{"id":7412,"date":"2012-06-12T15:41:41","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T20:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=7412"},"modified":"2012-06-12T15:41:41","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T20:41:41","slug":"trope-tuesday-deus-ex-machina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-deus-ex-machina\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: Deus Ex Machina"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7413\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7413\" style=\"width: 227px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/deus_ex_machina.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-7413\" title=\"deus_ex_machina\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/deus_ex_machina.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/deus_ex_machina.jpg 315w, https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/deus_ex_machina-300x257.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/deus_ex_machina-140x120.jpg 140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7413\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">God from the machine. Literally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This one is by request. \u00a0A <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/DeusExMachina\" target=\"_blank\">Deus Ex Machina<\/a>, or &#8220;God from the Machine&#8221; ending, is basically when the author <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow\" target=\"_blank\">writes himself into a corner<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/AssPull\" target=\"_blank\">pulls something out of his butt<\/a>\u00a0to resolve the story.<\/p>\n<p>The term comes from ancient Greek theater, which often employed this technique&#8211;probably because the audience was known to get violent when the show didn&#8217;t end the way they wanted it to. \u00a0Basically, a crane&#8211;the &#8220;machina,&#8221; or machine&#8211;would lower an actor playing the role of one of the gods&#8211;the &#8220;deus&#8221;&#8211;who would then resolve everything and tie up all the loose ends without the heroes having to do anything.<\/p>\n<p>Sound unsatisfying? \u00a0Yeah, I think so too. \u00a0That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s often used as a derogatory term, much like <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/MarySue\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Sue<\/a>. \u00a0HOWEVER, <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/TropesAreTools\" target=\"_blank\">it <em>can<\/em>\u00a0be done well<\/a>. \u00a0As always, <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/YMMV\" target=\"_blank\">your mileage may vary<\/a>, but here are some examples that pull it off:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">WARNING! SPOILERS!<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Watership Down:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0A girl saves Hazel from her cat. \u00a0Satisfying because it makes sense from the girl&#8217;s point of view, and humanizes the story by showing that it really does take place in our world.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Hobbit:<\/strong>\u00a0 The eagles arrive out of nowhere to turn the tide of the Battle of Five Armies just at the critical moment. \u00a0Satisfying because it&#8217;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/TheCavalry\" target=\"_blank\">cavalry ending<\/a> as well, though some fans don&#8217;t like it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lord of the Rings:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Again, the eagles swoop down and save the day, this time by rescuing Frodo and Sam from the fires of Mount Doom. \u00a0Satisfying because after coming this far, we <em>really<\/em>\u00a0don&#8217;t want a <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/DownerEnding\" target=\"_blank\">downer ending<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer&#8217;s Stone: <\/strong>\u00a0Harry is saved by his mother&#8217;s love. \u00a0Satisfying because of the <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/RuleOfSymbolism\" target=\"_blank\">symbolism<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/ThePowerOfLove\" target=\"_blank\">power of love<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lord of the Flies:<\/strong>\u00a0Just as the boys are about to kill each other, a military ship arrives out of nowhere and rescues them. \u00a0Again, satisfying because of the <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/RuleOfSymbolism\" target=\"_blank\">symbolism<\/a>, as well as the collective &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/MyGodWhatHaveIDone\" target=\"_blank\">what have I done<\/a>&#8221; moment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schlock Mercenary:<\/strong>\u00a0 Many, many occasions. \u00a0Satisfying because it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.schlockmercenary.com\/2005-03-19\" target=\"_blank\">brilliantly<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/LampshadeHanging\" target=\"_blank\">lampshaded<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Monty Python and the Holy Grail:<\/strong>\u00a0&#8220;&#8230;the animator had a fatal heart attack! \u00a0The cartoon peril was no more!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Raiders of the Lost Ark:<\/strong>\u00a0 The Nazis capture Indiana Jones and get the Ark of the Covenant, but when they open it, a supernatural force kills them all. \u00a0Satisfying because it squares with <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/IndyPloy\" target=\"_blank\">Indy&#8217;s general MO<\/a> and his pattern of <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/EpicFail\" target=\"_blank\">spectacular failures<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The War of the Worlds:<\/strong>\u00a0 The humans are utterly powerless to stop the aliens, but they all die off from germs. \u00a0Satisfying because of the underlying\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/AnAesop\" target=\"_blank\">message<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Does this mean that it&#8217;s a good idea to write off any criticism that your own work suffers from a Deus Ex Machina? \u00a0Probably not. \u00a0This is one of those things that readers tend not to notice when it&#8217;s done well. \u00a0If your readers notice it, chances are that something is broken.<\/p>\n<p>As you might guess, there&#8217;s a lot of gray area as to what constitutes a Deus Ex Machina, and what is actually something else. \u00a0Generally, if the ending is properly foreshadowed, either by a <a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/ChekhovsGun\" target=\"_blank\">Chekov&#8217;s Gun<\/a> or by good character development, it&#8217;s not a Deus Ex. \u00a0The foreshadowing removes the &#8220;out of nowhere&#8221; aspect that readers find so unsatisfying.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/Foreshadowing\" target=\"_blank\">Foreshadowing<\/a> is one way to fix a Deus Ex Machina. \u00a0Another way is to toss out the ending and rewrite it from scratch, starting at the point where hero starts getting sidelined. \u00a0According to Dan Wells&#8217;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fearfulsymmetry.net\/?p=405\" target=\"_blank\">seven point story structure<\/a>, the hero should typically spend the first half of the story <em>reacting<\/em>\u00a0to the villain, and the second half <em>getting the villain to react to him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There are lots of other ways to fix a Deus Ex Machina, but those are probably the biggest ones. \u00a0If you have any other suggestions, by all means, suggest away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This one is by request. \u00a0A Deus Ex Machina, or &#8220;God from the Machine&#8221; ending, is basically when the author writes himself into a corner and pulls something out of his butt\u00a0to resolve the story. The term comes from ancient Greek theater, which often employed this technique&#8211;probably because the audience was known to get violent&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-deus-ex-machina\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Trope Tuesday: Deus Ex Machina<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[314,222,501,700,641,565,626],"class_list":["post-7412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ancient-greece","tag-endings","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-trope-tuesday","tag-tropes-and-cliches","tag-tvtropes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1Vy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7416,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions\/7416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}