Worst use of Deus Ex Machina you've ever seen

[Jaime_Wolf]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Battlestar Galactica, and it's a painfully literal use of it too. So disappointing after such a great show.

 

[ProtonGuy]

Rocks fall everyone dies. Any good dungeon masters deus ex ace in the hole... for him, not the players.

 

[Spawny0908]

i direct you to every last turn in every episode of yugioh ever

THIS!!! That annoyed me to no end! If I had that kind of luck I'd go straight to Vegas!

 

[Evil Alpaca]

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.

This one is a perfect example of Deus Ex Machina. It comes out of nowhere with no explanation or warning.



OT: For the people mentioning James Bond Gadgets, there is one movie where a gadget turns out to be useless in a situation he could use it. In Live and Let Die with Roger Moore as Bond, he is given a watch that can emit a strong magnetic pulse. When Bond is trapped in a pond filled with crocodiles, he turns the watch on to try and pull a boat to him but is thwarted because the boat is tied to the dock. Course, Bond still manages to escape, but its one of the few times that a bond gadget has failed to be useful.

 

[Furioso]

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.

No he met the turtle thing before that, its been a while since I saw the show but I remember him being on an island that turned out to be the lion turtle and he talked to him about how not to kill the fire lord or something or other

 

[Spawny0908]

I GOT ONE!!! The movie Signs!!!

*SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!*

1)An advanced alien race invades Earth, a planet that is covered in FUCKING WATER. What are they weak to? WATER!!! And it just so happens the daughter like to leave glasses of the shit lying around!

2)The son has asthma the one and only condition that could've protected him when he gets a shot of poison up the nose at the end!

3) Mel Gibson's wife while dying tell him to tell his brother to "swing away", which is exactly what he needs to hear when the alien attacks the house.

...Deus Ex Machinas up the fuggin ass!

 

[lowkey_jotunn]

One that comes to mind for me (and please correct me if this doesn't directly fit into the definition of a Deus Ex Machina) is anytime in a action movie, book, game or whatever. During the final battle when the main character is losing horribly to their enemy, they witness their love interest get killed.This then gives said main character a sudden surge of power due to his/her love that gives them the strength to take down their enemy just as they're about to be beaten.

Or is that just a tired cliche that I can't stand? Either way, it's an annoying plot device. >.>

Not quite, but close. Imagine if during that big final battle, some random person in the crowd dies. Not a main character, not even anyone you've ever met before. But suddenly the hero says "THAT WAS MY BEST FRIEND EVER" and proceeds to get the mystical powerup that lets him win the fight. That would be more DXM

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?

mfG diebane

Joker saw it as a win/win. If Batman hits him, then Joker has forced Batman to break his code (never kill.) This will inevitably send Bats into a spiral of depression and grief that will torment him for the rest of his life.

Or batman misses, crashes the bike and joker lols.

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.

Less DXM if you know what REALLY happened

go to http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/Avatar and read the 3rd entry: "The entire movie is an Xanatos Gambit by the hive mind, aka Eywa." It will all become clear. (yes spoilers, in case that needs to be mentioned)

 

[KingParappa]

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?

How else was Herminone going to get to all those classes in the 3rd book? Time travel that the government regulates.

The room of requirement was mentioned a whole book before it was actually used. Apparently so old geezer that wrote it in a book knew about the Basalisk gaze.

Well these do seem like DEM if you are watching the movie but in the book each is hinted at or out right explained because they had time to. Books > Movies with books as source material

 

[Nexus4]

Most blatant would be Serial Experiments Lain, in which at the end she basically hits a giant reset button for reality. However, worst would have to be at the end of the Appleseed OVA where Duenan fails to type in the final letter of the password, then it just kinda of magically types itself in. The might have been an explanation for this, I saw it ages ago so I don't really remember if there was.

 

[The Apothecarry]

Grenadier: The Beautiful Warrior. One of the most ridiculous and funniest anime I've ever seen. There's one scene where Yatchan cuts a massive tank shell in half with his katana...WHAT.

