The actual meaning of Ex Deus Machina

[Gargen]

Well i have a customized google homepage, on it i have a word of the day thing and this is what i saw today when went online.

Word of the Day :
deus ex machina: an agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an apparently insoluble difficulty.

[the fifth man]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[spg_1983]

Thats not exactly the most exact definition. It's latin meaning "god from the machine." It actually originated as a term in old Greek and Roman theater. Stage hands would lower actors playing a god or gods on stage to resolve a hopeless situation. In modern parlance it has been extended to any resolution in a story which does not follow the story's own internal logic and is so out of the realm of believability it challenges the suspension of disblief, but it allows the author to conclude the story with an unlikely but more palatable or happier ending. Basically its a fancy term for an author's cop out.

[adk06]

ex dues machina = the god machine, heh I liked this episode name it reminded me of Donnie Darko (if anyone has seen the movie, you'll understand what i mean)

[Gargen]

ex dues machina = the god machine, heh I liked this episode name it reminded me of Donnie Darko (if anyone has seen the movie, you'll understand what i mean)

Oh i see where your getting that, Donnie Darko is a grat movie

PS Well i take latin Literally it translates to God out of the Machine, but i just thought it was cool that i found it as an english word/phrase

[ThreeFriesShortOfaHappyMeal]

Deus ex Machina was also the name of the the face that formed at the end of Matrix Revolutions.

[Hatcheter]

"Deus Ex Machina" properly translates as "a god out of a machine". "Ex Deus Machina" would mean "out of god's machine", though I've been told that that rearangement of the phrase isn't quite proper Latin. It's a fitting title for the episode, I think, as

Spoiler:

the naquada laced building, or the clones, could be considered products of Baal's schemes.

[Madeleine]

Ex Deus Machina unfortunately means exactly the same as Deus Ex Machina - Latin isn't big on word order and changes the endings of words (Deus, Deo, Deum, Dei,...) to indicate whether a word is the subject or object of a phrase.

But if we translate the words roughly and use the English version in the order it's given, Ex Deus Machina becomes "From god, the machine". Referring, presumably, to the bomb that came from ex-god Baal.

[Bragi]

Is it a growing trend that Sci-Fi channel writers are poking fun at themselves in a tongue-in-cheek manner, or am I just imagining things?

[Naquida Guy]

I believe that it was also noted that the placement of the words was also ment "Ex" Deus Machina; or "ex-god machine.' In other words, the writers knew they had a classic Deus Ex Machina ocurring, so they poked fun at the fact that Ba'al was no longer a "god."