Deus Ex Machina / Western Animation

• The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 did this often with the magic wands with "The Beauty of Kootie," and "7 Continents for 7 Koopalings," serving as the most blatant examples.
  • On the subject of the Mario cartoons, the same could be said for any instance when the heroes are in a hopeless situation and conveniently there's a nearby power-up they're able to use. For instances, in "Brooklyn Bound", Mario is dangling from a cliff and there just happens to be a random Fire Flower within reach that not only turns him into Super Mario but inexplicably grants him the ability to fly. In "Pirates of Koopa", a parrot bonks his head and sees Starmen. Mario tells the parrot to give him one of the Starmen, which he uses to power himself up and break out of a trap.
• Aladdin: The Series hung an enormous lantern in the form of a Parental Bonus: One episode involved the hunt for the "Orb of Machina", a MacGuffin intended to cure Genie's cold.
• All Hail King Julien has a few examples of vary levels of in-universe justification, but none stick out more than "Election", where Julien loses an election to a mad tyrant who promises his rule will be cruel and unstoppable, and is then abruptly struck down by lightning and killed instantly before he can really do anything.
• American Dad!:
  • Parodied when just as Stan and his family are about to be stoned to death, George Bush and the army arrive to save them with the line "Democracy has arrived!", throwing an American flag through the judge. Instantly, all of Saudi Arabia becomes some kind of democratic paradise, and Stan gives a line parodying the end of It's a Wonderful Life. However, none of it mattered in the end, as it was All Just a Dream.
  • Though a real one took place in the form of Roger using his "husband"'s (long story) apparent political influence to call the Saudi executioners just in time to call off the stoning and free the Smiths.
• Amphibia: In the series finale, Anne sacrifices her life to destroy the main antagonist and save the world. But she then finds herself in limbo, where a completely random deity reveals itself to her, then brings her back to life in the main world.
• A few episodes of The Angry Beavers turn out to be this, with special mention for "Moby Dopes". Dagget brings home a killer whale to their pond, thinking it to be as kind as Willy, but is really a carnivorous beast eating everyone and everyTHING in sight. It looks like it's about to be the end of the beavers... until a T-rex comes in and eats it. Norbert even lampshades this.
  Norbert: Where in the name of Deus Ex Machina did that T-REX come from?!
  • As it turns out, Dagget happened to bring home the T-rex from an amusement park prior to the Killer Whale, and the two are promptly chased by a new more vicious predator.
• Every season finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel, The Legend of Korra has ended with at least two of these^note With the exception of ATLA Book 2, where there had a Diabolus ex Machina and TLOK Books 3 & 4, which have convenient contrivances at worst: Some of these are arguably appropriate, given that the Avatar is divine.
  • ATLA Book 1: Yue sacrifices herself to restore the Moon Spirit and restore Waterbending. Aang merges with the Ocean Spirit to become "Koizilla" and destroys the Fire Nation fleet.
  • ATLA Book 2: Aang is killed by Azula, and subsequently resurrected by Katara's spirit oasis water. They're only able to escape after Iroh inexplicably escapes his crystal restraints in the other room, and holds off their attackers.
  • ATLA Book 3: Thanks to the events of the Book 2 finale, Aang is unable to access the Avatar State and in the showdown with Fire Lord Ozai, Ozai has him on the ropes. Ozai presses his attack against Aang's desperation rock shield and conveniently smashes Aang into a rock that hits him in the exact right spot to unblock his chakra and activate the Avatar State, flipping the fight into a Curb-Stomp Battle in Aang's favor. He then uses a new power he learned a day or so earlier to take away Ozai's powers and totally ignore his previous internal struggle of how to reconcile his pacifistic nature and the possibility of having to kill the Firelord to stop him.
