The Millennium Trilogy/Awesome

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

 * Mikael is tied up, slowly being hanged, and about to be sexually assaulted ... then Lisbeth shows up, attacks   and saves Mikael.
 * Nils Bjurman, Lisbeth's replacement guardian, takes advantage of her financial situation by.

The Girl Who Played with Fire:
"Paolo: What do you say we find you somebody in your own weight class?"
 * Paolo Roberto, right before rescuing Miriam Wu.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest:

 * After Gianinni gets Teleborian to commit to lying about everything in Salander's file while he's testifying, she systematically tears his entire treatment of Lisbeth to shreds, from force-feeding her psychotropic drugs, to falsifying legal documents regarding her mental state. Then the cops come in and arrest him for having almost 10,000 pictures of kiddie porn on his computer.