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Deconstructed Character Archetype / Western Animation

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Deconstructed Character Archetype in Western Animation.

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  • Adventure Time: Finn serves as two big deconstructions:
    • Kid Hero: Finn has been fighting and killing monsters and supernatural beings since at least the age of twelve (his age when the series begins). Even though he's quite cheerful and upbeat most of the time, psychologically he's really messed up. In fact the reason he manages to stay upbeat despite the horrors he's seen is because he's very good at suppressing traumatic memories (he refers to the process as "putting them in the vault"; the fact that he does it so often that he has a term for it is a bad sign). Because he's spent so much of his life fighting and adventuring, he doesn't know much about making personal connections. His emotional immaturity and Blood Knight nature drove his girlfriend away, and his tendencies toward white knighting are steadily getting creepier as he gets older. All he really knows how to do is punch things; life situations that require a more complex solution are beyond his ability to navigate.
    • Insecure Love Interest: Sure, Finn has a Precocious Crush on PB and he frequently rescues her, but she only thinks of him as a close friend at most. They come very close to confirming their ship when she is de-aged, but it's thoroughly nixed when she returns to her original age. One episode involved him singing a song about how confusing it was ("What am I to you? Am I a joke, your knight, or your brother?") that also includes his sentiment that it doesn't really matter as long as they are at least friends and get to hang out. He eventually gets over the romantic aspects when he meets Flame Princess, although he makes a few attempts to re-kindle something with PB after that relationship ends.
  • American Dragon: Jake Long: Jake Long deconstructs Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World and Disappointing Older Sibling. Jake is The Chosen One, the Dragon Guardian of an unseen magical realm constantly threatened by those that wish to do it harm. This means he is tasked with fighting the supernatural hating Huntsclan and keeping his dragon powers in top form. This causes him to have serious trouble at balancing his schoolwork, his social life, and his duties. His little sister Haley, who often mocks him for his goof-ups, gets an opportunity to be an American Dragon in the penultimate episode Being Human and is reduced to a scattered mess within a week because of how stressful it is. She realizes just how tough her brother has it thanks to everything he has to go through and then chews out both her grandfather and her dragon mentor Sun for hoisting off huge responsibilities onto kids without giving them time for fun or any kind of support. Lao Shi takes this to heart and decides to cut Jake's dragon training in half.
    Hey! When's the last time either of you were the American Dragon? Well, as the little troll girl currently filling the position, let me tell you it's stinkin' hard! I can't imagine doing it two more days, let alone two more years. And to think about everything Jake's gone through; he's had to save magical creatures on a daily basis, lie to his own dad about who he is, say good-bye to the girl he loved, all to protect a mystical world that nobody knows about. He may be the American Dragon, but he’s also a 14-year-old kid who just wanted a couple days off. If that makes him immature, fine, but self-serving? With all due respect to both of you, STEP OFF!
  • Amphibia: Marcy Wu is a deconstruction of the typical isekai protagonist. Like most ordinary examples, she is a nerdy teenager who ends up Trapped in Another World with her friends, and uses her Genre Savvy to succeed on dangerous fantasy adventures under the guidance of a wise mentor and Parental Substitute. However, the Season 2 finale "True Colors" reveals that she got herself, Anne, and Sasha trapped in Amphibia on purpose (in order to avoid having to leave them when her family moved away;) and while she was able to thrive in the Role-Playing Game 'Verse they travelled to, her friends got placed in constant perilous situations on top of being torn away from their families. Neither Anne nor Sasha is happy with her, to put it mildly, when they find out the truth. On top of this, her Wrong Genre Savvy means she doesn’t realize her mentor was using her as an Unwitting Pawn in his evil scheme until he (metaphorically and literally) stabs her in the back.
  • Atomic Puppet:
    • Mookie is a deconstruction of the Bumbling Sidekick. He was incredibly useless to Captain Atomic and constantly screwed up, being dismissed and ridiculed by everyone (including Captain Atomic himself) for it. As a result, he became incredibly bitter and envious of Captain Atomic's popularity and success, leading him to try overthrow Captain Atomic and replace him. His disgruntlement with the lack of appreciation he received is his driving motivation behind his acts of villainy, but even then, his bumbling nature continues to be his downfall.
    • Captain Atomic deconstructs the Smug Super. Having achieved worldwide fame as the greatest superhero of all time, Captain Atomic possessed an arrogant and hotheaded attitude that led him to mistreat his Bumbling Sidekick Mookie, having little patience for his regular screwups. Envious of Captain Atomic and fed up with being constantly pushed around by him, Mookie betrayed him and transformed him into a powerless talking sock puppet, leading the world to believed he had vanished. Now stripped of his superpowers, muscled physique, and celebrity lifestyle, Captain Atomic is left as little more than a petty, short-tempered, narcissistic manchild in the body of a kids’ toy, showing how little he actually had going for him without his superhero status. This karma in turn drives his Character Development, as his necessary partnership with Joey forces him to swallow his pride and eventually accept his new life, leading to him become less abrasive and more humble than before.
  • Archer: Sterling Archer is a deconstruction of the Tuxedo and Martini spy. He fits all of the hallmarks of a James Bond Expy; he wears a dapper suit in his missions, has access to a variety of guns and gadgets, is famous within his field, has expensive taste, a learned palate of drinks and has a ridiculously long list of ladies on his ledger. Each of these qualities, unfortunately, comes with various caveats that only makes him a Badass on Paper; he tends to escalate already tenuous situations with his tomfoolery, relies on his mother to afford all of his things, it never occurs to him that being famous is a bad thing when you have so many dangerous enemies (hence the point of a codename), he's a semi-functional alcoholic and is terrible at relationships, leaving a trail of STDs and bastard children from the prostitutes he beds on company time. With that said, in spite all of his shortcomings, he can be a competent spy when he takes his job seriously.
  • Big Mouth: Walter is a deconstruction of the Wide-Eyed Idealist. As a Love Bug, he is very easily excitable about love. When Jessi humiliates Nick, he is so emotional about it that he becomes a Hate Worm and gains a nasty personality. However, he manages to become an idealist again in the season 5 finale as well as a Love Bug again.
  • Bob's Burgers: Bob Belcher is an example of someone who decides to go with a Start My Own mindset, but lacking all the required knowledge needed to do more than start it. Instead of becoming his father's business partner, Bob chooses to leave so that he can run his own restaurant his way. While he's an ideal chef whose cooking earns the respect of even people who go out of their way to demean him, he has no skills away from the grill. While prioritizing fresh ingredients is important, Bob does little to make his restaurant look any more unique, to the point where he says the theme of his restaurant is "restaurant". In addition, he doesn't even handle finances, allowing his wife to do controlled bounces for the checks. Bob's No Social Skills also make it clear he doesn't go out to connect with others for networking, feedback or even to advertise, relying on his kids who frequently do a poor job by not really trying. And because he runs the business his way, it plays a big part in the Perpetual Poverty his family suffers from, as he mostly cooks burgers but doesn't offer much variety and refuses to cook things like sweet potato fries due to a dislike of them. He also rejects things like a plaque or investments that involve decorations due to wanting things done his way. Overall, while Bob had the right idea to make a restaurant, he's very ill-equipped and ill-prepared for anything about running one outside of actually cooking.
