Wham Episode vs Plot Twist

What exactly is the difference again?

edited 12th Oct '14 2:36:55 AM by Alexandri098

Plot twists happen all the time in any sort of story. It is simply a change in the expected path the story was going to take. It wasn't the butler, but the gardener!

Wham Episode is a deliberate upset to the status quo, forcing the establishment of a new status quo.

Courtesy links: Wham Episode and Plot Twist

Then Wham Episode is suffering from serious Trope Decay . Nowadays it seems to be used for any plot development, no matter how small. For example, Adventure Time is just a list of episodes that add something to the continuity

The thing is that Adventure Time is normally episodic. In a case like that, any development would be an upset to the status quo.

Wham Episode tends to happen in stories with some major plot twists, they aren't exclusive "one or the other" concepts. I think, on occasion, Wham Episode is misused as simply a notable episode , but overall it's used fine. Wham Episodes don't necessarily have to be action-packed Tonight, Someone Dies kind of events, but can easily be smaller events where the Dogged Nice Guy manages to ask his crush out on a date and they become an Official Couple.

Even if more than half the episodes in a season is labelled as a Wham Episode?

Well, quite a few people have been talking about how entire seasons of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead start to feel like every episode is a season finale. Granted, the effect might start to wear off if it sticks around like that for a few seasons, but those are isolated examples and not typical.

So if i understood it correctly:

- Plot Twists are unexpected changes in the plot that shock the audience - Wham Episodes are changes in the Status Quo, that dont necesarly need to be shocking.

Basically correct, you can have a dozen plot twists in a single episode and it still may not be a Wham Episode. A Plot Twist happens all the time in all sorts of stories. A Wham Episode is a lot more specific.

I actually do think a Wham Episode requires a certain significance in the degree to which the status quo is changed, though how much so depends on the show.

I think the best way to describe it is that a Wham Episode does not always involve a Plot Twist. It can just be when things become serious or the tone changes dramatically like when Cerebus Syndrome sets in or we realize Anyone Can Die.

Imagine an episode of an action show ending with the invincible bruiser character asking why he can't feel his legs. The tone of the show has changed and that character's role is vastly different. The stakes have changed and that character will be reworked. It's not a plot twist, because a plot twist normally means taking expectations and flipping them or revealing information that the audience (or characters) were unaware of that switches the paradigm... like we were actually working to activate the super weapon all along instead of deactivating it like we thought, or the traitor was actually loyal but under orders to be a double agent.

A plot twist makes you look at what has been under a new light, a Wham Episode will make you look at what is coming with a new light.

I do think there's a problem with a lot of examples on the Wham Episode page, where people are basically troping dramatic or exciting moments rather than examples that genuinely meet the trope. Some of the sub-pages read more like they should be on Moment Of Awesome, The Reveal or Plot Twist.

I also agree Wham Episode needs some clean-up

Bringing back this deader-than-dead thread because the problem seems to have worsened over the years.

Edited by fruitpork on May 20th 2019 at 2:43:51 AM

Make a new one.