Worst use of Deus Ex Machina you've ever seen

[Kadoodle]

And would the Vita-chambers of bioshock count?

Yahtzee labelled them as "Deus ex Machina o' matics."

 

[WouldYouKindly]

It's so hard to come up with clear examples now that I have to think of one.

Here we go. Numerous examples in Harry Potter. The frickin time machine in the third one and the Room of Requirement. Oh, and the Basalisk only petrifying people when seen in reflections. Who the shit knew that before hand?

 

[Flailing Escapist]

The mother f$#king eagles in Lord of The Rings!
Seriously!

 

[magicaxis]

I found an example of the opposite! the anti-deus ex machina if you will.
MW2, A seemingly simple plot is suddenly turn inextricable and nonsensical with the introduction of a revolver bullet to the chest from your commander. IT MAKES NO SENSE!! AARG

 

[Pappytech]

I'm fairly certain Batman's utility belt contains a pocket dimension, considering all the gadgets he magically pulls out of it.

This made me imagine that inside his utility belt is a dimension where everything is made out of pockets. Pockets are EVERYWHERE in the Pocket Dimension! You'll never lose anything again!
It's kind of like a candy bar bag inside of a candy bar bag carrying bag inside of a duffel bag inside of a briefcase stuffed into a backpack that's been loaded into a cargo container which is stored in a warehouse that's tucked inside your pocket! INSEAMPOCKET.

That wasn't at all what I meant... but it is freaking amazing. I like the way you think.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Spoiler

Okay, Aang decides to not kill Mark Hamill (Fire Lord). Cool. I have no complaints. Problem is, he has no idea how to disable him otherwise. Them bam, a giant turtle lion thing comes out of nowhere to teach him how to deactivate elemental prowess (off-screen at that) and he disables Mark Hamill's fire out of nowhere.

Maybe not the worst, but it still pisses me off.

Another is Gurren Lagann. All of it. I know Gainax meant to do that, but I still don't like that show because of it. It's called Spiral Power.

 

[OutforEC]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but 'Funny Games' has the most blatant example I can remember:

Spoiler: Deus Ex Machina

During the movie's climax, Naomi Watts's character quickly snatches a shotgun off a table and shoots one of the two intruders in the house. The remaining intruder picks up a remote and rewinds the scene, allowing it to play forward again, this time stopping the shotgun from being taken. I realize the director created the situation as a statement against moviegoer's expectations for the nice tidy endings to most horror movies, but isn't DEM still DEM even when it's intended?

Edit: Oh, and you can't mention The Holy Grail without throwing in Time Bandits!

 

[U_NavMan]

Always been slightly irked by Tom Bombadil's appearance in the book version of the Lord of the Rings.

 

[Mallefunction]

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."

THIS, SO HARD! I honestly gave up on the manga after that. Sasuke beating Orochimaru was bad enough, but this was SUCH bullcrap. Also, lightning being Earth's weakness? How does that work!?

 

[Wintermoot]

the degeneracy reactor scene in Diebuster (not Gunbuster they explained it there)
how the fuck did she know WHERE that thing was and what to do with it?

 

[mastermerrick]

snip

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.

I know... dosen't make it any less of one.

 

[hydroblitz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF7N4KQkXFE

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

The entire backstory of Assassin's Creed....its just the developers saying "this 2012 thing is pretty popular...lets makes the pieces of eden have something to do with that." and star people...and the universe ending in some giant fireball. I think me and Desmond had the same idea when we both said "What the..."

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Always been slightly irked by Tom Bombadil's appearance in the book version of the Lord of the Rings.

Seeing as how its very possible that Bombadil IS a God of some form or another, then it would be a very literal Deus Ex Machina. I agree though, his powers are completely ridiculous for what is actually going on at that point the in the story. Plus, the path he sends the Hobbits on (through the Barrow Downs) just seemed so much more dangerous and unnecessary than, say, simply escorting them down the main road and helping them stay hidden. Its like he is showing off :/

Another is Gurren Lagann. All of it. I know Gainax meant to do that, but I still don't like that show because of it. It's called Spiral Power.

Honestly, even though most of its uses are complete ass-pulls, I don't think Spiral Power qualifies as DxM. Its pretty well established from the moment you find out what it is (and even before) that the whole nature of Spiral Energy causes its users to rise to meet whatever challenge is put in front of them. It makes sense in a weird, obtuse way when you remember that Spiral energy=Forced Evolution of sorts. Its shown from the very first episode: Bad things happen, things look bad, good guys get pissed, Spiral Energy, good guys get stronger and overcome. Doesn't explain how it does crazy stuff like make giant drills or turn moles into humans, but, you know, it IS an anime after all.

 

[jumjalalabash]

Aizen and Hogyoku from Bleach. Basically Aizen has to the power to make the previous chapter/ episode completely invalid to the overall scheme of things and the Hogyoku can literally just make shit up if the wielder wants it. Truly he is the king of trolls.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

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

Wow that actually makes alot of sense, I never did 'get' FF8's plot. The whole thing just got wierder and wierder.

 

[salinv]

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.

Though, there are times where what is technically a Chekov's Gun (or any variation), comes off as a "light" Deus Ex Machina.

OT: if you want a list of Deus Ex Machina examples, go to the bottom of this page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusExMachina

Gawd, I love this site.

 

[Foxblade618]

How about anything that the Tessaiga and related paraphernalia does from that stupid anime Inuyasha

 

[aarontg]

Every half hour in metro 2033.

 

[Mesca]

How about anything that the Tessaiga and related paraphernalia does from that stupid anime Inuyasha

Not particularly. Unless I forgot something super obvious, the only one I can think of there was the Backlash Wave.
"Oh by the way, there's a secret move I didn't mention until this exact second that you were gonna lose." The series itself is still boring as hell.

Speaking of which, I'll give Ichigo's full Hollow form against Ulquiorra a pass. It was a terrible bit of writing, but it was fairly foreshadowed. It was just really fucking stupid. A straight up Deus was his Final Form Bankai. Not only does it come from nowhere, but he gets it offscreen. Face, meet palm, meet wall.