 

[Echo136]

Jaws surving being blown up THREE times

That has absolutely nothing to do with Deus Ex Machina

 

[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?

How else was Herminone going to get to all those classes in the 3rd book? Time travel that the government regulates.

The room of requirement was mentioned a whole book before it was actually used. Apparently so old geezer that wrote it in a book knew about the Basalisk gaze.

Well these do seem like DEM if you are watching the movie but in the book each is hinted at or out right explained because they had time to. Books > Movies with books as source material

I've read them all. Even in the books, the Room of Req is a major DEM,. It's never explained exactly how it does what it does, then again, it's been quite a while since I've read them. It's just magic, which is not explained at all in that universe anyway, which strikes me as DEM too. Since no limits are really placed on it, magic can do anything. Any plot hole you got? It's fuckin magic.

 

[Kurt Cristal]

Okay, guys. HALF of all these posts are not Deus Ex Machinas. They're just hand-waves or rule of cool.

 

[Zannah]

People pulling new powers in Naruto, is sort of ok - this is how these kind of series work, and try to stay interesting (excluding here of course the main character, who only has two boring techniques, just cause)

Naruto (being one of the worst written characters in all of anime) still takes the cake though, with the ending of the pain arc. "Oh gawrsh, you're the hero, guess you'll hit me now, with a technique I have shown to easily dodge, and shrug of. Oh, and now that you totally convinced me WITH DA POWA OF FRIENDSHIP, let me just ressurect every character I killed off, and die in the process, completely sucking any moral dilemma or impact from the last thirty episodes"

 

[Sharpiez]

Harry Potter

The Deathly Hallows and the Horcruxxes appearing in the last 25% of the series when it is all that pertains to beating the bad guy is... Pretty bad.

Edit: And by that I mean, who knew that Dumbledore and Harry had access to 2 of the 3 most powerful weapons of wizardry ever?

 

[KingParappa]

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?

How else was Herminone going to get to all those classes in the 3rd book? Time travel that the government regulates.

The room of requirement was mentioned a whole book before it was actually used. Apparently so old geezer that wrote it in a book knew about the Basalisk gaze.

Well these do seem like DEM if you are watching the movie but in the book each is hinted at or out right explained because they had time to. Books > Movies with books as source material

I've read them all. Even in the books, the Room of Req is a major DEM,. It's never explained exactly how it does what it does, then again, it's been quite a while since I've read them. It's just magic, which is not explained at all in that universe anyway, which strikes me as DEM too. Since no limits are really placed on it, magic can do anything. Any plot hole you got? It's fuckin magic.

lol well yea Magic itself is kinda the DEM in HP... Wait...Harry himself is a DEM

 

[triggrhappy94]

I hate how in Bones they always use some kind of fictional science stuff to solve every murder.
Like in the most recent Batman movie, when Batman uses a computer to put a shattered bullet back together than he gets a finger print off the bullet. While its still buried in cement

 

[Yorkshire_matt]

Life, the Universe and Everything

 

[DustyDrB]

I'm pretty sure that Digimon Adventure ran on dei ex machina[footnote]Why yes, I did Google "plural of deus ex machina". Thanks for noticing.[/footnote]. Pretty much every time the gang was in trouble by the {villain who is unstoppable and all-powerful, even more powerful and unstoppable than the last unstoppable and all-powerful villain[footnote]But not quite as strong as the next unstoppable and all-powerful villain[/footnote]}...

It would go like this:

Spunky Leader Kid: "Oh no, Adorablemon! You're just not strong enough! Gagamon is just too unstoppable and all-powerful! We're doomed! I just wish there was something I could do to save my friends!"

*Adorablemon radiates a celestial light*

Adorablemon: "Spunky Leader Kid! The power of your love is giving me the ability to digivolve into MEGAULTRA(all-powerful, unstoppable)FRIENDLYDINOSAURMON!! Rawr!"

♪Digi-mon, digital monsters digimon are the champ-yons♪

Good guys win. The process repeats.