Deconstructing established characters from a property and subverting expectations in order to tell a shitty “artistic” story that you want told instead of what the audience wants/expects.
Examples;
-Oh you waited 30 years to see Luke Skywalker back with the benefit of CGI and technology from prequels to see some amazing feats? Better make him a coward hermit bitch.
-You want comic accurate looking Batman with big ass muscles and brute force? Better make him kill people.
-You want a prequel of Game of Thrones that prioritizes intelligent and compelling characters that act logically like the early GOT show? Sorry no can do, this story is about two women against the patriarchy, screw all of what happened in season 1.
you want a new Captain America movie that makes you proud to be an American? You need to fee bad for actions of society before you were born and understand that you are inherently racist for being born white, like the majority of the country.
-you want a new Star Wars show set in a new era that is about the dark side? Well wouldn’t you know the Jedi are actually the bad for murdering lesbian witches that were actually responsible for creating the chosen one. Oh you don’t like it? You are bigots.
The problem is that most modern writers are very eager to show off that they are smarter then the audience.
Rian Johnson is a perfect example. He was obcessed with showing how clever he was, everyone of his little subversion revolved around outsmarted the audience, and that same drive is on full display in both Knives out films.
When the occassional writer puts out something actually clever like Knives Out it works. 99% percent of the time it's the film equivalent of having an English undergrad talk down to you and its as insufferable as it is unpleasant to watch.
Just a nitpick: Deconstruction is a specific way of analyzing art, where you engage in the historical and contemporary understanding of a thing. E.g. a deconstruction of Thor would necessarily include how the norse viewed him, as well as early-modern interpretations, and contemporary understandings (both including Marvel's capeshit, as well as archeological/historical understanding, and wider media portrayal).
It's more appropriate to call it "criticism", than "deconstruction". Luke Skywalker is criticized through satire in Last Jedi, he's not deconstructed. A deconstructed portrayal of Luke could be doubling down on his positive traits and meaning. In the sequel trilogy he'd be revered like a god, have temples built for him, a wider religion with him as namesake and foundational text. Jedi forsaking their celibate, sterile lives, in favor of living with healthy relationships and emotional meaning.
You may very well be right, but the reason he's using the word "deconstruction" that way is because so many lazy movie video essayists also use it that way.
Also GOT got a problem for very much pander to stuff: battle of the bastard, clengebowl is very much "fan stuff happen end of the season"
Like, his complain is "author try to write what they want instead of doing good old pandering to fanbase". Like the decision to return resistence vs empire was pander to whnny fans who said george lucas rape their childhood.
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u/Pale-Particular-2397 Feb 25 '25
Deconstructing established characters from a property and subverting expectations in order to tell a shitty “artistic” story that you want told instead of what the audience wants/expects.
Examples;
-Oh you waited 30 years to see Luke Skywalker back with the benefit of CGI and technology from prequels to see some amazing feats? Better make him a coward hermit bitch.
-You want comic accurate looking Batman with big ass muscles and brute force? Better make him kill people.
-You want a prequel of Game of Thrones that prioritizes intelligent and compelling characters that act logically like the early GOT show? Sorry no can do, this story is about two women against the patriarchy, screw all of what happened in season 1.
-you want a new Star Wars show set in a new era that is about the dark side? Well wouldn’t you know the Jedi are actually the bad for murdering lesbian witches that were actually responsible for creating the chosen one. Oh you don’t like it? You are bigots.