History ArmorPiercingQuestion / Literature

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': At some point in the story, Myne, despite being a commoner, becomes a blue shrine maiden, which is a job usually given to the children who are excluded from the line of succession of noble families for one reason or another. Because of this, she's subject to a lot of PretenderDiss. At some point, she's under the guard of two knights: Damuel who's fairly nice to her despite her low status and doesn't mind explaining her things that elude her and Shikza, who is of higher status than Damuel and quickly escalates from verbally bullying her to physically harming her. Some time after the incident is resolved, Damuel is having a discussion with Myne's mentor Ferdinand in which he still regrets not having been able to stop Shikza. Ferdinand asks Damuel what he would have done is Shikza had been bullying a high-ranking noble's daughter, and upon thinking of the answer, Damuel realizes he didn't consider the solution because part of him considered Myne to be of too low status to qualify for it.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': At some point in the story, Myne, despite being a commoner, becomes a blue shrine maiden, which is a job usually given to the children who are excluded from the line of succession of noble families for one reason or another. Because of this, she's subject to a lot of PretenderDiss. At some point, she's under the guard of two knights: Damuel who's fairly nice to her despite her low status and doesn't mind explaining her things that elude her and Shikza, who is of higher status than Damuel and quickly escalates from verbally bullying her to physically harming her. Some time after the incident is resolved, Damuel is having a discussion with Myne's mentor Ferdinand in which he still regrets not having been able to stop Shikza. Ferdinand asks Damuel what he would have done is Shikza had been bullying a high-ranking noble's daughter, and upon thinking of the answer, realizes he didn't consider the solution because part of him considered Myne to be of too low status to qualify for it.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': At some point in the story, Myne, despite being a commoner, becomes a blue shrine maiden, which is a job usually given to the children who are excluded from the line of succession of noble families for one reason or another. Because of this, she's subject to a lot of PretenderDiss. At some point, she's under the guard of two knights: Damuel who's fairly nice to her despite her low status and doesn't mind explaining her things that elude her and Shikza, who is of higher status than Damuel and quickly escalates from verbally bullying her to physically harming her. Some time after the incident is resolved, Damuel is having a discussion with Myne's mentor

''{{Franchise/Metro}}'': When Artyom encounters any form of ideologue who annoys him, he always asks "What does X say about headless mutants?" It's basically his way of showing that he thinks the thoughts and ideals of the pre-apocalypse have ceased to be relevant. He gets an interesting array of answers, too; a Trotskyist commissar thinks for a long while, a cult leader stares at him like he's the one who lost his head.

* 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.
* In the third book in Jonathan Stroud's ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', Kitty asks Bartimaeus a single question. [[spoiler:"What about you and Ptolemy?]] The question gets to him so badly that we don't see his reaction until the next chapter, where about half of it deals with him absolutely breaking down and scaring the crap out of Kitty.

* ''The Bronze Bow'', a historical novel, has this conversation between UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Daniel]], a man whose hatred of the Romans has grown so all-consuming as to poison his familial relationships:

* In ''Literature/TheMaskedEmpire:'' Briala is awestruck by the the Eluvians, and gushes about how grand the ancient Elven empire must have been. Felassan responds by asking "Who do you think scrubbed the floors?" She's utterly horrified when she realizes the answer: [[spoiler:Other elves]].
* In Lionel Shriver's novel Literature/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin, Eva tells Franklin she wants to have another child. In disbelief, Franklin points out Eva is an extremely cold mother towards Kevin, doesn't like being around him and [[TheResenter interprets every single thing Kevin does as a deliberate act of spite towards her]], so what makes her think she'd be any better a parent to another baby? Eva notably cannot muster a response to this and resorts to getting pregnant in secret.

** In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', Nobby, of all people, asks some questions that puncture the anti-Klatchian rhetoric going around Ankh-Morpork.

** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', after a cease-fire is called, Polly Perks ends up negotiating with one Samuel Vimes about possible war aid to the starving country of Borogravia. When Polly remarks that Borogravia is "a proud country", Sam retorts by asking what Borogravia has to be proud of. Polly is mad at Vimes for asking the question, but she's even angrier at herself for not having an answer, and at her own country for all the centuries of pointless warfare caused by the same thoughtless "proud of being proud" mindset she caught herself falling into.
** In ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'', Vimes shakes the Gordon sisters out of their passive-young-flower-awaiting-a-good-match rut by asking them what, precisely, they actually ''do''.

* In Lionel Shriver's novel [[Literature/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin]], Eva tells Franklin she wants to have another child. In disbelief, Franklin points out Eva is an extremely cold mother towards Kevin and interprets every single thing Kevin does as a deliberate act of spite towards her, so what makes her think she'd be any better a parent to another baby? Eva notably cannot muster a response to this and resorts to getting pregnant in secret.

* ''The Bronze Bow'', a historical novel, has this conversation between Useful/{{Jesus}} and [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Daniel]], a man whose hatred of the Romans has grown so all-consuming as to poison his familial relationships:

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' [[Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse Novel Verse]], we have "Are you Whole?" for the Andorians. Supposedly asked of the mythical hero Thirishar by all-powerful Uzaveh (AKA Andorian God), the question drives the modern Andorian culture in its entirety. To be truly Whole requires both reassembling in unity the four genders derived from Thirishar (essentially, bonding with three others in an marriage quad) and gaining knowledge of the "missing piece", an elusive aspect of racial knowledge hidden to the Andorian people. See the Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch in particular.

* In the climax of ''Literature/{{Chrysalis}}'', when Daokat is pleading with the Terran to reconsider their plans, [[WasOnceAMan the Terran]] politely, but firmly tells Daokat to not call them "Terran", because they're a human. Daokat replies, "Ah... but ''are'' you? [[HeWhoFightsMonsters A human?]]"

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Small Favor,'' Michael asks the question [[spoiler:"Where is your blasting rod?"]] to Harry, because [[spoiler:Queen Mab of the Winter Court stole it without Harry noticing earlier in the book, and then put Harry's mind into a brainlock that kept him from remembering either his blasting rod or the ability to use fire magic.]] Harry himself [[UnreliableNarrator never realized this had happened]], and the question sends him into a brief but intense spasming fit once he realizes what had been done to his mind.

* TheBible: God really likes these kinds of questions (the most frequent one being "What is it you have done?"). This often overlaps with WhatTheHellHero.

* For Literature/ArtemisFowl, 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 AwesomeMoment plan in action.]]

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'': Scrooge's fiance Belle begins to think that he has changed, and that [[MarriedToTheJob he is now more concerned with making his fortune than with their relationship.]] She asks him, "If this had never been between us, would you seek me out and try to win me now?" Scrooge doesn't give a straight answer, which she takes as a "no".

* Perhaps the biggest CrowningMomentOfAwesome in ''Sarum'' goes to Captain Wilson's wife Nellie, who upon her return to Salisbury is immediately accused by HolierThanThou 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 ArmorPiercingResponse, before the ''entire town'':
--> "Why, [[spoiler:'tis Abigail Mason who's just burned her husband so she can get another.]]"

* ''Literature/NightfallSeries'': Sissi to Myra: [[spoiler: “You mean to tell me you regret these past two months? You wish you had never been captured and none of this had happened to you?”]]

** [[spoiler: [[MemeticBadass Jaime Lannister]]]] says he wants to die after losing his sword hand, and is asked "Are you so craven?" While he has been called dishonourable or treacherous countless times in the past, [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne nobody has ever accused him of cowardice,]] and so the question shocks him out of a downwards spiral, and restores his determination to survive and get revenge.

* In the third book in Jonathan Stroud's ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'', Kitty asks Bartimaeus a single question. [[spoiler: "What about you and Ptolemy?]] The question gets to him so badly that we don't see his reaction until the next chapter, where about half of it deals with him absolutely breaking down and scaring the crap out of Kitty.

* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' has Yossarian ask the show-stopping question: "Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?" (It's eventually revealed that Snowden had [[spoiler: died horrifically]] during a bombing run, waking Yossarian up to the CrapsackWorld around him and causing him to realize that he really, really didn't want to die, not for anything.)

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Small Favor,'' Michael asks the question [[spoiler: "Where is your blasting rod?"]] to Harry, because [[spoiler: Queen Mab of the Winter Court stole it without Harry noticing earlier in the book, and then put Harry's mind into a brainlock that kept him from remembering either his blasting rod or the ability to use fire magic.]] Harry himself [[UnreliableNarrator never realized this had happened]], and the question sends him into a brief but intense spasming fit once he realizes what had been done to his mind.

* In ''Literature/TheFirstFifteenLivesOfHarryAugust'' by Claire North, Harry is asked in his third life by Franklin Phearson "What is the point of you?" when he is both unwilling and unable to help him. The question sticks with him and tortures him for all of his lives after, eventually leading to [[spoiler: his eventual betrayal of Vincent and systematic destruction of Vincent and the quantum mirror.]]

* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', [[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.]]

* In Stanley Ellin's short story “The Question,” the narrator is what he refers to as an “electrocutioner” – the man who rigs up the electric chair and throws the switch on condemned prisoners. It's a secretive job (virtually no one knows the narrator does what he does, including his son), but he's proud that he performs it well. He spends the story telling the reader of how he attempted to persuade his son to follow in his footsteps, citing society's need for the death penalty, comparing rapists and murderers to rabid dogs, and justifying his position as “electrocutioner” by saying that someone ''must'' take the responsibility for doing a job no one else wants. His son is shocked and utterly refuses to do it, and reacts with horror when his father says, “It's just a job.” The son asks, [[spoiler: “Just a job? But you enjoy it, don't you?”]] As the narrator searches his soul, he reflects on all the men he's watched die gruesomely in his electric chair, and ends the story with the question, [[spoiler: “My God, how could anyone ''not'' enjoy it?”]]
* The narrator of TheOceanAtTheEndOfTheLane gets one when confronted with [[spoiler: his father, who is being manipulated by an EldritchAbomination]].
-->[[spoiler: '''Narrator''':''Does it make you feel big, to make a little boy cry?'']]

--> "Why, [[spoiler: 'tis Abigail Mason who's just burned her husband so she can get another.]]"

* In the short story "Life of a Swift Steed", from ''Literature/TheAccusation'', Yong-su's wife asks [[ItMakesSenseInContext "Where are the so-called fruits of this elm, that you've worn your life out on?"]]

-->'''Salli:''' "...Who made you so terrified that the only way you could feel safe was to make sure everyone else was scare of ''you''?"

--> "Do you think our babies would be safe around her once she realized that [[YouKilledMyFather we executed her mothers and grandmothers]]?"

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' [[spoiler: [[MemeticBadass Jaime Lannister]]]] says he wants to die after losing his sword hand, and is asked "Are you so craven?". While he has been called dishonourable or treacherous countless times in the past, [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne nobody has ever accused him of cowardice,]] and so the APQ shocks him out of a downwards spiral, and restores his determination to survive and get revenge.
** Euron Crow's Eye has proposed a risky plan and tries to sway the doubters.

** Euron responds with a threat, never actually answers the question, and has changed his plans within hours.

* TheBible: God really likes these kinds of questions (the most frequent one being "What is it you have done?"). This often overlaps with WhatTheHellHero

-->'''Jesus:''' Would you kill for God?
-->'''Daniel:''' Yes, of course I would!
-->'''Jesus:''' But would you ''love'' for God?

* ''Literature/TheSpiritThief'': Banage attempts this when he asks Sara what if it was her son she was mistreating the way she does (sentient, humanlike) spirits. Unfortunately, she's too far gone to care at this point.

* In the Franchise/StarCraft novel, ''Liberty's Crusade'', a reporter confronts Colonel Duke with a FridgeLogic question that probably works on many players -- if the Protoss just appeared and started attacking with no warning or communication, ''how do we know their name?''