Deus Exit Machina: Difference between revisions

* [[Chivalrous Pervert|Miroku]] of ''[[Inuyasha]]'' has a powerful attack called the Wind Tunnel, which can suck anything into a void. This is ''anything'', so in his debut appearance when he is opposing the eponymous character, he issues a warning to villagers to put some distance from him, leading to his [[Defeat Means Friendship]]. In addition, if he sucks in anything poisonous, he gets poisoned, and [[Big Bad|Naraku]] has plenty of poisonous wasps to give as support. Also, overuse and [[Cursed with Awesome|even having the ability at all for too long]] will eventually [[Deadly Upgrade|lead to his death]].

** You can almost sense that the author regrets giving Miroku such a powerful ability in the first place. After a certain point in the series, EVERY battle includes a token scene where Miroku tries to use Wind Tunnel only to have Naraku's poison bees show up out of nowhere, preventing him from using it. This has the ironic side-effect of making him the most powerful character on paper, but the most useless in practice.

* ''[[Rave Master]]'s'' Elie could have easily used her magic to wipe Demon Card off the map, blow Lucia into the next century (maybe even literally {{spoiler|given how she blew herself half a century forward}}) and cream Doryu and Ogre, which would have kept Hardner from ever attempting his fusion gambit. Naturally, she had to go and get amnesia so she wouldn't know how to do all this.

* [[Badass Grandpa|Makarov]] of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has his magic drained at the beginning of the Fairy Tail vs. Phantom conflict when distracted by hearing that they kidnapped Lucy, putting them at a severe disadvantage. {{spoiler|Of course, once he gets back it he just [[Curb Stomp Battle|takes down what's left of the enemy all at once]].}}

* [[Goo-Goo Godlike|Franklin Richards]], the son of [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Reed and Sue.]] His powers make him one of the most powerful beings in existence... or would, if there wasn't always something holding him back. The various powersets he's had, and will have according to various future stories, are just what little of his omnipotence slips through the [[Power Limiter]]s. Finally, they had him burn out his powers restoring [[Galactus]] (who actually keeps something at bay that's worse than him) and become a normal human. The various beyond-godhood cosmic figures who took no notice of Dark Phoenix or [[Scarlet Witch]] but are ''terrified'' of this ten-year-old can rest assured that [[Marvel Comics|an even higher power]] won't [[Story-Breaker Power|ever let him keep his full power longer than one storyline's climax per decade]].

* This is the reason why minor criminals in [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] ''[[Superman]]'' comics [[Kryptonite Is Everywhere|would often have Kryptonite]].

* From DC Comics: So there were American superheroes in the 1940s, right? But having superheroes involved in World War II would be a [[Game Breaker]] that would disrupt the idea of the DC universe's similarity to the real world. So the Justice Society and their fellow patriotic heroes took a major Deus Exit Machina during World War II. The canon explanation is [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|Hitler using the Spear of Destiny]] to mind-control any superhero who got too close to Europe, and Hideki Tojo using the Holy Grail to do the same thing with Japan; an Elseworlds tale instead had the heroes at the mercy of a [[Power Nullifier]] named Parsifal.

** This wasn't canon at the time; the Spear of Destiny/Holy Grail was only brought up several decades later. At the time, they just had a lame explanation about Clark Kent failing the eye exam to join the army because he got excited and used his X-ray vision to read the eye chart in the next room. They just kinda hoped nobody would notice that Superman never took the time to head over to Germany, grab Hitler, and end the war in 1942. Another twist was that the Spear turns off any superpowers when they cross enemy lines.

* In ''[[Dogma]]'', God is unavailable, since he went golfing and was incapacitated while doing so. While this is going on, two angels banned from Heaven find a loophole that allows them to return to Heaven. Doing so would be against God's word and would destroy the universe. So, Deus Exit Machina (or [[Have You Seen My God?]]) drives the movie.

* This happens several times in the second and third ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' movies. Mr. Miyagi is able to easily defeat any adversary, so of course for Daniel to have fights of his own, Mr. Miyagi must be away or kept out of the fight for some reason. Most notably is probably the final confrontation in the second movie when the main antagonist {{spoiler|drops the bridge into the water, leaving him isolated with Daniel and Kumiko while Mr. Miyagi is only able to watch the Fight To The Death that ensues.}}

** This also happens to R2-D2 before he can open the backdoor to the Death Star Bunker, leaving Han and Leia to deal with the problem.

* In true ''[[Transformers]]'' spirit, Optimus Prime is killed in ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''. Things look pretty grim for the autobots, {{spoiler|until Prime is brought back to life}}.

* In the ''[[Touhou]]'' series, [[Reality Warper]] Yukari Yakumo is just plain ''[[The Gods Must Be Lazy|lazy]]''. On the few occasions in which she has actually woken up, she hasn't shown anything close to the power she showed as a [[Bonus Boss]]. In ''Imperishable Night'' and in the fighting games, she's just an [[Good Is Dumb|ordinary playable character]]; in ''Subterranean Animism'', she stays home and lets Reimu do all the actual work (because surface youkai aren't allowed underground).

** The main thing here is that dealing with incidents is the humans' job (especially Reimu's). That said, she does beat the hell out of Tenshi and stop her plans more or less single-handedly. And of the few really ''dangerous'' incidents the only one she didn't help resolve is the one she caused.

* In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', the lead character is {{spoiler|blasted into ash by Lavos in the confrontation at the [[Disc One Final Dungeon|Ocean Palace]]}}, very effectively knocking him out of commission. The rest of the party can then undertake a lengthy sidequest to get him back, but it's not mandatory.

** {{spoiler|The party (or at least Marle) [[Multiple Endings|will do the sidequest for you]] if you beat the game without Crono}}

*** [[Fridge Brilliance|Maybe Aang taught him to flee during battle so their only transportation doesn't get wounded?]]

* In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]: the Series'', Genie is kept from [[Reality Warper|resolving the plot of every episode in two minutes]] through a combination of this trope, [[Holding Back the Phlebotinum|the rules]] of his [[Weird Trade Union]], and [[Forgot About His Powers]]. In maybe ''one'' episode, they actually meet a rare villain that is more powerful than him; he specifically notes that the creature is about as powerful as a palace full of genies.

*** Well, more like just the rules of ''their'' [[Weird Trade Union]] and a combination of Cosmo being stupid and Wanda getting ignored.

** And [[Shazzan]].