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A Wham Episode radically alters a Story Arc. A Wham Line is a line that radically alters a scene. A Wham Shot is the purely visual version.

An unexpected move, or even a change of expression on one of the characters, can be all that's needed to alter a scene completely. It can actually be any event that doesn't need any characters commenting it for the viewer to realise an important twist is happening. In literature or any other written narratives, the Wham Line and the Wham Shot can be the same thing. In visual media however, the Wham Line tends to be a line of dialogue. The Wham Shot is anything else that can happen to alter a scene and is visible to the viewer or reader. Like its verbal or written cousin, the Wham Shot can be part of a Wham Episode or of The Reveal. It also has to be completely unexpected.

Different from Reveal Shot as it doesn't necessarily involve moving the camera to show the surprising element, but overlapping between the two tropes can be quite frequent.

Possible special cases: Revealing Hug, Traitor Shot, Reaction Shot, Stalker Shot, The Stinger, The Gut Punch, and/or the last frame of a Staggered Zoom.

Not to be confused with Boom, Headshot!.

Since this trope is usually related to plot twists, all spoilers will be unmarked in the examples below. Beware!


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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    Advertising 
  • This PSA for the organization Child Cry initially looks like a sexy scene, with Bow Chicka Wow Wow music, mood lighting, and clothes strewn all over the floor on the way up the stairs. But the last shot completely recontextualizes everything... it's a child's sneakers and panties. It's now far from a sexy scene, as it's an anti-pedophilia PSA.
  • This French PSA gets to the point very quickly, as a woman by the name of Anne Leroy talks about how horribly her husband abused her... until "two weeks ago when it finally ended!" It then pans down to her grave.
  • "The Other Side" from the Sandy Hook Promise shows a teenage boy talking about how people see signs of a shooter but do absolutely nothing about it. One can assume it is some sort of documentary until the camera pans out to reveal that the boy is loading an assault rifle and casually says that those who didn't do anything will wish they did tomorrow.
  • George and Betty, a fairly old PIF from the 1990s, seems to be about a happy elderly couple enjoying a nice night with each other, before the man in the couple decides to take out an electric blanket for them to both sleep under. Everything seems fine and dandy until the narrator comes in, stating "At George and Betty's night at romance, things got a bit..." - cue a shot of their bed, now burnt-out due to the electric blanket malfunctioning, presumably killing them both while they were sleeping, alongside the narrator stating "...too hot to handle!".
  • The final commercial in the Long Long Man series of ads for Sakeru Gummy has the lead characters, Tooru and Chi-chan, getting married, when the enigmatic Long Long Man, who's been Tooru's romantic rival and the target of Chi's lust, shows up. The Long Long Man then delivers a Love Confession while walking towards Chi... and the camera zooms in as he steps past her and towards Tooru. This recontextualizes the entire ad campaign by revealing that the Long Long Man was gay all along, and this whole time he was going after Tooru and not Chi.
  • This PSA by the NSPCC shows an abusive father beating his own cartoon son, ultimately culminating with him throwing his son down stairs. Then the camera pans down to reveal a live-action kid lying at the foot of the stairs as the caption "Real children don't bounce back." appears.

