History Main / ArmorPiercingResponse

** Somewhat earlier, as things look grim for the defenders of Zion, they realize that if the Hammer gets inside, it can use its EMP to wipe out the Sentinel army. Commander Lock, who's leading Zion's defense, protests that if that happens, all the [=APUs=] will be disabled, and they'll lose the dock. Lock's lieutenant tells him, "Sir, we ''already'' lost the dock." While [[JerkassHasAPoint Lock isn't wrong about the drawbacks of using the EMP]], he realizes that it's their only hope of survival and orders that the gate be opened.

* ''Theatre/Bandstand'': After being pestered by Donny, Julia says, "I don't need saving," to which Donny replies, "What if I do?"

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': When taking Gabi and Falco to her former village, Kaya tells them about how her mother was eaten by a Titan while she could do nothing but sit down and listen how she was devoured, until she was saved by Sasha. Kaya then asks what her mother did to be deserve that fate, to which Gabi begins spouting about how Eldians enslaved and conquered many countries over a thousand years ago. Kaya replies that her mother was born and raised inside the Walls, so she couldn't have done anything of that. Gabi then moves on to the recent attack on Liberio, to which Kaya replies that her mother was killed four years ago, so she couldn't have been involved on that. Once Gabi runs out of ammo to defend herself, Falco is forced to admit that Kaya's mother did nothing wrong, and just ended up as collateral damage for the recon-in-force operation done by Marley on Paradis.

* ''Webcomic/YellowBrickRamble'': In [[https://yellowbrickramble.com/comic/juni-jumps-ride chapter 10]], Ozma and Logan have mostly reconciled from a bad disagreement they had in [[https://yellowbrickramble.com/comic/logan-makes-an-experiment-in-flirting chapter 5]], but their romantic relationship is still in tatters. Juni Jump decides to help Logan rekindle things with Ozma, but only because her own crush is clearly crushing on Ozma and Juni wants to stop them from getting together. Unfortunately for Juni, her help only gets Logan noticed by someone else, who immediately falls in love with Logan and starts flirting with him. To Juni's annoyance, Logan is clearly receptive to the attention, and she starts berating Logan for not focusing on Ozma. Logan's response is to snap back that he isn't Juni's pawn and to leave him alone if she doesn't really want to be his friend. That reply leaves Juni quite literally [[StunnedSilence struck speechless]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', "I Told You That Story so I Could Tell You This One", Benjamin Franklin meets Beeman (in Purgatory) and, referring to his obvious Franchise/{{Batman}} style, jokingly asks "Who killed ''your'' parents?" Beeman answers: "I don't know. They never caught the guy."

* ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': In [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1210.html strip 1210]], Redcloak, a KnightTemplar goblin out to right the injustices against the goblin race, asks Durkon how many goblin lives he has ended -- after [[spoiler: just rejecting Durkon's deal that Durkon had framed as saving the goblins as a people]], not to mention long after the siege of Azure City, where thousands of them died for his plan. Durkon answers "Na as many as ''ye''." Notably, the only response Redcloak has to this is ''the'' most indignant snarl he has ever had, and trying to find meagre joy in killing Durkon painfully.

* Mostly PlayedForLaughs but [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-07-01 this happens]] in this ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' comic :

* In ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'' Quigley's long, despairing, self-loathing rant about [[spoiler:how much he resented his wife and son and how happy he felt when he turned her in for subversive activity]] is undercut by seven words from Duane, which reveal there's nothing exceptional about the flaws Quigley has defined himself by.