  • Bolts & Blip: Dr. Blood deconstructs the Only Sane Man. He and Dr. Tommy created world peace by convincing everyone to use the Lunar League Games as a substitute for war. However, because Dr. Tommy was a Genius Ditz Manchild who got on Blood's nerves and Blood was afraid that in the long run world peace would make everyone but him become that way he decided to undo what he and Tommy did.
  • Centaurworld: Becky Apples deconstructs Always Someone Better. Becky is the replacement steed Rider uses through season 2, and after learning of this, Horse pictures her as a beautiful, majestic and feminine White Stallion she could never compare to. The only part of that image she gets right is the white hair, as Becky Apples is actually a gruff, disobedient Moody Mount with a single-minded devotion to killing without any regard to her rider's well-being. Rider has to actively bribe her with apples in order to get her to do anything and actively denies that Becky is "her" horse, and it's outright lampshaded by Wammawink in the song about Becky Apples that her and Horse's feelings are just projections of their own insecurities.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Numbuh One/Nigel Uno is a deconstruction of the Workaholic and Ideal Hero. Nigel selflessly dedicates himself to saving kids from adult tyranny and is staunchly loyal to the Kids Next Door above all else, and the higher-ups consider him the KND's best operative. But he is so single-mindedly devoted to his job that he tends to ignore everything else in favor of it. "Operation: Q.U.I.E.T." shows him neglecting his health by staying up for six days improving the treehouse's defense systems, and "Operation: D.A.T.E." shows him ignoring Lizzie on their date in favor of trying to investigate the Delightful Children's evil plot. She eventually dumps him after realizing that he'll never be able give her the attention she wants because he's too busy with the KND. At the end of the series, he leaves Earth to join the Galactic Kids Next Door. Though it clearly hurts him to leave behind his family and his best friends, he goes because he believes that the GKND, and all the kids in the galaxy, need him more. In the 2015 "Stop the G:KND" teaser, he's seriously considering destroying Earth with everyone he loves on it because it's completely infested with adults and "too far gone".
  • Danny Phantom:
    • The episode "What You Want" deconstructs Tucker's Green-Eyed Monster status. Due to Danny's ghost powers and crimefighting cutting in on their activities, Tucker begins to get jealous and wishes that he had ghost powers as well. His wish is granted by the evil ghost genie Desiree, and he quickly starts to abuse his powers, doing harmless pranks at first, but quickly moving on to more illegal things like changing his grades. Also, Desiree tells Danny that Tucker's jealousy and rage will corrupt him into a ghost under her control. Danny manages to save Tucker by using his parents' new invention to separate Tucker's ghost half from his body. It takes coming face-to-face with the monster his jealousy created to allow Tucker to move past it.
    • Vlad Plasmius is a deconstruction of The Resenter, Green-Eyed Monster, and Broken Ace. At first glance, Vlad seems to be a man who has it all: He's wealthy, smart, famous, managed to be mayor of Amity Park, and he even has ghost powers. With such a successful life, you'd think he'd be satisfied, right? Unfortunately, despite having everything, Vlad is completely obsessed with the fact that the accident that gave him his powers cost him his chance to win Maddie's hand in marriage. To that end, he spends the series attempting to kill Jack and take Maddie. Maddie eventually sees what a creep he is underneath it all and Jack ultimately abandons him in space when he finally realizes what a monster he is, showing how resentment and jealousy can destroy one's life. By contrast, his Bad Future self, who lost his powers during Dark Danny's creation, eventually comes to realize what a fool he was.
    • Princess Dorathea is a deconstruction of the Princess Classic – she feels forced to behave exactly how a typical princess should, but deep down she's unhappy with it, so she learns to defy that.
      Sam: Are just going to let your brother push you around like that?
      Dora: What choice do I have? A princess isn’t supposed to think! We just have to smile, look pretty, and live Happily Ever After!
      Sam: So, how happy are you?
  • Daria
    • The whole show is a deconstruction of the eponymous character, Daria, a sarcastic teenage high schooler, and the people around her. This ranges not only from her classmates at Lawndale, but also to her teachers and parents.
    • In the episode "Monster" Daria, and Jane follows Quinn, the popular high school cutie, as the subject of a class movie project, with the intent of filming humiliating videos of Quinn to show to the school. As the filming goes on Daria and Jane find the various insecurities that riddles Quinn. Quinn even goes out of her way to explain to the two that being cute and popular is the only thing she's readily good at, and sometimes she sometimes detests herself for it.
    • Ms. Janet Barch is a deconstruction of the Straw Feminist. Instead of being taken at face value, the show demonstrates that Ms. Barch isn't a feminist so much as she is a raging, violent misandrist ranting about how vile men are simply because she was stuck in a bad marriage (and it's largely implied both sides of the relationship treated each other badly). Rather than being someone Daria would side with, she snarks at Barch's ranting just as much as does everyone else.
    • Jodie, and to a lesser extent Mack, are this for Token Minority and Flawless Token. They are both consistently shown to be good-looking, popular, high-achieving, and intelligent, but this comes with the fact that they are aware that, being the only black students in the school, they're essentially representatives of their race to the overwhelmingly white student body and feel the pressure that comes with it, besides being used as props to portray their school as diverse, such as being crowned Prom King every year to give the impression that there are more black students than what there actually are. Jodie is also so flawless because of intense pressure from her parents that demand of her nothing less than flawlessness. This culminates in Jodie standing up against her parents in the finale to go to a different college than what they planned for her because there she would once again be one of the only black students and feel the need of once again be an example for black people.
  • Disenchantment: Bean is one of the Rebellious Tomboy Princess. The show emphasizes Bean being a troubled teenager who drinks and acts out due to living in a world where There Are No Therapists. She lost her mother young or seemed to, her father remarried and had his son and heir soon after, so Bean's angst largely stems from feeling replaced and like she doesn't fit in her dad's new family and then not wanting to be evil like her mother. Her not having any official royal duties like her family (aside from getting sold off to an arranged political marriage and pop out tons of kids) nor any job like her peasant subjects further gives her lots of free time to dwell on her depression and insecurities, which she tries to drink them away. None of the skills or interests she does have are the kind her society allow women to do either, which eventually leads to her internalizing that she's a worthless failure who doesn't belong anywhere (not with her dad's family, not in society), which just feeds into her downward spiral.
  • The Dragon Prince
    • Prince Callum is a deconstruction of The Smart Guy. While Callum is not very well-read on any particular topics (including magic), and struggles with studies involving history and battle tactics, he's incredibly perceptive and great at improvisation. His adventures help show that even without a great deal of education, simply being insightful and observant is an extremely valuable asset.
    • Soren is a deconstruction of the Dumb Muscle. Being treated as the dumb one by his father and sister for so long has severely impacted his self-esteem, to the point where he'll go along with anything his father asks because he thinks that if he has objections, it's just because he's too dumb to understand his father's motivations. Even when he realizes that killing the princes was wrong, Viren gaslights him into believing that he only misunderstood the original order, something Claudia goes along with. However, one thing adds up to another and he eventually realizes that his dad is as bad as everyone says, he abandons him.
    • Finnegrin, unlike most depictions of pirates as romanticized adventurers who sail and live freely on the boundless seas in defiance of authority, is a tyrannical Control Freak who holds his crew captive with the threat of his power, and aspires to kill the archdragon of Ocean, Domina Profundis, simply because he hates knowing there's Always a Bigger Fish out there.
