Can You Find The Deus Ex Machina?

Bass

Nexus of the World
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Bass said:
"Deus Ex Machina" literally means "God in the Machine".

It is a storytelling term.

It comes from Ancient Greece where the playwright would end up with all his characters frenetically caught in an exciting and tense position with no way out (like all good stories) - then two actors (playing Apollo and Athena or what not) on pulleys are descended onto the stage (hence "Deus Ex Machina") and they reward the righteous and punish the villainous. Then, the story resolved, they return to Mount Olympus.

It is a term used to describe the greatest sin of a writer - to end your story on coincidence, on random chance, ending your story by removing all consequence and responsibility from your characters.

(It's worth noting, that it is possible to make a deus ex machina ending actually work - it is however, extremely difficult to do. But that's a lesson for another time.)

Upload some deus ex machinas that you find. The higher profile the better.
 
Dallas. When it was revealed that Bobby being shot and everything else after that (see: an entire season or two) was just a dream. That is the perfect example of a deus ex machina.
 
Bass said:
Upload some deus ex machinas that you find. The higher profile the better.

Spider-man Clone Saga?

Bascially it just stumbled along for 2 years and they decided to end it by bringing Green Goblin out of the blue.

Yes? No?
 
Didn't Millar's MK Spidey end with a big Deus Ex Machina? The lightning?
 
Dallas is a deus ex machina, correct, Doc Comic.

Ultimate E said:
Spider-man Clone Saga?

Bascially it just stumbled along for 2 years and they decided to end it by bringing Green Goblin out of the blue.
Yes? No?

Not sure. I never read the ending.

moonmaster said:
Didn't Millar's MK Spidey end with a big Deus Ex Machina? The lightning?

Mooney, Millar's MK run did not end with a deus ex machina.

It ended with FOUR!

That's right! King of deus ex machina. FOUR.

Deus ex machina #1 - Spider-Man and Black Cat face off against the Sinister Twelve. After one punch, the Avengers show up and save them.

Deus ex machina #2 - Green Goblin threatens to throw MJ off the Brooklyn (?) bridge - but Doctor Octopus attacks him because he was "brainwashed" ages ago (how he knew GG would be there is beyond comprehension).

Deus ex machina #3 - Spider-Man, holding MJ in his arms, as Doc Ock and GG fight on the bridge, witnesses them both getting struck by lighting and falling into the river.

Deus ex machina #4 - GG kidnapped Aunt May and never told Spider-Man where he hid her. Spider-Man has been unable to find her. He suddenly, out of the blue, works it out by just thinking about it. No new clue. He just thought about it a bit.

FOUR ladies and gentlemen! Four!

Plus, the previous two 4-part arcs also each ended with a deus ex machina.

Good find, Mooney! :D
 
Bass said:
Dallas is a deus ex machina, correct, Doc Comic.



Not sure. I never read the ending.



Mooney, Millar's MK run did not end with a deus ex machina.

It ended with FOUR!

That's right! King of deus ex machina. FOUR.

Deus ex machina #1 - Spider-Man and Black Cat face off against the Sinister Twelve. After one punch, the Avengers show up and save them.

Deus ex machina #2 - Green Goblin threatens to throw MJ off the Brooklyn (?) bridge - but Doctor Octopus attacks him because he was "brainwashed" ages ago (how he knew GG would be there is beyond comprehension).

Deus ex machina #3 - Spider-Man, holding MJ in his arms, as Doc Ock and GG fight on the bridge, witnesses them both getting struck by lighting and falling into the river.

Deus ex machina #4 - GG kidnapped Aunt May and never told Spider-Man where he hid her. Spider-Man has been unable to find her. He suddenly, out of the blue, works it out by just thinking about it. No new clue. He just thought about it a bit.

FOUR ladies and gentlemen! Four!

Plus, the previous two 4-part arcs also each ended with a deus ex machina.

Good find, Mooney! :D
I beat you all. Please vacate this thread and let me bask in my winnings.
 
I dont know if its a Deus Ex Machina but

In Kingdom Come, when they had the prison Break and the fight is out of control, the priest says that superman is busy and there is no salvation and then Batman and his team appears and start to save some ***es.
 
Not really.

It's not coincidence, nor is it the ending of the story.

Deus ex machina is thespecifically, the end of a story. Coincidence to turn a beginning is absolutely fine. The further into a story, the less tolerable coincidence becomes.
 
UltimateE said:
Spider-man Clone Saga?

Bascially it just stumbled along for 2 years and they decided to end it by bringing Green Goblin out of the blue.

Yes? No?

Not really, that had been building for a good while. Gaunt's "employer" had been mentioned several times. Best comeback ever btw.
 
The episode of Futurama where everybody becomes rich and Fry drinks all of those coffees, and he gets superhuman speed just as a fire breaks out and everybody's going to die. Then after everything is done, everybody's money is gone and Fry is back to normal.
 
