

In chapter 19 against Rui the dance and the sanguine explosion take place, do
they have a past reference? or is he a deus ex author's error? I[![enter image
description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mdNU1.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mdNU1.jpg)
need your help


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2020-12-18T03:04:31.397
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demon-slayer
Is Tanjiro using the fire god's breath dance and Nezuko using his ability a deus ex machine? Does it have foreshadow?


There isn't a ton of foreshadowing, but I would argue it's not an error or bad
storytelling. I think it was completely intentional and works well in the
story.

We didn't know beforehand that Tanjiro's father passed an ability down to him,
but we knew there was more to Tanjiro's father than there seemed. Muzan
recognized the hanafuda earrings the first time he and Tanjiro met, which were
passed down to Tanjiro from his father. So Tanjiro's father was someone a
demon lord would remember, and fear enough to try and kill anyone wearing his
earrings. There's also the mystery of Tanjiro's burn scar. We don't find out
during the series how he got it, so it's a mystery from his past. It
symbolically associates him with fire, which gets us thinking about mysteries
in his past related to fire, which eventually leads to the fire dance.

The deus ex machina becomes bad storytelling when it destroys dramatic tension
and conflict. I don't think that happens here. Unlocking the fire dance
doesn't actually solve any of Tanjiro's problems directly. It doesn't even
kill Rui, the enemy he was fighting. At best it keeps the fight going so Rui
can't kidnap Nezuko and buys some time for Tomioka to show up and kill off
Rui. And unlocking the fire dance sets up future stories. It's a new mystery
for Tanjiro to unravel, and also a new challenge for him to figure out how to
use it and how to combine it with his water breathing techniques. So I don't
think the fire dance needed a ton of foreshadowing. It's not the end of a
story, it's the beginning, and I imagine it's explored more deeply as the
story goes on (in the manga or in a second season of the anime that maybe
hopefully is coming someday).


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2020-12-31T07:46:08.480
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It could be considered a [Deus ex
machina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina). To quote from its
definition:

> ...a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is
> suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.

The 'unsolvable problem' here would be the fight between Rui and Tanjiro since
the latter was on the verge of losing to the former's seemingly overwhelming
strength. Tanjiro then discovers a new skill using a different breathing
technique and while it may not have 'abruptly resolved' the problem, it was
'unexpected and unlikely' since he was only shown to use Water breathing
techniques and it was enough to buy time for reinforcements to arrive, as seen
in **Episode 20**.

But was this an error? I don't think so. This event was meant as the beginning
to unraveling of Tanjiro's past. Personally, I think it was a good way since
it makes you curious about the background of Tanjiro's family, whether they
were really just a family who makes charcoal or was there something more since
his father seems to know breathing techniques. Was there foreshadowing before
this? None. Rather, _this is the foreshadowing to something later on in the
storyline_. All the unanswered questions from this part will eventually be
answered later on as the story progresses. You can read the manga or wait for
the anime to adapt everything.


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