    Asian Animation 

    Fan Works 
  • 5 Years Later:
    • Chapter three has one in revealing a new player in the ongoing crososver plot of Ben 10 and Danny Phantom: GIR and the rest of the cast from Invader Zim.
    • Chapter seven reveals Technus's contribution to the villain's plan; mind controlling a group of alternate Ben's with nanites from the Generator Rex universe and making them into E.V.O aliens.
  • Dark World Role Play (Deltarune, Undertale): A few, but the first and most striking is from when Bolt scares off You Are An Idiot by inserting a Blue Tooth and "actively threatening the hit man". What makes this trope apply is that the moment was accompanied by an actual illustration!
  • Feralnette AU: During the Enough Rope arc, Marinette counters Hawkmoth's attempt at a Breaking Speech with one of her own. Her word choice triggers a traumatic flashback for him — and thanks to the Butterfly Brooch's power of Transmission, Marinette witnesses it too, seeing Emilie using the Peacock Pin. While she only recognizes her as 'another Mayura' rather than Emilie Agreste, the memory has enormous implications regarding how she fell comatose in the first place.
  • The Good Hunter:
    • Chapter 10: The Plain Doll is seen in the Hunter's Dream cleaning Cyril's grave, after an unknown amount of time has passed since the battle between Cyril and Gehrman.
    • Chapter 16: Sierra's consciousness ends up in the Hunter's Dream.
  • In the Homestuck ask blog, Ask Slave John, humans are depicted as being enslaved by Trolls, John being one of them. We get three Wham Shots when someone asks if he's met any other humans:
    • When asked if he knew Dave Strider, he mentions that he and Dave were friends when being trained for slave labor and were sold to different masters, never seeing each other again. When John ponders where Dave is now, we see a silhouette of Dave wearing a suit with a teal Libra symbol, implying that his master is Terezi Pyrope.
    • Rose Lalonde is stated to have worked alongside John once, but later left. John mentions that he heard she became "a gift for some important jade blood", coupled with a silhouette of Rose wearing a jade-colored sash with a Virgo symbol. She's now owned by Kanaya.
    • Jade Harley's is probably the most shocking; she is mentioned to have belonged to Eridan and John states that she was likely killed, but at the same time remains optimistic that she may have been found someone who could help her survive—this is coupled with a silhouette of Jade holding a gun and wearing a silver necklace with a Cancer symbol on it. She's with Karkat now.
  • Inverted Fate:
    • In part 39, "Captain Cryptic" (whom the audience knows is Chara) decides to take on more of an active role in helping Frisk through the CORE. In doing so, their dialogue boxes now have their face in them, and stay that way.
    • In part 45, the SOUL mode from Mad Mew Mew is shown to have made Chara visible while temporarily separating them from Frisk, who looks at them in shock over the fact that they're a human.
    • In part 48, when Sans wants to prevent Frisk from running straight to Toriel after they ended up causing Undyne and Mettaton to amalgamate, it seems as if there will be another fight against him. But then when it gets to Papyrus's turn, the battle interface switches over to Frisk, and continues to do so for his turns as he tries to talk them out of it.
    • At the end of part 50, the transition screen into the Toriel fight sees the green human SOUL appear in Toriel's spot.
    • In part 53, Mettaton leads Frisk and Papyrus to the conspicuous covered object sitting in the corner of the house. He pulls off the blue sheet, revealing a golden statue of Chara; the one that was missing from the fountain at the MTT Resort.
    • Towards the end of part 61, after Flowey absorbs the SOULs of the remaining monsters, he breaks the barrier. After the credits, a new intro plays that shows him leaving for the surface, and Chara's hand is seen coming out of the ground, revealing that he brought them back to life.
  • Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy: "Rematch" opens with Katsuki sneaking out of U.A. to go patrolling as King... while Principal Nedzu watches through his office window, revealing that he's fully aware of Bakugou's activities and intends to use him as a stepping stone to boost Uraraka's growing reputation by setting her against her wayward classmate.
  • Marvel Falls: At the end of chapter 4, it's revealed that Lil' Gideon has Maximus the Mad as his prisoner. And had also learned from him that Kamala's powers came from Terrigen Crystals.
  • The Night Unfurls: A couple in the original version.
    • Chapter 8: Typical Kyril approaching a heavily injured man and interrogating him of course... wait, why does Kyril have tendrils out of his hand?
    • Chapter 14: Luu-Luu, under Shamuhaza's mercy.
  • Prehistoric Park Reimagined:
    • In the prologue, the sight of a genuine Jurassic period landscape, complete with real, live, flesh and blood dinosaurs, instantly serves as this In-Universe when Drew, Leon, and Adrian look through the portal for the very first time. Understandably, it's enough to put any doubts they had over whether Theodore was telling the truth about the portal firmly to rest and get them perfectly willing to accept Theodore's subsequent offer to work at the titular park.
    • In Red in Tooth and Claw, the rescue team proves understandably surprised when they catch sight of a 'pack' of phorusrhacos...at a time in which they were officially considered to have already gone extinct.
    • The completely incidental discovery of a brand new prehistoric species of spider in Alien Empire likewise proves a subject of great surprise to the rescue team, while also being a source of great fright for apparent arachnophobe Leon.
    • At the tail end of Extras chapter The Anomaly, after readers and park staff alike have been treated to great mystery as to why an unaccounted for pack of dromaeosaurus somehow ended up at the park outside of the officially rescued dromaeosaurus pack's paddock, the answer is finally revealed to the readers via the glorious sight of an entirely naturally occurring time vortex appearing out of thin air and eventually disappearing somewhere in the wild Florida landscape.
  • Red Sadie: In The Eye of the Storm, Sadie digs through Clancy's dropped wallet in an attempt to learn more about him, and instead stumbles upon an old picture of him and Barb discovering a crashed Roaming Eye, revealing they both have more stake in the Gems then she thought.
  • Return to Krocodile Isle: At the end of the song, the climatic showdown between K. Rool and Donkey Kong in a volcano cuts away to K. Rool having set fire to his cellar, laughing maniacally among his burning dummies of DK and the Kremling Krew. This shot completely recontextualizes everything that came before it as merely an Imagine Spot.
  • The Punch-Out!! fanfic Shining and Sweet; Glass Joe's daughter Katrina rushes home after a successful match to tell her father that she won and is getting ranked up, only to arrive and find him frozen in stone, with Von Kaiser (Joe's husband and her stepfather) sobbing over his body.
  • SCP: Overlord:
    • The first shot of the people hovering above the trees.
    • The very last shot before the credits.

