Quote Originally Posted by Sword View Post
No he didn't show up just when a pilot was needed, they were there the whole time (when Serah and Noel came back after the final fight anyway). When Hope and his crew first arrived, you could consider that to be a deus ex machina, but why single out Sazh? It would be considered a deus ex machina before we even knew Sazh was there. However, even giving that Hope's arrival was a deus ex machina we were expected to meet up with him anyway, so it makes his timing irrelevant. And we were expected to have a final battle too, so it's not as if they couldn't have written that section differently without Hope and Sazh's help and still have us arrive at the final battle. You can only cite a deus ex machina as a negative point in a review if the story is written so that the likelihood of the particular event is ridiculous and is just some bulltit that comes outta nowhere.
Sazh just appears right before the final fight, that is out of nowhere. Expectations have nothing to do with it. If you knew nothing about the game prior to playing it- Sazh just randomly appeared in the right spot, just to work him in the game hence deus ex machina. (Solved the problem of no sazh/needed to be saved by airships, by just having him suddenly there piloting one).

I really don't get how you aren't understanding this.