Shemiki wrote:Laerod wrote:None of this addresses my arguments that it's a DEM. To put it in simple terms, you're equating "Why did Aang do that?" with "How did Aang do that?" despite them being two distinct things.
I think you failed to read the whole thing, particularly my last paragraph. The concept of magical creatures has been foreshadowed and established throughout the series, and as such the lion turtle is not contrived or unexpected.
I didn't fail to read it. Here's the argumentative things you wrote (I snipped out the one-liners):
Shemiki wrote:Actually, no. The theme of shaping one's own destiny and doing what one thinks is right even if all the odds are against him had been a theme of the series since 114.
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That's the entire point of the finale. All of the past avatars were urging him to kill Ozai, but he knew it was wrong and he took control of his own destiny. Theme of the entire show right there. Now granted, the lion turtle was hinted at a little more subtly than it could have been, but that doesn't change the fact that the theme still fits and it was in no way contrived or unexpected.
You've argued primarily that there's a theme and that this disproves a deus ex machina, and that's plain wrong. A deus ex machina presents an apparently insurmountable conflict. Aang's inner conflict, the "theme" you keep mentioning, between killing Ozai or letting him burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground is exactly that. Aang is faced with a dilemma and can see no third option. So when you say that "Actually, no. There's this theme..." (and this is the crux of your argument), you utterly miss the point.
Your very minor secondary argument, where you concede that "...the lion turtle was hinted at a little more subtly than it could have been,...", is, contrary to your assertion, the only thing that would change this into not being a deus ex machina. But it doesn't. You say that it's not particularly well hinted at? Lion turtles might receive statues, be drawn somewhere, and get mentioned in passing, but nowhere is what they are or what they can do elaborated on. Similarly, being simply informed of their existence is fairly irrelevant as well. Take two other examples of deus ex machinas: In Lord of the Flies, the insurmountable conflict (Ralph trying not to get killed by the other boys) is ended by the intervention of a passing ship, while in Tartuffe, the eponymous villain is only prevented from evicting the protagonists out of their own house by a timely intervention by an unnamed king (Louis XIV). In the former, we're aware that there's a war going on and thus there'll be ships out in the ocean. A ship seeing the smoke from the fires is a plausible resolution. And yet it's a deus ex machina because the resolution is still unexpected and external. In Tartuffe it's even more blatant (though this would be partly because the author needed to ingratiate himself with the monarch): We're obviously aware there's a king given the setting, but his power to see that injustice is occurring border on omniscience.
So merely establishing the existence of lion turtles (which doesn't really happen until the third last episode) doesn't really prevent a deus ex machina. The lion turtle shows up in Sozin's Comet part 1 out of nowhere, isn't revealed until the episode after, provides Aang with some sage advice, and touches him with its claws. The lion turtle swoops in and grants Aang the power he needs to resolve his conflict, which he in turn doesn't remember until the exact moment he needs it. An unprecedented outside intervention gives him an unprecedented power as the plot demands that solves his insurmountable problem.
It's a deus ex machina.