    Literature 
  • Codex Alera
    • In Cursor's Fury, the Canim invasion force burns their ships behind them.
      Tavi: They mean to stay.
    • At the end of the same book, Tavi becomes the first Aleran ever to see a female Cane, meaning that the invasion force wasn't just an invasion, it was a desperate attempt at colonization.
      Tavi: I am not afraid of Nasaug anymore. I'm afraid of what drove him from his home.
    • In Princeps' Fury, Tavi (who's in the Canim land of Shuar) sees That all the land outside Shuar is covered with croach — the Vord have conquered it.
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone provides another written one when Harry reaches the chamber where the Mirror of Erised is kept.
    "There was already someone there—but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.
    [chapter break]
    It was Quirrell."
  • Words of Radiance (second book of The Stormlight Archive):
    • Despite being text only, the book still manages one at the climax.
      "Kaladin!" Syl's voice. "Stretch forth thy hand!" She zipped around him, suddenly visible as a ribbon of light.
      "I can't..." Kaladin said, drained.
      "Stretch forth thy hand!"
      He reached out a trembling hand. Moash hesitated.
      Wind blew in the opening in the wall, and Syl's ribbon of light became mist, a form she often took. Silver mist, which grew larger, coalesced before Kaladin, extending into his hand.
      Glowing, brilliant, a Shardblade emerged from the mist, vivid blue light shining from swirling patterns along its length.
    • There's another after the climax.
      The air in front of him blurred, as if heated in a ring near the ground. A streak of light spun about the ring, forming a wall five or six feet high. It faded immediately — really, it was just an afterimage, as if something glowing had spun in the circle very quickly.
      In the center of it appeared Jasnah Kholin, standing tall.

