Worst use of Deus Ex Machina you've ever seen

[That's Funny]

/Snip

Is still counts with Lex Luthor though, he can just erase Lex Luthor knowing anything about Superman's fortress of solitude. Coupled with the fact that the plot device is only introduced to make sure Lois doesn't know about Klark, it is Deus Ex Machina IMO

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Have you seen the How It Should Have Ended version of LotR? It was awesome.

LOL, I just googled it, bloody brilliant! That's EXACTLY what I'm talking about, wouldn't even have had to land. :-D Obviously I'm not the only one to wonder that then.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

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.

How did they use Deus Ex Machina to end BSG?

 

[Athinira]

Why did the gravity gun survive disintegration in Half Life 2?

Why is that even mentioned? It's not even close to qualifying as a Deus Ex Machina.

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.

Granted, it was freaking awesome, but it just came out of nowhere. With no explanation for how it happened. So, yeah. Deus ex machina.

It's still not Deus Ex Machina as long as it wasn't the definitive thing that "saved the day".

You still don't know if Gordon would have managed to beat the combine even if the Gravity Gun had been destroyed (or just not upgraded to superpowers). He could have found another weapon for example (ironically when you get the improved gravity gun, you also lose the ability to pick up other weapons even though Gordon has been perfectly capable of this the entire game) and perhaps solved the situations in other ways.

 

[somonels]

Either magic or a divine entity.

 

[Music Mole]

The gravity gun is technically not a weapon, and for all we know unknown to exist by the combine. I'm just assuming here but when the machine scanned Freeman it didn't recognize the gravity gun as a weapon, so when it vaporized the other weapons the radiation from the scanner had a charging effect on the zero point energy manipulator.

EDIT: In case anyone asks, I came to this conclusion just using logic. I have no citations or other information.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Anyone here read the Doom novels? I would rant about how horrible the last 2 were, but whenever I think about those books I get a headache. No, seriously, I'm not kidding. My brain literally starts hurting from the pure stupid that soaked those pages.

 

[Korolev]

Final Fantasy XIII's ending. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't played it, but the main characters basically do the stupidest thing and end up getting saved by a ridiculous plot device they had no way of predicting would occur. It was the stupidest ending seen in a long while (although the CGI was very pretty)

SPOILERS:

Okay I don't want to give too much away but the basic plot of FFXIII is about the main villain trying to trick the main cast into doing action X, or they suffer a terrible fate. The protagonists don't want to do action X, so...... they proceed to directly do EXACTLY what the main villain told them to do. It's like if the Main Villain had said "Ahah! My master plan is for you to push that button!", and the main characters said "No! We won't push that button! Now, charge and push that button!" It was literally the stupidest plan ever, and the only reason they get saved is due to some deus ex machina nonsense they couldn't have predicted.

I was incredibly annoyed at the ending of FFXIII. What a terrible story.

 

[HaMSt3rBoT]

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, or a device that he makes to create glow in the dark noses is also an alien translation device. It's blatantly awful, but it's deliberate and hilarious.

SO...yes...worst in use and placement, but perhaps best in result, because the audience knows it's there, but accepts it and enjoys it...

When deus ex is used in a comedic sense, like in your example and the Monty Python one, it really isn't that bad. In fact, it can be freaking hilarious.

But when people do it seriously, that's when it gets annoying.

Exactly, especially since in comedies Futurama and Monty Python, the writers are fully aware of this, and INTENTIONALLY try to take advantage of the fact that you're going "WHAT THE SHIT?" when it transpires.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver. Every fucking episode he waves that thing around says some tech mumbo jumbo, bad guys fuck off, and the episode ends. It's such lazy writing.

That's not dues ex machina, that's like saying that every episode the TARDIS shows up is lazy, too. He has a tool. If he had a gun, I bet killing people would be dues ex machina, too. (The over-dependence of the screwdriver is pretty stupid, but they are getting better, but that's not an example of deus ex machina.)

But, well, my answer is Doctor Who too, just not that bit. I don't like Russell T. Davies' deus ex machina of the sound of drums = a Time Lord's drum beat, or anything resulting in "IT'S THE DALEKS!!" ...he's the world champion of amazing build-up followed by horrible, ineffective conclusions.

 

[hyker]

well, he's batman
'nuff said

 

[Scarim Coral]

How about the manga Berserk in where everyone were trap in that God Hand thing? Out of nowhere a skull knight suddently appear and save the two main characters.

 

[Woodsey]

"Why did the gravity gun survive disintegration in Half Life 2? "

Does that count? Its not the same as the other weapons, its not unreasonable to assume the science-y stuff inside would react differently to the science-y stuff that disintegrates the weapons.

I dunno. I'm also pretty terrible at spotting a Deus Ex Machina.