  • The Dreamstone: The Urpneys are one of the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. They are buffoonish, clumsy and outclassed by the heroes dramatically. However only their Bad Boss, Zordrak, is a standard Determined Defeatist. The Urpneys themselves are unwillingly shanghaied into every disasterous scheme by threat of torture or death, and the heroes either don't know or don't care and punish them as they would any villain. Frizz and Nug in particular are rather savvy to the fact that Failure Is the Only Option and repeatedly try in vain to get out of it.

    F-R 
  • Family Guy: Episode "Road to the North Pole" deconstructs the character archetype of Santa Claus in a horrific fashion. This version of Santa takes a sledgehammer to his usual M.O. by showing what he would look like with a strict and stressful work schedule; he's heavily underweight, sleep-deprived, vomiting from stress and overworking. Santa has also become an atheist (or at least converted to Islam) after witnessing the suffering his elves go through, and he wants to die when Stewie says he's there to kill him. After singing an Anti-Christmas Song, he ends up on life support after vomiting blood. After trying (and failing) at delivering presents, Brian and Stewie realize how horrible it really is to be Santa. Santa is only saved by Stewie and Brian when they convince the world to ask for only one gift per person; otherwise, Santa will work himself to death.
  • Final Space: John Goodspeed deconstructs The Lost Lenore, in a roundabout way. His widow, Sheryl, was heartbroken after his Heroic Sacrifice, but focusing on her own grief drove her to neglect and then outright abandon her son Gary, and she continuously uses John's death as an excuse for her behavior, claiming it wiped out any part that could love. The Lenore would normally make a character sympathetic, but here it only serves to paint a picture of how selfish and emotionally abusive Sheryl is.
  • F is for Family: Cutie Pie is a destruction of Mrs. Robinson, this scenario would usually be played as the ultimate teenage boy fantasy, losing your virginity to an attractive woman and bragging to your friends about being the first to do so. However, Kevin is horrified and deeply confused about having sex with Cutie Pie and the act messes him up for a long time until Vic reassures him that it wasn't his fault. Cutie Pie is shown to be a selfish manipulator who blames Kevin for statutory rape since she stupidly thought he was older and thought his erection was a form of consent. After the act, Kevin shows traits of Rape Trauma Syndrome, is more confused than proud about losing his virginity, and Kevin is horrified when Vic finally finds out since he was told that Vic would kill him for sleeping with his girlfriend.
  • Gargoyles: Demona is a deconstruction of the Tragic Villain. While she deep down does regret and realize the error of her actions, the pain of it prevents her from accepting it long enough to act on thus continuing to bring misery on herself and others, making her more pitiful then sympathetic.
  • The Ghost and Molly McGee: Molly McGee is a deconstruction of the Genki Girl and Nice Girl tropes. While she always tries to greet every situation with a can-do attitude, and wants to make everyone she meets happy, she doesn't always see the big picture with how her plans and actions could affect others. She also often pushes herself to physical and mental exhaustion in her efforts to "enhappify" people, and her confidence in herself isn't completely unshakeable, with Scratch sometimes having to act on her behalf.
  • Green Eggs and Ham (2019):
    • Never thought someone like Sam-I-Am can be deep, huh?
      • Of the Kindhearted Simpleton variety. Yes, things always turn out well due to his jovial personality and people like him, but that doesn't necessarily mean he has friends or people who truly stick around with him.
      • Of the Be Yourself variety: Him being himself — as an insensitive goof — makes people not want to be around him and he himself admits that he's constantly changing his personas because no one wants to be friends with the real him.
      • Of the Innocently Insensitive type too: Most of the stuff that he does throughout the trip is truly insensitive — in regards to Guy especially — and the fact that he doesn't understand what he's doing wrong makes it all the more exasperating. Not to mention that he's not really as foolish as we're made to believe; rather it's just a facade to hide the fact that he's a scam artist.
    • Guy-Am-I is a deconstruction of the Cosmic Plaything or Butt-Monkey type character, showing just how much of a toll being so unlucky can have on a person; he's almost always grumpy, hardly gets his way even for the most simplest of things and can't even enjoy his passion of inventing, let alone make a living off it, because it will always blow up in his face. To top it all off, he ends up getting embroiled in a journey where he is in both constant mortal and criminal danger. It's easy to see that life isn't just hard for Guy, it's downright unfair.
  • Hazbin Hotel
    • Charlie is a deconstruction of the Princess Classic. She fits almost every trope of the average Disney Princess, being an All-Loving Hero who's a Friend to All Living Things that often breaks into saccharine music numbers. In your standard Disney setting, this attitude would make her a well-respected, Universally Beloved Leader. However, her domain is Hell, which is a hedonistic, ultra-violent Crapsack World. As a result, her royal status doesn't mean much when none of the citizens are willing to so much as give her the time of day, and the sheer horribleness of the environment means that most of the denizens see her determined altruism as hopelessly naive at best and dangerous at worst.
    • In a sense, Adam is a deconstruction of the archetypal saved soul. Since he's apparently achieved eternal salvation in Heaven, he thinks he can spend his afterlife doing whatever he wants without ever reaping consequences from there: from treating a Virtue he dated less-than-respectfully and being an all-round douche, to conducting routine genocides for his own cruel entertainment, acting like a psychopathic college frat-boy.
  • Hey Arnold!:
    • It deconstructs The Ace with Olga Pataki, Helga's sister. In order to keep your "pretty, intelligent, sweet, absolutely beloved young girl" image, you're likely to end up as a perfectionist, weepy, perpetually smiley, dangerously out-of-touch mess who will break down to melodramatic levels the very moment something doesn't seem to fit in such a bubble of perfection, while being almost completely unable to connect with people far more "flawed" than yourself.
    • It also gives us Helga G. Pataki herself as a deconstruction of the Tsundere trope. She's got a relationship with Arnold that looks on the surface like the typical foundations of a Slap-Slap-Kiss romance, but as we delve a bit farther into her family life we see that, along with her traumatized sister, she has an abusive Jerkass dad and a Lady Drunk mother, neither of which can provide much support in her daily life - if she's lucky. Looking at the show with slightly more jaded eyes, her volatile relationship with Arnold and her few friends become an increasingly obvious cry for help and an awkwardness with dealing with people nonviolently. It's also made clear that her aggressive behavior is the main thing keeping her from having any sort of romance with Arnold, and that she'll lose her chances with him if she doesn't eventually grow out of it.
  • Infinity Train: Kez deconstructs the Innocently Insensitive Cloudcuckoolander. Kez doesn't mean to cause half the trouble that she does, but that doesn't change the fact that she still causes it and her refusal to apologize and her inability to understand why the other denizens get so mad at her has made her an outcast on the train, to the point that even people merely associated with her have to suffer because of what she did. Ryan and Min-Gi call her out on this in "The Castle Car". Though they also later on admit that all of this doesn't necessarily make her a bad person. Just someone who really needs to get better at being good.
  • Inside Job (2021):
    • Reagan Ridley deconstructs the Grade Skipper. As a kid, she jumped from fourth grade to high school and graduated MIT at the age of 13, but the process left her a socially stunted workaholic, and she didn't even want to skip ahead at all, as it would have meant leaving her friend Orrin behind. Reagan's father forced her anyway, going so far as to erase her memories of Orrin so she'd have nothing stopping her.