'''Duane:''' I would have done the same thing.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E14HeartOfStone Heart of Stone]]", the B-plot is about the Ferengi teenager Nog seeking Captain Sisko's help to become the first Ferengi in Starfleet. Sisko can't possibly work out why Nog would want to pursue a career with no potential for profit in it (Ferengi culture revolving around making profit above all else) and after testing Nog's determination while he tries to work out what Nog's scheme is, he eventually confronts the boy and asks him straight up why it's so important for him to get into Starfleet. Nog's angry, almost tearful answer shocks him to the bone: [[LoserSonOfLoserDad "Because I don't want to end up like my father!"]], a man who could have been at the top of his field as an ''engineer'' but followed [[PlanetOfHats cultural expectations]] and went into ''business'' (which he has no skill at) instead.
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E05TheAssignment The Assignment]]", O'Brien is coerced into making modifications to the station by a demonic entity who has taken possession of his wife Keiko and is using her as a hostage. At one point O'Brien recruits Rom to assist with the modifications, but Odo promptly arrests Rom for sabotage. When O'Brien visits Rom in holding, Rom asks him the questions that end up giving O'Brien the knowledge he needs to save his wife; "Why are we focusing a chronoton beam at the wormhole?...Why are we trying to kill the wormhole aliens?"

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E14HeartOfStone Heart of Stone]]", the B-plot is about the Ferengi teenager Nog seeking Captain Sisko's help to become the first Ferengi in Starfleet. Sisko can't possibly work out why Nog would want to pursue a career with no potential for profit in it (Ferengi culture revolving around making profit above all else) and after testing Nog's determination while he tries to work out what Nog's scheme is, he eventually confronts the boy and asks him straight up why it's so important for him to get into Starfleet. Nog's angry, almost tearful answer shocks him to the bone: [[LoserSonOfLoserDad "Because I don't want to end up like my father!"]], a man who could have been at the top of his field as an ''engineer'' but followed [[PlanetOfHats cultural expectations]] and went into ''business'' (which he has no skill at) instead.

-->'''Melisandre:''' I only do what my Lord commands.

-->'''Davos:''' If he commands you to burn children, your lord is ''evil''!

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "Timephoon!," [[spoiler:Della]] berates Louie for misusing a dangerous invention and doing something extremely dangerous and selfish without thinking of the consequences. Louie's response causes everyone in the room to gasp or look away awkwardly.

