Armor-Piercing Question: Difference between revisions

** Or Wen the Eternally Surprised who, after reaching enlightenment, told his apprentice to ask him a question, anything. His apprentice, who was quite stupid and not at all inclined to be philosophical ([[Alternative Character Interpretation|...or was he?]]), just said "Er... what [do you] want for breakfast?" "Ah, one of the ''difficult'' ones."

** Also parodied with [[All Trolls Are Different|Detritus]]' interrogation technique, which simply consists of asking the same three questions ("Did you do it?", "Are you sure it wasn't you what done it?" and "It was you what done it, wasn't it?") over and over again for hours until he gets the right answer: "Yes! It was me! I did it! I did it! Now please tell me what it was I did!"

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', {{spoiler|as Adam Young starts to be overtaken by his demonic heritage, his rambles about his plans to kill off all the grown-ups who've messed up the world and leave things to him and his circle of friends, which includes him divvying up the world among them. One of his friends, Pepper, asks what part of the world Adam wants, and Adam slowly starts to come back to normal as he realizes all he really wants is his hometown of Tadfield.}}

* Perhaps the biggest [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in ''Sarum'' goes to Captain Wilson's wife Nellie, who upon her return to Salisbury is immediately accused by [[Holier Than Thou]] Abigail Mason of being a harlot. Not only does the Captain denounce Abigail by asking the crowd, "And who's this pasty-faced scold?", but Nellie—quickly sizing up the situation, in which Abigail and her brother-in-law have been watching her spouse Peter Mason being executed for heresy—declares the Armor-Piercing Answer, before the ''entire town'':

* For [[Artemis Fowl]], it's: "Artemis... Isn't that a girl's name?" {{spoiler|Artemis later gives his answer with a code phrase that sets the final part of an [[Awesome Moment]] plan in action.}}

* In Angela Carter's "A Very, Very Great Lady and Her Son at Home," the lady of the title recounts her mother's advice to overcome her shyness by imagining the people who intimidate her looking ridiculous on the toilet. Her son, who has been attending to her for most of the story, proceeds to ask "And do you look pathetic on the lavatory, mother?" She promptly collapses.