    • Rand Ridley
      • Rand deconstructs the Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist. He's the archetypical Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist; a drunken deadbeat who mooches off Reagan and engages in Zany Schemes for the pettiest of reasons. The show makes it clear that the only reason his schemes get off the ground are because he's a talented manipulator who loves stringing people along for his own ends, and his actions gradually stop being played for laughs as it becomes clear he's actually a toxic, abusive narcissist who Reagan needs to cut out of her life.
      • Rand also deconstructs the Bumbling Dad as well. Rand is only 'bumbling' because he's an asshole who never cared about his daughter as anything more than a meal ticket and not only severely neglected her, but would actively handicap Reagan for his own benefit. His terrible parenting has left Reagan with numerous mental health problems and repressed trauma, something Rand couldn't care less about.
      • Rand is also a pretty vicious deconstruction of Rick Sanchez, Gregory House, and other troubled Insufferable Geniuses. He's a nihilistic, alcoholic genius with an extremely successful career and who was feared by all in his heyday, but his alcoholism also led to him spiraling out of control and destroyed his career. His cynicism and bitterness is a mark not of him being any smarter than anyone else, but just being a narcissist Jerkass who believes he's better than everyone else, and his advice to Regan is often terrible and predicated on the idea she shouldn't have a support system, something the series frequently contradicts. In short, with Rand, the Insufferable outweighs the Genius part.
  • Invincible (2021)
    • Night Boy is a deconstruction of the Robin-style sidekicks in superhero fiction, as he's grown up maladjusted and unhinged thanks to his being a sidekick, and becomes a violent Inadequate Inheritor to his mentor.
    • Amber deconstructs the Secret Secret-Keeper. She secretly figured out Mark's identity as Invincible fairly early on but is more hurt by the fact that he never trusted her enough to reveal it to her himself, which was the real reason why she broke up with him.
  • Johnny Bravo: Johnny is a deconstruction of 1950's sex symbols—think The Fonz, who would literally snap his fingers to make a girl run over to him—in a world that's long since realized that those symbols' actions are degrading to women. In reality, using terrible pick-up lines, invading someone's personal space, and having no personality beyond "MAN, I'm pretty!" isn't going to impress people, especially women. The show also does its best to make it clear that Johnny isn't supposed to be emulated or liked; his failure to get dates is because he's an obnoxious jerk, not because the women he woos are standoffish. And to further hammer home how much of a loser Johnny truly is, he still lives with his mother since his obsession with chasing tail makes him unable to focus on getting and keeping a job and his social life is practically non-existent, with his only friends being a little girl, an annoying, effeminate nerd and the morally corrupt owner of the diner he frequents.
  • Kid Cosmic deconstructs the Ascended Fanboy trope. Kid loves superheroes and always tries to emulate the ones from his comics, but frequently learns that real life is not like a comic book.
  • Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Wolf is revealed to be a deconstruction of the Token Human. Before meeting Kipo, she was the sole human of a wolf pack and thought she was part of that pack, only to discover that she was only raised to be a test of the cubs' hunting skills. Even the sister she was closest to went along with this, and Wolf escaped the cynical, mutant-distrusting loner she is today.
  • The Little Mermaid (1992): Zeus, Sebastian's childhood rival provides a painful deconstruction of The Ace and Always Someone Better. He was always Sebastian's better in everything he tried, which caused Sebastian to feel inferior and nearly leave Atlantica in shame. However, Zeus reveals he deeply envies Sebastian's ability to make friends because he's not better than others in everything since Zeus himself was always so good at whatever he tried that others he tried to befriend would end up competing against him, losing, and end up shunning and hating him, leaving Zeus lonely, miserable, and friendless.
  • The Loud House: Episode "The Mad Scientist" has Lisa Loud deconstruct being a four-year-old Child Prodigy who's Wise Beyond Their Years by showing it the downsides.
    • When Lisa calls her family to tell them that she wants to stay at the Institute permanently, Rita argues that it's not a good idea—she elaborates by noting that while Lisa's always been very smart and mature for someone her age, she is still Just a Kid. Rita also claims that Lisa's never really been away from home like this prior to being at the Institute.
    • Rita's ultimately proven right because, after Lisa decides to stay at the Institute permanently, she ends up really missing her family, particularly for two reasons:
      1. Outside of science-related matters, Lisa really doesn't have anything in common with the rest of the people at the Institute.
      2. For all her intelligence and maturity, Lisa ends up having quite a bit of trouble performing certain tasks on her own without her siblings and/or her parents around to help her (like putting on her pajamas or making herself a sandwich).
  • Masters of the Universe: Revelation
    • Of the original Orko. It's true that he had a group of supportive friends to help him out, but he was constantly goofing up and making simple mistakes with his magic, yet never seemed much more than disappointed with his failures. This iteration shows the poor guy has pretty crippling depression about being useless with his magic, to the point that he willingly goes along with Teela in spite of being on his death bed so he can prove he has some worth to Eternia after all.
    • Of the original Skeletor, as well as the many 80s supervillains who took after him. Skeletor is the show's Big Bad, but more importantly, he knows it. As a result, he has a grandiose sense of self-worth to the point where seeing the whole of reality itself was just a neat sight, because he knows what his "purpose" in life is - to be evil and to kick He-Man's ass, no matter how many attempts it takes. Thus, when things get thrown off the rails and he suddenly stops being the main villain, he has absolutely no idea what to do and is reduced to the same pathetic loser he was decades ago, ultimately trying to get his fated final showdown with He-Man before Evil-Lyn kills everybody. Adam ultimately triumphs over him, ending their confrontation by shouting "IT'S NOT ABOUT US!" to drive the point home how much of a narcissist Skeletor really is.
  • Miraculous Ladybug
    • Chloé Bourgeois deconstructs a lot of stock mean girl and bully tropes.
      • Chloé Bourgeois is a deconstruction of the Alpha Bitch and Spoiled Brat. Chloé Bourgeois is the rich, beautiful daughter of the Mayor of Paris. Because of her father's authority, she can get away with almost anything. However, unlike most examples of the Alpha Bitch, she's definitely not popular and pretty much everyone at school hates her. She alienates herself from her classmates with her bossy attitude, bullying nature, and how she gets away with it. Unlike the regular Alpha Bitch, who has her own Girl Posse or group of cool friends, she only has two friends, one of whom she treats as a personal slave. The other is only friends with her because of a mix of pity and the fact she was one of his few childhood friends growing up—but even then, there are limits to how much of her crap he'll put up with and at one point threatens to end their friendship unless she shapes up. The only reason she has any power at all in school is because of her father. Another reason why Chloé is unpopular is her immaturity; being used to getting everything she wants when she wants it, and having her father clean up her messes with no consequences, Chloé has no impulse control at all. Even when it's in her best interest to be a little nice, like to get her classmates to like her or to stop people from being akumatized, she can't stop being cruel for not getting her way.
      • Chloé Bourgeois; also serves as one for the Lovable Alpha Bitch. Season 2 reveals that Chloé has a neglectful mother who she wants to impress. However, even when at her most sympathetic, Chloé remains a Spoiled Brat who causes a lot of akumatizations, and it's increasingly shown that she only wants to be Queen Bee for the fame. When Marinette kicks Chloé off the team for being a liability, she immediately joins forces with Hawk Moth. Just because someone has the potential to become a better person, it doesn't mean that they will, especially if they've spent years being a bully.
