Wham Line / Final Fantasy

• In the endgame of Final Fantasy, the Warriors of Light journey to the world of 2000 years in the past, to confront the demon Chaos. They descend deep into the then-pristine Chaos Shrine...and encounter a disturbingly familiar face:
  Garland: Do you remember me? I was once known as a knight of Cornelia.
• Final Fantasy IV:
  • It looks like it sets one up when Cecil and company travel to the moon and meet FuSoYa, when he reveals that his brother, KluYa, was Cecil's father. But that's just to set up the real Wham Line.
    Golbez: My father? His name was...KluYa.
  • Earlier on, when Kain approaches Cecil in Fabul. The heroes are cornered in the Crystal room and Baron is about to seize the crystal, so the sudden reappearance of Cecil's old friend seems like a welcome sight. The wording varies based on the translation^note the dialogue below is from the 3D versions (Nintendo DS, mobile, and PC), but the effect is the same.
    Cecil: You'll fight, then?
    Kain: Of course. That's the very reason I've come. But, Cecil...The one I'll fight is you!
• Final Fantasy VI:
  Gestahl: Kefka, stop it! If you revive those statues, you'll destroy the very world we've conquered!
  Kefka: Shut up!!
• Final Fantasy VII:
  Sephiroth/Jenova: ...because you are a puppet.^note Or, as they spell it in-game, "Beacause you are a puppet."
  Sephiroth: What I have shown you is reality. What you remember... that is the illusion.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake has one of the biggest lines that changes everything compared to the original game:
  Zack: Wait... was that all of them?
• Final Fantasy VIII
  • When Squall confronts NORG after thwarting his coup, which was caused by NORG wanting to turn the SEEDs over to Sorceress Edea after their failed assassination attempt on her, the following exchange takes place.
  NORG: THIS-IS-MY-GARDEN!
  Squall: NO! It's not just yours.
  NORG: Bujurururu! THEN-WHAT-IS-IT!? IS-IT-CID'S-AND-EDEA'S!? THAT-PATHETIC-MARRIED-COUPLE'S!?
  • When the party members except for Rinoa remember that they were all in the same orphanage along with Seifer, Irvine reveals who the orphan matron really is.
    Irvine: Matron's name is Edea Kramer. Matron IS Sorceress Edea.
• Final Fantasy IX has two, both from Garland:
  "Twelve years ago, I lost one of my most prized Genomes. I created him and sent him to Gaia to disrupt the cycle of souls there. You are that Genome." (He’s referring to Zidane.)
  "I constructed the Genomes to be vessels for the souls of Terra when they awaken. But 24 years ago, I gave life to a Genome that was very much like you. His will was too strong to make him into a proper vessel, and I even considered discarding him. But then I thought that I should put his strength to use. I sent that Genome as my servant, to disrupt the cycle of souls on Gaia. The one I sent to Gaia might also be called your brother... And his name is Kuja."
• Final Fantasy X has a few:
  • During the Home sequence, the true nature of the pilgrimage is revealed, and what it represents for the summoner:
    Rikku: The pilgrimages have to stop! If they don't, and they get to Zanarkand... They might defeat Sin. Yunie could... but then she... Yunie will die, you know? ...You know, don't you?!
  • Before the third fight with Seymour, he has a reveal for Kimahri in particular:
    Seymour: Allow me to say something to the last Ronso before I leave. *laughs* Yours was... truly a gallant race. They threw themselves at me to bar my path. One... after another... *laughs*.
  • Just after the fight against Yunalesca, if you haven't figured it out already:
    Auron: There's something you should know.
    Tidus: I know. It's about you, right?
    Auron: I am also an unsent.
    • And earlier:
      Auron: I felt something of Jecht there in that shell...couldn't you? You must have felt him when you came into contact with Sin.
  • And this one from Mika, where he reveals that much like Auron, he's an unsent, and obstructs the party's efforts to send Seymour:
    Mika: Send the dead...hmm? You would have to send me too.
• Final Fantasy XII has many, many examples. The first comes in the prologue:
  Reks: Captain...why? Our king...what have you done?
