Worst use of Deus Ex Machina you've ever seen

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

OT: I'm going to have to go with the ending of Superman, you know where he flies around the world to turn time backwards, it's not because of the fact that this defies physics, but because it defies logic, it was only introduced at the last second, and never mentioned again.

In fact whilst I'm at it the ending to Superman 2, the mind erasing kiss, why were we not told that Superman could do this before? Why didn't he just snog Zod and Luther so they can forget being villains?

Its not actually reversing the worlds rotation, it signifies him flying backwards through time.

Zod is a Kryptonian, he is likely immune. The erasing effect only wipes out memory, not who you are.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Well, I can say 'worst use of Deus Ex Machina' would have to be in Futurama, but that's so bad it's hilarious. Like the Professor just happens to have a convenient doomsday device

The Professor is a mad scientist. All mad scientists are required to have at least 3 Doomsday devices, it's in the handbook.

One of the bad ones I have seen is the last series of Stargate Atlantis, in the last eps they discover the ship has an instantaneous transportation system that allows them to get to earth in time to save it.

Yeah series 5 was the last and they needed a quick way to end it, but it was just lazy and bad writing.

Yeah...I'm rather glad that I stopped being a fan of Stargate SG-1 after about season... (looks back at the box sets) ...8. And never started watching Atlantis or Universe. Although, there were some funny Deus Ex Machina's in SG-1...most of them O'Neill ideas too...but that's the 'humor use' I think, not the 'terrible' use.

 

[Pappytech]

Every single fight that involves Sasuke Uchiha or Aizen Sosuke.

Sasuke vs Deidara and Aizen vs EVERYONE are the best examples of this.

Sasuke: "Suuuuuure it was established that I was out of chakra, but I can still reactivate the Sharingan, preform a major summoning, mind control said summon, climb into it's mouth, then de-summon it to avoid a five mile wide explosion. After it went off. THREE FEET FROM ME."

Aizen: "Oh yes, I forgot to mention...even the creator of this MacGuffin was wrong about what it does. IT GRANTS WISHES BECAUSE I SAY SO."

Blargh. Hate Sauske so much. While we're talking about the sharingan, I might as well mention pretty much ANY of its abilities. To begin with, we know nothing about any of the sharingan's powers. Then, we see Susanoo at the exact moment Sauske is about to kill Itachi. And then Izanagi appears right when Danzo is about to die as well. Rrrrrgh.

As for Aizen... yeah, you pretty much nailed it.

 

[RaNDM G]

Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He just pops up out of nowhere to fight the last boss.

 

[diebane]

The Dark Knight. Batman accelerates his motorcycle, the Joker stands in the street. Last moment, Batman decides not to run him over, and we see that the Joker did not try to move out of the way. Really? This one thing and everything after it wouldn't have happened. Is this a deus ex machina?

Also, Balrog appears in Moria just in the nick of time to save the fellowship from being torn to shreads by a massive army of orks and goblins who had them surrounded. But I guess since the film is based upon the book which is very old, it isnt "Why is DEM so overused these days".

mfG diebane

 

[conmag9]

Golden Sun 2's ending felt like a terrible one the first time I saw it.

Spoiler

Then I remembered what the Wise Ass did early on. Still made me fume though. I mean, Alex's got the undiluted power of Earth, Air and Water. Rocks being made of the former, you'd think it still would have been a curb-stomp battle

 

[lucky_sharm]

OT: Dragon Ball Z is the worst at this. Goku has a new special move hidden that ends up saving the day.

Fix'd: Have you ever, EVER seen Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chaotzu, or Krillin end up saving the day?

Face it, the secondary cast in DragonBall is absolutely worthless in DBZ, sans Yajirobe cutting off Vegeta's tail.

Krillin actually does save the day quite a few times, he rescues Gohan several times during the battle with Nappa, he rescues Gohan AGAIN from Frieza in his second form, and he even rescues a woman and a child from getting absorbed by Cell.

As for Goku, what special move exactly does he employ that saves the day? If he had such a thing, he would of beaten Vegeta no problem but instead got every bone in his body crushed by Vegeta's ape form and had to be rescued by the other remaining secondary characters.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Fast Five.

"I have a backstory that just happens to let me pull a bank vault out of my arse hurr durr" etc.

 

[lucky_sharm]

The Dark Knight. Batman accelerates his motorcycle, the Joker stands in the street. Last moment, Batman decides not to run him over, and we see that the Joker did not try to move out of the way. Really? This one thing and everything after it wouldn't have happened. Is this a deus ex machina?

No, not a deus ex machina at all. It's been well established that Batman forbids himself from killing anyone, and Joker knew that better than anyone else.

 

[i7omahawki]

What's the most blatant use of deus ex machina you've ever seen?

Pretty much everything that ever happens in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I've been listening to the radio series (which is great) and almost every problem is resolved through Deus ex machina. That is far the most blatent, but not at all bad, use of that often abused device.

Captcha: "ladies, first"...hm, I think it's talking about you guys.

 

[Blatherscythe]

Avatar. The god that does not take sides, takes a side. And brings all the animals to attack the humans allowing the blue space hippies to obtain victory. It's just stupid and tacked on.

 

[otakon17]

Damnnit, I know of one that really freaking bugged me before, but for the life of me can't remember.

 

[samonix]

How did Squall survive the shard of ice to the chest in FFVIII?