    Music 
  • This K-Pop music video ends with one. At first, it seems that a man is jealous of his best friend for marrying a girl he liked (to add insult to injury, the groom made him his best man) and at the end angrily tears up a photo of them together. Then comes the wham shot...where he pushes the pictures of the groom and himself together.
  • Useless by Depeche Mode where the very last shot changes the whole perception of the song revealing that the vocalist was singing not into the camera but addressing a girl whose POV it assumed.
  • BTS's music video storyline (known as the BTS Universe) features several of these.
    • "Blood, Sweat and Tears" has two: While Jin leans in to kiss a winged statue, it cuts to a shot of a veil being lifted over a hunched figure with the back towards the viewer; as the camera gets closer, we see that it's Taehyung with scars were wings would be, revealing him to be the figure the statue represents. The other happens at the very end; after everything breaks and falls apart, there's a final shot of Jin sitting in front of a mirror, looking towards his reflection...and seeing his face starting to crack like marble.
    • The Highlight Reels short films have a few:
      • In Chapter 1, we see a train passing by, revealing a girl waiting across from Jin, and also the first important character who is not related to the main cast. We also see Jungkook on a wheelchair at a hospital, revealing that he survived the accident in "I NEED U". At the end of the chapter, we jump to a memory of Hoseok, which has 2 of these: we hear the voice of a woman saying "Hoseok-ah, close your eyes", fading to a shot of a mother and a child in front of a carousel, with the mother leaving while the child covers his eyes. The next shot shows the child from a bit closer, still waiting, while a Snickers candy bar (the same one seen in the "MAMA" teaser for WINGS) rests next to him. That's how we learn Hoseok's mother abandoned him.
      • In chapter 3, we get several: The sink where Jimin is desperately washing his hands is starting to fill with blood, Taehyung gets arrested, and Jungkook arrives to his new friend's hospital bed, only to find it empty.
      • Chapter 4 shows several flashbacks in reverse, ending with Jin appearing back on his room from before (with a text showing the date, even), taking off the sweater he was trying on to reveal an absolutely exhausted and sad expression, putting on a casual cap instead. This reveals Jin's ability to go back in time.
    • The end of "Fake Love (extended version)" has Jungkook join the members while wearing a mask and a black tunic, with the camera slowly pulling away from the group, and then a huge block descends from above, appearing to either lock from view or crush the boys.
  • Evillious Chronicles: The music video of "Moonlit Bear" reveals that the apples that Eve is carrying the entire time are crying babies, which she's stolen from their mother.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Theatre 
  • From the revival of Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein), Ella in a panic is leaving the ball as the Clock strikes Twelve, looses her glass slipper on the stair case, and as Prince Topher goes to pick it up, she hurries back and grabs it, then in a panic rushes off into the darkness as the Prince calls after her. Cue end of Act 1.
  • Falsettos: Coredlia and Charlotte sing a brief song about the slow rise of AIDS. Immediately afterwards, the scene goes straight to Whizzer playing tennis with Marvin and collapsing.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney, being plot-heavy and famous for its plot twists, is prone to this:
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
      • At the start of the fourth case of the first game, you see someone apparently being shot deadnote , at which point Edgeworth is the one shown holding the gun. No, he isn't the killer, but this shot goes to show that this case is far more personal and has higher stakes than the previous one.
      • Near the end of the last case in Justice for All, there is one where your client, Matt Engarde, suddenly reveals his status as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing by uncovering the vicious scars over his eye. The result is far from pretty.
      • The opening of Case 3-3 has the judge apparently at the end of a trial, about to have the defendant found guilty. The prosecutor, Winston Payne, gloats about his victory...and then the camera cuts to the defense's bench, revealing Phoenix himself standing there. It quickly turns out to be an imposter, but still, that's one way to keep the player on their toes.
    • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies we have Athena surrounded by five black Psyche-Locks. Keep in mind that the only other person in the series to have those was beyond redemption. The original shot of Black Psyche-Locks from Apollo Justice counts too.
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice:
      • In Case 2, just before the end of the investigation, we get a whammy when entering the Wright Anything Agency: the place is full of red tapes reading "REPOSSESSED"; this is because Trucy is in debt with Roger Retinz (of 3 million dollars) and the man is getting his money back by seizing and selling the office. Apollo and Athena are quite shocked, understandably.