** After receiving an ArmorPiercingQuestion from Jaime questioning how the latter can live wiith the things he's done to Edmure's family, Jaime shuts Edmure up by reminding him that [[WarIsHell unpleasant things happen during war.]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'': From the very first line, people are asking, "Who is John Galt?" as a memetic shorthand for a question or a problem that no one can answer, so why bother with the effort of trying? The man is ShroudedInMyth with multiple fantastical possible answers to the question proposed, all of which are MetaphoricallyTrue. John Galt finally reveals himself to the world by hijacking a radio broadcast from the US President, delivering a speech over several hours detailing the moral failings of the predominant altruist philosophy and announcing that he has been responsible for the collapse of society by convincing the globe's prime movers to go on strike while proposing that if the people listening wished to survive, they would need to realize the philosophic principles necessary to do so, i.e UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}}.
-->''"Are you beginning to see who is John Galt? I am the man who has earned the thing you did not fight for, the thing you have renounced, betrayed, corrupted, yet were unable fully to destroy and are now hiding as your guilty secret, spending your life in apologies to every professional cannibal, lest it be discovered that somewhere within you, you still long to say what I am now saying to the hearing of the whole of mankind: I am proud of my own value and of the fact that I wish to live."''
* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': A version that is both this trope and an ArmorPiercingQuestion occurs when Arthur is asked by King Glayder if he would be willing to give up his newly acquired bond Sylvie to his personal conjurer Sebastian (who has been coveting Arthur and Sylvie since they arrived in Xyrus and has at this point coerced the ExtremeDoormat that is Glayder into playing into his hands). After refusing Glayder's offer twice (first for a sword from the royal armory and then for a world lion cub the King won at the auction they are at) and it becomes clear Glayder is not going to back down out of pride, for the third time around Arthur decides to give a more serious response by asking Glayder if he would be willing to sell his own children (who are also present in the scene) just to get Sylvie. The gall of Arthur's response is so shocking to everyone around him it causes one of the royal guards to attack Arthur for insulting the royal family.
-->'''Arthur:''' "Then, please allow me to ask your majesty a question as well. ''How much would you be willing to sell your children for?''"
* At the end of ''Literature/TheDaggerAndTheCoin'' series, the heroes are trying, and failing, to negotiate a peaceful end to the war between Antea and Elassae, believing that, although Antea had committed terrible crimes against the Elassans, letting the Elassans take revenge would just start a CycleOfRevenge. The Elassan commander, however, is having none of it, and understandably wants revenge, and doesn't see why the war should end just because the Anteans are now losing. Finally, however, the young Antean king, Aster, who was innocent of his country's crimes (the regent and the spider priests were the real culprits, and Aster did not have any actual power), speaks up and takes full responsibility, saying that it was his fault because he was not strong enough to stop it. He concludes by saying "If the [Elassans] feel that there has to be more blood, say so. You can kill as many of us as you need to make it right. Give me a number, and I'll bring them to you. I only ask that you start with me....I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough to stop this sooner." At this, the Elassan commander can only bring himself to say "Well...shit." And that was the end of the war.
* ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' (a novella of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): At the climax, when Lift says the Third Ideal out loud, [[spoiler:Nale]] thinks she's babbling incoherently and asks "What?" She tells him what she just realized -- "You were trying to [[spoiler:prevent the Desolation!]] Look behind you! Deny what you are seeing!", and when he does look, he dives headfirst into VillainousBreakdown.
* The first chapter of ''Literature/TheHeartsWeSold'' ends with the Daemon delivering one to Dee. Dee accuses him of going for "low-hanging fruit" by hanging around outside a hospital, where desperate people can be more easily talked into a DealWithTheDevil. The Daemon coolly informs her that she must ''be'' one of those desperate people, as the only humans that can recognize daemons for what they are are the ones who are already interested in a deal.
* ''Literature/ProjectTau'': Kata does this once to Chatton. Even [[DragonInChief Dennison]] is impressed.
-->'''Chatton:''' "'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain'. Exodus, chapter twenty, verse seven."\\
'''Kata:''' (looking pointedly at a badly beaten Tau) "'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. Luke, chapter six, verse thirty-one."
* ''[[Literature/MichaelVey Rise of the Elgen]]'': While Michael is verbally taking Hatch apart to the [[TykeBomb electric children]], one of them says Hatch is [[ParentalSubstitute like their father]] and wouldn't hurt them, to which Michael brings up [[GuiltRiddenAccomplice Tanner]], who wound up imprisoned, tortured, and scheduled for execution after he couldn't take what Hatch demanded of him anymore. Tara dismisses Tanner as a screw-up, whereupon Michael retorts that they'd better hope none of ''them'' ever falls short by [[ControlFreak Hatch's]] standards. They can't respond to this.
* In "The Surgeon", the first book in the ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'' series, Detective Jane Rizzoli blasts her partner Thomas Moore for beginning a relationship with the main victim/witness in their case. Ostensibly, this is because it's grossly unprofessional, if not outright forbidden for a cop to get involved with a victim/witness, but in truth, Rizzoli hates the other woman for being beautiful when she herself isn't and is herself in love with Moore and hurt and angry that he's never given her a second look. When she offers a crude opinion of their relationship, "You've fallen for the same thing every guy falls for. Tits and ass.", an angry Moore not only blasts her for hating the woman for something she has no control over, he fires back by asking, "What guy is going to like you when even ''you'' don't like yourself?" thus indicating that it's her unattractive ''personality'' that repels men, not her plain looks.
* Perhaps the biggest SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome 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 Armor-Piercing Response, before the ''entire town'':
-->[[spoiler:"Why, 'tis Abigail Mason who's just burned her husband so she can get another."]]
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': In ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', Arianne is convinced that her father Doran wants to replace her as his heir, and instead name her brother Quentin. She presses Doran on where her brother has gone.
-->Her father plucked up a cyvasse piece. "I must know how you learned that Quentyn was abroad. Your brother went with Cletus Yronwood, Maester Kedry, and three of Lord Yronwood's best young knights on a long and perilous voyage, with an uncertain welcome at its end. He has gone to bring us back our heart's desire."\\
She narrowed her eyes. "What is our heart's desire?"\\
"Vengeance." His voice was soft, as if he were afraid that someone might be listening. "Justice." Prince Doran pressed the onyx dragon into her palm with his swollen, gouty fingers, and whispered, "Fire and blood."
* ''Literature/TheWitchlands'':
** Underplayed in the first book; after Aeduen attacks Leopold, the latter replies with "You aren't the demon your father wants you to be", stopping Aeduen in his tracks for a few moments.
** In the second book, after Merik and Cam have an argument, he sneers that the only reason she's stressed out is that she's hiding the fact that she's a girl. She replies with "Did you really think this was about that?! (...) You see only what you want to see!"
[[/folder]]