Some think he didn't [http://squallsdead.com/]

Thanks for this. Really might have convinced me that viii is a secret work of genius.

 

[Grunt_Man11]

The James Bond gadgets.

Seriously, whenever Bond got in trouble (in the good James Bond's that is) he would always have the perfect gadget for the occasion. It got a little old for my tastes. (this is probably gonna recive some hate)

That's not a deus ex machina.

The Bond gadgets are good example of "chekovs gun", which is a rule that states that if a gun (or weapon or item) is to prove important in the third act, it must be talked about in the first act.

In most instances, the Bond gadgets aren't used in the way you'd expect either, which is part of the reason they're such great plot devices.

Yeah, it seems a number of posters here have a hard time telling the difference between Deus Ex Machina and Chekhov's Gun.

If the weapon/item/power/person is even mentioned prior to the scene where it/her/him saves the day, then it is NOT a Deus Ex Machina and is instead a Chekhov's Gun.

An example of something that can be mistaken for Deus Ex Machina, but is actually a Chekov's Gun, is the Five Point Exploding Heart Technique from the Kill Bill movies.

 

[dyre]

Macbeth.

Oracle: "You really only have to worry about dying when the forest moves from here to there, and no man born of a mother's womb can kill you."
Macbeth: "Oh lol, looks like I'll have no probl---"
Scout: "Sir, the enemy army is moving the forest by cutting down branches to use as cover (wtf)!"
Macbeth: "Oh, shit. Well, at least no man born of a mother---"
Macduff: "Ohey Macbeth, did I ever tell you I was born from a C-section?"
Macbeth: "FFFffffffffffffffff---"
*head chopped off*

That's more of a prophecy twist [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProphecyTwist] than a Deus ex Machina.

hmm, perhaps, but the last-minute nature of the twists makes it feel like Deus Ex Machina. I mean, if the army was planning all this woodcutting earlier, and we got hints at Macduff's C-section, I would understand, but it's pretty much out of the blue, like Shakespeare thought "hold on, wasn't there a prophecy I was supposed to follow...oh shit! Emergency plot fix!"

Macbeth.

Oracle: "You really only have to worry about dying when the forest moves from here to there, and no man born of a mother's womb can kill you."
Macbeth: "Oh lol, looks like I'll have no probl---"
Scout: "Sir, the enemy army is moving the forest by cutting down branches to use as cover (wtf)!"
Macbeth: "Oh, shit. Well, at least no man born of a mother---"
Macduff: "Ohey Macbeth, did I ever tell you I was born from a C-section?"
Macbeth: "FFFffffffffffffffff---"
*head chopped off*

I think you got a point there, but would you say that the drama would be better if Macbeth would win the final battle? I for one think it is funny that Macbeth is running around like "LOLOLOL no one could kill me" and then someone he hated the whole story appears and tells him:"You think you are invincible? Well I know your weakness! I am your weakness!"

LOL, fair enough. But a little foreshadowing couldn't have hurt

 

[samonix]

I'd have to say almost every series finale in Doctor Who. The dalek/cybermen war and the planets in the sky ones being particularly bad, where The Doctor literally flips a switch to make everything back to normal.

 

[mastermerrick]

The worst one I've seen so far is Beerfest.

One of the characters (the biggest one, who can supposedly drink the most, too) gets pushed into a giant vat of beer and dies trying to drink his way out.

At the funeral, we suddenly see his twin brother show up out of NOWHERE, claims that he trainded for the fest on his own (a festival in which only the original group even are supposed to know about,) and now asks to be called by his late brother's name, making the dialogue and story no different than if the first guy even died.

My head hurts just thinking about that now.

 

[Agayek]

Is anyone else irked by the amount of deus ex machina in games and other forms of media? (Deus Ex Machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.)

Maybe it's just me, but I get annoyed when something that has never been mentioned before in a game/story/show suddenly gets brought up as a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Why did the gravity gun survive disintegration in Half Life 2? How did Squall survive the shard of ice to the chest in FFVIII? In pretty much every anime/manga ever, how does the protagonist suddenly unleash a killer technique they never knew existed on the antagonist at the last possible second?

What's the most blatant use of deus ex machina you've ever seen?

Edit: Yeah, looks like Bleach is a pretty big offender. Here's hoping it gets better.

Most aggravating use of Deus ex Machina in recent memory for me has to be the Horcruxes in Harry Potter. It's such a ridiculous plot device it makes me want to stab someone.

Nothing else really springs to mind. As you've said, most animes are quite guilty of the trope, but it's so prevalent it's to be expected. It's basically a requirement of shounen anime/manga to have some form of deus ex machina every 10 episodes/chapters.

 

[diebane]

The Dark Knight. Batman accelerates his motorcycle, the Joker stands in the street. Last moment, Batman decides not to run him over, and we see that the Joker did not try to move out of the way. Really? This one thing and everything after it wouldn't have happened. Is this a deus ex machina?

No, not a deus ex machina at all. It's been well established that Batman forbids himself from killing anyone, and Joker knew that better than anyone else.

Is this one better? Lord of the Rings, the eagle saves Gandalf from the Tower in Isengard. If you just look at the movie, not once before eagles are mentioned. So Gangalf, clearly in a situation nothing we know of can help him, this eagle appears and saves him.

mfG diebane