Welcome class to another of Tricondon’s guides. Today’s topic will be the Deus Ex Machina and how to avoid it.

Haha, who let you back in my class?

I know.

Damn, guess I’m going to have to actually teach something then.

Well, Billy — can I call you Billy?

Billy it is!

In short, Deus Ex Machina — pronounced Day-oos eks MAH-kee-nah — is a literary term. It’s a Latin phrase meaning ‘God out of the machine’, a hold-over from ancient Greek plays. They would often end by having one of the gods — Zeus or Pluto or what-have-you. I’m not a historian. — be introduced at the end of the play and quickly wrap things up in the way only an omniscient being can. It was actually the preferred way to end a play back then.

These days, however, it has morphed into a largely derogatory term. The meaning need not be so literal, nor does it have to come at the climax of a story, though that is where it’s most common.

In short, a Deus Ex Machina comes to be when a new event, character, ability, or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem without any build-up or hinting towards the matter. For example, if your heroes need to get past a computer security grid, one of them mentions casually how he used to be a hacker before joining the side of good. This would, of course, only be a Deus Ex Machina if it were never mentioned prior to this moment that this individual knew about computer hacking, and it would really be a Deus Ex Machina if we already know his backstory and it never mentions him being a hacker.

It could be a person as well. Those of you who enjoy video games have probably run into this variety: the unwinnable boss fight whom is easily dispatched by a new party member just as the boss is about to kill the PC (typically during a cutscene).

And for those of us who have watched the show, we’ve seen one such example already. Season 2, Episode 3: Zero Lesson. Celestia saving Ponyville from Twilight’s Want It Need It spell. Though the writers do try to protect themselves by having Spike later mention he wrote Celestia a letter.

Actually, now that I think of it, there are two further examples: Over a Barrel and A Friend In Deed. I’ll let you puzzle it out for yourself.

Now then, that’s not to say that the Deus Ex Machina is always bad. It could sometimes be protected by being a comedy, being a parody, being really cool, or being symbolic in some fashion. For a funny example, go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The characters are being chased by a large animated monster when the animator dies.

For a (very rare) example of a Deus Ex Machina that is not a parody or comedy or somesuch yet still done well, go watch Star Trek: The Original Series episode ‘Shore Leave’.

Excellent question, Billy.

Well, the simple answer is that making something like a Deus Ex Machina not feel like a cop-out is really, really hard.

Consider this: without urgency, there is no story. We, as writers, make the character’s lives difficult because that’s more interesting to read. Say Celestia falls ill with a rare disease. No one wants to read about how Twilight Sparkle researched a spell to cure Celestia, allowing the Princess to resume her royal duties. We want to read about Twilight and her friends travelling to the ends of Equestria searching for the Alicorn Rose which is the only known cure for Celestia’s terminal case of Alicorn Flu. Just reading about Twilight looking through a few old dusty tomes isn’t very exciting.

A Deus Ex Machina would be after Twilight returns with the Rose, she discovers that Luna found a spell to cure Celestia, making the whole journey pointless.

There’s an old saying: It’s not the destination that’s important, it’s the journey. The Deus Ex Machina frequently ignores this saying in favour of the mindset: Let’s solve the plot as quickly and efficiently as possible. In Real Life, yes. I will always want to do things in the most efficient manner possible. But in fiction, I want challenge and strife. I want to feel as if the characters have honestly achieved something. A Deus Ex Machina often gives the characters a reward for having done nothing, or it just goes to prove that the characters are completely and utterly useless.

(Notice any similarity to a Mary Sue in that regard?)

Beg pardon?

Ah, excellent point. To answer this, we’ll need to do a bit of a character assassination.

Well, first of all, though Twilight is very strong, she’s neither invulnerable nor infallible. She’s made mistakes before and can be easily swayed to think that she’s in the wrong even when she’s right. If Twilight does, for some reason, have a spell or knowledge that could easily end the story quickly, you have a number of ways to eliminate that advantage.

Before the main problem comes up, try having Twilight be wrong a few times. This will shake her confidence and make it more believable that we’d believe, as a reader, that she’s starting to doubt herself.

Incidentally, having her wrong answers be the work of the villain pulling the strings behind the scenes would be a nice touch, though it’s not required.

If you don’t wish Twilight’s confidence be shaken, then try going after her mentality. A few irate comments from passerby (or even her closest friends) about how freaky she’s getting with all these new spells might cause Twilight to not want to cast spells for fear of some form of excommunication.

Or perhaps you don’t want to mess with her personality at all. In that case, go after her physically. Have Twilight come down with cold, have the villain incapacitate her in some form, have the villain steal all the books from Twilight’s library so she can’t just look up the answer. It’s honestly harder to make the Deus Ex Machina believable than it is to stop it from occurring in the first place. You just need to give it a little thought.

