Foreshadowing over abundance VS. deus-ex-machina

[Starstream 182]

It happens in pretty much every action based story: The hero has worked himself into a situation from which it is seemingly impossible to escape. He or she would be done for, were it not for that one specific thing that the writer only now specifically mentioned. I was wondering, which one do people find more offensive when they encounter it in a story, an over abundance of foreshadowing, or the usage of deus-ex-machinas?

 

---

Foreshadowing over abundance is basically, when you take the situation I mentioned before, but even hours before you got to that point in the story, you already knew exactly what the hero would use to escape because for the past 5 hours the write has been describing, over and over and over again that secret door behind the closet or that crippling fear the antagonist has for the barking of dogs, or my personal favorite, "Hey look, It's a bucket of water! I wonder why that is there?" combined with "Now I have the power of fire! There's nothing you can do to stop me now!"

 

Deus-ex-machina is pretty much the polar opposite of that. You have reached the same point in the story, but this time you're given no clue whatsoever of how the hero might escape. For a good few minutes the story might even be suspenseful, but then... something totally BS comes up, the entire research facility decides to start its self-destruct sequence, causing the big bad to flee, or the hero now suddenly has the ability to punch a hole in a wall while it was pretty clear before that he or she is not particularly powerful. Over all it probably just comes across as if the writer writing him or herself into a corner and BS-ing their way out.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Zhinzo