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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34234
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34234
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think you have to look at DXM this way: the resolution of the hero's arc has to be merited. The hero can merit their solution by achieving it by their own actions. But they can also merit it by deserving the help that has been provided to them.

A classic case is Androcles and the Lion. Androcles is an escaped slave who is captured and thrown to a lion. But lo! the lion does not eat Androcles! Why not, because earlier in the story Androcles had removed a thorn from the lion's paw (as considerable risk to himself). Androcles does not survive being thrown to the lion by his might or guile. But the ending is merited because of his previously demonstrated virtue.

If a character is to be saved by the intervention of a god, literally or figuratively, then they must previously have done something (selflessly) which merits their being saved. The virtue displayed must be commensurate with the intervention provided.

In how many cop shows does our hero cop, with the bad guy's boot on his throat, get saved by the intervention of his partner or some bystander whose help he has merited by his earlier actions in the show?

So the question you should be asking is, will the reader feel that this unexpected and unlikely ending is merited. If it is merited, it can be as unexpected and unlikely as you please. If it is unmerited it can be a ordinary and commonplace as you like and it still will not feel right.

Stories are moral. Endings do not have to be logical or probable, but they do have to be merited.

Original score: 17