Wham Line / The Victors Project

Due to the nature of the trope, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

As a long fanfic spanning four novels and three short stories, having Wham Lines throughout it is most likely expected.

The Victors Project

• Chapter 4: The Reveal about the possible fate of Orchus, the Victor who disappeared. Many old people in District 11 claimed to be Orchus decades later, and the one of them who may be telling the truth is a Canon Character All Along.
  The old man was executed six months after during the Victory Tour for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. He was killed for whistling a four-note tune and raising three fingers in a salute.
• Chapter 5: Wheaton becomes the first volunteer because the original mentors in this universe (the story came out pre-The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) are rebel prisoners who get pardoned for their supposed treason when they mentor their first victor and his father is District 9's mentor. He wins, but President Lucius gets a massive Kick the Dog moment.
  The next day [Wheaton] received a letter saying his father had been fully pardoned of the crime of sedition, but had been executed for crimes committed during said sedition, including burglary, sabotage, and espionage.
• Chapter 22:
  • Thisbe Everett seems to go insane after winning the 21st Hunger Games, telling her mentor that a reporter turned into a wraith, the District 1 escort claims that dead tributes want to kill her, and a tongue-less Avox talked to her. However, one simple line reveals that she's really the victim of gaslighting when the third-person narrator talks about a bank account showing suspicious payments to three people.
    A struggling actress, a reporter, and the escort from District 1.
  • Thisbe's chapter ends with her seemingly losing her mind and massacring a banquet full of prominent Capitol citizens before being killed in a struggle with a random intern who finds himself on the fast track to promotion. The last lines of the chapter cast the intern's scene into an entirely new light, and reveal the culprit behind the gaslighting.
    As the footage ends, Coriolanus Snow closes his eyes, lays back on the stretcher, and smiles.
• Chapter 25: A Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil reveal when Caesar's predecessor and his aides watch the Games as Virtus's treacherous ally Lucious is "defeated in every way woman can be defeated."
• Chapter 31:
  • Luster starts out as The Fighting Narcissist and a self-centered but not completely unsympathetic victor. Then, after his victory, his exploitation of his district and loyalty to Snow become more clear and disturbing, building up to this line that cements him as one of the story's major villains.
    My district's industry is beauty. Men and women are not exempt from this. Snow was pleased, immensely pleased. The beautiful and deadly boys and girls from the halls of the DAEYD filled the personal security forces of Capitol officials, the training facilities, and, of course, the bacchanals and pleasure houses. The victors were reserved for those who Snow needed to charm, or who could afford to pay enough. It was my idea, but I let Snow think it was his.
  • Luster's formidability as a partner to Snow (as opposed to being a mere Smug Snake) is shown with his observation that "Katniss Everdeen must be destroyed."
• Chapter 33: Ahenobarbus telling the Victors, "President Lucius is dead."
• Chapter 35:
  • The ripples of Elena and Danny's Star-Crossed Lovers story seems to have a happy ending for both their family and their district, only for them to suffer a devastating blow in the last quarter of the chapter.
    The settlers in the Anasazi remained separated simply by culture, rather than open hatred. And this this the Capitol could not abide. The Games divide. The Games control. The games do not bring together. The healing of District 10 would meet the end of Danny and Elena's family. [Their children] were reaped the Second Quarter Quell.
  • Elena dies in the Third Quarter Quell thinking that she made a Senseless Sacrifice, but the last words of the chapter show she's wrong.
    Behind her, Beetee used the distraction to race for a coil of wire sitting in the Cornucopia.
• Chapter 36: Beetee's investigation into the assassin who tried to kill Katniss takes an alarming turn when they find the bank account that the assassin's payment came from.
  Beetee: It's PanemTT665.
  Enobaria: And that is...?
  Beetee: PanemTT665 is the Victor's fund. The money came from a Victor's salary ... The blood money on Katniss's head was paid by a Victor. It's one of us.
• Chapter 37: Mags spends the chapter in a tenuous alliance with a peacekeeper named Barabbas as they investigate the murders of a victor and a politician. The chapter ends with a failed coup that nonetheless leads to a new presidency. Then she meets the young new president in a room full of roses, but doesn't recognize him without a disguise he wore earlier, until he makes a familiar smile and it dawns on her how thoroughly and disastrously she's been manipulated.
  Mags: Commander Barabbas.
  The new president: Not an appropriate name anymore, I'm afraid. A shame, he was a good character. Please, Mags, sit.
  Mags: I'll stand please, President Snow.
• Chapter 50: When Jade is put on trial during Coin's Reign of Terror, the prosecutor drops this bombshell about the fates of several other characters (although one is Faking the Dead).
  Letts Bolger: As the last living victor of District One, Ms. Boleyn is-
  Jade: The last? That's...impossible. I can't be...
• Chapter 52: Lyme, who grew up in a rebel village, kills Maxx, her Parental Substitute, so Boudicca will let her become a tribute. Then, after she wins the 51st Hunger Games, she's shown at a wake for Maxx, whose son utters this line.
  Mesa: This is what he wanted. Making one of ours a Victor.
• For people who read Fall into the River before The Victors Project, the epilogue of the former story briefly alludes to the "famous father" of Cecelia's son Aaron and how she refuses to let her friends and family talk about him. Chapter 49 of The Victors Project ends with Brutus and Peeta having a conversation in training gym. Brutus confides in Peeta that he has a son whose mother won't let him see the boy.
  Brutus lifted another spear and threw it. He didn't even follow its flight, his eyes drawn every so briefly to the edible insects station.^note Which is where Katniss spends time with Cecelia in Catching Fire.
  "Aaron," he said. "My boy's name is Aaron."
  • Fans of The Victors Project who didn't read Fall into the River first might miss the significance of Brutus's line, but are more likely to experience a wham feeling in Cecelia's chapter of TVP. She has sex with Brutus while suffering from a schizophrenic episode, right after they have a conversation about how the Capitol will stop selling her as a Sex Slave if she gets pregnant again. One year later, Cecelia walks up to Brutus and hands him a picture of a dark-haired baby.
    Cecelia: I named him Aaron. You can keep the picture. I'll bring a new one every year. But if you ever try to contact my son, or threaten to disrupt his life in any way, I'll kill you myself.
• Chapter 61: Two in quick succession. The girl from District 1 moves in to make a seemingly easy kill when suddenly, without warning, "the smile across her throat is far redder [than her lipstick] as a curtain of scarlet courses down." The girl from 1's killer is named a few paragraphs later. "Johanna Mason. District 7.'"
• Chapter 62: The motive behind Crystal's suicide when she's found with a reaping slip that says "It's you", before the third Quarter Quell is even announced, indicating a lot of awareness about the twist beforehand.
• Chapter 64: As Gloss watches Halibut freak out over a dead tribute and shows a Lack of Empathy, another Victor tells him, "That was Hal's son."
• Chapter 65:
  • Cashmere telling Beetee "I know you were the one who warned Crystal she was going into the Quell."
  • A character from the last chapter has a Dropped a Bridge on Him fate revealed when Beetee tells Cashmere, "I know Enobaria killed your father."
  • Cashmere reveals to Beetee that she knows they are planning to break Katniss and Peeta out of the Third Quarter Quell arena, which gets lampshaded by Beetee's reaction.
    Beetee: (inner monologue) The sky falls. The roof collapses. The sun goes out.