  • TLoK Book 1: Amon manages to take away Korra's Earth, Fire and Waterbending, but unlocks her previously unaccessible Airbending in the process, allowing her to beat him and expose him as a Bender to Republic City. With Katara unable to heal Amon's damage, she's the Avatar in name only. When Korra goes to the edge of a cliff where she is about to commit suicide, the spirit of Aang appears and explains that she has finally connected to her spiritual self (something she's been unable to do the entire season) thanks to subconsciously opening her mind to the greatest change when she lost all will to live. One flash of Aang's Energybending later, and not only does Korra have all her other bending back, now she's able to access the Avatar State (which she's also been unable to do). She's then able to restore the bending of every one of Amon's victims.
  • TLoK Book 2: Deus-ex-Jinora. Vaatu fuses with Unalaq and reduces Raava (the Avatar Spirit) down to her bare essence. Korra uses the Tree of Time to pull some super spirit mojo and goes after "Unavaatu". So far so good. But it turns out she's not up to the task, and just as Unavaatu begins to use Unalaq's spirit-waterbending technique to corrupt her, Jinora's spirit suddenly appears from the spirit aurora over Republic City with an orb of light and showers it on cosmic Korra and Unavaatu, which has the resulting effect of dispelling Unavaatu's spirit-waterbending corruption technique and then jumpstarting/revealing Raava's regrowth inside Vaatu, thus allowing Korra to free Raava and purify Unavaatu.
• Very frequent in The Backyardigans, to the point that Tyrone's Catchphrase is "Well, that certainly is convenient.". Of course, it's fairly justified as the kids are making up the stories on the fly.
• The second episode of BattleTech (1994) ends with the heroes outnumbered, outgunned, and outarmoured by a Clan invasion force that also has better heat sinks. Just as Adam has to choose between surrender and death, the Galaxy Commander comes along and orders Kristin to cease her unauthorised campaign.
• The finale of Beast Wars: the Maximals, holed up in the Ark, are getting pummeled by the Decepticon warship Megatron just found. Thanks to a tip from Dinobot II, they find a working shuttle in one of the bays. They take that shuttle, kamikaze it into the enemy ship, and then fly home on it, creating a Stable Time Loop.
  Blackarachnia: The history tracks never mentioned this!
  Rhinox: History's still being made!
• This occurs at the end of Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines, where our heroes find themselves broke and unable to pay for the repairs their vehicles need after the damages sustained on their adventures. Suddenly, Close McCall (the driver of War Lord) wanders into an earthquake that reveals a bunch of hidden treasure, providing the trucks' drivers with a means of affording repairing their trucks.
• Camp Lazlo: Lumpus is riding atop his walking lawnchair the elves built him (don't ask). He has Santa, who is armed with naught but a tetherball, down on the ground (don't ask). Slinkman and the kids have failed in rescuing the jolly old elf and are lying in a heap. This looks like the end...'til Lumpus is hit by a meteor. There was mention of a meteor shower at the very beginning, but still. And then another meteor shows up and narrates the ending a la the snowman from an early film version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Just in case you were still wondering what kind of show this was.
• In the climax of Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings, how do the captured Care Bears escape and reach the throne room in Coldheart Castle where Professor Coldheart is keeping Kevin and dozens of other kids? Wish Bear wishes "we were all in the castle." It works! Even Tenderheart doesn't know how it happened.
  Coldheart: How did you get here?!
  Tenderheart: Uh... never mind!
• In a Halloween Episode of The Cleveland Show, Cleveland defeats a Jerk Jock from a neighboring town by setting a polluted river on fire, which wakes up a sea serpent that eats the guy whole. Cleveland himself didn't know it was there.
  • In another episode, Cleveland and the kids are about to go over an Inevitable Waterfall with seemingly no hope of surviving it when a grey screen with "Scene Missing" comes up. When it cuts back to the episode, Cleveland is thanking a talking Walrus with a handlebar moustache and top hat for saving them, then the Walrus jumps into the water, claps, then jumps out and flies off leaving behind a trail of rainbows.
• Elise in Dan Vs. often invokes this. Aside from her Spotlight-Stealing Squad moments in certain episodes, she's often the one who provides the solutions to some episode plots, which becomes much more blatant in the second season.