 

[Loonyyy]

Just a note people: Deus Ex Machina usually is restricted to something which was not foreshadowed. When literally, the characters or the plot simply pulls the plot device out of thin air. If they showed it before: such as James Bond gadgets then it is NOT Deus Ex Machina.
Batman. Just... Batman "Time to pull out my magic shark repellent... EMP... FORCE FIELD" that's just... If you have them why not make the Asylum unescapable? No? Oh Batman you silly man.

 

[Joepow]

Have you seen the How It Should Have Ended version of LotR? It was awesome.

LOL, I just googled it, bloody brilliant! That's EXACTLY what I'm talking about, wouldn't even have had to land. :-D Obviously I'm not the only one to wonder that then.

Problem is that Sauron would have Mindcontrolled the eagles and the Nazgûls would have ripped them to shreds while the orcs fired a billions arrows into their brains.

Things aren't that easy, and how did they even catch the eagles? And I think the other eagles would be a little pissed if half of them were captured.

There are a few problems with that.

First, I'm pretty sure there isn't any mention of Sauron being able to mind control someone directly(although I could be wrong).

Second, how are you so sure that Sauron would have detected the eagles? If Gandalf and Aragorn with his army distracted Sauron like in the original story, the eagles could probably fly into mordor undetected.

Third, we know that eagles can fly very high:

"Look!" cried Legolas, pointing up into the pale sky above them. "There is the eagle again! He is very high. He seems to be flying now away, from this land and back to the north. He is going with great speed. Look!"

"No, not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas," said Aragorn. "He must be far aloft indeed. I wonder what is his errand, if he is the same bird I have seen before[...]" (II, 30)

If Aragorn can't even see them, then they are obviously out of range of a bow>

And lastly, they didn't need to capture any eagles. The eagles have willingly helped in the battle against Sauron before.

(more details <a href=http://www.sean-crist.com/personal/pages/eagles/index.html>here)

 

[ACman]

Ghostbusters has a good one.

To paraphrase:

"I think we should cross the streams."

"You said don't cross the streams."

"Nah this time it'll be rad."

Streams cross, everything explodes with mashmellow, "bye, bye" other dimensional monster.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver. Every fucking episode he waves that thing around says some tech mumbo jumbo, bad guys fuck off, and the episode ends. It's such lazy writing.

They addresed that in the middle seasons, they just took teh damned thing out, so the doctor had to fix things all McGuyver style =D

 

[Amethyst Wind]

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

In my opinion this became worse during "YuGiOh GX" or what it was called: First the protagonist drops to 100 hitpoints, then he draws "Pot of Greed" which he uses to draw two cards which he could fuse or combo with another card he already had on his hand. Then he bashes his opponent into pieces from like 2800 Hitpoints.
I once had a theory about the card "Pot of Greed": When you have 100 Hitpoints you have a higher chance to draw this card because of the heart of cards

There's a better example in GX. In season 3, the main protagonist (Judai) has turned evil and if dueling a secondary protagonist (Jim)

It's a two part episode, and between episodes Judai literally gains 100 extra lifepoints from nowhere, he wins the duel with 50 lifepoints left. If you follow the duel from start to finish, at no point does he activate any effect that grants him those extra 100 points, he should have lost but doesn't through 100% unjustifiable Deus Ex Machina.

 

[Spacewolf]

Have you seen the How It Should Have Ended version of LotR? It was awesome.

LOL, I just googled it, bloody brilliant! That's EXACTLY what I'm talking about, wouldn't even have had to land. :-D Obviously I'm not the only one to wonder that then.

Problem is that Sauron would have Mindcontrolled the eagles and the Nazgûls would have ripped them to shreds while the orcs fired a billions arrows into their brains.

Things aren't that easy, and how did they even catch the eagles? And I think the other eagles would be a little pissed if half of them were captured.

There are a few problems with that.

First, I'm pretty sure there isn't any mention of Sauron being able to mind control someone directly(although I could be wrong).

Second, how are you so sure that Sauron would have detected the eagles? If Gandalf and Aragorn with his army distracted Sauron like in the original story, the eagles could probably fly into mordor undetected.

Third, we know that eagles can fly very high:

"Look!" cried Legolas, pointing up into the pale sky above them. "There is the eagle again! He is very high. He seems to be flying now away, from this land and back to the north. He is going with great speed. Look!"

"No, not even my eyes can see him, my good Legolas," said Aragorn. "He must be far aloft indeed. I wonder what is his errand, if he is the same bird I have seen before[...]" (II, 30)

If Aragorn can't even see them, then they are obviously out of range of a bow>

And lastly, they didn't need to capture any eagles. The eagles have willingly helped in the battle against Sauron before.

(more details <a href=http://www.sean-crist.com/personal/pages/eagles/index.html>here)

The eagles are literal Deus ex machina as they are severants of the god Manwe the reason that they dont intervene more is that the races of middle earth have to sort sauron out themselves as its their fault he still exists