The Lumberjack and the Tree-Elf

• The Lumberjack and the Tree-Elf starts out with O.C. Stand-in and future Victor Blight living a hard life in a hostile community and wondering if he'll be reaped. Then, the actual reaping comes along, and the story takes a shocking turn when it isn't Blight whose name comes out of the reaping bowl.
  Tutti Marble: Merrill Mason!
  Burgen Gavin: We volunteer! We volunteer to compete in the Hunger Games. My son, Blight Gavin, volunteers for the Hunger Games.
• While Chapter 18 ends with Jason being captured by two Peacekeepers, the motive behind this is left unknown until two chapters later for the finale...
  Jason: (narrating) It's the Giants' City. Oh gods, I'm in the arena.

Fall Into the River

• The first emergence of Victoria after Cecelia falls into the river in the most literal sense.
  I stay there beneath the water until Cecelia Rheys is drowned.
• The Reveal that Cecelia's stepmother is the leader of the District 8 rebels.
  I jump out of reflex and then courtesy as Spindella Rheys sweeps into the room.
• A Connected All Along reveal after Cecelia's victory.
  Cora: Do you remember the story I told you before the interview? About why I was voted into the Quarter Quell?
  Cecelia: Your father was a tax collector. He came to collect from the tailor. The tailor resisted and your father accidentally killed his daughter.
  Spindella: His daughter, and my sister.
• The epilogue of Fall Into the River has Cora being tortured for rebel names and naming a minor character who previously seemed like the exact opposite of a rebel sympathizer.
  Cora: Larissa! Larissa Farrar!

The Bonds of Blood

• The Speaker, Enobaria's Marauder captor in the weeks before she becomes a tribute, has a Saying Too Much moment.
  Enobaria: "When Tigellinus retires" is a joke among the cadets. It means something is likely to never happen. And I never told you about that. I had no reason to. You're a Two! No, you're more than that, you're one of us. You were at the Institute, you snake, you traitor!
• After Enobaria's games, The Speaker reveals his identity after being mortally wounded; that of a major character from Fall Into the River.
  The Speaker: My name is Brittanicus Romano. They...They called me Tanni.

Secrets

• Ben abruptly and determinedly coming out of retirement to mentor Abram in the main story is cast in a new light by his secret, which concerns Abram's mother.
  Ben Cooper had a drunken one-night stand with the chocolatier he'd always had a fancy for and even though Abram Mills looked nothing like him he was never able to shake off the suspicion that his last victor might have also been his son.

Arrow

• Chapter 5: Romulus Thread prepares a firing squad to massacre 1/10th of District 5's children, but the firing squad members display a sudden change of heart.
  As one, Thimble and his men turn towards Thread and the elite forces and fire.
• In Chapter 7 of Arrow, the dead tributes of District 7 seemingly return to life to vengefully help slaughter the last peacekeepers in the district. The "Scooby-Doo" Hoax nature of this event is revealed when Connor suddenly frowns and starts yelling at one of the young "ghosts", to Mack's confusion.
  And then the pieces begin to click in Mack's mind, because no ghost should look so sheepish.
• Chapter 10: The victims of the District 10 Death March seemingly need The Cavalry to save them, but then reveal they've spent days faking frightened docility.
  As one, the Settlers rise from the dirt. From their packs and bags they pull out the weapons they smuggled on the march. Meat cleavers, butcher knives, [and] firearms that the Anasazi smuggled to them from the moment the Quell was announced. Every man, every woman, every child has something to fight with.

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