Stop calling it Deus Ex Machina

[James Joseph Emerald]

A deus ex machina is tool used by playwrights to summarise plots to the audience and make connections that they might not have seen, in short to 'cheat' a way out of a complex plot. Gandalf plays a deus ex machina when he comes back to Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas in The Two Towers and fills them in on just about everything.

Sorry to gang up on you, but that's simply incorrect.
What you're describing here is gratuitous exposition, which is completely different from deus ex machina. The latter does not necessarily involve any summarising, and in some cases is left completely unexplained (i.e. the opposite of what you've described).

In simple terms, a deus ex machina is any resolution to a conflict which hasn't been properly set up beforehand. You could argue that in Star Wars Episode VI, the Death Star having a really convenient weak spot was a deus ex machina. The reason why this weak spot exists is never explained to the audience or even mentioned ever again.

 

[DoPo]

Yeah, that's not what "summarise" means - that's what got me on the wrong track.

What is this the three stooges? Is it you every time, DoPo? Seriously...

Holy cow on a barbecue. You're focusing on 'summarize' vs. 'reveal'?

You really need to go eat a giant slice of "get off denseWorm's back".

If you summarize a plot to an audience that does not know the entirety of the plot, you are revealing the plot to them. Take two pictures of a pig, rip one in half and give it to a buddy. Wait a moment and then place the whole picture beneath, revealing to your buddy the full picture. The 'big picture', if you will.

Re-read that as many times as it takes.

*sigh*


Once again, blue is a colour but colour is not blue. Summary can reveal plot, but a plot revelation is not a summary. I can summarise that you've been choosing the wrong words consistently throughout your posts, but that would not be new information. I can summarise the plot of a movie you hadn't seen and it would be new information. I will reveal the plot, in that case.

 

[Madman123456]

deus ex machina=God in the Machine.
Mass effect 3 presented us with the most literal god in the machine that i have ever seen. A Machine is brought in to tie up all lose threads, foreshadowed or not, into a nice bow and it does so with godlike Powers.

 

[A3sir]

Also, none of my cases or your cases fulfill solving anything.

How about:

friend: Hey, what's this a picture of?
you: it's a picture of a pig. You see, there's a half missing and I've got it here in my pocket *rustle* See?
friend: ah, it has been revealed! thanks, Russel!

gnnnnn'yah.

And hey, you're the one who started picking your nose over the use of 'summarize'

Yes, in that case you are summarizing, solving and revealing, you are doing three actions, which are not all the same thing.

And yes, people are getting confused with you because you are using the words summarize, reveal and solve wrong, they do NOT all mean the same thing.

 

[Treblaine]

If you could just get people to stop pronouncing it "deuce," it would be nice. Definitions can wait.

Better than "day of sex macarena" which is how so many do pronounce it.

 

[jklinders]

Deus Ex Machina is a too-easy un-foreshadowed solution to the plot that occurs at the end of a story. Now while I feel like most people understand what Deus Ex Machina is and when it is used I feel like people are a little to quick to call Deus Ex Machina, even when they shouldn't be.
For Example: Mass Effect 3
Many people's criticize Mass Effect 3 by saying that the Crucible is Deus Ex Machina when simply that isn't that case. The Crucible is foreshadowed in Lair of the Shadow Broker, isn't easy to build and you find out about the Crucible a the starting of Mass Effect 3. A Deus Ex Machina would be if at the end of Mass Effect 3 you discovered that the Reapers were deathly allergic to cream cheese and you used that to defeat them. It wouldn't make sense unless in Mass Effect 1 this dairy related weakness was hinted at.

Sure the above example may not be A+ writing but it isn't Deus Ex Machina.

Any questions, comments, rebuttals or other examples of things unjustly accused of Deus Ex Machina?

PS: I apologize to any Cream-Cheese theory believers who have yet to finish ME3.

The point-you have missed it entirely.

let's first examine the origin of the term. The Greeks used it as a way to resolve the plot by bringing in a God to fix the problem. This god was lowered into the stage by a rope and pulley. The Starchild was literally dropped down from the ceiling just like one of the God characters from these old Greek plays. Homer himself was probably facepalming in his 2500 year old grave at how little we have apparently learned since his time.

The Starchild was not foreshadowed at all. Offered a multiple choice solution to the problem which fixed the issue on a galaxy wide scale. Sound pretty freaking Godlike to me.


I have never seen a more literal interpretation of Deus ex Machina in any modern media as this. Well, Deus Ex Human Revolution came pretty darn close.

 

[Vivi22]

Also, none of my cases or your cases fulfill solving anything.

How about:

friend: Hey, what's this a picture of?
you: it's a picture of a pig. You see, there's a half missing and I've got it here in my pocket *rustle* See?
friend: ah, it has been revealed! thanks, Russel!

gnnnnn'yah.

And hey, you're the one who started picking your nose over the use of 'summarize'

You used a word incorrectly, it completely changed the meaning of your post, which lead to a couple of people quite rightly correcting you. And this example you seem to be using to try and defend your incorrect usage is not an example of a summary either. Well, saying it's a picture of a pig is a summary, but the reveal of the other half is not. And revealing unknown information, in a summary or otherwise is not necessarily a DEM.

You tell people to get off your back, but you're the one who can't seem to acknowledge that he worded his point poorly and that it was completely lost as a result. In fact, you're jumping through all kinds of hoops in some desperate attempt to justify your sloppy wording. If you want people to simply move on then I'd suggest admitting that the way you worded your original point was poor, it completely changed the meaning, which lead to people not understanding what you were trying to say. Own up to the mistake and everyone will move on.

