Literary term confusion...

[padawanmage]

A while back I'd heard certain terms used with regards to certain aspects of the game (and no, I'm not talking swear words).

I'll post the question in this

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

I'm no lit major, but I think a Deus Ex Machina is both: an ending out of nowhere that fixes things in a simplistic way that doesn't follow on from the story leading up to that point. Where you are asking "How on Earth will Shepard get rid of the Reapers?" and the answer is "This random magical child you've never heard of will turn up out of nowhere and make them go away".

Could the Crucible also be considered a 'MacGuffin' since it only drove the plot up to the point the Catalyst/Star Child showed up?

Yeah I'd say so. And in some ways it's a bit of a Deus Ex Machina, considering there was NO HINT of it in the previous two games.

[hlwim]

Here are the TV Tropes entries on Deus Ex Machina and MacGuffin. DEM is almost always used pejoratively, to denote laziness on the part of the writers/producers, but a MacGuffin is just a term for (usually) some object that drives the plot forward.

StarChild was a clear DEM, which felt shoehorned in to justify the suddenly overt "synthetics vs organics" theme. The Catalyst is a MacGuffin, but the plot is also driven by building the alliance/fleet.

[vexed_artist]

I would consider the Star Child a Diabolus Ex Machina, myself, since (as far as I remember) Deus Ex Machinas tend to give protagonists happy endings.

It's also a painfully blatant Ass Pull, but I digress...

[thirteenthchime]

I remember seeing a lot of people, especially right after the game came out, refer to Star Child as Diabolus Ex Machina rather than Deus. Of course, a lot of people were also comparing it to Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well, so things got confusing ;)

[forgottenjester]

No, you did a great job. Double major Theatre and English here. Your description was spot on.

I would only add that from what we know we believe that the ancient Greeks preferred or at least enjoyed Deus ex Machina endings. This had mostly to do with their interesting belief in fate and their gods. At least, this is what we were told in class. However, it should be noted that not much of ancient Greek theatre still exists so some points can be contested. No one really knows for sure on some things.

Of course, as you've explained, that opinion has changed. People don't really appreciate last minute quick fixes from nowhere.

Edit to add: So I just remembered we did talk about how Aristotle didn't like Deus ex Machina. So it's all up in the air.

[atouchofyou]

Yeah, this is pretty much what I was going to say. They only people who did DEM well were the Greeks, and that's because they invented it. It is pretty much impossible to do well these days, always leaving the audience unsatisfied, and feeling tacked on. It was my first reaction to the ending, really. It's annoying in literature and/theater, but I think it's worse in video games. If nothing I do matters, why give me all these choices? If nothing Shepard does will have a noticeable effect, why bother? If the struggle gains you nothing, why struggle at all?

[contrariwise]

A Macguffin is a thing that motivates the plot, but is in the end not itself vital to the plot. The classic example I think of is the Maltese Falcon. It's the thing that drives all the characters to thievery, betrayal, seduction, murder, etc. But all it is is a supposedly very valuable statue. This is underscored by the actual statue turning out to be a worthless fake in the end. The glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction is another example. The transit papers in Casablanca I would say are not a Macguffin, because they end up serving a plot purpose beyond just being 'something everyone wants'.

[hlwim]

Spot on with Casablanca. The mark of a MacGuffin is that it could be swapped for literally anything else without changing the plot. So instead of Shep chasing after the Catalyst, Shep is chasing after a magical Prothean cheese wheel.

[tehjai]

Prothvolone?