Whamise this line. A Game.

"He isn't wild, He's posessed!"

I like the idea of this. Trying to do interesting things with different peoples' ideas and prompts. I'll take a shot at it.

"Many have resisted before. Perhaps you're just weak-willed."

The scene is that of a brick-walled alley that opens up to a busy thoroughfare. Cars flash past and pedestrians occasionally wander by the alley's exit. Just approaching the mouth of the alley are three bald, shaved, Caucasian males. Two of them are heavily armed. These two are conversing in excited voices while the third, lagging slightly behind. He interrupts the two toting guns in front with an expression of hesitancy, at which point they both stop, turn to face him and say the line. I suppose in this context they'd be comparing him to other comrades of theirs.

Does that work? By the way, the third guy is wearing a bomb belt.

"Well sir, it's just- with all due respect- I fuckin' hate your guts."

The corporal hasn't been respecting the general at all, and has in fact held a deep-seated contempt for him ever since they met. All the praise he gave? Fake.

"Shrubs shouldn't explode like that."

Suddenly, all of the shrubs did explode. Within seconds, the whole field was on fire, flames scorching the lands.

"It had began."

Spoken by the bumbling Sergeant in response to the cruel, smug snake Major, who had been lambasting him, and insuring him that the fire coming from the surrounded enemy platoon is normal, not knowing what everyone else does and that they're just ammo and explosives on a delayed fuse used to cover the platoon's escape.

"John... That's my gun. Here, have Carter's."

edited 22nd Apr '11 4:44:14 AM by JWHarding

Carter just pulled Not-John's gun out of his holster and tried to kill him and John with it. John then leaped at Carter and disarmed him with some CQC, accidentally shooting him in the process. After a few seconds of stunned silence not-John asks for his gun back.

"Yo buddy... still alive? And thanks friend. See you again."

edited 22nd Apr '11 5:04:19 AM by Gault

Spoken by an extremely smug Big Bad Friend to the hero after betraying him to steal the Macguffin and injuring him. Ironic Echo later when it turns out that letting him live was only step one in a Xanatos Roulette.

"I was killed 2 weeks ago. Please pass that along."

A highly unexpected comment in a game of Chinese Whispers, just before the whisperer in question ascends to a higher plane of existence.

"Milk or sugar?"

The waitress is asking if Bob wants anything else to go with his beverage.

"I meant to do that."

Our villain the warlord Graynor has just hit his own army with a nuclear missile and wiped most of it out. His prisoner nearby asks how he will continue his campaign of terror now, only to find out too late that the nuke also wiped out the local militia. Graynor now stands unopposed across the entire region and his nuclear arsenal long feared to be in development has proven itself operational.

"I told you that secret, because there's no way we're getting out of here alive."

A friend of the protagonist just revealed that he deliberately put them in an impossible situation and wanted to get something off his chest to do with the protagonist, probably something that's been bothering him for a long time. It may or may not be romantic/homoerotic in nature.

"However, now that I've told you I'm sure you can have the Captain exonerated. If you attempt to capture me however, I will kill you, and there will be no-one left to testify."

edited 22nd Apr '11 8:10:13 AM by Gault

The Big bad explains to the hero how he was essential to his plans after the hero seemingly captures him

"I like this game!"

A USMC automatic rifleman opens up on a crowd of Hajis after ROE is loosened significantly by their company commander.

"Anyway, that's what I've come to believe and I think that's enough. Will he see this video? If you do meet him, give him a message for me."

The villain is explaining his motivations via video, revealing himself to be a well intentioned extremist, and wishes to pass his ideology along.

"You don't know? Microsoft went under several years ago after a public relations disaster."

I hate to be that guy, but a lot of these aren't wham lines at all.

Our hero is a time-traveller extremely concerned by the potential damage caused by the Butterfly Effect. He goes back, makes a few changes, and finds that the world has been massively altered as a result. Desperately, he jumps back again, trying to fix the damage he had caused. He returns to his own time, and everything looks fine. Crisis averted. Things continue as usual for a couple of weeks, then his lewave ends, and it's time for him to go back to work at the Microsoft office in the next town over... which is an empty, boarded-up shell. He asks a passer-by about this, and...

"I told you not to feed the ducks."

edited 22nd Apr '11 9:00:18 AM by Iaculus

How're my scenarios, if I may ask? A writing exercise thread is nothing without feedback.

Huh. Shit, you're right.

This thing isn't all that well defined. Are we describing the general context and situation in which the line is said? What happens directly after? What change the Wham Line makes? I don't think we can tell if these are Wham Lines if we don't know what's being changed. No way to see how things are going any different after that line if we don't know how things were going before, right?

Also I think your writing's fine. I'm not much of a critic though.

edited 22nd Apr '11 9:03:25 AM by Gault

Basically, a Wham Line is something that really shakes up a situation, a single piece of dialogue that changes everything.

Near as I can tell, the idea is to set up a scenario that can be radically altered by the line provided.

Okay, so posters take a line provided by one of the previous contributors and construct a scene that would make it a Wham Line?

Alright, let's see...

"Can you see any borders from here? What have borders given us!?"

(Does this work?)

There's been a revolution in a small monarchy, and the royal family are fleeing across the mountains from anarchist assassins along with their loyal personal servants. It's the third day, and the king is invited over to a nearby ledge by one of his footmen to check out the spectacular view. As he drinks it in, the servant speaks from behind him. It's a quote from a well-known anarchist text.

"The zoo closes at five in the afternoon."

edited 22nd Apr '11 9:25:22 AM by Iaculus

The "zoo" is a horrific body altering secret governmental project. Our hero, having escaped his cell is desperately looking for a way out from the underground base he's been kept in, and has only three hours left before it explodes.

"Well, it could've been worse. You could've been given the life sentence."

(Is this how it's done?)

A zookeeper is being stalked by a psycho stalker, with the implicit suggestion that he's going to murder her and/or rape her. She, however, does not fear him yet, because the zoo is still full of people, and he wouldn't try anything in public. He then reminds her of the above. She looks at the nearest clock. It's 4:45. Oh, Crap!.

An innocent man has been desperately trying to prove his innocence in court. He thinks he's winning, but he desperately waits on the judge's commands. He opens with the above line, and the man's face falls.

"It fell apart a long time ago, and you've made no attempt to repair it ever since."

edited 22nd Apr '11 10:48:00 AM by FreezairForALimitedTime

A girl speaking to her father about the state of their relationship. Previously, the father assumed that everyhting was great.

I'll repeat my wham line since it got ignored.

"He isn't wild, he's posessed!"

(This is actually a wham line from a story of mine...and yes, it's whammy)

((Great minds think alike, or you're mildly psychic. That's very, very close to the actual context I'm planning on using the line in.))

That tiger is actually a perfectly intelligent sapient being, and came here from another world. Too bad the other world carries diseases... like said possession.

"Oh, that old thing? I put it in the recycle bin."