* In the film ''Film/SavageMessiah'', which is about the ridiculously sadistic cult leader Roch Theriault, he asks the social worker who's investigating him (and who is, incidentally, immune to his charisma and parlor tricks) what she's doing in this remote part of Canada. As he happens to be on the run from the law, she promptly responds, "Not because I was breaking the conditions of my parole."

* In the ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' episode "Cordially Invited", Weiss reunites with her mother Willow, but it is far from a pleasant reunion. Willow realizes her daughter won't be around for long due to her investigating the recent fiasco. Seconds later, Weiss tells Willow of her predicament with Whitley, prompting Willow to say, "You left him alone, with us."

'''Kaori''': I don't think so, not this time around. They're the leading doctors on it. Famous even.\\
'''Shizuku''': F-Famous? But that's great! Maybe you have to stay a bit and somehow...\\

* In ''Manga/TheSummerYouWereThere'', a flashback shows Shizuku in class with Ruri, a girl who fell behind in school and sports because of frequent absences. Shizuku tried to help Ruri, but what began as harsh criticism only got more and more abrasive over time, with Shizuku's classmates only taking umbrage with her tone. After Shizuku pushed Ruri from behind, causing her to fall while carrying curry, Ruri's friend Seri, who was in another class, confronted her and slapped her. Shizuku tried to justify her actions as for everyone's sake, only for Seri to say, "Oh yeah...? So that's how you're bullying Ruri." Shizuku was immediately taken aback, and while she briefly tried to defend herself, that reply, as well as the class turning on her, led her to suffer a HeelRealization.

* ''Manga/{{MyHeroAcademia}}'': After All for One weakens All Might to the point of [[spoiler: forcing him to reveal his true form,]] All Might states that what makes him the Symbol of Peace is his spirit, and All for One still hasn't damaged it at all. The response? [[spoiler: [[OmnicidalManiac Tomura Shigaraki]] is [[TheMentor Nana Shimura's]] grandson.]]

* In Turner Features' ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'', after the fiasco on the set of "Li'l Ark Angel," Sawyer pointedly asks Danny, "Why do you insist on making a fool of yourself?" This is followed by a look expectant of an answer. Danny gives one: "I just want to do the thing I love. Doesn't everyone?" This response takes the wind out of Sawyer's scolding, reminding her of why she herself came to Hollywood.

* In ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'', after Huey's efforts at social justice report go nowhere, leaving him depressed, his grandfather gives one to him. Huey's still upset but has to admit that his grandfather has a point.

Tends to also be a WhamLine. In some cases, the question ''and'' answer are brought up by the same person, as a one-two punch. In other cases, the repsonse may itself be phrased as a question, leading to an overlap with ArmorPiercingQuestion. May sometimes lead to a EurekaMoment. Can be used alongside BluntYes, RhetoricalQuestionBlunder, BrutalHonesty, LittleNo, ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow, and YouAreNotReady.