Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Quotes / DeusExMachina

Go To

1!!!Fiction
2->'''Robin:''' Gosh, Batman. The nobility of the almost-human porpoise.\
3'''Batman:''' True, Robin. It was noble of that animal to hurl himself into the path of that final torpedo. He gave his life for ours.
4-->-- ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''
5
6->''"I've been suddenly rescued by some force utterly outside of the context of this narrative! How... unsatisfying."''
7-->-- '''[[http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2004/01/31/ Billy Dare]]''', ''ComicStrip/TomTheDancingBug''
8
9->''"''That'' certainly is convenient."''
10-->-- '''Tyrone''', ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'', [[CatchPhrase frequently.]]
11
12->"''I mean, come on! Time travel?! What kind of deus ex machina bull[[SoundEffectBleep s@#!]] is that?!''"
13-->-- '''Yami Bakura''', ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', lampshading the use of this trope during the 5th season of ''Series/{{Lost}}''.
14
15->"''You can't just throw stuff like this into the story out of nowhere! Where's the foreshadowing?!''"
16-->-- '''[[MetaGuy Chisame]]''', ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi''
17
18->"''Who says deus ex machina is an outdated plot device?''"
19-->-- '''Captain Janeway''', ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
20
21->"''Oh Lord, hear our prayer... HELP!!!!''" (God's hand appears to help him and Richie)
22-->-- '''Eddie Hitler''', ''Series/{{Bottom}}''
23
24->"This particular blunder is known as deus ex machina, which is French for "Are you fucking kidding me?"
25-->-- ''Literature/HowNotToWriteANovel''
26
27->"''Where in the name of deus ex machina did that T. rex come from?!''"
28-->-- '''Norbert''', ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers''
29
30->"'Life is too precious to be left to chance.' - Deus X. Machina"
31-->--''Literature/TheThirteenAndAHalfLivesOfCaptainBluebear''
32
33->"I've never liked this scene," I said. "Detective confronts murderer. Murderer produces gun, points same at detective. Murderer tells detective the whole sad story, with the idea of shooting him at the end of it. Thus wasting a lot of valuable time, even if in the end murderer did shoot detective. ''[[LampshadeHanging Only murderer never does. Something always happens to prevent it.]] The gods don't like this scene either. They always manage to spoil it."''
34-->-- '''Literature/PhilipMarlowe''', ''Literature/TheLadyInTheLake''
35
36->''"I am [[Myth/GreekMythology Zeus!]] And I declare this conflict RESOLVED!"\
37[[UnsoundEffect DEUS EX MACHINA!]]''
38-->-- RunningGag, ''Webvideo/TheIsleOfRangoon''
39
40->''"Just accept the deus ex machina. [[{{Foreshadowing}} You only get one]]."''
41-->-- '''Helen Narbon''', ''{{Webcomic/Narbonic}}''
42
43->'''[[Manga/LinebarrelsOfIron Makoto Domyouji]]''': A Deus Ex Machina in every sense of the word.\
44'''[[Anime/NinjaSenshiTobikage Joe Maya]]''': What’s that? Some type of new Machina?\
45'''Domyouji''': Nah, it’s a plot device that showed up in Greek tragedies. A character that stood for God and would take to the stage whenever the story couldn’t resolve itself.\
46'''Domyouji''': When the Deus Ex Machina turned up, it’d bring a conclusion to the drama through some entirely unexpected occurrence.\
47'''[[Anime/MazinkaiserSKL Ken Kaido]]''': Put it simply, then, it wrecked everything ‘til the problem was gone? Sounds good to me!\
48'''Ryo Magami''': Hmph, are you looking to play the part of a devil of destruction? Because you can do that on your own, monkey.\
49'''Kaido''': Whatchu say there?
50-->--''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsUX''
51
52->''"I could really use a deus ex machina right now!"''
53-->-- '''Actor near a rampaging god or monster,''' ''VideoGame/ZeusMasterOfOlympus''
54
55->''So the children learned how to function as a society, and eventually they were rescued by... oh, let's say... Moe.''
56-->--''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Das Bus"
57
58->''"There's something I haven't told you. I can fly."''
59-->-- '''The horse,''' ''WesternAnimation/TheBoyTheMoleTheFoxAndTheHorse''
60
61!!!On works
62->''"Deus ex machina not only erases all meaning and emotion, its an insult to the audience. Each of us knows we must choose and act, for better or worse, to determine the meaning of our lives...Deus ex machina is an insult because it is a lie."''
63-->--'''Robert [=McKee=]'''
64
65->''"Genies are only fun in the movies if you define and limit their powers."''
66-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert''', review of ''Film/{{Kazaam}}''
67
