The Deus Ex Machina

[VermillionWorks]

A sudden, very improbable circumstance, character, power, device, or whatever in a story that resolves a problem and/or saves the day. Things like an unknown hidden power defeating an incredibly strong enemy that otherwise wouldn't be beaten, or even some miracle that goes so far as to bring an important character back from the dead, or near death.

What is your opinion on these sort of miracle moments? Do you think they can be done well? Do you find yourself fine with them some of the time, unlikely or not? Or do you absolutely LOATHE them and think they are nothing but the result of poor writing? XP

[WintreKitty]

I think they can be awesome, if used correctly. For example, in The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Locke seems to get out of a lot of really sticky situations from either pure luck or some highly improbable plan that somehow works out. If the story gives off an air of luck, or somehow incorporates the improbability in a way that almost feels like, "Duh. Why didn't I think of that?" kind of obviousness, then you've got a good use of a miracle. Basically, it needs to be explained for me. I don't care how it is explained, just incorporate it into the story more than just "Oh, look at this thing that just popped out of nowhere. Let's use this to save the day."

Superhero stories have been known for their terrible use of deus ex machina. "Let me stop this immortal super villain -all by myself- who is clearly stronger than me, by using this supposedly one weakness he has that I found out about through sheer luck" kind of thing. I am probably going to roll my eyes at this one... but I'll still go see the movie...

It can definitely feel, not necessarily like lazy writing, but as if the writer created this villain or incident without thinking about what they can do to reach a conventional happy ending. Commit to the creation of a superior evil and either let it win or find a way for it to believably lose, or dull it down a bit so you can find a solution that makes sense.

[scythe]

It's pretty much unacceptable for any contemporary story, even though it was once considered a quite normal device. But like many, many things, modern audiences expect such a higher level of sophistication from their stories, that such blatant laziness virtually never goes down well unless it's really subtle and not overly consequential.

[keii4ii]

It can work if it delivers the last missing piece of the theme. The example I'm thinking of isn't modern; it's an ancient Korean story about a girl raised by her single father who is blind. Long story short, the girl wishes for her father to gain his sight and ends up throwing herself into a stormy sea in order to get her prayers heard (by Heaven and/or Buddha, NOT the sea -- this is important). The sea god is touched by her selflessness; he dresses her in a beautiful dress and sends her back to the land in a giant water lily blossom, which floats to a river by the royal palace. The king takes her as his wife.

Since then, she sends people out in search of her father, but is unsuccessful. Eventually she throws a royal banquet and invites every blind person in the country. On the last day of the banquet, she still hasn't found her father, and begins to think that maybe he didn't come because her prayers were heard, and he may no longer be blind. But at the last minute, her father shows up, still blind. The moment she runs to him and reveals herself as his daughter, he magically gains sight.

There was a play adaptation of this story, performed in Germany. The script writers thought the ending was too hard to believe, so they made a change: the sea god gives her an eye potion, which she uses on her father when she meets him on the last day of the banquet. When I found out about it, I laughed. They RUINED the whole story with that little change! The point of the story was there was a greater being, either Heaven or Buddha or whatever, that watched her all her life as she dedicated herself to helping her blind father. Not the sea god, who has a physical body in the story. A greater being who cannot be seen or sensed by humans, but watches us all nonetheless, making sure extraordinary selflessness receives its due.

So yeah... it's rarely permissible, but sometimes it is THE right way to write the story.

[TrustyShamrock]

yeah usually i think its just shabby writing. once upon a time does stuff like this all the time and it drives me crazy. it kinda makes all the drama or suspense or whatever seem like it doesnt matter cuz after a while yur just sittin there like "well why dont you just pull ZEUS ALL MIGHTY outta yur butt and have him throw lightning bolts at all the bad guys since that might as well have been how you been gettin by all the other times!"

buuut i also agree with people and think it could be done right. COULD. but dont risk it

[iddqd]

I think X-Files pulled it off a couple of times really well. There was that one episode (Agua Mala, Season 6) where water was initially set up to be a decidedly bad thing. As the plot thickens, a massive monsoon traps the characters in a seemingly abandoned building. Yet, in the end, it turns out that the building was a deathtrap, and Mulder is literally saved by the rain, because it turns out that only the seawater was dangerous, and the seawater could get into the building through the sewer pipes. The episode was very entertaining despite the deus ex machina ending, but it also made some sense in retrospect.