You can try and act like it's a small little thing everyone's harping on, but language is important for conveying meaning and YOU used it incorrectly. Not anyone else. It is your fault they misunderstood, and that is not something to defend. That's something you say "oh, my bad," to and move on from.

 

[Phuctifyno]

If you could just get people to stop pronouncing it "deuce," it would be nice. Definitions can wait.

How about "Duck Sex Mack'n!"

Imagine if there was another Deus Ex sequel called Deus Ex: Machina.

Then you'd be pretty fucked, ey?

I think naming a game "God From" was pretty fucked in the first place...

Did you play God From? It's a perfectly suitable name for the story. Granted, it'd be just as, or even more, suitable if they had actually called it Deus Ex Machina... Either way, X sells.

 

[Littaly]

Does a deus ex machina have to specifically relate to the end of a story? One of the most famous and criticized examples in gaming is the one from Final Fantasy VIII, and that one occurs in the middle of the game.

I like arguing definitions of words as much as the next guy, but it doesn't really affect the bottom line about the writing in Mass Effect (and I'm not saying that's what you were implying). The crucible is still kind of out of nowhere, only loosely connected to what has happened before and gives the impression of being a panicked solution thrown in at last minute to save a story that wasn't entirely thought through from the beginning.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

No one said the Crucible was a Deus Ex Machina. It's fucking the Catalyst that is literally a damn Deus Ex Machina.

 

[Gecko clown]

The term Deus Ex Machina first came from Ancient Greece where, at the end of plays, a statue of a god would be lowered by a crane or something and neatly resolve the plot. In modern times it doesn't always have to happen at the end.

An example in a film would be during the Hunger Games when the main character, I cannot for the life of me remember her name, is trapped up a tree and literally out of fucking nowhere there are deadly bees that lock onto the trackers the contestants have inside them. She cuts down the bee hive and escapes. This wouldn't be a deus ex machina if they had introduced the bees earlier in the film.

Finally just because an ending is unexpected does not mean to say it is a deus ex machina.

 

[Gecko clown]

The term Deus Ex Machina first came from Ancient Greece where, at the end of plays, a statue of a god would be lowered by a crane or something and neatly resolve the plot. In modern times it doesn't always have to happen at the end.

An example in a film would be during the Hunger Games when the main character, I cannot for the life of me remember her name, is trapped up a tree and literally out of fucking nowhere there are deadly bees that lock onto the trackers the contestants have inside them. She cuts down the bee hive and escapes. This wouldn't be a deus ex machina if they had introduced the bees earlier in the film.

Finally just because an ending is unexpected does not mean to say it is a deus ex machina.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Enough, I wrote essays on this shit longer ago than I care to remember, neither I, or my teachers had the slightest problem with my interpretation of a Deus Ex Machina

So... you're right, and all of us are wrong... because you wrote an essay on it a very long time ago and nobody told you that you were wrong then?

Brain aneurysm in...
Captcha: one, two, three

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[Nomanslander]

Don't bring up Mass Effect 3, if there's ever been a topic of games I've really grown tired of hearing, it's been this one. :/

Anyways, on topic, I don't think anyone will argue Gears of War 3 didn't go out with a blatant Deus Ex Machina.

That one is arguable, on one hand it was never mentioned that that kind of machine was even thought of, on another hand you were kinda always aware that Adam Fenix was always finding new ways to end wars (jacinto, hammer of dawn) so it is not completely DEM that he could have made something like that during his time missing, and he even stated that it wasn't finished because he was trying to save the locust as well (although that would NEVER have worked out, bad blood between them and humans aside they were aggressive and fuck ugly)

How is it arguable?

Spoilers!!

...

A machine that is introduced at the very end that magically kills all the Locust and solves all of humanities problems, introduced by a character we haven't met till now. I mean sure Adam Fenix was mentioned before, but barely.

Anyways, DEM doesn't necessarily mean it has to be some completely unexpected event or twist, it's when God or magic solves all of the stories problems instead of the people involved.

Marcus doesn't solve anything, he just grunts a lot of has an affinity for chest high walls. Anya doesn't solve anything either, she's just a sexist character there to make babies (literally) and create perverted fan work on deviantart.com.

That machine solved all their problems, and it did it in half a second. That's DEM if I ever saw one. :/

 

[The Wykydtron]

Hmmmm, I guess Kumagawa is a walking Deus Ex Machina in Medaka Box, he literally brings people back to life. His power is making things not exist. Your death? Never happened. I just got my arm blown off? Nope, Chuck Testa. It's always played for lols and it's not a serious manga so it's a very lighthearted one. Not exactly a DEM once he gets a solid place in the cast, it's well established later on that he can waltz in and clean up anything regardless.

Then they go and play a curveball, kill a main character then chuck his dead body into a different dimension before he can just be instantly revived. I like that about Medaka Box. Constantly changing the rules. Inb4 he gets revived anyway Lolol.

I don't keep track of these things much though, there is a literal Deus Ex Machina in Future Diary however. Literally Deus Ex Machina, the god that governs the laws of causality and reality decides he wants to play a game. That is the only reason why 12 people have to fight each other to the death with future powers.

 

[direkiller]

Deus ex machina merely means 'divine intervention'.

Deus ex machina= god from the machine

It is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.


The name comes from Greek/Roman plays that ended with a god let down from a crane to sort out the problems at the end.

 

[direkiller]

Does a deus ex machina have to specifically relate to the end of a story?

No it can be any seemingly insurmountable obstacle overcome by new shiny power/person/thing that was never explained foreshadowed.