      • Case 3 has a big one, and of the "family relationship" type. Dhurke, the leader of the rebels in Khura'in, has two sons: Nahyuta Sahdmadhi (yes, that jerk prosecutor you've faced) and Apollo Justice (though only adopted).
      • Case 5 starts with Apollo and Trucy watching the television, where they are talking about the Defiant Dragons's leader Dhurke. After some lines, said rebellion leader is walking through the door, happily greeting Apollo.
  • Famicom Detective Club The Missin Heir has a two-in-one example. When the Ayashiro Family's tomb is finally opened with Genshin's permission, Akira Ayashiro is found to have been stuffed inside after being Bludgeoned to Death, with Kiku's corpse nowhere to be found. Examining his carcass causes the protagonist to finally remember how he fell off Unakami Cliff and lost his memory in the first place: Akira attacked and threw him off the cliff.
  • Snatcher:
    • At the start of the game, Gillian receives a Distress Call from another Junker, Jean Jack Gibson, about a probable Snatcher in an abandoned factory. Shortly after you arrive, you meet Jean Jack Gibson... after his head has been torn off by the Snatcher.
    • Three in a row in Freddy Nielsen's apartment. First, the discovery of sunscreen, used by the Snatchers to protect their artificial skin. This is followed by Lisa Nielsen without the scratches on her face covered, revealing her as a Snatcher. And when the lights of the apartment turn back on and Gillian returns to the apartment, Metal tells him to look in the mirror... revealing Freddy Nielsen standing right behind Gillian.
    • After uncovering a strange Chinese form in an abandoned hospital linked to the Snatchers, Gillian manages to decode the name on the form: Benson, revealing the possibility that either Junker engineer Harry Benson or Junker chief Benson Cunningham has been snatched.
    • When Gillian discovers four decomposed skeletons in the morgue of a Snatcher-controlled hospital, Metal Gear runs virtual facial reconstructions on them. The first two are the aforementioned Freddy and Lisa Nielsen. The third, Chin Shu Oh, confirms their suspicions of him being a Snatcher. The fourth? Benson Cunningham.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: At the end of Chapter Five, Hajime Hinata is left in a state of shock that lasts a whole day due to the outcome of the chapter's trial. The next day, he comes out of his cottage, and is greeted by Chiaki Nanami, who died at the end of the previous trial. And then the world gets seriously weird...
  • In Doki Doki Literature Club!, the game hits you hard when you find Sayori having committed suicide in her room. Then it gives you a twofer when you return to the main menu and find that both her character portrait and the new game option are heavily corrupted, both foreshadowing the events to come and that the player had not reached a bad ending.
  • Hatoful Boyfriend has the ending of Anghel's route: an Interface Screw revealing that the game has temporarily become a fantasy JRPG. It's often cited as one of the coolest parts of the game.
  • In Spirit Hunter: NG, Akira uses his Bloodmetry on his aunt's blood, to figure out how she was attacked by Kakuya. The scene shifts to Natsumi's perspective, with her getting a single glimpse of the culprit before she falls into a coma. It's cute little Ami, her daughter, and the protagonist's cousin.
  • Virtue's Last Reward has this in spades. Primarily due to each separate timeline having differences the player wouldn't be expecting.
    • In most routes, when you enter the AB Room for voting the first time around, you find a dead body. This in itself creates its own wham shot in the Cyan set of routes, when you enter the room expecting the body to be there but it's completely empty. Unless you have played the Cyan routes first, in which case you only experience the first whammy.
    • Entering Room 2 of the Crew Quarters and finding either Alice's body, Luna's body, or in some routes Alice and Luna's bodies.
    • In Clover's route, entering the Infirmary, and finding Tenmyouji, Alice, Luna, Clover, Phi, and Dio all dead in a bloody pile.
    • In Luna's route, when Luna appears outside the AB room late in the route despite seemingly having been murdered earlier.
    • Alice's route, when the AB game results show that Alice's vote was "betray", despite her seemingly having not even voted.
    • When the results of Tenmyouji and Alice's first AB round votes are shown on your second run-through of their respective routes, and their votes have changed between the timelines.
    • K's route ending, where Sigma pulls of K's mask revealing K's face to be Sigma's face.
    • Sigma's reflection in the water, revealing that he's actually got an old man's body.
    • In Luna's route, when you access the GAULEM database and Luna's picture comes up, revealing that she's a robot.
    • In Sigma's route, when Sigma looks down at his hand and sees it's bleeding white blood.
    • Tenmyouji's photo being shown to be a photo of Akane Kurashiki.
    • K taking off his suit in Phi's route revealing that it's Akane Kurashiki inside.