  • This line also plays over the eventual revelation that Basch has a twin brother.
  • And in a similar vein to the above:
    Balthier: He made airships...weapons... He even made me a judge.
    Ashe: You were a judge?
    Balthier: Part of a past I'd rather forget. It didn't last long. I ran. I left the judges, and him... Cidolfus Demen Bunansa, Draklor Laboratories' very own Doctor Cid. That's when he lost his heart to nethicite, lost himself. And I suppose that's when I lost my father.
    • Also these, provided you didn't read the instruction manual, which lists all the characters:
      Judge Ghis: This is hardly the courtesy due the late Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca.
      Gabranth: You have grown very thin, Basch.
• Final Fantasy XIII has a whopper at the end of Chapter 9:
  Primarch Galenth Dysley: Why don't you leave, Jihl? Or rather...take your leave? Humans have no place here.
  • Followed by:
    Primarch Galenth Dysley: I am fal'Cie. My name is Barthandelus, voice of the Sanctum, and Lord-Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie.
  • Earlier we get two in one:
    Oerba Yun Fang: I'm from Gran Pulse. The world below you all hate so much. My partner and I had turned to crystal there and gone to sleep. The reason Cocoon's in such an uproar is the same reason you're here now. Vanille and I woke up.
• Final Fantasy XIV has one in nearly every patch, but these in particular stand out;
  • Minfilia talking to herself in the first patch:
    Minfilia: Krile...where are you?
    • When the sympathetic but antagonistic Iceheart is foiled, she says three words that left the fandom in an uproar;
      Iceheart: Hear. Feel. Think.
  • The second related to Iceheart is a line during the boss theme against Shiva, and lets the players know that she's not tempered, nor is she being a vessel, she's controlling the primal.
  • 2.5 had the players meet Midgardsomr.
    Heh heh heh. Mayhap thou thinkest me an oathbreaker? Thou art mistaken. If thou comest to harm, it shall be by another's hand, not mine. I did but strip thee of thy mistress's feeble blessing.
  • The Dark Knight quest line in 3.0 gradually hints that something is off about your trainer, Fray. As you complete quests with them, it becomes more and more clear that almost every time they speak to someone else, the person they were speaking to acts as though you yourself were the one talking. By the time of the level 45 quest, when a person you tried to help demands recompense because the blood of the bandits that stole his merchandise spilled on it, Fray reaches their Rage Breaking Point and gives a massive speech calling out him and everyone else in the realm for their constant demand for the player to do everything from killing primals to fetching paperwork and then often having less than even a "thank you" as a reward. Standard-sounding Deconstruction of sidequests in an RPG, up until Fray claims that "I should've left you all to drown in Leviathan's tidal wave", referencing an event they were most definitely not present for. It's the last hint the game drops before outright telling you what exactly Fray's deal is.
  • The stinger after Heavensward shows Elidibus on the moon. His last words before a five month wait for 3.1:
    The time has come for you and yours to join the fray, Warrior of Darkness.
  • 4.3 manages to make a wham out of a game interface dialog you've seen dozens of times by now, by putting it in the most absolutely unexpected context possible. To wit, you're given a quest objective to sit down and have some tea and a chat with your friends about Alphinaud, who just volunteered to return to Garlemald with Maxima and serve as an emissary. Cut to their airship, which is unexpectedly shot down by some Unfriendly Fire, and then...
    Duty calls. Commence battle for "Emissary of the Dawn"?
  • The Kugane Ohashi trial partway through Stormblood's Hildibrand questline has a hilarious one. The trial involves a fight against Yojimbo, who stole a sword for his own purposes while you were in the midst of trying to get it back to its rightful owner, and has challenged the Warrior of Light to a rematch (given in-story, you already fought him at the end of the first Extreme-difficulty dungeon of the expansion). After only a minute or two, however, he drops a reference to a previous Final Fantasy that immediately reveals who's really under the hat:
    Enough! It is time we fought like men. And ladies. And men who dress like ladies! For Yojimbo... It is Gilgameshing time!
  • The trailer for the 2019 expansion, Shadowbringers, drops a big one.