• In the Danger Mouse episode "Journey to the Earth's 'Cor!", Penfold just happens to keep a bottle camphorated oil in the Mk. III's glove compartment. DM uses it to defeat the episode's antagonist, Obediah Cromsull, who is staging a global takeover from the core of the Earth.
• Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy: Although Danny's able to defeat his evil future self, he's too late to save his friends and family from dying in an explosion. Right as it goes off, Time Master Clockwork stops time and saves them. Clockwork himself claims Danny earned that victory and that the choice he makes afterwards on his own (coming clean about cheating on a test) is what matters, but the Observants still consider it unfair interference.
  "That's a direct violation of the Protocol of Temporal Displacement! In other words, you cheated!"
• The final battle of "Ego Trip" in Dexter's Laboratory is resolved by Dee Dee suddenly wandering in through a time portal, proclaiming "Oooh, what does this button do?" and pressing it before promptly walking back through the time portal.
• Many of Doug's problems were solved in this way. Some examples include being able to wear a mask at the party to cover a pimple because it's a costume party and his video that he doesn't want Patti to see actually going to Mr. Bone.
• Several Earthworm Jim episodes ended with very blatant examples, all operating under Rule of Funny. An example is when Evil the cat unleashed a cosmic Monster Clown that was unstoppable. Jim calls an Obstructive Bureaucrat, who demands the clown obtains a license to destroy the universe, the stacked-up application form for which extends above the atmosphere. Which must be filled in in triplicate of course. This is discounting the many times where the bad guy is beaten, somehow gets back into power in the last few seconds, then gets hit by the falling cow.
• The Fairly OddParents! Musical Episode: the loophole in Flappy Bob's contract that defeated the pixies isn't even hinted at until the final act.
• Family Guy:
  • The ending of the episode "Lois Kills Stewie". No, before we find it out it was a simulation. When Stewie is about to shoot Lois, she is saved when he is shot by Peter... who was last seen on the couch at home.
    • Not to mentioned, an example shown after Stewie's first attempt to murder Lois on the cruise ship, it was revealed that she was rescued and nursed back to health by a merman.
  • Another Family Guy episode involved Stewie adopting a malevolent turtle. Long story short, things escalate and they end up in a fight to the death. Stewie, for whatever reason, is no match for the small reptile, and is nearly killed... until Super Mario bursts in and steps on the turtle.
    Mario: I jump on a turtle, Stewie. It's not an exciting life but it's my life.
  • There was also that one time "Democracy took hold" and ended the Iraq War.
  • And the classic scene where Peter is saved from falling to his death by Spider-Man because "everybody gets one".
• Fantastic Four: The Animated Series has "Where Calls Galactus", where Galactus decides to consume Earth after allying with the Four against a common enemy. All seems lost... until Ghost Rider shows up out of nowhere, uses his guilt-inducing power to incapacitate Galactus, and then vanishes into the night. It should be noted that the episode is based on a comic book arc by John Byrne, and it makes much more sense in the original, where Doctor Strange casts an illusion spell that terrifies Galactus long enough to allow Mr. Fantastic and the Thing to deliver the final blow that knocks him down.
• The Flintstones' Cowboy Episode was resolved when a stone version of the Cartwright family, with no warning whatsoever, charge in out of nowhere to rescue the main characters.
• Futurama has an in-universe example with Fry creating his own deus ex machina while trying to save the Earth from a Brainspawn invasion. After cornering the Brainspawn leader in a library, it forces Fry, Leela and itself into the nearby books (causing the three to relive events from whatever book they're in,) with the chase scene eventually ending with Fry trapping the Brainspawn leader in a poorly-written book that he wrote on the spot, which ends with the leader killing Fry in the book and then suddenly leaving "for no raisin."
• In the Gravity Falls Big Finale Stanley manages to scam Bill a trickster god via Heroic Sacrifice causing one of the most effective tear jerkers, in the end he loses all of his memories... until he recovers them. Manages to count as Deus ex Machina cause there's no evidence of a consequence or Bill coming back, an Ass Pull cause he got better by Mabel's scrapbook even though Stanford stated TWICE that it was impossible for him to recover his memories and as a Writer Copout since it happened just a couple minutes afterwards.