[ratique]

Miracle moments are an important plot device, and only when the same one is used over and over (well, hello there, Fast & Furious series) they bother me.

I actually find it entertaining when the hero comes up with some surprising new power that saves the world once more. When the writer withhold information to surprise the reader, it's generally a great plot device.

Different:
Writer did not know how to get a character out of a certain situation, but loves the scene too much to change it. That is poor writing, but I gotta be honest, I doubt I would notice it when that is something that is used.

For example, in The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Locke seems to get out of a lot of really sticky situations from either pure luck or some highly improbable plan that somehow works out.

I loooooove the Gentleman Bastards series, so glad that someone here reads them too! That is some amazing character writing right there.

[jackieuy127]

I think it depends on the story. Take Lord of the Flies by William Golding for example, the chaos from the island of murderous eight-year olds is abruptly stopped by an adult. Civilization. Society. It stands for something greater than just a speedy resolution. And where we see annoying examples of the deus ex machina is anime. Suddenly, the superhero unlocks some superpower that was never even hinted at or developed at all. (There are so many examples, literally just take any action anime) You can't just become 9000x stronger for no reason. It defeats the purpose of the climax and all the elements leading up to it.

[apocryphagraphics]

How hard is it to foreshadow? In modern writing a deus ex machina is unforgivable.

[shazzbaa]

I agree with the people who've said it can be thematically appropriate!

I never watched either of the Avatar cartoons myself (I KNOW, SHAME ON ME), but I saw really different reactions from my friends to the ending of A:tLA and the ending of LoK's first season. Both involved the hero using a previously unknown ability that saved the day (AT LEAST THIS IS MY UNDERSTANDING), but it seemed like, in A:tLA, it was something that the story built towards, it was the answer to the thing Aang had been struggling with, so people accepted it. Whereas in LoK, it was something that let her avoid a struggle that frightened her. The story built towards a conflict that this power let her dodge, and that was less satisfying.

I can't say for myself, but that makes a lot of sense to me, conceptually. What the story is building towards makes a big difference.

There was a book I read when I was younger about foxes who lived in a valley that was going to be flooded by a human-built dam. Their elder, a blind fox who lives in the mountain, tells them not to worry about it, but they fear he doesn't fully understand their situation and try to find a solution. In the end, the animals all band together to try to sabotage the dam. It's an inspiring moment that's ultimately futile, as the humans' machinery can undo the work of the animals in minutes, and the animals give up, and try to escape the valley.
Once the dam is completed, and water is supposed to rush into the valley -- it never does. There were underground caverns in the mountain all this time, and the water simply rushes into them and never fills the valley, never touches the foxes' home. It's mentioned that the blind fox would've known they were safe from the beginning; he could hear the water running in the caverns under his home.

They're saved by a miracle, but I liked the story a LOT -- obviously, I remember it to this day. There was something spiritually powerful about that theme to me, the idea of needing to trust even when things seem life-threatening, the idea that the animals' frantic panicking came to nothing, because they were already being cared for. It felt like the point of the story rather than a failing.

So I guess that's ultimately the thing? Like, maybe the stories where Deus Ex Machina feels RIGHT are the stories where it's the point, where the miracle is the answer to the thematic questions that the story is asking, rather than a way to dodge those questions? and the stories where it's unsatisfying are the ones where the story asks interesting questions that it doesn't have the guts to answer, or that it has no answer to, so it throws in a miracle instead.
I .......THINK I'M JUST REPEATING KEIIII HERE SO UH, I AGREE WITH HER. xD

I dunno! Really interesting to ponder. We always think of Deus Ex Machina as a universally bad device, but it's interesting to think about the times when it seems to be the right answer.

