Tropes and Cliches

Deus Ex Machina

So there is literally no singular thing that this fits in because every category of Fanfiction. net is guilty....Picture this:

You protagonist is in a situation that has little options on how to solve it . Like they are holding someone and themselves up while dangling off a cliff and the person they are holding is about to slip. Now the protagonist have one of a few options: (a) let go and they both fall to their death,(b) let of the other guy and save themselves and hope they don't seek vengeance from the other side,(c) try the pull up the other guy and hope they can climb up and save you. But by the time the decide either the protagonist loses their grip and accidentally let go of the cliff or the other person. Now stop me if this sounds familiar...a giant bird comes and carry them both to safety....Like where the fuck did the bird come from and how did it know where to be? 

A Deus ex Machina (pron: Day-oos eks MAH-kee-nah) is when some new event, character, ability, or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected way. It's often used as the solution whenever the writer  does this thing called "writing yourself into a corner,". This is where the problem is so extreme that nothing in the established setting suggests that there is a logical way for the characters to escape. The term is Latin for "god out of the machine" and originates in ancient Greek theater. It referred to scenes in which a crane (machine) was used to lower actors or statues playing a god or gods (deus) onto the stage to set things right, often near the end of the play. In its most literal interpretation, this is when a godlike figure or power, with all the convenient power that comes with that, arrives to solve the problem.

Now the plot development does not have to be something that seems god sent. It can be something as simple as broken glass or high tech hoverboards that the protagonists...suddenly..know how to use....despite not knowing how to use a microwave... red flags people. It's the little details....

Note that there are a number of requirements for a sudden plot development to be a Deus ex Machina:

1)Deus ex Machina are solutions to a problem. They are never unexpected developments that make things worse, nor sudden twists that only change the understanding of a story. 

2)Deus ex Machina are sudden or unexpected. This means that even if they are featured, referenced or set-up earlier in the story, they do not change the course of nor appear as a natural or a viable solution to the plotline they eventually "solve".

3)Deus ex Machina are used to resolve a situation portrayed as unsolvable or hopeless. If the problem could be solved with a bit of common sense or other type of simple intervention, the solution is not a Deus ex Machina no matter how unexpected it may seem.

4)Deus ex Machina are external to the characters and their choices throughout the story. The solution comes from a character with small or non-existent influence on the plot until that point or random chance from nature or karma.

So what counts as Deus ex Machina? Well...How much time do you have? Because that is a list 

The end of the The Secret Of Nimh film just screams Deus Ex Machina. Supposedly, the "stone" that does something... powerful manages to respond to Mrs. Brisby's... emotion and then pulls the cinderblock out - with no loss of life (or mud, which had been flooding the house). Auntie Shrew likely survived because she fell into a Plot Hole when the mud started flooding the house.

A good chunk of myths that involved gods or goddess, especially when they could literally intervene.They may do something which only partly rectifies the situation or has its own shortcomings to it — though that may be due to them being Jerkass Gods and it was their fault to begin with. Not all instances from classical mythology are subversions, though. For example, at one point Hera offers her aid to the Argonauts to get them through ( and I'm pretty sure Jason is a child of Zeus, someone that is known to feel Hera's wrath). It's the only time in all of antiquity when she is depicted as acting nice, let alone toward heroes. The irony in this. 

A literal case in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Big Bad spends the movie on a reign of terror that he proclaims to be for a higher cause, sings a Villain Song that's an inverted confession of sins, and assaults a cathedral. When he's swinging a sword and raving about how He shall cast down the wicked, the gargoyle under his feet roars at him and breaks off....

The heroes in every Yu-Gi-Oh! spin off seem to win solely on pulling the one card out of a forty card plus deck that can save them from doom. 

Then there's the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP,which is a trope all on its own. 

The trope somehow carried into other cultures. The classic epic poem of Beowulf  has the best example of Grendel's mother keeping the one thing that could kill her. You see Grendel and his mother was immune to human weapon. But she kept a sword made by giants, aka not man made in her pile of treasure....why she kept the one thing in arms reach that could kill her is still up for scholarly debate to this day. 

Writing this trope is normally easy, but if you have to ask " how can I get away with this solution with out people questioning it?" Because people will question stuff, like how a minor manage to buy alcohol even though they have a baby face and never got carded by the cashier. Or how a character somehow survived a situation where death was the most likely outcome....Looking at you Naruto.