• During an episodes in Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs, Harry is playing a life sized version of snakes and ladders, with the snakes leading you to a tub of "bubbly wubbly" (comfortable green bubbles), required a roll of 2 in order to escape. Just before they're about to win, they land on a snake. Harry somehow leaves the die behind on the board, and therefore has trapped himself and all his dinosaurs. Everyone is worrying about how they're stuck indefinitely and are thinking of a way to escape when Trike, the Triceratops, creates a large racket scratching himself with a playing card that he found out of nowhere (and offscreen too). Harry takes the card, and it very conveniently is a "GET OUT OF THE BUBBLY WUBBLY TUB AND GO TO THE LAST SQUARE" card.
• Played straight in the cliffhanger episode “Council of Evil” in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002). Skeletor’s Council of Evil has taken nearly all of the Masters hostage; he’s used the Ram-Stone to force open the doors of Greyskull, knocking the Sorceress out in the process. The only thing standing in his way is Adam, who doesn’t even have his Sword of Power (having dropped it earlier). Nonetheless, Adam is determined to fight to the end… Until, as a final sign that the universe hates him, Skeletor’s old henchmen show up, having been sprung from prison by Kobra Khan. The villain simply knocks him into the abyss surrounding Greyskull saying “Good riddance to bad royalty!” and it seems the Darkest Hour is truly upon Eternia. Would a miracle occur? Try three miracles. First off, Orco shows up where Adam lands, having recovered the Sword. Then, from seemingly nowhere, Zodac appears inside the Castle and revives the Sorceress, and they combine their powers to reinforce the barrier. Skeletor attempts to use the Ram-Stone again, only for Adam – now in his heroic form as He-Man – to take him by surprise, grab it, and crush it. He’s still outnumbered, but then comes number three – cue a Big Damn Heroes by the other Masters, who have been rescued by Moss Man (who Skeletor had never even considered, it seems). After this, the villains decide to cut their losses and flee, but it did seem like everything all came out of nowhere. And the stage is set for Season Two.
• In the House of Mouse Halloween Episode Mickey's House of Villains, various Disney Villains take over the clubhouse at midnight on Halloween in a bid spearheaded by Jafar, turning it into the House of Villains. After all other attempts to get the clubhouse back fail, Mickey resorts to wearing his robe and Yensid's hat from the Fantasia short so he can engage Jafar in a magic duel. Jafar kicks his ass anyway, and things look quite grim... until Aladdin just shows up and tosses the heroes the magic lamp. Plausible, yes, but clearly not set up in prior scenes. Aladdin wasn't even seen at the house prior to this moment, so it's possible he wasn't even there until the final act and couldn't have had any way of knowing the heroes needed him to give them the lamp. It wasn't even Jafar's lamp. It was Genie's. What makes this arguably even more worse is that after Jafar gets defeated, the rest of the villains just give up and run away, even though some of them are arguably even more powerful than Jafar!
• In one of the episodes of The Jetsons, "Astro's Big Moment", George becomes the judge on a dog show. His family expects that he will let their dog, Astro, win, or else his son will be heartbroken; his boss expects that he will let the boss's dog win, or else he'll lose his job; and a local mobster in turn promises that he won't live till evening if he doesn't let the mobster's dog win. George thus finds himself in a desperate situation where choosing any of the three contestants will result in doom. But then, at the last minute, the police arrives to put the mobster in jail, while the boss's dog unexpectedly goes into labor and must be taken out of the show, thus saving George.
• Little Einsteins: In "Hungarian Hiccups", Rocket comes down with a case of hiccups and the team must find a way to cure them before a big race; but no matter how much they surprise him, their attempts all fail. Then a little mouse walks into the scene, spooking Rocket so much that he temporarily flees into the clouds, and that's what scares Rocket's hiccups away.