    This tragedy, greater even than the Seventh Umbral Calamity, must be undone. If history must be unwritten, let it be unwritten. Become what you must. Become...the Warrior of Darkness.
  • This line from Solus/Emet-Selch which calls into question everything that we know about the conflict between Hydaelyn, Zodiark and the Ascians that serve him:
    Thancred: I'm sorry I can only assume I misheard, but it sounded an awful lot like you were implying that both Hydaelyn and Zodiark are not gods, but-
    Emet-Selch: They are gods after a fashion. The eldest and most powerful... of Primals.
  • Near the end of Shadowbringers, things are looking bleak. Emet-Selch is on the attack, the Warrior of Light is on the verge of succumbing to the corrupted light aether they absorbed to save the First, and their imminent demise would lead to the destruction of the First and the Source alike. As the end looms, however, Arbert appears to lend his aid to the Warrior and keep them from succumbing to the light. Then, as the Warrior stands triumphantly, with Arbert's voice, they speak!
    Warrior of Light/Arbert: This world is not yours to end... This is our future. Our story.
  • The story for 5.2 deals with the Scions' combined efforts to find a way back to the Source and to find out what exactly Elidibus is planning to do by possessing the corpse of Ardbert, telling the people of the First that they all have the potential to become Warriors of Light like himself or the protagonist. The latter point comes to the forefront when Elidibus summons an illusion of a huge meteor shower, echoing the destruction of Amaurot, over the Crystarium, sending everyone into a panic... until the sight of the shower lets everyone hear three words that haven't been heard in a long time:
    Hydaelyn: Hear. Feel. Think.
  • In Endwalker, Fandaniel manages to release Zodiark and takes him over, forcing the Warrior of Light to stop him. If this battle taking place merely a third of the way to expansion's level cap didn't clue you something's wrong, Fandaniel will clearly spell it out after the fight:
    Zodiark/Fandaniel: From the first, all I wanted was for you to kill Zodiark.
• Final Fantasy XV:
  • Ardyn confronts Noctis in Chapter 12, only to be instantly frozen to death by Shiva. Then he appears again, and drops the first hint towards his true nature.
    Ardyn Izunia: For a moment I felt death's chill wind, such is the might of the gods. But then, I remembered I'm immortal.
  • When you're about to retrieve the Lucian Crystal your family protects, the guy responsible for all your suffering appears, and then...
    Ardyn Izunia: I gave you my name earlier but you should know it was not the name given to me at birth. Ardyn Lucis Caelum is my proper name.
  • The ending of Episode Ardyn has one that completely recontextualizes Ardyn's personality in the main story.
    Ardyn: Why...? Why do the gods deny me my revenge!?
    Bahamut: Because thou hast been chosen to serve a different purpose. To spread darkness throughout the world is thy true calling.
• In Dissidia 012, you unlock the Confession of The Creator scenario (Scenario 000) after completing Treachery of the Gods (Scenario 012) and Light to All (Scenario 013). Those latter two are numbered after the "cycle" of war in which it takes place. As per the story of the original game, the heroes break the cycle and go home after the 13th cycle. In Confessions of the Creator, which doesn't seem to take place anywhere in the ordinary story, the Mured Moogle (Cid of the Lufaine) tells you his story as you make your final approach to Chaos. In it, he casually mentions that in the 13th cycle, everyone on Cosmos's side, including the goddess herself, died and were purified. You may write this off as perhaps a misnumbering. Maybe there was a 0th cycle or something. And then he talks about an 18th cycle.
• In Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, a flashback late in the game delivers a bombshell that recontextualizes the entire game, revealing it to be the origin story of the original Final Fantasy. (Or it would, if not for Trailers Always Spoil.)
  Sarah: I never asked your name.
  Jack: It's Jack.
  Sarah: Oh stop. I meant your last name.
  Jack: Oh... Garland. My name's Jack Garland.
• Right before the final battle in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, the Big Bad reveals something interesting about your quest:
  Dark King: Alas, silly humans, I must share a terrible secret! That prophecy? Ages ago I started that rumor! Welcome to the power of Darkness!

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