Night Watch (novel)/Awesome

Discworld novel
""I repeat, I order you to dismantle this barricade." [Vimes] took a deep breath and went on. "And rebuild it on the other side of the corner with Cable Street! And put up another one at the top of Sheer Street! Properly built! Good grief, you don't just pile stuff up, for god's sake! A barricade is something you construct!""
 * Vimes takes down a large portion of the City Guard forces with little more than a handful of ginger and some willpower.
 * The end of the book deserves special mention when Vimes arrests Carcer (which is made awesome primarily because he manages not to murder him).

"He wanted to go home. He wanted it so much that he trembled at the thought. But if the price of that was selling good men to the night, if the price was filling those graves, if the price was not fighting with every trick he knew....Then it was too high.
 * When the old, corrupt watch arrests him, Vimes almost escapes by threatening the guy in charge with his own sword, which is even more awesome because he works this into a rant about all the holes in their form.
 * This is made doubly awesome because he is then finally arrested.
 * For me the crowning Crowning Moment of Awesome in Night Watch takes place entirely in Vimes' own head:

History finds a way? Well, it would have to come up with something good, because it was up against Sam Vimes now."

"Vimes: How dare you? How dare you! At this time! In this place! They did the job they didn't have to do, and they died doing it, and you can't give them anything. Do you understand?"
 * At the end, after arresting Carcer, Vetinari suggests a statue for the men who died, with a plaque to the effect of 'they did the job they had to do'.


 * That was even more awesome for Vetinari, because earlier in the scene Sam himself had mentioned a statue or something for the heroes, and Vetinari turned it around on him with deliberate use of the "job they had to do" phrase to make the insufficiency of a monument clear.
 * Not to mention Vimes yells at Vetinari AND GETS AWAY SCOT FREE. Though thats partially a CMOA for Vetinari as well, as he realizes at this time in this place, he can afford to allow it. But he points out to Vimes that's the only time he will.
 * Vimes leads a rather bedraggled group of Watchmen into battle against a much better-armed group of Unmentionables twice their size and completely and utterly owning them. A very decent proportion of the enemy ended up just running away from "a maniac with two swords." Let's just recap real quick. The evil, dark force that is the Unmentionables was half-obliterated and then chased out of action by Sam Vimes, armed with nothing but two swords and blind in one eye.
 * Ned's reply to Vimes finally owning up to being a time traveller. 'I traveled here through time.' Ned looks him over--post-battle--and has to ask 'From how far back?'.
 * One we never get to see, though it gets described: Vetinari failed his stealth final in assassin school, because his instructor marked him as absent. Let that sink in for a moment.
 * His Aunt also notes his repeated reprimands for not showing up for his concealment classes in general...
 * Vetinari's "assassination" of Lord Winder. He actually walks into a party that Lord Winder is in, takes out two miniature crossbows, shoots the bodyguards with them, then pulls out a sword. Before he can actually use it on him though, Lord Winder dies of fright. This is being done in a crowded room full of people, and Vetinari just walks out -- with no one saying a word.
 * This becomes a neat bit of Fridge Brilliance when you notice that every previous scene had Vetinari talking about camouflage or demonstrating the correct usage there-of, only to in this scene prove that the perfect camouflage is not making people not see you, but making people not want to see you.
 * Really, any time Vetinari opens his mouth counts. There's a reason why one of Sgt. Colon's greatest fears is that Vetinari will get sardonic on him. Also, when he holds flowers in his teeth. Don't ask.
 * Reg Shoe. Though throughout the book he was a silly revolutionary (and in the entire series he was at best Plucky Comic Relief), when he realizes that  he.
 * And he returned as a zombie because he refused to accept being dead.
 * Okay - that "Mr. Burleigh and Mr. Stronginthearm" line was EPIC, even if nobody got it but Vimes.
 * So the Watch is slowly developing the various departments of a modern police service. It has detectives, forensics, surveillance, autopsies, traffic, fraud, internal investigations, all of that stuff. Now notice at the start of the book when Cancer kills Stronginthearm and hides on the University’s roof Vimes tells everyone to surround the building but not go up because he’s doing it himself… Vimes is the Watch’s one-man SWAT Team!