• Megas XLR got most of its humor from the fact that the titular Humongous Mecha was a literal example. In fact, one of the numerous buttons on its control panel was even marked "Save the World" (which was actually missing). More often it was subverted as whatever was supposed to be this of the episode backfired or misfired and the thing that ends saving the day turns out to be a seemingly unimportant plot element from earlier in the episode.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • "Over A Barrel": There's a conflict between the natives of the land and the newly settlers over the land; during the episode they keep arise the issue of reaching a consensus of relocating the apple orchard so the Buffaloes may complete their time-old tradition, or for Buffaloes to just go around the orchard. But somehow, everything is solved after a "gruesome" battle; by the Buffaloes' appreciation for the settlers' pastries. So now the settlers agreed to a path through the trees (rather than cut down all of them as the Buffaloes originally wanted), and even agreed to share the wealth of the land with the Buffaloes.
  • "Lesson Zero" also includes a Deus Ex Machina, in the form of Celestia showing up and dispelling the Want It, Need It spell from Mr. Smartypants and telling Twilight that no, really, you don't actually have to send a letter every single week (though in the end Celestia manages to turn it into everyone sending her letters sporadically). Justified in-story after the fact as Spike having surreptitiously contacted her off-screen when Twilight was spiralling out of control. Less unacceptable than most examples as the central conflict of the story was Twilight freaking out over nothing rather than the Want It, Need It spell and Celestia talking to Twilight was a logical means of solving the true central conflict.
  • Subverted and played with in "Return of Harmony Part 1" when strange things are happening such as chocolate raining down from clouds made of cotton candy and ears of corn spontaneously popping into popcorn. Twilight Sparkle shows up out of nowhere claiming some new spell she had conveniently just learned should fix everything.
    Twilight: My fail safe spell... FAILED!
  • A last-minute one occurs in part 2; all the mane characters are under Discord's influence and Twilight is close to leaving and losing hope. Luckily, Princess Celestia sends back all the friendship reports Twilight wrote her, which in turn breaks the Mind Rape, having her realize everything and restore her friends so they can defeat Discord.
  • This is normally how big villains are defeated, with the magic of friendship somehow prevailing in the end even though there was no indication prior that it could do something. A major example being Twilight's Kingdom where the Mane 6 use the newly introduced Rainbow Power to easily defeat Tirek who, prior to this point, was more powerful than all the Alicorns put together.
  • In the Season 8 finale "School Raze", the Tree of Harmony summons just enough energy to save the Young Six from being sent to another dimension with all the Equestrian magic, allowing them to restore magic back to Equestria.
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In "Find Her, Keep Her", Tigger takes Kessie out for a bounce and they eventually end up dangling from a falling tree that hangs horizontally over a cliff. Kessie loses her balance and falls, and because Rabbit never taught her how to fly, then she's in near-fatal danger. Fortunately, Owl happened to be flying near Kessie's fall zone and manages to teach her some basic tricks, allowing her to survive her fall and fly safely back up the cliff to Rabbit.
• Spoofed in the Christmas Special Olive, the Other Reindeer: Olive gets locked in the van of a mean-spirited mailman who wants to ruin Christmas. Her method of escape is contained within a box addressed "To: Olive From: Deus Ex Machina"
  Olive: D'you know anyone named Deus ex Machina?
  Martini: Denise who?
• The Powerpuff Girls: The ending of "Mime For A Change". After everyone is turned into lifeless gray statues by Mr. Mime^note No, not that Mr. Mime, Bubbles apparently brings everyone back to life by The Power of Rock mixed with The Power of Love song, "Love Makes The World Go Round". How music managed to bring anyone from that state is anyone's guess, but they did, so we shouldn't question it.
  • Played For Laughs in Him Diddle Riddle. During the episode, Him challenges the girls to solve his riddles "Or the Professor will pay!" The final riddle, which will lead them to the password, is the toughest yet: "Where is it boiling and freezing at the same time?" The girls have no idea what Him means and panic... only for The Mayor to appear for his first (and last) scene in the episode, where he nonchalantly explains rapid-fire that the riddle refers to coordinates right in Townesville. After a Beat, The Mayor offers a non-sequitur and leaves. The girls share a Meaningful Look before wordlessly dashing to the location the Mayor gave.