    Web Animation 
  • Animator vs. Animation: At the end of "The Virus", the first episode of "Animator vs. Animation Shorts", just when ViraBot is about to kill The Second Coming, a portal appears. After some time passes, The Chosen One comes out of the portal to help the animator and the stick figures to destroy the virus.
  • Mystery Skulls Animated:
    • After the camera zooms into a painting Mystery notices, showing events before the video, the one driving the van is a heretofore unseen member of the group, a human Lewis.
    • The Reveal that Lewis was killed by a possessed Arthur turns the first half of the animation from a funny Shout-Out to a complete tragedy.
    • In "Freaking Out," there's a shot of Arthur's computer showing different locations (including his uncle's auto shop). There are multiple pictures of Lewis; some of them are crossed out, while one picture (along with one of Ghost Lewis) has question marks next to it. This seems to indicate that not only did Arthur not recognize Lewis as a ghost, he doesn't even know Lewis is dead.
  • Red vs. Blue:
    • In the final episode of Season 10, the context of the last forty episodes is turned on its head when the Director finally removes his Scary Shiny Glasses to reveal his eyes are the same color as Carolina's.
    • In the final episode of Season 12, The Stinger where Control a.k.a. Malcom Hargrove demands to know whether a package he wanted was delivered to him. The computer screen then shows the Meta's helmet.
  • The Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom flash series starts when Mario is killed by a Bullet Bill, causing Luigi to go after Bowser to avenge his brother's death. At the end of part two, Luigi visits Mario's grave, a Bullet Bill just misses him, and Wart is revealed to be the true culprit. Unfortunately, enough viewers couldn't put the pieces together that the frustrated creator had to put up a message explaining what was going on.
  • Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers:
    • The Mario Convention started off like any other SMG4 video, with antics and memes galore. Then, when Mario tries to get an autograph from Hideo Kojima for Luigi, Kojima hands him something... a T-Pose Mushroom, which, a few episodes prior, almost brought about a Zombie Apocalypse.
    • The Inkling Disappearances opens with a shot of Axol's face, suggesting that he is in fact the Big Bad of the Anime Arc. Then at the end, the shot is repeated...and the shot zooms out to reveal Axol's chained up in a jail cell.
  • There she is!!: The end of step 3, where a rock gets thrown through Nabi's window (setting up both the plot and tone of the next step).
  • X-Ray & Vav: At the end of "Coal & Order," the man in the mental asylum, whom our heroes must go to for help, turns around –- it's the Mad King.

