Umm... you realize that that is a joke right? As in it's a spoof of when a character dies in a movie to give the other characters another reason to fight, and then they happen to find someone they can replace him with in the nick of time.mastermerrick said:
Worst use of Deus Ex Machina you've ever seen
- Thread starter Pappytech
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I personally always referred to is as the DEM pen (Deus Ex Machina for those not seeing the obvious).Actual said:
My most hated DEM was the character Deus Ex Machina in the final Matrix movie. Sure part of it may be his name... Well that may be a big reason. Anywho, he appears out of nowhere, no fore-mentioning ever of his character, or of having a big role in the machines hierarchy, and he just happens to have the authority to call off the war between man and machine. Also it might be good to note, The Matrix probably has countless other instances like this, but I'm going to keep it to this, to sustain my sanity.
The horcruxes and the hallows in Harry Potter. They did nothing to add to the plot, confused things and were made out to be the pivotal story elements. After finishing the last Harry Potter book, I wondered what on earth JK Rowling was thinking.
Actually, the Gravity Gun getting superpowered is complete deus ex machina. Its an EXTREMELY fortuitous happenstance that comes completely out of nowhere and happens to be exactly what Gordon needs to finish the battle, to the point that taking away all his other weapons as payment doesn't hinder him in the least. There is no hint at all that this sort of thing can happen: The Gravity Gun up until that point has never malfunctioned when around Combine tech (even going through their teleporter didn't foul it up), and has never even begun to demonstrate that it was capable of manipulating living flesh beyond blasting headcrabs. Hell, it even starts glowing a different color for no apparent reason. Granted, we don't know really anything about how the GG or Combine tech works (other than that it involves manipulating gravity fields...somehow), but ignorance of its workings doesn't mean it isn't impossible. As Asimov said, its indistinguishable from magic, and suddenly getting stronger for no real reason doesn't make sense in any field.Yellow Journalist said:
As for Bond, you are right, but there is at least one big example. In Goldeneye, when Bond uses his watch laser to get out of the train before it explodes. Its DxM because, up until that point, no indication was given that Bond had a watch laser. It wasn't mentioned by Q, and he doesn't use it beforehand. He just sort of remembers he has it right at a convenient moment. I'm sure there are others, but that has always been one of my favorites.
As for my contribution to the thread, I'm going to go with two of my favorite movie examples. In The Bad Seed, the villain just about gets away with murder with absolutely no retribution, just to get struck by a lightning bolt completely out of nowhere. And, one of the most famous (and literal) examples: The ending of Raider's of the Lost Ark. Who knew that opening the Ark of the Covenant would LITERALLY cause God to kill you in the messiest way he could think of? Or that not looking at it would somehow protect you?
As far as video games go, The Magic Vortigaunts from the HL2 episodes, the finales of Death Toll and Dark Carnival in Left 4 Dead, and the ending of the vanilla Dawn of War 2 campaign all come to mind.
Except deadlocks and wood. Trees. The ultimate enemy of the Doctor.Actual said:
OT: The worst Machine of the gods? Well, i'm not sure if this counts, but the Left 4 Dead survivors having an infinite supply of clones trapped in closests and bathrooms across the country is really hard to swallow.
I know this and I do like it because it's in-keeping with all of the romantic idealisms that I hold near and dear, but it still is far-fetched and requires the hand of god to be plausible. I was mistaken to put it in a thread of the 'worst' but it certainly is blatant.NameIsRobertPaulson said:
But since the whole series brings in to question the nature and purpose of god, then it really adds to it in an ironic way.i7omahawki said:
I wouldn't call that one seeing as it isn't totally out of left field. Most of the supposed Deus Ex Machinas in Dragon Ball Z are actually usually hinted at for most of the Saga, and in the Cell Saga's case for the entire show seeing as everyone was always talking about Gohan's hidden power since the fight with Radditz.WaaghPowa said:
Are you talking about the giant floating spikey head thing? I would assume that is some kind of collective of all the machines' intelligence, or something.xerounlimited said:
Also, what are you talking about? There was only one Matrix movie. Anyone who says different is crazy. http://xkcd.com/566/
At first I thought you meant Machinima made in Deus Ex [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex], not Out-Of-Nowhere plot devices. As for the worst, the only thing that I can think of at the moment is Dream Eater Merry's really stupid the-protagonist-now-has-a-giant-sword plot device. Yes, it falls into the anime-character-acquires-power-that-was-never-mentioned-like-ever category, but it does it in a way that makes me both want to congratulate it a simultaneously punch it in the face.
I kind of think it is. Granted, we know almost nothing about the gravity gun, but I just found it hard to believe that everything else you had, including the combine assault rifle, was destroyed, but the gg only got a power-up.Athinira said:
Granted, it was freaking awesome, but it just came out of nowhere. With no explanation for how it happened. So, yeah. Deus ex machina.
To expose my inner Trekkie for a moment: The prophets from Deep Space 9.
Seriously, I know Deus ex Machina is a pretty common device in TV shows, but when the TV show uses ACTUAL GODS to do it, they've clearly lost all sense of subtlety. I forgot which episode, its been years, but at one point the Dominion has destroyed the minefield around the wormhole (behind which is a huge fleet that will annihilate what's left of the federation and klingons). Now this is personally where I expected the Romulans to ambush the dominion, or Sisko to somehow destroy the entrance to the wormhole or some technobabble solution. Sure, in the end it would still be a DEM, but at least it would kind-of make sense in the trek universe.
But no, Sisko talks to the self-righteous pricks of the Wormhole, the enemy fleet vanishes and the day is saved. Fucking bullshit.
Seriously, I know Deus ex Machina is a pretty common device in TV shows, but when the TV show uses ACTUAL GODS to do it, they've clearly lost all sense of subtlety. I forgot which episode, its been years, but at one point the Dominion has destroyed the minefield around the wormhole (behind which is a huge fleet that will annihilate what's left of the federation and klingons). Now this is personally where I expected the Romulans to ambush the dominion, or Sisko to somehow destroy the entrance to the wormhole or some technobabble solution. Sure, in the end it would still be a DEM, but at least it would kind-of make sense in the trek universe.
But no, Sisko talks to the self-righteous pricks of the Wormhole, the enemy fleet vanishes and the day is saved. Fucking bullshit.
Ok, last try. The Core. Core of the earth has stopped turning, but we cant drill that deep + its very hot there and the pressure destroys everything. Oh, I guess there is some guy in the desert that has this machine which can tunnel through a mountain + he has this really strong material. We now can build a machine that can drill into the earth core + its hard enough to withstand the pressure and heat down there.
Please tell me this is a DEM.
mfG diebane
Please tell me this is a DEM.
mfG diebane
What, you mean like this?dyre said:
True, it's only one scene earlier, but it is set up.Macbeth said:
The Core.
Hey, the mmachine to go to the earh core is broke."
"Don't worry, I made an exact one across the planet with LESS money."
Even the MOVIE think that is fucking ridiculous, in fact everything in that movie stupid.
Hey, the mmachine to go to the earh core is broke."
"Don't worry, I made an exact one across the planet with LESS money."
Even the MOVIE think that is fucking ridiculous, in fact everything in that movie stupid.