• Phineas and Ferb relies on several per episode as running gags to maintain the status quo. It is usually excused with Rule of Funny.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • Sunspot often functions as this, figuring out what is going on and what needs to be done and then conveying that information to one or more of the children. He can also easily pull whatever item the kids need out of Hammerspace.
  • Some of these occur in the secret alien identity arc. In "Visit to Mom's Office", Jet openly tells Dr. Rafferty that he is an alien from Bortron 7, but luckily, Dr. Rafferty thinks that Jet is pretending to be an alien due to "feeling" like one. And the residents of Boxwood Terrace don't notice the Propulsion vehicle transforming into a flying saucer.
  • Jet 2 becomes a last-minute one in the Made-for-TV Movie Back to Bortron 7, when the hologram of the Propulsion house runs out and the Propulsions are on the risk of being exposed by Mitchell, Jet 2 uses his flashlight on the sun, causing a solar eclipse which distracts the townspeople long enough from seeing the Propulsion house land back on Earth just in time.
• Invoked in ReBoot. Mainframe is damaged beyond repair and there's nothing anyone can do to stop the system from crashing and killing everyone. Bob's "last resort" is to backup everyone, let the system crash, and pray for a system restart from the user. Sure enough, the User restarts his computer and saves everyone, including the people already killed before the crash.
  • Before Cerebus Syndrome, an episode about Hexadecimal changing all of Mainframe to stone concluded with Hex deciding she was bored and snapping her fingers to de-petrify everyone. Admittedly, it took a little prompting from Bob. And it is Hexadecimal...
• In the Rick and Morty episode "Rick Potion #9", a love potion piggybacking off of the flu virus manages to infect the entire planet, making almost everyone violently obsessed with Morty. When Rick's attempts to fix it only make things exponentially worse, the two abandon their world for a parallel universe were they got lucky, fixed everything, then immediately died, and replace their old selves without skipping a beat. Morty's resultant existential crisis plays a major part in his character development from then on.
• The Simpsons
  • Parodied and lampshaded in the episode "Thank God, It's Doomsday" where Homer is the only person called up to Heaven after the Rapture; when he asks God to put things back the way they were (on the logic that Superman did it in his first movie), God raises His hands skyward and shouts "Deus Ex Machina!", after which everything goes back to normal.
  • "Missionary Impossible" sets up the ending like this is the only way out. Homer and a little girl are trapped on a tiny island in the middle of the lava - on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean - and we're just waiting for the rescue helicopters or something equally incredible to save them. But the show suddenly stops and some commentators laugh and wonder how they're going to get out of this one. And by the way, it's Pledge Drive Week, so phone in now... (The show is intentionally left unresolved.)
  • The Lord of the Flies parody episode "Das Bus" where all the kids are left stuck on the island at the end and James Earl Jones, in a voiceover narration role, says that they were eventually saved by "...oh, let's say, Moe".
  • That infamous episode "The Day The Violence Died" where Bart & Lisa help a homeless man win a lawsuit against Itchy & Scratchy studios. Itchy & Scratchy gets back on its feet thanks to two kids named Lester & Eliza. They also helped Apu after he was arrested for public nudity and helped Krusty get back together with his never-before mentioned estranged wife.
  • Season 27 episode "The Girl Code" where Homer got fired from his job due to a social media post and Lisa creates an app to predict the consequences of social media posts called Conrad.
    Homer: "My fate will be decided in the classic tradition of Greek drama, Deus ex machina."
    *notification sound*
    Lisa: "I just got an email from Conrad! He hacked into the power plant mainframe and found incriminating information! Now he's blackmailing Mr. Burns to get you your job back!"
    Simpsons family: "Opa!"