      • She also serves as one for The Unchosen One. Season 2 has her become the superhero Queen Bee after gaining the Bee Miraculous. However, she only gained the Bee Miraculous by essentially stealing it, as Marinette never intended to give it to Chloé. Chloé's first outing is a complete and utter disaster, and she ends up exposing her identity. However, Marinette sympathizes with her Freudian Excuse and lets Chloé remain Queen Bee. However, Chloé remains a poor superhero, often being The Load in team battles, and it's made clear that Chloé only likes being Queen Bee for the fame. Marinette realizes that Chloé is a liability and removes her from the team. Though Marinette's heart was in the right place, allowing Chloé to remain Queen Bee was ultimately a Horrible Judge of Character.
      • She also deconstructs characters who repeatedly suffer from Aesop Amnesia and often is a Karma Houdini. Because Chloé often gets away from all the misery and strife she puts upon others, she subsequently never truly learns the lesson that her actions have consequences. This ultimately causes her to receive negative character development and gradually become worse and worse, eventually becoming an outright villain.
      • Ultimately, Chloé's bad behavior and refusal to change come to a head in season 5. First, she permanently destroys her friendship with one of her only friends, Adrien Agreste, with Chloé being the one to end the friendship because Adrien asked her to apologize to the other students while reminding her of his promise to be nicer, which she refused to do out of anger. ,Adrien later ends any chance of reconciliation upon learning how remorsless Chloé is when she psychologically scarred her Designated Victim Marinette a year before the events, especially when refuses to make amends for it. Chloé then eventually crosses a line with her classmates, with whom she is already on thin ice, and whom were considering forgiving her (thanks to Lila's lies of working with her to improve her behavior) when she and Lila fake their classmates' career forms in order to frame Marinette for ruining their futures to have her permanently alienated. Her remaining friend Sabrina Raincomprix, whom she abused for years and made an accomplice in prior schemes, refused to participate and ends her friendship with Chloé while helping expose her and Lila. Though Chloé uses her father's influence to escape punishment as usual when she and Lila got caught, the latter having assumed another identity to escape expellusion, she is utterly friendless and lost whatever remaining goodwill she had left with her classmates with her teacher Ms. Bustier, who wanted to believe in the best in her, intent to keep a closer eye on her from that point on.
      • Following this, Chloé starts openly abusing her father's power as mayor by unjustly getting Marinette expelled and Ms. Bustier fired. When her father resigns as mayor after Gabriel Agreste publicly ruins him with edited footage of him confessing to his misdeeds, Chloé is convinced by Lila to accepts an offer to become interim Mayor and Gabriel's puppet to escape the consequences of her actions without her father's protection. Chloé rules Paris with the iron fist of a dictator until she gets deposed once the citizens learned she deliberately got herself Akumatized despite her superpower ban. The end result being that her father sends her away to live in America with her mother, who promises to come down hard on her for ruining their family name and reputation. Chloé then attempts to call Marinette in a last attempt to bully her and regain some agency, but Marinette turns the tables on her and very harshly tears her a new one by letting her know just how far she's fallen before hanging up. Stunned at this, Chloé's ego and pride completely and finally shatter, and she can only break down in tears, now powerless, alone, and hated all because of her horrible behavior and refusal to change.
    • Kagami Tsurugi deconstructs Ice Queen and Ineffectual Loner. While it makes sense that Kagami is a bit of a loner since she is an exchange student from Japan, her Friendless Background is actually caused by her mother forbidding her from having friends, in order to keep focusing on her fencing and kendo training, not because she chose it. This results in Marinette and her friends thinking she is a shallow, cold-hearted girl who is as bad as Lila and Chloé. As "Ikari Gozen" and "Perfection" show, Kagami wants to be friends with Marinette. Both depict her being genuinely sad, "Ikari Gozen" over Marinette deliberately sabotaging them spending time together and "Perfection" in being manipulated by Lila into thinking Marinette doesn't see her a friend with Poor Communication Kills complicating it. "Protection" also shows the consequences of a I Want My Beloved to Be Happy -type supressing their emotions for years: Kagami being tricked by Lila into believing Marinette is a False Friend who manipulated her into giving up Adrian, her uncontrolled emotions turning her into a Green-Eyed Monster who violently lashing out at her friends over an obvious lie.
  • Monster Loving Maniacs: Arthur Van Alten deconstructs the Cool Old Guy. When we are introduced to him, he's presented as a local hero due to his long career of defending Grusselbrook from monsters, on top of also having a supernatural talking pet and a ton of hi-tech gadgets and vehicles at his disposal. However, we see over the course of the series that even despite his bravery and his well-earned reputation, his advanced age has caused him to grow increasingly out of touch. As a result, Arthur often makes mistakes that end up causing trouble, forcing his grandkids Edith, Ernest, and Bo to step in and save the day instead. Furthermore, Edith, Ernest, and Bo's strategy of rehabilitating monsters is consistently more effective than Arthur's preference for imprisoning them, even helping the kids learn new information about monsters Arthur himself was unaware of. However, Arthur scoffs at his grandkids' ideas as naive, only further demonstrating just how stuck in his outdated ways he is
  • Moral Orel:
    • Orel deconstructs The All-American Boy. At first he fits the bill of a typical child from a loving, Christian family, but once the people around him start to fall apart, his chipper attitude starts to fade.
    • Clay deconstructs Standard '50s Father to a horrifying degree. He tries to keep his home in line with a 1950's style of living, but it becomes obvious he does it to hide the fact that he's a pathetic, abusive, self-pitying drunk who hates his life.
    • Nurse Bendy deconstructs Brainless Beauty. She shows that she really wants to have children and raise a normal family, but the stereotype of being a nymphomaniac keeps her from fulfilling it.
  • Motorcity: Chuck deconstructs the Non-Action Guy. Chuck regularly feels like he's not a "real" Burner due to his cowardice and lack of combat skills, and as "Fearless" shows, that self consciousness can drive him to do some dangerous things. Reconstructed however, as Chuck is invaluable to the others thanks to his hacking and technical skills.
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes both deconstructs and parodies the Evil Twin/Superpowered Evil Side archetype in the episode T.K.O. for drama and laughs, respectively. Turbo actually isn't treated like a threat that needs to be dealt with and isn't taken very seriously when he acts emo and edgy. He's basically treated like a little kid in a sour mood. It isn't until he starts destroying the plaza that the others start to take action. While chasing Enid, the two have the usual exchange: "This isn't you! You're better than this!" Stock Phrases for a "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight right? Well, T.K.O. replies that her words only make him stronger. Turns out he isn't bluffing. Turbo literally gets his strength from anger. The heroes' attempts to "snap him out of it" only piss him off further and thus make him more powerful. He doesn't cap, either. It culminates to Turbo being able to create a Battle Aura wide enough to cover a huge chunk of the plaza and powerful enough to bring everyone to their knees, most notably Carol and Gar.
