Wham! Episode/Literature: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Dark Tower]]'' has a few per book, usually towards the end (number two being the only exception).

* [[It Was His Sled|Even if you know the ending]] to ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'', you ''will'' shit yourself reading the penultimate chapter.

* The ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' manages to pull this off in several installments, most notably the endings of books 2: Rand revealing himself as the Dragon Reborn by fighting in the sky with Ba'alzamon, 3: the claiming of Callandor and Rand actually declaring himself the Dragon Reborn, 6: the battle at Dumai's Wells and the aftermath where the Aes Sedai swear fealty to Rand, and especially 9: the cleansing of the taint from saidin. Cranked [[Up to Eleven]] in 12 with The Prophet getting executed by Faile ''in the prologue''; Verin's true allegiance; Egwene fending off a huge Seanchan attack on the White Tower, executing nearly the entire Black Ajah in a single day and FINALLY becoming Amyrlin of a united Aes Sedai; Rand killing both Semirhage and Graendal, starting to use the True Power and destroying the Choedan Kal. Robert Jordan was quite good at these.

** Note that the events of book 12 were technically written (mostly) by [[Brandon Sanderson]], though ''planned'' by the original author. Also, WHAM moments like these have become increasingly common since book 10 or so, as part of an earnest effort to prune the [[Kudzu Plot]] that's been building throughout the series.

* ''A Storm of Swords'', the third book of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', ends with many devastating events, including deaths of many major characters. This was originally meant to set up for a five-year timeskip. When the author couldn't get it to work, the rewriting of the plot ironically caused a five-year ''delay'' for the next book.

** The first book's ending arguably contained even more WHAM, what with the grand execution and all...

** The even bigger Wham in this event was when Asriel and Coulter, supposedly deadly enemies, run to each other and have a ''lovers' embrace'', less than a minute after Roger's death. Their previous behavior throughout the entire book was suddenly cast in a very different light.

** Don't forget the ending to the first sequel, Lyra suddenly captured and Will's long absent father killed MOMENTS after they recognize one another.

** As the [[Metaplot]] of the series is a retelling of the great Anglo-French war [[In Space]], this is based on the "Peace of Amiens" and the transition of power in France from the Committee of Public Safety to Napoleon I, and was planned out pretty much from the start. (With a few minor surprises here and there, anyway.)

** Similarly, the scene in Mission of Honor where Oyster Bay happens, and of course the very final chapter of the book which re-aligns the political and military framework of the entire series over the course of a conversation.

* While the other novels work well with plot twists, the last quarter of the fourth ''[[Temeraire]]'' novel, ''Empire Of Ivory'', is probably the most staggering example. It sees the destruction of every English port in southern Africa by an army of dragon-riding tribesmen; a plan to effectively commit genocide upon the other dragons of Europe by sneaking an ill dragon into Napoleon's air corps, which would spread the plague that nearly wiped out England's dragons throughout the entire Eastern Hemisphere, but also would surely provoke a bloody invasion attempt by Napoleon; and Laurence and Temeraire committing treason to deliver the antidotal mushrooms to the French forces before it's too late. The end has Laurence and Temeraire returning to England, to what will surely be Laurence's court martial and hanging.

* The end of ''Amber and Iron'' (the second book in the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' trilogy about Mina) contains a huge wham. In a tabletop-game world carefully balanced between good and evil, the idea that there's another goddess that nobody knew about, including her, is not just unexpected, it seems downright impossible.

* ''[[Star Trek]]: Destiny,'' in which the Borg launch an invasion of the Alpha Quadrant, destroying several dozen worlds and annihilating forty percent of Starfleet, before every single drone is liberated all at once, wiping out the collective once and for all.

* ''[[The Pillars of the Earth]]'' takes a hard left turn when William raids Kingsbridge, nearly burns it to the ground and kills dozens, including the book's main character.

* ''The [[Book of Amber]]''. That series has one every few pages... "Wow! Everything I knew was wrong! Again!" indeed.

* [http://www.amazon.com/Motels-American-Retro-Alison-Moss/dp/1570715955 This] coffee-table book about [[Zeerust|Googie]] motel architecture. Beautiful pictures of stylish but fading architecture; and then you get to the chapter on [[Civil Rights Movement|the Lorraine Motel in Memphis]].

** Also, book #49, in which the Yeerks (finally) figure out that the Animorphs are human. Cue the eponymous heroes going "[[Oh Crap]]."

* The last two chapters of ''[[Mistborn]]'' book two. Everything that happened in the story up to this point was a Xanatos Gambit by the real, godlike Big Bad. The world is ending, everything you know is a lie, the prophecies are wrong and reality has been edited. Good luck. There are more than enough clues up to this point for the reader to figure out that things aren't quite as they seem, but nothing will prepare you for this.

* ''[[Dragonlance]]'' is nothing but a Wham series. In reciprocation. Over millennia and-one-hundred-or-so books: Sturm is Huma's carbon-copy, The draconians are hatched from the supposedly-protected eggs of the good metallic dragons, Raistlin literally is Fistandantilus, Fizban is Paladine, Berem is responsible for the entire Second Dragon War, Par-Salian's version of [[Trial By Fire|'The Test']] breaks Raistlin, Steel Brightblade is the son of Sturm and Kitiara, Tasselhoff is blessed by Paladine himself... and that's about 5% of the MAIN storyline, too.

* The ending of [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''Debt of Honor'': After being sworn in as Vice-President due to his predecessor being forced to resign, Jack Ryan narrowly escapes a terrorist attack that kills that kills almost every major politician in the U.S. Capitol building (including the President, most of Congress, most of the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and every Supreme Court Justice). Ryan is then ''immediately sworn in as President moments later''. Let's just say ''no one'' saw that coming.

* The ending of the ninth book of the [[Betsy the Vampire Queen]] series, ''Undead and Unfinished'', contains a wham that dramatically changes the tone of the series to [[Darker and Edgier]].

* ''[[Codex Alera|Princeps' Fury]]:'' {{spoiler|Canea is overrun by the Vord, and so is half of Alera. Gaius Sextus obliterates Alera Imperia when the Vord overrun it, and dies in the process.}}

** ''Rising Storm'': {{spoiler|1=Tigerclaw becomes leader of ShadowClan}}.

** ''Midnight'': {{spoiler|The forest is going to be destroyed.}}

** ''Sunrise'': {{spoiler|Hollyleaf killed Ashfur. And she's not the third!}}

** ''The Fourth Apprentice'': {{spoiler|1=A war between StarClan and the Dark Forest!}}

 

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