68->''"A death, an investigation, a social ill unearthed, a lecture that says things are bad...[[DebateAndSwitch but not that bad yet so relax]], and no real resolution--all neatly wrapped up in 50 minutes (For the ''Benefit of My Patients'' is the most egregious example of this, where no one explains where all the government money is going to come from to subsidize a new non-profit hospital...and vicious gang members turn into Disneyesque community organizers)."''
69-->--'''[[http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/59354/quincy-me-season-five/ Paul Mavis]]''' on ''Series/QuincyME''
70
71->''"''Series/DoctorWho'' stories are resolved by a [[PhysicalGod Time Lord]] who emerges from a TimeMachine -- they're ALL deus ex machina."''
72-->-- '''Creator/StevenMoffat''' [[http://twitter.com/#!/steven_moffat/status/73485927741259776 advises]] fans to adopt a {{postmodern}} perspective.
73
74->''"That's the whole point of ''Doctor Who'' in these [[DarkestHour narrative collapse]] stories - that ultimately there is no such thing as threatening the fundamental narrative logic of ''Doctor Who'' because, eventually, it just shrugs its shoulders and does something random to get out of it."''
75-->--'''[[http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/anybody-remotely-interesting-is-mad-the-chase/ El Sandifer]]''' on [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase}} "The Chase"]]
76
77->"''It's one of the bigger cop-outs in epiphany history.''"
78-->-- '''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick''', on the end of ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}''
79
80->''"Lois getting nuked in ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' and then time getting reversed, Superman losing his powers '''FOR EVER''' in ''Film/SupermanII'' and then, I dunno, deciding he wants them back and that’s all it takes, and now this. I mean, I guess you could say the same for the comics, but the movies go the extra mile in weaseling out of their own stupid plot points by making their excuses as dumb as possible. Compared to those, a Kryptonian crystal [[OneUP 1-Up Mushroom]] is actually the most believable."''
81-->--'''Chris Sims''' and '''David Uzumeri''' [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/comicsalliance-reviews-superman-iv-the-quest-for-peace-1987/ on]] ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace''
82
83->''"One minute they're dying of asphyxiation in deep space and the next minute they look over and: 'Hey, look, look, there's a space ship that civilians can fly, that can take us back to Earth and it's within half mile of a station that no one's noticed until now!' It's this kind of thing that was a running joke in [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Fucking Galaxy]]."''
84-->-- '''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Noah Antwiler]]''' on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''
85
86->''Y'know, I could have started this comparison out any number of ways. I could have started by quoting a definition from dictionary.com
87-->deus ex ma·chi·na\
88n.\
89In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation.\
90An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.\
91A person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected solution to a difficulty.''
92->''or with a line from the dub that sums up my feelings about the battle''
93-->'''Liza''': I can't believe that worked!
94->''but either way, the message would be the same: this battle sucked. The ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' rip off golden armor power-up is the biggest load the anime producers have pulled out their ass, plain and simple. I've seen people try to explain the whole thing by saying that Ohsubame[[note]]Swellow[[/note]] is using its "Guts" characteristic or that it somehow makes sense for a tough pokemon like Ohsubame to get a friggin' power up from a bolt of lightning, but I honestly think these people are full of crap. It's just wrong for so many reasons, and I seriously hope the anime producers don't try to pull any more shit like this in the future.''
95-->-- '''Dogasu's Backpack''' [[http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/houen/ep100.html review]] of the ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire'' episode "[[Recap/PokemonS8E8SolidAsASolrock Solid as a Solrock]]"
96
97->''"And all this because he is BFF's with God. Remember in the Bible when Jesus is on the cross and he laments: "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Well, probably because He was playing mini-golf with Souya or something."''
98-->-- '''Leo York''', [[http://http://www.critessential.com/single-post/2017/08/11/Isekai-wa-Smartphone-to-Tomo-ni-vs-KonoSuba-Mo-Magic-Mo-Problems// on]] ''Literature/InAnotherWorldWithMySmartphone''
99

Top