  • The Owl House
    • Luz Noceda is a deconstruction of the Cloudcuckoolander Genki Girl. As charming as Luz's quirkiness can be, it's shown that her oddball tendencies made her life in the human realm quite miserable, and are the result of various severe seemingly untreated mental health challenges including severe ADHD and an implied Social Anxiety Disorder. She used to take her weird hobbies and fantasies too far, which constantly got her in trouble and prevented her from making any real friends. In "Knock, Knock, Knocking on Hooty's Door", she mentions that she was constantly made fun of by her peers for being cheesy and weird, and as a result she panics and gets anxious at the prospect of embarrassing herself in front of others or Amity when she wants to ask her out, despite all evidence showing that Amity would not only enthusiastically say yes, but unlike her peers actually took the time to truly get to know Luz and her psychological needs. In "Yesterday's Lie", she's also shown to be afraid of having even basic and indirect interactions with some human teenagers, suggesting "escape routes" to Vee in case things somehow go wrong while talking to them and is then dumbfounded when she realizes that those teenagers were actually friends that Vee made at summer camp while impersonating her. Although there's nothing inherently bad about being weird and quirky, learning when to tone it down and having a good grasp of reality is necessary, otherwise you'll end up alienating yourself from people, conversely when you are dealing with someone who like Luz is neurodivergent you need to treat them with compassion and respect and understand that they just see the world differently and that they may not be able to fully help the way they act.
    • Hunter is a deconstruction of the Token Good Teammate. Hunter has Undying Loyalty for the emperor, being the only one who wants to help Belos without ulterior motive, and is a fairly decent person with morals. However, Hunter was brought up to believe the emperor is a good man despite the massive pile of evidence to the contrary, and his loyalty stems from a life of calculated abuse, resulting in him failing to see anything wrong with the Emperor's Coven even when his conscience starts getting in the way of his missions. It takes a long time for him to finally get away from Belos and Hunter is left traumatized from, on top of the abuse, knowing his life was a lie and he was actually helping a monster the whole time.
    • Emperor Belos deconstructs the Wrong Genre Savvy Heroic Wannabe. Belos desperately wants to be viewed as a hero and sees himself as a heroic Hunter of Monsters fighting against the Always Chaotic Evil inhabitants of the Boiling Isles. However, in reality the Boiling Isles were peaceful and its residents were no more inherently evil than humans are; however, Belos is so utterly obsessed with living out his fantasies that he murdered his own brother for marrying a witch and took up the guise of Belos so he could rule over the Isles and force them to conform to his worldview so he doesn't have to deal with the reality of the situation. He also lashes out violently whenever anything contradicts his delusions, to the point of having murdered his own brother for marrying a witch and murdered countless Golden Guards (his own children) for so much as questioning him.
  • Phineas and Ferb: Professor Mystery from the episode "Lost in Danville" merrily takes apart the Hidden Agenda Villain and No-Nonsense Nemesis. He repeatedly insists that 'mystery is his allure' and refuses to disclose information regarding his plans, devices or backstory, thus forcing his nemesis Peter the Panda to focus entirely on thwarting his evil schemes. Instead of making him intriguing, this attitude makes him look pathetic and pretty boring. Doofenschmirtz cannot take him seriously or feel threatened by his 'true-purpose-shrouded-in-mystery-inator' since he has no idea what he's trying to do, and his relationship with Peter has suffered the equivalent of a communication breakdown because Mystery's lack of gloating means he and Peter never gain much of a rapport, leading Peter to cheat on him by thwarting Doofenshmirtz.
  • The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins is a deconstruction of the Soapbox Sadie. The show deconstructs teen activists like Maya by showing that, while they may be more aware of serious social issues than their peers and are right to bring light to them, many times they don't know as much about the issues as they think they do, their immaturity causes them to fall into a Black-and-White Insanity mindset and fail to recognize the morally grey areas of society, and a lot of their activism is done more for the sake of satisfying their egos rather than true altruism.
  • Ready Jet Go!:
    • Sean deconstructs The Perfectionist. Sean strives to be the best that he can be and to lead a team of astronauts to Mars in the future, but his fact-driven tendencies clash with Jet's cartoony alien ways and Sydney's love of fiction. Plus, in spite of his dream of being an astronaut, he fears cramped spaces and heights. When Sean fails at something, he becomes very upset and self-deprecating.
    • Mindy deconstructs the Tagalong Kid and The Baby of the Bunch. Because she's the youngest, she can't go to space with the older children ( at least not until her fifth birthday), and she increasingly feels left out, and ashamed of being the youngest and the smallest.
    • Jet deconstructs the Magnetic Hero. Jet is a lovable kid who is friends with every character in the show, but he can't stand to be apart from anyone. Even if he's on his own, he's with his loyal pet Sunspot. In "My Three Suns", he has a nightmare about him being lost in a void, away from everything and everyone. He is absolutely distressed at this, reflecting his fear of loneliness.
  • Recess: The tropes of The Ace and Always Someone Better are viciously deconstructed in Here Comes Mr. Perfect with new kid Jared Smith. Jared's depicted as being smarter than Gretchen, more athletic than Vince, been around more than Gus, stronger than Spinelli, a better planner than TJ, more poetic than Mikey, and even mentors teachers on how to teach with virtually no effort. He then proceeds to show up every notable kid in school in every one of their interests, which leads to all the kids deciding to shun him with a lockout. However Jared himself is an amicable kid who simply wants to have friends and tries to stay out of the limelight unless asked. Frustrated, Jared proceeds to start Shaming the Mob for shunning him, explaining his history of bullying in over 38 schools for doing the same at previous schools, and expresses he can't limit himself for the sake of others and can't help his natural aptitude despite how miserable it makes him.
    Jared Smith: All I wanted was to be friends with you guys. I never wanted to show anybody up! I didn't tell Ms. Grotke I knew the right answer to Gretchen's problem, or challenge Vince to a foot race, or Spinelli to arm wrestling. You guys challenged me! I mean what do you want me to do? Pretend I'm no good?...Well I can't do that! Don't you see? I can't stop being good at stuff any more than Gretchen can stop being smart, or Vince can stop being fast, or Mikey can stop being a sweet-souled giant. I'd trade places with any of you guys any day! You think it's easy being Mr. Perfect? You think it's easy being locked out? ...A lot of people say no matter how good you get there's always someone out there who's better than you? Well for me it's different. There might not be anybody better, but there's always somebody happier!
  • Rick and Morty
    • Rick Sanchez
      • Of the Broken Ace. Yes, Rick's tragic backstory makes him more sympathetic, but that only shows up after he's been a complete Jerkass for a few years. We get to see the results of his trauma long before we see the trauma, showing that, yes, "hurt people hurt people", but hurt people can really hurt people. Rick has spent years lashing out, and many other people across many realities have paid the price, none moreso than his family. Or a family. A Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse.
      • Of the Demiurge Archetype. As the smartest man in the universe, Rick is functionally immortal, nearly indestructible, and invincible in any universe within the Central Finite Curve. No one can touch him except for another Rick or Evil Morty, and Rick Prime likens both himself and C-137 to gods repeatedly. He creates life with a thought and can imbue his creations with immortality, and with the Citadel's existence on paper, Rick Sanchez rules the entire multiverse...but only within the Curve. The downside of this is acquiring all this power and technology has destroyed Rick's sense of morality and empathy, and nearly extinguished any kindness he has left. The Control Freak tendencies of this character type only drive him to more self-destructive or extreme lengths to keep his family under his thumb. Like all demiurges, Rick is Not So Invincible After All—whenever he's up against an equal like Rick Prime, he starts to struggle, and his massive ego hinders him more than it helps.