[AnnaLandin]

The sudden-saviour trope is one I have a pretty complicated relationship with.

If it comes in the middle of the story, and the story then builds on it - with the characters who were saved going "Wait what?" and getting some answers, or it being used to introduced a snazzy new character or concept - and it's really incorporated in the story from then on, I'm mostly okay with it, because it looks intentional and feels like something the creator was going to do all along.

When it swoops in at the last moment and literally saves the day in the last five minutes before the credits? Well, then I know the creator wrote themselves into a corner and didn't know how to get out. :T

Also, like @keii4ii said - if it's something that gives the final puzzle-piece of something the story has been building on all along, that's okay. I don't like it when it's literally out of the blue, though, because then it isn't building on anything.

Mostly, though, I prefer stories that anchor their plot-twists in the earlier events of the story, so that the sudden reveal might come as a surprise to readers, but when they think about it, they can see it was hinted at or there all along.

[mariusthered]

miracle moments. In truth these happen all the time, but people often miss them for the wonders that they are.

As far as stories go like others have said I much prefer to put things in place to hint at what will happen. I hate it when I'm watching one of these hour long tv shows and the cure to the incurable sickness is found in the last two minuets because someone happened to find something that had never been found ick such lazy writing.
I think if done well fiction can take your characters to any place later in the story of swipe city fans will see one of my character killed and enter heaven, its a huge twist but one that the story needs and i know fans will love.

[Vikiro_Hop]

Depends if the miracle has some bearing on the story. It really depends on a lot of things, but basically as long as you don't use luck to write your way out of a shitty situation its fine. If the main character suddenly connects the dots at the last second and is able to unlock a power due to luck, eh I can handle that. Versus a tree is struck by lightning and falls on the main villain killing him is a cop out if I've ever heard one.

Deus Ex Machina is generally negative term based on some last minute bs resolving conflict. Some above examples seem to reference just improbable solutions to problems. The difference is last minute bullshit saving the day is shitty writing, while improbable resolutions don't have to be. You can surprise and have an element of luck work in your writing without resorting to god coming down and giving you a pass.

Basically don't cop out, especially at the climax. Luck or whatever can be used to move the plot along and create tension, but should not be used as a crutch in a pinch.

[mg78]

What is your opinion on these sort of miracle moments?

imho those re the moments when writers be stuck without idea, in their limited imagination and use this trick to get over the problem.
i mean, a miracle moment can work in a random moment too... NOT in the apex of the story. this s a killer shot to my taste.

[Kura]

It honestly depends on the story and how well the writer works with it, a miracle or discovery/power can be pulled off fine depending on the story/world AND writing. Foreshadowing helps (doesn't even have to be heavy, just small foreshadowing if your worried about predictability) so that it's not coming out of nowhere, and as long as it makes sense for the character and situation it should be just fine.

Also, the less seriously I take the story, the more likely I am to accept what may feel as a 'Deus Ex Machina' moment for me. If I'm really invested and into the story though, and a poorly thrown in one is used instead of an actual proper resolve, then I am going to be annoyed.

Overall, don't write it into the story if it's not supposed to be there. If you threw your characters into a situation and have no idea how to get them out so you need to pull a solution out of nowhere, then go back and re-work your scene. If you wrote the scene intending for them to get out in this manner from the beginning then fine. Though it may not seem like it there IS a noticeable difference when reading. Write under the assumption that your readers are smart and will notice lazy writing.

[Ankur]

Although the Deus ex machina may be seen as contrived or implausible, it really depends on how well the author conveys the elements of a story including Plot Armor, Plot devices or other such conveniences.
After all, a story progresses as the author wishes (at least in the initial stages) and conveniences, no matter how believable or unrealistic, can occur throughout the story. This can be a fateful meeting, or a hidden power the protagonist always possessed.
I mostly find such conveniences, powers or devices implausible, if I have not been given any clue of their existence beforehand nor been made aware of the possibility of such an event.

