Often overlaps with Armor-Piercing Question or Armor-Piercing Response, where the line causes a character to seriously rethink their position. For a milder in-universe version, see Dropping the Bombshell. If there was background music playing beforehand, expect it to abruptly come to a stop after the line is said and/or switch to music that better reflects the scene's new mood. For it to be effective the audience must not see it coming - not just not knowing the exact information, but not expecting any kind of surprising, or even significant, line there at all. Afterwards, the scene is going somewhere very, very different. Whereas a Wham Episode is an episode that radically alters the Story Arc, a Wham Line is a line of dialogue that radically alters a scene.Ī scene is headed in one direction, then the line is uttered. Andrew Hussie, via his former Formspring