      • Of the Insufferable Genius. Rick is the smartest being in the universe and could whip up technology centuries ahead of his time with odds and ends he finds in somebody's junk drawer. However, being so smart doesn't mean people want to spend time with him, and over the course of the series, he gradually alienates almost everyone who cares about him and drives them away with his arrogance and shitty behavior. His genius is also directly associated with a lot of other personality shortcomings — he's Allergic to Routine and needs adventures to be excited, goes to ridiculous and impractical lengths to get revenge on those who deal him petty sleights, and has made a lot of enemies due to not only to attitude but just because a lot of people want to exploit his intelligence or get a hold of his technology. His genius is also a major reason he's so cynical and nihilistic. Speaking of...
      • Also of the Straw Nihilist. Rick knows there's an infinite multiverse of infinitely chaotic possibilities out, sometimes so similar that the only difference is how they pronounce a single word in the English language. To Rick, nothing has any value because nothing is unique, and nothing happens on purpose because it's all random chance, so he lives for the thrill of the moment, and if something goes wrong, he'll just leave, including moving to an entirely different dimension. However, as the series keeps going, it becomes clear Rick's behavior is self-destructive and pointless, and his tendency to do things without caring about the consequences causes a lot of damage in more ways than one, especially when it affects people close to him. His major character arc over the course of the series is slowly becoming a better person and growing out of this nihilistic mindset because he realizes he's a shitty person and he actually does care about people no matter what he may say otherwise. His behavior also sharply contrasts Morty, who has come to the same sorts of realizations as Rick but comes out of it an Anti-Nihilist.

    S-V 

  • Saving Me: Bennett Bramble is a tragic deconstruction of the Child Prodigy. He's a kid genius from a loving family and destined to become one of the world's most successful and influential inventors. But in his old age, he's burned bridges with everyone he's ever known, becoming Lonely at the Top and Hated by All. The future Bennett deeply regrets his life path and seeks to change his fate by becoming his younger self's guide and mentor. And while young Bennett isn't a bad kid deep down and not actively trying to be cruel he's prone to selfishness, stubbornness, and arrogance because he takes his loved ones for granted and is reluctant to show affection for them, being more focused on becoming a great inventor and showing off his intellectual talent. Thus, Bennett shows that even a highly gifted child with a bright future needs to learn interpersonal skills and the value of relationships, lest they grow inconsiderate and subsequently attain success without any meaningful fulfillment.
  • The Secret Saturdays: The Mondays deconstruct The Psycho Rangers. They're the Evil Doppelgangers to the titular family and their polar opposites in every way (Doc Monday is a barely literate bruiser, Zak Monday is a cryptid-abusing sadist, and so on). But therein lies the problem: the Mondays hate and distrust each other as much as the Saturdays love and trust each other. Any teamwork between the Mondays is purely short-term until one of them sees an opportunity to get ahead, eventually leading to the inevitable betrayal.
  • Many of the characters in The Simpsons started life as deconstructions of sitcom character archetypes. Homer Simpson, the quick-to-anger Bumbling Dad protagonist, is portrayed as an abusive drunk, his Closer to Earth wife Marge Simpson is often just one step away from a divorce, his Bad Boss Mr. Burns is a morally bankrupt industrialist who gets away with being such a jerkass because he owns half the town, his unemployed comedy sidekick Barney is a shiftless drunk, his Bratty Half-Pint troublemaker son Bart Simpson is a delinquent who's failing his classes, his daughter Lisa Simpson is a Soapbox Sadie who is so Rightly Self-Righteous that she literally runs off crying when she doesn't has the moral high ground, his other daughter Maggie is a Little Miss Badass who has been accused In-Universe of being a Creepy Child, his busybody neighbor Ned Flanders is a Christian fundamentalist who's always butting in because he's trying to "save" him, etc. Given the show's length, many of these deconstructions have become archetypes in their own right.
    • For one-shot characters, we have Frank Grimes from the infamous episode "Homer's Enemy". Word of God stated that he was supposed to be a Logical Latecomer, representing that a "real world" person couldn't make it in the zany world of The Simpsons, but fans took issue with this for two reasons. Firstly, while Grimes starts off mystified at Homer's bottomless stupidity (and the town's blase attitude towards it), he very quickly becomes bitter and vengeful, dedicating himself to trying to destroy Homer and getting himself killed in the processnote . Secondly, Grimes isn't really an "ordinary person"; since his backstory is one gigantic string of pain and suffering, he's just as absurd as the rest of the cast but in a different way.
    • Homer's role in the episode "Barthood" is a complete dissection of the Bumbling Dad routine as it shows that Homer neglected Bart and his explanation for doing so is because Bart's birth made Homer realize he's an adult now with responsibilities, responsibilities he's terrified of and chose to run away from. While opening up about this made the two bond for a moment, Homer sours it with a hurtful comment that drives another wedge between the two. Although Homer is portrayed as sympathetic for being afraid, the narrative makes it clear that he had no excuse for putting Bart last and should have been there for him despite his fear of responsibility.
  • Smiling Friends:
    • Pim deconstructs The Idealist; he genuinely wants to help people with their problems, but they're often too complex or deep-seated for him to realistically fix, especially considering his simplistic methods of trying to cheer people up, like thinking taking a suicidally depressed man to a party or amusement park will immediately make him feel better.
    • In contrast to Pim, Charlie is a deconstruction of The Cynic; he's often the first to shoot down Pim's more whimsical approach to helping their clients and tends to react to any extra effort Pim suggests putting into their assignments with annoyance. Rather than making him the wiser and more effective of the duo, this attitude results in him being incredibly lazy and unhelpful, with the few times he does make an effort turning out to be just as misguided and ineffectual as Pim's, albeit for different reasons. Pim finally gets fed up with his attitude in the season finale, pointing out that Charlie's constant negativity makes him emotionally exhausting to be around since everyone else has to put in the extra effort to counteract it.
    • Mip deconstructs the "hero on a quest to save and romance the princess", as the only danger the Princess is in is from Mip himself, who's revealed to be obsessively stalking her out of his twisted infatuation towards her, to the point where he's willing to attempt murder-suicide by giving her a bomb.
    • Grim deconstructs the Straw Nihilist. Grim is an Evil Counterpart to Pim who convinces just about everyone he meets that everything is a pointless endeavor, that you shouldn't try to better your station in life because you could possibly fail, and that nothing matters since everybody's going to die someday. But the only reason people actually listen to him is because he succeeded at starting a business, and the minute Mr. Boss, angry at Grim for tanking his business, corners him with a gun, Grim panics and starts begging for his life, even pissing himself in the process, which costs him the crowd he was preaching to; you can't claim nothing matters and try to save your own life at the same time. At the end of the day, Grim is nothing more than a hypocritical prick walking around like he's smarter than everyone around him— precisely what a Straw Nihilist would be in real life.
  • Princess Amber in the Sofia the First Pilot Movie Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess is a deconstruction of the Wicked Stepsister. Amber has spent her whole life trying to live up her image of what the ideal princess should be, giving her deep-seated insecurities about being anything less than perfect, which she masks with a haughty Alpha Bitch demeanor. She's instantly jealous of and threatened by Sofia when their parents get married and feels the need to put Sofia down or embarrass her at every turn because everyone (including, she fears, her father and brother) likes Sofia more despite her not coming close to Amber's standards, not understanding that people like Sofia because she's nice and friendly and doesn't act like she's better than other people. She does eventually realise the error of her ways and accepts Sofia's offer of friendship when Sofia reaches out to her at her lowest moment.