    Webcomics 
  • In Agents of the Realm, the second-to-last page of Chapter 3 reveals that not only Jordan already works as an agent, but she also cooperates with The Dragon, Ruby.
  • In Beyond Bloom the story seems to be grounded in a realistic Earth setting (aside from one detail). While mid-conversation, this happens. A dragon interrupts the scene, leaving protagonists to wonder what the creature even was, and completely changing the course of the story.
  • In The Dragon Doctors, Chapter 21 sees Elka and Greg walk into the demons' headquarters and see Shelinda the Cyber-Shaman (whom most would have assumed was dead centuries earlier) hooked up to a hideous array of machines.
  • In El Goonish Shive, the sudden appearance of Nanase's change of hairstyle and wardrobe completely changes the dynamic between Nanase and Ellen which leads to their first argument as a couple.
  • Erfworld: The final panel of Book 3 Page 117, shows Parson in Charlescomm livery.
  • In Gifts of Wandering Ice, the scene where Rita learns what the legendary black iceberg really was.
  • Housepets!:
    • "Hand to Hand" (Nov. 13, 2013): Jata, the VERY MUSCULAR crown Prince of Feraga, has just laid waste to his own arranged wedding, knocked his forced-bride-to-be into the pool, and is currently beating the stuffing out of his own bodyguards (who have turned on him because of his insensitivity to the feelings of his own bride) with no sign of stopping until Uncle Deadeye, the mute bodyguard seen in two previous strips, stops Jata's fist from connecting with the back of Miles' head, SMILING as he does it! We then cut away while someone in the audience says "Wow, I didn't know cats could bend like THAT."
    • End of Year Eight (June 3rd, 2016): Keene Milton is revealed to still be alive, but regains consciousness inside his limo, which has apparently been driven off a pier, is rapidly sinking, and his chauffeur has gone AWOL.
  • Leaving the Cradle: On the third page of Chapter 3, it is revealed that Gharr wasn't the only person who survived after the research shuttle got shot down.
  • Muted: Episode 64 ends with a shot of Avaline smacking her mother over the head with a vase.
  • Narbonic: the last panel of "Professor Madblood and the Everlasting Ices of the North", where Dave reads a quote from "Alice in Wonderland", and his glasses clear because he has just Gone Mad from the Revelation that he is really a mad scientist and Helen has been experimenting on him for the entire run of the comic.
  • Nebula: The final panel of comic 17, showing Pluto post-transformation into a Humanoid Abomination very similar to Ceres, having grown another pair of arms and having two thumbs on each hand like Black Hole.
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • The Draketooth family tree reveals why the family perished in the recent past. The clan had a black dragon ancestor, and Vaarsuvius had previously cast a spell called "Familicide" that killed everyone related to the black dragon that had tried to kill V's mate and children.
    • After Nale angrily rebuffs his father's final offer at reconciliation, Tarquin sighs, reluctantly accepting Nale's decision, with his hand extended forward. The next panel then shows that Tarquin has fatally stabbed Nale.
    • Thor shows Durkon and Minrah that the gods erected a gravestone on the astral plane for the previous world that the Snarl destroyed. And then shows them a second gravestone. And then a third. And then countless others.
    • After Thor explains how vitally important the colors of gods' divine auras are, and that no creation of the three surviving pantheons (each with their own distinct color) can ever be strong enough to permanently imprison the Snarl (which was created by four pantheons and thus four aura colors), he points out that there is someone else with a unique aura color: the Dark One.
    • While scouting Kraagor's Gate, Lien and O-Chul are captured by a mysterious figure... who's revealed to be Serini Toormuck, the last of the Order of the Scribble... or at least, what's left of her after her last run-in with Xykon.
    • After Roy has a conversation with his sister Julia (who claims to have developed an advanced Sending spell to allow long-range communications), he leaves to meet up with the rest of the Order. "Julia" then reveals herself to be the ghost of her and Roy's late father Eugene in disguise.
  • In Secret of Mana Theater, during the fight with the Spiky Tiger, Faun draws the sword she claimed Elinee had stolen, revealing that she had stolen it and was manipulating him into helping her rescue Dyluck. The significance of doing so is not lost on Seth, and he becomes quite upset.
  • Shortpacked!: Mike, who was last seen getting killed by aliens in It's Walky!, is alive and well.
  • In Sleepless Domain, Chapter 2 Page 28 has Tessa arrive on the scene of a battle to find Sally, Gwen, and Sylvia dead and Undine hanging on by a thread.
  • In Sluggy Freelance, during Torg's first date with Zoe, it seems as though the two are about to kiss, but then it turns out that Torg is kissing Oasis, who'd come Back from the Dead for the first time.
  • Trevor (2020):
  • Unsounded: Lemuel's co-pilot is revealed to be Mikaila when Duane removes her helmet, six years (nearer 10 for readers) after Lemuel confirmed that she died in the assassins' attack on Duane, recontextualizing the whole of Duane's understanding of his current state and his brother.
  • We Are The Wyrecats reveals through some surveillance footage that Lamar, one of the former members of the Wyre Cat team, is responsible for stealing military-grade enhancements and the mooks K.A. has been dealing with have been part of his forces.