    *end credits roll*
  • There's the classic episode where Bart and Lisa expose that Itchy & Scratchy was stolen from its creator who has become homeless. The show gets cancelled and they try to bring it back. The whole mess is resolved by a string of convenient events orchestrated by a couple of kids who look like Bart and Lisa. The first Itchy & Scratchy episode since the return even shows Scratchy killing Itchy by praying to God.
• Sofia the First: Any time the Amulet of Avalor summons a Disney Princess who in turn helps Sofia resolve a major conflict. It summons Cinderella to encourage her to help make amends with her stepsister Amber and give her another chance, it summons Belle when she nearly runs out of time before singing the Enchancia Anthem at the Harvest Festival when under a croaking curse and learns she has to make things right, it summons Rapunzel when Amber learns she has to make a big sacrifice for the sake of Sofia to defeat Princess Ivy, and so forth.
• South Park: Mintberry Crunch of the Superhero arc, but a lesser example as it was hinted someone would step up.
  • Lampshaded in the "Vaccination Special", after Mr. Garrison is able to miraculously resolve the conflict after making a deal with the "Hollywood elites running the show".
• SpongeBob Squarepants
  • The classic "Pizza Delivery" has the part where Spongebob and Squidward get lost in the wilderness and are saved when they find a Rock which they can drive.
  • Hello, Bikini Bottom. Mr. Krabs buys back the Krusty Krab with Gary's collage funds after selling it to a pawn shop in the beginning so he can afford to take SpongeBob and Squidward on tour.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: SpongeBob and Patrick realize Shell City is a tacky gift shop on land, and they found Neptune's crown; but that does not stop them from dehydrating under the Cyclops' heating lamp. Before drying out completely, they shed tears which form into one in the shape of a heart; that same tear slides down the lamp's cord into the outlet, shorting the lamp out and starting a fire which activates the sprinklers in the store, which revives our heroes (and all the other sea creatures as well).
• In Steven Universe, problems and conflicts are usually solved with Steven talking down an antagonist. Either over time or at once, Big Bad of the most recent Arc, White Diamond was different in that she was a force that simply could not be reasoned with. Due to being unbelievably powerful, believing herself to be perfect and also just shutting down Steven every time he had something to say. In the final confrontation with White Diamond, she removes his gem. Pink Steven then appears with no prior foreshadowing, somehow overpowers White Diamond with his voice, No Sells all her attacks, which prior to this point were overwhelmingly effective and then rejoins with Human Steven before the latter can die. After being so thoroughly humbled, White Diamond proceeds to drop all pretense of composure, throws a temper tantrum and has her entire argument (and threat level) thrown out the window.
• Superman: The Animated Series: Mister Mxyzptlk tricks Bizarro (a failed clone of Superman) to fight the Man of Steel. It looks like Superman might lose, suddenly Mxyzptlk's superiors summon the villain back to the fifth dimension and remove his powers. Without the cosmic imp's interference, Superman naturally beats Bizarro.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: In one episode, Skeleton King's Eldritch Abomination is able to turn any humans and robot monkeys into mindless zombies by using its large eye. Cue the Sun right after Hiro, being a sole survivor, gets turned into a zombie, which kills that Oculothorax monster, and all zombifications get undone. This is only foreshadowed once a short time before, as that monster gets weakened by being exposed to any forms of light. The enemy is defeated not by someone, but something in a coincidental way.
• The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries: Parodied in the episode "Platinum Wheel of Fortune", which takes place at the Monte Carlo Casino. At the end of the episode, when Granny needs one final vital clue to solve the mystery, Tweety obtains it from a slot machine called "Machine du Clues".
• Teen Titans (2003) loved doing this.
  • In the Season 3 finale, Cyborg is the only Titan left who can resist Brother Blood's Mind Control. Blood has effortlessly torn Cyborg's leg and arm off, controlled the other Titans, and is ripping Cyborg's circuitry apart, trying to find the component that makes Cyborg immune. Cyborg announces "It's my SPIRIT!" instantly rebuilds a replacement arm and leg, ignores Blood's energy blasts (the ones that blew his arm and leg off 15 seconds ago) and takes Blood out with one punch. They at least lampshade it this time.
