Anyone who has consumed even a moderate amount of storytelling media will realise that many stories fall back on clichés and common themes in order to express themselves. These are called “Tropes” and, while tropes aren’t a bad thing, it can become quite tiresome when you see one appear over and over. However, some works are self-aware of these clichés and take the opportunity to reinterpret them in different, unique ways. This is called “Trope Deconstruction” and I thought I might share my thoughts on why I find these works fascinating and enjoyable.
When I was a child, I was, for the most part, blind to tropes, simply consuming media such as movies, TV series, books etc. without much consideration for the tropes that made it up. By secondary school, I had begun to develop an interest in horror films and set about consuming them with great gusto. By the time I reached Scream, I had begun to develop a particular interest in slasher films and the various tropes associated with them, in particular that of the final girl.
I think it’s fair to say that the opening to Scream defied any sort of expectation that you might have had going into the film and it quickly grew to become one of my favourite slasher films. The way that the characters were aware of the tropes and clichés of horror films and would frequently point it out and sometimes use it to survive created an experience that I found thoroughly surprising and engaging. That sense of surprise is so often missing from modern media and as I’ve continued to indulge myself with many different genres of films, TV series, books, comics, manga etc., I continually find myself pleasantly surprised whenever they decide to deconstruct a trope.
Another example that I think is relatively subtle comes from when I began to watch Gundam SEED, my first Gundam series. I had seen a few mecha series before Gundam SEED but something that I actually found quite surprising was that the various mobile suits could run out of ammunition and power. Mechs from other mecha series seemed to have a seemingly endless supply of both and the idea that a mech pilot might have to be conscious of these factors caught me off guard.
While it’s true that it has been discussed to death, I would still like to bring up my favourite anime of all time, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and how it redefined what the magical girl genre was. Ever since Sailor Moon, the magical girl genre as a whole had shifted towards more combat oriented storytelling. However, the fact that these young girls were essentially child soldiers was rarely discussed or even mentioned. Puella Magi Madoka Magica changed all that by displaying how terrifying it would be to continually fight the forces of darkness and the sacrifices that would have to be made to their minds, souls and bodies.
Recently, my friends and I decided to play Undertale together. While I’m quite intimately familiar with the world, characters and mechanics of Undertale, my friends were less familiar and were taken aback by many of these aspects. In particular, the girl who was playing Undertale attempted to use the knowledge she had gained from playing other RPGs but was quite often punished for falling back to tropes such as killing every monster you meet, assuming that defeating a character in battle did not result in their death and never running from battle. That experience reinforced my view that Undertale deconstructed many of the tropes that we have come to expect from RPGs and video games.
In a world where it has become easier and easier to predict how a story is going to proceed, I find stories that are actively aware of the tropes that they are using and decide to reinterpret them in a new, fresh way to be incredibly satisfying. While not every story necessarily benefits from this, as I can think of a few examples that felt quite forced and unnatural when attempting to deconstruct tropes, I continue to find the idea of trope deconstruction incredibly fascinating. Let me know your thoughts on trope deconstruction, what some of your favourite media are that play around with tropes, your favourite types of tropes to see deconstructed, if you also find trope deconstruction fascinating and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!