    Web Original 
  • 17776:
    • The very beginning has a meta one. Upon first viewing, it initially looks like an ordinary SB Nation article about the future of American football (albeit with a number of discrepancies, if you can look). Shortly after loading, however, the page's text abruptly expands in size, completely blotting out the screen with black...and then the story proper begins.
    • During the first chapter, the main character (Nine) has no clue what or where they are. Not long before it ends, their friend Ten tells them to take a picture of themselves. The resulting photo is of a space probe, shortly leading into a Wham Line clarifying that Nine and Ten are actually sentient space probes.
  • At the end of his Christmas 2013 episode, The Angry Video Game Nerd finds a good Spider-Man game... that has LJN's logo on it.
  • Part 6 of AsteroidQuest has two in the same update. First we see what Penn looks like without her contacts, (accompanied with a noticeable shift in narration style), then we see her through the eyes of everyone else, discovering the database's title for her: "biological reincarnation of the Sapphire Emperor".
  • Atop the Fourth Wall:
    • While the King of Worms is probing through Linkara's soul, he sees flashes of Linkara's previous encounters with villains. However, these flashes soon settle on a shot of the Plot Hole, which then transitions to Lewis in his apartment, filming a scene. Then he starts laughing...
    • From Ultimate Power #4: Linkara with The Entity's pixel eyes.
    • From Mr. T and the T-Force #4, The Stinger, which sees the tenth anniversary storyline kicked off by Linkara and Linksano seeing someone who resembles Linkara in a tattered version of his original outfit.
  • Daisy Brown
    • "Artistic video" starts out as a simple video about Daisy drawing, until Alan shows up with realistic pictures of her doing so. Daisy is appropriately disturbed, since it means he's no longer blind, and he's been deceiving her about it for who knows how long.
  • Don't Hug Me I'm Scared:
    • Halfway through 5, Duck Guy wakes up in a mysterious dark room. Eventually, we see that his body had been sliced open, and his organs are being processed into canned food product.
    • After all the madness dies down, there's only one thing left in the kitchen: Yellow Guy, now obese, having eaten all of the cans containing Duck Guy.
    • In 6, Red Guy walking up to the machine and seeing Yellow Guy, still in his "lesson", on the monitor; this reveals the entire series had taken place in a Lotus-Eater Machine.
    • A few seconds later in "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 6" sees the reappearance of Tony, followed by several other teachers who at this point had only appeared in one episode each.
    • A third one in the sixth episode is the appearance of a long yellow hand, belonging to the father of the Yellow Guy.
  • There are several in Dream's videos.
    • In the 2 Hunters video, Dream is falling off the edge of the End and into the void. George then kills Sapnap. And then we see a few Ender Pearls drop right into Dream's hotbar.
  • Among many others, in the Dream SMP, during the L'Manburg War for Independence in Season 1, Wilbur defies Dream's ultimatum and declares that he'd rather die than betray his own cause, being unfazed by a block of TNT. As Dream detonates the block of TNT, the L'Manburgians then see hundreds of blocks of TNT under the cracked surface of L'Manburg, a few of them primed to explode from the initial blast.
  • Everyman HYBRID, when it starts, is a fitness series where the Slender Man keeps appearing in the background. All that changes in Episode 6 -- Healthy Eating, in which the ruse is revealed. They see the actor that plays Slender Man behaving strangely through a window, and seek him out, only to find he's not playing Slender Man. And then, they hear something behind them and turn around.
  • Half-Life but the AI is Self-Aware: The science team arrives on Xen in Act 4, and Gordon looks around on the floating island they arrived on to see Benrey's become HUGE and floating in the air, revealing his true identity.
  • In Noob, one of the characters attacks a enemy player that seems to be present near his group just by chance, only to have his guild master (that he hadn't seen in weeks) block his sword.
  • The Season 1 finale of The Penumbra Podcast has a big one that turns what was being set up as a Happy Ending into a Sudden Downer Ending. (Given that it's in an audio medium, it's more of a Wham Sound Effect.) After a season's worth of pining, Juno and Peter have finally gotten together; Juno has agreed to quit his job and travel the galaxy with Peter, and they're spending the night together in a hotel room before they leave Mars. As Peter falls asleep, Juno talks about how he wants to spend the rest of his life with him... and then wordlessly gets dressed, packs up his things, leaves the hotel without saying goodbye to Peter, and goes back to the detective agency.
  • Ruby Quest has some good ones.
    • Early on, Stitches' full body is shown — and it's a mass of blood and guts, marking the quest's transition into horror.
    • Much later, Tom finds Upper Lab B's light switch- revealing that it's absolutely covered in fleshy growths connected to its prisoner, Tom Nook.
    • The second-to-last panel reveals that Tom Nook was not the extremely dangerous Subject #6. Ruby's friend Tom was Subject #6.
    • Ruby Quest's Spiritual Successor Nan Quest is no slouch in this regard either.
  • Sword Art Online Abridged: Like with the original series, the purple 'Immortal Object' popup (which usually indicates scenery and other things players aren't supposed to destroy) is this, twice. First, the popup appears over Yui when she easily defeats a powerful monster, and the second time it appears over Heathcliff when Kirito attacks him after connecting his Shout Outs to Kayaba's.
  • To Boldly Flee:
    Nostalgia Critic: Well, I might as well check my email.
    [he opens his laptop and looks at the open Word document]
    TO BOLDLY FLEE
    By Doug and Rob Walker
  • Todd in the Shadows is all set to watch the movie that One-Hit Wonderland subject "St. Elmo's Fire" originates from...then he sees who the director is.
  • Vinesauce Tomodachi Life has a view:
    • Early in Episode 47, Vinny casually browses through the apartments as usual — and then comes upon HOTDOG, an islander who was removed 25 episode prior.
    • The long-awaited 50th episode begins with the news, as usual. Except the newscaster is someone we've never seen before (later revealed to be Dana Scully). Then it cuts to the islanders' thoughts, and the first one up is Fox Mulder, who had also never been seen before. Following him is Wario, who was assimilated and assumed dead in the previous episode.
    • Episode 54 sees Vinny choose one of two islanders to be removed by having them fight in Super Smash Bros.. Once it's over, he (obviously) returns to the character select screen. And then moves Player 1's cursor over Pit, revealing that Vlinny (the winner) isn't out of the frying pan yet.

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The Survivor (Spoilers)

Cal is betrayed twice over when a confrontation with a trusted friend, over why he sold out the Hidden Path's location on Jedha to the Empire, reveals they were a fellow survivor of Order 66 the whole time.

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