A Simple Example:
Person A ,who as lived an ordinary, uneventful life, is suddenly being hunted down by Person B. Person B has Person A cornered, but before delivering the final blow is blocked by Person X.
The story would have ended is Person X hadn't interfered. But if Person A has already been given positive characteristics that are relate-able, I may want him to survive the encounter and be grateful for person X's interference.

[Jabbage]

@shazzbaa - HMM that's story with the foxes seems really familiar to me. Do you have any idea what its called?

I think I'll agree with the point brought up several times in the discussion that a Deus Ex Machina becomes a bad thing when it gives a false or empty resolution which doesn't fit with the themes of the story. In the examples given by keiii and shazzbaa, placing trust in a higher, more knowledgable power was intregal to the story and so the deus ex machina did not seem out of place - the fact that trust needed to be placed externally for things to work out was already established.

Another type of deus ex machina that I think works well sometimes (but probably not always) is when the story has played out and a snap back to the "real world" is required to give the audience a chance to reflect on what's just happened. For example in the War of the Worlds, the famous deus ex machina that kills the aliens (which I won't spoil just in case!) brings the story to a melancholy conclusion, but also still leaves humanity precariously hung in the balance. Same as the Lord of the Flies, where the sudden resolution brings the story back down into reflective mode. Those stories could have continued with the carnage and mayhem they'd built up to, but the sudden, quieter ending seems appropriate especially since they'd already "got to the point" by then. Sometimes the feeling of "but what if ___ handn't steped in and stopped it!" is much more impactful than writing the worst case scenario.

I had deus ex machina issues with my first comic, The Art of Monsters, from long before it had a name and was just a concept! (This is ever so slightly spoilery for it.) My concept for it was a reverse Pygmalion/Pinocchio story, where instead of someone creating life from their love and attention, someone accidentally destroyed life by misunderstanding what love and friendship were. For a long time I was hesitant because of how much of a gratuitously downer ending this created, and all the solutions I could think of were too close to being the lazy kinds of deus ex machinas. When I decided to transplant the setting into one that made a higher power and a second chance a possibility, it let the themes and messages in the story blossom without all the melodrama. I was still worried that the ending might frustrate some people, but to date no one has had anything negative to say about it or thrown the term "deus ex machina" at me, so I think I got away with it - phew!

[blastryoku]

I like the Deux Ex Machina but yeah, it definitely depends on how it is used (like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, that series is a walking deux ex machina trope XD) but it because it uses a lot of time you don't feel like like they are cheating or that is a giant cop out.
A good thing is to foreshadow that deux ex machina in order to not feel like it was lazy writing because the writer didn't know how to get the characters out of that sticky situation.

[VermillionWorks]

Wow, some really interesting reads here.
I guess some of this comes back to "what qualifies as Deus Ex Machina"? If something is foreshadowed early on, even only a little bit, then is it really one?

Now, I used to be a DBZ fan, and you could say Dragonball Z is built on many a Deus Ex Machina, but when it comes to the dragonballs themselves, while they DO conveniently get the characters out of many a death situation, the dragonballs were at least in the story from the beginning.

Then again, things like Super Saiyan levels 2, 3, ect. were just convenient "get out a bad situation with another upgrade" stuff, and actually made me start to lose interest in the series. I would've rather had seen them start to be forced to use tactics to win rather than see yet another upgrade in power that was never hinted at in the past (at least the original Super Saiyan form was brought up early on, so it was more plausible).

Also, while I watched DBZ, seeing this "upgrade" or "hidden power" formula in anime over and over and over again afterwards really made me lose interest in anime entirely. So perhaps, while miracle moments can sometimes be done well, they can also be overdone just as much as being a cop out? XD

[blastryoku]

Well, A Deux Ex Machina is always going to be a solution that comes in a sudden and unexpected way, if it's something else, then it becomes another plot device.
You can foreshadow a Deux Ex Machina and never touch it again, as long it becomes the miracle solution, it's going to be that.

Now if it's becomes a problem that makes the situation worse and more hopeless it becomes a Diabolus Ex Machina XD