  • Solar Opposites: Korvo is a deconstruction of the Mad Scientist. Most of his scientific ventures cause more problems in the long run and he refuses to learn from it.
  • South Park: Heidi Turner deconstructs the Butt-Monkey. Heidi goes through numerous hardships throughout Seasons 20 and 21, which includes being cyber bullied by Skankhunt42, getting emotionally abused by her boyfriend, and being picked on by her friends. Eventually she snaps and becomes Cartman's Distaff Counterpart deciding to get back at those who have mistreated her.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: AGIMUS is a deconstruction of the Obviously Evil Manipulative Bastard. AGIMUS is sinister in both his demeanor and appearance, and is very good at preying on people's insecurities. Unfortunately for him, he's dealing with Starfleet officers who know he's evil from a mile away and thus his attempts to manipulate people tend to fall flat.
  • Star Trek: Prodigy
    • Vice-Admiral Kathryn Janeway is a deconstruction of her characteristics in on Star Trek: Voyager. Sure, Janeway was always championing Starfleet principles, and is indeed one of their most exemplary officers, but she made a lot of hard calls to protect her crew during the seven-year-stay in the Delta Quadrant. It might have worked out for her then, but back in Federation space, those hard calls don't fly anymore. In her mission to rescue Chakotay, her crew has to reign her in from literally inciting a war when she's prepared to violate the Neutral Zone with the Romulans in order to catch the Protostar, hellbent on getting answers the crew quite literally can't give without bringing the Dauntless down.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars
    • Dogma deconstructs the Yes-Man. He was ready to follow Krell's every order, without question, including the execution of Fives and Jesse. Even when Krell proved to be a traitor, he defended Krell, insisting that the clone troopers had to follow all orders. But once he learns why Krell did what he did and that there was no grand plan behind all his actions except to kill as many clone troopers as possible, Dogma becomes completely broken.
    • Duchess Satine deconstructs the Actual Pacifist. She is so beholden to her pacifist beliefs that she refuses to even defend herself against a man who would've gladly killed her and everyone else aboard the ship. While pacifism may be noble in theory, in practice it's the same as being defenseless. In a galaxy at war, refusing to lift a hand will only get you killed. This eventually leads to the deathwatch taking over Mandalore, because Satine was seen as too weak to defend them against a dangerous galaxy.
  • Tangled: The Series deconstructs Teen Genius through Varian. While he is very brilliant and able to make major technological advances for Corona, he's also an impulsive 14 year old who doesn't always plan things out very well, causing many of his creations and ideas to have serious design flaws that ruin his reputation. His youth also results in some Moral Myopia (especially when it comes to distinguishing between justice and vengeance) and an inability to recognize the role he played in his father's crystallization. It also results in his ultimate goal, freeing his father using Rapunzel's hair, failing and leading him into a full-on breakdown over how his plan failed, not understanding that the theory he based it on was incorrect (that Rapunzel's hair, being unbreakable, should have been able to break the equally tough amber). At the end of the day, Varian's brains don't override the fact that he's a very young, emotional teenager who's not as logical as he thinks he is.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Torbin Zixx is a deconstruction of the Han Solo-Esque Lovable Rogue variety. He's a cynical, snarky mercenary who butts heads with the heroes and has a single moment where he shows himself to have a Hidden Heart of Gold when he reveals he's against Sh'Okanabo's plan to kill innocent people and helps to save the Turtles. Beyond that, despite teaming up with the Turtles in subsequent appearances, he doesn't display any further character development to become a better person and remains an overall selfish Jerkass and a shameless Con Man who swindles the Turtles and everyone else without remorse. And rather than making a full Heel–Face Turn and joining the Turtles to help defeat a Big Bad like Sh'Okanabo, he ends his run in the series being caught in a situation where Karma Houdini Warranty finally catches up to him and he receives a fate more befitting of a Saturday-Morning Cartoon villain than anything else.
  • Titan Maximum: According to the show's creators, Commander Palmer is what happens when you give a teenager too much responsibility and power at that age, like in the 80s and 90s anime, he does not have the maturity to handle that leadership, and his ego got out of control. Palmer, what The Leader would be if he were a self-absorbed Jerk Jock. He is an incompetent Jerkass who puts more lives in danger than he saves because he refuses to let anyone else get the glory and who is barely tolerated by the rest of the team for his combat skills. Palmer's bio implies that he became the leader of Titan Maximum because of his legitimate skills and accomplishments. However, Palmer's string of success has gone into his head and given him a colossal ego that depleted whatever skill and good qualities he also had.
  • Todd McFarlane's Spawn: Wanda Blake deconstructed the Crusading Lawyer. She's presented with a case with fraudulent evidence against a client for the murder of several children and finds out the evidence was falsified by Jason Wynn and others like a US Senator to cover up the fact the Senator's serial-killing pedophile son Billy Kincaid was responsible to help the Senator's presidential campaign. Even when Wanda has enough evidence to vindicate her client she still digs deeper to find out all the ones responsible despite warnings from others to stop while she's ahead, which gets her daughter, husband, and herself attacked by Wynn and his associates to silence them and they would have been most certainly killed if not for Spawn's intervention.
  • Transformers: Animated: Wasp deconstructs the original Waspinator by taking his most famous characteristics-his speech impediment, his horrendous luck, and his habit of getting blown to pieces-and twisting them in very dark ways. His pattern of speech is a clear sign of mental instability as a result of getting thrown into the Autobot stockades, his status as a Cosmic Plaything is anything but Played for Laughs as he's constantly bounced from one bad situation to another all because of something out of his control, and when he is eventually blown up, it's genuinely terrifying to see him survive it due to the fact that it would've killed a normal bot in this show.
  • Transformers: Prime:
  • Velma: Velma Dinkley is a deconstruction of Insufferable Genius. She expects to be venerated and heeded because of her intelligence and honesty. However, because she lacks any form of tactfulness or any idea of compromise with her beliefs, she has very few friends outside of Daphne and Norville, who also struggle to deal with her selfish behavior and dismissive attitude. When prompted to give an opinion, few are willing to actually listen to Velma's ideas because she presents them in such a hardline way that it detracts any supporters before she even finishes her argument.
    • She's also a deconstruction of The Spock. Although there's no denying that Velma is the smartest, she's discompassionate and always acts on the first impulse without actually ironing out the evidence, questioning the ethics of her actions, or even considering if she might be wrong.
      • She gets Fred arrested and later sent to prison without explaining the evidence and by making racist criticisms about him during the trial as she believes he would commit murder because he's rich and white. Which infuriates Fred to the point where he makes the jury sentence him to prison. Despite the obvious evidence that Fred can't be the killer because he's so co-dependent on his family that he can't and doesn't know how to use a knife.
      • When Fred is eventually released, Velma then finds circumstantial evidence that connects Norville's dad to the murders, which leads to Norville ending their friendship and switching schools for nearly getting his father arrested.
      • In a fight against Daphne, Velma guilefully steals Daphne's journal and reads it out to the entire school under the belief that she would win the fight by reducing Daphne to emotional vulnerability so she would keel over and surrender. However, Daphne wins the fight with a single punch because she was so angry at Velma that she dropped the special treatment.

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