    Beast Boy: So are you, like, magic now or something?
    Cyborg: I'm sure it was a one-time deal.
    • And they explain the mechanic fine (Blood was trying so hard to use his Psychic Powers to control Cyborg's mind that he accidentally allowed Cyborg to access them). The problem was, they explained this after the fact, with no indication beforehand that something like this was possible or that Blood had anything but complete control over his powers. This is especially jarring precisely because it wouldn't have taken much foreshadowing to establish the mechanic beforehand.
  • In the Season 4 finale, Raven embraces The Power of Friendship, reverts to her normal age, and gains complete control of her powers long enough to blast her evil father into oblivion.
• In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Teen Titans Roar", after having spent the entirety of the episode complaining about Thundercats Roar not appealing to their specific tastes, the '80s version of Lion-O appears from the "cartoon afterlife" to tell the Titans that the reboot is a worthy follow up to the original, instantly resolving the conflict of the episode. Lampshaded by Roar Lion-O who thanks him for the completely unforced endorsement.
• Deconstructed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003). Just as the turtles were about to be defeated by Shredder, the Utroms showed up and stopped him. Leonardo spent the next several episodes struggling with feelings of helplessness because he couldn't save himself and the others and they only survived by the grace of forces beyond his control.
• Lampshaded and Played for Laughs in Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, Buster and Babs are saved from a fatal fall by a plot hole (a literal hole in the ground, that magically transports them back home).
  Buster: I was wondering how our hack writers would get us out of this one.
• At the end of the The Transformers episode "A Prime Problem", Megatron throws Spike out of his rocket, but then Powerglide shows up out of nowhere and saves him. It could be assumed that he was there all along and simply hadn't appeared on screen, except for the fact that before this episode, all but two of the Autobots had had land-based altmodes. Later, in Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, The Autobots are revealed to be equipped with non-lethal knockout gas just as Decepticon zombies attack Rome.
• Transformers: Prime has an episode titled Deus Ex Machina. In it the B plot of Miko caught by a security guard is wrapped up by Agent Fowler suddenly showing up to solve the problem. Miko even explains how the trope works just before Fowler shows up to execute it (although he was mentioned earlier, so it's not 100% straight).
• Winx Club:
  • In the tenth episode of season 2, Bloom discovers her healing powers when she brings Sky back from the dead.
  • In the Season 1 finale, Bloom manifests the ability to teleport the way witches do (without a portal, for which a special form is required in Season 4) just in time to save herself from drowning and *** Icy off enough to waste a ton of magical power trying to shoot her down again, which basically wears her out so much that she passes out; considering that Bloom was useless with magic for most of the first season (and, in fact, had no powers for much of the back half of the season), it's nothing less than miraculous.
  • The Fairy Dust in Season 3. After Aisha is blinded by Valtor's evil spell and sacrifices the chance to cure her for the sake of healing the dying mermaid queen of Andros, she earns the Enchantix power, the final fairy form which makes her a full-fledged fairy, but she is still blinded. Faragonda sees her new power and reveals she now has the power of the Fairy Dust, which can break any dark spell; she uses said power and regains her sight.
• Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose ends with the titular plane magically flying itself back home while everyone is sleeping.
• The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show: Played for laughs in "South Seas Scare". Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy spend most of the short fleeing from a huge stone monster that climbed out of a volcano. Shaggy, in the last 30 seconds of the episode, wishes that "someone would just put it back where it came from". Cue Scrappy, who can punch through stone and can carry Shaggy and Scooby around on a regular basis, quickly doing exactly that. The sheer transparency and Shaggy and Scooby's WTF reactions make it more entertaining then anticlimactic.
• Woody Woodpecker: "Born to Peck" is a rather dark short where an elderly Woody, worn and tired and missing the good old days when he could bore through wood like a champion, ends up throwing himself off a cliff. He ends up saved when the animator feels sorry for him and hastily draws in a Fountain of Youth, which Woody lands in and finds himself back in his prime.