpoint what it's deconstructing, but it deconstructs the shit out of it regardless.
Hibiki No Mahou doesn't sound like a deconstruction of "magical academy", but making it darker and edgier. The things described aren't logical consequences, just one particular variety. It's not like "magical academy" has many consequences before you specify how the magic works, which is arbitrary.
Is the Breaking Dawn example really a Genre Deconstruction? I can't help but think that not of these things are plausible extensions of what would happen, if only because knowing what that is is quite impossible.
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That, coupled with the fact that I'm pretty sure that book uses Babies Make Everything Better leads me to believe it probably isn't.
See you in the discussion pages.
"Troy deconstructed the Trojan War. " this should be removed, it doesn't attempt to explain it's logic. The Iliad itself resembles a Deconstruction far more then this cheap Popcorn film.