Or maybe you need not even go after Twilight specifically. For example, we’ve seen in the show that Zecora’s potions need physical (and intangible) ingredients. The Love Potion the CMC make comes to mind. It would not be a stretch, therefore, to assume that some of the higher-level spells would need some sort of physical aid in casting them, whether it be a particular plant, a cloud, the smell of rain, or something. Use your imagination. Then, all that’s needed to prevent the Deus Ex Machina is to prevent Twilight easy access to whatever she needs to cast the spell and be done with the plot.

A Deus Ex Machina is an unexpected, sudden solution to the plot that quickly wraps things up. Often, once it’s introduced the story is over. It rarely has any significant build-up to it and generally feels unsatisfying to the reader. It can occasionally be done well, but these are far and few between.

-Tricondon

I think that the example you chose - that Luna managed to find a cure to Celestia's disease after Twilight and friends go off on a magical adventure - is more of an example of a Shaggy Dog Story than a Deus Ex Machina. A Shaggy Dog Story is when something happens at the end to make the entire story up until that point pretty much meaningless. A Deus Ex Machina would more be them failing to find the flower, but then coming back and managing to reconstitute a new cure anyways.

An example like this is from the Sword of Truth series of books, where our protagonist (not hero, protagonist) Richard Rahl is poisoned and spends the book working for the people who poisoned him because he needs the antidote. He needs to take three shots of the antidote before too much time passes or he will die. Having taken two shots, the third is destroyed in the thrilling climactic battle with the villain of the book, Nicholas the Slide (seriously, that's his name). Collapsed and on the verge of death, Richard then tells his allies how to make another dose based on his memory of how it tasted. It's as bad as it sounds.

529983

Well, I just made it up on the spot. And that aside, isn't a Shaggy Dog Story really a subtrope of Deus Ex Machina to begin with? I mean, since an SDS invalidates the story just told, while a DEM solves the story with no help from the actual characters involved. Not entirely dissimilar.

-Tricondon

529986 They're certainly pretty close - especially since if they're done badly it's pretty much one giant middle finger to the audience - but they tend to have extremely different feelings to them. The DEM is generally something pulled out at the last second to give closure or save the hero or whatever from some sort of situation that couldn't be resolved otherwise and is usually a sign of poor planning, while the SDS is deliberately used either for comedic purposes or to give the audience a feeling.

But you're the teacher and I'll stop talking now.

I can not express my thanks enough for these guides! I have not yet submitted anything to this website as of yet, but I do plan to do so soon and these pieces of advice will be invaluable to me. So thanks so much for putting your time to making these I am Extremely grateful!

Learning is fun!

531389

Twilight approves of your mindset.

-Tricondon

The big idea: follow the rules of causality.

If you've got to have X character die, you've got to get them sick first. If you've got to have X character sick, you've got to have them wade through a pile of rusty nails. If you've got to have X character wade through a pile of rusty nails, you've got to have them be trying to retrieve the ring for their love that they dropped into the pile. If you want that to happen, they've got to go to the store to buy the thing, need to go near the pile in the first place, and be in a situation where they don't just go "Meh, I'll buy a new one."

535077

Hmm, that's a good way of putting it really. I like that.

-Tricondon

Talk about the "Char Aznable" disease in stories whether they be books, tv shows, or movies.

537294

The what disease?

...Char Aznable is apparently a character from Gundam. ...ok? I'm not sure I understand what you're hinting towards. I don't follow any of the Gundam shows/comics/whatever.

-Tricondon

537735 I call it the Char Aznable disease because, and you don't need to do it, but there is ALWAYS a character that is the EXACT SAME as Char. Sure. There were those who followed and just had Char change his name and/or seem good, but in the other Gundams, there is ALWAYS a Char Aznable. A blond guy with semi-long to long hair wearing a white mask and who seems to be the best at what he does. He always wants to fight the main character and ALWAYS has the same personality.

When you finish a story, and in the next, the same guy is there but with a different name, or even in an alternate universe where the character is not Char but still acts and looks like him, then that's the "Char Aznable" disease. Hell, it's even been done when the character was killed off. It's like he's immortal and reincarnates every time.

Billy is best student

Seems to me that the best way to deal with a Deus Machina is to shoot it with Checkov's Gun.

How to Avoid the Deus Ex Machina

Welcome class to another of Tricondon’s guides. Today’s topic will be the Deus Ex Machina and how to avoid it.

Wait, the day-oos exmach Ina?

Haha, who let you back in my class?

I’m your only student.

I know.

I'd be your student.

3419379

I forget the original source, but a bit of relevant advice here is that you're allowed to use out-of-the-blue happenstance to get characters into trouble, but not to get them out.

Sometimes I feel that some writers who create a Deus Ex Machina at the end of their stories should've just got rid of the Deus Ex Machina and let the anatagonist (or whoever the Deus Ex Machina seemingly stops) win. A darker ending can be better than a good one if done so appropriately.

So let me get this straight. The only way to avoid Deus Ex Machina is to have something mention the beginning of a story and used later on.

529955
Quick question teacher.
What about the Elements of Harmony? aren't they the cause of massive Deus Ex Machina moments in the
show?

Does it count when...the character just reveals a new power/skill/stuff/etc but then sacrifices for the own good?