Doc Comic said:
The episode of Futurama where everybody becomes rich and Fry drinks all of those coffees, and he gets superhuman speed just as a fire breaks out and everybody's going to die. Then after everything is done, everybody's money is gone and Fry is back to normal.

Ha, I remember that one. Fry had the coffee hit-counter at the bottom.

The one season finale of Married With Children, where Peggy's pregnancy was all a dream by Al is often criticized as a Deus Ex Machina, but in reality she was actually pregnant but had a miscarriage and the producers would have found it cruel to continue with the pregnancy/birth on the show.

And at the end of Dodgeball, when the Average Joe's win the money, the chest says "Deus Ex Machina" on it.
 
My least favorite comics example: the end of Avengers: Disassembled, when Strange shows up out of the blue and explains the last 3 issues (not to mention re-interpreting Marvel history) to them. And then Magneto shows up, evil (not to mention DEAD) villain, to claim his daughter and they hand her over and it's all done.

That's TWO. Not 4, true, but it's more than 1 in one issue.
 
Doc Comic said:
The episode of Futurama where everybody becomes rich and Fry drinks all of those coffees, and he gets superhuman speed just as a fire breaks out and everybody's going to die. Then after everything is done, everybody's money is gone and Fry is back to normal.

I dunno, I mean they had been leading up to it for the entire episode.

I think a bigger one is when Bender shows Fry his "closet" at the very end of I, Roomate.
 
Doc Comic said:
The episode of Futurama where everybody becomes rich and Fry drinks all of those coffees, and he gets superhuman speed just as a fire breaks out and everybody's going to die. Then after everything is done, everybody's money is gone and Fry is back to normal.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Then again, that's not surprising since Futurama (and Simpsons as well) is built entirely on absurd deus ex machinas.
 
Rhyo said:
My least favorite comics example: the end of Avengers: Disassembled, when Strange shows up out of the blue and explains the last 3 issues (not to mention re-interpreting Marvel history) to them. And then Magneto shows up, evil (not to mention DEAD) villain, to claim his daughter and they hand her over and it's all done.

That's TWO. Not 4, true, but it's more than 1 in one issue.

This, I think, was just worse than MK Spidey. These deus ex machinas lasted for two whole issues. It was a despicable ending.
 
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Rhyo said:
My least favorite comics example: the end of Avengers: Disassembled, when Strange shows up out of the blue and explains the last 3 issues (not to mention re-interpreting Marvel history) to them. And then Magneto shows up, evil (not to mention DEAD) villain, to claim his daughter and they hand her over and it's all done.

That's TWO. Not 4, true, but it's more than 1 in one issue.
The thing I always say about that, is that they didn't just "hand her over". They didn't go, "Here you go, dude. Take your daughter and skit." He came and took her and was out before anyone could do anything about it. But this isn't the thread for that, and I've said more than I should. Back to Deus Ex Machina.


And by the way, how exactly do you pronounce that?

Doose X Ma-shee-na

or

Doose Eck Ma-kee-na

or what?


I think its the first one, but my old english teacher always said the 2nd one.
 
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icemastertron said:
The thing I always say about that, is that they didn't just "hand her over". They didn't go, "Here you go, dude. Take your daughter and skit." He came and took her and was out before anyone could do anything about it. But this isn't the thread for that, and I've said more than I should. Back to Deus Ex Machina.

Okay.

That, what you just described? It's deus ex machina. All powerful being comes down and sorts it all out without anyone being involved. Deus ex machina through and through. Magneto is no different than an accidental dimensional rift appearing out of nowhere and taking her away to another world. It's random, it takes all choice, climax, and consequence out of the characters, it's lazy, it's cheating, and it's despicable writing. Deus ex machina.

As for the pronounciation, it's "DAY-yoos EX MAH-kin-ah". Though that could be bollocks as I'm pretty sure no one really knows. But it's how all the cool people say it. :)
 
Bass said:
Okay.

That, what you just described? It's deus ex machina. All powerful being comes down and sorts it all out without anyone being involved. Deus ex machina through and through. Magneto is no different than an accidental dimensional rift appearing out of nowhere and taking her away to another world. It's random, it takes all choice, climax, and consequence out of the characters, it's lazy, it's cheating, and it's despicable writing. Deus ex machina.
Oh, I wasnt trying to say it wasn't or anything. That wasn't what I was talking about.

Bass said:
As for the pronounciation, it's "DAY-yoos EX MAH-kin-ah". Though that could be bollocks as I'm pretty sure no one really knows. But it's how all the cool people say it. :)
I like say Doose-X-Macheena. It sounds so much better. :D
 
Bass said:
As for the pronounciation, it's "DAY-yoos EX MAH-kin-ah". Though that could be bollocks as I'm pretty sure no one really knows. But it's how all the cool people say it. :)
Thats how I pronounce it, so it must be cool.
 

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